Category Archives: Bitcoin

Bitcoin is all-set to rise and become the crypto king again, at least for now

In recent weeks, Bitcoin is marching forward towards redeeming its lost market recognition and value. For Bitcoin, the year 2021, was quite successful given the fact that single crypto drove the value of the entire crypto market to new highs. Since this feat, traders and business leaders have been quite optimistic about the prospects of BTC and its dominance in the economic and financial markets. So much so that El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender! However, BTCs prospects ran their full course, and then came the reality. The prices dropped exponentially. Investor speculation about Ethereum taking Bitcoin grew, making investors and business leaders quite worried about their investments. BTCs price continued to fall in early 2022. Investors turned to assets that performed well in a time of a slowing economy, higher inflation, and rising interest rates, further causing a dive in the Bitcoin price. In late February, BTC prices fell as low as US$36,000, from their November 2021 peak which was US$68,000. Concerns over sustainability and high electricity use associated with Bitcoin mining, and the banning of cryptocurrency transactions in China also caused the Bitcoin price to fall.

Over the past week, Bitcoin has been regaining its value. Analysts believe that the crypto will eventually reach the US$100,000 mark by the end of the year. But as of April 4, 2022, its price has recovered considerably. It finally crossed the US$47,000 mark, reaching as close as possible to US$48,000. The prices consecutively dropped after April 5, 2022, but it continues to soar above US$43,000. This comes off as a positive indication of a possible Bitcoin surge this year.

BTCs upward trend continued through the entire week, nevertheless, investors are hawkish about its market movements. The coin is trending in recent weeks, but the current surge might also be the result of the Biden governments executive order initiating methods to enhance crypto adoption. But as crypto analysts continue to expect a massive Bitcoin price hike in the near future, key indicators have spoken up. They predict that if Bitcoin fails to break the US$47,000, it might again dive back to a crypto slumber and would eventually, and finally, lose its market dominance.

As more companies continue to adopt BTC as a method of payment, its value is expected to stabilise. With this expanded room for Bitcoin trading, the market scope is increasing for investors and traders, and other governments, to explore the crypto domain for investments in the long run.

For now, Bitcoin is set for upcoming surges. But the market is still volatile. A price hike does not bring stability to the market. Hence, before investing in Bitcoin, investors should make sure that they are ready for the volatility and mentally prepared to face losses.

Share This ArticleDo the sharing thingy

See the article here:
Bitcoin Remains Intact as it Continues to Surge Above US$43,000 - Analytics Insight

Huang Evan/iStock via Getty Images

One of the first casualties of the Ukraine-Russia conflict was the ruble. Russia's currency plummeted after the conflict broke out, but has now rallied strongly following numerous moves by Russia to defend it.

Most recently, Russia has enacted a temporary fixed ruble/gold exchange, which has led many to claim that it is back on a gold standard.

In this article, I discuss the effects of this policy on Russia and the world and dive into how this affects Bitcoin (BTC-USD), which is often described as "digital gold"

Between March 28th and June 30th, Russia's Central Bank will be buying gold from banks at a fixed rate of 5000 rubles per gram.

Does this mean that the ruble now has a fixed exchange for gold? Not exactly.

For a gold standard to be in effect, this arrangement would have to work both ways, which it doesn't. The Russian Central bank is buying gold at that fixed rate, but it won't be offering to sell it at that price.

In a "gold standard", the value of the currency is supported because there are arbitrage opportunities when the price deviates from its peg. Let's say the Russian Central Bank offers to buy and sell Rubles for gold at a fixed exchange, and the ruble is trading below this exchange. (It is weak) Demand for Rubles would go up, since countries and banks have a chance to buy gold at cheaper prices, but only with Rubles.

Alternatively, if the ruble became too strong, going above the exchange price, people would sell gold to the Central Bank at the established price, get Rubles, and then use these Rubles to buy more gold on the international market. Rinse and repeat until there is no longer a price disparity. That's how arbitrage works.

As it stands now, 1 gram of gold is worth $63 in the international market, and 5000 rubles are worth close to $58. This means Russia is paying below-market prices for gold, which wouldn't support the ruble.

For there to be an arbitrage opportunity here, the value of gold would have to decrease, so that Russia is paying above-market prices for gold. In that scenario, one could sell gold to the Russians for say $65, and then use the Rubles to buy $70 worth. This would eventually weaken the ruble in terms of gold, taking it back to parity.

What Russia has created, therefore, is not a floor price for the ruble, but rather a ceiling price. Russia is happy to buy all the gold in the world at 5000 ruble/gram, but it won't be selling gold at this price or below it to "defend" the ruble.

With that said, the ruble has rallied in the last month, but this can be tied to other significant moves made by the Russians. All of these have to be put together to understand what's going on behind the scenes.

Firstly, the Russian Central Bank has doubled its interest rate from 10% to 20% on the 28th of February. Secondly, and most importantly, the Russian government is forcing foreign governments to use Rubles to pay for their products, i.e energy, which is propping up demand for the ruble.

We can visualize how these events have affected the ruble/USD exchange on the chart below.

Ruble Price (Author's work)

Russia has therefore created a link between energy, its currency and gold. Its exports are now priced in Rubles, which in turn are partially linked to gold. Ultimately, Russia is saying that it is happy to receive both Rubles and Gold for its exports.

Those that wish to trade with Russia can always obtain Rubles at a fixed price, for gold, but they can't obtain gold at a fixed price for Rubles, which is an important distinction. However, they can obtain energy at a fixed price for Rubles, which means that there is indirectly a link between Russian energy and gold.

If a barrel of oil is worth 5000 RUB, which in turn are worth 1 gram of gold, then the barrel is worth 1 gram of gold. This won't change, because the Russian Central Bank has agreed to buy 1 gram of gold for 5000 Rubles at all times, or at least until June 30th.

So Russia is now selling its energy for rubles/gold and based on how the market has reacted, it is getting away with it.

Russia, by itself, can hardly replace the USD denominated financial system. But with the help of strategic allies, very big steps can be taken to reduce the world's dependency on it, which is very bad news for the USA.

Russia holds 1,688 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, accounting for 24% of the world's reserves. China will soon become the largest economy in the world. Russia, China and India, collectively possess 16% of the Central Bank's gold reserves. India and China also have close to 2.8 billion people combined.

An allegiance between these three countries could replace the world's dollar-based financial system. Each of them has something to add, and a lot to gain from this, and gold would be the ideal vehicle to make this happen.

If something like this were to happen, it could cripple dollar-denominated economies. The west has built a very fragile system based upon increasing amounts of dollar-denominated debt. This has only been possible because this debt is accepted as a reserve. But what happens when it doesn't?

Gold has been the world's money of choice for millennia. The world was actually on a gold standard, of sorts, until as recently as 1971, when Richard Nixon closed the gold window. Since then, governments and central banks have done their best to eliminate gold from world trade, but even they know how useful gold is, which is why Central Banks hold it in their reserves.

The current move in Russia brings gold to the forefront of finance once more. Gold now has a very real utility for a lot of countries, enabling them to buy Russian gas.

Furthermore, a gold-backed currency is perhaps the only way to dethrone the US dollar. Foreign countries don't want to switch from a US-controlled fiat, to a Chinese controlled one. However, gold makes money neutral, and that is something everyone can get on board with.

What does this mean for investors? Owning gold is now more important than ever, and though the yellow metal has underperformed in recent years, now could be its time to shine.

Russia is opening the doors to a new monetary paradigm, which creates a unique opportunity for countries around the world. The US dollar is being challenged as the standard of value. What will replace it?

Gold is the first choice. It has been used as a store of value for millennia, and countries like Russia, China and India have been accumulating it for years. But in the current conflict, we have seen evidence of a new standard of value emerge, one that has even outshone gold, and that is Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was designed, by no accident, to possess very similar characteristics to gold. It is hard to mine, with mining becoming increasingly difficult over time. The supply is finite, and around 80% has already been mined, a similar proportion to gold. And, like gold, it withstands the passage.

However, Bitcoin also has key characteristics that make it superior to gold, and Russia knows this first-hand. The G7 has actively tried to stop Russia from using its gold reserves, banning people and institutions from transacting with the Russian central bank.

What's more, in a geopolitical conflict like this, it wouldn't be unheard of for gold held in foreign banks to be seized, or mining operations to be disrupted.

And this is where Bitcoin makes a difference. For starters, Bitcoin is much harder to track and "sanction". Speculation over how Russia could use Bitcoin to avoid financial repression has been common in the past few weeks.

To top things off, Russia also has a significant competitive advantage when it comes to mining Bitcoin. Russia is the third-largest contributor to Bitcoin's hash mining power. Also, 11.9% of Russia's total population already owns cryptocurrency.

But if Russia already has gold as the base of its monetary system, why would it want Bitcoin?

Beyond the reasons stated above, Bitcoin would provide a diversification element. It would also give Russia access to the flourishing DeFi market that is developing in crypto, of which Bitcoin is the store of value. And finally, the best defence is a good attack. Bitcoin would be a great way for other nations to compete with the gold-based system. So why not get ahead?

What does this mean for Bitcoin investors? The world's reserve currency, the USD, is being put into question, and Bitcoin was created with the purpose of acting as a store of value. This makes cryptocurrency a more attractive investment than ever. Bitcoin can step in to feel this void, as there will be a real necessity for a neutral store of value, free of political agendas and government. control.

In conclusion, as the world becomes less dependent on the US dollar, other standards of value will rise to take its place. Gold and Bitcoin are at the top of this list in my opinion. Together they bridge the gap between the past and the future. The physical and the digital. They complement each other.

While Russia is not operating a gold standard system, it is tying its exports to gold, which marks a very significant move. People should understand that the current conflict in Ukraine is only the tip of the iceberg. Another war is being fought between world superpowers. A world for control of money. And he who controls the money controls the world.

Read more from the original source:
Russia's 'Gold Standard': What This Means For Gold And Bitcoin - Seeking Alpha

Bitcoin is becoming one of the biggest buzzwords in the world. Data from a July 2021 survey conducted by analysis firm Exploding Topics found that roughly 1,700 American adults, or 89% of participants, had heard of Bitcoin. A recent survey from the cryptocurrency platform Paxful also found that 95% of women out of 1,555 females polled in the United States were familiar with Bitcoin.

While Bitcoins(BTC) presence is notable, there still seems to be a lack of understanding regarding BTC and cryptocurrency. For instance, Paxfuls survey discovered that 43% of women polled in the United States want to learn more about Bitcoin, even though 95% of these individuals know that BTC exists. In addition, underprivileged communities and minorities have expressed interest in learning about Bitcoinand cryptoas digital assets gain popularity.

In order to bring crypto education to those who need it the most, grassroots initiatives are launching throughout the U.S. that target disenfranchised communities.

For example, Najah Roberts, CEO of Crypto Blockchain Plug a Black-owned crypto education center based in Inglewood, California told Cointelegraph that she will soon be traveling to 41 cities across the U.S. to help disenfranchised communities understand Bitcoins importance:

Known as The Digital Financial Revolution Tour, Roberts explained that this will be the second year she will travel across the country with a team of crypto experts to promote Bitcoin education. We previously reached about 2,000 people last year, which was incredible given that the world was still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Roberts said. Given the projects previous success, Roberts believes this years tour will produce phenomenal results.

Roberts elaborated that the second Digital Financial Revolution Tour will begin in California in cities including Los Angeles and Oakland, and will then head to Las Vegas, Arizona and New Mexico. We plan to go to the poorest places first, like Lake Charles in Baltimore. We picked the most disenfranchised, unbanked and underbanked areas to get folks educated. Rather than hosting corner classes outside neutral locations like a local church, for instance, Roberts explained that groups will congregate in front of beauty shops and neighborhood storefronts. I try to be objective about locations so everyone feels comfortable to come out and learn.

While the idea of traveling across 41 different cities in the U.S. within a 45-day timespan may sound difficult, Roberts shared that the biggest challenge this year is to help people in low-income communities understand why they actually need Bitcoin:

Roberts isnt the only one aiming to bring financial literacy to the masses. Bitcoin analyst Tony Tate told Cointelegraph that no one ever talked about money when he was growing up due to community values. No one ever talked about politics, religion or money where I came from, he said. Yet, Tate stated that education has always been a priority for him, which is why he believes educating disenfranchised communities will make it easier for individuals to understand the potential of cryptocurrency:

In order to accomplish this, Tate recently launched Litchain, a Bitcoin educational initiative expected to spur economic growth in the rural town of Gaffney, South Carolina. We opened the doors of the first Black-owned Bitcoin data center in Gaffney. The 20 modular data centers will house Bitcoin mining computers and create jobs that pay $60,000 or more, he explained. The Litchain Corporations new data center is one of Tates first three mining centers in the U.S. He said that the company aims to open 144 more across the country:

In addition to the Litchain data center, Tate said that he is launching a five-year crypto education initiative on crypto literacy:

According to Tate, this initiative will include a grassroots campaign, digital advertising and online courses provided by LitU, which is Tates online university that will also feature pop-up community classes in Philadelphia, New York, Washington D.C., Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, Charlotte and Charleston. Tate hopes these initiatives will inspire others to look at Bitcoin as an improved financial inclusion system and a major step in closing the racial wealth gap in the United States. Everyone has to wrap their minds around crypto before the world wraps their arms around it, he remarked.

While both Roberts and Tate are launching large scale initiatives, crypto influencer and YouTuberWendy Otold Cointelegraph during NFT LA that she will soon be launching a local grassroots initiative in Los Angeles to teach youth between the ages of seven and seventeen about Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Wendy O explained that she will partner with the Los Angeles based Self-Care Lab Boxing and Fitness Club to host monthly meetups to teach children about the blockchain and crypto ecosystem:

Related: NFT LA: Attract the mainstream, focus on Web3 and use cases

Like Roberts and Tate, Wendy O wants to use cryptocurrency education as a way to promote personal finance. Financial literacy isnt taught in schools, unfortunately. But, when individuals learn how money works, they are able to change their spending habits and even break away from generational curses, she said. Wendy O explained that when she initially learned about Bitcoin in 2011 and was able to better understand fiat money and inflation. I think these kids will be able to take this information and retrain their minds to do things differently than previous generations.

While its extremely notable that grassroots initiatives are being launched by members of the crypto community, its also important to recognize the challenges that may arise along the way.

For instance, Roberts pointed out that last years Digital Financial Revolution Tour was entirely self-funded, noting that she hopes to secure sponsors this year. We are in the process of speaking with the hardware wallet provider Ledger, as we aim to give everyone physical wallets and show them how to store their seed phrases. Wendy O also hopes to partner with a cryptocurrency wallet provider or an exchange to ensure that food and drinks for her monthly meetups can be covered. I would like to give $25 worth of BTC to everyone who attends, she said. Regardless of sponsorships, both Roberts and Wendy O are optimistic that their projects will teach those in need about financial literacy simply byexplaining how Bitcoin and cryptocurrency work.

Grassroots initiatives sponsored by crypto companies have proven to be very successful given the added help. For example, GoodDollar a nonprofit protocol for financial education and inclusion in Web3 launched an ambassador program early last year to allow its 350,000 community members to distribute free crypto universal basic income to anybody with access to a cell phone and an internet connection.

Jessica Salama, community lead at GoodDollar, told Cointelegraph that individual GoodDollar ambassadors are making headway in spreading the word about crypto by showing others how to use and access digital currency.

She said that GoodDollar ambassador Etugbo Obokparo Stephen in Nigeria has hosted local meetups at his university to help fellow students open their first digital wallets and begin learning Web3, crypto and blockchain fundamentals. His initial gathering was the first blockchain conference ever held in his locality, Salama said.

Stephen further told Cointelegraph, Ive always communicated with people on social media, but when I joined GoodDollars ambassador program, I was able to bring more people into crypto because they supported my initiative financially and with words of encouragement.

Read the original here:
Grassroots initiatives are bringing Bitcoin education to communities across America - Cointelegraph

As responses from exchanges with those users identity information began to pour in, the team started the process of assembling more complete profiles of their targets. They began to collect the names, faces, and photos of hundreds of menthey were almost all menfrom all walks of life, everywhere in the world. Their descriptions crossed boundaries of race, age, class, and nationality. All these individuals seemed to have in common was their gender and their financial connection to a worldwide, hidden haven of child abuse.

By this time, the team felt theyd pinned down the sites Korean administrator with confidence. Theyd gotten a search warrant for Son Jong-woos Gmail accounts and many of his exchange records, and they could see that he alone seemed to be receiving the cashed-out proceeds from the sitenot his father, who increasingly seemed to the investigators like an unwitting participant, a man whose son had hijacked his identity to create crypto-currency accounts. In Son Jong-woos emails, they found photos of the younger man for the first timeselfies hed taken to show friends where hed chipped a tooth in a car accident, for instance. He was a thin, unremarkable-looking young Korean man with wide-set eyes and a Beatles-esque mop-top of black hair.

But as their portrait of this administrator took shape, so too did the profiles of the hundreds of other men who had used the site.* A few immediately stuck out to the investigative team: One suspect, to the dismay of Thomas Tamsi and his Homeland Security colleagues, was an HSI agent in Texas. Another, they saw with a different sort of dread, was the assistant principal of a high school in Georgia. The school administrator had posted videos of himself on social media singing duets, karaoke-style, with teenage girls from his school. The videos might otherwise have been seen as innocent. But given what they knew about the mans Bitcoin payments, agents who had more experience with child exploitation warned Janczewski that they might reflect a form of grooming.

These were men in privileged positions of power, with potential access to victims. The investigators could immediately see that, as they suspected, they would need to arrest some of Welcome to Videos users as quickly as possible, even before they could arrange the takedown of the site. Child exploitation experts had cautioned them that some offenders had systems in place to warn others if law enforcement had arrested or compromised themcode words or dead mans switches that sent out alerts if they were absent from their computer for a certain period of time. Still, the Welcome to Video investigation team felt they had little choice but to move quickly and take that risk.

Another suspect, around the same time, came onto their radar for a different reason: He lived in Washington, DC. The mans home, in fact, was just down the street from the US attorneys office, near the capitals Gallery Place neighborhood. He happened to live in the very same apartment building that one of the prosecutors had only recently moved out of.

That location, they realized, might be useful to them. Janczewski and Gambaryan could easily search the mans home and his computers as a test case. If that proved the man was a Welcome to Video customer, they would be able to charge the entire case in DCs judicial district, overcoming a key legal hurdle.

As they dug deeper, though, they found that the man was a former congressional staffer and held a high-level job at a prestigious environmental organization. Would arresting or searching the home of a target with that sort of profile cause him to make a public outcry, sinking their case?

Just as they trained their sights on this suspect in their midst, however, they found that he had gone strangely quiet on social media. Someone on the team had the idea to pull his travel records. They found that he had flown to the Philippines and was about to fly back to DC via Detroit.

There were suitcases still not fully unpacked from the trip. The man had ordered a pizza the night before, and part of it remained uneaten on the table.

This discovery led the agents and prosecutors to two thoughts: First, the Philippines was a notorious destination for sex tourism, often of the kind that preyed on childrenthe HSI office in Manila constantly had its hands full with child exploitation cases. Second, when the man flew back to the US, Customs and Border Protection could legally detain him and demand access to his devices to search for evidencea bizarre and controversial carve-out in Americans constitutional protections that, in this case, might come in handy.

Would their DC-based suspect sound the alarm and tear the lid off their investigation, just as it was getting started?

Read the original post:
Inside the Bitcoin Bust That Took Down the Webs Biggest Child Abuse Site - WIRED

Shark Tank star Kevin OLeary, aka Mr. Wonderful, has predicted that trillions of dollars will flow into cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin. In addition, he said bitcoin mining will save the world.

Shark Tank star Kevin OLeary gave a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2022 conference Thursday.

He said that based on his experience in the indexing business, massive pools of capital, these trillion-dollar pools are waiting for policy. They currently own zero or very little crypto. Its the purvey of high net worth individuals, hedge funds, and retail investors, he clarified.

Mr. Wonderful detailed:

What were missing is policy. When we get policy and the regulator regulates, thats not a negative thing. The spigots of capital are going to flood into this sector like youve never seen.

So for those of us that can invest in it now, you are going to get ahead of whats going to be a huge wave of interest when policy occurs, he added.

OLeary continued:

I predict in the next 10 years that crypto, blockchain, bitcoin all of this innovation will be the 12th sector of the S&P.

The Shark Tank star also discussed why bitcoin mining is going to save the world.

He explained: Why is bitcoin mining good for the Earth? Because the next generation of bitcoin miners are starting to work with energy that does not require carbon hydroelectricity and nuclear power, wind and solar.

Mr. Wonderful continued: The drive to produce bitcoin is so economic in value that they will go ahead and fund the next generation of machines and turbines. 90% of dams built in America in the last hundred years contemplated hydroelectricity but never installed the turbines.

He exclaimed: Ill install the turbines. Why? Because its great economics if I can use that and not be hassled by a carbon audit. Noting that It provides for communities, it provides extra power, the Shark Tank star opined:

This is the future of bitcoin mining. We will be developing power for all communities while we mine coin in an ethical and 100% green mandate that we can do with hydroelectricity.

OLeary further said: The beautiful strategy here is when we get policy When we make bitcoin an allocation for institutions, which they do not have yet, what I predict will happen: they will put between 50 basis points to 300 basis points into their portfolios. He concluded:

How much money is that? Trillions of dollars. So if you want to see bitcoin appreciate in value, if you are an advocate like I am You want regulation and you stand back and watch the capital pour into this.

What do you think about Kevin OLearys comments? Let us know in the comments section below.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Read more from the original source:
Kevin O'Leary Predicts Trillions of Dollars Will Flood Into Crypto Says Bitcoin Mining Will 'Save the World' Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

1. Bitcoin (BTC) Jumps as Much as 5.7% to $41,691  Bloomberg
2. Crypto News Today: Bitcoin Breaks $40,000 Ahead of Fed Decision  Newsweek
3. Market Wrap: Bitcoin and Stocks Stabilize Ahead of Fed Announcement  CoinDesk
4. FED Announcement Pushes Bitcoin Up, Will BTC Sustain Momentum?  NewsBTC
5. Bitcoin price responds to the Fed by rallying, a close at $41,250 essential for further upside  FXStreet
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Originally posted here:
Bitcoin (BTC) Jumps as Much as 5.7% to $41,691 - Bloomberg

Image source: Getty Images

Bitcoin is down nearly 3% this past week, while these three projects have blazed past it with big double-digit gains.

For a decade, the oldest crypto -- Bitcoin -- has delivered outpaced gains of 220% on a yearly basis to its holders. According to CoinMarketCap as of this writing, Bitcoin is down nearly 3% on the week and about 41% off its all-time high of nearly $69,000 a few months back.

While Bitcoin is my top holding as a percentage of my personal portfolio, there are three cryptos that are outperforming it in the short-term by double digits that may be worth a look.

While writing this, CoinMarketCap shows that THORChain has spiked an impressive 52.45% during the past seven days. THORChain is a decentralized liquidity network that allows users to easily swap and trade digital assets across a range of systems. Its technology allows traders to blockchain hop without losing custody of the coins or tokens being exchanged until the transaction is complete.

The trades are automatically fulfilled with liquidity that's directed by smart contracts and not a centralized market maker. The native utility token of the THORChain platform is RUNE. This is used as the base currency in the THORChain ecosystem. It is also used for platform governance and security.

At the time of writing, The Graph token price had jumped 20.22% over the past week according to CoinMarketCap data. The Graph is an open-sourced software project that gathers, processes, and stores large amounts of information from various blockchain applications for easy access and retrieval later -- almost like a superfast digital librarian on a global scale.

This enables near real-time data transfers in response to a query from any compatible application, of which there are hundreds. The official Graph blog posted that its query volume surged to more than 20 billion by April 2021, and the official Graph Reddit forum posted in December that volume surpassed 1.8 billion queries per day.

Our top crypto play isnt a token - Heres why

Weve found one company thats positioned itself perfectly as a long-term picks-and-shovels solution for the broader crypto market Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and all the others. In fact, you've probably used this company's technology in the past few days, even if you've never had an account or even heard of the company before. That's how prevalent it's become.

Sign up today for Stock Advisor and get access to our exclusive report where you can get the full scoop on this company and its upside as a long-term investment. Learn more and get started today with a special new member discount.

According to CoinMarketCap, Basic Attention Token has popped a healthy 18.18% during the past seven-day stretch. BAT is a unique project within the crypto space because it's a blockchain-based advertising platform. What it does is reward users for their attention who choose to watch and interact with various ads, while providing advertisers with a more robust return on their advertising buy.

What happens is that advertisers pay for their advertising campaigns in BAT tokens and from that BAT budget a small portion is distributed to advertisers, while 70% is distributed to the ad watchers. The BAT platform runs on the Brave Browser so viewer privacy is preserved when users watch ads. This ensures they're not bombarded with similar follow-up advertisements as they would be on Google or Bing.

Keep in mind, these are only observations about the current crypto market and should not serve as financial advice. Every potential investor in any asset class should do their own research and invest only what they can comfortably afford to lose. While Bitcoin is a solid long-term option, there are other projects that may have more potential upside in the short term.

There are hundreds of platforms around the world that are waiting to give you access to thousands of cryptocurrencies. And to find the one that's right for you, you'll need to decide what features that matter most to you.

To help you get started, our independent experts have sifted through the options to bring you some ofour best cryptocurrency exchanges for 2022. Check out the list here and get started on your crypto journey, today.

Read this article:
3 Unstoppable Cryptos That Have Left Bitcoin in the Dust in March - The Motley Fool

When El Salvador officially made Bitcoin legal tender in September 2021, Jos Bonilla was one of the first citizens to sign up for a government-backed digital wallet that lets anyone use the cryptocurrency. The 23-year-old Salvadoran, who runs a shoe store with his family in the tourist town of Concepcin de Ataco, was looking forward to trying out the technology. Hed heard that it would reduce costs and speed up payments.

After a few days of overcoming technical glitches, Bonilla was up and running and accepting payments in Bitcoin from customers.

But the shine soon wore off. By February 2022, Bonillas list of complaints about Bitcoin was long: the only available Bitcoin ATM was too far away, the government helpline was slow, and the price was too volatile. One day, he lost a $25 transaction from a customer to technical issues and never heard back from the digital wallets customer service team. I decided not to use it any more, he said.

Hes not the only one. Six months since El Salvadors Bitcoin Law came into effect, adoption of the cryptocurrency remains patchy. Even onBitcoin Beach, a rugged strip of Salvadoran coastline that has become a mecca for crypto disciples, the transition has been challenging. When Rest of World visited shortly after the law came into force, some were still unsure about Bitcoin. Coconut vendor Dina Ponce said she was able to make more sales by expanding to accept digital payments for the first time, but she didnt fully understand the technology, and the value of Bitcoin hadnt risen enough to give her the savings shed hoped for.

Other businesses around Bitcoin Beach said theyd given up on Bitcoin and reverted to accepting only cash. We were losing money because of the way the currency loses value, said 21-year-old Axel Medina, who helps his family run a surf school and restaurant. It was difficult to maintain our business like that.

When President Nayib Bukele first announced the Bitcoin law in June 2021, he made a grand promise to his citizens. Adopting Bitcoin, he said, would digitize the economy, decrease dependence on the U.S. dollar, lower remittance fees which account for about 20% of the countrys gross domestic product and drive investment. El Salvador could become the first country to prove the transformative power of cryptocurrency on a national scale.

It is difficult to get a full picture of the scope of Bitcoin adoption in the country. In January, the government endorsed a report that at least 4 million users nearly the countrys entire population had been verified as authentic users of the governments wallet over the past several weeks. But in March, a survey released by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of El Salvador reported that 86% of the businesses contacted said they had never conducted a transaction using Bitcoin.

Interviews with dozens of Salvadoran citizens, economists, and technology developers reveal cracks in the project. Since launching, the initiative has been plagued with technical glitches, while tensions have arisen from the mismatch between Bitcoins decentralized ethos and El Salvadors authoritarian government.

As Bukele continues to double down on Bitcoin, his interest now appears to be less about getting everyday Salvadorans to adopt the cryptocurrency and more about addressing his administrations economic troubles and boosting his own image.

Why did he do this? said Alex Gladstein, the chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation and an advocate for global Bitcoin adoption. To me its kind of obvious. He did it for self-interest and to get famous.

El Salvadors association with Bitcoin began in 2019 on Bitcoin Beach, in the town of El Zonte. Thats where an evangelical surfer named Mike Peterson teamed up with a local resident, Jorge Valenzuela, to transform the small coastal town into a circular economy built around the cryptocurrency.

Seeing potential for a nationwide application, President Bukele announced his Bitcoin Law at a cryptocurrency conference in Miami in June 2021. The law made El Salvador the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender and required businesses to accept it as payment.

In El Salvador, we are trying to start the design of a country for the future, Bukele proclaimed during his video message to the conference.

To lay the groundwork for the transition, the government spearheaded development of technology that would make it possible for citizens to buy and sell using Bitcoin, including a digital wallet called Chivo. (Chivo literally means goat in Spanish but is also Salvadoran slang for cool.) Users could use the Chivo Wallet to receive or send cryptocurrency funds think Venmo or Paypal, but for Bitcoin. The government has refused to provide many details about the corporation that developed and owns this technology, but Rest of World has interviewed some of the private firms involved with the rollout. A U.S.-based cryptocurrency company, Athena Bitcoin, plays the largest role.

Rest of World met with Athena Bitcoin CEO Eric Gravengaard in the Insigne skyscraper, a towering hunk of glass and steel in the upscale neighborhood of San Benito, where he described how the company first got involved with El Salvadors ambitious experiment.

Athena Bitcoin was originally focused on building Bitcoin ATMs, which let users exchange fiat currency for cryptocurrency or vice versa, in the U.S. In 2019, Gravengaard, who knew Bitcoin Beach founder Peterson through a mutual friend, offered to provide one for the project. He visited El Salvador in February 2020 to help install the machine, which was El Zontes first ATM of any description. Over the following months, he fielded calls from people in El Salvador who told him that they were driving to El Zonte from San Salvador, 50 kilometers away, to use the ATM. He decided to send a couple more.

The new ATMs were being processed in customs when Bukele announced the Bitcoin Law. Gravengaard said the administration asked if the company wanted to do a ribbon-cutting ceremony and install more than 200 ATMs across El Salvador. These would later become Chivo-branded machines.

We came to El Salvador without a political agenda, said Matias Goldenhrn, Athenas director of Latin America. We came to El Salvador because we are Bitcoiners.

We came to El Salvador because we are Bitcoiners.

Soon, Athena also took on a bigger project: designing the front end software for the Chivo Wallet, as well as a point-of-sale system, called Athena Pay, that would allow stores to accept Bitcoin. Actually sending Bitcoin back and forth can be expensive and slow, and requires a certain level of technical know-how. Athenas ATMs would be useless if the average Salvadoran did not have a digital wallet they could use to buy and sell Bitcoin in a fast and cost-effective manner. By December, 950 Athena Pay terminals had been installed and were in use across the country.

The amount paid to each company involved in the Chivo rollout is unknown. Reporting from Salvadoran and US outlets estimates the government has spent upwards of millions of dollars. In September, when the Bitcoin Law came into effect, Athenas stock price briefly shot up over 600%.

Gravengaard describes himself as a libertarian and sees no contradiction in El Salvadors Bitcoin ecosystem being controlled by the Bukele administration. Money is social, he told Rest of World. At some point, as a participant in the economy, you have to cede some control and trust someone else, whether it is the developer of an app, a bank, or a government. I dont particularly want to live in a world where I dont trust anyone, he told Rest of World. Its not a happy world.

Bitcoin adoption over the last six months has not gone smoothly.

For one, El Salvador is a country where cash is still king; almost 70% of the population is unbanked. Critics say the countrys Bitcoin transition leaves behind those who dont have a smartphone mainly older Salvadorans and those without internet access. In 2019, about 50% of the population was not online.

Furthermore, many Salvadorans were clueless about Bitcoin when they found out their country planned to make it legal tender; one poll of around 1,300 Salvadorans by the Central American University leading up to the rollout showed only about 10% of respondents fully understood cryptocurrency. Alejandro Molins, who works at Athena Bitcoin and whose job it is to get merchants in El Salvador to download and use the Chivo Wallet, told Rest of World that his own mother has yet to sign up for her Chivo Wallet.

Some of those who have signed up have complained of technical issues with the Chivo app, including accounts created through identity fraud, lost transactions, and receiving error codes when trying to make payments.

In September 2021, Eunice Melara, a 22-year-old medical student, waited in line behind dozens of people at a Chivo ATM in San Salvador, shortly after launch. She was excited to try out the app, but saw an erroneous balance on her account. When she contacted the government call center, it couldnt resolve the issue and told her they would open a case. It hasnt worked all day, and I had to call the call center and they told me they had opened a case, she told Rest of World. She hoped to have more luck resolving the issue in person.

Others have more ideological complaints about the technology. Mario Gmez, a software developer in his mid-30s, learned about El Salvadors Bitcoin project along with the rest of the world, when Bukele announced it in June 2021. It took us all by surprise, he said.

Chivo is a promise to pay Bitcoin or dollars. It is no different from a bank account.

Gmez took an interest in the digital infrastructure the Salvadoran government was building for its transition to Bitcoin, including the Chivo Wallet, which is what is known as a custodial wallet. Custodial wallets address a common problem for cryptocurrency users. Bitcoin payments employ the blockchain, a process by which every financial transaction is logged in a digital ledger and then verified through a computational process. Users hold a public key, which assigns them to their Bitcoin holdings, and a private key, which allows them to access their funds. But this can cause problems. Users who lose their private key, for instance, can never recover their Bitcoin. With a custodial wallet, a third party holds the keys so that users dont have to worry about losing them.

It made sense that the Chivo Wallet would be custodial the administration had to build a wallet that would be functional for everyday people, the majority of whom had never even had a bank account. But it didnt sit right with Gmez. Many Bitcoin purists criticize custodial wallets as contradictory to what they see as cryptocurrencys fundamental ethos of decentralization. A famous adage in the crypto world goes, Not your keys, not your coins. In other words, if another entity has access to your private key, you dont actually own your Bitcoin. Even though Chivo is technically a private company, it is 99% owned by a state-owned company and funded by a $150 million public trust. In effect, the government would control its citizens keys.

Gmez drafted long Twitter threads about his findings. The next day, a few days before the Chivo Wallet was set to launch, the police pulled him over for what they said was a problem with his car, took him to two stations, and confiscated his phones. Authorities announced that he was being investigated for financial fraud, but Gmez was never formally arrested or charged with a crime. Two organizations have filed a complaint with the countrys attorney general alleging Gmezs detention was arbitrary. He suspects that he was targeted for speaking out about Chivo. Rest of World has reached out to the authorities but has yet to hear back.

The Chivo Wallet isnt mandatory for Salvadorans they can choose to use a different Bitcoin wallet but users were incentivized with a $30 sign-up bonus, equivalent to almost three days minimum wage.

Some boosters of crypto adoption insist on distancing the wallet from Bitcoins decentralized ethos. Chivo is not Bitcoin, Gladstein from the Human Rights Foundation told Rest of World. Chivo is a promise to pay Bitcoin or dollars. It is no different from a bank account.

In November 2021, two months after the Bitcoin Law came into effect, hundreds of visitors poured into San Salvadors small international airport from across the world. They were waived past the immigration check without paying the usual $12 fee to enter the country (although, if they wanted to pay, the officers accepted Bitcoin.)

It was Bitcoin Week in El Salvador, a week of conferences and events that attracted an international crowd of cryptocurrency believers and an opportunity for Bukeles administration to convince the global Bitcoin community of what the cryptocurrency could do for El Salvador and what El Salvador could do for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Beach had transformed itself for the occasion. The streets were littered with food stands with big plastic signs emblazoned with the Bitcoin symbol. A DJ played techno and pop songs, including a cryptocurrency-themed version of Despacito, the lyrics Tengo que bailar contigo hoy (I have to dance with you today) replaced with Tengo que comprar un bitcoin hoy (I have to buy a bitcoin today).

Dagart Allison, who told Rest of World he is a property manager from Los Angeles who dabbles in cryptocurrency as a hobby, had been at Bukeles initial announcement at the Miami Bitcoin conference. He was so enthusiastic about the Bitcoin Law that he knew he had to visit El Salvador, but he was concerned about safety issues in the country. Bitcoin Week was the perfect excuse to come, knowing that he would be surrounded by a wave of like-minded people.

Then you come here, and you realize that on the ground, its a different ordeal. Its a struggle.

But the Bitcoin mecca didnt quite live up to his expectations. He had tried to rent a surfboard from a stand in El Tunco with Bitcoin, and they told him they didnt accept it. He asked if they had Chivo. They said yes, but they didnt know how to use it with other wallets the functionality was hidden behind a confusing array of buttons.

From a Bitcoin perspective, its amazing its so groundbreaking and beautiful and, in my mind, looks like perfection, he said about El Salvador. And then you come here, and you realize that on the ground, its a different ordeal. Its a struggle.

Craig Toennies, a cheerful migr from the United States who ran a hostel in El Zonte before leaving during the pandemic, said that the Bitcoin Week preparations made it seem much more catered around the cryptocurrency than it actually was. It had a very Potemkin village vibe, he said. Since he returned in November, he said, the only people hes seen carry out transactions with Bitcoin have been tourists.

The highlight of Bitcoin Week was announced with just a days notice, after all the conference panels had ended and many attendees had already flown home. Swigging from bottles of Suprema and Regia beer, the remaining crowd faced a stage overlooking the Pacific coast, just down the road from El Zonte. Late in the evening, they raised their smartphones, ready to record, as fireworks exploded overhead. A man walked casually onstage, wearing a white shirt, slacks, and a backward baseball cap and carrying a microphone. Words on the screen introduced him as El Presidente: Bukele had come to speak to the crowd.

As the music died down, he addressed his audience in English: So, hows Bitcoin Week going?

Bukele spoke the Bitcoin communitys language, referencing Satoshi (Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator or creators of Bitcoin) and sprinkling his speech with insider jargon like orange pilled (an ideology that posits Bitcoin as a champion of freedom and monetary sovereignty).

Then, he made the announcement hed been leading up to: the creation of a new city called Bitcoin City, in the southern region of La Unin.

Its not just an idea, but it would actually be a legal municipality, with a mayor and everything, he said.

Bitcoin City, he continued, would include residential and commercial areas, museums, an airport everything, devoted to Bitcoin. It would feature volcano-powered Bitcoin mining and a central plaza shaped like the B symbol of Bitcoin.

Naturally, as in the rest of El Salvador, Bitcoin would be legal tender. But the crowd roared loudest when Bukele outlined further incentives. Residents, he said, would pay no income tax, no capital gains tax (Invest here, make all the money you want, he said), no property tax, no payroll tax, and no municipal tax.

Bukele invited up Samson Mow, then chief strategy officer of a cryptocurrency company called Blockstream, to the stage. The city, Mow explained, would be funded with a $1 billion Bitcoin bond, initially backed by the cryptocurrency. Half of the money raised would go to helping build the energy and mining infrastructure. The other half would go to buying more Bitcoin the theory, according to Mow, being that if Bitcoin continued to appreciate in value, El Salvador would reap the benefits and pay back the bondholders with interest.

If you want to invest in El Salvador, this is the easiest way to do it, Mow told the crowd. He imagined a future in which other countries would also issue Bitcoin bonds. This is the beginning of nation-state Bitcoin FOMO, he said.

For Bitcoiners like Allison, the nature of the announcement was off-putting. A lot of times in Bitcoin, the more people are doing showy stuff, the more we become skeptical, he told Rest of World. If its such a good thing, it should speak for itself. He was, however, excited about the idea of a city built around Bitcoin.

Some economists Rest of World spoke with suspect a link between the Bitcoin bonds and El Salvadors debt crisis, which has been growing under Bukele and his two predecessors, putting him in a tough position, particularly if he wants to keep funding his populist policies. El Salvador will have to pay $800 million on its traditional dollar bonds by January 2023.

With most economies, if their situation is normal, they have access to international capital markets, said lvaro Trigueros Argello, an economist at the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development. What happened in El Salvador is that sovereign risk has been going up, especially at the beginning of the pandemic.

As a result, the Bukele administration has been shut out of international capital markets. The usual way out of this debt would be through a multilateral loan. But, thanks to the Bitcoin Law, Bukele has been chided by the International Monetary Fund. In late January, the organization warned him to remove Bitcoin as legal tender. Bukele responded on Twitter with a meme from The Simpsons.

This is where the Bitcoiners could come in. The first bond is supposedly going to be spent on infrastructure in Bitcoin City and buying more Bitcoin. But, should it prove successful, the government could potentially consider issuing similar bonds in the hopes of raising capital to offset the debt, without turning to the IMF. That first bond is not going to solve the financial problem of the government, Trigueros told Rest of World. What we believe they have in mind is that if this first bond is successful, then they can issue new, similar bonds to solve the financing gap of the budget.

In January, when asked in a press conference if the Bitcoin bonds would be used to cover El Salvadors impending loan payment, as well as plug a budget gap, Bukeles finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, responded, When they are issued, we will see if they are successful in that strategy, which I think they are. Zelaya has not responded to a request from Rest of World for comment.

The characteristic of this government has been improvisation when it comes to economics.

Salvadoran economist Rommel Rodrguez said he doubts that Bukele planned all along to appeal to Bitcoiners to help solve El Salvadors economic troubles. Rather, he believes the solution appeared to him along the way. The characteristic of this government has been improvisation when it comes to economics, he said.

Rodrguez predicts Bukele could bring in a large sum from the Bitcoin fans he has courted by gambling the countrys future on Bitcoin but doubts that he would raise the full $1 billion. The problem is as we say in the very Salvadoran way a man has his way of being, said Rodrguez. Going back now and taking the recommendation of the IMF would be a harsh blow to his international image.

Bukele originally said the Bitcoin bonds would be available by early 2022. On March 11, Zelaya, the finance minister, said they might be issued in mid-March. At the time of publication, they had not yet been made available.

Meanwhile, Bukele is no less bullish on Bitcoin. He regularly takes to Twitter to boast about purchasing Bitcoin using government funds to date, the government has acquired over 1,000 bitcoins. But since reaching a high of nearly $69,000 in early November, the price of a single bitcoin has fallen, dropping almost 50% at one point toward the end of January and reducing the value of the countrys Bitcoin holdings by potentially tens of millions of dollars. Bukele may well fall victim to one of the central reasons governments tend to shy away from Bitcoin: its volatility.

Before [Bukele] did the Bitcoin Law, he was not well-known. Today, hes easily the most famous Central American leader, said Gladstein. Hes staking his whole reputation on this.

Back in Concepcin de Ataco, four months after the crypto conference, Bonilla, the shoe store owner, hadnt heard of Bitcoin City or the Bitcoin bonds. He remained unconvinced by the cryptocurrency. The survey released by the countrys chamber of commerce in March found that only 3.6% of business owners said Bitcoin had helped with their sales.

Its basically just the big companies that are using it, Bonilla said. Between bitcoin and cash, I prefer that [customers] pay me in cash.

Read the rest here:
Six months in, El Salvador's bitcoin gamble is crumbling - Rest of World

Its time to take illicit activity off the FUD dice. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Treasury published reports that indicated that the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for illicit activity is far outstripped by the use of traditional assets. Critics can no longer credibly present the specter of illicit activity to beat back bitcoin; now the foremost experts in the world say it is not a major threat.

The Treasury Department published three reports that identified key concerns for money laundering, terrorist financing and weapons proliferation financing. Heres what each said about the use of cryptocurrencies:

(T)he use of virtual assets for money laundering remains far below that of fiat currency and more traditional methods.

The 2022 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment, page 41

(T)errorist use of virtual assets appears to remain limited when compared to other financial products and services.

The 2022 National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment, page 23

There is no evidence that a proliferation network has used a virtual asset to procure a specific proliferation-sensitive good or technology

The 2022 National Proliferation Financing Risk Assessment, page 29

Case closed! Staff of the U.S. Treasury, the authors of the report, are the most knowledgeable and best-equipped investigators and enforcers against illicit financing in the world. Moreover, the reports were reviewed by other U.S. government partners, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. There could not be a more authoritative source to convey these findings.

Of course, the treasurys reports confirm what industry participants have demonstrated for years. The most recent edition of the Crypto Crime Trends report published by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, for instance, found that just 0.15% of cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2021 involved illicit addresses. The recent arrest of the alleged Bitfinex hackers and the seizure of nearly 100,000 bitcoin also demonstrates that moving large sums of money on a public network that can be monitored from a Raspberry Pi isnt as easy as, well, pie.

But the reports also confirm what we know from common experience: that we use bitcoin far, far, far more frequently for storing wealth and sending money to family members and reducing emissions and making micropayments and fleeing the freaking Taliban than for illicit finance.

After the publication of these reports, if you are a journalist, or a policymaker, or a pundit, or even an anon on Twitter, it is now irresponsible and flat out wrong to say that crypto is a major vector for money laundering or terrorist financing. The top experts in the world disagree.

Not that some wont try to continue making this claim anyway. The United States sanctions on Russia have seemingly generated copious opportunities for cryptocurrency haters to claim that it will be used to evade sanctions. All of this despite the release of the Treasury reports and live rebuttals from Treasury and White House officials that say everything is fine.

Take this recent Politico article, Russia's Hidden Tool To undermine Sanctions, for instance. The sixth paragraph should lead the piece: Treasury officials say they arent overly worried about crypto. And really, the story could end there. But the piece accepts speculation from a pundit that crypto assets like bitcoin could be used for sanctions evasion if they manage to bypass KYC processes. And if my mother had wheels she would have been a bike.

Fortunately, when the facts are on your side, you can put up a pretty good defense. Coin Centers Twitter account has been ground zero for fighting illicit finance FUD recently, with its staff pointing out that officials at FinCEN, the Treasury Department, the National Security Council and the White House have all said that theres no evidence that bitcoin is a threat to U.S. sanctions.

Their defense is a good example of how to counter speculation and fear mongering: return to the facts about bitcoins use and point out the real world examples of how bitcoin is empowering and protecting some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

The three Treasury reports released this month also discuss the future risk that crypto assets like bitcoin could pose to the U.S. illicit finance regime. Examining risk is not a bad thing I want my government to be aware of any risks posed by the proliferation of public blockchains, provided they also maintain a sober assessment of the benefits.

For the U.S. Treasury, that certainly seems to be the case. U.S. legislators recognize the same thing; Representative Ritchie Torres said earlier this week that, You should never define any technology by its worst uses there's more to crypto than ransomware, just like there's more to money than money laundering.

Bitcoin is a global, neutral and open monetary network. Anyone can use it, and that means sometimes parties we despise may use Bitcoin alongside us. When that happens, the protection and promotion of the network which is premised on freedom, equality and self-agency will still be worthwhile. The U.S. Bill of Rights shows that extending freedoms to everyone is far better than constraining freedoms for everyone. Bitcoins growth will prove the same; I think it already does.

But the truth right now is that the parties we despise do not use bitcoin, at least as compared to traditional networks. The Treasury reports released earlier this month state this unequivocally. As we continue to fight for this internet freedom money, it will be essential to cite these highly credible sources as proof.

These are my independent thoughts and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer.

This is a guest post by Gyges Lydias. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

Read the original post:
The U.S. Treasury Confirms That We Can Remove Illicit Activity From The Bitcoin FUD Dice - Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin creator Dr. Craig S. Wright has given another explanation of how Bitcoin could work with IPv6 to create a more secure internet. This model would see hundreds of billions of connected devices, with users knowing their data is safe from hacks or snooping.

Dr. Wright re-presented the IPv6/Bitcoin recommendations he recently made to the IEEE standards committee, at the University of Dubai recently. IPv6 has been central to his model for Bitcoin for a long time. For some more background on why its important, take a look at CoinGeeks The Bitcoin Bridge interview on IPv6 here.

Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and underlying value

He opened his presentation by explaining how he had some knowledge of Islamic Finance before he created Bitcoin. While some have a shallow understanding of IF as being all about its prohibition of interest rates and usury, theres more to it than thatits about a system that doesnt create wealth underlying capital.

Adding that Bitcoins not a cryptocurrency, he said the network was IPv6 enabled in its first version in 2009but that this capability was turned off after he left the development team. He also noted that Bitcoin technology is not peer-to-peer in the way most people describe it (like Napster or BitTorrent) but rather end-to-end, between individuals.

Rejecting the Silicon Valley model

And thats where IPv6 comes in. 100 billion machines will be connected to the internet over the next couple of years, and they will need to communicate in a secure way with unique addresses. Leaving all data to large corporations, with centralized databases that can be hacked, is the wrong way to do it.

Youre always going to have big Silicon Valley companies sitting there in the middle, sucking your data. I dont like that model, Dr. Wright said.

These 100 billion devices include products with RFID tags, disposable communications tablets, smart home devices everything. This proliferation of connections would actually make the internet more secure, because of the impossible time it would take to brute-force scan the entire network looking for vulnerabilities.

A well-defined cloud-and-IPv6 system will be far more secure than the existing shell-firewall model, Dr. Wright said.

Bitcoin provides the base layer to this network. For it to work, you cant have multiple ledgers (i.e., blockchains). To maintain security and prevent fraud you must have a single ledger, a single set of records that everyone trusts. VISA is expensive; BTCs Lightning Network is unreliable and off-chain.

Silicon Valley companies may resist Bitcoins model, but If the Americans dont want to do it, I dont care. Its a big world, Dr. Wright said.

How IPv6 and Bitcoin create a secure internet

With IPv6 we will have the ability to connect every device and user directly. IPv6 has its expanded address space, extended routing, improved scalability, simplified headers and faster processing, support for authentication and privacy, support for source routes, and quality of service capabilities.

IPv6 will see the death of the current internets SSL (secure sockets layer) and its application-based security through host-identification and authorization schemes. It uses CGA (cryptographically-generated addresses) instead. Cryptography is hard, but if we use it once in the OS rather than at each later, we all win.

That only happens if we do it right, Dr. Wright added. Using Bitcoins key structure is that way. It can be linked to real-world identities, but in a secure wayusing different keys for every transaction, generated from a single source. You therefore have a provable audit trail linking that identity to all its communications (or transactions) but not in a way where the data can be mined.

He gave the examples of Paymail and HandCash as using Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC). This can be extended into CGA by having an IPv6 address that is cryptographically derived from/linked to a public-private key pair.

This takes us back to a more distributed model of the internet, as it was originally intended to berather than the current network of centralized services run by large oligarchies more interested in data mining and control.

Freeing the market, freeing the world

The freedom to transact and perform unlimited commercial activities at almost no cost (for payments) is what will truly create wealth for all people, Dr. Wright said. This includes people in wealthy countries, and those from less-wealthy ones working for lower amounts, or overseas.

I want to push down the prices of transactions so low that Amazon cries. If they dont deal with this, theyll be out of business, he said.

Some in the University of Dubai audience were slightly skeptical that Dr. Wrights model could find acceptance in the real world, saying it sounds too good to be true. This is pertinent given the current worlds pursuit of equality and oligarchical control. Dr. Wright vehemently disagreed with these so-called principles, referring back to the Islamic Golden Age where opportunity was held in higher regard, and wealth came from the creation of real value.

Most long-time Bitcoiners have always known their system could produce better outcomes for humanitybut also wondered if it could fit into the current worlds political paradigms. That is still uncertain. But if the current worlds political goals set it on a path to failure, there will need to be alternatives. The best alternative that exists today is Bitcoin, working in tandem with the internet on which it operates.

Watch: Dr. Craig Wright tackles IPv6, blockchain integration on The Bitcoin Bridge

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

See original here:
Craig Wright at IEEE UAE Blockchain Symposium: Bitcoin and IPv6 will create security and wealth for everyone - CoinGeek