Category Archives: Bitcoin (BTC)

Taming the Power-Hungry Blockchain Beast with Decentralized, Clean Energy

November 13, 2017 flippener

Throughout history, every great breakthrough often came with negative consequences and side effects.

Think about Marie Curie. Her research on radioactivity is what makes X-rays possible today. Unfortunately, her discoveries and remarkable research are also what killed her.

What about the Internet? It’s the most revolutionary invention for generations and holds countless opportunities that benefit billions of people around the world. However, cybercrime has never been higher and expected to reach $2 tln by 2019.

It’s the same story with Blockchain. The technology has the potential to revolutionize every industry it comes into contact with. However, its biggest application remains in the cryptocurrency industry.

Cryptocurrency Mining Farm (Image: M. Krohn/Wikimedia)

And with the current excitement surrounding this industry, it’s easy to overlook the side effects that come with such a disruptive breakthrough.

Energy-craving Blockchain can have devastating consequences for the environment
Mining popular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, requires extremely powerful computer hardware that can solve complex mathematical equations. To run these computers burns up a lot of energy, mostly from non-renewable fossil fuels.

And as the price of the digital coin sores so too does the number of people looking to get in on the action.

Bitcoin Cash Skyrockets, Bitcoin Price Drops As Civil War Continues

November 12, 2017 flippener

Well, get your popcorn after all.

Earlier this week, a planned hard fork on the Bitcoin blockchain that threatened to create two new coins, causing disruptions on exchanges and potential losses for users on both sides — but also possibly one of the most exciting chapters in Bitcoin’s history — was called off.

But in the last few days, a previous fork of Bitcoin (BTC) called Bitcoin Cash (BCH) that was launched in August and immediately dismissed by many Bitcoiners and the wider crypto world alike, has skyrocketed in value. After languishing in the $300 range for a while and jumping up to the $600 range in November, it has now nearly quadrupled to around $2,500 a coin as of press time — it had traded as low as $650 on Friday.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin, which was trading at an all-time high of around $7,800 on Wednesday, is now down to around $6,000 as of press time but had dipped as low as about $5,500.

Bitcoin Price Decline Continues As Markets Drop Below $6,500 (£4950)

November 10, 2017 flippener

The price of bitcoin is down more than 8 percent, continuing losses that began after the cryptocurrency slipped below the $7,000 mark.

Markets have fallen to as low as $6,475.40, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the lowest level reported since Nov. 1, when markets traded between $6,357 and $6,750.17. Markets slid below $7,000 earlier today in a reversal of the bullish market moves seen earlier this week that pushed the price of bitcoin close to $7,900.

Bitcoin price chart (Image: geralt/Pixabay)

Earlier in the day’s trading, the price had climbed as high as $7,330.06, with today’s fall marking a more than $600 decline since that level.

At press time, bitcoin is trading at $6,572.24.

The price decline is in contrast with the gains seen today in the market for bitcoin cash, which according to CoinMarketCap is up more than 43% in the past 24 hours.

At press time, Bitcoin cash is trading at roughly $882 on Bithumb, the largest exchange by trade volume for that cryptocurrency.

Source: CoinDesk

Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin SegWit2X (B2X), News, SegWit2X

SegWit2x Is Dead, Long Live Bitcoin! Price Hits All-Time High As Hard Fork Canceled

November 8, 2017 flippener

Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high of $7,888 as participants of the SegWit2x hard fork announce they have “suspended” it.

A circular sent to the mailing list by major proponent Mike Belshe says that it was “clear” the project “had not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time.”

Bitcoin Fork Pens (Image: BTC Keychain/Flickr)

SegWit2x will therefore not activate Nov. 16 as planned, Belshe not naming a possible future date.

The message reads:

“Our goal has always been a smooth upgrade for Bitcoin. Although we strongly believe in the need for a larger blocksize, there is something we believe is even more important: keeping the community together. Unfortunately, it is clear that we have not built sufficient consensus for a clean blocksize upgrade at this time. Continuing on the current path could divide the community and be a setback to Bitcoin’s growth. This was never the goal of SegWit2x.”

Cryptomining

November 6, 2017 flippener

Explaining cryptocurrency mining like Bitcoin and Ethereum:

Bitcoin (BTC), Bounty, Opinion

Bounty Hunters Heavily Utilized in Bitcoin, Altcoin World

November 3, 2017 flippener

A bounty is a reward paid out for the completion of a certain task.

In the “Old West,” sheriffs used to post bounties in order to encourage bounty hunters to capture dangerous criminals. This concept is alive and well in today’s world and the cryptocurrency space has made it a core concept of its very special culture. In the crypto world, bounty rewards are almost exclusively paid in Bitcoin and ICO tokens.

Star Wars Bounty Hunters (Image: PopCultureGeek/Flickr)

Bitcoin faucets

Bitcoin faucets are websites or apps that dispense rewards in the form of Bitcoin. Visitors can claim this reward in exchange for completing a captcha or task as described by the platform. The main revenue stream from this faucets comes from advertisements.

Back in 2009, Bitcoin faucets used to pay up to three Bitcoin per hour. With today’s Bitcoin prices, that would net around $19k. It’s important to note that back then the Bitcoin price was just a fraction of a cent. Nowadays, faucets pay rewards in “Satoshis,” which is a hundredth of a millionth Bitcoin.

Bounty campaigns

In the ICO space, a bounty program is an offer made by many startups which enables individuals to receive compensation for performing marketing tasks, reporting bugs or improving a product or service. Blockchain startups that plan to hold a crowdsale often allocate a certain percentage of their total tokens to such a campaign.

Bounties are mainly found on forums like Bitcointalk and bounty networks. There are rarely any barriers of entry at all and the only thing a bounty hunter needs to do in order to participate is submit a link to his work. This submission will then be checked by the admin of the campaign who will decide if the submission deserves a reward or not.

Bitcoin Sets New Record as Price Tops $7,000

November 2, 2017 flippener

[Update: Bitcoin’s price passed $7,000 soon after 10:00 UTC, and has reached a record high of $7,034.14 so far today.]

Another day, another record…

Bitcoin prices have continued to climb overnight, building on

Bitcoin Price Chart (Image: NikonD300/MaxPixel)

consecutive highs in recent days and ultimately reaching a new all-time high close to $7,000.

At 07:00 UTC, bullish bitcoin trading saw the cryptocurrency soar to a peak of $6,994.01, having opened the session at $6,750. At press time, the price of a bitcoin is $6,939, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index – a 2.8 percent gain for the day so far.

As per CoinMarketCap, bitcoin is up over 20.56 percent for the last 7 days, and its market capitalization has now peaked at over $116 billion.

Understanding Segwit2x: Why Bitcoin’s Next Fork Might Not Mean Free Money

November 1, 2017 flippener

Bitcoin is gearing up for what could be the biggest (and least understood) change to its software to date.

Often called simply a “digital currency,” bitcoin is best viewed as a protocol (a set of code) that delivers data (in this case bitcoins) in defined quantities (called blocks) that are then stored in a sequence (called a blockchain) on a distributed set of global computers. Bitcoin is decentralized – in that many people help make the network function, and in choosing to run its software, users all agree to abide by the same rules to keep it operational.

It’s these qualities that make the proposed change particularly divisive.

Called Segwit2x, the plan calls for a very specific fork (or a change to bitcoin’s rules), one that would make certain rules valid that weren’t valid before. Specifically, Segwit2x would change the size of the blocks passed regularly around the network and stored in the blockchain from 1 MB to 2 MB.

Some users think this is a good idea, others don’t.

But to begin, it’s important to note how this fork differs from others. Coming on the heels of the bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold forks, bitcoin users might be accustomed to certain outcomes – ones that might not be guaranteed in the case of Segwit2x.

With bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold, for example, bitcoin users could have paid little to no attention and it wouldn’t have impacted their transactions. If you held bitcoin on certain exchanges (or your own wallet), you received new cryptocurrency.

This smooth outcome, however, isn’t guaranteed with Segwit2x. Complicating matters is that in many ways, Segwit2x sounds (and is) similar to other bitcoin forks.

These International Bitcoin Communities Are Rejecting SegWit2x

October 31, 2017 flippener

The hard fork part of the New York Agreement is scheduled to take place within about two weeks.

This incompatible protocol rule change is set to increase Bitcoin’s block weight limit, to allow for more transactions on the network — if everyone adopts the change. Otherwise, it will create a new blockchain and currency that may or may not be considered to be “Bitcoin.”

The list of signatories of this agreement includes several of the largest Bitcoin startups and mining pools that, together, claim to represent a majority of users and hash power. Yet, it is far from clear that this 2x part of SegWit2x proposal really has much support outside of these signatories. Most of Bitcoin’s development community, a significant number of other companies, some mining pools, user polls as well as futures markets suggest otherwise.

And now, a growing list of international Bitcoin communities is putting out public statements against the SegWit2x hard fork as well.

Bitcoin or Bitcoin2x? News & Guides to Navigate November’s Fork

October 30, 2017 flippener

For bitcoin, November is a step into the unknown.

Despite its steadily increasing price, not to mention a growing acknowledgment from the financial mainstream, the technical roadmap for the cryptocurrency has never been so hotly contested.

After years of debate on the best path forward, a new code proposal called Segwit2x is set to put the cryptocurrency – the world’s largest by value – to the test. And while it boasts significant support from miners and businesses, it remains unclear whether the new code will change bitcoins’ rules, or if another new cryptocurrency will be created (one already being branded bitcoin2x by some).

Bitcoin fork pen and bitcoin keychains (Image: BTC Keychain/Flickr)

Quite simply, there’s never been a larger change to the platform, nor one that has been the subject of such criticism and scrutiny.

And it might not be all free money. As developers are keen to note, this is bleeding-edge science; in short, we’re in uncharted territory, and if past forks are any indication, decisions could lead to consequences – for users, investors and the market at large.

Bitcoin Investors UK