They say a bad penny always turns up. While the saying may refer to an unwelcome guest, the same could be said for Bitcoin, according to recent analysis by CNBC. Based on chart evaluations, Bitcoin price has always increased substantially after dips greater than 20 percent.
The rise in Bitcoin prices for the four previous dips over 20 percent were substantial. On average, the cryptocurrency posted 61.5 percent gains in each cycle after substantial sell-offs. This astounding number has lead to an increased desire among insiders to ‘buy the dips’ – to purchase Bitcoin during the lows and realize the substantial gains as the price continues to rise.
Bitcoin triumphant (Image: Maxpixel)
Bulls and bears and Bitcoin, oh my!
The most recent drop over the weekend spurred on by the death of the SegWit2x hard fork proposal from the New York Agreement, appears to be no different. After more than 20 percent declines, the price has already recovered peaking in recent trading over $6,500. This response seems to indicate that the fundamentals underlying the recent increases in price are real.
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.
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.
Bitcoin Cash (Image: M. Verch/Flickr)
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.
As I pointed out before, the Bitcore coin (BTX) has a great ‘unique selling point (USP)’ that if you hold it you get 3% extra – effectively ‘interest’ – added weekly.
This week is the first time I’ve held enough BTX in my wallet (10 is the minimum quantity) to qualify for the airdrop. However, just like last week’s 25% one-off airdrop, it arrived on time and with no fuss.
Bitcore Weekly Airdrop received (Image: Bitcoin Investors UK)
An added bonus is that in that week the value of Bitcore has gone up from $6 to $10 – so my £100 stake is now worth £227. Now maybe you can see why I’m a BTX fan!
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.
In a new blog post, the developers behind the fork of the bitcoin blockchain said that they would release a formal software client for download at 7:00 PM UTC on Nov. 12. Originally set for a public launch on Nov. 1, the project is backed by LightningASIC, a seller of mining hardware based in Hong Kong, as well as a community of relatively unknown developers.
As reported by CoinDesk, the idea behind bitcoin gold is to keep most properties of the protocol, but restrict the use of specialized chips for mining, or the process by which new transactions are added to a blockchain (while also creating new tokens as a reward).
It’s also the latest example of a “airdropped” cryptocurrency that will distribute new coins to anyone who owned bitcoin at the time of the split, or up until the date the ledger of transactions started to differ.
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.”
If you have solar panels on your house you are eligible to receive free SolarCoins in proportion to how much energy you can generate (specifically each year you get your solar system’s capacity in kW multiplied by a fixed ratio of 1.314). I have previously described the process of installing a SolarCoin Wallet and shown how to register a claim for SolarCoins.
I went through these steps for the two solar arrays on my house (front and rear, installed at different times). Officially you should receive any coins you claim in the first week of the month following your claim.
I am pleased to confirm that my coins came through this week exactly on schedule. The amounts are almost exactly what I expected (the small discrepancies likely relate to whether you calculate the time the panels have been operating in years, months or weeks, for example).
First SolarCoin claim received (Image: Bitcoin Investors UK)
The amounts I received were:
Rear roof: 33.9 coins (3.7kW x 7 years x 1.314)
Front roof: 18.6 coins (3.2kW x 4 years x 1.314)
The total came to 52.4775 SolarCoin which at their current value is worth about $18, so about £14.
I have been following Bitcore (symbol: BTX) for some months. It seems to be one of the more interesting new altcoins as it seems to have momentum. It has regular airdrops and community discussions which is more than most here-today-gone-tomorrow altcoins.
I first heard about it because it had an airdrop that allowed you to claim free Bitcore if you had Bitcoin in a private wallet on a specific date (26 April 2017). On that day I had 2.8 Bitcoin in my Ledger so I decided to claim. I assume this airdrop is still open so if you had some Bitcoin then you can still claim yourself.
The process is pretty straightforward – download and install a Bitcore Wallet from the Bitcore website as per the usual process (much like I detailed in How to Make a Bitcoin Wallet). You then need to sign a message using your Bitcoin Wallet to prove you own the Bitcoins, and then you register for the airdrop by providing the Receive address for your Bitcore Wallet, plus the message, on the Bitcore Airdrop page.
For me an additional complication was that my old Ledger Nano can’t sign messages so I had to import the account into Electrum and sign it there. I therefore didn’t make the claim until August.
From that original airdrop I received 2.8 BTX. They have held their value fairly constant at about $6 so that was worth $17 or about £13. Not as great as some airdrops (e.g. eBTC) but not bad.
I missed a trick, though, as Bitcore provides free airdrops weekly worth 3% of your current balance. That certainly beats the 1% per year you might get with a conventional fiat savings account! However, you only get the airdrop with a minimum balance of 10 BTX which, of course, I didn’t have.
Anyway, when I heard of proposed changes in BTX airdrops from 30 October I decided to do something about it. The airdrops would only be available to those who registered, but would start with a free 25% airdrop which seemed rather attractive. Therefore last week I bought £100 worth of BTX (so 19.77 BTX) – that brought my total to 22.6 which was more than enough.
My reasoning was that £100 was enough to be worth doing – since I would get about £25 free for the effort of registering – and that I didn’t have the nerve to do what I maybe should have done. Which was buy £10000 worth of BTX and make £2500 overnight. Of course, the latter would have left me open to big losses if BTX devalued quickly.
Anyway, I’m pleased to report the free 25% BTX (5.64 BTX so worth about £30) has arrived in my wallet. And the price has remained relatively stable so I should really have bought much more…
I plan to keep hold of my BTX for some time (whereas I usually sell airdrops fast) because of the weekly airdrops I should now get. Of course, Bitcore know that’s what people will do and I credit them with coming up with a very clever way of keeping their currency stable and with significant value.
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