Bitcoin News: мая 2017

среда, 31 мая 2017 г.

Bitmex Launches Bitcoin Cash Futures and Announces BCH Distribution

Bitmex traders can now speculate on the price of bitcoin cash after the exchange activated futures trading. As a consequence, 20x leveraged trading is now live under the $BCHX17 ticker. The exchange has also announced that it will be selling the BCH holders were entitled to and distributing it in the form of BTC. The disbursal process will be completed before the end of the year.

Go Long Or Go Short

Bitcoin futures have been big news of late, but it’s bitcoin core that’s been hogging the headlines, largely thanks to CME’s announcement that it will soon be permitting bitcoin

futures contracts. The arrival of bitcoin cash futures at Bitmex adds further evidence that BCH is starting to see widespread adoption from vendors, wallets, and exchanges.

Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange is famed for its futures trading, which offers up to 100x leverage on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The arrival of BCH futures spells good news for fans of the cryptocurrency as well as for speculators. In many respects, futures trading is well-suited to BCH, allowing believers to long it, sceptics to short it and agnostic traders to go either way.

There’s a Contract Out on Bitcoin Cash

The full contract details specify a 5% entry taker fee and exit taker fee on the initial margin. Contracts are settled in BTC, and there’s a minimum price increment of 0.0001 BTC. At the time of publication, BCH futures had a volume of 1,570 BTC, a number that’s likely to rise as word of bitcoin cash futures spreads. Traders who’d gone long on BCH got off to a bad start, as the currency dropped amidst a BTC rally that has left other coins in its wake. In the days and weeks ahead however, there’ll be ample opportunities for profit-taking on both sides.

The Great BCH Giveaway

On August 1, when bitcoin cash was born, all bitcoin holders became eligible to receive an equal share of the new cryptocurrency. Many exchanges distributed BCH right away, but others dithered, unsure of the best approach to take. Bitmex has finally reached a decision on the matter and has announced that it will sell all its BCH and distribute it to customers in the form of BTC.

The move raises the possibility of large quantities of BCH being dumped onto the market in the coming weeks, assuming Bitmex hasn’t found a private seller. The Hong Kong exchange is following in the shoes of Bitcoin Investment Trust sponsor Grayscale Investments, which recently announced a similar plan. With Grayscale unleashing as much as 175,000 BCH between now and February, it will be interesting to see how this affects the price of bitcoin cash. For Bitmex traders who have an opinion on that, there’s now a means to profit from the movement of BCH whatever the outcome.

Do you think exchanges should distribute BCH as BTC or should they give it back to customers as bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Original article and pictures take news.bitcoin.com site

вторник, 30 мая 2017 г.

Bitfury De-Anonymises Millions of Bitcoin Transactions and Addresses

One of bitcoin’s biggest mining farm has been working on blockchain analysis to link addresses with individuals by employing both blockchain data and other sources.

“Bitcoin address clustering is a process that exposes bitcoin users by determining which addresses belong to a single user through an analysis of Blockchain data. The act of clustering groups those addresses together, enabling investigators to link them to a single entity,” the miner says.

97 sources were used in the process, including Twitter, wallet explorers, bitcointalk, presumably Reddit, and so on, leading to identifying “slightly more than 1/6 of the whole Bitcoin blockchain,” according to the authors.

Some 95 million addresses were identified to belong to 14 million individuals or entities covering 45 million transactions out of 240 million total bitcoin transactions since the genesis block to March 2017.

“Currently, bitcoin users can have multiple addresses, making it easier to conceal identities and commit crimes on the Blockchain. The ability to link related addresses, called ‘clustering,’ is an important new tool that helps law enforcement agencies conduct criminal investigations,” said Valery Vavilov, CEO of The Bitfury Group.

It’s unclear whether that suggests they are working with law enforcement and if they are, which law enforcement that is. Two of the paper’s authors were funded by Bitfury while a third was funded by the Russian Science Foundation.

Such techniques, however, could go far beyond just law enforcement. Finding out spendings and habits could be quite useful for corporations, and much more worryingly, knowing who has how much could give criminals a gold mine.

So raising privacy concerns, especially in light of recent news about crypto kidnappings. Which is why some of the top blockchains, like ethereum, are working on implementing complex crypto to considerably increase on-chain privacy.

Public blockchains are public. Everyone can currently see what address is paying to whom, how much and when. The addresses, however, are just a string of numbers and letters, so you do not know to whom the address belongs unless the owner himself reveals it.

There are many ways the owner might do so. If they are a business, for example, they’ll need to provide the address for payment, while at an individual level, if they are using Coinbase, then the exchange knows exactly which of their customers is using what address.

Crude ways around it are obfuscation methods whereby one makes a number of transactions for the sole purpose of de-linking the original identity to a specific address.

In bitcoin, however, that is now very expensive, if at all possible, due to a very limited 1MB of data, which Bitfury campaigned to maintain perhaps in aid of their surveillance work.

But other projects are working on implementing robust privacy at the protocol level by incorporating zk-Snarks, ring signatures, or other methods, so that one can’t see the amount transacting or see what address exactly it is transacting with, while at the same time allowing you to reveal that information to whoever you wish.

Such work on privacy was demanded by businesses keen to protect competitively advantageous information. Google, for example, would certainly not want engineers at Facebook to know how much they are paying a senior software developer, or get any hints about acquisitions.

Which spurred work on privacy for ethereum, while for bitcoin there hasn’t really been much movement with the project feeling stale at the protocol level.

Original article and pictures take bitnewsbot.b-cdn.net site

понедельник, 29 мая 2017 г.

Bitfinex Experiences Withdrawal Difficulties

The issues facing Bitfinex continue to mount, with the exchange receiving numerous complaints from customers who have been waiting for days for withdrawals in a range of cryptocurrencies to process. The exchange says it’s been the subject of numerous distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in recent days, and that network congestion has contributed to the challenges.

Also Read: 200,000 Unconfirmed Transactions Pile Up in Another Crazy Day for Bitcoin

Many Customers Are Complaining That Withdrawals Are Not Processing

With Bitfinex’s subreddit increasingly being dominated by complaints from customers who have been waiting for withdrawals to process for multiple days, the company has issued an explanatory document seeking to clarify the reasons behind their failure to complete withdrawals.

The document, titled “Explanation”, states “Over the last few days, we were hit by a mixture of huge real customer demand for deposits & withdrawals, at the same time as we experienced DDoS in the form of malicious micro-deposits and withdrawals,” describing such as “a heavily funded attack.” The Bitfinex team adds that “both the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks were under high congestion,” asserting that both factors caused “a very large number of withdrawals to fail and be missed.”

The document claims that “new deposits and new withdrawals are now back to working fine,” adding that “all the withdrawals that failed during that period on the 4th-5th December need to be manually re-verified and added to a list for reprocessing.” The exchange claims that to have completed “maintenance” in order “to improve [their] systems meaning everything is now back to normal,” saying that “nearly every other exchange faced similar withdrawal issues during the same period, but due to the huge scale of customers, it is taking us longer to manually reprocess the failed withdrawals.”

Problems Persist Despite Bitfinex Claiming Operations Have Normalized

Despite the words of assurance, the comments on the document reveal many customers claiming that their withdrawals still have not been processing, with many Redditors alleging that their funds are yet to appear despite having received hundreds of confirmations on the blockchain. The company’s status page states that all systems are operational, and describes the investigation of the DDoS attack as having been resolved, exacerbating the concerns of customers who are still waiting for their funds to appear.

The withdrawal issues have compounded suspicions surrounding the operations of Bitfinex – with recent flash-crashes of over 90% on Bitfinex’s ETP and NEO markets, resulting in sudden liquidations, and the leaking of a shareholder report, re-invoking scrutiny pertaining to the relationship between Tether and Bitfinex. The exchange also launched what many see as a frivolous lawsuit against an anonymous twitter account called Bitfinexed – which has posted numerous accusations pertaining to Bitfinex’s operations.

What do you make of Bitfinex’s withdrawals issues? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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The post Bitfinex Experiences Withdrawal Difficulties appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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Original article and pictures take bitcoinlove.xyz site

пятница, 26 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin-Only Charity Pledges Up To $4 Million for PTSD Research

The Bitcoin-only charity, Pineapple Fund, appeals to the Reddit community for BTC contributions for MDMA-based drug trials with PTSD sufferers.

Pineapple Fund, a Bitcoin-only charity, has promised to match up to $4 mln in donations to a non-profit for MDMA-based PTSD research.

The non-profit leading the research, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), is seeking $25 mln in donations for Phase 3 of their drug trials. MAPS hopes to use MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as an effective treatment for PTSD sufferers.

The Pineapple Fund was created in early December 2017 by an anonymous donor who goes by the Reddit handle /u/PineappleFund. The donor presents themselves as an early Bitcoin adopter whose goal is to give $86 mln, or 5057 bitcoins, of earnings to charity.

A Jan. 10 Reddit post by /u/PineappleFund calls for donations to MAPS and announces the $4 mln pledge. The post also explains the usefulness of the MAPS trials due to what the anonymous donor sees as a lack of effective FDA-approved treatments for those suffering from PTSD.

/u/PineappleFund appeals to the cryptocurrency community to send Bitcoin or fiat payments as donations to MAPS:

“If you believe that psychedelic drugs can have incredible therapeutic potential, then I believe this is one of the highest impact projects today.”

The anonymous donor then concludes:

“I believe we, the cryptocurrency community, can fully fund Phase 3 trials. Prescription MDMA could be a gift to this world from the bitcoin community.”

FDA approval for these experimental therapies is expected by 2021, pending positive results of the Phase 3 trials.

Pineapple Fund already gave 59.89 bitcoin, with a value of $1 mln at the time of donation, to MAPS on December 14, 2017. According to the Fund’s website, so far approximately $20 mln has been donated to 23 organizations, including the Internet Archive, a NGO financing universal health care, and a philanthropic blockchain technology company.

Pineapple Fund is not the only Bitcoin-only charity: BitHope, a Bulgarian-based NGO, exclusively accepts cryptocurrency to fund crowdsourced campaigns on its site. Other Bitcoin-based charities include BitGive and CommonCollection.

Original article and pictures take www.btcethereum.com site

среда, 24 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin’s value crashes and it’s taking other currencies with it

Bitcoin’s meteoric rise in 2017 has faced its biggest downturn in quite some time. Just over a month on from hitting its lifetime value peak of more than $19,000, it has now fallen to less than $10,000. Those who diversified their cryptocurrency portfolio aren’t safe from the crash though, as bitcoin’s downturn has been felt by all the major alternative coins.

Although cryptocurrencies have traditionally had rather volatile values, bitcoin’s has been near unprecedented over the past few months. It went from being worth $1,000 at the start of 2017, to $5,000 in November, to close to $20,000 just over a month later — prompting many to ask whether the cryptocurrency bubble is about to burst. It’s since fallen and has fluctuated between $12,000 and $16,000 in the weeks that followed, but today’s dip is the largest we’ve seen in some time.

At the time of writing, a single bitcoin is worth around $9,900, representing a fall of nearly $3,000 in the last 24 hours alone. The start of this latest crash took place on Monday, January 15, where it began to tumble from just under $14,000. It’s bounced up and down since then but slowly trended down to the low point of $9,430, according to Coindesk.

This latest drop has also pulled down some of the other most successful cryptocurrencies. Ethereum, the No. 2 cryptocurrency in the world, lost more than 20 percent of its value in the last 24 hours, dipping to $870 per ether at the time of writing. Ripple has followed suit, with a near 25 percent correction and litecoin is at its lowest rate in months.

Some of this downturn has lead to some sad stories appearing on social media. Those who spent more than they could afford to lose during the December peak are now watching their investments dwindle and disappear. We would always recommend you do your reading before investing anything in something as volatile as cryptocurrencies, and only invest what you can afford to lose.

That said, not everyone has lost hope. If you look at segments of the web like the bitcoin subreddit, most simply see this as a great time to invest. Graph comparisons of bitcoin’s rise and fall over the past few years have shown that historic peaks are usually followed by seemingly catastrophic drops in return, only to gradually increase to new heights again in the following months.

Considering bitcoin hit a peak of $10,000 at the start of December, few long-term investors are concerned about a return to that still heady value.

Original article and pictures take cdn7.digitaltrends.com site

вторник, 23 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin, ethereum and ripple make comeback after crypto sell-off

Regulators have expressed concerns over digital assets due to their extremely volatile nature and worries that they could be used for illicit activity.

Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, said: “Now that the reasons for the recent sell-off are more clear to everyone and the slightly sour regulatory concerns have been priced in and the Asian premiums are evening out, traders will most likely start focusing on the technicals.”

Greenspan told CNBC Tuesday that South Korean and Japanese investors often pay a premium of “20 percent or more per coin.”

Nolan Bauerle, director of research at CoinDesk, said that the sell-off was “a feature of the global, liquid cryptocurrency trading environment.”

“When the price of bitcoin drops, there is a pattern of traders that move to take different positions, either in another cryptocurrency or in fiat,” he told CNBC.

“These large drops, usually between the 25-40 percent range, generally find a bottom that is a consolidation of a previous all time high. When this bottom is found, the pattern continues with demand causing a new upward bounce.”

Disclaimer: This story has been amended to reflect the fact that bitcoin lost more than 50 percent from its December high.

Original article and pictures take bitnewsbot.b-cdn.net site

понедельник, 22 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Wallet

Original article and pictures take cdn.dribbble.com site

пятница, 19 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Vs Ethereum

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two top and most popular virtual currencies that the world has seen. They have soared in the past 12 months, and this has ensured that they have secured the two top spots in the cryptocurrency market. But, if you invest on one of the other, do you actually know the similarities and differences between the two?

If the experts are right, Ethereum will begin to challenge Bitcoins top position in 2018, as the value has absolutely soared in just 12 months, appreciating by nearly 12,500 percent. At the beginning of 2017, a token was worth less than $10, compared to the $1,240 it is worth today.

Ethereum still has a long way to go before it catches up with Bitcoin, who also had a good year in 2017, and one Bitcoin is now worth more than $14,000 per coin. The market capitalisation is also double that of Ethereum as well.

They both do share some similarities though – they are both digital currencies that have been based on blockchain technology that can be used to send money across borders, without the need for a traditional bank. They are also both mined coins. However, it is their purposes that make them fundamentally different.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to be developed in 2009, and was created to be an alternative to traditional currencies. This is completely different to Ethereum, which was developed as a platform that facilitates companies building new applications and programs. Ethereum has stated on its own website that Ether would not be possible with Bitcoin and that they truly complement each other. They have also stated that Ether should be treated as a fuel, whose purpose is to pay for computation, and not as an alternative to money.

Steven Nerayoff, the co-founder of Ethereum, agrees with other professionals that it will continue to surge in 2018; he said;

“What you’re seeing with Ethereum is exponential increase in the number of projects – there are billions of dollars being poured into the ecosystem right now – maybe 10 times more projects this year than last year, which could easily lead to a doubling, probably a tripling in price by the end of the year…The entire space is increasing…There is huge interest by the public and there are more areas in which the public can invest, even in Bitcoin, so you could just see an expansion in the entire space.”

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Original article and pictures take cryptodaily.co.uk site

четверг, 18 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Vs Banking #infographic

Bitcoin and other altcoins have the very real potential to disrupt the existing financial system as we know it. In this infographic we look at the future of bitcoin and the block chain, and what it could hold.

Infographic: Bitcoin Vs Banking #infographic — Bitcoin Vs Banking #infographic #Bitcoin #Currency #Banking

Infographic by: newnotefinancial

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вторник, 16 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin tumbles below $10,000, half of its peak value

Bitcoin has crashed to as low as $9,500, falling below $10,000 for the first time since November and neatly halving its December 19th peak of $19,000, according to Coinbase. It has declined steadily since CES 2018 started, thanks to reports that South Korea planned to clamp down on the cryptocurrency. If you hedged your bets with Ethereum, Ripple or Dogecoin, then that didn't help either, as most virtual currencies have fallen precipitously since yesterday.

Analysts, and nearly everyone else with common sense, have been expecting a correction. "The market was very overheated and had significantly dislocated from trend," CryptoCompare's Charles Hayter told CNBC. "A large percentage of investors were expecting this correction and reversion to mean." He added that the panic was "leading the herd to sell with no other justification than fear."

Adding to the tension is the fact that China's central bank reportedly said that the government should ban the centralized trading of the currencies. The nation is reportedly trying to (gently) push crypto-miners out of the country because the energy used by tens of thousands of computers creates pollution. China is also concerned it could spawn an economic crisis -- something that a lot of investors are no doubt experiencing right now. (Another unexpected consequence, as Techspot points out, is that graphics card and memory prices have skyrocketed.)

Some investors aren't too concerned, saying that bitcoin went up way too fast, and is now returning to something of a mean. "All in all, this drop has brought us back to the prices that were traded about a month ago for most coins," said eToro senior market analyst Mati Greenspan.

Another way of looking at it, however, is that bitcoin, as a currency with an unchangeable limit, is highly susceptible to bubble-type economics. As Engadget noted in a 2013 explainer, the tendency for folks to hoard the currency rather than spending it will almost always cause a boom, followed by a crash. In other words, bitcoin is highly volatile, and it's just as plausible that it'll get back to its peak or even exceed it.

Original article and pictures take s.blogsmithmedia.com site

понедельник, 15 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Spot Price Lobbied for $ 3,000 as Stumbles Wider Market

The bitcoin spot price broke the $ 3,000 mark in the face of the market downturn.

Bitcoin Spot Price Running at $ 3,000

Like the older brother he inherited in early August, Bitcoin Cash saw its market share fall in early 2018.

After entering January control about seven percent of the market capitalization of cryptocurrency, Bitcoin cash saw its share drop by one-tenth to 6.3 percent other altcoins - most notably Ethereum - hit record highs.

This week, however, Bitcoin the money embarked on a rally of its own in order to jump over the $ 3,000 barrier after the sinking below last week. There was no clear trigger for the race, although the piece probably benefited from a report that the BitClub Network mining pool - a small pool that currently accounts for about 2.5% of bitcoin hashrate - would start broadcasting. payments in the form of BCH while continuing Chain BTC.

Nevertheless, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency has almost reached its target, rising from a low of $ 2,280 to a high of $ 2,988 on Jan. 10 - an intraday rise of 31%.

Unfortunately for investors, the rally hit a wall, in part because of conflicting reports that South Korea was planning to continue a general ban on cryptocurrency trading. While the president's office, ultimately, issued a statement denying that the ban was a finalized decision, the initial report has the wind of Bitcoin cash veils, as Korea represents one of the biggest coin markets.

Currently, the Seoul-based BCH / KRW pair from Bithumb is the second largest market for Bitcoin Cash, as well as its highest volume fiat trading pair.

As a result, it is not surprising that the spot price of bitcoins fell by $ 2,330 before starting a cautious recovery with the rest of the cryptocurrency markets.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin spot price was trading at $ 2633 on Bitfinex, which represents a minor drop of 24 hours, but a 15 percent increase from its low Wednesday. The market capitalization of Bitcoin Cash is currently $ 44.5 billion, which puts $ 34.6 billion behind the third wave.

Article Source: https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@ultraspace/bitcoin-spot-price-lobbied-for-usd-3-000-as-stumbles-wider-market

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Original article and pictures take waysmakemoneyfree.blogspot.com site

пятница, 12 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Scratch Magnet

A house is made of brick and walls! A home is made of hope and dreams!

Bring some hope in your life with the help of this bitcoin scratch magnet. Let the people know that it can change their lives too as it had been changing lives of many other people.

People will be drawn like magnets to your fridge or office space once you’ve decorated them with this Bitcoin Scratch Magnet!

Order our original water-resistant metal magnets. Wipe clean with a damp cloth.

Original article and pictures take cdn.shopify.com site

четверг, 11 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin returns to record historical maximum despite its risk

The cryptocurrency continues its sweet moment although it does not manage to get rid of its speculative stigma.

The Bitcoin has returned to register historical figures when arriving at the 17.900 dollars of quotation during the day of Friday.

The digital currency registered a new rise and accumulated an improvement close to 20 percent compared to the price that marked last Monday , and almost 80 percent if we analyze the data from what we have been in December.

Of course, the good performance of the cryptocurrency in the markets of sale has not managed to calm the critics of its detractors, who consider that it is a volatile product that has become a nest of speculators .

A study of the Anglia Ruskin University, the Trinity College of Dublin and the Dublin City University has been known, in which its authors warn that the Bitcoin can be a threat to the financial stability of the currencies and the markets .

In that sense, they add that their research showed that the price of Bitcoin has been artificially inflated by speculative investors, and is currently in a bubble.

Original article and pictures take digitalbodha.com site

среда, 10 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin Regains Over 60% Crypto Market Dominance For First Time in 7 Months

As of this writing, bitcoin has a market dominance of 62.7% – representing more than 60% of the entire cryptocurrency markets for the first time since April 2017.

Also Read: Markets Update: Cryptocurrency Market Cap Now Commands $200 Billion

Bitcoin Continues to Reclaim Market Dominance

Bitcoin’s current total market capitalization is more than $126.5 billion USD – currently comprising approximately 62.7% of the $202 billion USD cryptocurrency markets.

Bitcoin Regains Over 60% Crypto Market Dominance For First Time in 7 Months

At the beginning of 2017 bitcoin had a market dominance of approximately 87% percent, as bitcoin confidently ramped up to test the $1000 USD area for the first time since December 2013. Starting in March, many altcoin markets started to rally, with many leading altcoins making gains of over 1000% in a matter of just weeks. The ensuing altcoin bubble quickly gave birth to an initial coin offering bubble as well – both of which eroded bitcoin’s market dominance, which reached a historic low of just under 40% in June. Bitcoin quickly bounced back to hover around the 50% dominance area from mid-July until October. During October bitcoin’s market dominance steadily rose from 50% to 60%.

Ethereum Comprises the Second Largest Cryptocurrency Market, Accounting 14% of the Total Market Capitalization

Following Ethereum’s first major rally in 2016, ETH fell from holding approximately 10% market dominance, down to less than 4% at the start of 2017. During the altcoin bubble, Ethereum sharply increased its market share, reaching a peak of approximately 30% during June. Since June, Ethereum’s market dominance has steadily fallen.

The third largest cryptocurrency is Bitcoin Cash, which comprises 4.9% of the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies – down from a top of 8.06% on the 20th of August. The fourth largest market is Ripple – accounting for 3.84% of all crypto markets. Fifth is Litecoin – with 1.45%, followed by Dash – 1.03%, Neo – 0.84%, Nem – 0.75%, and Monero – 0.66%. According to the data available on Coinmarketcap, the remaining 1251 cryptocurrency markets combined account for 9.26% of the total crypto market cap.

At the end of October, bitcoin’s market cap broke above $100 billion USD for the first time ever.

Do you think that bitcoin will continue to regain its market dominance over altcoins? Share your predictions in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Coinmarketcap

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Original article and pictures take news.bitcoin.com site

пятница, 5 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin prices drop on news South Korea still considering crackdown

Prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies have skidded after South Korea's top financial policymaker said Tuesday that a crackdown on trading of cryptocurrencies was still possible.

Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in an interview with Seoul radio station TBS that banning trading in digital currencies was "a live option." He said the decision was subject to a thorough government review.

"There are no disagreements over regulating speculation," such as using real-name accounts and levying taxes on cryptocurrency trading, Kim said. Shutting down digital currency exchanges is "a live option, but government ministries need to very seriously review it," he said.

Bitcoin was trading at $12,615.60 US, down 7.1 per cent from the day before as of 8:03 a.m. GMT, according to Coindesk. The price of ethereum, another digital currency, had slipped 7.8 per cent to $1,190.45 as of 8:04 a.m. GMT.

South Korean officials' remarks have swayed the global markets for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the past few weeks. The country has seen a huge bitcoin craze, with young and old betting on the cryptocurrency to build wealth. The high demand from South Korean investors has created what investors call a "kimchi premium," the extra price the South Koreans have to pay to buy digital currencies, sold in South Korea at higher than the average global prices.

Last week, the justice minister's remark that the country will ban bitcoin and other digital currencies triggered big sell-offs and a public outcry. The presidential office then said that no final decision had been made.

An online petition on the presidential office's website has drawn more than 210,000 requests from people asking the government not to ban trading in digital currencies.

"We the citizens were able to have a happy dream that we had never had in South Korea thanks to cryptocurrency," the petition reads. "You may think you are protecting the public but we citizens think that the government is stealing our dream."

Original article and pictures take www.canada24news.com site

четверг, 4 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin price levels down after setbacks to respond to regulations

Bitcoin prices are not as shaky as they were during the last three months of last year, swinging between a minimum of $13,000 and maximum of $17,000 levels.

Bitcoin started the year at the $13,000 level and the highest it hit this year was a $17,000 level on January 5. It hasn’t yet dropped below the $13,000 level this year.

Many people will regard that as a poor performance because they are using to regular short spikes. And last month December 17, the cryptocurrency broke the $20,000 mark. But there have been some setbacks it had and has to deal with until now to rise further.

China’s ban on ICO and continued crackdown on the industry including shutting crypto exchanges did not have any impact. Even if the country held two thirds of crypto trades before the crackdown. However, Bitcoin came into 2018 with regulatory pressures out of U.S.A. and other regimes such as India.

For instance, China holds majority of Bitcoin mining power but the continued crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Thus it is causing some companies to consider a move to other countries. An example is the recent announcement by ZQMiner and Bitmain Technologies. However, which operates some of the largest mining farms in China.

Many miners in the country have been taking advantage of the cheap and often subsidized power. Though the country wants to make this power more expensive, cutting into the profit margins.

Also Read: Hancock hospital computer system hacked, attackers asks Bitcoin ransom

A recent announcement by South Korea Ministry of Justice that the country was planning to ban crypto trading. Later on it was reverse because it was done without the consent of the Ministry of Strategy and Justice and government agencies involving in regulating cryptocurrencies.

“The South Korean government has no other choice but to follow the regulatory frameworks and trends established by other leading governments. While there certainly exists a negative reputation attached to the cryptocurrencies. The government’s stance is to allow what has to be, for the benefit of the South Korean market.”

The news however had some impacts on the markets.

US Treasury has also in the recent past made more announcements about its intention to regulate cryptocurrencies. Treasury Steven Mnuchin said Friday last week that the treasury will work with Group of 20 nations to prevent Bitcoin from being in use “to do bad things.”

He said they will form a group that will ensure Bitcoin wallets do not become the Swiss numbered bank account (equivalent to a borderless Swiss bank account).

David Kariuki is a journalist who has a wide range of experience reporting about modern technology solutions including cryptocurrencies. A graduate of Kenya's Moi University, he also writes for Hypergrid Business, Cryptomorrow, and Cleanleap, and has previously worked for Resources Quarterly and Construction Review magazines.

Original article and pictures take coinpedia.org site

вторник, 2 мая 2017 г.

Bitcoin opens in Chicago futures market

New milestone in the fast evolution process of bitcoin , which has accelerated in the last year. The cryptocurrency has begun trading on the futures market in Chicago this Sunday, and with the same success that accompanies the digital currency in its latest operations.

According to the data of the operator, Cboe Global Markets, the opening occurred at 5 o’clock local time. The starting price of the cryptocurrency, which operated under the symbol XBT, had been set at $ 15,000. The first information was two and a quarter hours later, when 890 contracts had been closed .

The price of the cryptocurrency has reflected the start of operations in the futures market. According to the data of the portal specialized in these Coindesk currencies , at the time of opening its value stood at $ 15,070. In about two and a half hours it had increased by more than 1,000 dollars, reaching more than $ 16,700 at dawn, local time in Chicago, early in the morning in Spain. At this time moves in the vicinity of $ 16,500.

The operator of the market, Cboe, experienced problems on its website in the first hours, due to the high interest in digital currency.

Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to https://t.co/jb3O722hoo may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are operating normally.
— Cboe (@CBOE) December 10, 2017

Original article and pictures take digitalbodha.com site

среда, 31 мая 2017 г.

Go Long Or Go Short

There’s a Contract Out on Bitcoin Cash

The Great BCH Giveaway

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Many Customers Are Complaining That Withdrawals Are Not Processing

Problems Persist Despite Bitfinex Claiming Operations Have Normalized

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