Coinbase Launches Bitcoin Buying and Selling in 13 European Countries
Coinbase has announced its first expansion beyond the US market,
launching bitcoin buying and selling services in 13 countries across
Europe.
With the beta launch, Coinbase will now allow consumers in Austria,
Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Malta, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain to buy and sell up to €500 in
bitcoin per day.
Speaking to CoinDesk, CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong framed
Coinbase’s European market entrance as the natural next step for his
business, which now boasts more than 1.6 million wallet users in the US
as well as a host of billion-dollar US businesses that now use its
merchant services, including Dell, Expedia and Overstock.
Armstrong told CoinDesk:
“We looked at what markets to move into next, and Europe seemed like the next biggest economy. It’s developed, there are people there who want to get bitcoin, there’s a lot of demand for it, but they really don’t have an easy way to do it.”
Though a big step for the Andreessen Horowitz-backed
company, Armstrong also sought to frame Coinbase’s expansion as a boon
for the broader bitcoin industry, citing its expanded reach as an
enabler of cross-border payment and new remittance products.
“These are the kinds of things that will start to unlock once we
build this kind of infrastructure in each country,” Armstrong added.
The news marks the second major announcement this week for the California-based bitcoin services provider. On 8th September,
Coinbase revealed a new partnership with eBay-owned PayPal subsidiary
Braintree that will expand bitcoin acceptance to more merchants,
potentially including big brands such as LivingSocial, TaskRabbit and
Uber as well as Armstrong’s former employer Airbnb.
The next step in remittance
Throughout the interview, Armstrong sought to position Coinbase’s
expanded service as one that will help enable “bitcoin’s killer use
case”, remittances.
Armstrong suggested he sees Coinbase as having no direct competitors
in the European bitcoin market, in part, because of the larger vision
the entire community is working toward and the combined effort it will
take to achieve.
Citing the historical challenges faced by technology startups when
attacking large financial incumbents such as American Express,
MasterCard and Western Union, Armstrong said:
“It has been impossible before this for any individual company to tackle the big incumbents because of the amount of capital required to compete with them at a global scale. Even Facebook tried to do it with Facebook Credits, but I think bitcoin will win because it is that open network.”
With the expansion, Armstrong also hopes to encourage other
businesses to build on his work, even as he pledged to expand Coinbase
into more European countries.
“I want there to be 100 entrepreneurs in each of these countries,
someone there with local relationships who will get a bank deal done and
launch some version of it that will help the whole ecosystem grow,”
Armstrong added.
Merchants services to follow
Coinbase’s wallet service has long been available in Europe to
bitcoin holders, but the announcement marks the company’s formal
entrance into the market by expanding its core offering – bitcoin
brokerage services – into the region.
Though Armstrong stopped short of saying that Coinbase would begin
seeking out merchant partners in Europe, he cited it as a service that
could already be used for this purpose, saying:
“Obviously, merchants need the ability to cash out if they don’t want to hold bitcoin. So, those are the services that have now been turned on as a result of this launch.”
Coinbase’s largest rival in the US market, BitPay, is currently
offering merchant services to the European market, and recently expanded
into a new, 2,500 square-foot office.
The company aims to enroll as much as 40,000 European merchants by the year’s end and is competing against smaller competitors including Bitmarket.lt and SpectroCoin.
Igniting the European market
Though BitPay has sought to paint the European market as being
subject to different needs and forces than the US, Armstrong took a
different approach, expressing optimism that Coinbase could replicate
its success in the US abroad.
Armstrong framed his company’s buying and selling services as the
seeds that will allow Coinbase’s services to blossom in the region,
asserting his belief that this was the initial spark that lead to
greater bitcoin awareness in the US.
Armstrong told CoinDesk:
“We haven’t seen that kind of merchant adoption in Europe yet, and I think the reason is that there’s just still not as many consumers have an easy way to get a little bit of bitcoin.”
Unsurprisingly, Armstrong cited awareness as his company’s biggest
obstacle, though he suggested that by entering the market and creating
more excitement around bitcoin, Europe’s market could follow a similar
trajectory.
He explained:
“In the US, it reached a saturation point where you heard about bitcoin three times in a month and then made an effort to get educated and buy a little bit. I suppose in Europe, they’re exposed to a lot of the same press, but they haven’t had that ability.”
Planning the expansion
For the expansion, Armstrong said that Coinbase reached out to a
number of countries in the region, writing letters and engaging local
regulators in dialogue about its ability to extend its services to their
jurisdictions.
Countries were then given the greenlight based on how favorably they
responded to this outreach, and how specific their regulatory
requirements were for bitcoin businesses.
Armstrong said:
“We reached out to each country in that region on a case-by-case basis. It was a lot of bank partnerships, a lot of legal and compliance work and some technical integration as well.”
Armstrong did not reveal Coinbase’s banking partner, but did suggest
that multiple partnerships could be supporting the expansion.
“You don’t actually need one in each country, because we’re using the
SEPA network. But, you need at least one, and ideally more than one, so
that’s what we spent a bunch of time doing,” he said.
Long road ahead
While the beta launch is an exciting step for the company, Armstrong
framed the service introduction as just the first leg in much longer
journey to to ensure that its brand takes root in the region.
Armstrong noted that Coinbase has begun the process of
‘internationalizing’ its website, but that this feature is not yet
available. He said:
“These are the sort of things where localizing a website can take years to get right. There’s lots of little details where you have a person in another country they’ll come to a website and there’s some subtle thing that gives it away as an American website that’s translated.”
The CEO went on to suggest that Coinbase will continue its beta
launch until it’s ready to take on higher volumes. During this time,
Armstrong said that Coinbase will work to ensure it can handle demand
and that its risk management services are operating correctly.
As such, Armstrong’s comments suggested that he hopes initial users
can remain patient with the company until such time as the service can
grow, saying:
“I’d hate to launch something with such low limits and have people say ‘Oh it’s not even useful yet’. But, you’ve got to start somewhere and hopefully we can raise it from there.”
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Financial Planning Association: Bitcoin Can Boost Portfolio Returns
An industry group representing certified financial planners has found
that bitcoin can be a beneficial addition to investor portfolios.
In the new report, the Financial Planning Association
(FPA) asserted that for many investors, bitcoin represents a potential
opportunity that could both diversify and boost the efficiency of a
portfolio.
The FPA study compares the performance of bitcoin markets with other
major asset indexes, concluding that though bitcoin does not demonstrate
the attributes of a successful currency, the act of trading and
investing digital currency can be profitable.
The FPA noted:
“Trading and investing in a virtual currency, such as bitcoins, is readily accessible to individual investors. Uncertainty regarding taxation of bitcoin transactions has been ameliorated with new IRS tax guidance. Given these observations, and the conclusions from the empirical analysis, individual investors can benefit from holding a small amount of bitcoins in a diversified portfolio.”
While the report is largely positive about digital currency, it did
deem bitcoin “a very illiquid financial asset”, underscoring its finding
that digital currency investments are still highly risky.
Based in Denver, Colorado, the group represents financial planning
professionals around the globe. The FPA has chapters in more than 30
countries worldwide and claims nearly 24,000 members.
Risky business
The study compared bitcoin to both fiat currencies like the US
dollar, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, as well as assets like
gold, property and both stocks and bonds. The results suggested that in
the context of portfolio management and financial planning, bitcoin may
present a welcome – though risky – opportunity.
For example, the FPA report found that bitcoin had a low correlation
with the performance of other non-currency asset classes. Additionally,
none of the other asset classes appeared to have an impact on the price of bitcoin.
The report stated:
“This indicates that bitcoins could serve as a potent diversifier for an investment portfolio.”
The FPA findings also suggested that bitcoin may enhance the
efficiency of a portfolio. The study utilized two mock portfolios, one
including bitcoin and one excluding the digital currency.
The report noted:
“Comparing [the data] also demonstrates that portfolio returns are higher, and the risk (probability) of incurring a loss is much lower, when bitcoins are added to an investment portfolio with every portfolio optimization measure examined. Hence, the analysis demonstrates that adding bitcoins to an investor’s portfolio does enhance efficiency.”
Given the risks involved, the FPA clarified its position by saying
that it is not explicitly endorsing bitcoin as worthwhile investment.
Instead, the group sought to show that digital currency does have a
place in investment if handled correctly.
Group urges small investments
Despite the possible benefits, the FPA said that investing in bitcoin
should not be taken lightly, and that financial planners should limit
their clients’ exposure to digital currency holdings.
The FPA wrote:
“It is important [for financial planners] to underscore the risk involved with investing in these assets. Bitcoins should only be held as a minor component of a well-diversified portfolio, such as in a market-weighted basket of major asset classes.”
The report also included information for financial planners who have
clients that wish to get involved with bitcoin. Echoing warnings from
government organizations like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the FPA said that investors need to be careful about where and how they buy their bitcoin.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
IBM Sees Role for Block Chain in Internet of Things
IBM
researchers are looking into the possibility of using block chain
technology for the Internet of Things (IoT) – a term for the growing
network of devices with basic computer-like capabilities that
communicate over the web.
The IoT is likely to bring a major change in the way we
use technology, with interaction between connected everyday devices
(such as pacemakers, fire alarms or air-conditioning units) and humans
increasingly becoming the norm.
Now IBM is examining the use of block chain technology for an IoT
distribution platform, backed by other peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies.
The system, dubbed ‘Adept’, will rely on three different technologies
to resolve a number of issues related to IoT development and
commercialisation.
Three key protocols
Although it was conceived in IBM’s labs, Adept is not an official ‘Big Blue’ product. Instead, it is open-source software to be released on GitHub.
Adept will employ block chain technology in its distributed
transaction processing engine that will allow IoT devices to communicate
and interact with one another.
Paul Brody, head of mobile and Internet of Things at IBM, told Gigaom that
block chain technology can allow IoT devices to ‘understand’ what other
devices around them are up to and it can support different kinds of
instructions and permissions.
The block chain could allow devices to track other devices and their
relationship to them, while maintaining security and offloading the
power-hungry authentication process to the block chain network. The
devices could store their ‘relationships’ with other devices via the
block chain, allowing them to authenticate other devices and users.
IBM plans to use another P2P technology to ensure connectivity.
BitTorrent – a protocol commonly used for file sharing – could be used
to move packets of data on slow networks. Since many IoT devices will
not have a wasteful high-speed modem and always-on connectivity, a P2P
system like BitTorrent would provide a more robust network, the team
says.
The third technology to be employed in Adept is Telehash, a private
messaging protocol with end-to-end encryption. Other services can be
built on top of it, allowing secure communication between various IoT
devices.
Multiple advantages
Brody said there are two main reasons behind his team’s decision to
use P2P technologies. Cost is the primary factor, as managing all IoT
devices in a centralised cloud would simply be too expensive in the long
run. IoT devices are envisioned as low-cost, low-maintenance devices
that should run for years if not decades.
The sheer number of devices represents a big challenge too. Speaking
at the Intel Developer Forum 2014 on Tuesday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich
said the company expects as many as 50 billion connected devices will be
deployed by the end of the decade.
Market research firm Gartner has given the more conservative estimate that 26 billion IoT devices will be installed by 2020,
but said even this number will generate incremental value exceeding
$300bn. With such figures in mind, it is clear that Brody’s
decentralised peer-to-peer system could tap into a huge emerging market.
Another factor is the business model itself. IBM’s Brody said the
block chain could lead to new business models for all companies involved
in the space, allowing IoT devices to share data, processing power,
bandwidth and even electricity.
Brody outlined his vision for a decentralised Internet of Things in a Gigaom podcast
earlier this week. In essence, the block chain approach proposed by
Brady would not have to rely on scarcity like bitcoin, which means it
could operate without industrial-scale mining which is slowly taking
over the bitcoin network.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Amagi Metals CEO: Bitcoin Will Replace the US Dollar in My Lifetime
Amagi
Metals took the bitcoin community by surprise this August when it broke
ranks with even its more progressive peers in the precious metals space
to boldly announce it would stop accepting the US dollar as a payment
method by 2017.
Though some in the bitcoin community decried the news as a publicity stunt, CEO Stephen Macaskill asserts that his commitment to digital currency is personal.
Speaking to CoinDesk, Macaskill framed the gradual rollout of this initiative as one that will simply take time given Amagi‘s
need to convince key partners such as mints and dealer networks to
accept payment in bitcoin. Further, Macaskill affirmed that bitcoin has
had a profound impact on not just his business, but on his perspective
about life itself.
The 26-year-old entrepreneur told CoinDesk:
“A few years ago I was very pessimistic, but bitcoin has definitely changed that for me. Looking at the financial situation of the US, we have an enormous amount of debt. We’re closing in on $18tn in debt, the dollar is controlled by a monopoly and they want to make their constituents happy and they printing dollars into infinity, devaluing it.”
Given these realities, Macaskill suggested that a large financial
meltdown may soon occur. To Macaskill, the world isn’t far away from
some type of cataclysm, to be followed by a period of mass protests,
riots and extreme poverty. In this light, Macaskill sees bitcoin as a
conservative business decision, one that positions his business to not
just thrive, but survive.
“I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’d rather lose a little business
sooner than later than end up with a lot of worthless paper which can’t
even buy me a loaf of bread,” Macaskill added.
Flash of inspiration
Some more skeptical readers may not be surprised to know that
Macaskill came up with the idea to stop accepting US dollars at roughly 3
am.
But for Macaskill, that’s when he estimates he made the decision to drop the dollar for good, saying:
“I just woke up and I thought, ‘You know, this is the way we’re headed’, and I was thinking about when we are going to transition and said I think it’s going to be in the next 5–10 years.”
To date, he said he’s received a lot of positive feedback for his
decision from friends, family and the wider cryptocurrency community.
Still, he has since added one caveat to his company’s earlier
announcement, suggesting the US dollar can still win his business back.
“If the [government] decides to back the dollar with a
cryptocurrency, then we’d be more than happy to continue accepting it
after 2016,” he joked.
Client and customer reaction
Despite the potential challenges posed by operating a business
without any fiat revenue, Macaskill is confident that, even if the move
sounds unsustainable now, it won’t seem that way by 2017. Macaskill told
CoinDesk that he’s already speaking to vendors and suppliers, laying
the groundwork for them to join the bitcoin ecosystem.
Macaskill said his business partners are interested in bitcoin and
hold a positive view regarding the moves Amagi Metals has made, even if
they’re not ready to begin accepting bitcoin now.
“That’s part of the reason why we can’t switch to bitcoin immediately, because we have suppliers that only accept USD,” he said.
Macaskill also acknowledged that not all Amagi customers have been
happy about his decision to drop fiat. Still, he sees these individuals
representing just a small part of his customer base. His employees are
also enthusiastic about the decision, and by 2017 their salaries will be
paid in bitcoin, said Macaskill.
He added:
“I’m pretty sure they all hold bitcoin. I’m not entirely sure, but I know they’re all pretty big fans.”
Faith in sound money
Even within the wider precious metals industry, Macaskill framed
himself as a bit of an anomaly. Despite the bold moves made by both his
company and competitors like Agora Commodities and Provident Metals, he
said technological sophistication is in short supply in the gold
industry.
“There are still gold dealers today who don’t know how to use an email address,” he said.
Macaskill, by contrast, has been a lifelong Internet entrepreneur. He
began his first business venture, Amagi Clothing, in college, before
eventually buying an online precious metals company a fellow student had
started.
His belief in bitcoin makes more sense when you consider the boon it
has provided to Amagi so far. At one point, Amagi Metals was the largest
retail business in the digital currency space, and to date, it’s
processed more than $10m in bitcoin business. By 2013, when many major
merchants had yet to hear about the technology, the company was
processing $20,000–$40,000 a day in bitcoin sales.
Further, Macaskill has stuck with bitcoin, even when it hasn’t been beneficial. For example, his company lost a former banking partner in 2013 due to its bitcoin support.
Unshakable optimism
Whatever the detractors say, Macaskill believes the future is bright
for both his company and the world, even if the US dollar’s days are
numbered.
Though he still fears the worst about the future of the American
currency, he’s now confident that the world would be able to recover,
even from a large-scale economic catastrophe. The key reason for this,
he says, is bitcoin.
“With bitcoin, we now have a stable currency that’s starting to gain adoption around the world and I think that it’s going to replace the dollar in my lifetime, if not bitcoin at least another cryptocurrency.”
With this in mind, he added: “I am extremely optimistic about the future, not just for myself but for the world.”
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Satoshi Email Hacker May Have Struck Before
As
the affair of Satoshi Nakamoto’s email hijacking drifted further toward
farce today, an older story re-emerged as observers noted similarities
between current events and an attempt to hijack bitcoin evangelist Roger
Ver’s online identities in May.
No details of Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity have yet emerged from
the latest incident, and the ‘ransom’ bitcoin address his alleged email
hacker posted online seems to have stalled at only 1.55 BTC of its 25 BTC target (see image below).
New identity hunt
With Satoshi’s identity apparently safe once more, attention has turned to that of the perpetrator.
The home page of Twitter account ‘@LulzClerk’, which the alleged hacker had provided in an interview with Vice‘s
Motherboard blog, listed alternate online handles which seemed
familiar: ‘Savaged’ and ‘Nitrous’ were also used by the person or
persons involved in the Roger Ver hacking/blackmailing incident.
It is possible those identities had been hijacked, however, or were put there deliberately to mislead, but as Ver told CoinDesk:
“There isn’t 100% hard proof, but the person is using all the same names and images as my hacker and is even claiming himself to be the same person. His attitude also seems to be very similar.”
Ver also noted
that the 37.6 BTC bounty/reward he offered the public to deter the
hacker at the time (and which worked effectively, forcing the
perpetrator into a hasty retreat) remained unclaimed, as the alleged
attacker had still not been positively identified.
Several posts on popular forums like Reddit and Bitcoin Talk had
identified and ‘doxxed’ (ie: revealed multiple personal details online)
an individual alleged to be that person several times over the past few
months, but Ver said he has not seen any real evidence to support the
claim.
The bounty website
Ver and his associates are also in the process of building a formal website with details and conditions of the reward.
To claim the 37.6 BTC, an informant should submit all documentary evidence they possess to block chain certification site Proof of Existence, and to the proper law enforcement agencies.
Should that result in an arrest leading to a conviction, the
informant must then contact Ver via the website and use the timestamp
provided by Proof of Existence to prove their information was
responsible.
Ver said this system allows the informant to remain anonymous if
desired, providing only a bitcoin address to receive the reward. If no
informant identifies themselves, or if law enforcement apprehends the
perpetrator without help, he will donate the 37.6 BTC to charity.
If the website idea proves popular, Ver added, more bounties could be
offered to solve several other notorious bitcoin mysteries, including
those responsible for hacking Mt Gox and Bitcoinica.
“I’m sure the public will have lots more ideas,” Ver concluded.
Source : http://www.coindesk.com
Nearly 5M Gmail Credentials 'Leaked' on Russian Bitcoin Security Forum
Alleged leaked database
containing 4,929,090 Gmail email addresses and related passwords was
dumped on a Russian Bitcoin Security Forum.
On September 9, user tvskit from Russian Bitcoin security forum BTCSec.com, first reported the dump
of the 28.7 MB file containing more than 4.92 million of Gmail accounts
and passwords, as well as several thousands of credentials from
Russia's largest email service Yandex. According to the user, 60% of
these credentials are valid. Since then, a forum administrator purged
the passwords from it.
A study showed that the compromised
accounts mostly belonged to Russian, English and Spanish-speaking users
of the Google email service, reported Russian media outlet CNews.
Not only Gmail credentials give access to the email account, they
also give access to other Google services such as cloud document storage
Google Drive and social network G+.
Google Russia representative Svetlana Anurova
said the company is investigating the alleged leak and advises users to
"select strong passwords and be sure to use two-step authentication,"
reported CNews. She added that Google is constantly developing new
levels of security to protect users, and is encrypting traffic between
its data centers.
Media outlet the Next Web
contacted Google regarding the issue. The company stated believing this
incident wasn't the result of a security breach on its end. A Google
spokesperson told the press:
"The security of our users’ information is a top priority for us. [...] We have no evidence that our systems have been compromised, but whenever we become aware that accounts may have been, we take steps to help those users secure their accounts."
Further investigation concluded that
the dump combined older lists accumulated over a period of time, which
could indicate the hack of a website unrelated to Google.
Gmail users are advised to avoid entering their username and password
into any website claiming to check whether their credentials have been
compromised. This method known as the 'honeypot' aims to steal even more
identities, and many websites have already started distributing
phishing messages. Russian website isleaked.com claims to help people checking if their accounts have been compromised and is already being accused of being run by the very people who leaked the database as its domain name was registered on September 8.
Russian and Eastern European hackers have been suspected in many recent security lapses, including the Target operation resulting on tens of millions of customers' identities.
The Google credentials dump comes few days after 4.6 million Mail.ru
and 1.25 million Yandex email accounts have been compromised, and dumped
on the very same Bitcoin Security forum.
The two Russian companies stated
that most of these accounts were inactive and have been collected over a
period of time via phishing and Trojan viruses. As Google, they said
their internal security systems have not been compromised.
Source : http://cointelegraph.com
Gmail Hacked, 5 million Google Users Exposed on Bitcoin Security
Google has been hacked and 5 million Gmail credentials have been exposed on the Russian website “Bitcoin Security“. The leakage was discovered after a Reddit user submitted credentials on a Reddit sub forum. Daily Mail
reports that most of the hacked Gmail-accounts were English, Russian
and Spanish. It’s estimated that 60% of the accounts were active.
A
spokesman from Google claims that many of the leaked passwords are most
likely taken from another website or service than Gmail. Google told CNews that the credentials from Gmail were stolen through many years with hacking and phising against private individuals. Their own system were never compromised.
However, it is probably a good time to change your own passwords on e.g. Gmail now!
Remember
to always implement a 2-factor authentication system on the web
services you use. You never know what weaknesses that are out there
until they are exposed, just like Heartbleed.
Also Read: Stolen Password – Reduce The Revelation
Why a Bitcoin Website was Used in the Hack
The
hackers revealed the Gmail-accounts details on the Russian forum
Bitcoin Security. One might start to seriously question the security of
Bitcoin itself since we hear about “hack” and “Bitcoin” used together
all the time (read Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Has Email Account Hacked).
As most bitcoiners know, Bitcoin itself, the protocol, and the use of
Bitcoin and Bitcoin services, are secure as long as one takes good
security measures and regular backups. Bitcoin is getting bad press over
and over due to these leakages, but one can’t deny the fact that
Bitcoin is close to the ideal currency to be used for e.g. blackmailing.
It
is not surprising that this leakage also includes Bitcoin. Whether or
not bitcoins were used as payment or leverage is unknown, but not
unlikely.
Read: Celebgate Could Inspire More Bitcoin Blackmail
Are my Bitcoins Safe?
If
you have one of the 5 million unfortunate Gmail-accounts, you should
first change your Google password and add a two-step authenticator. If
you stored your private bitcoin keys in the cloud, you should
immediately send your bitcoins to new bitcoin address, encrypt your
wallet, and take a backup of it. If you are using Bitcoin payment and
exchange services like Bitstamp, Coinbase or BitPay, you should change the passwords on them immediately.
Want to learn more about Bitcoin wallet security? Read this great tutorial.
The Gmail leak is revealed just after two other major leakages on the Bitcoin Security
forum. The two other hacks targeted the Russian email service provider
Mail.ru and the search engine Yandex according to Daily Mail. And those
two security breaches affected more than six million users.
What do you think of the ongoing connection between “Bitcoin” and “hacking”? Leave a comment below.
Source : http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com
Genesis Mining Now Offers Lifetime Contracts For Bitcoin & Altcoin Cloud Mining!
After
a long period of offering exclusively scrypt hashpower, Genesis Mining
launched its new sha256 mining contracts in the beginning of September
and became the World's first large scale multi-algorithm cloud mining
service.
The
company goes even further by challenging the whole market with prices
that are well below the industry’s current level. Marco Streng, CEO of
Genesis Mining says:
“Thanks to our
hardware manufacturing partners we were able to bring the prices down to
the absolute rock bottom in this industry. Customers are now able to
purchase 1 MH/s for only 14.99 USD. We are happy to offer this
opportunity to the mining community!”
Genesis
Mining puts a big emphasis on keeping old customers happy; therefore,
an upgrade will follow like it has various times in the past. Clients
who purchased yearly contracts will automatically be upgraded to
lifetime conditions, and when their contractual year ends, they will
keep on mining undisturbed. The CEO of Genesis Mining adds:
“Where
we are now and where we are going to be in the future - it all depends
on our customers! Every single devoted customer who supported us from
the start made this possible and we will never forget that. You can be
sure that this is just the beginning and many more benefits are to
follow. Thank you!"
The
features that make GM truly unique among competitors remain the same of
course. The clean and intuitive User Interface will stay unchanged and
keep serving a unique experience of controlling the cloud based rigs at
home and allocating hashpower among different coins. By showing their
mining farms to the public, Genesis Mining has proven multiple times
that there is indeed hardware behind the scene.
About
Genesis Mining: Genesis Mining is a team of experts with a thorough
knowledge in the crypto currency sector. The company builds the most
efficient and reliable hardware and has offered hosted mining contracts
since 2013. What differentiates Genesis Mining from others is their
unique feature of free hashpower distribution, through which customers
can allocate their rigs to mine different coins at the same time.
Source : http://www.cryptoarticles.com
A Few Bitcoin Myths Dispelled – The Coin Supply
Today, we’re going through a few of the most common Bitcoin myths newcomers to the digital currency get presented.
“But wait, there are only 21 million coins! How could that possibly be enough? If every person on the planet wanted to own Bitcoins, then each person would only get to have 0.0003 BTC! How is that possible?”
And the old-timers respond “so? lol noob.”
In other words, or rather, in more polite terms, the old-timer is saying “And? Why does it matter how many Bitcoins someone has? The network is measured in satoshi. 0.0003 BTC is 30,000 satoshi.”
From here, the newcomer will likely ask about transaction fees. The current transaction fee is 0.0001 BTC – but that number changes as the BTC/USD exchange rate changes. It will keep changing. In order to keep up with changes in value of Bitcoin, it’s likely we’ll also see the total number of possible digits expand to see sub-satoshi (subtoshi) amounts recorded.
Perhaps one day, a satoshi will be a worthwhile unit. When that happens, the network will adapt. That’s part of what’s so wonderful about it.
Another
common misconception has to do with mining. I see it brought up every
now and then, but it follows from a thought experiment proposed by the
economist John Maynard Keynes.
It’s pretty obviously a very silly plan – everyone would be better served by having the money distributed some other way. However, the point of bringing up the thought experiment in this article is to highlight the misconception about Bitcoin it promotes.
Simply put, there are people who think that Bitcoin is essentially the same as this system. They are very dreadfully wrong, I’m afraid. In the thought experiment, there is nothing of value being added to the system through the make-work being done – there is no purpose to the burying and digging up of the bottles filled with money. In Bitcoin mining, there is a purpose to the enormous hashing power used. The purpose is to create the blockchain, the decentralized ledger that is the foundation of the system – that gives it purpose, that gives it worth, that gives it value. In the Keynesian thought experiment, yes, it is useless additional work being performed – not so with Bitcoin mining. Miners are being paid by the network for providing a very valuable service.
Another one: inflation. This one is probably the most common of the ones I mentioned here.
“Libertarians all seem to love Bitcoin because they say it’s not inflationary, that there’s no one at the center making more,” the new Bitcoiner asks, “but it is inflationary! There are more being added every day! How can you say it’s not inflationary when miners selling the coins they receive is a large part of what is suppressing the price?”
They’re right that it’s inflationary, and we would be wrong to say it’s not. But it’s not inflationary in the same way that traditional currencies are, and that is what makes the difference. It’s inflationary in a very predictable manner, and only in a very predictable manner. We know exactly how and when more are going to be added, and we know at what rate they are added, and, most importantly, we know when they will stop being added. For good.
Inflation
in-and-of itself is not a bad thing. Unpredictable inflation is.
Unpredictable inflation creates risk. Markets? They hate risk. Bitcoin
is lower risk than national currencies, whose rates of inflation are
inherently uncertained – determined by the number of wars being fought,
by who bribed who, by which banks are being bailed out this year.
Bitcoin’s inflation is determined by math.
So that’s three of the
many myths around Bitcoin – divisibility and scaling, mining being
make-work for money, and non-inflationary inflation. I’ll probably do
some more in the future – leave a comment if there are any in particular
you’d like to see!
Source : https://coinreport.net
Roger Ver Thinks Satoshi’s Hacker is Also His
As the affair of Satoshi Nakamoto’s email hijacking drifted further
toward farce today, an older story re-emerged as observers noted
similarities between current events and an attempt to hijack bitcoin
evangelist Roger Ver’s online identities in May.
No details of Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity have yet emerged from
the latest incident, and the ‘ransom’ bitcoin address his alleged email
hacker posted online seems to have stalled at only 1.55 BTC of its 25
BTC target (see image below).
Source : http://thebitcoinnews.com
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