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Lightning Network Developers Working on New & Improved Twist

Posted on May 30, 2018May 29, 2018 by Martin S.

The biggest challenge for bitcoin this far has been becoming more mainstream in the financial world which in many ways stems from the fact that it has always had issues with scalability. Before bitcoin can reach the heights of mainstream adoption and use, it will certainly need to deal with the very pressing issue of scalability which has always been a core concern of enthusiasts.

This is where the Lightning Network comes in – this new technology, though fairly young, has facilitated thousands of new payment channels which signals a bright future for bitcoin as well as many other digital currencies.

The Lightning Network allows bitcoin users to open direct payment channels for transactions between one another on a global scale. As of January 19 this year, the Lightning Network only had 89 channels but this has since grown immensely – by May 24, the network had grown to over 6,600 direct connections which might seem small in comparison to the mainstream financial sector but represents a huge leap forward.

While there is a significant level of genuine interest in the technology, the fact that the Lightning Network is yet to be fully developed makes the adoption of the revolutionary technology relatively low. Among the issues that need to be addressed by the developers are double-sided funding and no watching for offline transfers. However, a more pressing one lies within the Lightning Network itself and the developers are quite keen on this one.

A Major Upgrade

The platform has just begun its journey towards global adoption but the developers are already considering a significant upgrade that will involve major architectural changes to the technology.

The key issue is that the Lightning Network requires the users to store a significant amount of data which, in turn, makes it very difficult to download and run it. In an effort to provide a viable solution to this problem, the developers have recently published a new proposal that presents an alternative and simplified way of making the off-chain transactions. The proposed alternative, called “eltoo”, was co-authored by several lightning developers including Lightning Labs co-founder ‘Laolu’ Osuntokun and Blockstream’s Christian Decker and Rusty Russell.

Eltoo not only aims to condense the amount of data the users are required to provide but also ensures that their bitcoin is safe. A major setback for the existing Lightning Network is that it depends on “toxic information” which means that in the case that a user broadcasts older data, there is a possibility that they will lose money.

“This actually happened to me,” Decker said. “I had an old lightning node on my laptop. I restored it. I didn’t know I didn’t have the newest state. The guy closed the connection because they knew it was an old state! Because he could steal it. Which he did, by the way.”

With eltoo, only the most recent off-chain transaction data is stored thus solving the “data symmetry” problem. Eltoo is a phonetic spelling of “L2” which stands for layer-two and is used to describe technologies like the Lightning Network which offer off-chain transactions.

Regulators in the US and Canada Crack Down on Crypto Schemes

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Laura P.

As the battle between the cryptocurrency regulation and the ultimate quest for liberation rages on, forty regulators in the United States and Canada have teamed up in an effort to regulated cryptocurrency investment schemes. The collaboration between two countries’ regulators has resulted in the largest crackdown in cryptocurrency scams of this scale in history. So far, there are 70 ongoing investigations with 35 more that have either been completed or are still pending.

CNBC reports that the collaborative effort, that is, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), has officials from 40 or more different state regulators working together to provide the much-needed coordinated responses to any cryptocurrency-based investment schemes such as Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s).

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), as it turns out, is the oldest international organization whose primary goal is investor protection. It also boasts of a vast number of members that include securities administrators from states, provinces, as well as the territories in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and Mexico. The organization’s efforts have turned out to be very helpful in ensuring that the crypto industry flourishes safely – its approach involves policing investment opportunities in the United States and Canada such as in ICOs to ensure that they are legitimate and are being carried safely and within the legal boundaries.

“The crackdown comes amid growing attention in the U.S. to cryptocurrency scams, including by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The SEC has brought several fraud cases against operators of initial coin offerings and last week launched a website to help investors recognize scams. William Francis Galvin, the state’s secretary of the commonwealth, said NASAA’s task force found roughly 30,000 crypto-related domain name registrations, many of which appeared in late 2017 as the price of bitcoin neared $20,000,” an excerpt from the CNBC report reads.

Praise from High Places

The NASAA crackdown operation that has since been dubbed “Operation Crypto Sweep” has been lauded by a number of industry bigwigs including Jay Clayton, the chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. In a statement that was released on Monday, May 22, Clayton said that the state and provincial regulators play a vital role in the protection of Main Street investors.

“The enforcement actions being announced by NASAA should be a strong warning to would-be fraudsters in this space that many sets of eyes are watching, and that regulators are coordinating on an international level to take strong actions to deter and stop fraud,” Clayton added.

In addition to this, Clayton pointed out the fact that NASAA’s efforts would drive out bad actors and scammers early on thus ensuring that governments adopt stances that are not going to choke off the crypto industry.

The Coingaming Group Switches to Microbitcoin

Posted on May 16, 2018May 16, 2018 by Martin S.

The Coingaming Group which operates two of the most popular bitcoin-focused gaming platforms, that is Bitcasino.io and Sportbet.io, has made a pioneering switch in its betting units from milibitcoin (m฿) to microbitcoins (µ฿), otherwise known as ‘bits.’ The operator’s radical move is primarily aimed at taking advantage of bitcoin’s extended growth in value in order to make betting services more accessible. Furthermore, the customers of both platforms will be able to choose from a vast selection of premium casino games with the same bankroll.

Coingaming relaunched both the Bitcasino.io and Sportbet.io brands last year in an effort to bring a more improved customer experience that encompassed a proactive approach that involved a modern user interface as well more appropriate customer support services. The idea was to encourage the players to join and experience what the operator had in store – this is governed by a fun, fast and fair policy that guarantees outstanding flexibility options and amazing play time.

“With Bitcoin now well and truly in the mainstream, and its price continuing to surge, we wanted to ensure all games and sports events were accessible to all types of customer. Reducing our gaming unit to bits (µ฿) is the ideal way of doing so and keeps the user at the center of our universe,” said Tim Heath, the Coingaming Group’s CEO. “Our customers can now play and bet more for the same money, and we expect this to encourage even more users to sign up to the leading Bitcoin casino and sportsbook, while also providing existing loyal players with greater flexibility and potential play time.”

Other than the introduction of bits betting, the Coingaming Group also offers a number of generous and exclusive bonuses and rewards. This initiative has served the company quite well as it has helped it to raise awareness of its unique betting propositions. Apart from its online casinos and sportsbooks, the group also boasts of a dedicated Esports betting platform known as Bets.io and a slots-led platform known as Slots.io.

Goldman Sachs, Wall Street Warming Up to Crypto Trading

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Laura P.

Some of Wall Street’s biggest names are finally waring up to bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole. Since the first decentralized digital currency came into being, they have all been consigned to the unregulated fringes of the financial world, but all this is about to change with the new bitcoin trading bid that a number of institutions are beginning to warm up to.

Spearheading this new development is Goldman Sachs which is slated to be the first Wall Street bank to launch and offer cryptocurrency-related trading services. The renowned financial institution is working on rolling out a number of derivative products that will allow its customers to buy contracts related to price fluctuations in bitcoin. In addition to this, Goldman Sachs also plans to create a more flexible type of futures product that will be referred to as a non-deliverable forward.

The non-deliverable product will be a trading approach that will involve no physical exchange of the underlying asset. Instead, it will involve the exchange of currency that is quoted on the settlement of the date of the forward.

Shortly after Goldman Sachs went public with its plans to set up a cryptocurrency trading desk, news that the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, has been working on an online bitcoin trading platform surfaced. This, for bitcoin, represents a dramatic yet welcome shift towards mainstream acceptance and usage especially considering the fact that the digital currency has often been associated with underworld activities and high-risk, speculative investment.

Ex-Goldman Sachs President Not Yet Sold on Bitcoin

While he believes that the world is on its ways towards a global currency, former Goldman Sachs president, Gary Cohn, believes that the currency will not be bitcoin. In an interview with CNBC, Cohn said that he believes that the world will have a “global cryptocurrency at some point where the world understands it and it’s not based on mining costs or cost of electricity or things like that. This implies that the supposed global currency will have to be “more easily understood” than bitcoin.

“I’m not a big believer in bitcoin. I am a believer in blockchain technology. I do think we will have a global cryptocurrency at some point where the world understands it and it’s not based on mining costs or cost of electricity or things like that,” Cohn said in a “Squawk on the Street” interview. “It will probably have some blockchain technology behind it, but it will be much more easily understood how it’s created, how it moves and how people can use it.”

Bitcoin.com Stops Labeling Bitcoin Cash As the Real Bitcoin

Posted on May 2, 2018May 7, 2018 by Martin S.

Amidst a heated backlash and legal threats, Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com, a proponent of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), recently updated its block explorer page in an effort to remove any language that suggests that Bitcoin Cash is the real bitcoin (BTC). Roger Ver, a renowned cryptocurrency enthusiast who made millions from investments in bitcoin has been an avid supporter of the BCH, which is a fork of bitcoin.

The Bitcoin.com CEO believes that BCH is the digital currency that remains trues to the original Bitcoin Whitepaper idea of being a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. He also adopted an approach to marketing the digital currency in a way that the entire crypto ecosystem with the exception of other BCH holders would consider to be unethical. For instance, he has worked on renaming some of the cryptocurrencies like BTC to “Bitcoin Core” and BCH to “Bitcoin” on websites, wallets, and apps as well as well as on social media platforms.

The reason why this is such a big deal is that it has seen a number of crypto users to incur monetary losses when they send money from their bitcoin wallets to some BCH wallets believing that it is the original currency they are dealing in. For newbies, this is further aggravated by the fact that Roger Ver’s website is among Google’s top search results for “Bitcoin” – the websites BCH wallet also happens to be the first search results for “how to buy bitcoin.”

Before the company listed BCH as “Bitcoin” on its explorer page, it rolled out a “Bitcoin Wallet” for iOS that misleadingly defaulted to Bitcoin Cash addresses. This marketing approach has been deemed as a fraudulent move that will certainly result in the loss of funds. The backlash has since spawned a website that seeks to gather as much evidence as possible from as many people as possible so as to file a lawsuit against Roger Ver and Bitcoin.com.

As mentioned earlier, Bitcoin Cash forked off the original Bitcoin blockchain but owing to changes that were recently introduced to BTC, proponents of BCH have argued that the fork has more resemblance to Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision for Bitcoin. BCH supporters have been using this argument to justify their claim of the “Bitcoin” label for BCH while dubbing BTC “Bitcoin Core.”

Politics aside, it is quite obvious that the concerns raised are relevant and by agreeing to drop the misleading language from its website, Bitcoin.com will definitely help to solve the confusion that cryptocurrencies have to deal with. Better yet, the fight over labels is petty and supporters of both coins need to work towards ways of co-existing.

20% of Financial Institutions Considering Crypto Trading

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Laura P.

Within the next few months, the cryptocurrency trading market will receive an immense amount of influx as more financial institutions, banks and hedge funds consider the inclusion of digital currencies in their services. Even though they prefer not to make the plans public, many of these institutions have been preparing to be part of the crypto world.

To put this into perspective, Thomson Reuters Corporation, a Toronto-based multinational information firm recently published a survey which revealed that 20 percent of financial institutions have been juggling around the idea of being part of the cryptocurrency trading space within the next 12 months or so. However, this might happen sooner than we think since according to the survey, 70 percent of the institutions considering the move plan to begin the operations in the next three to six weeks.

“Historically, the banking sector has been notoriously dismissive of the crypto movement. Cryptocurrency has variously been called a bubble, an asset for criminals, and worthless. But today’s survey demonstrates that while financial institutions are saying one thing, they’re doing quite another,” explained Kevin Murcko, Coinmetro CEO. “We’re witnessing a gradual institutionalization of the market, and this is sure to drive mainstream adoption. The move to accommodate digital currencies is also a symbolic one; it’s a sign of growing maturity in the market, and represents just how far cryptocurrency has come since its days of relative obscurity.”

One of the institutions that is allegedly at the helm of this revolution is Goldman Sachs – “allegedly” because the company’s CEO has denied claims that the company is on the verge of launching a bitcoin trading desk. However, the company recently hired a former quantitative trader known as Just Schmidt to head its security division’s first digital asset market.

“In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space,” Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin-Cohen said in an official statement. “At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”

This makes the CEO’s denial rather questionable, but one thing is clear though – the bank should certainly have an extensive awareness of the fact that there is a huge demand by hedge funds and big investors for cryptocurrency trading services. Whatever it does with that information is totally up to the bank’s management.

Bitcoin Receives Praise from IMF Chief Christine Lagarde

Posted on April 18, 2018May 9, 2018 by Martin S.

Bitcoin recently received an unexpected boost thanks to praises from International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde that detailed the global benefits of the decentralized digital currency. In a blog post that was published on Monday, April 16 the IMF boss pointed out that digital currencies such as bitcoin have the potential of offering fast and cheap transactions while blockchain, the underlying technology, can be used to make financial transactions more secure.

About a month ago, Lagarde published a blog post that was intended to caution people against the potential risks of cryptocurrencies. While she still has a few of the previous sentiments regarding precautionary measures to ensure a sustainable crypto framework, her most recent blog post leans more towards the potential benefits of crypto assets.

Lagarde still believes that there is a dire need for a crackdown on illicit activity involving crypto, something that she initially spoke of during the World Economic Forum 2018 back in January. Even so, she reiterates the essence of an “even-handed approach” from now on.

“Understanding the risks that crypto-assets may pose to financial stability is vital if we are to distinguish between real threats and needless fears. That is why we need an even-handed regulatory agenda, one that protects against risks without discouraging innovation,” Ms. Lagarde said. “A clear-eyed approach can help us harness the gains and avoid the pitfalls of the new crypto-assets landscape.”
“An important initial step will be to reach a consensus within the global regulatory community on the role crypto-assets should play. Because crypto-assets know no boundaries, international cooperation will be essential,” she added.

New York Opens Probe into Exchanges

Barely a day after Christine Lagarde made her support for bitcoin public, the office of the New York Attorney General sent out letters to 13 cryptocurrency exchanges. The letters require that the exchanges provide information that would help to improve transparency in the digital currency industry.

“With cryptocurrency on the rise, consumers in New York and across the country have a right to transparency and accountability when they invest their money. Yet too often, consumers don’t have the basic facts they need to assess the fairness, integrity, and security of these trading platforms,” NY Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman wrote. “Our Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative sets out to change that, promoting the accountability and transparency in the virtual currency marketplace that investors and consumers deserve.”

The letters included a questionnaire that requested information about the basic operation and fees, trading policies and procedures as well as the anti-money laundering and anti-hacking control measures they have put in place. While this probe is meant to protect the interests of New York-based cryptocurrency traders, it might have significant implications for the exchanges’ international customers.

Twitter Briefly Suspends @Bitcoin Sparking Wild Theories

Posted on April 11, 2018April 11, 2018 by Laura P.

On Sunday, Twitter briefly suspended @Bitcoin which is one of the oldest and most popular crypto-affiliated Twitter accounts. This move by Twitter has raised a raft of questions as well as suspicion among cryptocurrency users who are on either side of the Bitcoin Cash-Bitcoin Core divide. The Twitter account was handed over briefly to a user who claimed to be Turkish and then to another user who claimed to Russian before finally being returned to its owner on Monday afternoon.

At the time of its restoration, the account was short of 750,000 followers but Twitter has been working towards reinstating all of the account’s followers. Meanwhile, a number of accusations begun flying around which only served to fuel the already blazing controversy that involves bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the Lightning Network.

While Twitter did not give any public explanation for the suspension, some theorists have suggested that the move was in response to complaints mounted on the social media platform by Bitcoin Core (bitcoin) supporters who weren’t happy about the account’s support for Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is an altcoin that split off from bitcoin in August last year after the members of the community disagreed over how they were going to address network scaling issues. Since then, the relationship between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash has always been acrimonious, to say the least.

The @Bitcoin Twitter account has been in the spotlight before with users calling for its suspensions. In January, for instance, a Twitter user called it a “Fake @Bitcoin account” and asked users to report it.

“I complained to Google because when I would Google bitcoin I would get a prominently displayed Twitter feed of @Bitcoin with three separate posts, and always the first one was that Bitcoin Cash was the real bitcoin,” read a Reddit comment. “I found it a fraudulent statement intended to confuse and induce newbies to buy their cheap knock-off product.”

As always, there was a lot of disagreement pertaining to the suspension of the account but the threads were eventually shut down as moderators claimed that the users were “brigading and vote cheating.”

One of the more bold theories pointed to Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, who is allegedly biased due to his support for Bitcoin Core and his $2.5 million investment in a startup called Lightning Labs that builds technology for Bitcoin Core.

India: Bitcoin Losing the Popularity Battle Against Ethereum

Posted on April 4, 2018April 4, 2018 by Laura P.

Bitcoin is no longer the king of cryptocurrencies in India. This was proven by a recent study by Jana, a free internet provider that found that Ethereum has been topping bitcoin as the most searched-for decentralized digital currency in India over the past five months. The margin is also quite significant with Ethereum commanding a whopping 34.4 percent of cryptocurrency searches in the country as bitcoin trails behind at 29.9 percent. Another notable mention was BuyUCoin (NEM) with a 21.2 percent of the share. The remaining digital currencies only managed to register 5 percent or less.

Cryptocurrency searches, as it turns out, were highest in December when bitcoin prices soared to a record $20,000 – this accounted for 30 percent of all the searches made within the five-month period of Jana’s study. Since then, bitcoin prices have taken huge plunges while Ethereum, managed to log its all-time high of $1,261 at the beginning of the year.

It is worth noting that even though Ethereum prices have been relatively steadier than bitcoin’s, it does not mean that Ethereum transactions are anywhere close to surpassing bitcoin. Still Jana CEO, Nathan Eagle believes that “search volume is a leading indicator of what has momentum and is showing signs of growth.” He went on to add that while the search volume may not correspond to more people buying Ethereum, it certainly indicates that there is a lot more interest.

The study also revealed that at the beginning of 2018, there was a noticeable drop-off in interest in cryptocurrencies amidst news that suggested that the Indian government would be cracking down on digital currencies. This was suggested in November 2017 by a government panel and reiterated by Arun Jaitley, the finance minister, during his budget speech in February.

“The government recommending shutting down exchanges and limiting currencies altogether, coupled with the decline in prices, has led to the feverish pitch waning away dramatically,” said Eagle. “There are still quite a lot of searches but maybe we’re getting closer to what a true steady state should look like.”

Casinos in Nevada Warm Up to Bitcoin as a Payment Method

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Laura P.

Cryptocurrencies are slowly revolutionizing how people do business in several places around the world. Even so, the concept of decentralized digital currencies has been subjected to nearly equal measures of resistance and acceptance with some governments and industries actively rallying behind cryptocurrencies and some others outrightly bashing it.

One of the industries that have embraced cryptocurrencies is the casino industry. The Nevada casino industry, for instance, is championing for the use of cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment. This, however, does not come as much of a surprise as the Nevada casino industry has always been known for being at the helm of experimental ventures as well as testing out new innovations. Thanks to this strategy, the Nevada casino industry stands out globally as a trendsetter for global gaming.

Despite their approach towards newer and experimental ventures, the Nevada casino industry has been rather slow in embracing cryptocurrencies, especially bitcoin which is by far the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency. This is partly due to the lack of regulations by the Nevada Department of Taxation and the Nevada Gaming Control Board to govern the use of cryptocurrencies even though it has been ten years since bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, came into being.

A few regulators have expressed concerns over the use of bitcoin for illegal practices such as money laundering but no legal representative has actually talked about the incorporation of bitcoin into the state’s casinos. This is unlike the case in the global gambling scene where operators have been quick to embrace bitcoin especially because it allows high rollers to access their money from offshore gaming sites, by circumventing the limits imposed on the movement of money. This presents a risk of money laundering at Nevada casinos hence the hesitation.

A number of bitcoin users have, however, refuted this claim while pointing out that federal regulations and technology are the key components of anti-money laundering efforts. This has paid off as now some casinos in Nevada have finally decided to embrace bitcoin despite the lack of official support.

D Las Vegas, a Nevada casino owned by Derek Stevens, is the first casino in the state to allow bitcoin to be used as a mode of payment. Currently, hotel stays and related hotel expenses can be paid using bitcoin. Gambling, on the hand, will still require cash – fortunately, the casino has a bitcoin ATM that gamblers can use to convert their bitcoin into dollars.s

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