Day: September 22, 2017

Spending Bitcoin in its original form remain pretty difficult these days. Very few service providers and physical retailers accept BTC. In Nebraska, lawyers may soon start experimenting with cryptocurrency payments. The state legal ethics board approved the request from one lawyer to accept Bitcoin. It is expected several others will follow his example over the … Continue reading Lawyers in Nebraska to Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments Soon

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A new patent application from Mastercard indicates that the payments giant may be looking to integrate blockchain into its payments infrastructure.

The Breeze Wallet developed by the Stratis team has already excited cryptocurrency enthusiasts. However, it has taken a while for an alpha version to get introduced to the public. That situation has now changed, and an alpha version of the Breeze Wallet is now available to all users. This wallet comes with TumbleBit technology and utilizes Stratis blockchain technology under the hood.

Breeze Wallet Alpha is Finally Here

For the longest time, Bitcoin users have been looking for ways to introduce more privacy to their transactions. That has not been easy at all, since the protocol does not provide any native privacy features. In a lot of cases, Bitcoin enthusiasts have had to use a mixing service to realize more privacy and anonymity. Conjoin is another option worth exploring, although neither of these are terribly convenient.

Whether or not the Breeze Wallet will make a big impact remains to be determined. The wallet itself was developed by the Stratis team yet focuses on providing privacy and anonymity to Bitcoin as well. It has a unique coin shuffling and swapping feature which will make it stand out in the long run. By taking small denominations of BTC from source wallets, the technology can shuffle and swap coins with others before moving them to a destination address.

All of this technology is based on TumbleBit, which is well-known among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. This feature is especially interesting to businesses that do not want to leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs when dealing with Bitcoin. Although it remains to be seen whether this integration is what people have been asking for, the concept can now be tried out by anyone who feels like doing so. Do keep in mind, however, the Breeze Wallet is still in the alpha stage and does not necessarily represent the final version.

Speaking of the alpha version, it does provide a lot of functionality. It has the TumbleBit technology under the hood and allows users to shuffle coins. However, this wallet is connected to the testnet and will only work with testnet currency. That is not entirely surprising, considering the Breeze Wallet only recently came out of private testing not long ago. With more people now giving the wallet a try, the developers can collect additional feedback and make further improvements.

Breeze Wallet is available for Windows, Mac, and Ubuntu. Users no longer need to run Bitcoin Core alongside Breeze Wallet when attempting to shuffle and swap coins. That in itself is a major breakthrough, as it makes the whole solution a lot more convenient. Stratis Blockchain technologies provide all of the necessary “technology” to make the swapping and shuffling possible. Do keep in mind the goal is still to introduce Stratis Masternodes in the future, which are specifically designed to facilitate such shuffling features.

Last but not least, the developers warn that the Breeze Privacy protocol is very CPU-intensive. While a test server will be provided by the Stratis team, the goal is to stress test this server as much as possible. This may cause some people to be left out of the public test initially, although more server capacity will be added over time. Plus, users can get in touch with the team to set up their own dedicated servers. It will be interesting to see how the community responds to the Breeze Wallet.

Bitcoin’s latest critic from the world of high-finance is the founder of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, the brains behind the planet’s biggest hedge fund called the leading cryptocurrency, a “bubble”. His reasoning simply being that if people are buying something with the hope of selling it on for … Continue reading Ray Dalio Joins the Crusade against Bitcoin

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Uruguay is the latest country to see its central bank start experimenting with its own digital currency, according to statements from its president.

With the Bitcoin price still stuck in a bearish trend, other cryptocurrencies are suffering as well. Bitcoin Cash is one of the few currencies effectively losing over 11% in value over the past 24 hours. That is not a positive sign, especially not when considering how BCH was getting pumped earlier this week. Then again, anyone could see that pump cycle would come to an abrupt end at some point.

Bitcoin Cash Price Heads Toward $400

This week has been pretty interesting for Bitcoin Cash holders. More specifically, we saw a brief pump earlier in the week which could have pushed the price to $550 or more. At that time, it was also evident only one exchange was actually generating a decent amount of volume. Such trends can never be maintained for very long, and the Bitcoin Cash price has started to retrace ever since. No one will be surprised by this development, though.

Fast forward to today, and the Bitcoin Cash price is bound to go below $400 very soon. That is quite a price difference compared to earlier this week, although it was only a matter of time until it happened. While some people may see the value in Bitcoin Cash, it doesn’t offer anything Bitcoin can’t, other than an 8MB block size. Ever since Segregated Witness fully activated on the Bitcoin network, there has seemingly been less interest in BCH other than for speculative purposes.

Earlier this week, Bitcoin Cash had close to $1bn worth of 24-hour trading volume. This surge in volume was mainly driven by South Korea’s Bithumb exchange. Right now, that platform is still the largest Bitcoin Cash market, as it represents 46.76% of all trades. However, no one over at Bithumb is interested in pumping up the price right now, as it seems most people are simply selling BCH and reducing their losses as much as possible.

With this 11.74% value decline in 24 hours, things are not looking great for BCH holders. Some people still have high hopes of Bitcoin Cash becoming the “Bitcoin of China” but it seems that is nothing more than a dream right now. It is evident there is a strong bearish sentiment across all cryptocurrency markets, although no one can pinpoint the exact reason, for the time being. With all of the China news behind us, there should be no reason for all markets lose value again and again.

Although a price of $412.71 is still more than acceptable for Bitcoin Cash, it is evident this situation will not last either. While some people may not like to hear this, it is very well possible the Bitcoin Cash price will go well below $400 in the next few hours. It is losing value against both the US Dollar and Bitcoin at the same time, which means it will be incredibly difficult to turn this ship around again. Only time will tell how things play out, though.

One positive side in all of this is how a lower Bitcoin Cash price allows new holders to enter the market. For those people who believe BCH is destined to become more valuable in the future, buying at $400 seems to be a solid choice. Do keep in mind all cryptocurrency markets are subject to severe volatility and BCH is certainly among them. That doesn’t mean this currency has no future, but it all depends on how the developers will move things forward.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase bank, has expanded on his recent criticism of bitcoin, warning “it will end badly” for the tech.

Back from the front lines of Syria, infamous bitcoiner Amir Taaki plans a bitcoin-based economy in the war-torn nation, and he’s looking for help.

So that is another week pretty much done in our bitcoin price trading efforts and it has been a pretty volatile one. When price started to appreciate early on in the week, it looked as though we might be in for a longer-term recovery in the space. However, as the week matured, news out of … Continue reading Bitcoin Price Watch; Profiting Into The Close Of The Week

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Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have often been associated with ransomware over the past few months. Most types of malware effectively demand a payment in BTC before files are restored. nRansom proves to be a very different creature, as it has no interest in cryptocurrency whatsoever. That is good news for the industry, but the new payment … Continue reading New Ransomware Doesn’t Want Your Bitcoins but Prefers Naked Pictures

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One of Australia’s largest power providers is working with blockchain startup Power Ledger on a platform aimed to facilitate energy trading.