Day: November 6, 2017

Bitcoin seems to have more forks than an Italian restaurant at the moment, each one spurring another blockchain and another version of the digital currency. Last week was the Bitcoin Gold fork, before that there was Bitcoin Cash, and next month an even bigger fork awaits the world’s most popular cryptocurrency.

Segwit2x calls for a specific change to Bitcoin’s rules and protocols which would make some rules valid that were not previously. Essentially the fork will change the size of the blocks on the network and blockchain, doubling them from 1Mb to 2Mb.

With previous forks users have been enticed by the lure of free equivalent coins to their BTC holdings when the blockchain splits. This has boosted the price of Bitcoin in recent months despite regulatory clampdowns on crypto exchanges from China and Russia. This may not be the case with Segwit2x, traders will not be able to just sit back and reap new coins in Cash or Gold.

It is different to previous Bitcoin forks in that the intention is to keep all current Bitcoin users on the existing blockchain. With Bitcoin Cash the developers were happy to create a new blockchain, this time around it is the miners that could influence the outcome.

Miners may need to update their software to handle the bigger block size, those that do will be on the Segwit2x chain, those that refuse may still be on a previous version of Bitcoin which could create two versions of the same thing, the 1Mb version being ‘legacy’ Bitcoin.

Support is split and while most miners and exchanges are for Segwit2x as it represents an improvement to the system, some are against it. Miners and startups providing services to customers based on Bitcoin believe capacity increases are necessary and Bitcoin should remain a digital currency.

Against it are developers that maintain Bitcoin’s code and current protocols and node operators who store copies of the digital ledger. Their view is that costs could increase due to space allocations and Bitcoin shouldn’t be considered as a payment network as it goes against the decentralization ethos and gives too much control to miners and businesses.

The outcome is yet unknown but the rule change will be governed by the percentage of miners supporting and running the new code. If it quickly accumulates the majority of mining power any legacy blockchain will rapidly become unmanageable and lose value.

The fork will occur around November 16, or at block number 494,784, Bitcoin is about to have a few more bounces.

Cover Image via Shutterstock

The post What the Fork is Going On: A Small Talk on Upcoming Bitcoin Fork appeared first on NEWSBTC.

RSK’s effort to bring ethereum-like smart contracts to the bitcoin blockchain could go live in 2017, its lead developer has told CoinDesk.

This past weekend has been rather interesting for Bitcoin Cash supporters, to say the very least. After last week’s massive pump, it seemed the weekend would ultimately result in a big correction. That hasn’t happened entirely, although the Bitcoin Cash price dipped below $600 again. Ever since, things are looking positive again for this popular altcoin. Reaching $650 again shouldn’t be too difficult whatsoever.

Bitcoin Cash Price Recovers From a Rough Weekend

Most altcoins are slowly getting on their feet again after suffering from some major losses last week. With the Bitcoin price momentum still in bullish mode, it is only normal altcoins would bleed value left, right, and center. Bitcoin Cash was one of the few to successfully buck this trend, even though no one’s entirely sure why this price increase has happened last week. Nor does anyone know why the Bitcoin Cash price is going up right now either.

Regardless of the reasoning behind it, the Bitcoin Cash price has risen by another 6.35% in USD value. Moreover, it gained another 8.18% on Bitcoin itself after a somewhat troublesome weekend. The past two days saw a small correction for BCH, although that was only to be expected. After the massive gains earlier last week, it was only a matter of time until profit-taking would briefly outweigh people effectively attempting to pump the Bitcoin Cash price to new heights.

Right now, this uptrend is back in effect, although it remains to be seen how things will play out. There is a real chance the Bitcoin Cash price will surpass $650 before the day is over. Whether or not it can stabilize around that price point, is a different matter altogether. There is still a lot of profit taking to be done by people who bought in during the previous rally. At the same time, there are lots of people who bought at the top and are still chasing profits as well.

With nearly $1bn in 24-hour trading volume, things look pretty solid for Bitcoin Cash right now. The demand is certainly there, even though it still mainly originates from South Korea. With a lot of Bithumb pumpers switching over to Ethereum Classic, it will be interesting to see if this affects the Bitcoin Cash price at all. No one knows for sure how things will play out in this regard, but there is no reason to despair just yet either.

Bithumb has a clear lead over all exchanges with a BCH trading market right now, though. Their volume is almost four times as high as HitBTC’s, which has suddenly become the second-largest platform ranked by BCH trading volume. Bitfinex completes the top three, further confirming Korean traders are moving onto the next coin to pump and dump. An interesting situation to keep an eye on, as a lot can change in the hours and days to come.

For the time being, things are still looking pretty solid for the Bitcoin Cash price. Whether or not things will go up from here or correct further, remains to be determined. The speculative side of Bitcoin Cash certainly allows for either of those outcomes to come true in the next few days. With the Bitcoin price struggling a bit, it seems to be only a matter of time until altcoins start making some major gains again. Them again, Bitcoin may very well push toward $8,000 as well.

The money raised by initial coin offerings (ICOs) has now surpassed early stage venture capital (VC) funding. As of August 2017, the amount raised was US$ 1.2 bln according to CNBC. ICOs are now an accepted way out for startups who would like to raise funds to get their projects off the ground. Yet, what exactly is an ICO? The Economist perhaps has come up with a decent enough definition, “ICO “coins” are essentially digital coupons, tokens issued on an indelible distributed ledger, or blockchain, of the kind that underpins bitcoin, a crypto-currency. That means they can easily be traded, although unlike shares they do not confer ownership rights.”

Now a partnership between Monaize and Komodo has resulted in the world’s first decentralized Initial Coin Offering (dICO) emerging on the scene. Monaize is a project that is working on providing e-banking solutions to SMEs and freelancers while Komodo is a cryptocurrency project that provides anonymity through zero knowledge proofs and security using delayed proof of work (dPoW) protocol.

Understanding Monaize dICO

The Monaize-Komodo partnership will allow token sale participants to use Komodo platform’s Jumblr and BarterDEX technologies to exchange coins using cross chain atomic coin swap, therefore launching the world’s first dICO. This enables them to issue and distribute ‘native cryptocurrencies’ without the involvement of any middlemen. According to BarterDex, it is possible to exchange dozens of coins on their platform without any central exchange. Coin developers will be now able to launch their sales while still being able to protect investor privacy. A dICO allows startups to launch a coin without riding on a parent blockchain with the additional benefits of anonymity and security due to Komodo’s dPoW protocol.

The Monaize dICO will be launched on Friday Nov. 10 at 12 p.m. (GMT). During the dICO Bitcoin (BTC) or Komodo Coin (KMD) tokens can be swapped for Monaize (MNZ) tokens. A special dICO wallet has been developed by Komodo for the sale. Coin exchanges will happen across blockchains through atomic swaps with automatic order matching. Additional information regarding the dICO and a tutorial on the process will be released in the coming days.

dICO will solve crucial ICO issues

In theory an ICO seems to a silver bullet, a panacea for all the yearning startups of the world who are starved of funds. In practice, the abundance of ICOs have brought with them their own problems. One of the biggest problem is that most ICOs are launched on just one or two platforms, Ethereum and Waves being the most popular. We at Cointelegraph have covered the problems surrounding ICOs being concentrated on few blockchains. The scramble of investors to secure tokens during an ICO have led to periods of ‘clogging’ on Ethereum, which has made the cryptocurrency unusable for hours for all users. This overdependence on just one or two blockchains has led to centralization of ICOs, which in turn raises problems of security, stability and lack of diversification. Imagine what would happen if one of these chains suffered an attack? The disaster would be compounded because of the lack of diversity in the ICO landscape.

Simplifying business banking

Monaize is emerging as a ‘challenger bank’ in that they aim to provide services to an underserved segment containing SMEs and freelancers that have been ignored by the mainstream banks. Users will be able to conduct business banking using the Monaize app along with their revolutionary KYB (Know Your Business) process be able to open business accounts in a matter of minutes. The KYB process is so simple and sophisticated that all customers need to provide are photographed documents for the system to check and verify them in minutes. The e-banking service also include a Mastercard that is dispatched under five days. All e-banking customers will also be provided immediately with an IBAN on account opening. Monaize are also able to capitalise on third party service providers, who can plug into their open platform to provide professional liability insurance, finance and payment solutions.

Monaize as an introduction to the blockchain

Blockchain innovation with banking is at the heart of Monaize’s plans. They plan to capitalise on this crucial feature and launch services such as global payments, fiat-pegged cryptocurrency integration and on chain KV storage. A cryptocurrency wallet is in the works and will be available on the banking application in the second quarter of 2018. All of these products and services built right into the Monaize e-banking application will allow for greater interaction with blockchain technology. Monaize will also create a suitable environment in which people who are new to blockchain can explore the technology for the first time and get access to cryptocurrencies. This will hopefully give rise to greater use of digital currencies and lead to their proliferation. In short Monaize-Komodo partnership is helping banking meet blockchain.

All in all it is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Finally we have a project that focusses on the little guys, SMEs and freelancers, helping them succeed and that is what we need. More and more people have been following Monaize on Telegram and Slack as well as through email subscriptions. The project encourages you to join the conversation through these channels as well.

The post Monaize-Komodo to launch a decentralized initial coin offering, cutting the middleman out of ICOs forever. appeared first on NEWSBTC.

A conflict with Vinny Lingham, Kathryn Haun and other has led Alex Tapscott’s NextBlock Global to refund its ICO investors.

There is always a growing demand for Bitcoin hardware wallets. Ledger and TREZOR are the clear market leaders in this regard. It seems we now have a new limited edition hardware wallet by the latter company. Only 4,000 units of the Model T will be created, making it somewhat of a collector’s item. Pre-orders for this wallet are open now and the product should start shipping in January of 2018.

It is always good to see more Bitcoin hardware wallet solutions come to market. More specifically, consumers crave these solutions first and foremost. It is up to manufacturers to create new products everyone can appreciate. The new TREZOR Model T seems to check all of the right boxes in this regard. Especially when considering how there will only be 4,000 units, pre-ordering quickly is the number one priority.

TREZOR Model T is Worth Buying

Under the hood, the Model T looks somewhat similar to other wallets produced by the company. It has a larger screen with a touchscreen interface. A total of eight different coins are supported, including BTC, LTC, ETH, ETC, and a few others. The Model T also boasts the same interface compared to previous models.Everything about this wallet looks pretty convenient and approachable. Solutions like these make life a bit easier for both experienced and novice cryptocurrency users alike.

Additionally, it seems other currencies will be supported by the TREZOR Model T in the future. It is unclear which coins that will be exactly, though. With so many currencies and digital assets, there is a growing list to pick from. Similar to previous models, this new wallet keeps confidential data on the device itself. The USB communication is only used after authentication. Plus, it boasts a USB-C connection and MicroSD support.

For the price of 149 EUR, there is nothing to dislike about the Model T whatsoever. It offers everything people could want and more. The limited edition aspect will only make it more appealing. It is a great way to introduce friends and family members to cryptocurrency. Granted, the price tag is a bit steep. However, it is a price people will pay for cryptocurrency wallet security. Keeping coins safe from harm is of the utmost importance right now.

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Icelandic music star Bjork is partnering with British startup Blockpool to let fans pay with cryptocurrencies for her forthcoming album “Utopia.”

With a few simple steps, users of cryptocurrency can help protect their digital haul from hackers and online thieves.

New highs for Bitcoin could need to wait until next year: Tone Vays.

A new ‘recreated’ Bitcoin should be the industry focus if SegWit2x is successful – not Core, Bitcoin.org’s co-owner has said.

Over the past several months, there has been an explosion of ICOs and new smart contracts. The blockchain industry has been growing exponentially. Smart contracts are an integral part of the Ethereum blockchain technology which enables businesses to conduct transactions without an intermediary. Smart contracts are the basis of all Ethereum blockchain based firms. Smart contracts have had difficulty being smart, or even contracts. Many of which do not function properly.

With so many smart contracts being deployed so quickly, security has become a top priority. We have all seen the hacks or bugs in the code which enable breaching these smart contracts. A lack of secure and peer-reviewed smart contracts create massive security flaws or workarounds which have plagued the nascent industry. The more complex the smart contract, the bigger the attack surface. These attacks lead to loss of funds for businesses and investors alike. This gaping liability has turned into an opportunity for one firm, Quantstamp.

Quantstamp is the first decentralized smart contract security auditing protocol. Quantstamp can help solve this massive problem. They aim to provide a scalable and cost-effective solution to the industry by providing security and auditing services for smart contracts. Quantstamp’s automated software system verifies Solidity programs. By having an automated system, Quantstamp can help service the growing needs of the smart contract industry. To meet the demand of its growing client list, Quantstamp has partnered with Experty.

Experty is a peer-to-peer, blockchain based platform for paid consultations. It allows enterprises and individuals to get paid instantly for consultations using voice and video calls. Experty has an aggressive growth schedule and roadmap, with plans to release an Alpha version by the end Q4. There is massive demand in the marketplace for Quantstamp’s services and Experty will help the company scale its consulting business globally. Experty provides a great tool for all types of businesses. The Experty platform brings an easy to use interface and enables instant billing using smart contracts.

Experty CEO, Kamil Przeorski, expressed his excitement about the union, stating, “It is my pleasure to announce the partnership with Quantstamp. We are really excited about the partnership and look forward to working with the amazing Quantstamp team. They are providing a much-needed service in the industry and we plan to be a part of that solution in the near future.”

Quantstamp will be auditing Experty’s smart contracts and ensure maximum security of the system. Experty will gain a critical advantage by substantially decreasing risks of both customer and business funds through the application. This security will bring increased proficiency and reduce costs for all parties.

Overall, both companies are excited to provide a solution to two growing problems faced in the industry, prioritizing time and scaling security. By joining forces, Experty and Quantstamp will accelerate the mainstream adoption of the blockchain.

About Quantstamp

Quantstamp Technologies, Inc. is based in Waterloo, Canada and San Francisco, California. In June 2017, Quantstamp introduced the first scalable security-audit protocol designed to find vulnerabilities in Ethereum smart contracts. For more information about Quantstamp, visit Quantstamp.com. Follow on Twitter @Quantstamp.

About Experty

Experty is based in Zug, Switzerland. Experty is a platform that allows for paid consultation in cryptocurrencies. For additional information on Experty, visit us at Experty.io, follow us on Twitter @Experty_io, or read our blog at Experty_io.

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