Day: March 20, 2018

After its triumph last year and dramatic downfall in January many see Bitcoin as the cryptocurrency’s swansong. We have particularly tender feeling towards Bitcoin because it was (and always will be) the first one to have started the crypto revolution. So, we have decided to take a closer look at it and try to understand what will follow.   

 We previously touched upon the market of altcoins, and now due respect should be paid to the cryptocurrency which started it all. Since its creation in 2009, Bitcoin has been considered as the only electronic currency — the cryptocurrency. This continued up until 2016 and the growing interest in Ethereum. So, for early adopters of all things crypto, there was only Bitcoin to invest in.

Alternative cryptocurrencies, altcoins, have been just outside the interest zone of those seriously considering investing in this new type of asset. This all started to change at the very end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, when the dominant share of Bitcoin fell from 90% to around 40%.

The bitcoin pool is not bottomless — is this a good thing?

We’re talking about a fully decentralized system here, so obviously, there’s no central bank regulation involved. Instead, bitcoins are created by the nodes of a peer-to-peer network and have a finite supply (introduced to presumably limit the effects of the inflation). At the moment, it’s claimed that over 80% of all the bitcoins have already been mined. And we cannot but think about what will happen to its value when there will be no bitcoins to mine anymore.

The idea of money supply regulation seems like a bright one. It’s becoming harder and harder to mine bitcoins and fewer and fewer new coins will be entering the ecosystem. Thus, while governments may regularly increase their fiat money supply, which encourages inflation, bitcoin encourages the exact opposite.

What motivation do miners have after all the coins are mined?

Miners are not rewarded only by freshly-mined bitcoins. They also receive all the transaction costs that were attached to the transactions they confirmed in their block while mining. Eventually, these transaction fees should become valuable enough that miners will be encouraged to keep on mining and still get paid even when there are no new coins to mine.

CommerceBlock CEO Nicholas Gregory confirms his belief in this setup: “I think bitcoin miners earn a large percentage of the money from the fees anyway, so it’s not really seen as a problem”.

Is it sufficiently technologically advanced to attract enough transactions into the system?

On January 23rd this year Stripe, a major payment processing service, stopped its support for Bitcoin. It says the transaction fees are too high and confirmation times are too slow.

“Over the past year or two, as block size limits have been reached, Bitcoin has evolved to become better-suited to being an asset rather than a means of exchange… This has led to Bitcoin becoming less useful for payments, however. Furthermore, fees have risen a great deal. For a regular Bitcoin transaction, a fee of tens of U.S. dollars is common, making Bitcoin transactions about as expensive as bank wires,” stated Tom Karlo in his announcement.

Stripe had integrated Bitcoin in 2015, making it possible for vendors to accept Bitcoin payments. Many saw this as a good sign of Bitcoin becoming a mainstream payment method in the future.

Opinions differ greatly on Bitcoin’s future market value.

So, maybe it’s not so valuable then? Opinions about its market value after January’s corrections in price do indeed differ. Benjamin Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates, an independent strategy consulting firm specializing in the financial services industry, said in his short interview with CNBC that “Bitcoin is set to plunge this year… the Bitcoin price could fall to $1,800 by the end of 2018.”

However, there are also those who believe that Bitcoin will still be the market leader through 2018. For example, Blockchain Capital partner Spencer Bogart predicted to the same source (CNBC) that because of the rising interest from institutional investors the price of Bitcoin could rise to levels of up to $50,000 this year.

Imran Wasim, a financial analyst at AMSYS Group, told NewsBTC: “A lot more money is going to come into Bitcoin, Bitcoin will go up around $30,000-$35,000 this year.”

… some even claim it failed

And not so long ago Bank of England Governor Mark Carney expressed his concern during a talk at Regent’s University in very harsh and definite terms: “It has pretty much failed thus far on … the traditional aspects of money. It is not a store of value because it is all over the map. Nobody uses it as a medium of exchange.”

Looking forward to what’s next 

Obviously, Bitcoin’s price does not behave as most people predict it to. At BITRUST we think that it’s impossible to talk about Bitcoin without keeping its extremely volatile nature in mind. We know it will still be a wild ride this year and we hope that Bitcoin will definitely be around when the BITRUST P2P platform is operational for investors to start hedging their cryptocurrency trading risks!

To finance the development and launch of the BITRUST platform, a limited-supply sale of BITRUST tokens (BTFs) will be created by BTF Project Limited. The sale will start on 5^th of March — see more information about the BITRUST ICO structure and the company here.

 Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Medium and be the first to find out about BITRUST development news and everything else that’s important in the crypto world!

The post The Billion Dollar Question: What Next for Bitcoin? appeared first on NewsBTC.

Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on Bitpay launching bitcoin cash (BCH) integration for the firm’s loadable Visa debit cards. Since then the company has implemented BCH invoice support for all of the firm’s vendors, and now bitcoin cash can be spent with thousands of merchants worldwide.

Also read: Some of Bitcoin’s Earliest Adopters Find it Difficult to ‘Cash Out’

Thousands of Merchants and Nonprofits Now Accept Bitcoin Cash

Merchant adoption has been increasing lately for the BCH ecosystem, but in one day that metric spiked considerably. Bitpay has fully integrated bitcoin cash payments for all of its vendors and merchants that utilize the company’s payment processing services. Since the ‘cryptocurrency fever’ swept the globe in 2017, Bitpay’s merchant list has grown considerably last year. This includes significant merchant growth in the U.S., South America, Asia, and Europe.

Bitcoin cash supporters have been extremely pleased to see some of their favorite merchants accepting BCH as a form of payment and network fees are considerably less. The list of Bitpay vendors who now accept BCH, includes Newegg, Apmex, Vultr, Namecheap, eGifter, Gyft, Zeek, Wefunder, Heifer International, Vodi, JM Bullion, and many more. This also includes a wide variety of nonprofits and charities like Save the Children, the Internet Archive, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wikipedia.

BIP 70 Wallet Support for Bitcoin Cash and BCH Being Used for South Korean Cross-Border Payments

In addition to the full range of merchants and non-profits now available to the BCH ecosystem. Bitcoin cash payments are also now compatible with the Payment-Protocol (BIP70) used in Bitpay invoices. Further, there are currently more supporting wallets utilizing this feature, and the Electron Cash client was added yesterday. Wallets that are compatible with the BCH Payment-Protocol include BRD Wallet, Bitcoin Core, Edge (formally Airbitz), Electrum, Mycelium, Copay, Bitpay, and the Bitcoin.com Wallet. Bitcoin cash users who have these types of wallets can utilize any Bitpay merchant.

Another announcement from Bitpay that will also please BCH proponents is the company’s recent partnership with the South Korean exchange Bithumb. The two companies are launching a cross-border payment solution which will utilize BTC and BCH to help cheapen the costs of international payments for South Korean businesses. Bitpay executive Sonny Singh says that South Korean companies are sometimes paying or receiving $100,000 – $5 million USD per invoice. “A 1 -2% savings on each invoice can lead to dramatic cost savings,” explains Singh.

Overall the announcement of Bitpay integrating bitcoin cash has pleased BCH proponents quite a bit as the number of merchants added to the ecosystem, and the new South Korean cross-border payment platform will increase BCH usage greatly. In addition to Bitpay, since the San Francisco company Coinbase integrated bitcoin cash support, BCH payments can be used with its new merchant plugin.

What do you think about Bitpay integrating bitcoin cash? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bitpay, Bitcoin Cash, Microsoft, and the EFF. 

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Bitcoin Cash Ecosystem Sees a Tidal Wave of Merchant Acceptance appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The NSA is reportedly able to identify owners of cryptocurrency wallets using a secret surveillance program called OAKSTAR. #NEWS

Key Highlights

• Ripple price is moving higher and is preparing for more gains above the $0.7200 level against the US dollar.
• There is a major bullish trend line forming with support at $0.7000 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source from Kraken).
• The pair is likely to accelerate higher and it may soon test the $0.7500 level in the near term.

Ripple price is showing bullish signs against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. XRP/USD may perhaps rise further above the $0.7200 level to test the $0.7500 resistance.

Ripple Price Support

There is a positive bias forming above the $0.6500 level in Ripple price against the US Dollar. The price traded above the $0.7000 level recently and formed a high at $0.7197. Later, it started a downside move and traded below the $0.7000 support. However, the downside move was protected by the $0.6500-0.6600 support. As a result, the price moved back higher and is currently trading above $0.7000.

On the downside, there is a major bullish trend line forming with support at $0.7000 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair. The pair tested the $0.7200 resistance area once again, failed and declined below 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $0.7197 high to $0.6588 low. It seems like the current price action is positive above the $0.7000 level. If the price remains above $0.7000, it could soon break the $0.7200 resistance.

Above the mentioned $0.7200, the price may test the $0.7500 level in the near term. The overall technical structure is positive with supports at $0.7000 and $0.6800. The most important support on the downside is near the $0.6500 level, followed by the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for XRP/USD is slowly moving in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for XRP/USD is currently well above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $0.7000

Major Resistance Level – $0.7200

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ripple Price Technical Analysis – XRP/USD Poised for More Gains appeared first on NewsBTC.

South Korean telecom provider KT unveiled a new system based on a blockchain security-focused network.

The US Treasury Department has announced it may start adding the cryptocurrency addresses of blacklisted persons to their list of sanctions as reported in the Wall Street Journal.

Treasury to Sanction Crypto addresses

Along with a white house order signed by President Donald Trump banning Americans from trading in the new Venezuelan digital currencies, the Treasury Department announced it is examining the process of also listing cryptocurrency addresses of persons suspected of using the technology for criminal purposes in order “to alert the public”.

The Treasury went on to advise that companies, exchanges and individuals should develop a personalized compliance program when it comes to their involvement with cryptocurrency; “there is no single compliance program or solution suitable for every circumstance,”

A spokesman from Treasury said that its process of adding cryptocurrency addresses to their sanctions list would be a similar process to their typical investigative work combining law enforcement agencies with public and classified information sources to find their target.

He added that the sanctions list would be used “as a complement to existing tools,” already in place to identify and prosecute those using digital currency to perpetuate criminal activity. The announcement comes as financial leaders of the G20 gathered in Buenos Aires are scheduled to discuss how to fight cryptocurrency based criminal activity.

Addresses are the Same as Physical Assets

Dave Murray, a former senior adviser to the undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence commented that using digital currency addresses “may be the most reliable identifiers” when tracking those who use the technology for criminal purposes.

“Even though people will probably stop using an address once it has been listed, the addresses will be extremely valuable to financial institutions,” said Mr. Murray, who now works for the Financial Integrity Network before adding;

“They can use the addresses to build out the sanctioned person’s network and potentially identify the new address that a sanctioned person is using,”

Opponents argue that identifying an address used in a cryptocurrency transaction does not uncover the source of the funds. So that in many cases tracing the token to a recipient may net a facilitator or middleman but rarely the type of bad actor that Treasury is actually after.

Proponents like Paul Hastings argue that sanctioning may inhibit prohibited transactions the same as when a criminal’s physical assets are seized as sanctioned property. Cryptocurrency is “another species of property … Just like in the case of vessels, [Treasury] will identify certain species of digital currency as being issued by prohibited actors,” said attorney Scott Flicker, a partner at Paul Hastings LLP.

The post US Treasury Department Considers Sanctioning Cryptocurrency Addresses appeared first on NewsBTC.

Key Highlights

• ETH price gained traction recently and moved above the $560 level against the US Dollar.
• There is a new connecting bullish trend line forming with support at $550 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
• The pair must break the $570 level to gain upside momentum above or towards $600 in the near term.

Ethereum price is slowly moving higher against the US Dollar and Bitcoin. ETH/USD must break the $570 hurdle for more gains, with support at $550.

Ethereum Price Upside Hurdle

There was a positive price action in ETH price above the $500 level against the US Dollar. The price succeeded in moving above the $540 resistance level, which opened the doors for more gains. It also succeeded in moving above the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $610 high to $437 swing low. More importantly, there was a slight break above the $560 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

At the moment, the price is struggling to break the $570 level, which was a support earlier. A successful close above the mentioned $570 level is needed for buyers to gain momentum. On the downside, there is a new connecting bullish trend line forming with support at $550 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. Below the trend line, the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $437 low to $570 high is at $538 to act as a support. The price must stay above the $538 level if it has to break $570.

Below $538, the price may test the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $437 low to $570 high at $504. The overall price action is positive and there are chances of ETH breaking the $570 level.

Hourly MACD – The MACD is slowing losing momentum in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI – The RSI is well above the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $538

Major Resistance Level – $570

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Ethereum Price Technical Analysis – ETH/USD Could Break Higher appeared first on NewsBTC.

As if torn from the subplot of a Hollywood spy thriller, Edward Snowden papers prove that the NSA has been monitoring Bitcoin users around the world for years. What is more, they may have used information in illegal prosecutions.

Snowden Leak Exposes NSA Tapping Program

The Intercept is reporting that a classified document leaked by Edward Snowden dated March 2013 contains detailed descriptions of National Security Agency operations that were used to track down and identify cryptocurrency users. Excerpts of the report reveal that the top-secret program code-named Oakstar was primarily initiated to monitor the flow of money between terrorist organizations.

The NSA specifically targeted Bitcoin users through a subprogram of Oakstar called MONEYROCKET. Advertised in 2012 on the web as a “non-Western Internet anonymization service.” MONEYROCKET targeted users mostly in the Middle East, Asia and some parts of Eastern Europe.

The program worked as a dupe to lure users into using it, thinking they were gaining a deeper level of anonymity when actually it allowed the NSA to tap directly into user data and browsing history.

By gaining access to user’s systems they were able to collect passwords, user sessions and media access control addresses which gave them personal information such as IP addresses and billing details. The agency was set on making connections between their Bitcoin targets and the data they processed.

The NSA document reveals details of how MONEYROCKET worked in Europe by tapping into fiber-optic lines and siphoning information directly to their European Technical Center in Wiesbaden, Germany, and also how there were corporate partnerships in the US. Meetings in Northern Virginia between telecom partners and NSA affiliated agents are detailed in the document. Though Bitcoin wasn’t the only target of the program, it also sought out now-defunct Liberty Reserve, it was the main focus.

Program May Have Been Used to Gather Evidence Illegally

Intercept speculates that this program may have been fundamental to the FBI’s evidence against SilkRoad operator Ross Ulbricht. Part of Ulbricht’s defense during his trial for money laundering was that the FBI must have obtained some of the evidence against him illegally.

The leaked documents make no specific reference to Ulbricht but they do show that MONEYROCKET was targeting Bitcoin users about six months before he was arrested. This is a major concern among civil libertarians who claim that the government uses these types of programs to convict citizens in a process called “parallel construction”.

Though primarily MONEYROCKET was used for counter-terrorism purposes the program branched out to trace Bitcoin users involved in international crime and narcotics. Matthew Green, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, reacted to the report by calling the NSA’s actions “pernicious” and adding;

“[This is] bad news for privacy, because it means that in addition to the really hard problem of making the actual transactions private … you also have to make sure all the network connections [are secure],”

The post Snowden Document Reveals NSA Program to Track Bitcoin Users appeared first on NewsBTC.

While many think crypto transaction fees should be pushed lower, these researchers believe users could be paying more.

Key Points

• Bitcoin cash price is moving higher and it broke the $975 resistance against the US Dollar.
• There was a break above a crucial bearish trend line with resistance at $975 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
• The pair is currently trading just above the $1,050 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

Bitcoin cash price is showing positive signs against the US Dollar. BCH/USD could rise further if it stays above the $1,000 support level.

Bitcoin Cash Price Upside Move

There was a fresh upside wave initiated from the $841 swing low in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The price moved higher and succeeded in breaking a major resistance at $925. It also made an upside move above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1,299 high to $841 low. It opened the doors for more gains and the price gained traction above $1,000.

More importantly, there was a break above a crucial bearish trend line with resistance at $975 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Later, the pair succeeded in surpassing the $1,050 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. However, it is currently facing resistance near the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $1,299 high to $841 low. On the upside, the next major resistance is around the $1,140 level, which was a support earlier.

On the downside, the price has to stay above the $1,000 level and the 100 hourly SMA. Should the price fails to stay above $1,000, it could move back in a bearish zone. The overall price action is positive as long as the price is above $1,000.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is gaining pace in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is currently well above the 55 level.

Major Support Level – $1,000

Major Resistance Level – $1,140

Charts courtesy – Trading View

The post Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Showing Positive Signs appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

• Bitcoin price appears to have broken past a complex inverse head and shoulders pattern.
• This adds to the recent bullish signals being seen on the short-term time frames.
• Price has also broken past the descending trend line and moving averages, which appear to be making a bullish crossover.

Bitcoin price is showing one short-term bullish signal after another, and this momentum could continue to build up as it breaks more upside barriers.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is still below the longer-term 200 SMA on the 1-hour time frame to signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. However, the gap has narrowed significantly to signal a potential upward crossover and a reversal.

Note that bitcoin price has previously broken past a descending trend line and the moving averages’ dynamic inflection points. It has also moved past the neckline of an inverse head and shoulders formation, which is a classic reversal pattern.

The chart pattern spans $7200 to $9200, which suggests that the resulting uptrend could be of the same height. However, stochastic is heading south from overbought levels so bitcoin price might follow suit. RSI is also turning down from the overbought region to indicate a return in selling pressure.

In that case, bitcoin price might still have a quick pullback up its sleeve before gaining traction on the climb. Nearby support levels are located around $8500, $8000 and at the bottom of the downtrend around $7200. A move below these levels could indicate that the longer-term drop is resuming.

On the other hand, sustained bullish momentum could take bitcoin price up to the next major area of interest around $10,000. A move past this area could lead to a test of the key $12,000 level.

So far, there have been no negative reports from the G20 Summit when it comes to cryptocurrencies. World leaders have agreed to take a closer look at this industry but stopped short of making a strong push for tighter oversight.

The post Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/21/2018 – More Bullish Confirmation appeared first on NewsBTC.

FOMO Moments

The recovery has continued into its third day and markets have remained green during this morning’s Asian trading session. Bitcoin has put another 4.7% on and is trading just over $9,000 which has pulled many of the altcoins back up again. A couple of them are in the red by a percentage or two but most are showing positive gain. One leading the way at the moment is Tron.

Coinmarketcap reports that TRX is up 17% this morning, trading at $0.039 from $0.034 24 hours ago. This does not sound a lot but percentage gain wise it makes it today’s top performing altcoin. Tron has had a rough ride this year, falling 85% from its pump to $0.26 in early January to current levels. Over the week TRX has shown gains of 11% however over the month it is down 13%. In satoshi levels it is up 11% on the day at 453 sats, a similar gain can be seen looking at the monthly chart. This time last month TRX traded at 390 satoshis and has been in a down trend since its two peaks in January.

Tron has had a tough time on social media with commentators deriding founder Justin Sun for his constant partnership announcements. The entertainments based cryptocurrency has made a number of partnerships but none large enough to spur the level of fomo it had at the beginning of the year. Current interest has come as the countdown to the Tron testnet diminishes and Sun and Co are actively pumping it on Twitter. The testnet is due to launch on March 31, it will remove the dependency on Ethereum and opens doors to larger markets. The developers and community are excited about the testnet launch which precedes the mainnet launched planned for the end of May.

TRX is traded predominantly on Binance which has 56% of the total volume. In the past 24 hours $258 million has been traded in Tron, its market capacity is $2.5 billion and it is ranked at 16^th. If the testnet is successful and more partnerships follow prices could start to recover faster.

Other altcoins with double digit growth during the Asian trading session include Cardano, Iota, Nano, Icon, and Verge.

More on Tron can be found here: https://tron.network/

FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and fundamentals.

The post Asian Altcoin Trading Roundup: Top Cryptocurrency is Tron appeared first on NewsBTC.

The U.S. National Security Agency is reportedly aiming to track down users behind the bitcoin blockchain.