Day: August 16, 2018

Candidates for public office in California may soon be able to accept cryptocurrencies as donations, though the practice has not yet been codified.

Crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital raises the target for investments in its third fund by six times, seeking to raise $175 million

The Union of European Football Associations has sold “100%” of the tickets for a soccer match in Estonia through a blockchain-based mobile phone application

As Bitcoin faces downward market pressure, the price of the world’s most dominant virtual currency is likely to have crossed below the break-even point for crypto miners, according to most analysts. This, however, has not stopped their activity as the cryptocurrency mining industry is in it for the long haul.

Bitcoin Miners Keep on Activity Even Below Break-Even

Bitcoin mining stopped being a thing of amateur cryptocurrency enthusiasts in their basements to become an industry of its own.

This has seen executives raising money from venture capitalists in order to fund multi-million dollar operations in regions of the world with cheaper power. Lower marginal costs with an industrial capacity have allowed professional miners to drive amateurs away from the scene, especially when the market is in a bearish momentum, like today.

Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Mining, told Bloomberg that major players, like Bitmain or Bitfury, continue to expand their game by investing in speedier chips and moving to unlikely places just for the sake of low-cost electricity. Top-notch technology suppliers include semiconductor giants Nvidia Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

“There are still major expansions happening, especially from more efficient miners. The expansion is so big that it compensated for the drop-out of not-so-efficient miners.”

Research firm Fundstrat Global Advisors, the only major Wall Street strategist to issue Bitcoin price targets, has estimated that the break-even price for miners is around $8,000. Other numbers have been published by major venues, such as $8,600 according to multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley and $6,400 according to CoinShares.

The competitive cryptocurrency mining industry seems to be lowering the break-even point as hardware becomes ever more efficient and miners mobility is able to reduce utility costs. Furthermore, miners may be selling more Bitcoin as margins drop, according to David Sapper, CEO at Melbourne-based Blockbid exchange.

“The increased hash rate means people are here for the long-term because they’re happy to just accumulate what they have, potentially even run at a loss […] They do sometimes have to clear house and dump.”

Efficiency is the name of the game. Hardware manufacturers that are mining cryptocurrencies are able to enjoy the synergy with the immediate and cheaper access to equipment.

The world’s largest manufacturers of Bitcoin mining rigs are also cryptocurrency miners. Beijing-based Bitmain Technologies and Canaan Creative are known for mass-producing chips designed for Bitcoin mining. And expansion is ongoing. Canaan is looking for a $1 billion investment through an initial public offering (IPO) sponsored by Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Bitcoin May Be Down, But Miners Remain True appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin – the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap – is now trading for just shy of $6,400 at press time. This is a little over $100 less than where it stood 24 hours ago.

Bitcoin is likely scaling back a bit following some harsh comments from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. As the head of one of the largest and most trusted digital currency exchanges across the globe, Armstrong says it will probably be a long time before mass adoption of cryptocurrency occurs.

“I think it will be quite some time before you cross the street to Starbucks in the U.S. and pay with crypto,” he comments.

His words are shocking in the sense that the Intercontinental Exchange ICE) recently announced it was working with several large companies to bring Bakkt to life. The new platform will be introduced in November with the goal of assisting retailers and large-scale companies in buying, selling and trading digital currencies.

One of the companies ICE was allegedly working with was Starbucks. Company spokespeople have recently had to “row back” from reports claiming that the company was implementing new payment software that would allow customers to pay for drinks, baked goods and assorted merchandise with virtual currency.

“Customers will not be able to pay for a Frappuccino with bitcoin,” a representative later alleged following the announcement that the coffee king would work with Bakkt.

Armstrong says that bitcoin still has several corrections to go through before its technology officially matures. In addition, he says not every country is likely to see the benefits of digital currency, and along with the internet, will ban the use of bitcoin among its residents.

He explains:

“The technology is going through a series of bubbles and corrections, and each time it does that, it’s a new plateau. People’s expectations are all over the map, but real-world adoption has been going up. They rightly want to protect consumers, though, and there are going to be some countries in the world, just like the internet, where bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are restricted.”

In the long run, while he’s confident in bitcoin’s future, he says only about ten percent of citizens are using bitcoin and crypto for actual purchases, and he thinks it will take some time for enthusiasts to witness the mass adoption they strive for.

“I’m bullish on countries that are going through economic crises,” he says. “Over the next three to five years, where everyone has the internet and a smartphone, you could see people adopting bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as an alternative.”

In related news, Armstrong recently made the claim that Coinbase was signing up about 50,000 new customers each day.

Bitcoin Charts by TradingView

The Australian Securities Exchange is looking to blockchain technology as a potential replacement for its clearing and settlement services.

A federal judge ruled against Monkey Capital and Daniel Harrison after finding he defrauded victims in an initial coin offering.

Ethereum classic will be listed for the first time on Coinbase later today and the market is already reacting positively.

A Bitcoin-based exchange traded note (ETN) listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange is now being quoted in dollars, targeting U.S. investors, Bloomberg reports

Crypto, an upcoming cryptocurrency-themed movie starring Kurt Russell and Alexis Bledel, is currently in post-production. The producers share their thoughts, confirming that the “overall message of the movie is positive” despite it being a thriller centered on crime and corruption.

Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space

‘Crypto’ Thriller Coming Soon

The upcoming thriller movie called “Crypto” starring Kurt Russell, Alexis Bledel, Luke Hemsworth, and Beau Knapp is in post-production. News.Bitcoin.com first reported about this movie in June.

In an interview with Inverse, producers Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman of Yale Productions revealed that neither of them “considers themselves to be experts in actual real-life cryptocurrency.”

“Both of us have dabbled,” Yale Levine was quoted saying. “I don’t know if either of us would consider ourselves expert. It was really our writers who fleshed out the topic and dove into the research. They were the ones who really became experts to make sure the film was authentic.”

The news outlet elaborated that “Crypto may not be as satisfying for die-hard cryptocurrency enthusiasts,” noting:

It doesn’t particularly focus on any particular coin…[But] the overall message of the movie is positive, even if [it] does focus on crime, corruption, and cryptocurrency.

Expected to be released next year, the movie “tells a classic crime thriller set against the backdrop of shady cryptocurrency dealings,” the publication described.

Emphasizing that he and Beckerman “hope that cryptocurrency is here to stay,” Yale Levine further commented:

We hope it [cryptocurrency] lasts for a long time…That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to do the film. We’re not into fads. We hope it stays around for a long time.

The Cast, Movie, and Filming Location

The producers told the publication that “Beau Napp was the first to sign on, thanks to a connection with one of the writers on Crypto…Next was Kurt Russell…As for Bledel, the Gilmore Girls actress is represented by the same agency as her two male co-stars, so the entire thing just fell into place.”

Beckerman detailed, “Bledel has won Emmys. Kurt Russell is a legend. I think it’s just a really strong cast that came on board.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Crypto is about a young money laundering agent (Knapp) living in a remote New York hometown. While his father (Russell) and brother (Hemswroth) struggle to maintain their family farm, the agent is “tasked with investigating a tangled web of corruption and fraud” involving cryptocurrency.

Yale Levine added, “Crypto was filmed 95 percent upstate…but we did shoot a couple of days in NYC.”

What do you think of this Crypto movie? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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

The post ‘Crypto’ Thriller Starring Kurt Russell in Post-Production – Producers Share Details appeared first on Bitcoin News.

European soccer body UEFA says it has completed a “successful” trial of a mobile ticketing app built with blockchain.