12 Feb
0
‘We’re All in on Blockchain’, says IBM
“We are all in on Blockchain”: these were the words of IBM Director John Wolpert during the today Blockchain Conference in San Francisco. According to Wolpert the blockchain needs a more collaborative approach, which is not always guaranteed by the blockchain developers.
So it seems that the worldwide company IBM wants to ensure itself a leading role in the market solutions related to the blockchain.
In fact, IBM is working on the Hyperledger Project, an open-source blockchain led by The Linux Foundation. Presented in December, this project stars thirty companies including ABN Amro, CME Group, Red Hat and several blockchain startups.
“It’s amazing how many smart and genius people are behind bitcoin, but they miss some logic here. You don’t need to go from trusted to trustless on everything. I think that’s an honest disagreement. The Internet is a permissioned walled garden. Anyone heard of ICAAN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers]? It’s permissive, but it’s permissioned”, said Wolpert.
Hyperledger Project’s goal, he continued, is to be an evolution of the first generation projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, that gather all the best projects that leverage on the blockchain together with all the stakeholders that will potentially use such technology. This is necessary if we want to have a widely used transactional protocol.
“It has to be immutable and modular. It can’t be this is the consensus algorithm, this is the token, all of that has to be modular. It has to be scalable. Interledger-ing is important. You have to inter-op between chains and different things”, he said.
During his speech Wolpert also emphasized IBM’s experience in consensus algorithms and distributed computing during the last 30 years.
It’s thanks to such experience that IBM was able to conduct the Hyperledger Project, that Wolpert sees as the only way to bring all the different stakeholders to the same table and make them work together to build and open-source blockchain platform that can be used in many different areas, as it is for Linux.
“We’ve been doing projects on every kind of blockchain. We’ve been doing that for a couple years and now we have a whole unit. We announced [we worked with] the Linux Foundation […] At that point, we went all in on blockchain”.About the author: Amelia Tomasicchio is a writer and a journalist of Bitcoin-related news and articles. She started writing about Bitcoin in 2014 and she graduated in Rome with an essay about movie industry related to Bitcoin.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
11 Feb
0
Download here the new Princeton University book about Bitcoin
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies is the title of the upcoming Princeton University book about Bitcoin and Blockchain.
Written by Arvind Narayanan, Joseph Bonneau, Edward Felten, Andrew Miller, Steven Goldfeder (with a preface by Jeremy Clark), the book is an overview on the technology behind Bitcoin.
All the authors are experts in electronic, computer science, information systems and public affairs and teachers at Princeton University too.
Overview
This book seems to be an excellent basic understanding of Bitcoin, focusing on how it works as well as what its future could be.
In fact, the authors talk about lots of applications of the blockchain including security, anonymity, regulation, etc.
Furthermore, as many educational books do, this one offers a homework section with programming assignments with which people could impement several components of bitcoin.
Authors claim that: “After reading this book, you’ll know everything you need to be able to separate fact from fiction when reading claims about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You’ll have the conceptual foundations you need to engineer secure software that interacts with the bitcoin network. And you’ll be able to integrate ideas from bitcoin into your own projects.”
Download for free
Princeton University decided to share a first complete draft of this book, available here for free.
The official version will be published next summer.
About the author: Amelia Tomasicchio is a writer and a journalist of Bitcoin-related news and articles. She started writing about Bitcoin in 2014 and she graduated in Rome with an essay about movie industry related to Bitcoin.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
10 Feb
0
HolyTransaction’s Bitcoin Monthly Roundup of January 2016
Welcome to HolyTransaction’s first monthly recap for the new year of 2016. This past month of January has been marked by all time highs for the year thus far; during that time, the bitcoin price rose from a high of $430.89 on January 1st to a low of $368.49 on January 31st, according to Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp.
Since the news broke about Cryptsy’s disappearence, the exchange has officially put forward their side of the story. Paul Vernon claims that the exchange was hacked years ago, and admits to running a fractional reserve since that date. He even offered a 100 BTC reward for whoever could find the hacker. Community speculation and the piling legal documents against Cryptsy’s founder spell more bad news for the American exchange.
Months ago, Hearn was promoting Bitcoin XT, a hardfork that would have increased the Bitcoin blockchain block size in a brute force manner. The plan wasn’t able to garner community support, and Hearn eventually signed a deal to work with R3. Hearn also cited concerns about “Chinese miners” and the Great Firewall of China and what their involvement in Bitcoin meant for the longevity of the project. He left the Bitcoin community with a strong blog post on Medium, saying: “But despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly.” Unfortunately, many in the mainstream media took this as an opportunity to hail the death of Bitcoin; but alas, the death of Bitcoin was (again) greatly exaggerated.
Shaun Bridges, one of the government agents arrested and charged in the aftermath of the Silk Road case, which the agents were instrumental in, has been re-arrested. Bridges was found with packs of packed clothes, money, passports, and other evidence that he was planning to leave the country instead of reporting for his time in jail. There is evidence that Bridges still has Bitcoin stashed elsewhere, and the plot continues to thicken.
In a response to community outcry for better communication from those entrusted with the “original” version of Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Core team launched their social media presence this past month. They are also using popular communications platform Slack to better interface with the community. Interested users can signup at slack.bitcoincore.org to chat about the future of Bitcoin.
Former JP Morgan Chase banker Blythe Masters’ blockchain company, Digital Asset Holdings, has successfully raised $52 million for their project. The company previously bought out such bitcoin startups as Hyperledger and had been raising money through 2015 to bring the blockchain to the mainstream. The company also landed a deal with ASX Ltd., which is Australia’s main exchange operator. The blockchain is going down under, in a good way.
Thank you for reading our newsletter with the previous month’s best Bitcoin articles!
We tweet more cryptocurrency news and insights daily @HolyTransaction
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
10 Feb
0
Microsoft Opens to Bitcoin
Since the end of 2014 Microsoft Corporation has started to test the blockchain technology.
In fact, Microsoft wants to create its own blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) product and since they have opened their Azure cloud computing platform, the American company has added a growing number of partners to its BaaS solution including ConsenSys, Emercoin and MultiChain.
With Azure and BaaS people will be able to use different technologies (from smart contracts to blockchain-based tax reporting services) in a safer and easier way than in the past.
We can’t wait to see the finished product and Marley Gray, Microsoft‘s director of technology strategy, promises that this “certified blockchain marketplace” will be ready within this spring.
The Importance of the Blockchain
Although blockchain is revolutioning the whole payments system, the real revolution are the bitcoins behind it.
The Blockchain is a secure ledger that records and stores every transaction in the network. Thanks to that there is no need for “trusted” third parties such as banks and this is why the Blockchain is a great game changer.
Its implications extend not only to bitcoin transactions, but it can be useful in various fields: from real estate to copyrights, from music to cinema, etc. In fact nowadays there is an increasing number of new startups that are working on innovative projects based on the blockchain with multipurpose uses and aims.And one thing is certain: if anything was not invented yet, it is just temporary, because the blockchain allows all kinds of experimentation.
About the author: Amelia Tomasicchio is a writer and a journalist of Bitcoin-related news and articles. She started writing about Bitcoin in 2014 and she graduated in Rome with an essay about movie industry related to Bitcoin.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
4 Sep
1
HolyTransaction Telegram Bot for Crypto Conversion
We are excited to announce several new developments that have recently launched at HolyTransaction, in our continued effort to make digital currency easy and accessible for all.
Firstly, full conversion between Tether and our other supported cryptocurrencies is now available.
Tether is blockchain-based smart property built on top of Omni Layer that is backed backed 1-to-1, by traditional currency held in Tether reserves. One TetherUST, for instance, equals one dollar. The value of each Tether never changes, meaning that there is no fear of volatility. Tethers can also be withdrawn and held in any Bitcoin wallet where you control the private key.
Secondly, we are pleased to introduce our new HolyTransaction Telegram Bot, available to users on both the Telegram and GetGems messaging platforms. The HolyTransaction Bot allows users to view up-to-date exchange rates, and get the most recent cryptocurrency news, without ever leaving their chat client. In many countries, a strong and reliable internet connection is not always available.
Our bot will allow users to conduct transactions and inquire about their favorite currencies quickly and without difficulty, all from a single chat. The HolyTransaction bot is available to users on both desktop and mobile platforms. Simply send a message to @HolyTransactionBot via either Telegram or GetGems to begin.
Bot Commands:
/exchange
/exchange
- ● Conduct a trade between any of our supported currencies on the HolyTransaction
platform.
/getnews - ● View the most recent cryptocurrency news.
/rate - ● Receive details on the current price of any of our supported currencies.
/currencies - ● List currencies available on the platform.
/help● List of BOT commands
Lastly, as part of the technology behind the HolyTransaction Telegram Bot, we have released a custom HolyTransaction API. Developers around the world are invited to use this new API to integrate the functionality of the HolyTransaction platform into their own projects. You will find more info to start developing.
HolyTransaction is a multi cryptocurrency wallet that allows you to use Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Dash, Blackcoin, Tether, Omni Layer and RibbitRewards. We are committed to our users both near and far. Cryptocurrency is international, and so are we. Stay tuned for more news from HolyTransaction!
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.