Cryptocurrency users are still a small minority. The total number of users was at 106 million as of January 2021. That sounds like a lot, but when you consider a global population that is nearing 8 billion, you can see that it is just a tiny fraction of people using crypto.
Whether you are in crypto or not, it is going to have an increasing effect on business. You can see Bitcoin mining operations selling shares on stock exchanges, large businesses looking into uses for crypto coins, and more people taking an interest in buying and using cryptocurrency.
At the current trend, crypto coins are becoming more common every year. If it holds, it might not be a matter of if people start using different cryptocurrencies, it could just be a question of when.
In the digital age, businesses are now connected internationally like they never before. Beyond the large multinationals, it is increasingly becoming common for smaller businesses to have significant international connections. This is not only true as it concerns deals with other companies, but businesses now have employees or contractors they work with from around the world.
Using cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange for international transactions could solve a lot of problems for these businesses. First, cryptocurrency could ease the burden of having to convert currency for several different countries. Beyond that, it could also make transactions faster, cheaper and more convenient by cutting out the traditional middlemen that would typically be in the middle of these transactions.
One of the factors that have held back many cryptocurrency markets is the lack of support from mainstream institutions. Banks wouldn’t let you make transactions with crypto exchanges, and it was hard to find businesses that would allow you to use your cryptocurrency. This is changing rapidly.
Beyond the ability of investors to use an ultra fast trading app to make trades, we now see a range of big institutional investors buying cryptocurrency. Along with that, some of the world’s largest financial businesses are starting to work with crypto. As an example, PayPal started offering a range of cryptocurrency services earlier this year. You also have major credit card companies that are starting to work with crypto on a limited level.
One of the main claims of many crypto skeptics is that the coins have no inherent value. This is true in a sense. The value of most crypto coins is solely based on the perception of people in the market. While that might be true, you could make the same argument for most fiat currencies. The value is based on the fact that people will accept it in exchange for goods and services.
Crypto has an advantage over many fiat currencies: the fact that many crypto coins have a limited supply. As inflation acts on fiat currencies, crypto could grow in popularity as a hedge. In the future, many investors will hold crypto in the way that they hold gold as a protection against inflation.
Raising or distributing equity usually means creating conventional shares of the business. While this could be a way to raise money or provide value to employees, it does come with a range of hurdles. One way to get around many of these hurdles would be to create crypto coins that represent shares in the company.
Instead of jumping through all of the regulatory hoops to issue shares, the business could give people crypto coins as equity. Instead of holding an IPO, the business could do an ICO as a way to raise capital from investors.
With the rise in crowdfunding platforms, the ability to raise money is easier than it ever has been. These platforms not only make it easy to raise money from the public, but they also offer a level of transparency that is popular among those looking to donate or invest. With that said, these platforms often take a significant portion of the funds in fees.
Using a blockchain wallet for crowdfunding could be a way to get the transparency of a crowdfunding platform while avoiding the fees. This would allow those looking to raise funds to do so off a platform, but with the blockchain ledger, potential donors or investors could still see the donations coming in.
Crypto is a field that is always evolving. As businesses see the benefits and new applications become available, it will become more common. With that said, the markets are unpredictable. The only thing that we can be sure of is that there will be ups and downs along the way.
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The debate about Bitcoin’s inventor, known as Satoshi Nakamoto but otherwise shrouded in mystery, has raged for years. As Bitcoin continues to rise in value, this unknown inventor is presumed to have become a very rich individual indeed. When Satoshi invented Bitcoin, was he driven to profit, mining and hoarding early Bitcoin aiming to accumulate great wealth?
In 2013 first Sergio Demian Lerner presented his research on the early mining patterns Satoshi is presumed to have taken, it revealed around 1 million BTC (now worth around $10bn) hoarded by the creator. For many who see Bitcoin as an anti-establishment currency with an equalizing power, to attribute such vast wealth to Bitcoin’s creator is anathema, undermining the main narrative around Bitcoin and Nakamoto’s original motives. If Nakamoto is as driven by capitalist economics as the nearest banker, is Bitcoin fundamentally different from traditional currencies after all?
Nakamoto’s defenders argued that these 1 million missing Bitcoin were simply forgotten by early miners, and the inventor himself had no such hoard. Indeed, even researching these Bitcoin was taboo. Yet Lerner was unsatisfied with this answer. That’s why he has spent the last seven years unravelling the mining techniques used to unearth these early Bitcoin. What these techniques reveal is that Satoshi (if that is who mined them, Lerner refers to this individual as “Patoshi” to emphasize that we can’t truly know) seems to have been protecting the security of the network rather than pursuing profit after all. The reputation of Bitcoin, and its mysterious inventor, remains intact.
Early Mining Techniques
In order to learn more about the missing Bitcoin – and the individual who mined them – Lerner decided to remine the first 18,000 Bitcoin blocks to see what it revealed. He assumed that these blocks would have been mined with software that was similar, if not identical, to that which came with the first Bitcoin release. This public code was how early miners set about Bitcoins first blocks. The “Patoshi” pattern of how these Bitcoin were mined could ultimately reveal something about the motives of Bitcoin’s inventor, assuming Nakamoto and Patoshi are one and the same.
Through remining these early blocks, Lerner came to a startling discovery. Patoshi’s software was in fact nothing like the software being used by other early Bitcoin miners. Was this Nakamoto giving himself a leg up in the early gold rush of Bitcoin mining? The difference in the mining patterns of the public software and Patoshi’s processes became the keystone of Lerner’s research. Two theories stood out. Firstly, that Patoshi was using an early version of today’s pooled mining processes by combining multiple CPUs. The second theory – seemingly borne out in Lerner’s research – is that Patoshi was multi-threading.
Patoshi’s Multi-Threading
Multi-threading is a hashing technique using intensive computer processing to sweep for multiple nonces (the cryptographic element that Bitcoin miners are searching for) at once, rather than on an individual basis. By rescanning the early blocks, Lerner was able to assess which nonces Patoshi discovered, thus revealing the patterns by which Bitcoin’s inventor was mining blocks. Ultimately, Lerner has demonstrated that Patoshi/Nakamoto was generally finding higher-value nonces thanks to the multi-threading technique, and not because they had superior processing power, but because they had a better process for using their CPU.
Ideology Before Profit
Lerner’s meticulous analysis of the early mining patterns attributed to Bitcoin’s founder reveal that each time Patoshi mined a new block, his miner was turned off for a short interval. If Nakamoto was driven by profit, this is contradictory behaviour as it gives the rest of the community an opportunity to unearth new blocks. Lerner posits that Nakamoto wanted to see fair competition amongst early miners, and distribute Bitcoin equally at the start of the network.
At the same time, Patoshi’s multi-threading would have allowed them to uncover new blocks when they were not being mined by other early users, thus enabling the network to continue ticking over. These patterns have led Lerner to argue forcefully that the security of the network – and not profit – was Nakamoto’s motivation for their early mining patterns.
Still Unknown
It remains an assumption that Patoshi and Nakamoto are one and the same, and the identity of this individual is still unknown. But Lerner’s research strongly indicates that profit was not an early motivator of the Patoshi pattern.
Kristin Herman is a tech enthusiast and a project manager at Essayroo.com and Boomessays.com online writing services. When she takes a break from the screen she likes to curl up with a good book, albeit one about cryptotrends and digital landscapes!
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Sending and receiving ADA with Cardano‘s Byron and Shelley-era addresses is available on HolyTransaction now.
Open your free digital wallet here to store your cryptocurrencies in a safe place.
Tomorrow is August 1st, the long-awaited date for the Bitcoin-blockchain upgrade. That’s why you are asking us: what’s about HolyTransaction and Bitcoin Cash?
This upgrade, in fact, will cause a hard fork and so the creation of a new chain (and so a new digital currency) called Bitcoin Cash. This will:
So, our users are asking if HolyTransaction will support Bitcoin Cash within the multicurrency wallet.
HolyTransaction, in fact, would like to announce that should UAHF choose to increase the Bitcoin block size on August 1st, our customer platform will not support the new blockchain or coin on that date.
Due to technical complexities, time and quality assurance needed to implement a second bitcoin ruleset and blockchain we will not support it.
We currently consider Bitcoin Cash as another cryptocurrency, though Bitcoin Cash’s transaction history would be the same as bitcoin’s .
A few days ago, we shared a blog post in support of UASF or User Activated Soft Fork.
It is a system for the activation of a soft fork that might occur on a specified time enforced by full nodes, a concept that is also called “economic majority”.
In the past years, a UASF was successfully developed to activate the P2SH soft fork (BIP16).
Instead, currently, the UASF is combined with the so-called SegWit activation in the BIP148 proposal.
Click here to read more about UASF.
We know that some users are curious to see what happens with Bitcoin Cash, but we are currently not supporting this altcoin.
Let’s see what happen and happy trading!
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While Bitcoin price is experiencing a new growth after the almost 50% drop from its all-time high, a few analysts of the crypto market suggest that bitcoin price at $4000 is in the air.
And this moment seems to come sooner than expected.
“When added to the professed agreement for major players to work together on the Bitcoin scaling issue starting September – if it becomes a reality, the price could see between $4,000 and $5,000 before the year ends,” said an expert to Cointelegraph.
2017 has been a good year for bitcoin price, as it traded at about $950 back in January and it reached its new all-time high a few months ago in June with a value of $3011: this means that bitcoin price grew of more than 3000% in a six-months period.
Compared to the all-time high we quoted above, the current price decrease is maybe due to the uncertainty around the upcoming SegWit activation that will take place on August 1st, 2017.
For those who are unfamiliar with this, SegWit is a new upgrade to the Bitcoin blockchain that will increase the block size to support more transactions and allow a faster confirmation for transactions.
At the moment, the blockchain supports up to 2000 transactions per block in 10 minutes and SegWit will double this capacity to 4000 transactions.
Also, Segwit2x will increase the size of each block from 1MB to 2MB.
SegWit will be implemented on August 1s, while it is not sure yet if Segwit2x will be implemented too.
That said, the real reason of uncertainty is caused by the hard fork needed to implement SegWit.
This might create two different chains in a similar way to what happened to Ethereum in 2016 with the DAO and Ethereum Classic.
According to many experts in the industry, while this event might create panic sell and uncertainty within the community, will not be a real problem in the next future.
Kumar Gaurav of Cashaa explained to Cointelegraph:
“When looking at 2017 so far, it still has been a good year for Bitcoin, starting just below 1000$ and now standing just below $2,000. Whether and to which extent this overall trend will continue will be seen more clearly after some crucial dates such as 1st August. If 80% of the Bitcoin community adopts the updates all should be fine. It seems most likely this will be reached, as the current signaling of intended support is at 87.8 percent, an increase from 83.28 percent in May. Comparable to when in May, following the New York agreement on SegWit2x, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $2,160, it can reach new all-time highs after a successful activation as Bitcoin will be more attractive again and bring users of other cryptocurrencies back to Bitcoin.”
Another reason that might be influenced the price is the growing number of Bitcoin-based ICOs or Initial Coin Offerings.
ICOs managers might have cashed out during those days and this drove the prices because a huge amount of bitcoin appeared on the market.
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When Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen testified at the Congress today, one attendee showed a buy bitcoin sign.
Yellen appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to talk about the state of the US economy and field questions from committee members. As chief of the US central bank, Yellen also spoke about a recent semi-annual report delivered to Congress by the Fed.
As chief of the US central bank, Yellen also talked about a recent semi-annual report delivered to Congress by the Fed.
While Yellen was expressing her willingness to raise interest rates amidst a healthier economic climate (following years of near-zero rates instituted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis), there was one attendee who captured media coverage because he held up a buy bitcoin sign behind Yellen.
A screenshot of the event was tweeted by CNBC Steve Kopack, and later shared by other people who have been watching Yellen’s testimony.
The identity of the man who held up the buy bitcoin sign is not clear yet.
Yet in a follow-up tweet, Wall Street Journal national economics correspondent Nick Timiraos reported that the individual, along with another, had left the room “after a staffer made some instruction to them.” Video published by Bloomberg shows the two individuals being spoken to by a staffer.
Yellen, who told in 2014 that the Fed “doesn’t have the authority to supervise or regulate bitcoin in any way” – remarked that she believes that the blockchain is an “important technology”.
Thanks to her work, the Fed decided to publish some of its internal researchers into the distributed ledger tech, releasing its first report on the topic back in December.
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A new electronics retailer decided to start accepting bitcoin in Japan as one of the available payment methods in all its shops within the country.
It is Bic Camera that began to accept bitcoin at several shops back in April, and that is now it is looking to expand this payment after seeing huge levels of demand from its customers.
The retailer is taking payments in the digital currency thanks to a partnership with the domestic bitcoin exchange called bitFlyer, so they can convert bitcoin into yen right after the acceptance.
Bic Camera sells a wide range of products, including cameras, computers and home appliances like fridges and washing machines.
News that Bic Camera is accepting bitcoin at more locations came after the Japanese government’s new regulations around digital currencies and the exchange services. Among those, for example, there is a legal definition for bitcoin as a kind of payment instrument and the decision to eliminate bitcoin taxation.
Also, this could be one reason why we might aspect a new growth in the bitcoin price in the next days.
Read more about Bitcoin in Japan here.
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HolyTransaction, one of the oldest multicurrency wallet on the cryptocurrency market, announces an ICO to fund Flyp.me, a new accountless exchange.
Flyp.me is an innovative way to enable anyone to have benefits from an accountless service: no registration is required to exchange the most popular cryptocurrencies in the world.
The exchange empowers worldwide users to trade their digital currencies and tokens while earning a percentage of fees of each trade under the Flyp.me accountless exchange.
Flyp.me allows any FYP token owners to access shares of the profits generated by the platform from fees: a portion of profit fees per trade on the Flyp.me exchange will be distributed to ETH addresses with FYP on a periodical basis.
The purpose of the FYP Tokens is to enable the owners to participate in part of the profits from the fees of the Flyp.me platform and its API by owning FYP Tokens, this will also include the possibility to allow the FYP tokens owners to join the distributed governance model of the Flyp.me platform.
All token owners will receive proportional profits from the platform, and those with a certain minimum of tokens will have additional benefits. All token holders will have the option to propose/vote for features with the stake of their tokens.
FYP Tokens are ERC20-based Ethereum tokens. Each and every FYP Token is equal to each other and has exactly the same qualities, properties, and characteristics. After the ICO period will end, no additional FYP Tokens will be created for any reason whatsoever.
The FYP tokens will be available in two separate rounds, the pre-Sale and the ICO. The pre-Sale period will start on July 10th 2017 at 15.00 UTC and will end the day before the ICO starts (September 6th).
The ICO period will start on September 7th, 2017 at 15.00 UTC and will end on September 21st 2017 at 15.00 UTC.
When Hidden-Hard-Cap is reached, the ICO will end three hours after the Hidden-Hard-Cap threshold is reached.
FYP Tokens will be available for purchase by using Ethereum Smart Contract during the ICO.
During the Pre-Sale, users will be able to use other cryptocurrencies from the Flyp.me Token Sale page or you can query us for a private deposit account if you wish.
You can use the Token Sale page or your HolyTransaction Wallet, otherwise, be prepared to sign with the private keys of the address you sent your funds from to prove your ownership.
The final conversion rate from ETH to FYP Tokens will be published on the Flyp.me website as the presale begins.
During the Pre-Sale, FYP Tokens will be offered with a preferred ratio and with a minimum of 21% bonus to HolyTransaction registered users.
The total (100%) of FYP Tokens created will consist of the sum of the Pre-Sale ones plus the ICO ones and the ones assigned to the Flyp.me Platform itself. The percentage of the FYP Tokens assigned to the Flyp.me Platform is variable (as detailed below) and depends on reaching the Soft-Cap or Hidden-Hard-Cap at the end of the ICO period or not.
Each and every FYP Token participates in the net fee profits generated by the Flyp.me Platform.
50% of the Flyp.me Platform total net fees’ profits will be periodically sent to the addresses that hold the FYP Tokens.
Once the FYP Tokens are distributed, you will be free to transfer and exchange them. On the more, by being able to sign with your holding keys, you will receive some additional benefits.
Being the owner of a certain number of FYP Tokens (exact number to be later disclosed), will enable the FYP Token owner to benefit from additional features of the Flyp.me Platform that will be better defined and implemented in future stages. Such features include, for example, the ability to vote, to submit proposals and so on.
Read more about Flyp.me and FYP tokens on our official channel on Bitcoin talk or on the official Flyp.me website.
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On July 10th, a new Bitcoin meetup will be organized in Rome thanks to the Blockchain Education Network Italia.
This bitcoin meetup aims at spreading the word about the blockchain and being a meeting place for all the enthusiasts of the distributed ledger and digital currencies.
The evening will host different meetings with two major experts in the industry:
After their speeches, there will be a pitch with a few startups that work in the industry and free networking with pizza and beer for free.
The event is free, but in order to have access you need to register yourself on Eventbrite here:
https://www.eventbrite.it/
Click here to read more about this bitcoin meetup: https://www.meetup.com/
This event is sponsored by HolyTransaction.
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Japan government officially eliminates bitcoin taxation after it recognized as legal method of payment a few months ago.
Consumption taxes on the sale of bitcoin will come into effect on July 1st.
According to a Deloitte’s report entitled “Japan: Inbound Tax Alert, 2017 Tax Reform Proposals,” digital currencies including Bitcoin will be exempt from the 8% consumption tax in Japan.
Deloitte’s report explains:
“The supply of virtual currency will be exempt from Japanese Consumption Tax (“JCT”). Currently, virtual currencies such as Bitcoin do not fall under the category of exempt sales, and as a result, the sale of virtual currencies in Japan have been treated as taxable for JCT purposes. Following the enactment of the amended Fund Settlement Law in May 2016, which newly defined “virtual currency” as a means of settlement, the sale of virtual currency as defined under the new Fund Settlement Law will be exempt from JCT. This change will apply to sales/purchase transactions performed in Japan on or after 1 July 2017.”
Back in March, the Japanese National Diet approved the tax reform proposed by Deloitte. The bill, which came into effect on July 1st will drastically increase bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading activities within the Japanese digital currency exchanges.
The bill will probably increase bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading activities within the Japanese digital currency exchanges.
On April 1, the Japanese government officially recognized Bitcoin as a legal payment method and currency.
The Japanese Bitcoin exchange industry is well regulated with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) systems. AML policies are very strict in Japan and South Korea, and it is difficult for traders to take advantage of utilizing digital currencies to move large amounts outside of Japan.
Although it could be a coincidence- since Japan has proposed the end of Bitcoin taxation, Bitcoin price increased from around $2,450 to $2,570.
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