Upcoming Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

The update and modernization will quadruple the Bitcoin Cash blocks size from eight megabytes to 32 megabytes. Also, some operating codes are expected to be reactivated, which will allow Bitcoin Cash’s Blockchain to be used not only for BCH transactions.

Furthermore, an update is called Bitcoin Adjustable Blocksize Cap (Bitcoin ABC). This will change the base code on which Bitcoin cash is based, in an attempt to solve some of the major problems that limit the wider adoption of Blockchain technology. The key problem that fork seeks to solve is scalability.

In 2009, when Bitcoin has been just started up, the cryptocurrency could only recycle about seven transactions in a second. Later, in August 2017, Bitcoin Cash shattered the original Bitcoin to increase Bitcoin transactions’ speed. Bitcoin ABC is now the continuation of this project and aims to decrease transaction time to 2.5 minutes. In comparison, the original Bitcoin network takes about 10 minutes to produce one block.

Benefits of Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork.

After that, the update will also allow more people to make transactions at the same time. Moreover, Bitcoin ABC will allow you to conduct more types of transactions in the Bitcoin Cash network. Actually, it is belived that users will be able to archive and track real assets and even CryptoKitties. Transactions will be stored in Blockchain as so named “colored coins.” These tokens can represent any real-world assets.

Colored coins will provide users with the ability to store some important data and information, taking advantage of all the security benefits of Blockchain. Due to the expected larger size of Bitcoin Cash units, users will be able to use the network not only for the transmission of cryptocurrency. According to online reports, the network can also be used to place legally binding contracts or some other important documents without the involvement of a third party.

It is expected that bitcoin Cash hard fork will put BCH in competition with other altcoys, such as Ethereum, in terms of the ability to allow users to post more than just monetary transactions. Updating the block size will appear as a key step that will bring the network closer to solving the scalability problem.

Author Mari T. -April 26, 2018

Posted by david Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Pantera Fund CEO Calls Bitcoin âA Screaming Buy,â Highly Optimsitic

Pantera Fund CEO Calls Bitcoin “A Screaming Buy,” Highly Optimsitic

Cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera CEO called Bitcoin a “screaming buy” and made a ten year $40 trillion dollar prediction.

Hedge Fund CEO Looks for Big Gains in the Remainder of the Year.

CEO of Pantera capital management LP. cryptocurrency hedge fund Dan Morehead went on Bloomberg Television again to talk about the future of Bitcoin and the state of the cryptocurrency space in general. Morehead who is always bullish on cryptocurrency forecast some big returns for 2018 including Bitcoin regaining its maximum value from 2017 in the next twelve months.

Morehead had recently made only his fourth buy prediction in his seven years of trading in cryptocurrency when Pantera issued a notice to its investors to buy when Bitcoin dipped to what he called its ultimate low at 6,500. It’s gained and held over $2,000 since then but still, Morehead told Bloomberg it is a “screaming buy” today.

The interview moved on to how the appearance of cryptocurrency is changing. Morehead said that Bitcoin had shed its “skanky” reputation and this was attracting more institutional interest which would drive prices up across the entire space. He continued saying,

“Obviously, we’re very bullish on the space. We think we’re way below, maybe an order of magnitude — or two — below the real fundamental fair value of blockchain, the industry as a whole is $400 billion. It easily could go to $4 trillion, and $40 trillion is definitely possible.”

Morehead’s acumen at reading the volatile crypto market was proved out when he said at the height of the mid-December trading frenzy that Bitcoin could lose half of its value at the beginning of the new year. After which, Bitcoin, and almost all other cryptocurrencies slipped into a bear market that we are just coming out of now.

Pantera Capital handles an estimated one billion dollars in assets of which 10 percent is in Bitcoin. When asked about Pantera’s investment breakdown Morehead revealed that presently their biggest position is in the Korean Blockchain Icon.

Mt. Gox may be Dumping more Bitcoin on the Market

In the short term though Bitcoin may be headed for another price dip as information regarding a 16,000 coin block of Bitcoin and an equal amount of Bitcoin cash from the Mt. Gox reserve has been transferred out of cold wallet storage. Large transactions made by the trustees of the Mt. Gox estate since December of 201 have been blamed for causing the price of Bitcoin to crash. The last time Mt Gox transferred a large amount of Bitcoin from its cold wallets was on February 5, the next day Bitcoin fell to its all-time low for the year at $6,000

Author JOHN MCMAHON | APRIL 27, 2018 | 6:00 AM

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

The 17 Millionth Bitcoin Is About to Be Mined

Bitcoin's limited supply is about to get a bit more limited.

Barring an unforeseen event, the 17 millionth bitcoin is likely to be mined in the coming days, a development that would mark yet another milestone for the world's first cryptocurrency. That's because as per bitcoin's current rules, only 21 million bitcoin can ever be created.

Stepping back, the milestone, the first million-bitcoin marker to be crossed since mid-2016, is perhaps noteworthy as yet another reminder of the technology's core computer science achievement – digital scarcity created and enabled by shared software.

In short, bitcoin's code, since cloned and adapted by scores of other upstart cryptocurrencies, ensures that only a set number of new bitcoins are introduced to its economy at intervals. Miners, or those who operate the hardware necessary to track bitcoin's transaction set, are rewarded with this scarce data every time they add new entries to the official record.

Still, there's a lot of variability in the process.

Of note is that it can't be precisely predicted when the 17 millionth bitcoin will be mined or who will mine it, due to the many minute variances that are created in keeping a common software in sync. That said, there's a relative predictability. Each bitcoin block produces 12.5 new bitcoin, and as bitcoin blocks occur roughly every 10 minutes, about 1,800 new bitcoin are created each day.

As such, it's perhaps best to view this event as a "psychological barrier," Tetras Capital founding partner Alex Sunnarborg told CoinDesk, one that is interpreted differently by different communities.

Sunnarborg, for example, sought to stress that another way to interpret the result is that 80 percent of all the bitcoin that will be ever created have now been mined. In other words, only about one-fifth of the eventual supply remains for miners and future buyers.

Others see the milestone as one that's ripe for appreciation of the technology and its achievements.

"I think it is awesome," Tim Draper, the venture capitalist who bought millions of bitcoin seized by the U.S. government at auction in 2014, said of the coming milestone.

He told CoinDesk:

"I would bet the founders wouldn't have imagined how important bitcoin would become in their wildest dreams."

Way with words

Others sought to suggest the milestone is one that should be considered as an opportunity for education about both the features of bitcoin, and those of cryptocurrencies broadly.

For example, unless all of the humans who operate the computers running the bitcoin software decide to make a change (a perhaps unlikely scenario today), there's really no way to ever introduce more new bitcoin. This achievement, a technical reality, has played a key role in bitcoin's association with money, economics and other scarce, naturally occurring assets.

In this way, the goldbugs and readers of Austrian economics who piled into bitcoin early on were quick to realize the value of the feature, perhaps giving rise to the term "cryptocurrency" itself.

Trace Meyer, one of this group's most vocal members, summed up the philosophy in a recent tweet, in which he argued governments might seek to prevent users from holding bitcoin in the future.

"Increasing money supply is a means to confiscate through inflation which is a form of taxation without representation or due process of law," he wrote.

Even the new way new bitcoins come into being, called "mining," is a nod to the gold analogy.

Rather than being issued by a central bank, bitcoin is created by a network through the work of maintaining the blockchain. When a miner finds a valid hash for recent transactions, solving the bitcoin protocol's puzzle, he or she is rewarded with a "coinbase transaction," bitcoin credited to her account.

A little bit of cryptocurrency is created and deducted from the final supply

The bitcoin supply curve

How participants have been rewarded has, of course, changed over time.

When bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first bitcoin block on Jan. 3, 2009, he created the first 50 bitcoins. This reward stayed the same for another 209,999 blocks, when the first "halvening," or reduction in rewards, took place.

It didn't come as a surprise. Every 210,000 blocks, according to a hard-coded schedule, the network reduces the block reward by 50 percent. Following the most recent halvening, in July 2016, the reward is 12.5 bitcoin.

That means that while there are only 4 million bitcoin left to mine, the network will not reach its final supply in anything like the nine years it's taken to get this far. As the halvenings halven, the rate of monetary inflation – supply growth – slows.

BashCo, a pseudonymous moderator on the r/bitcoin subreddit, has plotted the trajectory of bitcoin's total supply (blue curve) against its rate of monetary inflation (orange line).

Source: BashCo.

Assuming the bitcoin protocol remains the same (a new block is mined every 10 minutes on average and the halving schedule and supply cap are unchanged), the last new bitcoin will not be mined until May 2140.

The next 120 years

With this in mind, the chart hints at another common talking point when acknowledging the milestone – that bitcoin is programmed to run for a very long time.

Jameson Lopp, lead infrastructure engineer at wallet provider Casa, was quick to remind CoinDesk that bitcoins are divisible, and that as such, the smallest parts of each bitcoin can hold seemingly infinite value.

He said:

"While 17 million BTC may sound like a lot, it's incredibly scarce – there won't even be enough for every current millionaire to own a whole bitcoin. Thankfully, each bitcoin is divisible into 100 million satoshis, thus there will always be plenty to go around!"

But there are other quirks to the software as well.

For one, bitcoin will never actually reach 21 million units, as barring a protocol change, the total supply will fall short by at least one satoshi. That's because on May 17, 2011, the miner "midnightmagic" – for reasons that remain unlear – claimed a 49.99999999 block reward, rather than an even 50.

Further, to be clear, bitcoin does not stop running when 21 million bitcoin are produced. At that point, the idea is that miners would be compensated purely through the fees, which they already collect. (Though some scientists have sought to project whether such a market would work in practice).

With so many questions left unanswered, if anything, the event serves as yet another reminder of how far bitcoin has come, and just how far it has to go.

In the words of long-time developer Adam Back:

"Another million down four more to go."

Author David Floyd Updated Apr 26, 2018 at 03:33 UTC

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Police in Chinese city seize 600 computers used to mine bitcoin

BEIJING (Reuters) – Police in the north China city of Tianjin confiscated 600 computers used to mine bitcoin cryptocurrency after the local power grid operator reported abnormal electricity usage, Xinhua reported Wednesday.

Representation of the Bitcoin virtual currency standing on the PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, February 3, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

“Eight high-power fans were also seized,” Xinhua said, quoting local police and added that it was the “largest power theft case in recent years.”

The report didn’t say when the police had seized the equipment.

China was home to the majority of crytopcurrency mining operations before Beijing last year began to discourage it as part of a larger crackdown on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is unclear how much of mining activity has moved offshore or been shut down.

Reuters reported in January that China’s central bank told a top-level government internet finance group that the monetary authority can tell local governments to regulate the power usage of bitcoin miners to gradually reduce the scale of their production.

Miners use high-powered machines to generate the massive computing power to produce cryptocurrencies, which is done by solving mathematical equations.

The activity is also highly energy intensive, leading miners to seek locations with easy access to cheap electricity.

Five people are under investigation and another has been detained in the Tianjin case, Xinhua said.

Reporting by Elias Glenn; Editing by Shri Navaratnam

David

Bitcoin Price Climbs to 40-Day High Above $9,200

Bitcoin's price climbed above $9,200 on Tuesday to hit a 40-day high, according to data from CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

Following a steady increase over the past week, the price of world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization jumped above $9,000 soon after the morning trading session began around 00:30 UTC, after which it continued to climb up to as high as $9,220.97 at around 2:00 UTC.

The price is at its highest point since March 14, when bitcoin dropped $800 within one trading day to reach a one-month low around $8,000. Following the plunge, the cryptocurrency's price declined to as low as $6,593 on March 30, reflecting what is now a 39% gain since that market bottom.

The wider cryptocurrency market has seen price growth in the past month as well, climbing above $400 billion in terms of total capitalization, according to data from CoinMarketCap. That figure has shifted between $200 billion and $300 billion since March 18.

Currently, four out of the five largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization are all seeing their prices at one-month highs, market data shows. Ethereum, the world's second largest cryptocurrency, is now above $660 after recently dropping below $400. The price of bitcoin cash has nearly doubled in the week since April 18, climbing back above $1,500 as of press time.

Author Wolfie Zhao Apr 24, 2018 at 04:00 UTC

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April â Bulls Back in Action

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April – Bulls Back in Action

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price has gained some traction since breaking past its inverse head and shoulders neckline.
Price is now trading inside an ascending channel and testing the resistance.
A return in bearish pressure could take it back down to support around the Fib levels.

Bitcoin price is trending higher but might be due for a pullback to its channel support.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This indicates that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse.

Applying the Fib tool to the latest swing low and high shows that the 61.8% retracement level lines up with the bottom of the channel at $8338.30. The 38.2% retracement level is close to the mid-channel area of interest at $8600.

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the uptrend is more likely to continue than to reverse. The gap between the two is also widening to reflect stronger bullish momentum.

Stochastic looks ready to turn up from the overbought zone to signal a return in buying pressure. In that case, bitcoin could even attempt to break past the channel resistance or swing high at $9000 to establish a steeper climb.

Market Factors

Exchanges are reporting that buy orders are nearing 92% of activity, drawing even more investors in so as to not get left behind in the rally. Some predict that bitcoin could surge past the $20,000 highs within the quarter.

Risk appetite has also been mostly supported in the markets, which means that traders are willing to place bets outside of traditional assets like stocks and commodities. Sentiment in the cryptocurrency industry itself has also improved significantly over the past couple of weeks, spurred by news about big hedge funds and acquisitions in the space.

Author SARAH JENN | APRIL 23, 2018 | 5:37 AM

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

David

Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis â BCH USD Could Break $1,200

Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis – BCH USD Could Break $1,200

Key Points

Bitcoin cash price is in a major uptrend from the $650 swing low against the US Dollar.
There is a crucial bullish trend line forming with support near $1,090 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
The pair remains well supported on the downside and it could even break $1,200 in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price is gaining traction above $1,000 against the US Dollar. BCH/USD may perhaps extend gains above the $1,200 level if buyers remain in control.

Bitcoin Cash Price Support

There was a monster rally from the $800 support in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The price jumped and broke many resistances such as $900 and $1,000. It even broke the $1,100 level and traded close to the $1,200 level. A high was formed at $1,193 before the price started a downside correction. It moved down below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $873 low to $1,193 high.

However, the downside move was limited by the $1,040 level. Moreover, the 50% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $873 low to $1,193 high acted as a support. More importantly, there is a crucial bullish trend line forming with support near $1,090 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair. The pair is moving higher again and is currently trading well above the $1,080 level. It seems like it could continue to move higher and it may even break the $1,200 level in the near term. Above the mentioned $1,200, the price may perhaps test the $1,240 level in the near term.

Looking at the chart, the price remains well supported on the downside near $1,080 and $1,050 levels.

Looking at the technical indicators:

4-hours MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is currently reducing its bullish slope.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is correcting lower from the 85 level.

Major Support Level – $1,090

Major Resistance Level – $1,200

Author: AAYUSH JINDAL | APRIL 22, 2018 | 4:08 AM

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

David

Is Bitcoin Repeating Its own history

2014 Bitcoin crash layout by trader babyjungle — published April 20 .

2 weeks ago I found this fractal made from trader @chewner. We all know that trading is based on news and history, and it was funny just to watch how the price was following almost exactly the same path as in 2014. Of course now the scenario is quite different, we are not in a massive adoption yet, but there is a lot of industry and big players in this space. Despite those facts, the price is moved by cicles and by repetitive patterns and today the price just hit exactly the level marked on the chart.

It may be just a coincidence, but I´ll watch the chart just for fun. I´m actually expecting the price to reach around 9200 before a correction.

Here is the chart.

Posted by David Ogden

Link to Original Post https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/EbhIJvue-2014-Bitcoin-crash-layout/

David

What is the price of bitcoin today – Why is BTC rising

What is the price of bitcoin today - Why is BTC rising

What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

BITCOIN prices are back on the rise today, as the cryptocurrency posts strong results mid week. What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

Midweek charts show bitcoin prices are back on the rise.

The cryptocurrency has been steadily rising overnight, increasing by more than 2.44 percent in the last hour.

Bitcoin prices were trading at $8,239.66 as of 4.30pm today.

The rest of the cryptocurrency market has also seen a bumper rise in prices.

Ethereum stays ahead of resistance at $544 and Ripple increased 6.83 percent to trade at $0.728 percent.

Bitcoin spin-off, Bitcoin Cash, rose by 13.11 percent to hover just below £1,000 a coin at $940.78.

Litecoin also rose 4.14 percent to trade at $142.

Why is bitcoin rising?

Bitcoin maintains its bullish trend throughout the week as the cryptocurrency recovers from April 17’s tax sell-off.

Investors and analysts feared the US tax deadline on Tuesday would fuel a flurry of crypto-selling, driving prices down.

After a brief wobble, BTC recovered and has been rising steadily ever since.

Tom Lee, founder of hedge fund, Fundstrat, suggested pressure to sell off coins in response to the tax deadline would ease off in the weeks following.

And it appears that his prediction is correct, as prices float higher across the week.

US bitcoin investors owed around $25 billion in capital gains taxes for 2017 following a surge in its price in December, according to Mr Lee.

He told CNBC: “There is quite a lot of discussion in a lot of the crypto groups about the magnitude of tax selling.

“I think we ended up just taking a lot of these thoughts, putting it into a spreadsheet and we came up with an estimate that $25billion would be the tax bill owed to the IRS for realised gains for US households, which is a windfall for the IRS.

“The most that they ever received in capital gains in any single year was 144billion.”

It seems that investors are happy to dip back into the market, as the London Block Exchange (LBX) has discovered.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, LBX CEO, Benjamin Dives, said there has been a notable increase in the amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, handled by his firm.

He said: “The common assumption is that institutional investors shy away from new asset classes such as cryptocurrency.

"However, that’s not what we are seeing here at LBX; we've seen a huge uplift in institutional interest recently. Since Q1 2018, we're now handling many millions in trades each month.

“From hedge funds to pension funds, institutional investors are taking cryptocurrency seriously.

"At LBX, institutional investors have had access to our over-the-counter desk for some time, which allows investors to trade cryptocurrencies under preferential conditions for high volume orders."

Author OWEN GOUG UPDATED: 18:14, Thu, Apr 19, 2018

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

David

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge--Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Shaking off a host of negative news, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Monero continued to surge recently. Bitcoin is up 2.05% over the last 24 hours and 17.53% over the last seven days, Ethereum is up 1.95% and 21.74% over the same periods, while Ripple and Monero registered even higher gains—see table 1.

Table 1

7d Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency %24h %7d

Bitcoin 2.05 17.53

Ethereum 1.95 21.74

Ripple 5.47 37.56

Monero 14.45 35.84

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 p.m.

The cryptocurrency rally comes as markets shake off a host of negative news ranging from regulators cranking down on cryptocurrency exchanges to large Bitcoin sales by major investors, and tax sell-offs, and extends across the entire chain, with 96 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies advancing—see table 2.

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 96

Decline 4

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 a.m.

Does this mean that the cryptocurrency train is leaving the station?

Todd Rowan, President and CEO of Rewardstoken.io, thinks so.“Bitcoin is the current engine pulling the crypto train,” said Rowan.“It seems to have found traction post-tax season selloffs; this is good for everyone. Ethereum is finding strong support along with Ripple and others. Next week will tell us if we are leaving the station. We could be off for another bull run.”

Ben WayCEO of Digits.io also thinks so. For ICO’s with real value, that is. “The train has definitely left the station for entrepreneurs trying to do an ICO on the back of a napkin,” he says. “However just like the shakeout in the dot-com bust, the ICO's with real value and real technology and concepts will be in good shape…..this happens in almost every market at some point, next we will see the same in AI and Robotics.”

Michael Collins, Founder and CEO of GN Compass, is bullish on Bitcoin and Cardano. “After a four-month bear, there are now strong indications that we are heading towards a bull,” he notes. “Bitcoin dropping to about $6600 on the 5th of this month was probably the bottom for the year, its price will continue to climb and will probably hit a peak of $15,000 this year. Other coins are following suit with Cardano being the most impressive so far.”

And Roman Guelfi-GibbsCEO, Lead Systems DesignerPinnacle Brilliance Systems Inc. thinks that investors have little time to get aboard the cryptocurrency train. “Investors have some time to make up their minds before the train leaves the station, but they will have to decide soon,” hesays. Guelfi-Gibbs sees Bitcoin heading to 10k, once crossing the $8500 mark.

What about Ethereum? “Ethereum has been recovering nicely over the past two weeks and was able to surmount the $500 hurdle,” notes Guelfi-Gibbs. “Whereas Bitcoin has been subject to some while swings, Ethereum has been moving steadily upward. I would expect that trend to continue after a brief pullback to support.”

Panos Mourdoukoutas , CONTRIBUTOR

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

David