Coin News

From a fundamental analysis perspective the attributes of cryptographically secured value tokens, mathematical consensus and censorship resistance are what gives Bitcoin its value. With a high degree of decentralization, these attributes become more meaningful and Bitcoin more valuable. In the face of centralization they become meaningless and Bitcoin loses its value, both perceived and real. Yet, no matter how valuable, if the network is not highly available or does not function reliably, the utility of Bitcoin diminishes and as usage decreases so does value. xbt.social presents an assessment of the objective conditions surrounding Bitcoin's blocksize and how capacity scaling and […]

The post Bitcoin XT Block Size Increase: What is Proposed and How Will it Affect the Bitcoin Price? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

The FBI has received reports of more than $18m in losses in the past year stemming from the spread of bitcoin ransomware Cryptowall.

Bitcoin price has turned back down and is challenging its bellwether 1-hour 200-period moving average. Below it lies the critical $240 price level - a breach of which will open a potentially profitable declining wave, and hopefully the last downward cycle for the season. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 18h05 UTC Bitfinex 15-Minute Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: Price has broken below with its 1-hour […]

The post Bitcoin Price Dips Again appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

 People can now add loyalty rewards programs to the way that they can acquire bitcoin thanks to a new partnership between the online rewards system Tango Card and the Bitcoin wallet Snapcard. Traditionally, Bitcoin was acquired either by mining — solving complex algorithms with a computer to unlock new Bitcoin, or buying it (the price is now roughly $250). Through the Tango Card and… Read More

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We recently cited a survey from Richards Kibbe & Orbe LLP showing 85% of institutional investors were looking to put some money into alternative loans or the platforms themselves. The survey also shows that among these investors, small business loans are the most desirable:  

• 31% of respondents were interested in investing in small business loans. 
• The other three loan categories – consumer, real estate, and education – each captured the interest of about one-quarter of investors. 

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The results show that ultimately, investors are seeking opportunities in lending platforms across the board, but small businesses might lead the pack because there's high borrower-side demand in this area – small businesses are often highly likely to be rejected from receiving a loan at a traditional bank. This is because it is less profitable for banks to lend money to them –  it is just as costly to underwrite a small business loan compared to a larger loan with higher returns.

Marketplace lenders use a different underwriting model that makes it easier and quicker for businesses to gain access to financing, and therefore, these businesses are beginning to flock to these platforms. 

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In one of the more exciting developments in the Bitcoin space so far this year, noted Bitcoin angel investor and entrepreneur Roger Ver has given his blessing to a Bitcoin 2.0 application, and it’s one that some may have overlooked in the past. Truthcoin, a Bitcoin sidechain designed by Yale Department of Economics Researcher Paul Sztorc, is described as a “peer-to-peer oracle system and prediction marketplace.” The platform is a decentralized method of bringing external data, such as the price of gold or the weather in a particular city, to the blockchain, which can then be used as the basis for complex smart contracts. Roger Ver’s backing of Truthcoin Ver is excited about what may become possible through the use […]

The post Roger Ver Backing Prediction Market Sidechain: ‘May Be the Most Important Invention Since Bitcoin’ appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

London-based bitcoin analytics and security firm Elliptic announced that it has launched “The Bitcoin Big Bang,” an interactive visualization that plots the emergence and interconnectivity of the key players in Bitcoin since its genesis in 2009. Elliptic describes The Bitcoin Big Bang as a breakthrough in bitcoin transaction monitoring and compliance that will help “Bitcoin startups thoughout the UK gain banking services” according to Elliptic COO Dr. Tim Robinson. Elliptic has harnessed the underlying technology supporting the visualization to deliver a full suite of anti-money laundering (AML) services. The API will enable real-time compliance, by alerting recipients of bitcoin payments linked to known thefts, illicit marketplaces and other criminal activity. The visualization identifies more than 250 of the largest entities […]

The post Elliptic Launches Anti-money Laundering Visualization Tool appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

In May, Bitcoin Magazine reported that lead Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen is persuaded that the best solution to the limited Bitcoin transactions rate – the Bitcoin network can currently process only a few transactions per second — is to increase the maximum block size. Andresen argued that if the proposed solution is not urgently implemented the Bitcoin network will become oversaturated, and developed code for a proposed Bitcoin hard fork that would allow any block with a timestamp on or after March 1, 2016 to be up to 20 megabytes. However, not everyone agrees that Andresen’s proposal is the best path forward. The MIT Technology Review published a review, titled “Leaderless Bitcoin Struggles to Make Its Most Crucial Decision,” of […]

The post BitTorrent Creator Criticizes Increased Block Size Proposals appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin payment processor and e-wallet provider Snapcard has announced the launch of its MassPay platform today. This new platform and API will allow businesses to send cross-border payments of all sizes to their users en masse with nothing more than an email address, phone number, or Bitcoin address on file. MassPay also allows businesses to make these mass payments without having to worry about the volatility risk associated with bitcoin, and the platform could be seen as highly advantageous for a variety of online industries. How it works Snapcard has provided Bitcoin Magazine with an internal company brief on how the MassPay system works: A merchant or business decides it wants to integrate with the MassPay API, and Snapcard credits […]

The post Snapcard Launches MassPay for Bitcoin-Powered Cross-Border Payments appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The largest online narcotics emporium in the world surpassed its most famous competitor, Silk Road, just one year after launching.

The site is now the biggest online black market to ever operate on the dark web.

Agora launched in September 2013 as a marketplace for illicit goods accessible via the anonymous browser, Tor.

It has thrived ever since, and was unaffected by Operation Onymous — a November 2014 crackdown that led to the demise of several other high profile dark markets including Silk Road, Cloud 9, and Hydra.

"Silk Road may have had more monetary transactions, but Agora has far more drugs for sale," Aamir Lakhani, senior security strategist at Fortinet, told Business Insider. 

Between January 29, 2014, and August 22, 2014, Agora's drug listings increased from 32,029 to 46,906, according to a Digital Citizens Alliance report cited by the International Business Times. The site's total listings, including weapons and other services, rose from 41,207 to 65,595 over the same period.

'The deep web is kind of like an iceberg'

When the founder and creator of Silk Road, 31-year-old Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, Judge Katherine B. Forrest said she hoped his harsh punishment would deter potential copy-cats.

"Anyone who might consider following in your footsteps needs to understand clearly and without equivocation that if you break the law this way, there will be very serious consequences," Forrest said during last month's sentencing.

But Forrest underestimated the extent to which the dark net is thriving: Agora was formed almost immediately after Silk Road was shut down, and is far from the only illicit marketplace selling drugs, weapons, and other illegal services to those who know how to search for them.

Accessed via the anonymous Tor browser, Agora shares the dark net with more temporary "ghost markets" where people "can buy basically anything they want" before the markets disappear without a trace, Lakhani explained.

"The deep web — anything not searchable by Google — is kind of like an iceberg," Lakhani said. "Only about 30% of it is actually visible, and some say it is around 1,000 times larger than web we use every day."

Items and services for sale range from fake passports and credit cards to hitmen and witness protection information, all of which can be bought with impunity thanks to Tor's anonymity.

"When most people talk about deep web, they’re mostly talking about Tor, which uses onion routing," Lakhani explained. "Just as an onion has multiple layers, onion rooting on Tor protects people's identities by wrapping layers around their communications" that are impenetrable — and thereby untraceable — by either party.

Smarter than Silk Road

Agora has managed to evade the law in large part because, unlike Ross Ulbricht, the site's administrators are incredibly cybersavvy.

"With enough digging, law enforcement officials could easily connect the dots that made Silk Road get caught," Lakhani said. 

Agora’s administrators, on the other hand, "haven’t displayed any of the political bravado of Dread Pirate Roberts, who frequently posted libertarian manifestos in Silk Road’s user forums and even hosted an online book club around topics in free market economic theory," writes Andy Greenberg in Wired.

"Agora’s staff ... have been tightlipped in its user forums," Greenberg adds, "largely responding to administrative issues like site downtime and scammers."

Agora has also carefully stayed under the radar, only allowing users with official "invite codes" to access the site, giving buyers and sellers "a sense that they’ve been vetted and that some people have been weeded out” such as undercover law enforcement officials, a researcher from Digital Citizen’s Alliance told Wired.

Moreover, unlike Silk Road 2.0 — a spinoff of its predecessor — Agora has yet to suffer a single major security breach or lose any of its customers' bitcoins.

SEE ALSO: A professional hacker explains how he dupes people into clicking on malicious links

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Tango Card will now offer bitcoin as a reward option for recipients of its e-rewards, alongside gift cards for popular brands such as Amazon.

A company's 'ultimate stress test' on the bitcoin network failed before it finished, but did produce some valuable information about transaction fees.

The second of two former U.S. government agents charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in bitcoin has reached a plea agreement with the prosecutors. Carl Force, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, was charged with stealing bitcoins during the investigation of the illegal Silk Road Internet drug emporium, according to Bloomberg. The investigation led to the conviction of Ross Ulbricht, the site’s founder. Force agreed to plead guilty to money laundering and extortion, according to a court filing Monday. Force Extorted Payments from Ulbricht Without telling his superiors, Force used the alias “French Maid” to extort […]

The post Second U.S. Agent To Plead Guilty to Bitcoin Theft appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

Crytek, a German video-game developer known for its highly realistic video-games and its high performance game engine CryEngine, is preparing to push into Virtual Reality (VR) gaming, UploadVR reports.

The post Crytek Moves to Go Full VR, Announces Awesome Virtual Reality Game appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

N M Rothschild have been at the heart of advising the UK Government on the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) sale. The RBS was rescued by the taxpayer several years ago to the tune of £45.8bn. Now, the shares that the government owns, allegedly on behalf of its people, are being sold off at a £7bn loss to private investors. It has been revealed, not too publicly, however, that the esteemed and noble house of Rothschild have advised the government to sell now and sell cheap. You won’t find the mainstream media reporting on Rothschild involvement in this. “Independent Advice.” […]

The post Rothschild Advises United Kingdom Government to Sell Royal Bank of Scotland appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

Barclays is working with a startup to explore how it could use the technology underpinning bitcoin in everyday banking.

Finextra reports that the bank has signed a deal with Safello, a Swedish company that was on its fintech accelerator programme in London, to explore how the blockchain could be used in traditional finance.

Finextra says the deal involves Safello, which operates an online exchange for bitcoin, working with Barclays on "proof of concepts" — testing traditional banking processes on the blockchain to prove they work.

The blockchain is the software that underpins bitcoin. It powers transactions and automatically keeps a decentralised record of them — recording who paid who and how much. This stops coins being spent more than once and allows the currency to function without a central regulating authority.

Banks are interested in this for several reasons but the main two are speed and cost. Banks operate on old legacy systems that mean things like sending money internationally is slow and costly. The blockchain, built from scratch, doesn't have many of the same issues.

A report co-authored by Santander earlier this month estimated that blockchain technology could reduce banks' infrastructure costs by up to $20 billion (£12.8 billion) a year.

Understandably then, Barclays isn't the only financial institution interested in the blockchain. UBS has set up a blockchain "lab" in Canary Wharf and Santander is also experimenting with the technology. A senior executive from the Spanish bank recently told Business Insider that Santander has identified "20 to 25 use cases" for the technology.

Goldman Sachs has also invested in bitcoin startup Circle and stock exchange operator Nasdaq is tinkering with the blockchain.

But despite the interest from traditional financial operators, most think the blockchain won't be adopted anytime soon. Because of regulatory and scale issues, it can take banks years to adopt new technology, let alone cutting edge software.

Bitpay CEO Stephen Pair told Business Insider recently he thinks it will be at least 5 years before any bank adopts even a watered down version of the blockchain.

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The biggest topic in Bitcoin over the last month has been what to do with the size of blocks within the block chain. Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen have been vocal and influential proponents of a size from 1 MB o 20 MB blocks to ease the growth of Bitcoin as a global currency. At this current 1 MB rate, they say the network will enter a logjam situation within the next year, and this is the preventative maintenance needed that would help the situation both in the short-term and the long-term. I spoke to Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis […]

The post Please Raise the Block Size: Bitcoin Mining Community Poll appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.