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The bulls stampeded bitcoin price higher in a corrective advance on Monday and ran into a trap of their own making. When exuberant CNY buyers failed to advance price above the 1-day 200MA, the noise in the trading pit awoke The Bear. 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: 15h02 UTC OKCoin-3Mth 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: The OKCoin 3Mth futures 1-hour chart and a look […]

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The international R3 blockchain project to develop blockchain commercial applications and standards for the financial world just got a whole lot weightier as 13 new global banks joined the distributed or “shared” ledger initiative.

R3, the international financial innovation firm, based in New York, London and San Francisco, is a multidisciplinary team including experts from the worlds of electronic banking, new tech startups, and cryptography and digital currencies development, aiming to “define, design and deliver the next generation of financial technology.”

The 13 new banks joining the project are:

• Bank of America
• BNY Mellon
• Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
• Citi
• Commerzbank
• Deutsche Bank
• HSBC
• Morgan Stanley
• National Australia Bank
• Royal Bank of Canada
• SEB
• Societe Generale
• Toronto-Dominion Bank

These banks join current project members Barclays, BBVA, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, State Street and UBS.

“The addition of this new group of banks demonstrates widespread support for innovative distributed ledger solutions across the global financial services community, and we're delighted to have them on board," R3 CEO and former ICAP Electronic Broking CEO David Rutter said in a press release.

"We have placed an emphasis on working with the market from day one, and our partners recognize that a collaborative model is the best way to quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively deliver these new technologies to global financial markets," Rutter said.

As Bitcoin Magazine previously reported , Rutter has recruited Nichola Hunter, former ICAP trading executive; Richard Brown, a technology expert formerly with IBM UK; and Tim Swanson, a U.S.-based cryptocurrencies consultant, to work in a collaborative lab environment or "sandbox" to test and validate blockchain applications, prototypes and protocols.

This major project brings together not only the experts, but also the considerable resources of 22 big banks to collaborate on “research, experimentation, design and engineering to help advance state-of-the-art enterprise-scale shared ledger solutions to meet banking requirements for security, reliability, performance, scalability and audit.”

Photo Clément Bardot / Wikimedia(CC)

The post R3 Blockchain Development Initiative Grows to 22 Banks Worldwide appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The original Nexus 5 was has remained one of my favorite phones since its launch. It, and the original Moto X, just fit in my hand so perfectly, and yet it was fast as hell. It was crippled by truly terrible battery life, though, and when longer-lasting phones came along I couldn’t help but switch.

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It’s well known that bitcoin transactions are not anonymous. Every transaction and the full transaction history of any bitcoin address are permanently recorded in the tamper-proof public blockchain and open to analysis. A bitcoin addresses isn’t explicitly associated to its owner, but blockchain network analysis can often de-anonymize bitcoin users.

Bitcoin Magazine recently reported that two companies, Chainalysis and Elliptic , sell sophisticated blockchain network analysis tools and services to trace bitcoin transactions back to their participants, and de-anonymize users. Such services often anger libertarian early adopters, but the direction of the evolutionary trend in the Bitcoin space is clear – governments and financial institutions are gradually warming up to blockchain technology as a means to achieve faster, cheaper and better recorded transactions, but consider privacy and anonymity as bugs that need to be fixed.

Recommended privacy practices, from simple measures such as using fresh Bitcoin addresses for new transactions to strong privacy measures such as dark wallets and mixing services, reduce the risk of being de-anonymized, but there are documented attack strategies that often permit identifying bitcoin users by IP. Using the Tor network provides additional privacy protection by masking the user’s IP, but ways to work around Tor privacy have been found.

Now two researchers from the ATR Defense Science & Technology Lab at Shenzhen University, in China, have published a white paper titled “Transaction Remote Release (TRR): A New Anonymization Technology for Bitcoin .” The researchers propose a new anonymization technology called Transaction Remote Release (TRR). Inspired by Tor, TRR is able to render several typical attack strategies ineffective. “Furthermore, the performance of encryption and decryption of TRR is good and the growth rate of the cipher is very limited,” say the researchers. “Hence, TRR is suited for practical applications.”

“In the Bitcoin protocol, the only way that the attackers can connect the Bitcoin address with an IP address is in the process of releasing and spreading a new transaction,” note the researchers. Therefore, they propose to encrypt the new transaction and obfuscate the source IP of the sender.

TRR is inspired by the idea of encryption and decryption layer by layer as used in Tor. A client encrypts a new transaction, layer by layer, using the public key from different TRR nodes. Then it establishes an independent connection to other TRR nodes, one by one, without using the spreading mechanism of the Bitcoin network.

When a TRR node receives data, it will decrypt it using its private key. Then it transmits the remaining data to the next node. When the last TRR node is reached, it will release the transaction to the Bitcoin network. Every node knows its previous node and next node. Only the client and the last node know the content of the transaction but the last node does not know the IP address of the client.

The researchers analyze several possible de-anonymization attack strategies, including Bitcoin protocol sniffers, the Sybil attack, Sybil attack plus entry nodes, fake Bitcoin nodes and fake TRR nodes attack, and conclude that TRR can help clients gain strong anonymity.

"In addition, the experiments show that the performance of the TRR multi-layered encryption and decryption algorithm is satisfactory in practice and the growth rate of cipher text is very limited,” note the researchers in the conclusion.

The researchers acknowledge that the current TRR proposal is vulnerable to DoS attacks based on fake TRR requests, and state that further research to eliminate this weakness is ongoing.

But another weakness is that implementing TRR would require changes to the Bitcoin protocol. That is a serious weakness, because it seems evident that, in the privacy-as-bug climate that is developing around Bitcoin, there is just no way modifications to Bitcoin Core explicitly aimed at anonymity could ever be accepted.

Therefore, it might make more sense to consider implementing TRR in a privacy-enhanced sidechain. The modifications to Bitcoin Core required for implementing sidechains are justified by general considerations much more acceptable from a mainstream perspective. Sidechain Elements , the first experimental code base for sidechains released by Blockstream, includes confidential transactions, and a sidechain implementation of TRR could be a workable way to sneak privacy in.

The popular website Daily Dot covered the TRR white paper and noted that TRR first emerged in 2014 during the development of DarkNetCoin, a niche cryptocurrency focused on anonymity. Unfortunately the conclusion of the Daily Dot article, “Bitcoin did not respond to a request for comment about TRR,” reveals that the mainstream press still has basic things to learn about Bitcoin.

The post Transaction Remote Release, a Tor-Inspired Proposed Change to Bitcoin Protocol for Anonymous Transactions appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Previously reported by Bitcoin Magazine , bitcoin and gold exchange Vaultoro has reached $1 million in gold trading volume, recording an average monthly trading growth rate of 91 percent and rapid increase of its user base. Following its milestone, Vaultoro plans to expand its team and services internationally, to become the “key ingredient for the 2.6 billon under-banked” individuals all around the globe.

Gold has been the international store of value for thousands of years. Unlike bitcoin or fiat money, gold has proved to be a stable universal currency with very low volatility. Based on the five-year gold chart taken from Infomine.com , the gold price in January 1, 2010 stood at around $1,100. At this time of writing, the price of gold is around $1,130, recording a mere $30 difference over the last five years.

Brothers Joshua and Philip Scigala developed Vaultoro to allow the underbanked population to escape the volatility of bitcoin and store their wealth in physical gold.

“We built Vaultoro so people anywhere in the world can hedge the bitcoin price volatility without going back to fiat but by instantly parking any value in gold. Gold gets its value from the markets and not by government dictate. It is also globally recognized as a store of value. It has lasted more than 3,000 years, whereas no paper fiat currency has lasted more than 200 without collapsing with terrible consequences for the holder,” Joshua Scigala told Bitcoin Magazine.

“We see Vaultoro being a key ingredient for the 2.5 billion underbanked in the world to be able to accept payment from all around the world with bitcoin, hold that value in assigned gold and then spend it within seconds using bitcoin again,” added Scigala.

Currently, Vaultoro stores all of its physical gold in a Swiss high-security vault, 100 percent insured against theft, fire and other eventualities. Unlike most of fiat-to-gold bitcoin exchanges, Vaultoro will deliver gold bars in physical form to their users at any time.

Vaultoro to Launch a Point of Sales App

Online merchants, especially in Latin America and Southeast Asia have fallen victim to the highly volatile nature of bitcoin and time and time again. Today, there are very few platforms that enable users to hedge the value of bitcoin to another asset.

With an aim to serve small and medium-sized bitcoin merchants in underbanked regions, Vaultoro plans to launch a point of sales application that “will allow merchants to choose their hedge, meaning a 50/50 split or a 10/90 split between bitcoin they get in and gold they hold. We are looking at possible partnerships with ATMs and mobile payment providers in these regions so they can hook up to our system via API and use gold and bitcoin directly or indirectly through us,” Scigala told Bitcoin Magazine.

“Lock-in Service”

A few bitcoin platforms such as Coinapult offer a bitcoin “lock-in” service that allows users to lock in the price of bitcoin to the price of another asset has been popular in the United States and Latin America. The Vaultoro team found the idea of a gold-to-bitcoin lock-in service interesting, but they believe that the lock-in feature would contradict the fundamental philosophy that wealth is backed by real physical assets.

“When someone trades into gold on Vaultoro they actually buy physical gold that is secured as their property in their name. The gold is held in what’s called a bailment contract meaning we secure someone else’s property (just like self-storage facilities hold your furniture). By offering to lock in someone’s bitcoin to a certain price we would be moving away from the fundamental philosophy that wealth is backed by real physical assets and not by a promise to lock a price and deliver on that,” said Scigala.

Instead, the Vaultoro team may look into diamonds or other physical assets that are even more stable than gold.

Investments

Currently, Vaultoro is considering a funding round to maintain its services and expand its team. The Vaultoro team is exploring a few options including crowdfunding campaigns and venture capital investments.

The post Vaultoro Seeks to Provide a Store of Value to the Underbanked World Using Gold and Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The spectre of a rates increase keeps being dangled in front of markets. The tension has become too much for many investors and on Monday Asia began another wave of shares selling. The commodities rout extends to producers. This post is powered by the Bitcoin Trading Network xbt.social - CCN29 and get 29USD off! Economic Indicators World Indexes and Forex Rates   Commodities In the Calendar This Week Mon 28 September US FOMC Member Dudley Speaks US Pending Home Sales m/m (actual:-1.4% expected:0.4% previous:0.5%) Tue 29 September US CB Consumer Confidence (expected:96.2 previous: 101.5) Wed 30 September New Zealand ANZ […]

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El Niño describes an unusual warming of Pacific Ocean surface temperatures. It’s a well-established and recurring phenomenon that happens once or twice each decade. It disrupts weather patterns around the world, causing floods, draughts and ripple effects of varying intensity. Simply put, in addition to playing havoc with the economies of affected countries, it can kill companies. How real is it? Let’s put it this way: while comedians still poke fun at global warming and all-things-climate-change-related, El Niño isn’t even joked about anymore.

13 more banks have joined the coalition of leading Wall Street and City names looking to take the technology that underpins bitcoin to the mainstream financial sector.

Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Citi, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, National Australia Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, SEB, Societe Generale and Toronto-Dominion Bank have all joined the partnership.

It takes the total number of banks involved to 22 and the list reads like a who's who of investment banking. Founding members of the partnership, first announced 2 weeks ago, include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and Barclays.

The alliance is being led by R3, a startup with offices in New York and London headed by David Rutter, the former CEO of ICAP Electronic Broking and a 32-year veteran of Wall Street.

Rutter told Business Insider when the partnership was first announced that the plan is to build the "fabric" of blockchain technology for banking, as well as develop commercial applications for banks and financial firms.

The blockchain is the software that both powers and regulates cryptocurrency bitcoin. In its most basic form, it records ownership of bitcoin — money — and transactions, one person paying another.

Transactions are signed off by the parties involved using the software, then added to the blockchain, a long string of code that records all activity.

Once other transactions are added on in front of an exchange, the transaction is stuck there forever and can't be changed, in the same way you can't change a brick once it's been built into a wall.

The software cuts out the need for a "trusted middleman" to sit in between parties in a transaction as it acts as that middleman. This makes transactions quicker, cheaper, and easier when compared to the current systems banks use. 

Banks are therefore keen to see if it can be adapted for use with traditional currency, rather than just bitcoin.

The blockchain uses open ledger technology, meaning all of these transactions are free for anyone to look at and not stashed in some private data centre in Canary Wharf. Anyone can theoretically check to see if someone's using stolen bitcoin and this adds a level of transparency to the system.

Rutter said in an emailed statement today:

The addition of this new group of banks demonstrates widespread support for innovative distributed ledger solutions across the global financial services community, and we’re delighted to have them on board.

We have placed an emphasis on working with the market from day one, and our partners recognise that a collaborative model is the best way to quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively deliver these new technologies to global financial markets.

Join the conversation about this story »

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In a presentation given to Erasmus University in Rotterdam on 26 September, Max Keiser totally lost it when talking about “financial terrorism.” The impassioned speech started with a student question. “You speak about your fraud that you committed as if it was nothing. I don't know much about your personal life, but did you suffer any consequences from that?” To a background of NXT and Keiser's own BnkToTheFuture project (launched with Russell Brand), Keiser regaled students on the virtues of digital currency and the toxicity of traditional markets. However, at one point, seen below, things got shifty. What followed could […]

The post Max Keiser Rants About “Financial Terrorism” to College Students appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In a presentation given to Erasmus University in Rotterdam on 26 September, Max Keiser totally lost it when talking about “financial terrorism.” The impassioned speech started with a student question. “You speak about your fraud that you committed as if it was nothing. I don't know much about your personal life, but did you suffer any consequences from that?” To a background of NXT and Keiser's own BnkToTheFuture project (launched with Russell Brand), Keiser regaled students on the virtues of digital currency and the toxicity of traditional markets. However, at one point, seen below, things got shifty. What followed could […]

The post Max Keiser Rants About “Financial Terrorism” to College Students appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Australian firm DigitalBTC is bowing out of bitcoin mining to focus on its consumer products, its CEO has said.

Anti-fraud startup Ravelin has raised £1.3 million from a host of top investors, including the founder of Wonga and the newly appointed chair of Tech City UK.

Ravelin uses machine learning, combined with human analysis, to detect credit card fraud in "on-demand" businesses — everything from food delivery and car hailing apps to online gambling and subscription businesses.

CEO Martin Sweeney told Business Insider: "We specialise in apps. I mentioned food delivery and taxis, those are big areas in Europe at the moment and we're working very hard in that space. But also online gambling. It's so easy to commit fraud with these new on-demand businesses and it's a tremendous problem for businesses in this space.

"Credit card fraud is a growing business and getting details is getting easier and easier. For example, you can go on to the dark web right now and with a couple of bitcoins you can pay for and download credit card details and it will even give you a money back guarantee in case that card gets spotted for fraud."

Ravelin has raised the £1.3 million, its second round of funding, from early stage venture capital funds Amadeus Capital Partners, Playfair Capital, and Passion Capital, where TechCityUK chair and government fintech envoy Eileen Burbidge is a partner.

Wonga founder Errol Damelin and Indeed.com founder Paul Forster also put money into the early-stage company.

Ravelin has gone through the Barclays TechStars accelerator programme and has been working with business in an early "beta" testing phase for the last 6 months.

Sweeney says: "We apply machine learning principles to stop certain actions and behaviours. But also we allow people to step in if they need to. The high-rollers in the gambling space will be very similar to fraudsters. How do you distinguish from the two?

"The combination of machine learning with human oversight is hugely powerful. We're giving people control while automating the bulk of the work."

The money will go towards building out the product and hiring more staff. London0-based Ravelin currently employs 14 people.

Prior to setting up Ravelin Sweeney worked for missile manufacturer MBDA and he says Ravelin is looking at hiring more people from the defence industry.

He says: "The team here is comprised of people primarily from a software background but we're also adding people now with a very strong security background. We're hiring people out of the Israeli Intelligence Services and a few others."

Join the conversation about this story »

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Mexico's finance ministry has clarified its stance on bitcoin and placed a series of restrictions on transactions involving the digital currency.

MercadoLibre, Latin America's answer to eBay, has announced it is integrating bitcoin into its payments platform, MercadoPago.

Bitcoin and digital currency will take center stage at Money20/20, the largest global event for payments and financial services innovation. The event, now in its fourth year, focuses on connected commerce at the intersection of mobile, retail, marketing services, data and technology. It will be held at the Venetian in Las Vegas from Oct. 25 through 28. With 10,000-plus attendees, including more than 1,000 CEOs, from 3,000 companies and 75 countries, expected, Money20/20 explores disruptive ways in which consumers and businesses manage, spend and borrow money. Money20/20’s agenda covers every aspect of how managing, spending and borrowing money is evolving, including […]

The post Money20/20 In Las Vegas Oct. 25-28: Global Payment And Financial Event To Highlight Bitcoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Storj, a decentralized Internet cloud platform that allows users to store data in a secure manner, announced that the second round of its network testing has reached 1 Petabyte of storage space. In recognition of this milestone, Storj has increased its testing rewards pool tenfold. It has expanded the testing rewards pool from 100,000 Storjcoin X (SJCX), to 1 million SJCX (approximately 71 BTC at the time of writing). World's First Distributed Cloud Storage Platform Storj Labs plans to build the world's first distributed cloud storage platform, allowing anyone to buy and sell storage space on a peer-to-peer network. It […]

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