Coin News

"Consensus is hard." Issued by developer Peter Todd, the statement does much to sum up the state of debate in the bitcoin community, the loose term for the sprawling network of users, miners, node operators, global investors, hobbyists and CEOs who have an interest in the future of bitcoin, an open-source software project responsible for […]

 In the beginning, Bitcoin was a noble experiment. Now, it is a distraction. Read More

In a significant announcement today, the largest ever deal of its kind in the Bitcoin industry saw leading European bitcoin exchange Kraken acquire bitcoin exchanges Coinsetter and CaVirtEx. In a statement today, Kraken announced it is acquiring New York-based exchange Coinsetter and Canada’s first bitcoin exchange CaVirtEx. The world’s largest bitcoin exchange will fully absorb […]

The post Kraken Buys Coinsetter and Cavirtex, Enters the US & Canadian Markets appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Every financial regulatory body around the world seems to be trying to wrap their heads around Bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology these days, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC ) in the United States is not immune to this trend.

Simply defining bitcoin as an asset has proved to be a difficult task for many regulatory agencies around the world, as some claim it is a commodity while others view it as a currency . The CFTC ruled that bitcoin is a commodity in late 2015.

To gain a better understanding of Bitcoin, the blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, the CFTC is adding an experienced bitcoin trading expert, LedgerX CEO Paul L. Chou , to their committee of technology advisers. The independent agency of the U.S. government will also take time to focus on these new technologies in their first meeting of 2016.

LedgerX CEO Paul L. Chou Appointed to Technology Committee

The CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) was originally created in 1999 with the purpose of advising the regulatory body on the impact new technologies could have on futures markets. Regulatory and legislative recommendations are also made by the TAC. Current members of the committee include CME Group CCM Bryan Durkin, Credit Suisse Managing Director Jeffrey Jennings, Goldman Sachs Managing Director Pierre Lamy, and BlackRock Managing Director Supurna VedBrat.

Paul L. Chou worked at Goldman Sachs creating and operating algorithmic trading strategies before transitioning to the Bitcoin world in 2011. With his company, LedgerX, Chou intends to build the first fully-regulated and CFTC-approved exchange for trading bitcoin options. Chou has bachelors degrees in computer science and mathematics from MIT.

First Meeting of 2016 to Cover Bitcoin and Blockchain

In addition to adding a bitcoin luminary to their technology team, the CFTC also plans to focus on Bitcoin and the blockchain during their first meeting of 2016. The public meeting will take place on January 26th at 9:45 a.m. in Washington, D.C. The specific aspect of the blockchain that will be focused on is the potential of this new technology for derivatives markets.

Members of the public may submit written statements in connection with the meeting. In addition to Bitcoin and blockchain technology, the CFTC will also cover the proposed Regulation Automated Trading and swap data standardization.

More Details on LedgerX

LedgerX is one of the few Bitcoin-related companies that involves a large number of individuals who have high levels of experience in finance and regulatory compliance. LedgerX’s board of directors includes Former CFTC Chairman Jim Newsome and former Ameritrade CEO Tom Lewis. Former CFTC Commissioner Mark Wetjen also sits on the board of the LedgerX holding company, Ledger Holdings Inc. Google Ventures was an early investor in the trading platform.

LedgerX is currently awaiting regulatory approval from the CFTC to trade and clear bitcoin options. With such close ties to the industry’s main regulatory body in the United States, it would seem approval of this exchange and clearinghouse is imminent.

Kyle Torpey is a freelance journalist who has been following Bitcoin since 2011. His work has been featured on VICE Motherboard, Business Insider, RT’s Keiser Report, and many other media outlets. You can follow @kyletorpey on Twitter.

The post CFTC Appoints Bitcoin Expert, First 2016 Meeting Will Have Blockchain Focus appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

 According to Bitcoinity, Kraken is the largest EUR bitcoin exchange in the world with Bit-x and Gatecoin not far behind. But Kraken has one weakness — there isn’t much volume when it comes to other currencies. The company is trying to fix that by acquiring Coinsetter to expand to the U.S. and Canada — for real this time. Read More

By Ben Hirschler

DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Confidence about near-term sales growth among chief executives around the world has fallen to its lowest level in six years as China's economic engine slows and a slump in oil prices signals deep unease about the global outlook.

A survey of more than 1,400 CEOs released on Tuesday on the eve of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos paints a gloomy picture, as corporate leaders contemplate a rising tide of threats.

Despite the trillions of dollars of stimulus and ultra-easy money that central banks have pumped into the system since the 2008 financial crash, just 27 percent of CEOs expect global economic growth to improve over the next 12 months, compared with 37 percent at the same time last year.

China, whose demand helped bring the world back from the brink last time around, is at the center of concerns.

"You've got the second largest economy in the world that until now has seen very, very good growth rates when many others were really struggling, and now we are seeing a real slowdown," said Dennis Nally, chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which conducted the annual corporate health check.

"There are big concerns with regard to currency and the stock market, and there are real questions about what this means for China's ability to transform its economy."

The latest official data on Tuesday showed China's growth in 2015 was 6.9 percent, the lowest in a quarter of a century, adding to problems facing the government as it tries to transition from a centrally planned to a more market-oriented economy.

LITTLE CHEER

There is little to cheer CEOs elsewhere in the world.

"Europe and North America are doing okay but if you look at many emerging markets, there are real concerns," Alex Molinaroli, chief executive of industrial group Johnson Controls, told Reuters.

Molinaroli, whose company has major operations in China, does not think the country's economic fundamentals are as bad as the recent slump in the local stock market might suggest, but he worries about the ripples spreading from China.

“We’re seeing the impact on commodities, especially oil, and that is going to have major ramifications. The energy sector is what has got everybody as nervous as anything else,” he said.

Only 35 percent of CEOs in the PwC survey said they were "very confident" of growing their company's revenue in the next 12 months, down from 39 percent in 2015 and the lowest reading since 2010.

Confidence among U.S. bosses fell to 33 percent from 46 percent in 2015, echoing similar declines in other Western countries including Germany and Britain.

India was a rare bright spot among major economies in bucking the downbeat mood, with confidence in short-term sales growth rising to 64 percent from 62 percent.

Swiss CEOs, meanwhile, took the prize as the most pessimistic in the world, with a confidence reading of just 16 percent, down from 24 percent a year ago, after the "frankenshock" of January 2015, which saw the franc surge.

The PwC survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2015 in 83 countries.

"You can imagine that if we had done it in the first weeks of January then the picture would have been even gloomier," Nally said.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Join the conversation about this story »

In a new major report submitted by the Chief Scientific Adviser of the UK today, UK government Chief Scientist Sir Mark Walport explained the innovation has the potential to help governance to politicians and leaders of authority. The report, titled ‘Distributed Ledger Technology: Beyond Block chain’ sees Sir Mark Walport explain how distributed ledger technology or […]

The post The UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Scientist Recommends Bitcoin’s Blockchain appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin exchange Kraken has announced it has purchased Coinsetter in what amounts to one of the larger mergers of notable brands in the bitcoin ecosystem. As a result of the undisclosed deal, Kraken’s exchange will now be available in 37 US states as well as all 10 Canadian provinces. Coinsetter had previously acquired Canadian bitcoin exchange […]

BitGo Inc., a multi-signature security company, announced the release of its newest product, BitGo Instant, which removes transaction delays completely.

Along with its announcement of BitGo Instant, the company has also announced its launch partners for instant transactions.

“At the beginning of this week, we had six partners. At the end, we had 10. It’s not all exchanges,” Ben Davenport, CTO of BitGo, told Bitcoin Magazine . “We have a few consumer-facing apps like Fold App. All of these guys are signed up to receive BitGo transactions. Anyone with a BitGo wallet will be able to send to these businesses instantly and be credited on their exchange trading account.”

The company announced that it had signed up Bitfinex, Bitstamp, CoinHacko, Fold, Korbit, Kraken, SFOX, ShapeShift, Genesis Trading, and Unocoin.

When a bitcoin transaction is sent, it is not considered safe until it has been included in a block of transactions (“confirmed”) by a miner and been published to the network. The more confirmations that a transaction has, the harder it is to alter that transaction.

The problem is that a confirmation takes approximately 10 minutes, which is the average time it takes for a miner to find a block. For high-value transactions, many Bitcoin companies require 6 confirmations of a transactions, which should take about an hour.

BitGo Instant works on the same multi-signature technology that BitGo uses for security. Each BitGo Instant wallet has three keys. One is held by the user, one is held by BitGo, and the final is held by a third-party key recovery service (KRS). Any time that a transaction takes place, it necessitates two signatures: the user and BitGo. To commit a double spend, a user would have to collude with the KRS.

“What this allows us to do is, since we have a relationship with the KRS, they will have to communicate with BitGo before they execute an action for a user. As long as the KRS is being the disaster recovery, we’re not worried,” Davenport explained. In essence, if the KRS is used to sign a transaction, it will have to tell BitGo, which will then lock the wallet from participating in BitGo Instant.

Because BitGo is so confident in its ability to offer instant transactions without the fear of double spends, BitGo is willing to cover the cost of any bad transactions.

“What we actually do is, when we sign one of these transactions, we produce a cryptographically signed guarantee with financial backing, which is available to the recipient. If that transaction fails to get confirmed within a certain timeframe, for whatever reason, then they’re eligible to make a claim against BitGo and be compensated,” Davenport said. He went on to say that this differed from its insurance policy, which is meant to protect against theft on a BitGo wallet. “We have not had any claims on that. This is separate. This is backed by BitGo directly.”

Arbitrage Opportunities Become Available

One use case for BitGo Instant is the possibility for arbitrage between exchanges. The price of Bitcoin can vary between different exchanges, so there’s an opportunity for a trader to make a profit by buying at one price and selling at another. Traders can miss out on these opportunities when transferring from one exchange to the other because of the waiting time needed for confirmations in the blockchain.

Davenport explained that, while this isn’t the primary use case, it is certainly one that they had considered because there are so many exchanges that use its technology.

“Kraken and Bitstamp have signed up to allow their customers to do direct withdrawal. You would be able to move bitcoin instantly from Bitstamp to BitFinex, and from Bitfinex to Kraken and then to any of our other BItGo Instant partners,” Davenport said.

But while the ability to move bitcoin from one exchange to the other would provide some level of arbitrage for selling bitcoin, there remains the fiat problem for arbitrageurs.

“We recognize this doesn’t completely solve the problem for arbitrageurs because there is the fiat currency side of arbitrage. Unfortunately, fiat still moves at the Old World speed,” he said.

“I think what makes BitGo Instant different is transactions are on-Bitcoin-blockchain (no additional new blockchain or hardware); our network is open access. Anyone can get an Instant-send-capable wallet. Anyone can receive it. And the technology is available today and is easy to integrate,” Davenport said.

BitGo Instant Open to All

“Anybody can query if a transaction is guaranteed by BitGo even if you don’t have a BitGo wallet. That side is completely free,” Davenport explained. By utilizing the BitGo API, any business could integrate with BitGo Instant to open up the potential for 0-confirmation transactions backed by BitGo.

“There is a charge on the sender side. When you want to send the BitGo Instant transaction, there is a 0.1 percent fee paid to BitGo. Anything below 1BTC is free.”

Fundamentally, what BitGo is offering is its assurance that it will be able to catch every attempt at a double spend, thus preventing individuals from defrauding others with 0-confirmation transactions.

“People just want to know that someone has their back on a transaction, and that’s all they want. They know that BitGo stands behind its transactions,” Davenport said.

Jacob Cohen Donnelly is a consultant and journalist in the Bitcoin space. He runs a weekly newsletter about bitcoin called Crypto Brief .

The post BitGo Announces Launch of BitGo Instant for Zero-Confirmation Bitcoin Transactions appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin price is winding sideways for a second day. Supposedly neutral GDP and Production data out of China failed to catalize a market move earlier today. 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. […]

The post Bitcoin Price Direction Undecided appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin security company BitGo has announced a new feature – BitGo Instant which promises instant settlement for bitcoin transactions. The service also guarantees recipients a compensation via a claim fulfilled by BitGo, if the transaction isn’t confirmed on the blockchain. In an announcement via a press release today, BitGo has launched BitGo Instant, a service […]

The post ‘BitGo Instant’ Promises Real-Time Bitcoin Transfers appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Adding to the fast developing ecosystem of businesses looking to leverage blockchain technology with remittances, BTL Group LTD. has announced that it will begin showcasing its new technology at the BC Tech Summit on January 18th and 19th in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They’re launching Interbit, a remittance platform along with a live demo showing […]

The post BTL Unveils Blockchain Remittance Technology Interbit appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Via Dave Lutz at JonesTrading, here's a quick guide to what traders are talking about before the first day of trading this week. 

Good Morning! US markets bouncing from their August/September lows – with the S&P up 1.7% in the early go as #s from MS and BAC roll across the wires. China data, stability in the Oil complex, oversold conditions and expiry headwinds fading all contributing to the risk-taking early. Overseas markets are all much stronger, with the DAX up 2.3% as every major sector jumps. Huge rally by miners and energy companies in London have the FTSE up 2%, while Energy leaping 3% has the Stoxx rallying sharply on 1.6x normal volume. Oil bid is helping Middle Eastern markets recover from this weekend’s smackdown – Saudi is nearing up 4% on the day. Over in Asia, Doves buying in China as their GDP slowest in 25years - Shanghai Composite rebounded 3.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng 2.1% - the Nikkei rose for the first time in 4 days, adding 40bp, while Aussie was lifted by almost 1% on the back of the miners – All Emerging Markets staged a decent rally from 6Y lows.

Haven trades are coming off fast, with the US 10YY up 5bp, following Bund Yields higher. The $ is making gains against Euro ahead of the ECB later this week, while Commodity Currencies like the Loonie, Kiwi $, Aussie $, and Ruble are all stronger as resources recover. The DXY is bid against the basket tho, as Yen breaking lower as investors anticipate BOJ action later this month.  Thanks the China bid, Base Metals enjoying gains: Copper up 2.5%, Nickel and Platinum 1%+ - while Haven selling is pressuring Gold by 50bp early. Iran announced its full return to the global oil market by ordering an immediate increase in production, and the IEA warns on oversupply this AM – but the Oil complex is rallying with WTI up 1.7% and trying to get back upside $30 in the early hours. Natty Gas is adding 3% as the Northeast eyeballs cold temperatures and a nasty winter storm this weekend. Grains are all showing a bid this AM

Relatively quiet day as the US returns from a 3day weekend – at 10 we get the NAHB Housing Market Index, ahead of Net Long-term TIC Flows at 4pm from the US Treasury. Down in Washington, President Obama meets with Australia Prime Minister Turnbull at 11:20; the EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski testifies at Senate Energy and Natural Resources Cmte hearing on near-term outlook for energy, commodity markets – and the Congressional Budget Office releases projection of federal deficit, forecast for economic growth over next decade. We get some tech heavyweights reporting tonight (AMD, CREE, IBM, LLTC, NFLX), along with the PBS documentary on vitamins and the supplements industry (VSI, GNC, HLF). API data has been pushed to tomorrow night due to the Holiday (DoE Thursday).

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Astronauts found something troubling in these shots from space

BitGo has launched a new service that aims to allow clients to accept transactions prior to their official confirmation on the bitcoin blockchain.

BitGo's guarantee of funds could be a boon to traders as well as merchants selling digital products.

Drama engulfed the Bitcoin industry over the weekend as longtime developer Mike Hearn announced his departure from the Bitcoin space. As Hearn announced he had divested from Bitcoin in December, Bitcoin Classic – a successor to Bitcoin-XT as a new client – appeared on the scene as a possible new implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. […]

The post Bitcoiners Speak Out After Mike Hearn’s Departure appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A high-profile developer made waves last week with the explosive claim that bitcoin has "failed."

Mike Hearn, who has worked around the digital currency for five years, announced he was leaving the bitcoin community and selling all his coins. "The network is on the brink of technical collapse," he wrote, and "there’s no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system."

Hearn has taken a job at R3, a financial services startup backed by dozens of major banks — and he now denies that his bombastic departure is part of a "banker conspiracy" targeting bitcoin.

Bitcoin vs. the blockchain

Bitcoin has no central authority verifying transactions like traditional currencies do. Instead, it uses a decentralised ledger that is spread across the bitcoin network. This records every transaction to avoid coins being spent twice. This ledger is called the blockchain.

Bitcoin, despite the hype that has sometimes accompanied it, has so far failed to achieve much mainstream traction. Ordinary people just aren't using the digital currency. BitPay, a high-profile bitcoin-payments app, told Business Insider in June 2015: "We keep adding merchants — we're up to over 60,000 now — but they're selling to the same pool of Bitcoin early adopters."

However, people — and investors — are getting excited about the blockchain itself. Many banks view the blockchain as a potential way to streamline their businesses and reduce costs. In effect, a technology designed to destroy the banks is being used to make them more efficient.

R3 is one of the most prominent of these efforts. It's a startup backed by some of the biggest financial institutions around, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, UBS, and dozens more. And now former bitcoin evangelist Mike Hearn, who walked away from a job at Google to work on the digital currency, is joining the company as he turns on bitcoin.

Hearn's complaints

Hearn had a few complaints about the current state of bitcoin. These include:

The blocksize debate. There's a technical upper limit on how many transactions the blockchain can process a second — putting a limit on how much the digital currency can grow. This limit could be raised if sufficient people on the bitcoin network vote with their feet and move to a new software client that supports it.

Hearn has been a vocal advocate of this upgrade, and in August 2015 he launched Bitcoin XT with Gavin Andresen, a core developer of bitcoin, that would do this.

But the upgrade is controversial, and reveals competing visions for the future of bitcoin. Venture capitalist Fred Wilson likened the discussion to "should Bitcoin be Gold or should Bitcoin be Visa. If it is Gold, it’s a store of wealth and something to peg value to. If it is Visa, then its a transactional network that can move wealth around the globe in a nanosecond."

There's been acrimonious debate — and many users who used XT were targeted by DDoS attacks knocking them offline, discouraging uptake.

Censorship. There have been efforts to block discussion of raising the limit on bitcoin forums. ""For the first time, investors have no obvious way to get a clear picture of what’s going on. Dissenting views are being systematically suppressed," Hearn wrote on Medium. "Technical criticisms of what Bitcoin Core is doing are being banned, with misleading nonsense being peddled in its place. And it’s clear that many people who casually bought into Bitcoin during one of its hype cycles have no idea that the system is about to hit an artificial limit."

Centralisation. Hearn worries that the digital currency is overly centralised — particularly in China. "The block chain is controlled by Chinese miners, just two of whom control more than 50% of the hash power. At a recent conference over 95% of hashing power was controlled by a handful of guys sitting on a single stage."

This centralisation, he argues, betrays bitcoin's original, decentralised vision. "Bitcoin has no future whilst it’s controlled by fewer than 10 people. And there’s no solution in sight for this problem: nobody even has any suggestions. For a community that has always worried about the block chain being taken over by an oppressive government, it is a rich irony."

"Conspiracy theories"

In a follow-up blog post published on Monday, Hearn hit back at the "conspiracy theories" targeting him and his involvement in R3. Hearn denies he's out to undermine bitcoin: "Bitcoin competes with some things banks do but a big part of banking is about lending and trading, and those activities would still occur even in a world where Bitcoin was the one global currency. It’s not a zero sum game, banks and Bitcoin co-exist, and R3’s fate is independent of Bitcoin’s."

He is not, he says, part of "some sort of banker conspiracy."

Bitcoin is currently trading at $384, down from $450 a month ago.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This new phone crushes the iPhone in one key area

Mike Hearn has penned a new post as a follow-up to his much-discussed and debated public farewell to Bitcoin. The world’s media went critical, thermo-nuclear critical, when Mike Hearn – a former core developer in the open-source project that is Bitcoin, deemed it a ‘failed experiment’ and revealed he was done with the cryptocurrency. Hearn’s […]

The post Mike Hearn Disputes Claims of a Banking Conspiracy against Bitcoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.