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Bitcoin Core developers released a new technology roadmap today that charts the project's panned transition from its current digital signature algorithm to a more advanced alternative. If implemented, the proposal would find 'Schnorr signatures' replacing the ECDSA signatures bitcoin uses today to sign transactions. By making the switch, developers argue they can decrease the total data […]

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Many in Mexico have contemplated how Mexico could retaliate against President Donald Trump since he debuted his anti-Mexican rhetoric during the campaign.

In the weeks after Trump's election, as his hardline on trade relations and immigration remained firm, Mexico's government appeared to outline how it could rebuke the US government should it install hostile policies.

"If they place on us a tax on Mexican exports," Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told the Chamber of Deputies in late February, according La Jornada, "we are going to put one on them, but better, because we are going to choose [those exports] which hurt them."

His remarks came a few days after Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Mexico needed to prepare to immediately "take a fiscal action that clearly neutralizes" a potential US border tax.

Now a group of grassroots activists in the US legislators in Mexico are trying to push the US's southern neighbor toward a specific target: corn.

"So a group of us, Mexican immigrants in Arizona, met after the inauguration to talk about what we can do to push back against Trump. We realized that here in Arizona we have lived through similar times" after SB 1070, the Arizona bill that imposed harsh immigration measures, said Daniel Rodriguez, founder of the group No Maiz Gringo.

"Through some research we found that Mexico is a huge importer of American corn, and that the majority of that corn is exported from Midwestern states, such as Nebraska, Indiana, and, of course, Iowa — states who voted heavily in favor of President Trump," Rodriguez said during a press call. "For that reason we agreed that a boycott against American corn would be the most politically and economically effective campaign that we could launch in response to Trump's attacks."

The group was able to pitch the idea to Mexican Sen. Armando Rios Piter, a member of the left-wing PRD representing the state of Guerrero who leads a congressional committee on foreign relations, who in February introduced a measure to "eliminate the dependence on corn imports from the United States."

"I'm going to send a bill for the corn that we are buying in the Midwest and ... change to Brazil or Argentina," Rios Piter, told CNN in mid-February. It's a "good way to tell them that this hostile relationship has consequences, hope that it changes."

"The idea is that, on one hand, Mexico would mobilize a coalition of US corn producers, as well as states like Iowa and Illinois, to lobby the Trump administration and Congress in favor of NAFTA," Roberto Simon, lead political analyst for Latin America at FTI Consulting, told Business Insider.

"On the other, Mexico would start 'looking more to the South' and deepen its economic ties with the rest of Latin America — a decades-old (and largely unfulfilled) promise of Mexican diplomacy."

For Mexico, corn, in everything from a simple tortilla to high-fructose syrup, is a resonant issue — particularly its origin and its price.

The country had long been a hearty producer of the staple good, but its output has steadily declined over the last two decades, as its purchases of corn from the US have risen dramatically — from $391 million in 1995 to $2.5 billion in 2015.

Others have pinned social and economic turmoil Mexico has seen over the last two decades on disruptions in the corn and agricultural markets related to NAFTA.

"As heavily subsidized US corn and other staples poured into Mexico, producer prices dropped and small farmers found themselves unable to make a living," Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas program at the Center for International Policy, wrote in The New York Times in November. "Some two million have been forced to leave their farms since Nafta. At the same time, consumer food prices rose, notably the cost of the omnipresent tortilla."

For No Maiz Gringo, the push to boycott US corn has two fronts, playing on both regional developments and social and economic weight around corn in Mexico.

"The first one is to identify other countries that could potentially sell corn to Mexico. Mexico has already sent a delegation to both Brazil and Argentina, two countries that have already expressed a willingness to sell corn to Mexico at a cheaper price than Mexico is currently getting from the United States," Rodriguez, a lawyer in Arizona, told Business Insider during a press call.

"And second, part of the reason that we have received great support from the Mexican people behind this campaign is because an aim of this campaign is also to pressure Mexico to invest in Mexican production of corn. Mexico used to produce its own corn before the early 1990s."

"It was after trade deals such as NAFTA and others that Mexico became more dependent on American exports," he said.

Rios Piter's bill has only been proposed, and the No Maiz Gringo campaign is still in its early days. But rumblings about cutting Mexican purchases of US corn has struck a cord with American producers.

"At the end of the day, you drive across the state you're going to see piles of corn dotted everywhere," Lisa Richardson, of South Dakota Corn, told KSFY News in mid-February. "We have the largest carryover, 21.5 billion bushels of corn in this country, we simply need access to more markets, not less."

"If we do indeed see a trade war where Mexico starts buying from Brazil ... we're going to see it affect the corn market and ripple out to the rest of the ag economy," Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN, an agricultural management firm, told CNN last month.

Some American producers were doubtful Mexican buyers would eat the additional expense of buying elsewhere, but they were cautious about where things could go.

"We have built these relationships with buyers from Mexico for decades and they buy from the United States for a good reason because it’s a good buy right now and it is very competitive, and most buyers — we don’t think — will pay an extra—whatever it is, $10 a ton more—to buy from our competitors," Thomas Sleight, president and CEO of the US Grains Council, told Fox Business in late February.

"But it is getting political and we all know strange things can happen."

Other potential sellers are on board with a possible Mexican shift in corn buying.

"Countries like Brazil and Argentina — which have recently pivoted to a much more open approach to trade, and are both big corn producers — obviously welcome this idea," Simon, of FTI Consulting, told Business Insider.

In meeting after Trump's inauguration, both Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his Brazilian counterpart, Michel Temer, "publicly spoke about the 'need' to deepen Mercosur’s ties with Mexico. Trump was not explicitly mentioned, but everybody understood the message," Simon added.

Mexico and Argentina were already conducting trade talks in the months prior to Trump's election, and Mexico is slated to start importing corn from the South American country this year.

But, in Mexico City, political factors may preclude a wholesale shift toward new markets.

"The president and members of his cabinet believe that making retaliation threats against the US even before NAFTA talks begin would be counterproductive," Simon said. "What we are seeing is a firm, but conciliatory tone combined with a wait-and-see approach — especially because the terms of the renegotiation are still unknown."

The Mexican government is also sure to be wary of retaliatory tariffs on US goods or of shifting suppliers, both of which could negatively affect consumer prices at time of inflationary pressure in Mexico.

Rising gas prices and fears about rises in other consumer prices sparked widespread, and sometimes violent, protests throughout Mexico earlier this year.

Such price hikes have "direct political consequences, such as the recent wave of protests caused by a spike in the price of gas, the 'Gasolinazo,'" Simon said. "Peña Nieto will have to move very carefully."

SEE ALSO: US relations with Cuba could be a bargaining chip in the healthcare debate

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NOW WATCH: 'Mexico does not believe in walls': Mexico's president rejects Trump's push for a border wall

Stocks closed little changed on Thursday after sources told Business Insider that Republicans canceled Thursday's vote on "Trumpcare" after failing to reach agreement on the bill.

All three major indices ticked up in the morning, fell back in the early afternoon, and ultimately closed basically where they started.

First up, the scoreboard:

• Dow: 20,662.68, +1.38, (+0.01%)
• S&P 500: 2,344.09, -4.15, (-0.17%)
• Nasdaq: 5,811.52, -10.05, (-0.17%)
• US 10-year yield: 2.418, +0.022
• WTI Crude: $47.75, -0.29, -0.60%

1. The Republican effort to overhaul the US healthcare system faces its biggest test yet Thursday. Members of the House of Representatives are expected to vote on the American Health Care Act. Despite a push from President Donald Trump and administration officials, Republicans from both the conservative and moderate wings of the party have come out against the bill.

2. Obama defends Obamacare. "So the reality is clear: America is stronger because of the Affordable Care Act," the former president said in a statement released on the seventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

3. Initial jobless claims rose above 250,000 for the first time in eight weeks. Claims, which count the number of people who applied for unemployment insurance for the first time in the past week, rose by 15,000 to 258,000.

4. One of the biggest hedge fund launches of all time is shutting down. Eton Park Capital Management is shutting down. In a letter sent to investors earlier on Thursday, founder Eric Mindich wrote that he plans to return 40% of all investors' capital by the end of April, and that the fund's other investments would take longer to unwind over the "coming months," with some investments taking even longer.

5. Ford guidance disappointed. Shares of Ford Motor are down 1.5% at $11.59 Thursday morning after the automaker reported it expects adjusted first-quarter earnings of $0.30 to $0.35 per share, well below the $0.47 that is expected by the Bloomberg consensus.

6. Bitcoin spikes above $1,000. Bitcoin was trading up 1.2% at $1,049 a coin as of 7:37 a.m. ET after aggressive selling on Wednesday slammed the cryptocurrency below the $1,000 level for just the second time since the beginning of February.

ADDITIONALLY:

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Sears has a bigger problem than plunging sales — but nobody's talking about it.

SEE ALSO: What 25 major world leaders and dictators looked like when they were young

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A new report by a cybersecurity platform provider issued today offered new data on social media scams.

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The post Major Banks See Massive Decline in User Base, Can Bitcoin Capitalize? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

The price of XRP surged to a more-than four-month high overnight.

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A small group of bitcoin industry leaders, developers and miners are planning to discuss the digital currency's development roadmap at an invite-only meeting in May. A notice of the gathering, as well as a list of potential guests, was posted to a private mailing list today, with participants reportedly including major players from the ongoing, and […]

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Bitcoin browser Brave is planning an ICO for a new token based on the ethereum blockchain and designed to monetize users' attention.

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Deloitte's employee-only restaurant in its Toronto offices will now begin accepting bitcoin for lunch.

The post Deloitte Accepts Bitcoin for Toronto Office Restaurant appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

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The post Bitpay CEO on Safe Bitcoin Scaling: Soft Fork First, Hard Fork Next appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

A DoS attack exploiting a bug in the Bitcoin Unlimited client caused over 100 nodes to disconnect from the bitcoin network on Tuesday.

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Bitcoin move over, 2017 could be Ethereum's year.

Bitcoin is trading up 1.2% at $1,049 a coin as of 7:37 a.m. ET after aggressive selling on Wednesday slammed the cryptocurrency below the $1,000 level for just the second time since the beginning of Febraury.

Traders continue to grapple with the possibility that developers could set up a "hard fork," or alternative marketplace for bitcoin, as well a crackdown on trading in China and the US Securities and Exchange Commission's upcoming rulings on bitcoin ETFs. 

Thursday's buying appears to be technical-based as a good deal of support comes into play in the $1,000 area. The cryptocurrency has not put in a close below that level since Febraury 9. 

2017 has been a voltile year for bitcoin. It rallied 20% in the first week before crashing 35% amid fears China was going to crackdown on trading. Bitcoin then rallied another 75% from mid-January until mid-March, putting in a record high $1,327 on the morning of the SEC's rejection of the Winklevoss ETF.

The cryptcurrency has fallen about 20% since then as participants remain on edge over the possibility of an alternative marketplace and the two upcoming SEC rulings on bitcoin ETFs, the first which is due no later than March 30. Neither is expected to be approved. 

Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency in each of the last two years. 

SEE ALSO: We bought and sold bitcoin — here's how it works

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NOW WATCH: 7 mega-billionaires who made a fortune last year

Should the bitcoin network split into rival chains, those impacted in the fallout may be unable to turn to courts for recourse, lawyers say.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has just received approval to offer trading of litecoin and ether in New York state.

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There's a really good reason for Donald Trump to rethink his hardline anti-immigration promise of building a costly “Great Wall” along the US-Mexico border: Many fewer people are actually trying to cross into the United States illegally.

Those are the findings of a new study released as part of the Brookings Institution’s Papers on Economic Activity conference, and authored by University of California, San Diego economists Gordon Hanson, Chen Liu and Craig McIntosh.

"From the rhetoric during and since the 2016 presidential election, one would think that the United States continues to experience a surge of low-skilled immigration," the authors write. "Although in previous decades such labor inflows certainly occurred, since the Great Recession U.S. borders have become a far less active place when it comes to the net arrival of foreign labor."

Economists widely agree that immigration is beneficial to growth and that Trump’s anti-foreigner, anti-trade stances will likely be detrimental to the very workers he promised to help during the campaign. 

But beyond this, the Brookings paper suggests the border wall idea is counterproductive on its face.

The statistics are striking. Between 1990 and 2007, "the number of working-age immigrants with 12 or fewer years of schooling more than doubled, rising from 8.5 million to 17.8 million individuals."

The Great Recession, which made US economic prospects look a lot dimmer as 9 million jobs quickly evaporated, helped dent the attractiveness of the United States as a destination for workers.

Moreover, Trump’s focus on Mexico is misguided, the authors suggest, and speaks more to xenophobic populism than any fundamental economic concern.

"The undocumented population declined in absolute terms between 2007 and 2014, falling on net by an annual average of 160,000 individuals, while the overall population of low-skilled immigrants of working age remained stable," the authors write.

"Because U.S. neighbors to the south are today experiencing much slower labor-supply growth, the future immigration of young low-skilled labor looks set to decline rapidly, whether or not more-draconian policies to control U.S. immigration are implemented."

Put another way, if they’re not coming, why build it?  

SEE ALSO: Trump's immigration plans could cripple the US economy and hurt the workers he's pledging to protect

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NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains why you should end a shower with cold water

In a petition to the SEC, an exchange affiliated with a failed bitcoin investment product is pushing back against a rejection by regulators.

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