The Bank of England is compiling a report that may lead to it issuing its own cryptocurrency that would cut out the need for high street banks. While Bitcoin and its cryptocurrency cousins sizzled in 2017, the new year should continue to see a lot of crypto action. An interesting development in the coming year concerns the Bank of England (BoE). The bank’s research unit has been studying virtual currencies since 2015, and the bank is now working on a Read more …
Month: January 2018
Bitcoin Adoption by Businesses in 2017 | News
2017 was a big year for Bitcoin. CBOE launched the first Bitcoin futures market, the NYSE filed for two Bitcoin ETF’s, and Bitcoin price rose over 1,300 percent. In 2017, Bitcoin became too big to ignore, as Bitcoin became more valuable, there were sizable increases in the amount of brick and mortars that accepted Bitcoin all over the world. Let’s take a look at the data. Q1/17: Slight growth – 5.5% According to Coinmap.org, on Jan. 3, 2017, 8,207 brick Read more …
We’ll Study Bitcoin ‘Very Closely’: Philippine Central Bank
Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. A senior official from the Philippine central bank has urged caution among retail investors of bitcoin despite the bank’s generally accepting stance on cryptocurrencies. A year ago, bitcoin price struck $1,000 on January 1, 2017, and went on a meteoric rise to scale an all-time high near $20,000 in December due to wider acceptance and adoption across the world. While regulators and authorities have frequently expressed concerns Read more …
‘Privacy Coin’ Verge is Allegedly Leaking Users’ IP Addresses
Altcoins Privacy coins are meant to be private: that’s their raison d’être. Without this functionality, they’re just altcoins, and dangerous ones at that for anyone relying on them for anonymity. Verge (XVG) is one of the best known privacy coins on the market, but it risks becoming famous for all the wrong reasons. A new website claims to list the IP addresses associated with hundreds of verge transactions, stripping bare the coin’s claims of anonymity. Also read: Read more …
‘Is Crypto Mining The Public?’ Goldbugs Tell Media Gold Will Be Great Again
Bearish mainstream finance figures have begun forecasting a consumer return to gold once Bitcoin “uncertainty” dents their confidence. Bitcoin ‘Uncertainty’ Will Prompt Gold Return In two separate interviews on pro-Bitcoin Cash news media network CNBC, Gartman Letter founder Dennis Gartman and gold mining CEO Sean Boyd both tipped the precious metal to ultimately benefit from Bitcoin fluctuations. Boyd noted: I think, over time, the question will be: are these cryptocurrencies and the developers of these cryptocurrencies just mining the public? Read more …
Bitcoin Price Rally Could Boost Japanese GDP Growth in 2018
Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. Bitcoin’s sensational performance in 2017 could provide Japan and other major cryptocurrency markets with an economic boost in 2018. Bitcoin Price Rally Could Lead to GDP Growth in Japan In fact, analysts at financial services giant Nomura predict that bitcoin’s 2017 rally could add as much as 0.3 percent to Japanese GDP growth in the new year, according to a Bloomberg report. “Rises in asset values often Read more …
Bitcoin ‘Adds 0.3%’ To Japan’s GDP, Claim Nomura Analy… | News
Analysts from Japanese finance giant Nomura have found Bitcoin could be contributing as much as 0.3% extra GDP to Japan. In a client note translated by Business Insider, Yoshiyuki Suimon and Kazuki Miyamoto praised the positive effects on consumer spending resulting from large numbers of Japanese holding Bitcoin. The optimism capitalizes on Japan’s Bitcoin breakout this year, which saw the country take pole position in Bitcoin-to-fiat trading, as well as adopt nurturing regulatory frameworks to further Bitcoin’s implementation into its Read more …
Public Firm Faces Class Action Lawsuit for Falsely Claiming Link to Bitcoin
Mining An application for a class action lawsuit against Apollo Power (TASE: APLP) has been submitted to the Tel Aviv District Court. The solar energy technology company is accused of misleading investors by making a false report. The matter at hand is how its share price jumped by 150% on December 18 after Apollo announced it entered the cryptocurrency mining business. Also Read: First Real Bitcoin Lightning Network Payment Completed via Bitrefill Class Action Lawsuit Apollo Power, Read more …
Ivy Playground for Bitcoin: Experimenting With the Future of Bitcoin Smart Contracts
Blockchain developer Chain is releasing an open-source compiler and development environment for writing Bitcoin smart contracts using Ivy, a smart contract language developed in-house.Chain is best known for the open-source Chain protocol and Chain Core, an enterprise blockchain infrastructure that facilitates financial transactions on scalable, private blockchain networks. An open-source developer edition of Chain Core is available to developers, with a testnet operated by Chain. Ivy was developed at Chain as a smart contract language for Chain Core. With Ivy Read more …
Video: Joe Lubin on Building One of Blockchain’s Biggest Startups
This article is an entry in CoinDesk’s Most Influential in Blockchain 2017 series. Blockchain may be an early-stage technology, but it’s big business already. In this video interview, ConsenSys CEO, and one of CoinDesk’s Most Influential people, Joe Lubin discusses his company’s explosive growth, the value of cryptocurrencies and the social impact of his startup’s work. How do we go from analog to digital finance? And what does this distributed future look like? Read our featured article here or hear his story in Read more …
NiceHash CEO Quits After 4,000 BTC Hack, Service To Co… | News
Slovenian mining service NiceHash has swapped CEOs several weeks after hackers stole Bitcoins worth around $63 mln in 2017’s last major attack. After the embattled platform relaunched Dec. 22, local news media reported original CEO Marko Kobal had left, himself confirming on LinkedIn: “As you are aware, since the recent security breach we at NiceHash have been working round the clock to rebuild our internal systems as well as management structure. I shall now stand aside and allow new management Read more …
Schwab Strategist Dismisses Bitcoin Comparisons to Dot-Com and Housing Bubbles
Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. Jeffrey Kleintop, Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist, told Business Insider that if there is a bitcoin bubble, it is not like the dot-com and housing bubbles. If bitcoin prices fall, it will not be for the same reasons as the other bubbles since bitcoin is not yet embedded in the economy and the financial structure the way dot-com and housing stocks were. Any fallout in bitcoin prices Read more …