CryptoDigest@Steem Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Dear Steemians!

Here is the daily press review for bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

More Rumors Amazon Could Accept Bitcoin as All Eyes on Conference Call
Altucher made the comments in a report last month, citing Thursday’s conference call as a D-Day moment for Amazon and Bitcoin. Further rumors are surfacing that Amazon will announce a Bitcoin-related innovation Thursday, as a German newspaper fuels speculation. Several dedicated services already exist to offer purchases with Bitcoin from their websites through the intermediary of gift cards. Ahead of the call, which anyone can listen to, momentum that the rumors actually hold substance are mounting.“Even if the Oct. 26 date is not set in stone, Bitcoin introduction should probably be expected soon,” Die Welt writes. While multiple other midsize operators have since engaged with Bitcoin, Amazon’s participation would still be a first-of-its-kind move. (cointelegraph.com)

Why bitcoin matters, not just blockchain
As many in the bitcoin world will tell you, the type of closed, permissioned systems that banks are testing defeat the point of the bitcoin blockchain, which is open and permissionless. There’s a paradox inherent in raving about blockchain but disparaging bitcoin, since the two originated together. It may be the case that “currency” isn’t the best word for bitcoin, but rather “digital asset” or “token.” Similarly, those who dismiss bitcoin because it can’t be spent as payment in many mainstream places are also missing the point. The digital currency bitcoin keeps hitting new record highs. (yahoo.com)

Back Above $5,500: Bitcoin Shrugs Off Fork with Price Rebound
Search volumes show bulls have little reason to worry, however, the price action analysis suggests bitcoin is not out of the woods yet. Despite the recovery from $5,376, the short-term outlook remains murky, courtesy of the bearish price relative strength index (RSI) and price money flow index (MFI) divergence. While slight, it can be read as encouraging as it follows the news that bitcoin gold, a new publicly traded copy of the bitcoin network was made available to investors on exchanges yesterday. The fact that search volumes remained low during yesterday's sell-off suggests the dip was largely seen as a healthy correction. Week-on-week, BTC is trading largely unchanged, while on a monthly basis, it is up 41 percent. (coindesk.com)

Five Reasons Why Bitcoin Is Not a Bubble
In other words, wherever there is economic distress, Bitcoin demand will likely rise and Bitcoin adoption will grow.4. In the early years of Bitcoin, merchant adoption was limited to a few brave ecommerce stores, usually run by early-stage Bitcoin enthusiasts. The digital currency bitcoin rallied by over 300 percent since the start of the year and has recently surpassed the $4,000 mark. Bitcoin Has Only Just Gone MainstreamYou could say that 2017 has been the year in which Bitcoin has finally gone mainstream. Bitcoin Is Increasingly Acting as a Store of Wealth in Distressed EconomiesAnother reason why Bitcoin is most likely not a bubble is that is has a much-need real world application in economically distressed countries. (nasdaq.com)

Bitcoin Price Dives Over 5% as Bitcoin Gold Enters the Market
Bitcoin Gold came into existence on Tuesday as a new iteration of the original Bitcoin Blockchain forked off. Holders of Bitcoin would also be credited with equal amounts of Bitcoin Gold. As Bitcoin Gold has essentially zero chance of replacing Bitcoin in the marketplace, it’s more of an air-drop than a chain split. However, not many exchanges have offered support of Bitcoin Gold. This fork comes less than three months after the controversial Bitcoin Cash fork and its effects are being felt. (cointelegraph.com)

Bitcoin Gold: Cyber attack mars launch of rival cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Gold was launched as part of a "hard fork" from the original bitcoin network. The digital currency, called Bitcoin Gold, is a "fork" of the main bitcoin network, designed to make it easier for normal people to mine the online currency. The latest rival to bitcoin has suffered a major cyber attack on its launch, crashing the new cryptocurrency's website. That split in July led to Bitcoin Cash, which is currently priced at around $325. In theory, it means that everyone who owns bitcoin is given an equivalent amount of Bitcoin Gold, although most people who store their coins on online exchanges do not reveive it. (telegraph.co.uk)

Industry Leaders Give Perspective on Bitcoin Forks: Some Advantages, Many Problems
From Bitcoin Cash to Bitcoin Gold to SegWit2x, forks have abounded lately. He writes:“There have been years of fear, uncertainty and doubt within the Bitcoin community about the ‘risk’ of hard forks. We are looking at a possible fork on Oct. 25 with Bitcoin Gold and another one next month for SegWit2x. Sol Lederer, Blockchain Director at LOOMIA, believes forks are harmful. Once an obscure Bitcoin feature, talk of forks now dominates conversation in the community. (cointelegraph.com)

Bitcoin Price Struggles to Recover Beyond $5,500, Due to Bitcoin Gold
Bitcoin Gold and its Negative Impact on Bitcoin PriceThe Bitcoin Gold hard fork was abruptly introduced by Chinese miner Jack Liao earlier this month. For the past two days, the bitcoin price has struggled to recover beyond $5,500, after surging above $6,000. Unless the Bitcoin Gold development team adds replay protection in the upcoming days, the price of bitcoin will likely suffer as a direct result. Analysts have attributed to the recent decline in the price of bitcoin to the upcoming Bitcoin Gold hard fork, and the lack of support from the community. As Bitcoin Gold is a fork of Bitcoin, the transaction format, the signatures, etc. are the same. (cryptocoinsnews.com)

Meet Bitcoin Gold, Yet Another New Kind of Bitcoin
Soon after the Bitcoin Gold fork occurred, its website came under a distributed denial-of-service attackThe creation of Bitcoin Cash was intended as a solution to bitcoin’s scaling problems, so what’s the deal with Bitcoin Gold? That said, bitcoin took a bit of a dip following the Bitcoin Gold split, falling as low as $5,374 before recovering to $5,580 (at the time of writing). And as before, anyone holding bitcoin at the time of the split should get the equivalent in Bitcoin Gold, for free. Late last week, Coinbase said it won’t support Bitcoin Gold for now “because its developers have not made the code available to the public for review.”Some, such as BitBay and Coinomi, have said they’re on board with Bitcoin Gold. After bitcoin endured a split back in August, creating the new Bitcoin Cash cryptocurrency, it happened again on Tuesday. (fortune.com)

Bitcoin Forks or Bailouts? India Gives 1.3% of GDP in Free Cash to Banks
Bitcoin holders are not the only ones getting free money this quarter as India prepares to inject $32 bln into its banks. While exchanges in the increasingly important Bitcoin economy announce their perspectives on the Bitcoin Gold and SegWit2x hard forks, legacy finance is getting a “game-changing” government bailout to curb bad loans. Earlier this month, prior to news of the cash surfacing, rating agency Fitch sounded the alarm about the future if banks were not more strongly recapitalized. If that happens, then I'm OK with the pricing," he told CNBC Tuesday. Meanwhile, Aswath Damodara, New York University’s so-called ‘Dean of Valuation’ has said he considers Bitcoin a currency and that he is “OK with” its price being at or just over $6,000. (cointelegraph.com)

NYU's 'Dean of Valuations' Says Bitcoin Is a Currency, Not an Asset
"Bitcoin is not an asset, but a currency, and as such, you cannot value it or invest in it. Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at the NYU's Stern School of Business, has expressed his belief that bitcoin is a currency rather than an asset in a new blog post. Notably, Damodaran further disagreed with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's recent comment that bitcoin is a "fraud." Often referred to as Wall Street's "Dean of Valuation," Damodaran asserted in the post: "I don't believe cryptocurrencies are now or ever will be an asset class," or that they will change the "fundamental truths of risk, investing and management." Back in July, Damodaran also argued that cryptocurrencies were quickly becoming a preferred alternative to gold for people who don't trust traditional fiat currencies. (coindesk.com)

Bitcoin gold price plunges: What you need to know about the 'hard fork'
The price of bitcoin took a hit after the cryptocurrency underwent another split, with the newly-created bitcoin gold seeing its value plunge over 60 percent. Bitcoin hit a low of $5,374.60 on Wednesday before recovering nearly $300. The initial fall followed the "hard fork" that occurred Tuesday. CNBC runs through what you need to know about the big event. (cnbc.com)

Bitcoin Price Fights for Control at $5,600 due to Bearish Sentiment
For now, we have to contend with the bearish Bitcoin price momentum firmly locked in place. With the Bitcoin price still suffering from bearish momentum, altcoins are starting to lose their recently regained value once again. It is unclear if this means whether or not we will see the Bitcoin price recover in the next few weeks. To put this into perspective, the Bitcoin price started out on October 18th at a value of $5,277. The past few days have been somewhat difficult for the Bitcoin price, to say the very least. (themerkle.com)

SegWait-a-Minute? Coinbase Appears To U-turn On Bitcoin Hard Fork
Coinbase has appeared to significantly alter its position on the upcoming SegWit2x Bitcoin hard fork, saying it will not unconditionally support the BTC chain. Cointelegraph reported yesterday that the largest US exchange would continue to refer to BTC as the ‘real’ Bitcoin, with SegWit2x getting a ‘B2X’ ticker tantamount to an altcoin. We believe that letting the market decide is the best way to ensure that Bitcoin remains a fair and open platform,” the new post reads. The decision sparked wide support from the cryptocurrency community with many commentators seeing it as the nail in the coffin for 2x’s integrity. Seems almost contrary to what was said previously,” a top Reddit response to the issue begins. (cointelegraph.com)

Early Bitcoin Adopter Jeff Garzik Goes The ICO/Altcoin Route
On Tuesday Jeff Garzik’s company Bloq announced what the company claims is a groundbreaking advance. The “world’s first cross-blockchain cryptocurrency,” Metronome (MTN), is “expected to launch in early December 2017,” according to a press release. In fact, perhaps he’s fulfilling his ideas by potentially allowing crypto users to end-run around online exchanges. Mr. Garzik’s “halo” of having been a first mover in the ecosystem, however, makes his affiliations noteworthy regardless of philosophical contradictions. (bitcoin.com)

2017 Will Be Remembered As The Year Of Bitcoin
Those who follow the Bitcoin scene at its native breakneck pace, or just the price movements, might miss the biggest item of 2017: Bitcoin is no longer a startup. As an asset, Bitcoin is an animal unlike any other. In 2017, we’ve seen Bitcoin taken more seriously by media, regulators, the public and the mainstream financial system. My answer then was yes, but it wasn’t that I was religious about Bitcoin or had tools to analyze it quantitatively. It’s unlikely, but not impossible, especially if you assume that Bitcoin belongs in the same category as gold and currencies. (forbes.com)

Bitcoin and Gold Exchange Vaultoro Withdraws from New York Agreement
Bitcoin and allocated gold order book exchange Vaultoro has withdrawn support for the New York Agreement (NYA), citing the absence of opt-out replay protection from the proposed SegWit2x hard fork. The subject of replay protection has been hotly debated between proponents of Bitcoin Core and SegWit2x. Core supporters argue that since SegWit2x is forking away from the main bitcoin blockchain, its developers should include replay protection. Without replay protection, an attacker can broadcast a transaction on multiple blockchains, potentially stealing money from an unsuspecting user. Finally, web content platform Yours withdrew NYA support and decided to launch its service on the bitcoin cash blockchain. (cryptocoinsnews.com)

Bitcoin Is Paying Out Dividends Now -- Just Not to Everyone
A split in the blockchain created a new offshoot in the form of bitcoin gold on Tuesday, with bitcoin holders receiving one unit for every bitcoin they own, according to the offshoot’s developers. Additionally, bitcoin gold and an earlier offshoot called bitcoin cash arose from conflicting visions within the decentralized community -- as opposed to a conscious decision to boost investor returns. Unlike a stock payout, in order to get the additional bitcoin gold, investors have to be using a wallet or exchange that supports the new asset. On top of stupendous capital gains, investors in bitcoin are also getting a dividend -- if they’re lucky. Bitcoin was down 0.5 percent to $5,568, after sliding as much as 5.9 percent on Tuesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. (bloomberg.com)

More on these and other related news can be found at http://zentrade.online/bitcoin-news-digest-wednesday-october-25-2017/