Top news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency for 31 Mar 2017
(Tip: To open the tweet in a new window 'Right-Click' the 'Tweet This Story' text and 'Open link in new tab')
4 Ways To Tell If Bitcoin Is In A Bubble
No one wants to be on the wrong side of a bubble. If you invested in dot.com stocks the end of 1999 or bought a house with an adjustable-rate mortgage in 2008, you know exactly what I mean.
When it comes to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, there's every reason to be cautious. It's not regulated. There's no Federal Reserve behind it. There's no real guarantee for its value, which is determined by software. Forget about deposit insurance like the FDIC.
Despite numerous red flags about Bitcoin, it's still all the rage for those championing its role as an alternative currency. I just hope those who love Bitcoin aren't also subscribing to "alternative facts."
Full story at http://bit.ly/2niZtfE
Bitcoin Unlimited BTU Token Volatile After 30%+ Weekly Fall
Support for Bitcoin Unlimited’s future asset BCU is already waning - even before the asset itself comes into existence.
Futures trading on the two exchanges hosting BCU, Bitfinex and HitBTC, has seen the price of the asset drop around 30 percent in a week to hit new lows Sunday.
Having begun last week trading at around $260 on Bitfinex, one BCU now costs around $180, having increased 22 percent in 24 hours. In BTC terms, which both exchanges also offer as a pair, the drop went from around 0.237 to around 0.19 respectively.
On Reddit, commentators were quick to point out a lack of demand for the pairs. As HitBTC’s price index showed even sharper declines, Russian news resource Bitnovosti described it as “really embarrassing” for Bitcoin Unlimited supporters.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2o2AMoO
Bitcoin wobbles as traders turn to other cryptocurrencies amid uncertain future
There are several causes for the recent volatility: Chinese regulators cracked down on bitcoin exchanges, while U.S. authorities rejected a proposal for a bitcoin-backed exchange-traded fund (ETF). The current concern is over the future of the bitcoin technology.
Bitcoin faces a scaling issue, where the number of bitcoin transactions that can happen on the blockchain at any one time is limited. This is creating a backlog of transactions that are needed to be processed and slowing down the system.
A group called Bitcoin Unlimited advocates for increasing the size of the blocks on the blockchain in order to process more transactions, but this has split the community. To increase the block size would involve splitting the blockchain, causing a fork and creating two major blockchains. This would effectively create two different coins and it's not clear which would become dominant.
As a result, investors are hedging their bets or selling out of bitcoin, waiting to see whether or not the fork will happen, and if so, which blockchain will be favored by the market.
Full story at http://cnb.cx/2niNXxu
Bitfury Mines its First SegWit Block, Armory Says No to Bitcoin Unlimited
It seems like the Bitcoin market and industry are rejecting Bitcoin Unlimited almost unanimously for the same reason: security and decentralization. Even miners are making the move to Segregated Witness, including the world’s largest Bitcoin miner and leading Blockchain company Bitfury.
Bitfury is in support of SegWit. On March 26, Bitfury mined its first SegWit block with Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 148 that contains the SegWit signal tag. BIP 148 is a proposal entitled “Mandatory activation of segwit deployment” released on March 12 introduced for miners as a way to signal their support for SegWit.
Shaolin Fry, the author of BIP 148, explained:
“Segwit increases the blocksize, fixes transaction malleability, and makes scripting easier to upgrade as well as bringing many other benefits. It is hoped that miners will respond to this BIP by activating Segwit early, before this BIP takes effect. Otherwise this BIP will cause the mandatory activation of the existing segwit deployment before the end of midnight November 15th 2017.”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2niQQOX
Five Geeked Out Fantasies You Can Fulfill Today With Bitcoin
Bitcoin has been often been referred to as “nerd money.” The cryptocurrency has become more popular these days with more users and merchants incorporating the decentralized currency into their lives and businesses every day. In fact, there are many exciting products for geeky hobbyists already available today that can be purchased with bitcoin.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2o2Mjo7
Fork Fallout? A Bitcoin Split Could Become a Legal Mess
Should the bitcoin network suddenly split into rival networks, those negatively impacted in a shake-up may be unable to turn to courts for recourse.
In conversation with CoinDesk, legal experts discussed the more notable claims that have emerged amidst escalating discussions about a potential bitcoin hard fork, a process by which a portion of the network could migrate to new software, possibly creating two separate blockchains – and two bitcoin tokens – in the process.
In recent days, bitcoin's miners and developers have shown an increasing determination to back separate visions for the technology's path forward, in the process claiming that certain actions taken by the other party could result in legal consequences.
On one side, miners have put forth the idea they could sue developers for changes to bitcoin's consensus algorithm, should it result in their inability to operate profitably. On the other hand, developers have implied miners could face repercussions should they act aggressively, or maliciously, to disrupt one of the two resulting blockchains.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2n7tc8z
Prepared by @SydesJokes
Original post from: http://CrowdifyClub.com/SydesJokes
I'm switching to Bitcoin Unlimited. Fuck Bankers, Segwit, LN, and core.