Today in Crypto: July, 10, 2018 – Bitcoin Blocks Are Exceeding 1MB
We start this Tuesday with a significant drop in the market. Bitcoin did not go towards that $7,000 mark, rather it fell nearly $400 to $6,400. Ethereum fell $40 to $440, and litecoin fell a couple dollars to $79.
Bitcoin Blocks Are Now Exceeding 1MB [1]
The blocks produced by the Bitcoin network approximately every 10 minutes are now exceeding the 1MB limit. The 1MB limit was in place before Segregated Witness was introduced in August 2017. BitMex Research shows that “After the upgrade to SegWit in August 2017, the old 1MB blocksize limit is slowly starting to fade away.” The issue of raising the 1MB block size limit came as Bitcoin transactions fees were hitting record highs. SegWit, however, was implemented via soft-fork and was an optional upgrade. Therefore, this is why it’s taken months for exchanges, businesses, and users to see network-wide benefits such as lower fees and bigger blocks. The concept of ‘block size’ has since been replaced by ‘block weight’ — with Bitcoin now supporting a weight of up to 4MB.
Bitcoin Remains The Best Cryptocurrency Investment Says Wall Street Trader [2]
Bitcoin remains one of the only cryptocurrencies which people are actually using. The head of digital assets at Susquehanna International Group, Bart Smith, told CNBC Fast Money “If you want to own the asset that you can actually use today and that people are functionally using, it’s bitcoin. The use case for bitcoin is valid today, which is the currency of the internet.” Furthermore, Smith believes that all of the cryptocurrency market’s promises and technological advancements are still far off. This including smart contracts and Lightning Network.
CBOE Files SEC Application For A Bitcoin ETF [3]
On June 26th, the SEC received an application for a Bitcoin ETF (exchange traded fund) filed by the Cboe Global Markets. CBOE has proposed to partner with Van Eyck Investment and SolidX. The SEC published the application to invite comments from the public. However, it’s not the first time the CBOE has attempted to get approval for a Bitcoin ETF. The last rejection occurred in March despite Cboe Global Markets president writing a direct letter to the SEC, to alleviate some of the concerns about investing in cryptocurrencies such as low liquidity. In June, the Director of Corporate Finance, William Hinman, announced that Bitcoin, Ether, and other decentralized cryptocurrencies will not be classified as securities. Hence, the new position could open the door for the regulator to greenlight the given ETF. CBOE is one of the world’s largest holding companies.
Pirate Bay Website Continues Mine Monero With Visitors’ CPUs [4]
The Pirate Bay, has begun using the processing power of visitors’ computers to mine Monero. In September, The Pirate Bay began using visitors’ processing power to mine Monero (XMR). Initially, they described this as an experiment that was supposed to use only a portion of each visitor’s CPU. However, The Pirate Bay recently added a disclaimer to its homepage that states, “By entering TPB you agree to XMR being mined using your CPU. If you don’t agree please leave now or install an adblocker.” Initially it was thought that using users CPU for mining Monero would replace advertisements on the site. Disappointingly, the Pirate Bay still shows multiple advertisements on every page, in addition to using visitor’s CPU power.
$23.5 Million Stolen From Bancor Wallet [5]
Decentralised exchange, Bancor, has had a vulnerability in its platform that was exploited. Hackers were able to steal over $23.5 million worth of cryptocurrencies. A wallet used to upgrade some smart contracts was compromised. This compromised wallet was then used to withdraw about 25k ETH from the BNT smart contract. The same wallet also stole 229m NPXS and 3.2m BNT. Bancor is a blockchain protocol that circumvents the need for cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase by allowing users to convert tokens directly and instantly through its EDCCs.
Full Post: https://thisweekincrypto.co/july-10-2018-bitcoin-blocks/
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BTC: 34h6p56BcZJQ9tdG5Zfdz1tFoXV6rf1DgV
ETH: 0x1fDeAC354828E852A945dB01531DBda637195c1B
LTC: MGQcCg1L17nvUWZZUqUyKCdw1SrCnzSaWU