An illustration model of a Bitcoin is seen on Dec. 6, 2013.Thomas TrutschelPhotothek/Getty Images

Investors will soon have yet another way to bet on or against Bitcoin.

Namely, cryptocurrency traders will now be able to place option bets on digital money via LedgerX. That came after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted LedgerX approval to clear derivatives , making it the first federally regulated platform of its kind.

The approval will also give buyers of Ethereum and Bitcoin several regulated ways to lower the risk on their existing cryptocurrency bets which may be welcome or may increase their risk in the hopes of potentially outsized returns. That's possible because derivatives are a varied group that includes options and future contracts.

"Our recently-granted licenses give LedgerX an enormous regulatory advantage for serving our institutional customers," wrote the company's CEO Paul Chou in a blog post after the decision. "LedgerX offers our customers a one-stop shop for tools to buy and sell spot bitcoin, derivatives, and all manner of specialized cryptocurrency swaps."

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LedgerX, which plans to roll out bitcoin options first starting in the fall, may also make it easier for investors to short cryptocurrencies. While it isn't the first to offer bitcoin options, LedgerX is the first to offer options regulated by the CFTC. In 2015, a San Francisco-based bitcoin options trading platform Derivabit, also known as Coinflip, was asked to cease operations by the CFTC in 2015 for failing to register with the agency.

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LedgerX Just Gave Us Another Way to Bet Against Bitcoin - Fortune

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How Bitcoin is infiltrating the $60bn global art market BBC News Why is the art world getting excited about digital currency Bitcoin and its underlying technology blockchain? Eleesa Dadiani owns and runs an art gallery in London's famous Cork Street. She was born in Georgia in the Caucasus and was "breastfed by ... As Japan Bitcoin Exchanges Cancel Shutdowns, Poloniex Leaves All Options OpenCoinTelegraph Poloniex Will not Provide Support for Any Potential Bitcoin ForksnewsBTC 3 Reasons Bitcoin Has Soared 740% in 2 YearsMotley Fool The Merkle -Scoop.co.nz -Money Morning Australia all 34 news articles »

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How Bitcoin is infiltrating the $60bn global art market - BBC News

Amid the emergence of new currencies, gold has long been a benchmark for international measures of value. The precious metal backed the U.S. dollar for decades, marking a peg for global currencies. But in 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the ability for the dollar to be converted into the precious metal.

Cryptocurrencies arose during the financial crisis and have demonstrated "a few advantages" over major world currencies, such as the ability to cheaply and instantaneously transfer money around the world, and record all transactions through a digital accounting system known as a blockchain, Blanch said.

In expectation of this potential, many have called bitcoin "digital gold" despite the lack of businesses that accept bitcoin and the often high transaction fees.

Gold itself has stagnated in the last several years. The precious metal leaped from several hundred dollars in the early 2000s to near $2,000 in 2011, and has traded between $1,000 and $1,400 in the last two years.

Fundstrat's Tom Lee said in a report on bitcoin in early July that buyers' shift from gold into cryptocurrencies is a reason why the digital currency's price could rise into the tens of thousands.

Due to higher bitcoin mining costs and a surge of interest, the digital currency's price has climbed in "a pattern similar to gold" and "over a much more compressed time period," Blanch said.

Bitcoin (years in parentheses) vs. gold

Source: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research

To be sure, short-term appearances of similarities among bitcoin, gold and the development of historical currencies don't imply that bitcoin is here to stay.

"There is no certainty that that [similarity to gold] will continue and, most certainly, no way to predict it," Blanch said. "In our view, cryptocurrency returns will mostly depend on the faith placed by individuals, corporations, and financial institutions on this emerging technology."

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Major Wall Street analyst: Here's what needs to happen for the bitcoin boom to keep going - CNBC

New Hampshire House Bill 436 is slated to take effect next week on August 1st. The bill exempts bitcoin from regulatory action and prevents New Hampshire bitcoin businesses from having to register as a money transmitter. The bill flies in the face of previous New Hampshire regulation that targeted bitcoin for harsh regulation. The bill was signed by New Hampshire governorJohn Sununu on June 2.

Also read:Suspension Lifted: Japanese Exchanges and Merchants Resume Bitcoin Services

Bitcoin.com wrote about the bill back in June, saying, The bill provides bitcoin with clearprotection from debilitatingand Orwellian regulations. The bill states that anyone who uses a virtual currency is exempt from having to register as a money transmitter. This is important news for a State that vouches for being one of the freest places to live in the U.S.

Previously in New Hampshire, a bill was introduced that added bitcoin to the money transmitter status. As a bill that reduced peoples economic freedom, this piece of legislation came as sort of an embarrassment to local activists. However, it appears the activists and politicians who supported it simply were not prepared. Ian Freeman, writing for Free Keene, expressed this view:

How did this happen in a state with the largest concentration of bitcoin enthusiasts per capita? Honestly, we were caught off-guard, but now thats all changed. In 2016 a state house committee to study cryptocurrency was formed, whose meetings I attended andvideo recordedThis is further proof of the effectiveness of the active, growinglibertarian migration to New Hampshire, many of whom are bitcoin/crypto enthusiasts.

Even though HB436 is now being passed with enthusiasm and joy across most of the State, not everyone in government agreed with the bill. The House of Representatives and Senate in New Hampshire were divided. Their decision was based on a 185 to 170 vote. Allegedly, several bankers and New Hampshire officials spoke against the bill, saying it would impede their jobs, making it more difficult to detect fraud and apprehend criminals.

Is a deregulated Bitcoin a good thing? Do you think other States will follow the exampleset by New Hampshire? Let us know in the comments section below.

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New Hampshire's Bill to Deregulate Bitcoin Effective Next Week - Bitcoin News (press release)

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July 23, 2017, 5:00 PM EDT July 23, 2017, 11:46 PM EDT

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A recurring challenge for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is how to make them work in the real world. A Singapore-based startup says the answer is its Visa card.

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TenX is pitching its debit card as an instant converter of multiple digital currencies into fiat money: the dollars, yen and euros that power most everyday commerce. The company said it takes a 2 percent cut from each transaction and has received orders for more than 10,000 cards. While transactions are capped at $2,000 a year, users can apply to increase the limit if they undergo identify verification procedures.

Source: TenX via Bloomberg

Tenxs bid to make digital currencies easier to spend comes amid massive volatility and infighting within the cryptocurrency community. Bitcoin, the most popular, slumped after reaching a record in June amid concerns about a split in two, only to recover as fears faded. The company has built an app that serves as a digital wallet connected to the Visa card so that when its swiped at a cafe or restaurant, the merchant is paid in local currency and the users crypto account is debited.

Source: TenX via Bloomberg

Youre mixing two worlds that are night and day, co-founder Julian Hosp said in an interview. When the user spends the cryptocurrency, we have to instantly switch these currencies to fiat and pay to Visa straight away. Its a lot of pathways."

Hosp said transactions are processed immediately and it doesnt impose any charges on top of the conversion fee that is set by cryptocurrency exchanges, which typically is 0.15 to 0.2 percent. The card now supports eight digital currencies, including the lesser-known dash and augur, and aims to offer about 11 of them by the end of the year.

TenX currently processes about $100,000 of transactions a month. By the end of 2018, its targeting $100 million in monthly transactions and a million users.

TenX has an advantage in moving early, but the startup can expect competition in the future from major financial institutions and venture capitalists with deeper pockets and direct access to clients and databases, said Mati Greenspan, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based analyst at social trading platform eToro.

Its an incredible concept, said Greenspan. At the end of the day, its going to depend a lot on customer relations. Are they meeting the customers expectations? Can somebody else do it better?

TenXs efforts to make digital currencies spendable come as it joined the many blockchain-based startups taking advantage of initial coin offerings. ICOs are a cross between crowdfunding and an initial public offering that firms use to raise funds by issuing digital tokens rather than stock.

In itstoken sale last month, TenX raised $80 million with about half to be used to expand operations while the rest will provide liquidity for a cryptocurrency exchange in the works, said Hosp.

The company had previously raised $120,000 from angel investors and $1 million in a seed round led by venture capital firm Fenbushi Capital, which lists Ethereums co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, as a general partner. TenX isnt expecting to become profitable in the next two years as it focuses on expanding services.

One thing we want to offer in the end, is that you can switch cryptocurrencies within the app, said Hosp. If we do this, we can become the market maker, which can bring in a lot of revenue.

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Singapore Startup Takes Bitcoin Into Real World With Visa ... - Bloomberg

Bollywood news recently reported celebrities are going bonkers for bitcoin. Famous Indian entertainers have been tweeting and commenting positively about bitcoin. They appear to find the currency fascinating, and see its potential for future growth. Some of the celebrities include,Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra, R. Madhavan, Huma Qureshi Neha Dhupia, Vir Das, Nargis Fakhri, and Prachi Desai, according to a recent Bollywood news article.

Also read:The Curious Cases of the Alphabay Kingpin and Hansa Takedowns

Bollywood celebs have likely gotten attracted to bitcoin because of its explosion in India. After the Indian government instigated demonetization efforts, alternative forms of currency have spread like wildfire, especially bitcoin. There are now multiple digital exchanges based out of India. The Bollywood News site explained:

There are several online portals in India where one can buy and sell Bitcoins. Some of the popular portals are, Coinsecure, Zebpay, Unocoin, BTCXIndia. According to MSN, there are approximately one million Bitcoin users or enthusiasts in India alone, from all walks of life.

Celebrities have also likely been influenced by Indian bitcoin hero, Amit Bhardwaj. He is thefounder of Amaze Mining & Research Ltd and the Author of Bitcoin for Beginners. He has been into cryptocurrency since 2012, according to Bollywood news. His work and dedication to bitcoin seems to have grown in recent years, and several Indian celebrities have tweeted about him and promoted his book. Bhardwajs influence seems to have specifically sparked much enthusiasm from Indian superstars.

This news of Bollywood chiming in on Bitcoin also comes alongside recent news the Indian government is deciding how to regulate bitcoin. Their focus on the digital currency has caused a groundswell of interest everywhere in India. Well known Bollywood names have now flocked to the scene and added fuel to the blazing bitcoin bonanza. It will be interesting to see how the digital currency craze in India grows into the future.

Do you believe bitcoin will continue growing in India? Is Bollywoods promotion of bitcoin good news? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock

Show the world how cutting-edge you are with abitcoin T-shirt, hoodie, bag, key-ring, even a Trezor hardware wallet.Shipping all over the world, quality merchandise and, of course, a payment system that makes people say wow!

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Bollywood Celebrities Embrace Bitcoin - Bitcoin News (press release)

Bitcoin prices surged this week as an overwhelming majority of miners, the computer operators who maintain its network, backed a software upgrade that will boost the speed of processing transactions, likely averting a split that could have resulted in multiple versions of the digital currency.

Through an online voting mechanism, miners representing 99% of the cryptocurrencys computing power, backed a new piece of software, known as Segregated Witness, or SegWit, that would boost bitcoins processing power without altering the underlying software, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

See: Bitcoin may have reached a tipping point, now that Downtown Josh Brown has invested

The debate leading up to the vote marked a split that largely pitted miners and entrepreneurs, who wanted to increase block size and maximize bitcoins value as a payments network, versus developers who fear larger block sizes will increase operating costs for miners, driving some out and leading to more centralized control, wrote the Journals Paul Vigna.

Bitcoin prices dipped early this week on fears over a potential split. Bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.64% One bitcoin traded at $2,813 at midday Saturday, according to Coinbase, up nearly 40% on the week.

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Bitcoin surges as miners avert split for now - MarketWatch

AMD shares rose as much as 7 percent Tuesday after the company revealed the dramatic jump in digital currency prices is driving demand for its graphics cards. The stock was the top performer in the S&P 500 on the day.

"The gaming market remains our priority. We are seeing solid demand for our Polaris-based offerings in the gaming and newly resurgent cryptocurrency mining markets based on the strong performance we are delivering," an AMD spokesperson wrote in an email to CNBC late Monday.

Ethereum cryptocurrency is up over 2,900 percent year to date through Tuesday morning, while bitcoin is up nearly 200 percent this year, according to data from industry website CoinDesk.

The digital currency jumped more than 8 percent at one point Tuesday to a record nearing $3,000.

AMD is one of the market's best performing stocks in the past year with its shares up nearly 170 percent in the past 12 months through Tuesday morning compared with the S&P 500's 15 percent return. AMD one-year chart

Source: FactSet Cryptocurrency miners use graphics cards from AMD and Nvidia to "mine" new coins, which can then be sold or held for future appreciation. AMD traditionally has a better reputation for mining cryptocurrencies.

Computer hardware retailers are sold out of most AMD RX 570 and RX 580 graphics card models, according to NowInStock. AMD launched the RX 500 series of graphics cards on April 18.

The strong demand is spreading to older graphics cards as well. Used AMD RX 470 graphics cards are selling for well over $100 list price on eBay.

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AMD surges because bitcoin 'miners' need its graphics cards

With the bitcoin development community embracing a software upgrade known as SegWit2x that aims to increase the networks transaction capacity, a split of the cryptocurrency appears to be avoided. As proponents of the change celebrate, heres what some have to say about what may be next.

Were going to see greater utility of the network. Now people can use bitcoin as a way to transit value more easily, more quickly, more cheaply. And that tends to attract in new users to the network."

Going forward, there will probably be open-blockchains like bitcoin, which tends to move more slowly or conservatively, but there will be other blockchains like ethereum that may move more quickly and introduce a larger surface area for developers to build on top of. I think both of those things complement each other, not compete with each other."

Its a great step for bitcoin. There were a lot of question marks, obviously this has been in contention for quite some time now, but reaching consensus for how to scale bitcoin further is a huge step, clearly. SegWit activating and allowing things like Lightning Network is going to be huge for allowing more activity with existing user base, and down the line once we start to expand the blocksize, well be able to expand the number of users on the network."

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The fact BIP91 came through is a good signal that everyone wants to be growing this network further. And theres a lot of ways that its accomplished, but the fact there is way forward is encouraging. Youll never know what happens between now and a few months down the line, in the cryptocurrency space especially, but Im encouraged everything we saw in the past few weeks. A lot of question marks are starting to get answers."

The BIP91 lock-in would be extremely significant for bitcoin and one of the first steps towards scaling the network. Work and discussion around scaling bitcoin has been ongoing for years - with the first dedicated conference around the topic beginning in 2015."

After BIP91 locks in, approximately two weeks later SegWit should go live. Beyond that, there is still risk that bitcoin could split into different chains supporting different maximum block sizes (like a SegWit 1MB chain and a SegWit 2MB chain)."

Read more about how bitcoin and blockchain work.

Bitcoin doesnt have a Turing-complete language like ethereum, but there are some new interesting things that will enable to do be done once SegWit is implemented."

She gave a few examples:

With assistance by Lulu Yilun Chen

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What's Next for Bitcoin After Digital Currency Split Is Averted - Bloomberg

Photograph by Getty Images

Digital currency bitcoin on Friday averted a split into two currencies after its network supported an upgrade to its software that would enhance its ability to process an increasing number of transactions.

Bitcoin's miners have signaled their support for the so-called Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 91, avoiding a split of bitcoin into two blockchains. The miners represent a network of computer operators who secure the blockchain or a public ledger of all bitcoin transactions

BIP 91 is the first step toward a larger effort to upgrade bitcoin through a software called SegWit2x. On Friday, the support for BIP 91 reached nearly 100%, exceeding the required threshold of 80%, according to analysts and market participants.

Some investors have warmed to bitcoin, wooed by its explosive performance and potential to compete with gold and government-issued money as a means to store value. Demand for bitcoin has grown in eight years to a market capitalization of more than $40 billion.

But fears about the bitcoin split dampened demand for bitcoin in recent weeks. After hitting record high near $3,000, bitcoin dropped as low $1,830 on the Bitstamp platform. On Friday, it traded at $2,647.

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The software upgrade attempts to address the bitcoin network's limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. Bitcoin's network has not kept pace with its growth and is unable to process all the transactions fast enough.

"BIP 91 unleashes the next wave of innovation because it has been a little bit stagnant of late for bitcoin," said Rob Viglione, co-founder of ZenCash, a digital coin focused on privacy and security.

Before BIP 91's endorsement, some bitcoin investors feared it could split into two independent currencies because core developers of the network and the miners each wanted different ways to increase bitcoin's scale.

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A compromise between the two groups has been reached through SegWit2x.

"Bitcoin now has a clear run to add features that allow for faster transactions with lower costs," said Charles Hayter, chief executive officer of digital currency analytics firm Cryptocompare.

The upgrade to bitcoin's network will not occur until autumn, said Viglione, because several things need to happen before the new software is activated.

Market participants have complained about the delay in transactions. Analysts say a single bitcoin transaction costs on average 83 U.S. cents to execute, which means micropayments are not feasible on the network.

The network is also limited to roughly seven transactions per second. In comparison, Visa on average handles 2,000 transactions per second.

Read more:

Bitcoin Averts Split Into Two Currencies - Fortune

The new code update called BIP 91 has been locked in with 93.8 percent of miners showing support for the proposal in the last 24 hours, according to Coin Dance, a site which tracks bitcoin blocks.

It is essentially a software update that miners need to run. So 93.8 percent of miners are signaling their intention to run it.

There will now be a two-day grace period for miners to prepare for the activation of BIP 91. Following that, there will be an adjustment period which could take two weeks. The actual increase of the block size might not take place until November.

And there could be some potential issues. For example, one bitcoin developer Bryan Bishop, said that miners might not upgrade their software, even though they are signaling that they will.

And there is still a bit of caution in the market.

"It's premature to say the worst is over. But we have reached one important milestone down the road in bitcoin scaling. And there are a few more milestones coming up," Bobby Lee, CEO of BTCC, a bitcoin exchange told CNBC by phone on Friday.

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Bitcoin price nears record high after scaling debate 'milestone' - CNBC

Bitcoin jumped Thursday to its highest price in almost four weeks as digital currency developers appeared to come closer to an agreement that would prevent a split in the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin rose more than 15 percent, to $2,675.67, its highest level since June 25, according to CoinDesk. As of 1:33 p.m. ET, the digital currency traded near $2,648. It's up about 4 percent for July and more than 170 percent higher for the year.

Bitcoin three-month performance

Source: CoinDesk

Developers need to agree on activating an upgrade known as Segregated Witness by Aug. 1 in order to prevent the digital currency from splitting, or forking. Coinbase's GDAX exchange has said it might pause bitcoin trading if the currency splits.

"Bitcoin is rallying largely because the probability of Segregated Witness being activated is increasing as more miners signal that they will activate it," said Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, a cryptocurrency investment firm. Not every miner has to agree, but at least 80 percent need to.

The move higher also came amid increased interest in the digital currency world from Wall Street. Forbes reported Tuesday that bitcoin is a top holding of investor Bill Miller's hedge fund.

"The institutional interest in this space has picked up again, not that it really died off too much," said Brian Kelly, a CNBC contributor and founder of BKCM, which runs a digital asset management strategy for clients. "Institutions are looking to get back in in a meaningful way."

Ethereum also jumped more than 18 percent, to near $230, its highest since Tuesday, according to TradingView charts of Coinbase data. Ethereum plunged below $200 over the weekend.

The gains in Ethereum came despite news Wednesday that hackers stole more than $30 million in Ethereum from wallets as the result of a security flaw. Earlier in the week, thieves stole more than $7 million in Ethereum by hacking the initial coin offering for CoinDash.

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Bitcoin leaps 15% to highest in nearly a month on increased confidence in currency's future - CNBC

A model Bitcoin stands in front of a binary code on January 06, 2017 in Berlin, Germany.Photograph by Thomas TrutschelPhotothek via Getty Images

After plunging for the majority of July, Bitcoin is clawing back toward its all-time high.

The cryptocurrency jumped 15% to $2,628 in trading Thursday, adding about $316 over the course of 24 hours. For comparison, Bitcoin was trading at about $1,863 this past Sunday. Now it's about 15% off from its all-time high of $3,019 from this past June.

Coincidentally, Bitcoin's price surge coincided with law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Europe taking out two of the biggest "dark web " operations known to accept Bitcoin and Ethereum Thursday, including online black market Alphabay .

But the surge also comes amid growing confidence in Bitcoin 's scalability: As the cryptocurrency has grown more popular, processing transactions has become slower and more costly, with some trades lasting days. But in the search for a solution to the problem, Bitcoin's adherents have split into two factions called Bitcoin Unlimited and Bitcoin Coreboth of whom consider their idea the better option, Slate reported.

Part of the reason for Bitcoin's volatility in recent months comes from a fear that those two factions won't be able to compromise, effectively forcing Bitcoin into two incompatible cryptocurrencies.

There is hope, however, for compromisewith statistics website Coin Dance showing that this "middle ground" dubbed BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) 91 has about 72% support. It needs roughly 80% support before August 1 to be implemented.

BIP 91 could also help Bitcoin scale its blockchain, a record of all past transactions. As of now, it can only add about 1 megabyte of data every 10 minutes. BIP 91 would introduce an update that would up that limit to 2 MB in about three months. It would also introduce a way to fit in more transactions using that 2 MB of data. This, in theory, would make transactions faster and cheaper.

At the same time, fellow cryptocurrency Ethereum has also bounced back by about $40 since the start of the week, a 26% increase. In general, cryptocurrencies have recovered from their respective dips this week, as fears of a bubble appeared to abate slightly.

At Fortune 's Brainstorm Tech conference on Wednesday, SoFi's CEO even voiced his support for Ethereum, which he says has a better chance of being used as a currency than Bitcoin .

Ethereum, though, has dipped over the past 24 hours, falling to about $200 from above $240.

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Bitcoin Surged By $300 in the Past 24 Hours. Here's Why. - Fortune

The principle is a sophisticated form of technical analysis widely followed by traders that analyzes cycles of sentiment in an attempt to predict market performance five waves typically signals a coming downturn.

Regarding bitcoin, "under the Elliott Wave model, what we're seeing, we're making a final fifth wave from six cents," the younger Prechter told CNBC in a phone interview Thursday. "It does not imply it will go to zero. It does not imply it will go to six cents. I do think it will happen to the clones [newly formed digital currencies]."

The Elliott Wave for bitcoin

Source: The Elliott Wave Theorist

In September 2010, Elliott Prechter wrote in The Elliott Wave Theorist about bitcoin when it traded at 6 cents. Very few in the financial world seriously considered the digital currency at the time.

"It proved to be the buying opportunity not just of a lifetime, but so far of all time," Prechter said.

Bitcoin hit a record of $3,025 in June, 50,000 times its price in 2010. The digital currency traded near $2,652 Thursday, more than twice where it started the year.

Bitcoin (July 2010 - July 2017)

Source: CoinDesk

As a result of the meteoric price surge, Wall Street has started paying closer attention to bitcoin in the last several weeks.

For example:

To Prechter, the forecasts for bitcoin to rise dramatically resemble calls in 1999, just before the burst of the dotcom bubble, for the Dow Jones industrial average to reach 100,000.

He said the excitement surpasses the tulip bulb mania in The Netherlands in the early 1600s.

As Investopedia tells it, tulip bulbs became such a prized commodity that by 1636 they were being traded on many Dutch stock exchanges and "many people traded or sold possessions to participate in the tulip market mania."

"Like any bubble, it all came to an end in 1637, when prices dropped and panic selling began," according to the article. "Bulbs were soon trading at a fraction of what they once had, leaving many people in financial ruin."

"Technology has advanced greatly, but human psychology is still the same"

Source: The Elliott Wave Theorist

Some analysts have also compared the excitement around bitcoin and other digital currencies to the Beanie Babies craze in the 1990s.

Prechter also pointed to the challenges bitcoin and its rival ethereum are facing in order to expand their reach.

Bitcoin faces an Aug. 1 deadline for developers to agree on a system to upgrade the network and prevent the currency from splitting. Meanwhile, transaction fees ran up to $5 in June and are still near $2.

In June, some sales of new digital currencies clogged the ethereum network, creating a backlog of orders. Separately, ethereum prices briefly plunged from above $300 to 10 cents on one exchange before recovering.

To be sure, Prechter told CNBC that a mania "can be both a mania and a revolution at the same time."

Like many digital currency enthusiasts, he sees significant potential in the cryptocurrencies for automating the banking and legal industries.

"The distant future of crypto is bright," Prechter said in the report. "Crypto tech is like the internet in 1999: It was poised to take over the world, but the NASDAQ still fell almost 90% during the dot-com bust of 2000-2002."

But bitcoin may not be part of that future.

"It's too soon to know if Bitcoin is Facebook or MySpace," Prechter said.

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Bitcoin bubble dwarfs tulip mania from 400 years ago, Elliott Wave analyst says - CNBC

However, the process isn't always entirely straightforward. Legal bitcoin services are heavily regulated, given the currency's association with online black markets, and its cryptographic nature means security protocols can be complicated.

A bitcoin wallet is where you hold your bitcoins. Alternatively you can download the entire bitcoin program (around 150GB), but you're probably not going to go to those lengths, and there's no reason whyyour computer is more secure than a popular website, so the best option is to use an online wallet, which is sort of like a digital bank account.

There is no shortage of wallets, but one of the biggest and most popular is Blockchain.info, which is backed by millions in venture capital funding and has an easy to use website and mobile app. It also takes security steps to make sure your bitcoins are as safe as they can be.

Go to Blockchain.info/wallet to sign up, or download the mobile app. The sign up process is as easy as doing so for an email or social media account.

Blockchain.info has a series of security measures that you should take to make sure your bitcoins are safe once you do get your hands on them. Other wallets are likely to have the same protocols.

Note down your Wallet ID, found in Settings (you'll need it again to log in in future), and use the security centre to verify your email, set up two-factor authentication and so on. After that, you're ready to buy.

Once you've got your wallet, you're ready to add some bitcoins to it. As of the time of writing, one bitcoin is worth over 1,500, but fear not - they are infinitely divisible, so you can buy 10 worth (about 0.005 bitcoins) if you want.

To do this, you have to find a broker. If you're getting confused, think of it like buying a foreign currency from the Bureau de Change: the wallet is your bank account and the broker is the Bureau de Change.

Brokers are the ones handling your real money - you send them cash via a credit card, bank transfer or some other method, and they send bitcoins to your account. Because of this, they often have strict "Know Your Customer" requirements that include identity verification.

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How can I buy bitcoin in the UK? - Telegraph.co.uk

Below isa detailedflow chart graphic that depicts the possible outcomes to the upcoming scaling proposals that may be implemented in the near future. We hope to help our readers get a better understanding of whats going on with these specific Bitcoin network developments.

Also Read:The Blockchain Split Scenario: Staying Informed and Backing Up Bitcoin Keys

Over the next few weeks, the Bitcoin network and its participants may see some scaling proposals implemented to the protocol and the subject can be confusing. Right now there are multiple scenarios between three possible plans that include a user-activated soft fork (UASF), Segwit2x, and a user-activated hard fork (UAHF). Weve done a run down of each proposal, community sentiment, and possible outcomes in recent articles to give our readers some information on the topics.

We want to take it a bit further and give our readers a visual glimpse at the possible outcomes of Segwit2x, UASF, UAHF, all the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) involved, signaling periods, and a timeline of dates and requirements. Bitcoin.com would like to also thank our friends Hampus Sjberg, Eric Wall, and Tomislav Dugandzic for allowing us to use the initial template for this flow chart.

At the moment there is a lot of support showing for BIP91 with intentions to activate Segregated Witness (Segwit) as part of the New York Agreement (NYA) roadmap. At the time of writing as you can see from the chart below BIP91 support is approximately 80.5 percent and the proposal needs to maintain 80 percent to lock in Segwit over336 blocks. Following a successful lock in period another 336 blocks has to pass to successfully activate Segwit. After the Segwit activation, NYA participants agreed to implement a 2MB hard fork which is proposed to take place ~3 months after the Segwit activation.

Another part of the discussion is the two user-activated forks that may be attempted on August 1. If Segwit2x fails to activate Segwit, then there is a possibility both user-activated forks will proceed with their plans on that date. UASF participants will then try to activate Segwit using full nodes aimed at blocking non-segwit blocks and hoping hash power will follow this move. Further, the UAHF is a contingency plan against this effort and plans to utilize a bitcoin implementation called Bitcoin ABC. This plan will remove segwit from the bitcoin code and use an adjustable block size instead. Moreover, the company Viabtc has pledged to support Bitcoin ABC with its own mining pool and will call the token Bitcoin Cash if the protocol splits off from the main chain.

Additionally, there have been some exchanges that have announced how they will handle a possible Bitcoin network fork. So far multiple exchanges have issued contingency plans and warnings about the possible network changes planned. This includes exchanges such as Bity, GDAX and Coinbase, Chinas top three trading platforms, and thirteen Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges have made statements concerning these events. On August 1 specifically, these exchanges say they will likely disable deposits and withdrawals, and possibly halt trading as well.

In addition to the announcements from nineteen global bitcoin exchanges on July 19, the firm Coinbase announced it would not support the user-activated hard fork and its associated token. The San Francisco-based bitcoin company says it will not honor the UAHF blockchain because it is incompatible with the current Bitcoin ruleset and will create a separate blockchain. Coinbase users are advised to withdraw their bitcoins from Coinbase by July 31st if they desire access to UAHF coins. Nevertheless, the trading platform will monitor the UAHF situation but doesnt plan on supporting any new blockchains anytime soon.

What do you think about the upcoming network changes? Let us know what you think about our flow chart in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, XBT.eu, Hampus Sjberg, Eric Wall, Tomislav Dugandzic, JCBA, Pixabay, and Bitcoin.com.

Do you want to vote on important Bitcoin issues? Bitcoin.com has acquired Bitcoinocracy, and rebranded the project to Vote.bitcoin.com. Users simply sign a statement with a non-empty Bitcoin address and express their opinions. The project focuses on determining truth backed by monetary value and transparency.

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Predicting the August 1 Split Flow Chart the Hard Way - Bitcoin News (press release)

Two of the most popular cryptocurrencies have a bit of a hangover after a wild weekend theyre only now starting to recover from.

Bitcoin and ether bothtech-based alternative currencies essentially crashed over the weekend before rebounding sharply on Monday, racking up the kind of gains in one day that normally takesix months or a year in the stock market.

Though no single news event drovethe last few days dramatic swings, a few occurrences, taken together, help explain the roller coaster.

But whatever causedthe weekends fluctuations, the markets stabilized on Monday. Ether rose almost 9 percent, while bitcoin gained 10 percent. Both, however, aretrading well below their June highs; ether is down almost 30 percent, and bitcoin, almost 60 percent.

On the bright side, early buyers of cryptocurrencies have still made a ton of money. Despite the recent downward trend, the price of bitcoin has still nearly tripled over the last 12 months, while ether is up more than 10 times its price a year ago.

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The bitcoin bump has turned into a beating - VICE News

Samourai Wallet is becoming increasingly popular as a wallet that focuses on privacy and security for its users above all else, but a recent tool released by this wallets team of developers has a focus on user experience. The new app, called Bitcoin Afterburner, allows users of many different bitcoin wallets to boost transactions that have become stuck due to low fees.

The app works for transactions that have been sent or received, and it is compatible with all BIP 39 and BIP 44 wallets. Examples of compatible wallets include Mycelium, Blockchain.info, Airbitz and Electrum.

To get more details about Bitcoin Afterburner and the concept of fee bumping in general, Bitcoin Magazine reached out to the anonymous CEO of Samourai Wallet.

Afterburner is one more example of how we are experimenting and developing ways of monetizing our business without resorting to accepting fiat or exposing our users to harmful KYC/AML collection, said the CEO.

Samourai Wallet monetizes the Bitcoin Afterburner app by adding a $5.99 fee for helping users with their stuck transactions. This fee is added to the child-pays-for-parent (CPFP) transaction that is used to bump the users bitcoin transaction fee. CPFP is a process by which the recipient of a transaction can spend the inputs of an unconfirmed transaction by using them in a new transaction that has a higher fee (and incentivizes miners to mine both transactions at once).

The full question and answer session with the CEO of Samourai Wallet can be read below.

Samourai Wallet: We believe that over time as legitimate transactions start to fill block space, and a fee market begins to mature, wallets that have implemented sophisticated fee management mechanisms such as fee bumping will provide their users with the most competitive transaction fees and confirmation times. The tech is there today, the challenge and it isn't a small challenge is entirely UX. We're working on this today while others are playing catch-up.

SW: The difference between the miner operated TX Accelerators is that Afterburner is not an off-chain 1-to-1 with a specific miner. Instead, Afterburner broadcasts a bitcoin transaction to all miners using the standard bitcoin p2p network. All the miners on the network compete for the new transaction with the higher fee, meaning it often works much quicker than the miner operated TX Accelerators. Afterburner was very much a defensive response to the miners who have been blocking SegWit activation and broadcasting empty blocks, some of those same miners are the ones who run the TX Accelerators.

SW: Afterburner has a good number of installs, but not many paid 'Boosts.' A few days after we released Afterburner the transaction backlog that was driving up fees and confirmation times completely dried up. The fees required for next block confirmation dropped from 300 sat/b to 25 sat/b. Once the mempool gets saturated again, we will have a much better idea of the potential utility of the app.

SW: Many wallet providers inexplicably the most well-funded ones are the most guilty haven't invested any time into proper fee estimation and management until very recently. A misguided industry-driven quest to make the bitcoin wallet for grandma resulted in an unusable bitcoin wallet for actual users. Samourai has focused from inception on actual bitcoin users first.

SW: Samourai Wallet provides the exact same functionality as Afterburner natively. Afterburner was designed to allow users of any other BIP 44 HD wallet to boost their stuck transaction using CPFP (Child-Pays-for-Parent) under the hood. Hopefully they move over to Samourai Wallet if they are satisfied with the service. In addition to CPFP-based boosting more advanced users may opt-in to RBF-based boosting which is also available in the wallet. Both options are available to Samourai Wallet users free of charge.

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This New Tool Can Help Bitcoin Users Deal With Stuck Transactions - Bitcoin Magazine

Last week I pointed to a decline of 23% in the market cap of major digital currencies in July, asking if this was the bottom. Now we have an answer: Not by a long shot.

This past weekend brought brutal declines for the two biggest digital currencies. Bitcoin fell to around $1,863 (38% off its all-time high) while ethereum hit a low of around $133 (67% off its high).

Bitcoin and ethereum are by far the biggest digital currencies but the entire asset classwhich consists of numerous other so-called "alt coins"suffered a similar shock. The trade publication Coindesk reported the overall market cap for digital currencies has fallen from $115 billion to $61 billion in a month.

On Monday morning the currencies had recovered slightly as bitcoin and ethereum were trading around $2,000 and $160 respectively.

There is no obvious single explanation for the price collapse, though part of it may simply be a market correction following months of speculative mania that has attracted all sorts of new investors to the market.

Ryan Selkis, a well-respected figure in the digital currency community, acknowledged the price drop has been dramatic but also noted the overall market is still well up from the start of the year:

Another factor driving the price collapse may be an unresolved dispute among leading members of the bitcoin community over how to reform the protocol that underpins the currency. If the dispute, which some are likening to a civil war, is not resolved by an August 1 deadline, it could trigger a further selloff of bitcoinand drag other currencies down with it.

Adding to the instability is a warning from the popular trading exchange GDAX, run by Coinbase, which warned the protocol controversy could lead it to temporarily suspend bitcoin withdrawals.

A further explanation for the price drop, cited by analyst Anupam Varshney, is a recent spate of "Initial Coin Offerings"in which founders blockchain companies have raised huge amounts of bitcoin and ethereum, and then dumped some of their windfall on the market.

The latest price turmoil, however, is hardly the first rodeo for long time followers of crypto-currency. Over the last seven years, bitcoin has been rocked by numerous spectacular crashes only to recoverwhich suggest bitcoin and some of the other currencies will emerge from this latest joint.

As always, digital currency investing is proving not to be for the faint of heart. And for those looking for some good news, some came earlier this month as the IRS declared it would scale back a major audit of Coinbase customers.

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Wipeout: Bitcoin and Other Digital Currencies in Price Collapse - Fortune

Bitcoin fell below $2,000 for the first time since May amid anxiety its dominant status is under threat.

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Asenthusiasts consider adopting competing updates to the blockchain technology that underpins the exchange method by the end of July, it has raised the possibility of the cryptocurrency splitting in two. Bitcoin has lost about a third of its value since peaking at about $3,000 last month. Calls for a revamp of the software come as exchanges struggled to keep up with rising volumes while the price almost tripled this year.

Bitcoin isnt the only one struggling as the two competing camps -- miners and developers -- are facing off over how to deal with increasing transaction times and processing fees. The 30 largest cryptocurrencies have all suffered declines over the past seven days,according to data from coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin has lost about 20 percent of its market value, while the second-biggest digital coin -- ethereum -- has lost 30 percent.

Cryptocurrency exchange GDAX said it anticipates temporarily suspending bitcoin deposits and withdrawals after the Aug. 1 software update deadline, and may also pause trading.

"In either scenario we will implement safeguards to ensure the safety of our customers funds," the exchange said in a July 13 post on its website. "This decision will be based on our assessment of the technical risks posed by the fork, such as replay attacks and other factors that could create network instability."

Read more on how bitcoin is perplexing analysts.

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Bitcoin Falls Below $2000 - Bloomberg