This is a continuation of the most frequent questions I am asked by friends, colleagues, and family as I try to teach them more about cryptocurrencys exciting new role in our world. The previous article has already covered the basics from legitimacy to acquisition, I wanted to focus on the questions I get asked after newcomers have gotten some coin.

This is great! But where can I even spend these?

While Bitcoin and other altcoins may not have as wide an adoption by retailers and service providers as various fiat currencies have, there are still many places that accept Bitcoin and other cryptosas a form of payment. Airline booking agencies, computer hardware and software sites, VPN services, and many brick and mortar businesses all accept Bitcoin, with the list growing everyday. My friends and I are gamers, so many of the people who ask this question usually are thrilled when they find out that Steam accepts Bitcoin as a payment option now. Im sure that Steam saw a fair share of my friends coins coming in during the Steam winter sale this past year.

I also explain that Bitcoin and other altcoins thrive as a peer to peer currency as well, for personal debts. For example, this past weekend I was having a few beers with some of my Bitcoin holding friends and I ordered a pizza for the group. One of them didnt have any cash, but we both had our mobile wallets and he sent me some bitcoin to pay for his share of the pizza. This example may be even more powerful than just telling someone they can spend coins with online, because you get to participate in the process with them.

Why is my transaction taking so long to confirm?

This is a problem almost exclusive to Bitcoin. I have no intention on having this post become a catalyst for the blocksize debate, but I do have to field this question often. Usually this problem for the newcomer comes from a lack of understanding how transaction fees work in the Bitcoin network.

Since miners have to process transactions and only so many transactions can be processed in a block, fees are required by the miners to put the transactions through. If you pay too low of a fee (as many of the Bitcoin neophytes I speak with do), the chances of the transaction being painfully slow and/or outright orphaned increase exponentially. While theyve usually paid enough that it will eventually get confirmed, this is can be frustrating for the new coin user.

From my experience, such a mistake is rarely made again. However this is one reason that I usually that the new user does a practice run with a seasoned cryptocurrency user by say, paying for your share of a pizza with Bitcoin. This way the veteran can help out, and usually waiting a bit longer for someone to pay you back for pizza will not break the bank.

Between these two posts, these are the five most common cryptocurrency questions that I encounter. As always, I hope my experiences are helpful to all the other cryptocurrency evangelists out there.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Most Frequent Cryptocurrency Beginner Questions Part 2 - The Merkle

Bitcoin volumes rise on LocalBitcoins amid increasing regulatory hurdles imposed by government agencies. Read more...

The increasing interest in Bitcoin has got the community looking for ways to overcome the roadblocks set by government agencies. As regulatory issues affect conventional methods of buy and selling cryptocurrencies over established platforms, the community members seem to have migrated to peer-to-peer platforms like LocalBitcoins.

The market charts published by Coin Dance platform shows increasing Bitcoin trade volumes on LocalBitcoins. The surge in Bitcoin demand on the peer-to-peer trading platform appears to be driven by the recent developments in the Chinese cryptocurrency industry.

The region wise demand trend shows the cryptocurrencys volumes surge to record levels in the Chinese market. The volumes in Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Mexico, Norway, and Venezuela have also exhibited similar trends. Out of all these markets, China, Mexico, and Venezuela hold a special significance.

The Chinese Bitcoin exchanges have recently frozen Bitcoin withdrawals from the platforms as they work on implementing new AML and compliance systems. The limited functionality on these exchanges has almost brought trading activity to a standstill. It is during these times the peer-to-peer exchanges score over centralized platforms like BTCC, OKCoin, Huobi and others. People have resorted to using LocalBitcoins to continue trading.

Similarly, amid the worst financial crisis, Venezuela has been cracking down on Bitcoin mining and exchange activities. SurBitcoin, a leading Venezuelan exchange recently suspended services after its banking partner decided to withdraw support. Mexico, on the other hand, seems to be preparing itself to face any unexpected executive orders by the US President Donald Trump that might affect remittances between the two nations.

President Trump has already hinted about a possible disruption of remittances along with increased import taxes between the United States and Mexico. As he plans to pressurize Mexico into sharing the costs of the controversial border wall between both countries, Mexicans are preparing to deal with any eventualities by adopting Bitcoin as an alternative.

These developments show that no matter what the governments do, Bitcoin cant be completely taken off the equation. With no improvements in regulations at sight for the immediate future, the cryptocurrency trade volumes of LocalBitcoins is expected to go up further.

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Regulations Push Cryptocurrency Traders to LocalBitcoins - newsBTC

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet KeepKey announced in a press release sent to CoinReport that it has integrated cryptocurrency dash.

Those using KeepKey can now receive, store and send their dash on their KeepKey devices, and via the built-in ShapeShift function, swap between other digital currencies like bitcoin, dogecoin, namecoin and litecoin.

Dash currently has a market capitalization of over $120 million and stands seventh on the most valuable digital asset list. In September and October last year, the median 24-hour volume trading of the cryptocurrency was about $680,000. In November and December, the amount almost doubled. Now, in the first quarter of 2017, its averaging about $2 million per day.

KeepKey founder & CEO Darin Stanchfield

Partnering with Dash is the natural next step for KeepKey since our wallet is purely focused on security, mobility and convenience; attributes that Dash shares, said KeepKey CEO Darin Stanchfield in the release.

KeepKey protects digital assets from hackers by limiting their exposure to the internet. With this integration, we are extending our utility, and adding one more asset users can transfer to or from directly on our device.

Dash director of finance Ryan Taylor said on the occasion, As the ecosystem of services integrated with Dash continues to grow and mature, solutions to ensure user funds are stored as securely as possible is more important than ever. Because of Dashs unique capabilities and the announcement and execution of our software upgrade, weve experienced triple digit price appreciation, so many of our users will love having this option available to secure the growing value of their Dash.

We partnered with KeepKey because we aim to create the best overall experience for our users. The peace of mind and convenience that KeepKey can provide makes them a valuable addition to our family of partners. Their products also align well with our belief that the user experience should be a focus.

This beta release by KeepKey, however, will not support dashs InstantSend and PrivateSend functions.

We like to listen to the community and implement new technology in response to community requests and feedback. While hacks in todays global information age are pervasive, and so too is the rise of cryptocurrency, more and more people are investing in a digital vault for their valuable cryptocurrencies. Crypto assets vary in their characteristics, and attract the use of different audiences for different reasons. One thing we are certain of though is the trend for investing and holding multiple types of assets is becoming increasingly popular and KeepKey helps makes this both simpler and safer, Stanchfield added.

The entire digital currency market has almost tripled in value in a year, from $7 billion in January 2016 to more than $19.9 billion now.

Images courtesy of KeepKey via PR firm Wachsman PR

Read more:

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet KeepKey integrates dash - CoinReport

Ticino, the southernmost canton of Switzerland, is planning to issue its own local digital currency for everyday use. Its circulation may be confined to Ticino territory.

The future cryptocurrency called ticinocoin (TIC) is a brainchild of computer scientists Claudio Rossini and Michele Fiscalini. The developers have already tested the currency: the pilot phase of the project was completed last week, reports Tribune de Geneve. Regional virtual currency based on the blockchain technology is expected to stimulate the local economy offering faster, more transparent and less expensive transactions. According to Fiscalini, circulation of TIC may be limited to local services and products from Ticino.

The expected exchange rate of TIC is one Swiss franc. However, operations with ticinocoin may require obligatory authorisation by FINMA, the Swiss monetary regulator.

Ticinocoin is not the first local currency in Switzerland. In 2015, Lmanic Arc introduced the regional currency Lmans. Now it accounts for more than 100,000 units in circulation. The launch of the electronic version of Lman is due in March. Another Swiss region, Valais, may introduce its own complementary currency Farinet in 2017.

Switzerland, the home of Xapo, Ethereum and ShapeShift, is regarded as a haven for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. In May 2016, the City Council of Zug in the east Switzerland launched a pilot project allowing to pay for municipal services with bitcoin. During the initial phase of the programme, the maximum amount payable with the cryptocurrency was limited to 200 Swiss francs. The city authorities are not opposed to extending the experiment to other cryptocurrencies.

View original post here:

Swiss canton to launch its own cryptocurrency - Finextra - Finextra

BitBay is a free software program that provides the security you need to protect all of your online transactions, especially at places like Craigslist, Hoobly and eBay Classifieds.

After keeping a low profile for some time, BitBay, the cryptocurrency software suite offering unbreakable smart contracts is now back with the most advanced and secure wallet in cryptocurrency space. The software suite is capable of supporting an entire smart contracting interface with decentralized markets and other features.

BitBay is a free software program that provides the security you need to protect all of your online transactions, especially at places like Craigslist, Hoobly and eBay Classifieds. It removes any centralized services from online transactions and allows buyers to interact directly with sellers safely and securely.

The platform offers unbreakable smart contractsfor important real world applications. These contracts are secured by collateral deposits from both parties, making them unbreakable. Further, there is no fear of fraud as the collateral funds will be burnt in case a party cheats or exits the contract with the intention of defrauding the other.

Arbitrators, biased third parties, escrow and even fees have been eliminated on BitBay due to their smart contracts system. Without any middlemen, it can create coins for cash contracts like a decentralized LocalBitcoins, where cash payments are completely trustless. It can also be used to create employment contracts, decentralized eBay-like delivery contracts, and even barter contracts.

The many user-friendly templates on BitBay let people create smart contracts by just entering few details. The pre- existing templates like Cash for Coins are already being used successfully and many new ones like buy/sell anything contract template are to be added to the platform shortly.

BitBay has a decentralized marketplace in place and the completely anonymous marketis built right into the client which allows users to create their own public and private markets. There is also the option to simply check different contracts already available in the main market.

The BitBay software allows communication between users by supporting email with end to end encryption like Thunderbird and it also supports Bitmessage for a more decentralized option.

Finally, BitBay also plans to launch their secret star feature soon, that will eliminate the cryptocurrencys volatility.

The rest is here:

BitBay Resurfaces with the Most Advanced and Secure Wallet in Cryptocurrency Space - newsBTC

One thing a lot of people do not like about bitcoin is how it takes an average of 10 minutes before a transaction receives a network confirmation. Various other cryptocurrencies, also known as altcoins, try to improve this block time by quite a margin. Some projects focusing on faster block times are more successful than others, though.

Litecoin is often referred to as the silver to bitcoins gold. Albeit not everyone may see it that way, Litecoin brings some very intriguing developments in the world of cryptocurrency, that much is certain. Compared to bitcoins block time, Litecoin generates network blocks 4 times as fast on the network. It takes an average of 2.5 minutes for this process to complete, which is quite an improvement.

For a cryptocurrency that offers privacy and anonymity features, Monero has proven to be quite a quick altcoin when it comes to generating new blocks on the network. With an average block time of just two minutes, Monero succeeds in providing users with anonymity features at 1/5th of the time bitcoin generates a block, which does not include any anonymity features.

It is interesting to note Monero used to have an even faster block time at one point in time. The developers decreased the block time to 60 seconds when Monero was first launched, yet they reverted it back to 120 seconds once the network started to settle. While 60 second block times may sound more preferable, 120 seconds does the job just fine for Monero.

Many people believe Ethereum is the worlds fastest cryptocurrency in terms of block generation time, but that is not the case It has to be said, Ethereum is somewhat in a league of its, with the average block time sitting at the 14 second mark ever since April of 2016. It is quite an impressive feat to see Ethereum keep the block time so low. Bitcoin users would like to see a similar strategy introduced by the developers, albeit it is doubtful that will happen anytime soon.

When it comes to generating blocks quickly, there is no competition for Ripple right now. Although Ripple is targeting a very different crowd compared to bitcoin,Monero, or the other coins mentioned above, the technology powering this network has proven to be quite solid. The average Ripple network block is generated in as little as 3.5 seconds.

Considering how Ripple is aiming to change the world of finance by collaborating with financial institutions all over the world, that 3.5 second mark is quite important. Blockchain-based assets are designed to make transactions more efficient. Ripple succeeds in allowing for very fast transfers at minimal fees, whereas bitcoin seems to get slower and more expensive until the scalability issue is addressed.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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4 Cryptocurrencies With Much Faster Block Times Than Bitcoin - The Merkle

Centurion Cryptocurrency Launches Today, Offering Extremely Fast Transactions While Supporting MENAFN.COM LONDON, Feb. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Centurion is a unique cryptocurrency launching today on February 9, 2017. The new cryptocurrency draws lessons from Bitcoin and other altcoins to offer an efficient and easy-to-use option for the cryptocurrency ...

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Centurion Cryptocurrency Launches Today, Offering Extremely Fast Transactions While Supporting - MENAFN.COM

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

BlockchainOS, a blockchain technology company in Korea, announced the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) of BOScoin* from April 17th, 2017 to May 31st, 2017.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170216005500/en/

BOScoin, the first global cryptocurrency issued in Korea, is a cryptocurrency that utilizes the blockchain, ontology language, and timed automation technologies to solve persistent issues in decentralized systems. BOScoins presale in the domestic market already gathered over 2,000BTC (approximately 2 million USD) during a two month period.

*BOScoin - A congressional decentralized cryptocurrency platform for Trust Contracts based on ontology language and timed automation.

Yezune Choi, the BlockchainOS CTO and General Executive Director, outlines the current state of blockchain, "There are two primary issues that need to be solved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain fields. The first issue is the integrity of the Dapps (Decentralized Applications) on the blockchain. The second issue is the consensus mechanism needed for confirming data on the blockchain and the decision making process for revising policies implemented in the core blockchain algorithm. We have been working on these core problems for over 2 years and are now opening our research to the public.

BOScoin, Trust Contracts and the Congress Network operate on top of the alternative blockchain called OWLchain. By the OWLchains integration of ontology language and timed automata into blockchain, the BOScoin and Trust Contracts will serve as digital currency and smart contract with inherent security assurance. And governance through the Congress Network ensures that adequate proposals on blockchain will be discussed and applied within desired time.

The Currency BOScoin

BOScoin is a fixed supply cryptocurrency that will be issued over the next 141 years. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, BOScoin sends a portion of the coins issued to a public account called the Commons Budget. Coins held in the Commons Budget can be used through the voting system to decide on future BOScoin policies. And since voting right is given to only the node operators who invested in the coin, the funds from the Commons Budget are likely to be used for the betterment of the coin.

The Currencys Programming Framework Trust Contracts

Trust Contracts are pre-defined programs or rules that users can create. Similar to Ethereum, the BOScoin team is also aiming to create a general purpose language on top of the blockchain so anyone can write, upload, and execute contracts. However, BOScoins approach is technically different from Ethereum. The BOScoin team believes security is the most important principle for smart contracts on the blockchain. As decentralized systems become more complex, these systems are bound to make mistakes and break. The failure of DAO project from Ethereum is the exact case of it.

BOScoin Team believes in importance of being cautious when dealing with digital assets. This is the reason they carefully selected the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and TAL, the timed automata language, for the development of Trust Contracts. By using OWL and TAL for building contracts, due to the nature of the languages, the Trust Contracts can be mathematically proven to be trustworthy and operate without any unintended consequences.

Decision Making System Congress Network

The Congress is the governance system inside the BOScoin platform. Many decentralized organizations suffer from a poor decision making process. This is why in BOScoin, all node operators are given a vote to decide on how to distribute the Commons Budget. With this vote, node operators can accept or deny proposals brought up from within the community. Anyone can make proposals for using BOScoin. BOScoin believes this kind of democratic system is key to sustaining and growing BOScoin.

Learn more about the BOScoin ICO at https://boscoin.io .

Related Links

Whitepaper :

http://www.boscoin.io/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/boscoinwhitepaperv20170202.pdf

Bitcointalk : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1759662.msg17777617#msg17777617

Slack : https://boscoin.slack.com

Facebook : https://facebook.com/boscoinio

Twitter : https://twitter.com/boscoin_ico

Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/boscoin

Medium : https://medium.com/boscoin

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170216005500/en/

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170216005500/en/

Link:

BOScoin, a New Cryptocurrency, Introduces "Trust Contracts" to Overcome the Shortcomings of Ethereum Smart ... - Yahoo Finance

BlockchainOS, a blockchain technology company from Korea, has announced an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) of its native cryptocurrency BOScoin from April 17th to May 31st, 2017.

To unlock the Asian market, register now to the iFX EXPO in Hong Kong.

BOScoin utilizes ontology language and timed automation technologies to try and solve persistent issues in decentralized systems. Itspresale in the Korean market already gathered over BTC2,000 (approximately $2 million) during a two-month period.

Yezune Choi, the BlockchainOS CTO and General Executive Director, commented, There are two primary issues that need to be solved in the cryptocurrency and blockchain fields. The first issue is the integrity of the Dapps (Decentralized Applications) on the blockchain.

The second issue is the consensus mechanism needed for confirming data on the blockchain and the decision-making process for revising policies implemented in the core blockchain algorithm. We have been working on these core problems for over 2 years and are now opening our research to the public.

BOScoin is a fixed supply cryptocurrency that unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, BOScoin sends a portion of the coins issued to a public account called the Commons Budget. Coins held in the Commons Budget can be used through the voting system to decide on future BOScoin policies. And since voting right is given to only the node operators who invested in the coin, the developers expect that funds from the Commons Budget are likely to be used for the betterment of the coin.

Trust Contracts are pre-defined programs or rules that users can create. Similar to Ethereum, the BOScoin team is also aiming to create a general-purpose language on top of the blockchain so anyone can write, upload, and execute contracts. However, BOScoins approach is technically different from Ethereum.

The BOScoin team believes security is the most important principle for smart contracts on the blockchain. As decentralized systems become more complex, these systems are bound to make mistakes and break. They say that the failure of DAO project from Ethereum is the exact case of it.

BOScoin say they believe in the importance of being cautious when dealing with digital assets. This is the reason they selected the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and TAL, the timed automata language, for the development of Trust Contracts. By using OWL and TAL for building contracts, due to the nature of the languages, they promise that Trust Contracts can be mathematically proven to be trustworthy and operate without any unintended consequences.

Excerpt from:

Cryptocurrency Startup BlockchainOS Seeks Crowdfunding to Challenge Ethereum - Finance Magnates

Ever since I began learning about cryptocurrency in 2012 (and more seriously in 2014), I knew that it was going to fundamentally change the way that we think about money, commerce, and contracts. I was surprised by just how few of my friends and colleagues knew what even the most well known coin, Bitcoin, was.

Since then, Ive taken every opportunity to teach others about crypto and make myself available for questions that they have. These are without a doubt the most frequent questions I have heard while talking to newcomers about blockchain based currenciesand how Ive answered them.

So this is fake, Internet money?

One of the most challenging aspects of speaking to people new about Bitcoinis helping them navigate beyond the dichotomy of real vs digital. Since physical cryptocurrency tokens are extremely uncommon, many of those Ive spoken to have a difficult time viewing digital currencyas legitimate. To counter this, I usually question whether they feel the same way about direct deposit checks, credit cards, and online banking. Demonstrating to people that something they already trust and use is virtual as well often helps them realize that cryptos are indeed as real as the assets they already have.

So, how do you get Bitcoins and the other ones?

Acquisition of Bitcoinseems to be a particularly mysterious concept for the cryptocurrencyneophyte. I have found that this is especially true for non-investors. Since most people do not have assets in the form of stock positions or forex positions, the idea of having to buy an asset on an exchange may be foreign to them.

Mining and minting are also an interesting ideas to explain, and understandably so. Telling someone that they can receive money for running a program on a computer usually turns some heads. I do explain that mining is almost entirely not profitable if youre a solo miner or do not have access to free electricity. This means that I often warn individuals from trying to acquire coins in this way and suggest faucets -even though those have all but dried up- to get acquainted with small amounts of coins.

The method of getting coins people are most readily able to understand is payment. Companies and individuals are more than willing to pay for your services in the form of cryptos. Most people are familiar with the concept of paid work, so this is usually the quickest part of my answer to this question.

Isnt Bitcoinfor buying drugs and other dubious goods and services?

Cryptos have been plagued in the past by scandal. Sites on the deep web that accepted cryptos as payment methods gained some attention on news stations when some of those sites were shut down, and they brought crypto under the same scrutinous light. For these reasons, some approach the idea of crypto with trepidation. However, it is easy to explain that Bitcoinjust acts as tender for debts, much like fiat cash. What an individual uses the tender for is not the fault of the currency itself. In fact, many philanthropic endeavors have been funded in part or whole by cryptos as well.

So the next time you are speaking with someone who does not know what cryptocurrency is, or they have a poor understanding of it, keep questions in mind. I hope my experiences and answers better equip you to tackle the questions of new arrivals to the world of cryptocurrency.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news

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Most Frequent Cryptocurrency Beginner Questions Part 1 - The Merkle

ENSENADA, Mexico, Feb. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --BitBay, the cryptocurrency software suite offering unbreakable smart contractswas keeping a low profile for some time but has now resurfaced; stronger than ever. The creator and soul developer of BitHalo/BlackHalo David Zimbeck has worked effortlessly the past two years to create the most advanced and secure wallet in cryptocurrency space. The software suite is capable of supporting an entire smart contracting interface with decentralized markets and other features.

A BitBay community member comments,

"How is it that a single developer can deliver such an incredible suite when entire teams of coders have a hard time even delivering a functional wallet? How on earth has this project gone unnoticed, and why is it not in the top 10 coins in the world?"

Unbreakable Smart Contracts

Unlike many other platforms, BitBay is not vaporware. It is a feature rich platform that offersunbreakable smart contractsfor important real world applications. The BitBay contracts are far superior to other smart contracts as they are secured by collateral deposits from both parties, which makes it unbreakable. In the event of a default by one of the parties, their collateral funds will be burnt, making it illogical for them to cheat or exit the contract with the intention of defrauding the other.

The smart contracts system on BitBay eliminates arbitrators, biased third parties, escrow and even fees. Without any middlemen, it can create coins for cash contracts like a decentralized "LocalBitcoins", where cash payments are completely trustless. It can also be used to create "employment contracts", "decentralized eBay-like delivery contracts" (to ensure prompt delivery of working products), and even "barter contracts" that allows people to create a "wish list" and trade any item off that list.

The user-friendly templates on BitBay enable users to create smart contracts by just entering few details. The platform currently has a handful of templates in place, with more to be added shortly. In David Zimbeck's words, all one has to do is use their imagination to create a custom template for any deal they want. The platform's "Cash for Coins" template has already been successfully used by many to automate buying process and complete cash deals without needing escrow or middlemen. The platform will soon release a "buy/sell anything" contract template with reverse and regular auctions support. It will also include a variety of shipping choices.

Decentralized Marketplace

BitBay had a decentralized marketplace almost a year before "Open Bazaar".BitBay's completely anonymous marketis built right into the client, and it allows users to create their own public and private markets. Or they can just check different contracts already available in the main market. The BitBay software allows communication between users by supporting email with end to end encryption like Thunderbird and it also supports Bitmessage for a more decentralized option.

Other features on BitBay include "Pay to Email" which uses steganography to hide payments within photos sent to recipient's email. The feature, originally created for tipping purposes has various other applications as well. Even the wallets' two encrypted keys can be hidden within images using David's steganography based feature. These keys can then be used on two different computers to sign transactions a feature that lays the foundation for "Cold Staking", which will be utilized in both BitBay and BlackHalo. The Cold Staking feature will be almost impossible to crack because the computers used to sign your transactions can be in completely separate locations. BitBay will also make allowance for "exotic spending" such as "locktimes". In addition to the "dead man's switch", "parking of coins", "burn" and other spending types, it also supports automated joint accounts for business partners and spouses. The BitBay platform can also translate to 92 different languages.

About BitBay

BitBay has so far created a whole cryptocurrency ecosystem with its own functional market economy. All these things have turned BitBay into a powerful cryptocurrency software suite that can take on other cryptocurrencies. The platform enjoys avibrant communitythat is regularly attracting and training new users. The "contract faucet" created by one of the team members is currently giving away coins using a unilateral "Guarantor" contract to whoever accepts it.

Read More

Originally posted here:

The Worlds Most Advanced Cryptocurrency Software, BitBay Makes Itself Visible - Yahoo Finance

BlockchainOS, a Blockchain technology company in Korea has announced its doing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of BOScoin from April 17th, 2017 to May 31st, 2017.

BOScoin, is the first global cryptocurrency issued in Korea, utilises the Blockchain, ontology language, and timed automation technologies to solve persistent issues in decentralized systems. BOScoins presale in the domestic market already gathered over 2,000BTC (approximately 2 million USD) during a two month period.

BOScoin A congressional decentralized cryptocurrency platform for Trust Contracts based on ontology language and timed automation.

Yezune Choi, the BlockchainOS CTO and General Executive Director, outlines the current state of Blockchain:

There are two primary issues that need to be solved in the cryptocurrency and Blockchain fields. The first issue is the integrity of the Dapps (Decentralized Applications) on the Blockchain. The second issue is the consensus mechanism needed for confirming data on the Blockchain and the decision making process for revising policies implemented in the core Blockchain algorithm. We have been working on these core problems for over 2 years and are now opening our research to the public.

BOScoin, Trust Contracts and the Congress Network operate on top of the alternative Blockchain called OWLchain. By the OWLchains integration of ontology language and timed automata into Blockchain, the BOScoin and Trust Contracts will serve as digital currency and smart contract with inherent security assurance. And governance through the Congress Network ensures that adequate proposals on Blockchain will be discussed and applied within desired time.

The Currency BOScoin

BOScoin is a fixed supply cryptocurrency that will be issued over the next 141 years. Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, BOScoin sends a portion of the coins issued to a public account called the Commons Budget. Coins held in the Commons Budget can be used through the voting system to decide on future BOScoin policies. And since voting right is given to only the node operators who invested in the coin, the funds from the Commons Budget are likely to be used for the betterment of the coin.

The Currencys Programming Framework Trust Contracts

Trust Contracts are pre-defined programs or rules that users can create. Similar to Ethereum, the BOScoin team is also aiming to create a general purpose language on top of the Blockchain so anyone can write, upload, and execute contracts. However, BOScoins approach is technically different from Ethereum. The BOScoin team believes security is the most important principle for smart contracts on the Blockchain. As decentralized systems become more complex, these systems are bound to make mistakes and break. The failure of DAO project from Ethereum is the exact case of it.

BOScoin Team believes in importance of being cautious when dealing with digital assets. This is the reason they carefully selected the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and TAL, the timed automata language, for the development of Trust Contracts. By using OWL and TAL for building contracts, due to the nature of the languages, the Trust Contracts can be mathematically proven to be trustworthy and operate without any unintended consequences.

Decision Making System Congress Network

The Congress is the governance system inside the BOScoin platform. Many decentralized organizations suffer from a poor decision making process. This is why in BOScoin, all node operators are given a vote to decide on how to distribute the Commons Budget. With this vote, node operators can accept or deny proposals brought up from within the community. Anyone can make proposals for using BOScoin. BOScoin believes this kind of democratic system is key to sustaining and growing BOScoin.

Learn more about the BOScoin ICO at https://boscoin.io .

Go here to see the original:

BOScoin, a New Cryptocurrency, Introduces Trust Contracts to Overcome the Shortcomings of Ethereum Smart ... - Blockchain News

Centurion, a new cryptocurrency, launched last week with a focus on ease-of-use and scalability in addition to promoting childrens charities. With a block size of 2 MB, Centurion can process and confirm transactions in under 6 minutes.

Ready-made merchant payment API libraries can be integrated into websites to enable the cryptocurrency to be used to buy products and services. The first adopter of Centurion is an online store which sells more than 100 e-books and 50 videos on marketing, cryptocurrencies, internet tips, tricks, businesses, etc. The partnerships will be revealed soon, with more stores to follow soon after. Centurion is already available for traders on the cryptocurrency exchange Excambiorex.

Mining pools for Centurion users do not require miners to sign up and manually withdraw their accumulated share of cryptocurrency. Instead, they will be receiving funds directly into their wallets. According to the company, this has been done to improve ease of use, but also reduce the risk of attacks on the mining pools wallets. The auto pay-outs are set to execute every few minutes. In order to cater to users who are not technology experts, simple, pre-configured files are provided that can be downloaded to start CPU and GPU mining.

Centurion4Children is donating 5 million Centurion coins to well-established charity organizations. It is also raising funds within the community and through the website. The foundation is already represented in India, as well as Africa and Europe with official charity partnerships being revealed in March, 2017. Centurion4Children is currently raising funds for: Support a Child and its Entire Family, Sponsor a Boy, Safe Water for Children in Development Countries, and Sustainable Schools. To cover promotion costs and to kick-start the donations distributed by Centurion4Children, the coin has reserved 50 Million of its tokens.

The cryptocurrency platform will soon embark on a marketing campaign in association with Cryptonetwork ltd, a Dubai-based entity which has a network of people spread across India, Germany, Italy, Spain and several other countries. They will be involved in various promotional activities, including the sale of products and services, for which they will receive rewards in centurion and bitcoin. An estimated 20 million Centurion tokens over a period of 5 years has been earmarked for these promotional purposes.

Centurion will donate 5 million of its reserved coins to charity and the remaining 50% will be used to reward early adopters, investors, related projects and talented individuals within the community who work to improve the Centurion cryptocurrency.

Specifications X11 Proof of Work (PoW) 3% Proof of Stake (PoS) RPC port: 5555 / P2P port: 5556 1 Minute Blocks Block Size 2Mb Reward Schedule: Blocks until 100 0 CNT (for fair difficulty balancing) Blocks 101 250,100 100 CNT Blocks 250,101 500,100 75 CNT Blocks 500,101 1,000,100 60 CNT Blocks 1,000,101 2,000,100 50 CNT Blocks 2,000,101 2,500,100 25 CNT Blocks 2,500,101 3,500,100 10 CNT Blocks 3,500,101 4,000,100 5 CNT Blocks 4,000,101 5,000,100 2.5 CNT Blocks 5,000,101 19,000,000 1 CNT Total Coin production 250 Million Reserve: 50 Million. SIDEBAR

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New Charity Focussed Cryptocurrency Launches - AllCoinsNews.com (blog)

Above the Law

Bitcoin: Paying with the cryptocurrency | All media content | DW ... Deutsche Welle Bitcoin has long had a poor reputation. On the dark net it has been used to buy drugs and arms. Its reputation is improving, however, and it is now being used for ... BudCoin: Can Cryptocurrency Solve Marijuana's Banking Crisis ...Above the Law WeUseCoins Makes Bitcoin Adoption Easier with Its Comprehensive ...newsBTC all 6 news articles »

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Bitcoin: Paying with the cryptocurrency | All media content | DW ... - Deutsche Welle

Scientists at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg have developed an important mathematical algorithm called Equihash. Equihash is a core component for the new cryptocurrency Zcash, which offers more privacy and equality than the famous Bitcoin. Zcash came into operation as an experimental technology for a community-driven digital currency in late 2016. Competing cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin is by far the most recognised and widely used digital currency. It was introduced in January 2009 and has garnered much attention since then. But it is not the only one of its kind. Wikipedia lists nearly one hundred cryptocurrencies boasting more than 1 million US dollar market capitalisation.

One of the newest cryptocurrencies is Zcash, which can be seen as an update to the Bitcoin protocols. In Bitcoin, the transfer of coins is recorded in a global ledger, the so-called blockchain. The validity of the latest transfers in the blockchain is verified about every ten minutes. Verifying the transfers and creating new blocks for the blockchain (the so-called mining) requires a lot of computing power, which is provided by distributed computers worldwide. The miners who allocate the processing power are rewarded with new coins.

Zcash is trying to resolve two main shortcomings of Bitcoin: its lack of privacy for transactions and the centralisation of transaction verification into the hands of a mere dozen miners who have invested in large amounts of specialised mining hardware: Bitcoin is prone to such centralisation because the computational load of the bitcoin mining algorithm can be split into many different small tasks, which can be conducted in parallel. The algorithm is easy to implement in dedicated, energy-efficient and cheap microchips, but not suited to standard hardware. Bitcoin mining today is therefore done on special-purpose supercomputers which are located in places with cheap electricity and/or cheap cooling. Such supercomputers are expensive, costing millions of euros, but provide much more mining power than if one were to use standard PC hardware of the same price.

New algorithm for cryptocurrency

Prof. Alex Biryukov, head of the research group Cryptolux and Dr. Dmitry Khovratovich at SnT have developed the algorithm Equihash which can resolve this problem. Equihash is a so called memory-hard problem, which can not be split up into smaller working packages. It can be more efficiently calculated on desktop-class computers with their multiple processing cores and gigabytes of memory than on special hardware chips. If 10.000 miners with a single PC were active, in Zcash the investment to compete with them would be 10.000 times the price of a PC, while with bitcoin, the investment would be significantly smaller, says Khovratovich. This creates a more democratic digital currency by allowing more users to contribute to the mining process. Khovratovich adds: The strength of a cryptocurrency comes from the fact that the ledger is globally distributed. Our Equihash algorithm reverses the situation back to this more ideal world.

Equihash was first presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium last year one of the top-5 IT security events. Prof. Biryukov comments: Since Equihash is based on a fundamental computer science problem, advances in Equihash mining algorithms will benefit computer science in general. Equihash is so far unique among all the mining algorithms: it is memory-hard on the one hand and very easy to verify on the other. In other words, while mining new coins with Zcash/Equihash is comparatively expensive, hence posing a smaller risk of monopolisation because it requires large amounts of computer memory and hard computational work, checking that the new coins are genuine is memoryless, fast and cheap.

Understanding these advantages, the creators of Zcash chose Equihash as the algorithm for mining coins and verifying transfers. Equihash itself is not limited to use in Zcash and can be used in any cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.

With our contribution to Zcash, the Cryptography and Security lab (CryptoLux) has shown its strength in innovative research that has immediate applications in the financial technology industry, says SnTs director, Prof. Bjrn Ottersten. We invite students to follow us in this promising field, adds Professor Biryukov: There are still lots of challenging research problems to solve.

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Researchers at University of Luxembourg develop core component for Zcash cryptocurrency - Science Business

Dash, the rising alternative to bitcoin, has been added to cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform BitMEX in the wake of its recent software updates and historic 24 hour trading volumes.

Dash Business Development Spokesman Matthew Meek said, After observing the volumes traded on BitMEX for sometime, it was obvious that BitMEX is consistently ranking amongst the top in USD/BTC volume on a daily basis. We felt that having Dash as an offering for BitMEXs users was an obvious choice and one that would also provide Dash with its first derivative based market, which we are excited about.

BitMEX gives retail investors access to the global markets using cryptocurrencies and derivatives. The exchange allows for trading using up to up to 100x leverage on bitcoin, and high leverage on altcoin futures. Since November 2014, the equivalent of over $4.5 billion USD has been traded over BitMEX. Dash joins a growing roster of popular cryptocurrencies listed on the platform, including Bitcoin, Zcash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ripple, Augur, Litecoin and Factom.

BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes said, BitMEX aims to be the largest venue for the trading of any and all digital currency derivatives. As such, Dash belongs in our product offering. BitMEX believes financial privacy is valuable to the cryptocurrency exchange space. The first digital currency that can offer real electronic untraceable cash will be very successful. The Dash team is on the right path towards accomplishing this feat.

Dashs recent price and volume growth is driven in part by its recent software launch of Sentinel, which sets the foundation for the highly anticipated decentralized payments system Evolution. In parallel, Dash just opened its new headquarters at Arizona State Universitys SkySong Innovation Center, the first cryptocurrency in the world with dedicated offices. Dash now sits above Ethereum Classic as the 6th most valuable cryptocurrency in the world.

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Cryptocurrency exchange BitMex lists Dash - Finextra - Finextra

With Bitcoin trading well over $1000 right now and its popularity higher now higher than ever, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at large still have a long way to go. If one goal of cryptos is to have a wider adoption and use, then something needs to change from the current implementation and advertisement of bitcoin and altcoins.

It seems that the average user of cryptocurrenciesis a miner, a trader/investor, or a technophile. In no way am I suggesting that these users are not important pillars of coins, but it does create an environment which may be daunting for theaverage joe.Lack of guidance, lack of technical knowledge, and skepticism of others could turn away potential new crypto enthusiasts. To draw a parallel to fiat currency, the vast majority of Americans do not know how fractional reserve banking (FRB) works or what the Federal Reserve Bank is, but they use currency generated by FRB and issued by the Fed on a daily basis.

French sociologist Marcel Mauss seminal work The Gift may be able to lend some valuable insight into building the crypto community(ies). Mauss suggests that communities and interpersonal relationships are built on the foundation of reciprocity, gift giving, and social debts. This is to say that the creation of social obligation forges bonds between individuals. He argues that these gifts given usually were self interested. If you give a good or service to someone, they become indebted in some way. It mandates engagement with others.

Ive actually witnessed a similar kind of reciprocal crypto community already: Dogecoin. At the height of active users in the Dogecoin community, they were sending teams to the Olympics, funding a NASCAR sponsorship, and helping provide clean water to less fortunate communities. In addition to these large philanthropic endeavors, dogecoin remained very active among smaller time cyrpto users as well via giveaways and tipping. Since Dogecoin is relatively cheap and rather stable against fiat, members of the community will often give away small amounts of coins to other users to keep everyone excited. Theyll also tip some coins during discussions about anything ranging from the future of the coin to how an individual is feeling that day.

The creation of these social debts created opportunities and obligations to have community members return often and participate. This is where Mauss idea seems obvious to me. Obligation to participate grows a community. For a fair amount of time, Dogecoin was one of the most traded altcoins. Sadly, the same is true about less frequent participation. Dogecoins active members have seen a downtick recently, which have affected popularity and participation.

Bitcoin also used to have an easy way to tip others on the Internet via ChangeTip. This service allowed easy mircopayments between individuals across a plethora of social media and networking platforms. ChangeTip was very popular. It saw over $250,000 worth of tips sent and received with most tips hovering around $1. Despite this, the service shut down in November 2016. Maybe we need a new alternative to ChangeTip?

In no way am I suggesting that everyone start throwing large amounts of bitcoin around at each other in the same way Doge was able to. However I am suggesting that if small crypto tips are not available, that we think of Mauss and gift what we can to newcomers and veterans alike. This can be small amounts of altcoins (if the transaction fees allow), but more so knowledge and guidance. Helping individuals get started with crypto is the single easiest way to create that social obligation, to engender participation. Because participation is likely the most effective way to wider adoption and use.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Reciprocity is the Key to Growing Cryptocurrency Communities - The Merkle

Bitcoin was the pioneer cryptocurrency as it brought us the blockchain technology that isrevolutionizing the world as we know it. There are, however, a few incredible innovative altcoins with amazing goals. Here are a few of the most innovative cryptos you need to know about.

Steem is a cryptocurrency that is generated through the creation of content in a blockchain-based social media platformcalled Steemit, in which everyone can earn simply by creating and curating content. This means the cryptocurrency may, for some, be a way earn extra cash, while for others it may be a way to monetize growth. New artists, for example, can use it as a platform that helps them support themselves.

NXT is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, meaning all the coins were created at the beginning and that it doesnt need an incredible amount of computational power to generate blocks. Instead, it uses an algorithm based on the amount of coins already in the NXT network, and opening you wallet grants you a chance to get proof of stake rewards.

Its code is unique, and NXTs creators even call it a cryptoplatform instead of a cryptocurrency, as it supports a system that allow an infinite number of third-party applications to be created on top of NXT, creating a whole ecosystem around it.

Ripple wants to do for money what email did for communication. Ripple is both an open-source payments system that wants to help people break free from financial networks who restrict access with fees, and a digital currency used within that network. With Ripple, financial transaction fees can be reduced to almost insignificant amounts, and settlements are almost instant.

These characteristics drew in a wide variety of investors, including Google Ventures.Ripple itself, the cryptocurrency, differs from others as it is pre-mined and centralized. Nevertheless, it has already been adopted by a few major financial institutions.

Monero, a cryptocurrency under the CryptoNote platform, takes financial privacy seriously. Transactions arent traceable at all, and that means those who do value their privacy can feel safewhen using this cryptocurrency. So much so, darknet markets such as AlphaBay have already adopted Monero, which led to a surge in its popularity. Furthermore, this cryptocurrency is optimized for CPUs instead of GPUs, which makes it easier for amateur miners to get involved.

Ethereum is currently the second biggest cryptocurrency out there. Its platform is a blockchain-based decentralized virtual machine called the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), in which people can create decentralized applications (DApps), and in which Gas is used to properly allocate resources in the network.

In the platform, social networking systems that give power to users, online voting and distributed governance tools, and even fully transparent financial applications can be created. Resources in it are paid for in Ether.

The Ethereum project aims to do for human collaboration what the internet did for information, as some of the best uses it can have are still far beyond our imagination, just like Facebook and YouTube were far from peoples imagination when the internet came to be.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Top 5 Most Innovative Cryptocurrencies - The Merkle

"When I looked at the dating industry, I saw it was expensive to reach a critical mass of users and open a niche dating site," says Yonatan Ben Shimon in a Skype call from Tel Aviv.

"That's why dominant sites are one-size-fits-all, but that's not what most of us look for."

Ben Shimon is founder and CEO of Matchpool, a new dating service that aims to bring couples together through the art of matchmakingand a 21st century twist, let the most successful matchmakers earn cryptocurrency rewards for their work.

The unique selling proposition (USP) of the service is to combine elements of traditional matchmaking with the transparency and enforceability of programmable smart contracts.

In short, potential matchmakers start 'pools' subsets of users united by a common interest, like Facebook groups within which all users can private message one another in the hope of finding a match.

Pool owners are able to monetize their matchmaking efforts in a variety of ways, such as by setting a membership fee to join or charging an amount per message sent.

Additionally they can try to maintain group dynamics by setting smart contract-enforced ratios between different user attributes: a 50/50 male-female split, for example, or a balanced age range. Rather than using the everyone-for-themselves, search-and-filter strategy of a site like OKCupid, you might call it a more curated approach to dating.

In a Medium post, Ben Shimon writes that matchmaking is still a common practice in many religious communities, and has been for much of history. But, it's also true that most of us don't live in these kinds of communities anymore.

"I think it does happen, but under the surface," he said. "If you ask a lot of colleagues or friends how they met their husband, they'll say through mutual friends. It's an environment that takes off your layers of protection If a trusted person makes the introduction we suddenly feel a lot more comfortable."

The idea is that pool owners will help to create this atmosphere of trust, at least to some degree, vouching for the users in the pool in a way that fosters genuine conversation instead of the frequently bland or abusive tenor of other popular sites.

Of course, even with the best intentions, trying to engineer social dynamics is pretty tricky, as is launching a dating site (or any other kind of social network) when existing competitors already have a significant network effect.

With these potential challenges ahead, why is Matchpool taking on the additional challenge of creating its own cryptocurrency token to underpin it?

Firstly, Ben Shimon said the company was attracted to the idea of using a blockchain to store data about user interactions because the records in the system are difficult to change, something he hopes will further build the trust network between users.

Secondly, as has been established in many other contexts, cryptocurrency isthought to be an attractive option if the aim is to reward users with small amounts of money on a regular basis, especially compared to conventional payment processors.

And thirdly, Matchpool's 'Guppy' token will be used to attract users, with 20% of the token supply being used to incentivize new signups with a reward which for the time being will only be given to women.

The rationale is that dating sites tend to have higher numbers of men, though its difficult to assess figures across all sites. Research from the Pew Center, though, found that more American men used dating sites than women.

"I believe that if we reward early users with real money in a way that we couldn't do with dollars then we can cheaply overcome the initial barriers that come from the [lack of] network effect," said Ben Shimon, citing PayPal as a company that had employed a similar paid sign-up strategy to rapidly acquire users.

With a token sale (sometimes called an initial coin offering or ICO) scheduled for March, and prospective launch date in May, it wont be long until the effectiveness of this strategy can be judged against results.

But one question remained at the end of the interview: what exactly isBen Shimon's motive for the site anyway?

Could it be that perhaps hes like the Mark Zuckerberg portrayed in "The Social Network", trying to connect crowds of other people as a way of getting closer to the one girl that got away?

For now, he doesn't see it the same.

"You know, thats a tricky question ... I'm not doing it to get one girl."

Love and money image via Shutterstock. App image via Matchpool

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This Blockchain Startup Will Pay You to Help Your Friends Find Love - CoinDesk

The creators of Centurion are not just focusing on the financial aspects; they are driven by altruistic goals as well.

Centurion Lab has launched a brand-new cryptocurrency called Centurion. The digital currency, named after the key figures in the ancient Roman army offers an efficient and easy to use alternative to several altcoins currently available in the cryptocurrency market. The Centurion cryptocurrency was launched on February 9, 2017, and it aims to solve the issues faced by the Bitcoin community by offering them an alternative.

The Bitcoin network is currently struggling with increased delays in processing transactions due to confirmation backlogs. The delay in network scaling has led to increase in miner fees associated with transactions. Centurion has considered these challenges to create a cryptocurrency platform with twice the block size of Bitcoin at 2 MB, and a block time of 1 minute. The specifications of Centurion cryptocurrency are as follows:

X11 Proof of Work (PoW)

3% Proof of Stake (PoS)

RPC port: 5555 / P2P port: 5556

1 Minute Blocks

Block Size 2Mb

Reward Schedule:

Blocks until 100 0 CNT (for fair difficulty balancing)

Blocks 101 250,100 100 CNT

Blocks 250,101 500,100 75 CNT

Blocks 500,101 1,000,100 60 CNT

Blocks 1,000,101 2,000,100 50 CNT

Blocks 2,000,101 2,500,100 25 CNT

Blocks 2,500,101 3,500,100 10 CNT

Blocks 3,500,101 4,000,100 5 CNT

Blocks 4,000,101 5,000,100 2.5 CNT

Blocks 5,000,101 19,000,000 1 CNT

Total Coin production 250 Million

Reserve: 50 Million.

The creators of Centurion are not just focusing on the financial aspects, they are driven by altruistic goals as well. In the Roman saga, Centurions were considered as the protectors of the downtrodden, weak, and young. Taking a leaf out of the history, Centurion cryptocurrency also has an initiative named Centurion4Children a charity that strives to help kids across the world. Centurion cryptocurrency will be setting aside a total of 5 million Centurions to facilitate its activities. Centurion4Children will be responsible for supporting children and their families, sponsoring a child, providing safe water in developing countries and sustainable schools.

Centurion offers easy-to-use mining pools and software that save people from the complicated setup process as in the case of other cryptocurrency platforms. Centurion users can just download preconfigured files and become part of the mining community.

The creators of Centurion are also working on building a merchant network so that the community members can readily spend the crypto tokens for various goods and services. The readymade merchant API libraries make it easy for online platforms to integrate Centurion as an additional payment option. It has already partnered with one of the leading online sellers of e-books and videos on marketing, cryptocurrencies, internet tips, tricks, etc. In the coming days, Centurion will be expanding its network with the help of Cryptonetwork Ltd. Cryptonetwork will promote the use of Centurion through its marketing network in India, Germany, Italy, Spain and other nations.

More information about Centurion is available on the cryptocurrencys official website.

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New Centurion Cryptocurrency Offers an Alternative Payment Option While Supporting Its Own Children Charity - newsBTC