When Satoshi Nakamoto launched the Bitcoin network, not only was the protocol a breakthrough in computer science, but it transformed the way society perceives money, economics, and freedom. The Satoshi Revolution written by Wendy McElroy delves into the transformative technology Nakamoto introduced 11 years ago by exploring the evolution of this new money. McElroys book describes how cryptocurrencies can enrich the lives of individuals fighting for liberty in a world filled with monetary manipulation and political propaganda.

Also read: No Backdoor on Human Rights: Why Encryption Cannot Be Compromised

Two weeks ago I sat down and read Wendy McElroys latest book The Satoshi Revolution, a chronicle that describes the invention of Bitcoin and how it can alter the way society can operate going forward. McElroy is a well known Canadian libertarian author who has written a number of books since the early eighties. She also cofounded The Voluntaryist magazine created in 1982 and when I first started my path toward anarcho-capitalism, I read a number of McElroys articles. McElroys words, like the many others I was reading at the time from Ron Paul, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises, fundamentally changed the way I looked at the world. A few years ago, McElroy came to write for news.Bitcoin.com and I was very excited to see what she had to say. I found out later that she was writing a book about Bitcoin, Satoshi, and the cryptographic tools that have the potential to promote economic freedom.

Bitcoin.com now has McElroys 2020 e-book The Satoshi Revolution hosted on the website and available to anyone interested in reading the title. The Satoshi Revolutions opening chapter discusses how Satoshi gave the world the first practical solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem. Not only that, but Bitcoin revolutionized our conception of money and finance because it provides a system that removes third party interference. The trusted third party problem has haunted modern financial systems and centralized exchanges because people require an intermediary to make them work, McElroys introductory chapter explains. McElroy highlights the fact that third party intermediaries can be good or bad, but the current system of state-issued money and central banking has proven to be a failure.

McElroy provides a comprehensive history of the past and the first few chapters of her book do a great job explaining the trusted third party problem. She talks about Friedrich Hayek and Murray Rothbards arguments for free markets and how they discussed private currencies that could help bolster individualism. However, despite economists explaining how things could be designed for the betterment of society, McElroys words describe what really happened. The modern neglect of free-market money and the manipulation of banking through trusted third parties. Freethinkers and radicals however not only debated the subject of private currencies, they also experimented with private currencies and new economic models. McElroy highlights these events by stating:

Happily, their main economic goal was the abolition of the money monopoly. The term referred to three different but interacting forms of monopoly: banking, the charging of interest, and the privileged issuance of currency. The abolition of state power over currency was the focus, and they eschewed the use of force to implement their own schemes.

The books beginnings further explain how a radical individualist theory grew worldwide amidst the creation of the United States. Certain aspects of early America had shown signs of a prosperous free market concept, but McElroy underlines how the government eventually extinguished this idea and outlawed private money. Further, in the book, McElroy weaves through topics like the Mises Regression Theorem and the cypherpunks promoting cryptographic tools during the eighties and nineties. At that time a few more radicals tried to create private currencies and chapter two tells cautionary tales about those who attempted to create digital cash before Satoshi. From here, McElroy describes the introduction of Satoshi Nakamoto and the emergence of Bitcoin. Over the last decade, there have been many debates over whether or not Satoshi was a libertarian. McElroy gives an in-depth look at the political motives the creator might have had and leveraged evidence from early writings. On January 3, 2009, the Bitcoin network was unleashed, giving society a new path to choose from in a world filled with manipulated monetary policy.

Individuals had a viable, private currency that allowed them to control their own wealth and become their own banksto self-bank, an excerpt from McElroys book notes. At last, there was a practical path away from the manipulated fiat and the corrupt financial institutions that formed the basis of state power. McElroy adds:

Bitcoin came at the right moment. Just two years before, the monetary monopoly had caused the devastating financial crisis of 2007-2008 across the globe. Bitcoin and the blockchain offered individuals a better systemone that served their needs, not those of the elite, and it promised financial independence and control that is the foundation of autonomy.

McElroy describes Satoshis early writings and the Bitcoin networks nascent years. Not too long after the Wikileaks donations and the creation of the Silk Road marketplace, governments started taking cryptocurrencies seriously. The mid-section of The Satoshi Revolution details how the U.S. government and bureaucracies worldwide have tried to deal with the digital currency revolution. McElroys book notes how the elite realized peer-to-peer transfers sidestep central banks and state-issued currencies. Because freedoms like these are bolstered by crypto, the nation-states know their power is weakened, McElroy writes. So politicians and bankers have tried to curb peer-to-peer trading by calling it illegal money transmission and more recently bureaucrats are out to extinguish coin mixing applications. The Satoshi Revolution underscores how the very existence of cryptocurrency has threatened the central planners and manipulators. The threat scares them incredibly and McElroys book cites this occurrence on many occasions. The Satoshi Revolution describes how these freedom-promoting benefits have invoked an all-out attack against Bitcoin.

Cryptos existence raises the question of whether the state is necessary, McElroy stresses. If the free market can so easily assume one essential state functionthe issuance and circulation of currencythen why cant it assume others, or them all?

Overall, McElroys novel is a fascinating dive into the beginnings of private money and how an anonymous creator in 2009 changed everything. The 171 pages kept me intrigued throughout and I learned a number of things I didnt know before. I always think a good book should make me look at things from a different perspective and this one certainly does that. The Satoshi Revolution also has a thought-provoking introductory preface written by the well-known Austrian economist Jeffrey A. Tucker.

The Satoshi Revolution has cushioned my belief that I too am doing something special by teaching people about the economic freedoms cryptocurrencies can provide. Before I found crypto, I concentrated on various problems society faces, but I realized that I wanted to circumvent the state in a more productive fashion. Just as religion was separated from the state, I feel that the separation of money and state will promote the greatest effort toward freedom this world has seen in centuries.

McElroys book The Satoshi Revolution has made me aware that my path will not be fruitless. Toward the end of McElroys tome, I realized she had come to the same conclusion as I had. Crypto-anarchism: [Is] the most important political development in my lifetime had occurred without my noticing it happening, which is inexcusable, McElroy concedes. She further notes:

I had spent my time on official libertarianism donation-driven and donation-defined institutes, tax-funded universities, academic journals. When did freedom ever come packaged in tax dollars, awards, and honors delivered at rubber-chicken dinners? Freedom is a street fight. Crypto- anarchism took over the streets without my noticing. I notice now.

The Satoshi Revolution is now live on Bitcoin.com and its a pleasure to introduce Wendys latest work alongside Jeffrey Tuckers preface. If you are interested in reading an excerpt from the first chapter of Wendy McElroys 2020 e-book then follow this link here. If you liked the first chapter, you can leave your email address to receive your free PDF copy of The Satoshi Revolution.

What do you think about Wendy McElroys tome on private money, Bitcoin and its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know what you think about The Satoshi Revolution in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Wendy McElroy, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Wielding the Tools of Liberty: Exploring Wendy McElroy's Latest Book 'The Satoshi Revolution' - Bitcoin News

Craig Wright is once again at the center of controversy Not necessarily because hes done anything wrong. That just seems to be what he does best.

In a recent string of tweets, Changpeng Zhao the CEO of Binance expressed his frustration with Wright, and is denying any possibility that the Australian bitcoin developer could be Satoshi Nakamoto, the famed and notoriously private inventor of the worlds number one cryptocurrency by market cap.

One of his messages reads:

CSW is a fraud. Investing in a fraud never ends well. See below. Time will tell.

Zhao recently made headlines when he commented that bitcoin was in line for a major price spike in the coming weeks thanks to growing anticipation of Mays halving event. In the past, halvings have consistently led to further price spikes for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies like it, and Zhao believes there isnt likely to be any break in this pattern.

He explained:

The bitcoin price will likely increase. I personally believe the halving has not been priced in.

Wright, on the other hand, has been the focal point of several legal issues over the past few months. Recently, Wright was sued by the estate of Dave Kleiman, a bitcoin developer who passed away in 2013. Daves brother Ira Kleiman filed suit against Wright, claiming he had tried to cheat him and his family out of billions in bitcoin earnings.

A Florida judge sided with the Kleiman clan and stated that Wright was to produce the private keys to his personal bitcoin stash and fork over half his earnings to Dave Kleimans family. While Wright initially seemed to agree to this verdict, he has since stated he has no idea if hell ever be able to get his fingers on the keys necessary to access the money Money which may or may not exist.

If the bitcoin is there, this could certainly mean that Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, which he initially claimed in 2016. However, despite these surprising claims, Wright has yet to produce any solid evidence supporting his words, and many have labeled him as one of the biggest charlatans in the digital space.

Other individuals who have been accused of being Satoshi Nakamoto include Japanese American physicist Dorian Nakamoto, who has repeatedly denied he has anything to do with the cryptocurrencys creation. Nick Szabo the man to introduce the world to smart contracts in 1994 was also listed as a potential candidate, though he himself denies he had anything to do with writing bitcoins 2008 whitepaper.

To be fair, though, these denials could simply be attempts at retaining privacy, and both figures remain prominent Satoshi possibilities.

The fight between Wright and Zhao initially began last year when Binance chose to delist bitcoin SV (BSV).

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Changpeng Zhao Launches Attack on Craig Wright - Live Bitcoin News

When Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin, the creator designed the protocol to be an inflationary currency, one that is predictable as bitcoins inflation always decreases every four years. Today, 77 days before the reward halving, BTCs inflation rate is around 3.6% and its expected to drop to 1.8% after the halving event. The cryptocurrencys inflation rate will be lower than the average inflation target central banks reference worldwide at 2%. Unlike central banks, no one person or centralized entity can make adjustments to BTCs monetary inflation rate.

Also Read: Get Ready for the Bitcoin Halving Here Are 9 Countdown Clocks You Can Monitor

Back in 2009, after the Bitcoin network launched, Satoshi explained in various emails that bitcoins were meant to be scarce. On July 9, 2010, Satoshi wrote: When someone tries to buy all the worlds supply of a scarce asset, the more they buy the higher the price goes. Bitcoins inventor also created a limited number of bitcoins that will ever be produced and a systematical and mathematical reward reduction every 210,000 blocks. Crypto enthusiasts call the block subsidy reduction a halving, as the block rewards are always cut in half. Today the active supply of BTC is around 3.6-3.8% and this is because analysts assume there is far less than the 18.2 million circulating supply of BTC. We know this is true because a great number of users have lost coins, and older wallets created years ago havent spent their BTC in over five years. Moreover, studies conclude that close to 11 million BTC has not moved in over a year. BTCs active supply coupled with demand and the reward rate decreasing every four years developed a predictable economic system with an inflationary rate no one can control.

In 2011, BTCs inflation rate was between 30-50% and between 2011 and 2014 it dropped to 12%. After the halving in 2016, when the block reward was cut from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC, the inflation rate kicked down to 5-4%. Today, throughout the month of February 2020, the BTC networks inflation rate is between 3.59% and 3.86%. Interestingly, the inflation rate for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is roughly the same at 3.71% on Feb. 24. This means that in 77 days BTCs inflation will drop (BCH is 44 days) lower (1.8%) than the average central banks target inflation rate.

Most central banks like the Federal Reserve keep the inflation rate target around 2%, but there are a few lenient countries that reference rates as high as 4%. Central banks worldwide are known for manipulating inflation rates with the tendency to increase reference rates and print massive quantities of fiat reserves. Satoshis systematically and mathematically designed monetary inflation rate, however, cannot be changed unless the original rules of the system are broken.

So far, during the last 11 years, the rules have not been broken and consensus remains strong around the 21 million capped supply. People believe that as BTCs price gains more value, the purchasing power increases over time making it deflationary in that sense. Since BTC gained real-world value nine years ago, it has increased significantly over the last decade but we dont know how long the trend will last. If BTCs price continues to increase, the economics of the inflation rate coupled with ceteris paribus (outside conditions remain the same), it would provide a new system, unlike the worlds current monetary status. Those who participate in the economic crypto experiment may experience some different conditions than the ceteris paribus going forward. A number of crypto speculators believe it will be a positive outcome and the biggest wealth transfer the world has seen in decades. A slew of well known bitcoiners and crypto influencers truly believe this will happen.

Within the next few decades, Millennials will become the wealthiest generation in history and banks should be worried, if theyre not already, insists the BTC commentator and author Rhythm Trader. His November 2019 blog post added:

Millennials have started making a major shift towards the use of unconventional banking, with Bitcoin posed to be the beneficiary of the Great Wealth Transfer of our time.

People who believe in central planning and the current monetary system wholeheartedly disagree with Rhythm Traders optimism. For instance, in April 2013, the popular American author Matthew OBrien wrote that BTC has a massive deflationary bias as some economists have always believed bitcoins will fall into a deflationary spiral. Its money supply is mostly fixed, but the menu of things it can buy is growing. The same amount of money chasing more goods means money will be worth more. Or, put another way, prices will fall in Bitcoin terms. And thats why its not a currency, and wont be one until it has a central bank. Although central banks claim 2% is the reference mark globally, shadowstats.com notes that the real rate could be as high as 10%.

Crypto proponents dont know what will happen with the economics and market values after the halvings occur on the three SHA256 networks this spring. The best references that can be used are the rules of the network and the fact that unlike central banks, nobody decides what the inflation target for the upcoming years will be. Instead, the inflation rate and issuance of BTC is fairly predictable and can be easily charted. This spring, the worlds largest cryptocurrency by market valuation will have an inflation rate less than the central planners inflation rate and four years after that event, it will be considerably less. In fact, estimates show that BTCs inflation rate will meander around 1.8% until the next halving and will likely be 1.1%. Estimates also show that through the year 2025 and the halving in 2026 BTCs inflation rate will be as low as 0.4%.

What do you think about the BTC inflation rate after the halvings? What do you think about the inflation rate dropping below the central banks average of 2%? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Charts.Bitcoin.com, Murch on April 26, 2015, Woobull charts, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, Twitter, and Pixabay.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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Bitcoin Halving Will Drop Inflation Rate Lower Than Central Banks' 2% Target Reference - Bitcoin News

Coinbase has achieved one of the most important use cases recently in cooperation with Visa. The crypto exchange announced that its users will be able to spend Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP and other cryptocurrencies using debit cards supported by the Visa network.

The crypto exchange introduced a new product, called the Satoshi Nakamoto debit card, yesterday, February 19. The card will not only be supported by the Visa network, but will allow Coinbase users to spend all funds they have on the exchange.

According to Coinbase, it is the fastest and safest way to spend cryptocurrencies globally. Users will be able to use their cards at over one million locations worldwide and will be able to pay without the need for a contact, PIN or fiat money. The exchange secured the cards with double verification, instantaneous freezing and other mechanisms to make this use case meet global security standards.

In addition, Coinbase will allow its users to choose which cryptocurrency they wish to pay with. Users only need to enter in the Coinbase Card app and will be able to switch between cryptocurrencies in a matter of seconds. The application will also allow users to access their latest transactions, receipts and receive instant notification of each payment.

The card is available for the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom. The exchange said they are preparing to launch the card in other countries and are expected to make announcements in the coming months.

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Last Updated on 20 February, 2020

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Spend BTC, Ethereum and Ripple (XRP) with the Satoshi Nakamoto card - Crypto News Flash

KEY POINTS

Satoshi Nakamotos net worth is around $10 billion. However, the real person behind the name is still cloaked in mystery.

Nakamoto is widely considered as the father of bitcoin. Up to now, the identity or even gender of the personbehind Satoshi Nakamoto remains unknown. Although there are several suspects as to who he or she is, everything remains speculation at this point. It could even be a group of people behind the name.

Bitcoin was created as a leverage against the super wealthy. The division between the worlds richest and poorest continues to widen as time goes by. As reported by Oxfam, Satoshi and the other billionaires control almost half of the worlds riches. This has far-reaching consequences politically and economically.

The bitcoin founderallegedly owns1 million BTC, which is equivalent to around $10 billion. As the value of bitcoin fluctuates, the net worth could be more than or lower than $10 billion at times.

People have begun suspecting who the person is behind the mystery. Some have tagged Hal Finney as the real Satoshi Nakamoto. Finney has transacted with Satoshi and even received the first ever bitcoin transaction. However, Finney died in 2014.

On the other hand, others thought Nick Szabo fits the bill. Per Coindiligent, Szabo was credited for launching an e-currency called Bit Gold before bitcoin was created. It never really took off and netizens picture him re-launching the e-currency as Bitcoin.

Investopedia believes otherwise after tagging Dorian Nakamoto as Satoshi Nakamoto. The link between the two is logical as both of them share the same name: Nakamoto. Dorian Nakamoto also has a background in engineering. However, he has vehemently denied the accusations. Many people bought this story and even set-up a fund which reached 67 bitcoins. Dorian Nakamoto made $273,000 in 2018 from this bitcoin fund.

Satoshi Nakamoto is not the only one who struck gold with cryptocurrencies. Telegraph reports that Chris Larsen made about $8 billion investing in cryptocurrencies for banks. He is credited for founding Ripple which utilizes blockchain technology. Changpeng Zhao or CZ also cashed in on the crypto hype train after founding Binance, also known as the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange. The estimated net worth of CZ is around $1.4 billion.

Blockchain technology, invented to power cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, has more impactful use in other segments including bankings, experts say. Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / GEORGE FREY

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Satoshi Nakamoto Net Worth: Bitcoin Founder Worth Around $10 Billion With 1 Million BTC - International Business Times

Bitcoin has formed a second consecutive lower high on the daily chart following a gruelling rejection from the $10,000 level of resistance.

After surging to $10,500 on February 13, Bitcoin has suffered two tweezer top highs at $10,200 and $10,000 as it fails to gain momentum for a move to the upside.

At the time of writing Bitcoin was trading at around $9,700 following a four percent slump since the weekly candle close.

It needs to continue closing daily candles above the $9,630 level of support to avoid a dreaded breakdown in price that would bring targets of $9,320 and $8,830 into play.

If it can begin to cycle back to the upside, a close above $10,000 would indicate a clear shift in market sentiment from a short-term perspective which could lead towards a test of $10,900.

Much of it also depends on market sentiment leading up to Mays halving event, which has historically been bullish for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The block reward halving will see miners earn just 6.25BTC per block as opposed to 12.5BTC, with a bullish theory suggesting that as supply dries up Bitcoin will begin to surge as demand begins to mount.

However, Bitcoin is an incredibly volatile asset which means that a cascade of sell orders or liquidations on derivatives exchanges could well be the trigger of a downtrend that could last for at least six months.

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Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents:

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In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.orgwas registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are.

The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without relying on trust. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number 0 (or the genesis block), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins.

If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin orcryptocurrenciesin general, then use the search box at the top of this page.Heres an article to get you started.

As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice.

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Bitcoin brutally rejected from $10,000 to form lower high - Coin Rivet

Feb 24, 2020 at 10:40 // News

Since the birth of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies have been criticized for supporting illegal activities including terror operations, drug trading, human trafficking, money laundering, sex, frauds, monetizing ransomware, purchasing illicit products, and many others. People know how that accusation can damage the reputation and legal status of cryptocurrencies.

The road that connects a user of Bitcoin, a blockchain-based digital asset born from the internet, with a certain drug trader or a certain terrorist group in the Middle East is just one, and that is Internet. As a matter of fact, nonetheless, the two parties (the person holding Bitcoin and the terrorist group) are far away from each other, but separated by a stratum of transparency.

For around a decade now, different financial regulators have been crying out loud claiming that cryptocurrencies are being used to facilitate demonstrators or conflicts in some countries so people can overthrow the government or destabilize the political and economic position of the nation.

Others have painted the image of cryptocurrency as a currency that was developed by a terrorist since the real inventor called Satoshi Nakamoto is not known - to enable him to carry out his missions without being caught or realized. Albeit, thanks to Yaya Fanusie, an ex CIA analyst and Chief Digital Currency AML Strategies, for clearing the air by informing the public that terror groups dont actually use Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.

Yes, in the beginning when Bitcoin had been invented, terrorists thought that they would keep on using Bitcoin and other type of cryptocurrency since it is not tracked by any central authority (anonymous nature), and this increased their association.

But, because of the waving monetary and technological infrastructure on which terrorists use and the large amount of money that terror outfits need to keep them moving, it is very difficult to liquidate the cryptocurrency they hold in their wallets. So, they found the process not straightforward and decided to seek haven in other means or sticking on the traditional way of using the hard cash.

Furthermore, a good number of digital currency exchanges have either obeyed to a nations obligatory AML/CTF rules or have assumed the case, collaborating with private companies to guarantee maximum compliance. In any respect, terror funding via centralized sources is a no-go zone. The RAND Corporation also came up with a report saying that the way how cryptocurrencies are being suspected to be used in fundraising for terror groups is overblown.

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Is Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Still Used in Terror Financing? - Coin Idol

Dear readers: Pack your Simple, because today, we dedicate ourselves to a Theory of some other type. Who puts this Thesis in the category of conspiracy theories, this was not resented. In light of the recent events surrounding the Swiss company Crypto AG, the German Federal intelligence service (BND), as well as the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), we ask ourselves: Can it be that the Bitcoin Green Satoshi Nakamoto is an invention of the CIA?Before we start you already know the yesterday published Video of the Satoshi Sunday? Our experts Mirco, Conta and Flo discuss all the interesting aspects of Bitcoin, the upcoming Bitcoin Halving, as well as its effect on Bitcoin Mining. A Lot Of Fun!

Published at the beginning of the month, the world-famous Washington Post documents about secret service activities of the Swiss Crypto AG, the German Federal intelligence service and the American CIA. In the top-secret Report on the decades long Spying on and wiretapping of more than 120 countries around the world. On more than proud to be the way it is said in the report:

The news was the business Coup of the 20th century.

It all started with a seemingly harmless company: the Swiss Crypto AG. Exactly this company, which was founded after the second world war, produced namely, encryption devices for governments all over the world. Governments use to ensure the equipment to a supposedly secure communications be it in military areas, or in the case of communication between diplomats. Among the clients of the Swiss company of such States as Iran, India, Pakistan, the Vatican, and a variety of Latin American countries.We now come to the political sensitivity of the topic: the Crypto AG was unofficially controlled by the CIA. In other words, the CIA was part of the Swiss Crypto AG. She was the secret owner. And it is precisely this home advantage to use the CIA to secret back doors into the encryption mechanisms and devices of Crypto AG to install. With the help of these Backdoors the Americans were able to listen to them over a period of decades, the entire communication of the concerned countries.

We are the Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto is us slowly to the absolutely vague and highly speculative Theory approach: What if only a construct of the CIA? To do this, we need to remember that 120 States since the mid-70s, involuntarily and permanently, the most sensitive and important information to the Americans. Also in the framework of the NSA disclosures by Edward Snowden, it became clear that the USA are just squeamish with regard to the Skimming of private data. Its strength is the Operation in the dark and the camouflage of the own Software.And, in parallel, exists since 2009, Bitcoin. A crypto-currency, which has now a market capitalization of almost 200 billion US dollars. The network transferred several million to billions of dollars and used throughout the world. Here, we use a currency and an underlying technology without knowing specifically who is behind this concept. Clear, Satoshi Nakamoto-the Bitcoin white paper has been released on 31.10.2008. But who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Craig Wright, it will not be with safety, and thus this question remains open. Now you could argue Yes, that the Beautiful are to Bitcoin, the confidence in the technology and the Algorithms.

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This statement is also correct. The point, however, is doubt, is as follows: Bitcoin used for two essential functions of the network, the Secure Hash Algorithm 256, better known as SHA-256. SHA-256 belongs to the family of SHA-2 hash functions. And it is exactly this family was invented as a Standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with the National Security Agency, better known as the NSA.In the light of recent publications now has to decide by each individual for himself, than how realistic he considered such a Backdoor in the case of SHA-256. The consequences are immense: because the hash function is used both to create Public and Private Keys as well as a hash function in the context of the Proof-of-Work mining algorithm.

In addition to the just expressed speculation as to the connection between SHA-256 and possible Backdoors, there is another aspect. Have you ever thought about whether or not Satoshi Nakamoto actually has a meaning? Is there a Translation of the Name?The answer is: Yes, there are several Translations. You lay out the cards according to their own Gusto to see with the Intention of a connection between the CIA and Satoshi Nakamoto, the following happens:

The term Satoshi has many meanings. Among other things, Satoshi means enlightened, wise or intelligent. And last, but not least, Nakmoto means as much as middle, base, root or central. So Satoshi Nakamoto would be the Central Intelligence.What do you think about this (absurd?) These? Can you imagine such a connection, or are you looking at the Thesis as a completely absurd and unrealistic?Come on in to our Telegram Chat and talk with the experts and the Community!Subscribe to our News channel to not miss any News.

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Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto: An invention of the CIA? - Cryptocurrency Market

Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, decentralization, China's digital yuan, Facebook's librathe U.S. is understandably worried about the dominance of the almighty dollar.

Last year, U.S. president Donald Trump slammed bitcoin as based on "thin air," while his Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin branded bitcoin a "national security threat."

Now, the U.S. has admitted bitcoin and cryptocurrency could undermine the dollar's status as the worlds reserve currencyand it wants to find out exactly how bad for the country, its economy, and security that could be.

The rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies has caused some to fear the dominance of the U.S. dollar ... [+] might be under threat.

"Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts predict that either a global cryptocurrency or a national digital currency could undermine the U.S. dollar," the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in a job listing earlier this month, calling for two researchers to evaluate the impact of the U.S. dollar losing its status as the world reserve currency.

"If either of these scenarios or others come to pass, the U.S. would lose both its status in the world and its global authorities."

The two roles, looking for a postdoc Ph.D. graduate and a U.S. university or government laboratory employee research assistant, are with the U.S. Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program through the Department of Energys Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Technology.

Back in 2018, the Department of Energys Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Technology conducted research that found that the creation of new bitcoin, along with smaller cryptocurrencies ethereum, litecoin and monero, used more energy than mineral mining to produce the same market value.

The Department of Energys Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Technology did not respond to a request for comment.

"There are many advantages for U.S. national security to have the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency," the job post, which has a deadline of the February 28, read, pointing to the combat of financial crimes, the prevention of terrorism and the development of weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the U.S. to sanction other countries, cause financial instability in global markets.

"The U.S. maintains international dominance in no small part due to its financial power and authorities."

Meanwhile, calls for the U.S. to begin development of a so-called digital dollar have been growing louder over recent months.

Christopher Giancarlo, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, recently set up the Digital Dollar Foundation to work on the design and potential framework of a digital dollar.

The bitcoin price,which has failed to return to its all-time highs set in late 2017 despite it climbing around 50% since the beginning of the year, was given a substantial boost in the first half of last year by Facebook's plans for a bitcoin-like rival.

The bitcoin price has soared in recent years, making bitcoin easily the last decade's best ... [+] investment.

Many have long expected governments to eventually try to undermine bitcoin's network to halt its adoptionthough bitcoin's decentralized nature makes it remarkably resilient.

"We can win a major battle [with governments] in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years," bitcoin's mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in 2008. "Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure [peer-to-peer] networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own."

Bitcoin now stands with these networks in resistance to government control.

See the rest here:

The U.S. Is Very Worried About BitcoinAnd Its Finally Doing Something About It - Forbes

Every week sears a new image of climate change into our collective consciousness. A few decades ago, we heard about ozone holes and ice melting at slightly higher rates than anticipated. Today, the reminders of climate change are more visceral and immediate: Californias hills and forests burn, Venices city council chamber floods, and Iceland holds a funeral for a glacier.

The United Nations held a global Climate Summit at the end of September last year, though there were real disappointments with the United States notable for its silence. Political and business leaders alike agreed that more needed to be done and committed to taking real action to combat environmental decline. Everyday citizens around the world approve, as the worldwide climate protests showed. Dozens of industries have parts to play in the struggle against climate change, including blockchain notorious for running dirty.

For many people outside of the tech industry, blockchain is synonymous with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The Bitcoin chain was the first blockchain designed and deployed, but many new iterations of the technology have appeared in the decade since the first links in the blockchain were assembled.

Things have changed, but honesty is important: If blockchain has had a bad reputation with environmentalists for much of its history, it has deserved it. Bitcoin relies on intentionally wasteful calculations for its security encryption. Bitcoins pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, wanted to make his ledgers impossible to attack by making the cost of a hack ruinously expensive. He succeeded, but the environment suffered.

Related: Green Policy and Crypto Energy Consumption in the EU

The Bitcoin miners who run the calculations producing new coins emit nation-state levels of pollution. Thankfully, most contemporary blockchains do not operate like Bitcoin. New technical protocols like proof-of-stake reduce the processing and electrical power that Bitcoins proof-of-work encryption mandates. Post-Satoshi developers have found ways to harness the security, decentralization and safety of blockchain without maiming the environment.

So, what can the new blockchains do for the environment? As a paper presented to the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, or ECEEE, argued: Blockchain can streamline processes, eliminate wasteful portions of a supply chain, and cut inefficiency-driving middlemen. The authors also call attention to blockchains potential for tracking and thereby discouraging environmentally destructive behavior.

Utility companies, to take just one example, could use blockchain to prove to consumers that the energy they use derives from clean and sustainable sources, rather than oil, gas and coal. In one case, blockchain helps the environment by stopping unsustainable practices. In the other case, blockchain spurs change by shining light on bad actors. In both scenarios, the world changes for the better.

While the ECEEE papers lead author, Beatrice Marchi, is affiliated with the University of Brescia, Italy, blockchain for the environment isnt confined to academic theory. Several firms have already begun applying blockchain principles to environmental goals.

AmpleMeter is a community-led blockchain initiative that encourages students, faculty, and staff at universities to save tokens. Though it began on-campus, there are few reasons it cannot spread elsewhere. If we look further afield, we find Australias Mobi, an environmentally conscious ridesharing app that incorporates blockchain. And theres even an active utilities program that uses blockchain: SolarCoin is a decentralized reward program that incentivizes energy providers to earn blockchain-based digital tokens.

AmpleMeter, Mobi and SolarCoin are among the first projects to use distributed ledgers and blockchains to address the most pressing issue of our time; they will not be the last. More than half of Americans believe that climate change is a major threat, and people all over the world are especially concerned, as the global climate strikers showed this year. Blockchain is a young technology that offers new solutions to the problem. Climate change is accelerating, but so too are the efforts to combat it. The blockchain industry has the chance to play a vital role in this great drama. Im happy that innovators have already begun efforts to change the world for the better. I look forward to seeing what they will do in the months and years ahead. I expect great things.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

David Mansell is the co-founder and director of NEM Ventures, the venture capital and investments arm of the NEM blockchain ecosystem. David has more than 20 years in project and operational environments at a senior and strategic level, with a strong focus on driving delivery, creative solutions and leveraging his deep commercial network worldwide. With broad experience in the origination and execution of investment between private and public entities, David has identified new business opportunities, researched market conditions and developments, and managed personnel across business sectors. David has also worked extensively in the energy supply sector as Portfolio Director of Bristol Energy and Project Director of Energy World Group.

Continue reading here:

Blockchain for the Environment: It Is Real and It Is Here - Cointelegraph

Proof of Keys was a concept first introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary figure behind the birth of bitcoin, but its now being promoted further by the likes of Trace Mayer, the host of the Bitcoin Knowledge podcast.

First discussed when bitcoin was released to the public over ten years ago, the concept behind proof of keys involves getting rid of all the trust issues in the monetary space by having people interested in or engaged in bitcoin take possession of the crypto units held by third parties. Therefore, financial independence and monetary say is given to average, everyday spenders not corporations or banks.

A website devoted to the concept of proof of keys explains:

By demanding and taking possession of their assets, individuals will learn very fast with blockchain proof whether they are part of the elite HODLers or not. Proof of Keys is the annual HODLer initiation.

Putting it in laymans terms, Mayer explained the idea further on his show, and states that its a way of helping to cement peoples autonomy, as there is allegedly no need to rely on banks or financial institutions to keep up ones financial status. He explains that the concept is a way of helping everyone flex their monetary sovereignty muscles.

He states:

We show how strong we are, and we do that by proving the keys. We run a full node and we hold our own private keys to our bitcoin and any other crypto, ether, Litecoin, etc., and we withdraw all of our crypto from any third party, from any exchange, from any lending service, from anywhere We dont necessarily know who the bad actors are until we start flexing those [monetary sovereignty] muscles. So, proof of keys is how we do that. Centralized third parties having giant stockpiles of bitcoin and crypto goes against the decentralization characteristics or nature [of blockchain].

One of the big problems with having third parties in the picture, he mentions, is that they are often targeted by third parties. This is often the case even today. Most of the time, when a cyberattack occurs, it usually targets a major exchange or other financial business. Rarely do we hear of individuals themselves being hacked or pinpointed by malicious individuals.

He states:

Whether those hackers are illicit actors or whether those hackers are governments or lawyers or regulators trying to look for fines, compliance costs or stuff like that is very dangerous.

Despite the entire notion of bitcoin and crypto being based on individuals taking care of their own funds, Mayer states that many large businesses in the industry including exchanges dont want this and are eager to gain control of much of the minted cryptocurrency themselves. As it stands, as much as 1.9 million bitcoins approximately ten percent of whats currently available are held by exchanges.

View original post here:

Trace Mayer Explains the Importance of Proof of Keys - Live Bitcoin News

According to data from Bitinfocharts.com, more than 26 % of the richest Bitcoin addresses own between 1 000 and 10 000 BTCs, 12 % between 10 000 and 100 000 BTCs and just 3 % more than 100 000 BTCs. If one had bought 100 Bitcoin at a price of 1 USD, one would be a millionaire several times over today. From the genesis block to the present day, Bitcoin has outperformed many stocks by far.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have invested the capital from their lawsuit against Facebook in cryptocurrencies, most of it in the market leader Bitcoin. The brothers claim that they own approximately 1% of all Bitcoin in circulation, which is the equivalent of more than one billion USD. According to the official statement, the Winklevoss brothers therefore own more than 180,000 BTC.

The prominent investors founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini several years ago, which also owns its own stablecoin, the Gemini Dollar (GUSD). With a daily trading volume of more than 27 million USD, Gemini belongs to the 100 largest cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide.

Financial expert Mike Novogratz

Another well-known early investor in Bitcoin is the multiple billionaire Mike Novogratz. According to his own statement, he has invested almost 30% of his assets in cryptocurrencies, although it has not yet been officially announced how large his Bitcoin assets are in detail. However, he has already set up a crypto-fund in the amount of USD 500 million in 2015, in which he has invested USD 150 million in equity. Novogratz predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of 40,000 USD in 2018.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao is a crypto-millionaire and founder of the worlds largest exchange, Binance. Zhao studied computer science and managed a successful high frequency trading system before joining Binance. In 2014, however, he put all his eggs in one basket and sold his house and invested a large part of his assets in Bitcoin. To date, however, Zhao has never provided accurate information about his actual assets tied up in Bitcoin. According to Forbes, his assets are estimated at more than $1.2 billion.

Barry Silbert founder of the Digital Currency Group

Barry Silbert is founder and chairman of the Digital Currency Group. The group of companies supports start-ups in the tech and blockchain scene to advance the creative ideas of tomorrows founders. To date, the Digital Currency Group has holdings in more than 100 companies, giving Barry Silbert the nickname The King of Crypto. The exact number of his private Bitcoin is not known, but according to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at $400 to $500 million.

Micree Zhan Ketuan founder of Bitmain

Rather unknown is Micree Zhan Ketuan, who as a 41-year-old electrical engineer entered the Bitcoin market early on. Together with Jihan Wu, Zhan founded the crypto-mining giant Bitmain, which controls the two largest Bitcoin mining pools in the world, BTC.com and Antpool. Zhan holds just under 36% of the shares in the company, while his founding partner holds 20%. His assets are estimated at just under USD 2.7 billion.

Niklas Nikolajsen Founder of Bitcoin Suisse AG

The Swiss Niklas Nikolajsen bought 1,000 Bitcoin when the price was still 0.50 USD. Over the course of his career, his Bitcoin balance continued to grow. In 2013 he founded Bitcoin Suisse AG, one of the leading asset managers and financial services providers in the market. The net assets of Bitcoin Suisse are estimated at 55 million Swiss francs.

Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong founded the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and has since then bought many companies or acquired shares in many companies. Most of his assets come from his shares in Coinbase, but he also owns a considerable number of Bitcoins, but he does not disclose the exact number. However, he has committed to donate a large part of his assets to the Bill Gates Foundation for charity.

Bitcoin Cash advocate Roger Ver

Roger Ver is one of the biggest Bitcoin advocates of recent years and is an early investor, like so many on the list. In his opinion, Bitcoin Cash is the real Bitcoin and comes closest to the original vision according to Satoshi Nakamotos white paper.

Satoshi Nakamoto

Satoshi Nakamoto is known as the founder of Bitcoin. To this day, it is not clear who is actually behind the pseudonym. However, there is unanimous agreement that Nakamoto owns more than one million Bitcoin and is therefore a multiple billionaire.

Craig Wright claims to be the true founder of Bitcoin

Craig Wright, who is currently involved in an ongoing lawsuit, claims to be the true founder of Bitcoin. Most recently, he refused to present 10,000 documents relevant to the case to the court to prove that he is the founder of Bitcoin.

Below we have compiled a list of large Bitcoin accounts, but it is not possible to assign the addresses to a person.

1. Ca. 255.000 BTC

2. Ca. 182.500 BTC

3. Ca. 101.000 BTC

4. Ca. 94.000 BTC

5. Ca. 93.000 BTC

6. Ca. 89.000 BTC

7. Ca. 79.000 BTC

8. Ca. 69.000 BTC

9. Ca. 61.000 BTC

10. Ca. 57.000 BTC

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Last Updated on 17 February, 2020

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Bitcoin millionaires of today: Who owns how much BTC? - Crypto News Flash

Until now, the world has heavily relied on traditional banknotes as a medium of exchange, however, blockchain technology seems to be on the verge of changing this. And Josip Heit was one of the first people who realized the potential of blockchain. On January 9, 2009, an enigmatic internet persona hiding behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto proposed a concept that would forever change the financial world.

While it is not clear whether Nakamoto is a single person or a group of people, this birthed the age of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

In 2017, when the price of Bitcoin reached parity with the price of gold, it attracted big players across various industries. This period also ushered in mainstream adoption and sparked the interest of various players across the financial market. Many referred to Bitcoin as digital gold, a new store of value.

Josip Heit, who is a renowned Bitcoin evangelist, serial entrepreneur, and businessman, believes that since, just like gold, Bitcoin has a limited inflationary economy that is capped, is a scarce commodity, and has even outperformed gold in value, its safe to refer to it as digital gold.

There are only 21 million Bitcoin in existence, the world population is over 8 billion and steadily rising, if each person was to have a bit of it, we will end up with just a little fraction of one Bitcoin. This is testament to the fact that Bitcoin will be worth a fortune in the near future, its just like the gold rush, we are in such an era, said Josip Heit when asked about his thoughts on the future of Bitcoin.

Heit is well known for sharing his thoughts around the blockchain and gold sector. Before he got involved with blockchain technology, Josip Heit spent many years building companies that trade raw materials and precious metals and gathering valuable experience that enabled him to take over the blockchain sector by storm. He can definitely be regarded as an authority in these areas.

Josip Heit has pioneered many startups in the past and he currently is, among other things, the CEO and Chairman of the Board at Gold Standard Banking Corporate AG as well as Chairman of the Board at GSB Gold Standard Banking Corporation AG. As Chairman of the Board at Karatbars, Heit led a team that founded the Impulse K1, the worlds first blockchain smartphone, which deploys the Voice Over Blockchain Protocol (VoBP) and a wide range of other blockchain-related features.

In 2018, the bear market raised some eyebrows and a lot of opinions questioning the stability of Bitcoin arose, however, Josip Heit, the Chairman of the Board of Karatbars, still thinks otherwise; According to Heit, Bitcoin has undoubtedly outperformed any traditional asset that has ever existed in human history.

For example, the USD has lost over 96 percent of its value since it was taken over by the federal reserve, while Bitcoin is growing stronger with a lot of prospects for the future. Bitcoin is leading a decentralized economy that leaves monetary control in the hands of the people, its normal for institutions that are looking to have control over it to throw unfavorable banter at it.

Gold has always been seen as a safe haven during periods of war or conflict, the value of gold always experiences a price surge in times like these. While further revealing the close similarity between the adoption curve of gold and that of Bitcoin, Heit talked about the recent security issues erupting between Iran and the United States that led to the killing of the Iranian top general Qasem Soleimani.

During this period, Bitcoin saw a price spike after news of tensions between Iran and the United States circulated showed up all over the Internet. Just like gold. This is a testament to the fact that Bitcoin, just like gold, is being regarded as a wartime safe haven. The global economic crisis could be averted by embracing this digital gold called Bitcoin.

There are a lot of drawbacks and difficulties associated with owning and trading physical gold or other precious metals due to the amount of paperwork that is required and the involvement of clearinghouses. Bitcoin represents a digital form of gold, a better version of it. Anyone can easily and seamlessly own, store, and spend it. We are already in the mainstream adoption phase.

Read more:

Expert Josip Heit Shares His Thoughts On Why Bitcoin Is Seen As Digital... - Forex Crunch

Kevin Kelly, who is known for his key role as a founding executive editor of Wired magazine, recently shared his view on Bitcoin and Blockchain as Fifth Innovation Revolution.

According to him, Blockchain is the outward technological innovation that falls under computing and software whose advances are always in development. He also named Blockchain as the innovative technology of this decade.

The three systems based to support the Blockchain technology are already in the mature development mode. The introduction of Cryptocurrency in a centralized medium could have brought a fatal failure if the centralized system or group faced suppression from external sources.

In the year 2000, the introduction of peer-to-peer technology for cryptocurrencies came in and took the position in implementing distributed cryptocurrencies. But couldnt find a way to resolve double payments (the same money used twice).

Adam Becker introduced proof of work in 1997, and sometime later, Halfini more extensively extended this technology to a reusable proof of work in 2004. Satoshi Nakamoto successfully paved and integrated these three technologies in the Bitcoin Framework.

Kevin Kelly focused his words saying that Bitcoin not invented or created out of thin air; he believes he used the above three technologies and used it as the base framework for the Bitcoin.

The technology Bitcoin uses were already existent previously before Bitcoin was born or before its white paper released in 2008.

Bitcoin is the key user of Blockchain technology, the one technology that has brought much innovation in a decade than the previous technologies has brought any innovative changes in the past fifty years.

Blockchain provides peer to peer transaction support, which cannot be edited or tampered by any external agents. Kevin also stated that the fall or rise of Bitcoin would not disturb or kill the innovation of Blockchain technology in any format.

Continue reading here:

Kevin Kelly Names Bitcoin And Blockchain Fifth Innovation Revolution. - The Coin Republic

Source: iStock/bobmadbob

You can now use Bitcoin (BTC) emoji in your tweets, and there are calls for it to be added by the world standard for text and emoji.

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey brought good news to the Cryptoverse on February 2, by tweeting the famous Bitcoin logo, signifying that the social media giant added the BTC emoji. Now, when users hashtag the world's most popular crypto, the emoji will appear. The CEO included it in his Twitter bio as well. However, Dorsey also tagged the consortium in charge of managing the character standard, Unicode, apparently suggesting that they should add the emoji as well.

The most popular symbol used for Bitcoin is exactly - a capital letter B with two vertical strokes at the top and bottom, as introduced by BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto. After Unicode rejected it as a character in 2011, it was accepted in 2015, and it finally appeared in Unicode 10.0 in 2017. It's yet to be accepted as an emoji though.

The community quickly joined in, testing this new option in their tweets and bios, and it seems that the large majority of them gladly support this Twitter's latest addition, as well as the suggestion for Unicode to do the same. For example, Elizabeth Stark, co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs, a Lightning Network developer, in which Dorsey is an investor, finds that emoji help spread awareness, and with it, increase adoption. She joined Dorsey in calling for the BTC emoji to be included in Unicode.

Other people used the new emoji to promote it too, such as Justin Sun, founder of Tron, as well as Bitcoin supporter Michelle Phan, one of YouTubes earliest creators and most famous beauty stars, who tweeted Bitcoin emoji to 900,500 followers.

Additionally, major cryptocurrency exchange Binance hashtagged Bitcoin to summon this new feature, calling for people to join the effort to get it trending, with the exchange's CEO, Changpeng Zhao, doing the same.

Meanwhile, we reported previously that in March the Cryptoverse rediscovered that Microsoft Excel included BTC among available currencies, while in February everybody was checking the Google keyboard on their iPhones for a Bitcoin sign.

Watch the latest reports by Block TV.

This is far from the only crypto-related news we've ever written about this BTC supporter and investor. For example, in March 2018, Dorsey said that with new technologies and innovations, Bitcoin will become an effective cryptocurrency. He became a crypto superstar in February 2019, when he admitted to holding the native currency of the internet.

In March, Dorsey announced that he's hiring a new team in order to help the crypto ecosystem. The team got its first member in June, and a new project, bluesky, aimed at developing a "decentralized standard for social media" was launched in December.

Meanwhile, in January 2020, payments company Square, co-founded and led by Dorsey, was granted the patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a new network that allows crypto-to-fiat transactions.

BTC is currently (10:30 UTC) trading at c. USD 9,341. It's down almost 1% in the past 24 hours but is up 8% in the past week.

See more here:

Bitcoin Just Got New Emoji to 'Spread Awareness', New Goal Emerged - Cryptonews

Beingcrypto has mentioned that the hard fork upgrade is going to make three changes.

First of all, the Genesis will be removing the current hard cap on block size. This will, in theory, increase the transaction volumes. At present, the block size limited to 2G, but after the change, it will become unlimited.

Secondly, the second aim of the Genesis is to restore the vanilla Bitcoin protocol which is

BSV team believes that P2SH brings privacy and security issues. It also breaks the smart contract function and privacy model originally designed by Bitcoin. P2SH is an address type and is an acronym of Pay to the Script Hash.

This address begins with a 3. It is the most commonly used Bitcoin address type. Lastly, the Genesis is also going to stabilize the agreement. The current agreement would revert to the original one.

Satoshi Nakamoto proposed the original Bitcoin vision in 2009. The BSV team stated that a stable agreement is necessary to ensure that the data executed on a block is not only valid for one or two years, but over a hundred years.

The official statement made by the BSV team states that the team considers Genesis to be more like a fix and not an upgrade.

Earlier, Jimmy Nyugen, the Chairman of the BSV foundation, mentioned that the significance of Genesis is, A world in which all types of data, transactions and digital activities can be chained on a public blockchain, just like the current world Works the same online on the public internet.

Go here to see the original:

BSVs Upcoming Upgrade Will Increase The Block Size From 2G To Infinite - The Coin Republic

Podcaster and sports commentator Joe Rogan has been on the carnivore dietthe same diet beloved by certain members of the Bitcoin communityand it turns out he's a big fan.

According to an Instagram post over the weekend, Rogan has seen miraculous changes to this body, his mind, and overall wellbeing.

Joe-rogan-meat-diet-carnivore-bitcoin

In the post, he claims he has lost 12 pounds, has banished his aches and pains and even his vitiligoa skin condition where patches of skin lose their pigmentappears to be less severe. But what is the carnivore diet and why is the Bitcoin community so pumped about it?

The Carnivore diet is, as the name suggests, a diet composed entirely of food derived from animals. So that's no fruits or vegetables, only dairy, eggs, meat, and fish. Apparently, condiments are 'allowed'.

The Carnivore Diet stems from the controversial belief that human ancestral populations ate mostly meat and fish and that high-carb diets are to blame for todays high rates of chronic disease. Its main proponent is Shawn Baker, a former doctor who claims the diet can be used to treat depression, anxiety, arthritis, obesity, diabetes and more.

That's a good question. For the Bitcoin carnivore, there is a kind of metaphysical parallel between decentralized digital ledgers and an imagined idea of what our ancestors ate, and by extension, how they lived.

Be the first to get Decrypt Members. A new type of account built on blockchain.

"The 20th century was disastrous for human health and wealth, and the rise of central banking and industrial food was clearly a major reason why,"Michael Goldstein, the founder of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute told Vice."Bitcoin is a revolt against fiat money, and an all-meat diet is a revolt against fiat food."

Saifedean Ammous, a Bitcoin carnivore and a professor of economics at the Lebanese American University, said:

The people who tell you to eat your 6-10 portions of indigestible toxic grains a day for a healthy and balanced diet are the same kind of people who tell you central banks have to determine interest rates for a modern economy to function. You can choose to listen to them and watch your wealth and health disappear, or you can think for yourself.

Members of the Bitcoin community regularly meet up to eat meat and talk Bitcoin. Jimmy Song is one of its highest profile members.

With news of Rogan's tacit endorsement, Bitcoiners have taken to Twitter to ask him if he'd invite Bitcoin carnivores on to his show to spread the good word.

If you're genuinely interested in peer-reviewed science behind high animal fat diets, Nutritionfacts.org, a not-for-profit website that only publishes peer-reviewed medical journals has a useful explainer. TL:DR It's a stupid idea.

See the article here:

Joe Rogan gives the thumbs up to the Bitcoiners' meat diet - Decrypt

16 hours ago | Sebastian Gold

The casino industry was among the first businesses that went online. By doing so it managed to increase its popularity and profits while providing millions of clients with the services they need. The industry made the jump online thanks to its active following of technological trends. As technology advanced so did the casino industry and online casino were born.

To put it simply, they are websites that offer casino games on the internet, but theres a bit more to it than that. The games arent just the classic ones offered at land-based casinos but reinventions of those games. Whats also offered is a heap of bonuses so the players can earn more prizes. Thanks to the industrys skill of keeping track of tech trend these websites went mobile and the industry spawned its first mobile casinos. Trends came and went, and one of the few that stay to this day is Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a digital currency that was created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. As it slowly gained popularity a foundation called the Bitcoin Foundation was established in 2012 and its main goal was to develop digital currency. Something so new made an important impact on the financial sector. The thing that made it so popular is that the third party was cut out entirely when making a transaction which is why the online casino industry took notice and before long a fewonline casinos that accept Bitcoinappeared on the market, and in time the first Bitcoin casinos were born.

Online casinos started adopting the new payment method in 2015. During that time, Bitcoin was still pretty unknown to the public, but there were a lot of gamers that started playing games using the cryptocurrency. The big breakthrough came in 2016. During the summer that year, Bitcoins value started going up and record numbers of online casinos adopted it and started promoting it. Before that, most of the online casinos that accepted Bitcoin were specifically made for this payment method. By 2017, when Bitcoins value was at its highest, hundreds of online casinos accepted it as a payment method.

You may ask yourself, why are online casinos so fond of Bitcoin? Because the cryptocurrency brings advantages to both sides. On one side, online casinos are optimized for the use of Bitcoin and these websites dont have to pay the fees for the transactions their clients make. By using it, players also pour more money into the games compared to the standard payment methods. Deposits are also instant. On the players side, any withdrawals made with Bitcoin are instant, unlike other payment methods where you have to wait as long as 7 days to receive your money. Bitcoin is also a plus factor in the players safety, due to its increased level of anonymity.

Bitcoin is still among the trendiest payment methods at online casinos. From the looks of it, the cryptocurrency may become the leading option for players in the years to come as more and more Bitcoin casinos emerge.

See the article here:

A Brief History of Bitcoin and Online Casinos - CoinCodex

Whether due to a lack of trust in a countrys financial system or simply because new speculators want to make money, everyones talking about Bitcoin again.

The worlds largest cryptocurrency has been making the headlines in the mainstream press from Bloomberg to the BBC. And the question everyone wants answers to is how profitable will Bitcoin be in 2020?

Bloomberg published an article on December 31 stating that BTC had yielded early investors an eye-watering 9,000,000% rate of return on its starting price.

Sure, not everyone was buying Bitcoin back in the days when it was magic internet money. But theres still no other asset in the world that can even come close to such an astonishing ROI.

Demand for Bitcoin has been steadily on the rise, especially in developing regions such as Latin America. The worlds number-one cryptocurrency was featured in Argentinas most prominent national newspaper La Nacion last week.

The article posed the question, based on its performance over the last decade, how profitable will Bitcoin be in 2020?

You only have to take a quick look at statistics from peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading sites like LocalBitcoins to see how Bitcoin in Argentina is on the rise, hitting an all-time high in trading volume in the run-up to Christmas.

As the government clamps down further on access to the US dollar and other foreign currencies, demand for Bitcoin increases.

It is better than gold as a refuge for capital when there is a crisis, Javier Pastor, commercial director of the Bit2Me cryptocurrency exchange, told BBC Mundo. Bitcoin purchasing in Argentina certainly follows this pattern.

The spikes in buying Bitcoin all occurred when the political climate was particularly tense and capital controls were imposed. This is a trend that we see clearly in countries with hyperinflation like Zimbabwe or Venezuela, and also at times of global tension.

After Irans attack on US military bases in Iraq in response to the death of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, Bitcoin rose 8% amid investor uncertainty. So, can we expect these conditions to continue and do we really want to profit from conflict and global turmoil?

Maybe not, but Bitcoin does seem to do better in times of trouble as Pastor commented.

He added, My projection is that in 2021 Bitcoin will reach more than $100,000, claiming hes convinced that digital money will completely transform the financial system in the future.

For anyone following Bitcoins trajectory, its been a wild ride. Its high volatility and the plethora of exchange hacks and scams always grab the headlines.

But even those who regularly trash Bitcoin, such as CEO of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff or University of New York economist professor Nouriel Roubini, cant deny the numbers.

When it was created by Satoshi Nakamoto in January 2009, Bitcoin was worth less than a dollar. In 2017, it rose to almost $20,000 only to crash back down to just over $3,000 the following year.

Despite all the leaps and plunges, Bitcoin has certainly been profitable. In fact, as mentioned earlier, those who bought Bitcoin at the beginning have experienced a return of 9,000,000%.

So, how profitable will Bitcoin be in 2020 and the coming decade? This is the question on everyones lips from Argentina to the UK, South Korea, and anywhere else in the world.

Theres no shortage of price predictions for the value of Bitcoin by the end of 2020.

Crypto lending platform Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky believes that Bitcoin will be worth $30,000 by the end of the year. The future of cryptocurrencies is promising, he told BBC Mundo.

Mashinsky bases his optimism on the fact that Bitcoin is a scarce asset with a capped supply of 21 million, which guarantees its long-term success.

Moreover, he compares Bitcoins 11-year performance with the best-performing stock Netflix. While Netflix scored early investors a wild return of 4,000%, that pales in comparison to Bitcoin.

Hes not alone in his bullish outlook. In fact, several other industry experts believe it will be even higher than that. Antoni Trenchev, the co-founder of Nexo, projects Bitcoins price to hit a high of $50,000 towards the end of 2020.

Another factor behind Bitcoins price beyond geopolitical tensions and an uncertain global economy is the upcoming Bitcoin halving in May, which happens every four years and will slash the block reward for miners in half.

Historically, each Bitcoin halving has sparked a Bitcoin bull market, and many in the industry are convinced that this years halving will have the same effect.

After the previous two halvings in 2012 and 2016 there was an increase in the price of Bitcoin of 8,000% in the first case and 2,000% in the second.

That will cause a price increase for sure, said Pastor. However, not everyone is in agreement, citing different conditions this time around and no guarantees simply based on past performance.

There are still many who maintain that Bitcoin is a bubble and a scam, claiming that the market is rife with manipulation and investors better beware.

For example, Roubini has previously described Bitcoin as the mother of all bubbles, saying that it is dominated by quacks and scammers.

He argues that cryptocurrencies have given rise to a completely new criminal industry, which includes unregulated extraterritorial exchanges, paid propagandists, and an army of scammers seeking to keep the money from the minority investors.

Other economists staunchly opposed to Bitcoin include Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. He has gone so far as to say that it must be outlawed as it was made to evade regulations and does not serve any useful social function.

Cases of fraud, theft, and other incidents have also made investors more cautious, with more than $4.4bn in cryptocurrency stolen in 2019 alone. If you look at investing in Bitcoin under this lens, in all likelihood, youll take a second glance.

More regulation is on the cards for 2020 as well. This could be a double-edged sword for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market.

Tighter regulation may force some exchanges out of business and may cause some coins to be delisted. However, a regulated market may also help to lure more institutional investors to the table.

So how profitable will Bitcoin be in 2020? That honestly remains about as predictable as the weather. Thats part of the fun of buying Bitcoin after all.

If you believe in the fundamentals of the technology, if you understand its use case and its value, youll expect that Bitcoin will be profitable in 2020 and well beyond.

But if youre from the investment school of Warren Buffett or Nouriel Roubini, you may expect it to go to zero.

Only time will tell whether Bitcoin will be digital gold or a flash in the pan, but it certainly makes an interesting case and with a 9,000,000% rate of return, it has certainly been profitable in the past.

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How profitable will Bitcoin be in 2020? - Coin Rivet

How rich is Satoshi Now? (Updated Live)

All time high: 19,387,398,800.07USD

Bitcoin Price = USD

Due to Bitcoin forks, Satoshi Nakamoto also has the following coins:

BCH Price = USD

BSV Price = USD

BTG Price = USD

Even 10 years after Bitcoins launch, the identity of Bitcoins mysterious founder is still unknown.

That being said, there are a few potential candidates of who might be Satoshi Nakamoto. Lets take a look at each one.

Hal Finney was a vocal cypherpunk and was heavily involved in cryptography even before hearing about Bitcoin.

Hal was on the mailing list that received Bitcoins whitepaper and has then built an online relationship with Satoshi where they discussed how to improve Bitcoin.

He also had the honor of being the receiver of the first Bitcoin transaction ever, which was sent by Satoshi himself.

Sadly, Hal passed away in August 2014 after battling Lou Gehrigs disease for 5 years, a degenerative disease.

Nick Szabo is a well-known cryptographer and cypherpunk. Years before Bitcoin went live, Nick Szabo already published a concept for a platform called Bit Gold.

Although this e-currency never got any traction due to its technical limitations, it does undoubtedly draw many parallels to Bitcoin.

Many think that Nick Szabo improved his concept and re-launched it as Bitcoin some years later under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Adam Back started his career studying the intersection between cryptography and computers. In 1997, Adam developed the concept for Hashcash, which was an early application of Proof of Work (PoW).

This is the reason why many connect him to the creation of Bitcoin.

Adam is now the CEO of Blockstream, a technology company focused on building blockchain solutions. Blockstream is also one of the few institutions that provide funding to Bitcoin core developers.

Throughout the years there have also been several false alarms, like when an individual actually called Satoshi Nakamoto was thought to be Bitcoins mysterious creator, or when Craig Wright publicly announced that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

Both occurrences where debunked shortly after due to a lack of proof, which leads us back to the question: Who is the anonymous billionaire named Satoshi Nakamoto?

The reason why nobody knows the exact number of Bitcoins that Satoshi holds is because they are not held in the same wallet, but rather scattered around thousands of different wallets.

This is the only address which is confirmed to belong to Satoshi, since it mined the Bitcoin genesis block:

Interestingly, this wallet keeps receiving Bitcoin transactions. Whether these are just tips sent as a tribute, or if there is something more to it is unknown.

One notable example was when the now defunct exchange Mt Gox sent 1.23 Bitcoin to one of Satoshis wallets.

Although Satoshi never bought any Bitcoin, he was the first Bitcoin miner and was also the only miner for what is estimated to be around 1 year.

This can be deduced by the fact that the Bitcoin hashrate from January 3 (2009) until January 25 (2010) was 7 Mhash/s.

Hence, if we assume that Satoshi was the only miner in the first 14 days of Bitcoins existence, he also was the dominant miner for the rest of the year as the hashrate remained relatively unchanged in that period.

At that time, the Bitcoin block reward was 50 BTC, which means that Satoshi amassed approximately 980,000 Bitcoins in total.

Since his disappearance in 2011, Satoshi hasnt moved a single one of his Bitcoins.

This could be the case because Satoshi might have passed away, because he believes in his creation so much that he doesnt want to spend them too early, or because he wants to avoid unchaining a panic reaction.

Fact is, nobody knows what Satoshi will do with his Bitcoins, or if he ever will do anything with them at all.

At Bitcoins all time high of $20,000 in December 2017, Satoshi was worth $19.6 Billion. This made him the 56th richest person alive.

If Bitcoin reaches $110,000 and the current worlds billionaire remains relatively unchanged, then Satoshi will become the richest person in the world.

If Bitcoin becomes global money, or at least a form of digital gold, then its arguably not unlikely that Satoshi may claim the #1 spot on the Forbes billionaires list.

Since Satoshi Nakamoto holds approximately 980,000 Bitcoins, the Bitcoin price would have to reach $1,000,000 per coin for him to become a Trillionaire.

And since there will never be more than 21 Million Bitcoins, that would put the total Bitcoin market capitalization at 21 Trillion.

While the price is currently very far from that goal, proponents of Bitcoin as the new global reserve currency see that as a possibility.

Some people criticize Satoshis anonymity, while others consider it Bitcoins greatest asset that its creator is unknown.

Only time will tell if Satoshis identity will ever come to light.

And until that happens (if ever), we will continue observing how a faceless Billionaire keeps amassing wealth as Bitcoin progresses on its exponential adoption curve.

CoinDiligent Staff Writer

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Satoshi Nakamoto's Net Worth: How Rich Is Satoshi Now? [LIVE]