Daily Archives: July 20, 2017

‘There’s an Effort Around the Country to Curtail People’s Fundamental 1st Amendment Rights’ – FAIR

Posted: July 20, 2017 at 2:50 am

Janine Jackson interviewed Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about the right to protest for the July 14, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

MP3 Link

Washington Post (6/27/17)

Janine Jackson: A recent popular op-ed called on those engaged in resisting the Trump administration to stop counting so much on lawyers. The fate of the nation cannot be left in the hands of the courts, the piece, written by a lawyer, argued, and thats solid advice. Popular action is what historically has moved the country forward.

But when people do go into the street and are arrested, what then? When they put their bodies on the line and the state creates a new law to criminalize that resistance, what then? Like it or not, the law is still one of the bigger tools in the box for Americans. So what does and doesnt it do for us in the present moment?

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard is an activist and attorney. Shes co-founder and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. She joins us now by phone from Washington, DC. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: Thank you for having me.

JJ: Well, Id like to start, if we could, with an update on the J-20, those arrested in inauguration protests in DC, who are facing what Ive heard called unprecedented charges for demonstrators, felony charges that could lead to 75, 80 years in prison. One of those still facing charges is journalist Aaron Cant, now at the Santa Fe Reporter, who has written for FAIR. We talked about the case in January. What should we know now about this ongoing story?

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: There are millions of people who are engaging in political protest and political organizing who have never done so before. (image: WTTG-TV)

MVH: This case is really of extraordinary proportions, when you look at what the government is doing to people who are engaged in protests on the first day that Trump took office. And its really in its own context significant, too, because of the major shift in policing in Washington, DC, which we believe is intended to send a signal.

Whats happened now is more than 200 people were swept up in a dragnet arrest by the police, and this occurred after the police had followed the demonstration for, by their own account, approximately half an hour, while there were some people who broke windows, only a handful of people. And rather than going in and arresting the people for whom they had probable cause to arrest, the police waited that arbitrary time, tracked and detained 200 people. And so they swept up demonstrators, passers-by, journalists, anyone whos in proximity, anyone who is chanting and protesting.

And then they undertook this mass prosecution with the United States Attorneys Office here in the District of Columbia, in which people are being threatened with, as youve mentioned, jail time that is decades and decades long, really a lifetime of jail time, with these felony charges. They are charging people en masse with crimes that may have happened, in terms of property damage, but charging everyone with crimes without particularized probable cause, without being able to point to a person and say, you committed this act and so were charging you for this act. Theyre charging everyone in the vicinity for being in proximity.

This is extremely dangerous; it sets the stage that for any demonstration, if anyone commits a criminal act, an act of property damage, whether that be a protestor or, frankly, a police agent provocateur, the police can now use this as license, or they wish to, to sweep up everyone else around them.

JJ: This is what we talked about before. Its not a crime, now, is it, to be in proximity to other people who break the law in conjunction with First Amendment activities?

MVH: Of course its not, and it cannot be. And the First Amendment has always stood for that, in fact, you cannot criminalize a person for the acts of another. And particularly in the context of the First Amendment, when its an issue where the connection is that there may be a sympathy of political views, one cannot do that. There are cases dating back, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware and others, the courts said you have to act with precision. You cannot say that just because people have a similar point of view, or may have similar political goals, that those who carry out illegal acts or acts of violence in pursuit of those goals, that those acts can be attributed to the others who do not.

JJ: Right. These charges, at the level theyre at, it feels new, but we know that the effort to repress First Amendment expression is not new. The Supreme Court last month rejected a First Amendment case that dates from years back, Garcia v. Bloomberg. Can you tell us about that and how it relates?

Occupy Wall Street marchers on the Brooklyn Bridge, October 1, 2011. (cc photo: Mat McDermott)

MVH: The Garcia v. Bloomberg case comes from the Occupy demonstration of 2011, when 700 people were peacefully marching, compliant with police orders, there was no violence, and as people marched, the police escorted the march. The police themselves closed the Brooklyn Bridge roadway to vehicular traffic. The police and police commanders themselves opened up the roadway to pedestrian traffic. It is the police and police commanders who led the demonstrators onto the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, and once those demonstrators had flowed and followed behind the lead of the police, the police stopped the march, trapped them from behind, mass-arrested 700 people.

When we litigated this case, we won at the District Court level, we won at the Second Circuit, in fact. And then Mayor de Blasio, who had taken office, frankly, running on an Occupy ticket, had the court reevaluate the ruling, and the court, in an extraordinary measure, reversed itself. And we took this case up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court just last month determined that they would not hear it.

JJ: Obviously, lots of folks are taking their lead from this, and kind of joining on this bandwagon. We have a spate of anti-protest legislation around the country, even UN experts are issuing alarmed statements now. Some 20 states have passed or tried to pass laws allowing protesters to be charged with conspiracy, increasing penalties for blocking streets, even protecting drivers who run protesters over, banning masks and hoodies. I mean, is anyone really confused that the intent of these rules is to quash dissent, and doesnt that thinly veiled intent matter?

MVH: Its clear that there is an effort around the country to try, through legal meansalthough we would consider illegal meansto curtail peoples fundamental First Amendment rights to gather together in the streets, to be able to speak out in unified action.

I do think, as much as were seeing these kinds of restrictions imposed and these rulings, that at the same time it can obviously have a chilling effect on people, the reality is that people do always come out and people will continue to come out. And while this may be intended to have a chilling effect, it is really crucial that people stand up and speak out for what they believe in. And I do think the reason that were seeing these is because there is a growing recognition that there really is this fire of people, these embers burning, where we keep seeing people come up and demonstrating for what they believe in. Were seeing so many more people entering political life, even since the election of Donald Trump. People are taking to the streets, protesting, who never protested before.

So while were faced with what is I think overt repression, both in terms of these felony prosecutions, these state laws, these court rulings, we also are faced with the fact that there are millions of people who are engaging in political protest and political organizing who have never done so before, and thats a force that really cant be stopped.

JJ: Weve been speaking with Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. Find them online at JusticeOnline.org. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, thank you very much for joining us today on CounterSpin.

MVH: Thank you for having me.

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How to access the dark web – The Daily Dot

Posted: at 2:49 am

If you think search engines like Google and Bing let you probe the entire web, youre totally wrong. Youre barely scratching the surface of the webliterally. Below the webs outer crustthe one youre accessing right now to read this articleflows other layers of the internet that you cant find through search. But with a little bit of know-how, anyone can dive into the webs deep end to find some hidden treasures (and perhaps a bit more than that). Heres a quick guide to the deep web, the dark web, and what youll find when you get there.

There are basically three parts to the world wide web: surface web, deep web, and dark web.

The surface web is everything thats publicly available and accessible through search or typing a URL into your browser. The deep web, also known as the invisible web, is all the content on the web that is not indexed by standard search engines, such as email clients, online banking websites, or pages that are inaccessible to crawlers, the software that indexes the web for search engines. Some of those pages can still be accessed if you have the URL while others require you to have login credentials. According to expert estimates, the deep web is 500 times larger than the surface web.

The dark web, however, is a totally different beasta tiny fraction of the web that is only accessible through specialized software such as the Tor browser. However, the term dark web is also often used to refer to the darknet, the overlay networks that are used to anonymize communications and obfuscate both the origin and destination of internet traffic. READ MORE:

The main characteristic of the dark web is its anonymity, which makes it appealing to a number of actors. Like all innovative tools, the dark web is an instrument to shady and illegal activities, such as child pornography and the sale of drugs, firearms, and stolen credit card numbers.

One of the most famous cases that involves the dark web is that of Silk Road, the first modern online black market that was created on the dark web. The website was shut down in 2013 and its founder is serving a life sentence in prison. Naturally, many other similar websites have sprouted in recent years. Earlier this month, AlphaBay, another dark web marketplace that made $600,000 and $800,000 a day, was shut down by law enforcement.

However, the dark web is also being used for many other activities that are mostly legitimate (though not necessarily legal, depending on your perspective). Edward Snowden, the famous whistleblower who exposed the U.S. governments mass surveillance program, used the dark web to send information to reporters and media outlets.

Journalists and activists also use the dark web to avoid being traced by autocratic governments or other actors that might want to harm them.

In countries where the government restricts access to specific websites and social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, dark web tools can help circumvent censorship.

The most famous tool to get on the dark web is the Tor browser. With Tor, you can access websites whose address ends with the .onion extension. These are websites that are exclusively available on the dark web and cant be accessed through normal browsers.

Tor enables you to access all the other surface and deep websites with the added benefit that it anonymizes your browser traffic by encrypting it and deflecting it across several computerscalled Tor nodesbefore sending it to its destination.

However, there are several things you should know about Tor:

With those considerations in mind, have fun surfing the dark web, and stay out of trouble.

Ben Dickson is a software engineer and the founder of TechTalks. Follow his tweets at @bendee983 and his updates on Facebook.

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Your Mailman Is a Drug Dealer. He Just Doesn’t Know It. – WNYC

Posted: at 2:49 am

(Charles Krupa / AP Photo)

The Dark Web conjures images of gothic fonts and black backgrounds, like a metal fans MySpace page circa 2001. But this section of the internet looks surprisingly normal. Accessible only through the TOR browser, there are Google-style search engines and Amazon-style marketplaces. Except what theyre selling are mostly illegal thingsstolen passports, hacked account numbers, and drugs. A lot of drugs.

This week, we stress out WNYCS IT department and venture onto the Dark Web. Where you can get heroin, fentanyl, or oxycontin shipped right to your door via USPS. And we talk to Nick Bilton, author of American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road, about how Libertarian philosophy and tech-bro hubris combined to spark an online drug revolutionand an opioid crisis.

Andthe Dark Web community is starting to recognize the role they're playing. Since we recorded this episode, Hansa Market - the verysite we visit in the show - has banned the sale of fentanyl, according to the New York Times.

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Want porn? Prove your age (or get a VPN) Naked Security – Naked Security

Posted: at 2:49 am

If all goes to plan, from April 2018 anyone in the UK visiting a website deemed pornographic will be asked to verify that they are aged 18 or over before they can proceed.

The plan, proposed as part of the Digital Economy Act in 2016, was formally commenced this weekby the Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Matt Hancock, who offered surprisingly scant detail on its implementation in comments made to a newspaper website.

It seems likely that the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will be empowered to decide what constitutes a pornographic website. As regulator it will also will be given the power to fine publishers up to 250,000 ($325,000) for failing to impose verification, on pain of being blocklisted by local ISPs.

Hancock summed up the Acts purpose:

All this means that while we can enjoy the freedom of the web, the UK will have the most robust internet child protection measures of any country in the world.

With anti-censorship and privacy groups up in arms, and network engineers scratching their heads, worries that the law will have unintended consequences are surfacing too.

At its heart is the age verification process, which it seems will involve asking for credit card numbers. This means that people will have to start trusting their personal data to websites whose security they know little about, in situations where their concerns about privacy and anonymity may be higher than usual.

Its not yet clear whether verification will happen through a single provider or on every site but wherever the datas kept it will surely be a tempting target for hackers and extortionists.Pornography publishers dont have a pristine reputation for data security as a number of recent breaches show.

There are also concerns that the move will encourage a market in stolen credit cards re-purposed to access porn sites.

The vast majority of publishers arent in the UK which means that enforcing UK Data Protection (DPA) to prevent (or prosecute) a data breach looks a naive hope.

I expect people not least millions of adults who dont have a credit card to turn to VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) or Torto bypass verification. Both tools allow users to hide their IP address and appear to be in countries other than the UK.

The assumption is, presumably, that children either wont want to do this or wont be able to. Good VPNs cost money and paying for them often requires access to a credit card.

Technology has a habit of becoming commoditised over time though. The Tor browser is free and so is Opera, a web browser that comes witha free, integrated proxy-based VPN (i.e. securing only browser traffic) on desktop and mobile. Googles Wi-Fi Assistant builds the same into Android for its own handsets connecting through public hotspots in the US.

There is another cost to using a VPN though, even a free one: with all your browser traffic flowing through it you end up sharing far more with your VPN provider than you ever do with any individual site. Youd better choose one you trust.

By my reckoning it would only take a modest expansion of free VPNs in the coming years to send the UK Digital Economy Act back to square one.

Would the Government then attempt to filter or legislate against VPNs too? The only government to do that currently on any scale is China, a dismal example for a country such as the UK to follow. Going that far would risk a collapse in support for any legislation.

Meanwhile, pornographic content distributed via social media appears to be a grey area. People access this from within each platform and its not clear whether companies would be asked to apply parallel controls.

What is clear is that the UK wants to join a growing list of countries imposing controls on Internet content, including pornography. Campaigners fret that this is really a potential gateway to the eventual imposition of censorship on other kinds of content.

If it is, future governments might one day rue the day. Evasion will grow, as could adult resentment. Telling people what they can and cant view tends to end in tears.

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Morgan Stanley Ex-CEO to Launch Cryptocurrency Game-Changer – Investopedia

Posted: at 2:49 am

While the movement from traditional banking and financial institutions to cryptocurrency investments has been slow for some, others have been biding their time and waiting for the appropriate moment to make the switch. According to a recent report by Coin Telegraph, John Mack, the former Chief Executive Officer for Morgan Stanley, is in the latter category. Mack is reportedly preparing to enter the cryptocurrency game and is looking to launch an ICO at some point later in the year. Why would Mack be interested in joining cryptocurrency investors in the hottest new trend?

Mack's project at this time is Omega One, a platform which he says "is going to be transformative because it benefits the entire ecosystem--making crypto assets cheaper and easier to access," according to the report. Mack claims that he has been following and investing in digital currencies for several years, and he feels that Omega One is uniquely prepared to transform the industry. His investments in the startup were reportedly made via Venture One, a portfolio company which he backs privately. The goal of Omega One seems to be to push digital currencies into broader public view, making them more available and attractive to potential investors. Mack is currently the sole investor in this project, although his status as a finance legend will likely draw in other interest as time goes on.

According to Alex Gordon-Brander of Omega One, his company provides "the bridge between traditional capital markets and the crypto markets." Omega One, he says, "will provide everything from balance sheet intermediation and a trusted counterparty." He points to the "very first signs of institutional adoption of crypto markets" as a sign that his company has an interested and eager audience, as well as room in which to make an impact.

Analysts at Coin Telegraph suggest that Mack's move into the cryptocurrency space has been strategically timed, as the cryptocurrency market itself has grown and matured significantly over the past year and a half. With a clear sign that institutional investors are interested in entering the field, there remains a bit of mystery as to how these investors could best make use of their assets. This is where a company like Omega One could come in, or at least that's what Mack and the company's leaders hope. Regulation and education regarding the digital currency world are some of the largest barriers at this point. Experienced financial professionals like Mack may hope that their background in trading securities and assets of all kinds will allow them the benefit of being able to learn about and improve upon the way that cryptocurrencies are bought and sold, too.

Omega One will reportedly offer clients the opportunity to hold native tokens. It aims to launch via an ICO at some point later this year, after August and before December.

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Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin Retains Gains as Hard Fork Fears Recede – DailyFX

Posted: at 2:49 am

- Recent cryptocurrency losses have been pulled back.

- Volatility remains until new proposals come into force.

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Fears that blockchain may split into two, creating two different bitcoins (BTC), have lessened in the past two days as bitcoin miners have begun to support a new bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) that would help solve the long-running scaling problems. The proposal BIP 91, would introduce SegWit2X to the blockchain to help speed up the transaction time from the current limit of 1 megabyte every 10 minutes. According to many in the industry, BIP 91 would make implementation of SegWit2X less risky and would decrease the probability of a blockchain split (hard fork).

Over the past couple of days, bitcoin miners have begun signalling support for BIP 91 by adding a piece of code to each new block transaction. If the required 80% support is reached before August 1, the new protocol would be locked-in, lessening the chances of a hard fork. The activation window is 336 blocks and if the 80% target is hit, BIP 91 locks-in and after another 336 blocks are mined it becomes activated.

The latest signalling rate is seen just under 80% of the last 144 blocks mined with several of the largest BTC miners already showing their support for the new proposal, including AntPool, BitClub, Bixin, BTC.com and BitFury.

With the chances of a blockchain split lessening, the price of BTC and most other digital currencies have recovered from Sundays heavy sell-off. The future though may be less certain with the recent volatility underscoring the need for cryptocurrency traders to tread carefully in the weeks ahead. The chart below shows BTC still trading below its 100-day ema with a potential resistance level around $2419.

Chart: Bitcoin Four Hour Timeframe (June 14 - July 19, 2017)

Chart by IG

Ether (ETH) in the meantime has seen even sharper swings than peer bitcoin slumping from $225 on Sunday to a $137 low before rebounding to trade over $257 late Tuesday.

Chart: Ether Three Hour Chart (July 7 July 19, 2017)

Chart by TradingView.

Ethereum however, may soon come under increasing State regulation, over the recent surge in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the cryptocurrency markets equivalent of traditional equity Initial Public Offerings (IPOs).

Market Moves/Capitalizations July 14, 2017.

Cryptocurrency

Price/Change%

Market Cap

BITCOIN

$2307 -0.94%

$37.971bn

ETHEREUM

$221.4 +9.5%

$20.68bn

RIPPLE

$0.176 -3.21%

$6.765bn

LITECOIN

$41.93 -4.84%

$2.183bn

ETHEREUM CLASSIC

$15.45 -2.03%

$1.448bn

--- Written by Nick Cawley, Analyst

To contact Nick, email him at nicholas.cawley@ig.com

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Governor of Austrian Central Bank Advises Cryptocurrency Caution … – ETHNews

Posted: at 2:49 am

News world

Governor of the Austrian Central Bank Ewald Nowotny warned users about the speculative nature of virtual currency. Nowotny also serves as a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB).

On July 19, governor of the Austrian Central Bank (German: Oesterreichische Nationalbank) Ewald Nowotny warned against cryptocurrency usage in an interview with newspaper Kleine Zeitung. Nowotny worries that the general public fails to grasp the potential psycho-social ramifications of a virtual currency correction. When asked about Japans recognition of bitcoin as a means of payment, Nowotny expressed his reservations.

Bitcoin is not a currency, he said. Bitcoin lacks the one thing that makes a good currency, namely stability. Instead, he classifies bitcoin as an object of speculation.

His hesitation is understandable, especially in light of bitcoins impending User Activated Soft Fork. Nonetheless, cryptocurrency has taken root in Austria. sterreichische Post, Austrias official postal services provider, recently announced its partnership with a Vienna startup to allow the exchange of euros for bitcoin.

Significantly, Nowotny is not completely pessimistic about cryptocurrency. He explains that Austria does not ban it as a banknote, but acknowledges that you have to let the people know what they are doing. Previously, he had compared cryptocurrencys popularity to the Tulip Crazeof the 16th century Holland.

Nowotnys measured approach is exactly what a concerned public would hope for in a central banker. He recognizes the inherent dangers and seeks to insulate the Austrian economy.

[Bubbles] can have negative psychological effects, he said. This is the danger we see but I would not overrate it either.

As a member of the European Central Banks governing council, Nowotny may inform the approach of his colleagues. In May, ECB president Mario Draghi encouraged the close study of distributed ledger technology.

Quotes translated from German using Google Translate.

Matthew is a writer with a passion for emerging technology. Prior to joining ETHNews, he interned for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the OECD. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown University where he studied international economics. In his spare time, Matthew loves playing basketball and listening to podcasts. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

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Bitcoin Brave New Coin

Posted: at 2:49 am

Bitcoin L Navigation

BTC marketplace last 24 hours

The markets table will display all the current markets of the digital asset you have selected. This will switch the current asset back to the index level.

Bitcoin market last 24 hours

The exchange table below displays all the marketplaces of the digital asset you have selected. It is optional to select up to 5 exchanges at once to compare with the current market you are viewing. This will be listed above the chart with its price and volume for any specific period the chart's time frame is displaying. If any specific exchange is down or no data is displayed, this will be detailed with the reason at the bottom of this table.

Bitcoin is one of the first implementations of a concept called crypto-currency, which was first described in 1998 by Wei Dai on the cypherpunks mailing list. Building upon the notion that money is any object, or any sort of record, accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context, Bitcoin is designed around the idea of a new form of money that uses cryptography to control its creation and transactions, rather than relying on central authorities. In 2009, the first Bitcoin specification and proof of concept was published in a cryptography mailing list by a member under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto. Towards the end of 2010 Satoshi left the project, saying he had moved on to other things. The creator of Bitcoin never revealed his identity and simply left his invention to the world. The origin and the motivation behind Bitcoin are still today a great source of mystery. Since 2010, the Bitcoin community has grown with many developers working on the project. During June and July 2011, Bitcoin suddenly gained media attention leading to a massive buy rally. The resulting bubble slowly deflated through the latter part of 2011, and since then the value of Bitcoin has slowly climbed once again back to its 2011 heights. On September 27th 2012, the Bitcoin Foundation was created in an effort to standardize, protect, and promote Bitcoin.

SHA-256

6 Confirmations

210,000 Blocks

12.5

600 Seconds

Proof-of-Work

2016 Blocks

0%

8332/8333

21,000,000

CPU-GPU-ASIC

Jan 3, 2009

2017 Brave New Coin. All Rights Reserved

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

Posted: at 2:49 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted: at 2:49 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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