Monthly Archives: July 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Bitcoin nears record high price after 'milestone' in fierce debate over its future - CNBC

Bitcoin has risen as much as 28% over the past 24 hours, driven by news that an imminent split in the cryptocurrency has been narrowly averted. The price of bitcoin nearly hit $3,000 late on July 20, within spitting distance of its all-time high, set last month.

The remarkable rally took place as bitcoins miners coalesced around one of several competing proposals that would increase the number of transactions that can be processed on the network. The issue has gained urgency in recent months, because one of the measures, known as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 148 (BIP 148), would lead to a split in the cryptocurrency on Aug. 1 if implemented.

The price rallied as bitcoins miners began broadcasting their support for a less radical proposal, BIP 91, in increasing numbers yesterday. This proposal avoids the so-called hard fork by stopping short of altering the hard-coded limit on transaction capacities that is the bone of contention within the bitcoin world, while offering slightly enlarged transaction capacity.

The threshold for activating BIP 91 is 80% of all the processing power on the bitcoin network. That was achieved in the early hours of July 21. Currently 97% of the processing power on the network, which is largely controlled by miners, is voting in favor of BIP 91.

But its not settled yet. Although enough miners have signaled support for their preferred proposala process akin to broadcasting a preference over the networkenough of them must now run the software that implements this proposal within the next two and a half days. Failure to maintain a simple majority of the processing power, also called the hash rate, would mean BIP 91 does not activate. This would put the bitcoin world back at square one, with just a week to go before the potentially destabilizing hard fork on Aug. 1.

There are also still signs that the fundamental disagreement that led to this showdowna civil war, as some call itis far from resolved. The fight is between bitcoins miners and the influential programmers who contribute to bitcoins open-source code, known as the core developers. The core devs say bitcoin is at risk of being controlled by a cartel of miners who, by virtue of their huge investments in processing power, are able to dictate what changes are made to the codeanathema to bitcoins decentralized founding ethos. But the miners, and other heavy users, like payment processors, point out that the bitcoin network could be abandoned if it doesnt enlarge its limited capacity soon.

The architect of BIP 91, James Hilliard, a miner himself, told industry publication CoinDesk: This is where mining centralization makes things easier, because I can just message everybody on WeChat and help them if needed. That may be so, but it wont comfort the parts of the bitcoin world concerned with centralization of the cryptocurrency, even if the current fix to bitcoins problems goes according to plan.

Read next: Bitcoins civil war threatens to blow up the cryptocurrency itself

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Bitcoin is booming because a split in the cryptocurrency has been narrowly averted - Quartz

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

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

Bitcoin three-month performance

Source: CoinDesk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

While one can't directly link the cryptocurrency rally to the boost in these two tech stocks, it's certainly plausible that it helped.

We're not saying Bitcoin prices boosted Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) on Thursday. We're also not saying it didn't boost the stocks.

NVDA stock rallied 1.44%, while AMD stock climbed 1.85% on Thursday.Bitcoin prices though? They soared. At 11 a.m. ET, Bitcoin was trading at $2,357. By 2 p.m. the cryptocurrency was more than $2,600. The 13% rally in three hours wasn't enough, though. Bitcoin eventually climbed above $2,900 before falling back some. On global exchanges, prices are currently hovering near $2,770.

On Friday, shares of Nvidia initially opened lower but quickly turned to positive territory. Up almost 1% to $169.13, shares are near session highs. Likewise, AMD opened lower on the day too, but quickly shot up 1.6% to $14.02 and is also trading at session highs.

The rally in Bitcoin comes alongside government agencies taking down two of the dark web's biggest illegal online markets:AlphaBay and Hansa. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were a big part of the transactions that took place on these sites. But with cryptocurrencies branching out and becoming more mainstream, the demand remains robust. That's indicative by the price of Bitcoin.

More importantly, though, BIP 91 -- the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal -- rather suddenly has the support of more than 90% of miners. There were several proposals out there, butin a nutshell, BIP 91 is a way for the Bitcoin community to scale up the size of its market. This is being viewed as positive news by miners and investors.

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Bitcoin Prices Are Soaring and These Two Companies May See Their Shares Surge - TheStreet.com

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

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

The Elliott Wave for bitcoin

Source: The Elliott Wave Theorist

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

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

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

Bitcoin (July 2010 - July 2017)

Source: CoinDesk

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

For example:

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

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

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

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

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

Source: The Elliott Wave Theorist

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But bitcoin may not be part of that future.

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

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

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements,and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release.

Establishing the Ownership and Licensing of the Worlds Creative Digital Assets

Po.et, a new protocol designed to accelerate solutions for the digital media industry utilizing blockchain technology and timestamped metadata to create proper attribution and licensing opportunities for publishers have announced their invitation-only POE token sale for August 8, 2017.

The core objectives of Po.et are to create a platform which simplifies the process for publishing, licensing and authentication of digital assets. Simplifying the publishing process necessitates solving the issues of document integrity, licensing, arbitrage, analytics, syndication and attribution of digital assets. Po.et aims to create a Bitcoin blockchain-based platform with added smart contract functionality and applications to facilitate distribution of digital creative works and remove marketplace friction for publishers, editors and content creators by solving these issues, as well as creating greater cost efficiencies in hashing metadata than previously introduced.

Po.ets platform includes a digital media licensing marketplace and its core product the immutable portfolio, an asset wallet for all creative digital assets where territory and search parameters are considered for licensing and monetization. Po.et is ultimately laying the foundation for an open, blockchain-based protocol for decentralized media applications. The Po.et native token (POE) serves several purposes: To bootstrap the network effects of Po.et by creating a community of engaged, invested stakeholders and publishers. To raise funds for the long-term development of Po.et and to provide a mechanism to economically reward early adopters and positive contributors to the Po.et network.

There is a foundational race right now to solve key vertical challenges for the publishing industry. Po.et is born out of a pain we felt deeply at Bitcoin Magazine and we have partnerships identified to work in tandem to create solutions through the Po.et protocol attribution and licensing marketplaces, said David Bailey, CEO of BTC Media.

Po.et has previously raised $1 million USD in a pre-sale of tokens from media veterans, institutional investors, and blockchain entrepreneurs. Now Po.et is aiming to raise an additional $9 million USD through the sale of the POE token, which represent a share of revenue generated from commercial activities on the Po.et network.

Of the 3,141,592,653 POE tokens released, 50 percent will be distributed to the community. Of the remaining POE tokens, 10 percent will be distributed to the early investors who funded Po.et development prior to the token sale. An additional 10 percent will be distributed over time topublishers, journalists, alpha publishing partners and others who contribute to growing the Po.et network. The Po.et Foundation will retain 22 percent of all POE tokens for long-term development, with the remaining 8 percent going to the early team and founders.

ABOUT PO.ET: Po.et Proof of Existence 2.0 is a Bitcoin blockchain protocol that establishes an open, universal and immutable ledger for managing the unalterable ownership, attribution and licensing of creative digital assets. Po.et builds a bridge between creators and publishers and enables the discovery of new content and verification, authenticity and authorization of generated content through a truly transparent and timestamped system of attribution. Po.et is based in Singapore and the United States, with offices in Los Angeles, CA. For more information about Po.et, please visit po.et.

For further info and the official Po.et whitepaper, visit their website at http://po.et. For media inquiries or to schedule an interview, contact Jill Richmondor call (973) 710. 6073.

This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to thepromotedcompanyor any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not 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 the press release.

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PR: Announcement of Po.et's Token Sale August 8, 2017 - Bitcoin News (press release)

At approximately 00:06:48 UTCtoday, July 20, at block height #476768the bitcoin network finished the BIP91 lock in period and entered a new phase in order to activate the protocol Segregated Witness (Segwit). Now during the lock-in period, there will be another 336 blocks, until Segwit will be activated on Bitcoins main network.

Also read:Predicting the August 1 Split Flow Chart the Hard Way

It seems the Bitcoin network may see the implementation of Segwit in the near future. Miners have reached the 80 percent threshold and held this position for 336 blocks to initiate the current lock-in. Another period of blocks mined at this threshold must take place in order to activate the protocol. During the morning of July 20 bitcoin markets have rallied from a price of $2300 per BTC the day before, to a high of $2930. Many bitcoin proponents across forums and social media believe the price spike is due to the anticipated lock-in and activation.

Segwit is a protocol that was introduced in 2015 by bitcoin developer Pieter Wuille at the Hong Kong Scaling Workshop. The implementation creates a mechanism that relocates witness inputs away from transactions which in turn may create more block space. Full nodes will validate blocks but with a separate entry for signature data. Essentially, because this specific data is removed, supporters believe it can free up block size space to achieve more on-chain throughput.

The code was prepared a long time ago, and network participants failed to get it activated and also had to deal with a higher threshold of 95 percent. Moreover, many bitcoin proponents believe Segwit isnt enough and want a block size increase. This has led to many arguments and failed roundtable agreements. Now since Barry Silberts New York Agreement miners who chose not to support Segwit in the past, promised to support the implementation in exchange for a 2MB hard fork.

The July 20 lock in periodstarted going much faster once other miners joined the BIP91 signaling. This includes GBminers, Slush, and the anticipated signaling from the well-known F2poo,l which seemed undecided throughout most of the debate. Currently, a great majority of mining pools are supporting the lock-in period threshold, just a few percentages over 80 percent. After the next 336 blocks, and if all is successful with this plan, BIP91 will be enforced at block height 477120. Following this block there will still be a couple weeks of wait time until Segwit is officially active. The process of activating Segwit may not be super smooth, as there also could be problems with blockchain reorganization, a client issue where the bitcoin network doesnt reorganize in unison.

For now, it seems the Segwit2x roadmap is going as planned. Following the activation of Segwit, developers and networkparticipants will then prepare for the 2MB hard fork that should follow 12,960 blocks later (~3 months).

Three plus months is the fallback safety measure, in case activation is slower than predicted, explains Jeff Garzik the Segwit2x working group developer.

Do you think Segwit will be activated? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Coin Dance,and Pixabay.

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Bitcoin Mining Pools Initiate Segwit Lock-in Period - Bitcoin News (press release)