Monthly Archives: July 2020

Why can’t we stream every Broadway show? – NWAOnline

Posted: July 13, 2020 at 5:07 pm

Marc Kirschner, the co-

founder of Marquee TV, an arts-

oriented streaming service that launched in February, gets the question all the time: "People have been asking us when we were going to have 'Hamilton.'"

His answer: "Well, if we had 'Hamilton,' we would change our name to The Streaming Platform That Has 'Hamilton.'"

The platform that has Lin-Manuel Miranda's blockbuster is Disney+, which paid about $75 million for the live capture that premiered July 3. (In what surely must be a coincidence, Disney+ has dropped its free trial period.)

While watching theater on a screen now feels a bit weird, live telecasts were common in the late-'40s, 1950s and early 1960s, when programs like Playhouse 90, Studio One and The U.S. Steel Hour displayed the work of the finest playwrights, directors and actors.

Some of them are even streamable. Amazon Prime, for example, offers a 1957 telecast of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, once Broadway's royal couple, starring in "The Great Sebastians."

What about other options? While the state of theater streaming is in perpetual flux, here are answers to the most common questions. Be warned, however, that "Hamilton" is an outlier among Broadway hits.

Q: Where do I find musicals online?

A: There is actually a lot out there. The websites Filmed on Stage and Thespie can help point you to many of them, such as the West End production of "Gypsy," starring Imelda Staunton and available to buy or rent on Amazon, iTunes and YouTube. Musicals are a portion of the long-running PBS Great Performances series, while Netflix lists popular properties as different as "Shrek the Musical" and "Springsteen on Broadway." HBO will present the Spike Lee capture of "David Byrne's American Utopia" later this year.

Q: Aren't there one-stop shops?

A: Yes, and to nobody's surprise the popularity of subscription-based platforms has increased in recent months. The closest thing to a Netflix for theater is BroadwayHD, which has about 300 titles in its catalog, from hits like "Kinky Boots" to vintage nuggets, including Lee J. Cobb reprising his Willy Loman in a 1966 CBS telecast of "Death of a Salesman." The British-American Marquee TV is another service that offers all-you-can-watch for a weekly, monthly or annual fee. (Broadway On Demand is a newcomer in this market, and while its original interview programming seems promising, its high-profile stage offerings are underwhelming so far.)

Q: Why aren't all the big Broadway shows available for streaming?

A: Video recording a show is up to individual producers. They have tended to pass on the opportunity for two main reasons: cost, and the fear that streaming will cannibalize ticket sales. "To do what 'Hamilton' did would require a real outlay of cash from the producers," said Charlotte St. Martin, the president of the Broadway League. That show's three lead producers, who have made fortunes from it, financed the filming themselves; for others, a multicamera investment can be prohibitive.

Q: What about those National Theater and Royal Shakespeare Company captures?

A: Britain and many other European countries got a head start because digital initiatives were made a condition for state funding, to help achieve accessibility, equity and sustainability. "Most countries started with that top-down view of digital, whereas in the United States it's an upside-down approach, which is one reason everything has lagged behind so much here," said Marquee TV's Kirschner.

He also points out that video recording is prohibitively more expensive in America. "To capture a Broadway production costs five to 10 times what it would overseas," he said.

Q: Why can I watch some streams whenever I want but for others I have to log in at a specific time?

A: There are three basic types of streaming. With livestreaming, you watch a show as it unfolds live, usually by buying a ticket or making a donation ahead of time. With scheduled streaming, audience members watch a recording of a show at a specific time. Streaming on demand is either a subscription model la Netflix or timed access where customers buy a ticket and have, say, 48 hours to watch the show.

"Each show we license might have different options," Prignano said. "Some only offer livestreaming, others only offer live and scheduled streaming, etc. If a show has a movie deal or an impending movie deal, it's more difficult to get streaming rights, and it'll be really difficult to get on-demand."

Q: With no Broadway until Jan. 3, at least, will we run out of new material to stream?

A: "We have enough in the pipeline to take us well into next year, when we can start shooting again," said Bonnie Comley, co-founder and co-CEO of Broadway HD.

Producers are also looking at ways to capture shows performed in front of empty or socially distanced houses. Actors' Equity Association is in the process of reviewing pandemic-prompted agreements, including for Zoom shows, that were released in March.

"One was to allow theaters to exhibit online archives of their productions, another to allow producers to do remote work," said Lawrence Lorczak, a senior business representative for the union. "We're in the middle of reviewing the terms for those two to make them more accessible for the producers and theaters."

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Guest View: Tired of the other two parties? – The Register-Guard

Posted: at 5:06 pm

"Exciting" and "exhilarating" were the words going through my head when I attended this past Libertarian National Convention.

The convention, in a normal setting, is worth looking forward to, but the recent events in the world made this one for the history books. The Libertarian Party was the very first party in history to nominate the presidential and vice presidential candidates via an online convention, using Zoom video conferencing.

I had the honor of presiding as the chair of the Oregon delegation, which consists of 14 other Oregon Libertarians. We connected in real time with over 1,000 other Libertarian delegates to the convention from across the country, and with the Oregon delegation by Slack, an online messaging tool. The convention is continuing in person next week in Orlando when we meet to ratify the nominations, elect party officers and edit and adopt our platform and bylaws.

While the mechanics of the convention were interesting enough, it was the result that was so exciting. The Libertarian Party is the third-largest party in the country and expects to be on the ballot in all 50 states again, as it has for the last three presidential elections. Our slogan is that we are the "Party of Principle" because we stand strongly on our principles, the primary one of which has been described as "Dont hurt people and dont take their stuff."

Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference into personal, family and business decisions. Essentially, we believe all Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit if they do no harm to another.

This year, we nominated Jo Jorgensen as the partys presidential candidate. She is a senior lecturer in psychology at Clemson University and was the Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee with Harry Browne in 1996. She wants to bring home our military and stop military aid to foreign governments, eliminate trade wars and tariffs, repeal arbitrary quotas on the number of people who can legally enter the U.S. to work, visit or reside, and slash federal spending, making government much smaller, and let you keep what you earn.

Her vice presidential running mate is Jeremy "Spike" Cohen. Cohen started a web design company in 1999 and retired from that three years ago to promote libertarian ideas full time. His aim is to make people more familiar with voluntary solutions and property rights.

Libertarians select their slate differently than the two major parties, in that the presidential nominee does not select her running mate: delegates do. We selected Cohen because he was the most articulate and had brought more new members to the party than the other candidates. He had been running with a satirical candidate so you may have seen him touting those goals online: a Waffle House on every corner and free cheesy bread. His candidacy is serious, though, and his positions include ending qualified immunity, demilitarizing the police, making officers pay for their own abuse settlements, reducing and eliminating sentencing for victimless crimes and ending the failed war on drugs.

If these ideas interest you, consider coming to the next meeting of the Lane County Libertarians. We meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. at the Oregon Electric Station.

Carolyn Wade is the chair of the Lane County Libertarians and secretary of the Oregon Libertarian Party.

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Demonstrations Are Necessary: The Wire Creator David Simon On Policing In America – CBS Baltimore

Posted: at 5:06 pm

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) Former Baltimore journalist and The Wire creator David Simon spoke to CBS New York about policing in America and the war on drugs.

I think the demonstrations are necessary, Simon said, who was a reporter for 15 years at The Baltimore Sun.

I want to start here David with your take on whats going on right now in society, people in the streets, more police killings it seems by the week. What are you seeing? asked CBS2s Maurice DuBois.

The thing that has changed in a profound way and necessarily for the better is the power of the cell phone, of the smart phone, with its camera, with its video camera, said Simon. The fact that everyone has one. The city is awash in visual imagery, in an immediate agency.

Simon is best known for creating the hit HBO TV series The Wire, a drama about drugs plaguing Baltimores neighborhoods thats told from the perspectives of the cops and drug dealers. Simon believes the war on drugs is at the root of the problems were facing today and it leads police to arrest Black and brown men for petty crimes and minor offenses.

A lot of people are saying you know what, people of color and poor people are being over-policed, said Simon.

To the people who say look, drugs are destroying African-American and Latino communities across the country, youre almost saying its a victimless crime. What do you mean by that? asked DuBois.

It absolutely is a victimless crime. Its a medical condition, said Simon. The drug war is effectively a war on the poor. Its a means of using social control on people of color and people in poverty by the ruling class. Thats all it has ever been. Im not here to defend drugs. Drugs do an inordinate amount of damage.

Read more of Simons interview on CBS New York.

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ELECTION 2020: State Attorney’s race features opposing views | News | beacononlinenews.com – The West Volusia Beacon

Posted: at 5:06 pm

R.J. Larizza, the incumbent state attorney for the judicial circuit covering Volusia and three other counties, said he wants to continue reducing crime and offering services to help people with mental health or drug-abuse issues.

His challenger, longtime defense attorney Don Dempsey, on the other hand, said there are a number of problems with how Larizzas goals are implemented.

Chiefly, Dempsey said, he thinks the resources of the State Attorneys Office should be reallocated, with less energy devoted to getting people long sentences for victimless crimes.

The two will square off in the general election Tuesday, Nov. 3, with the winner holding the office for the next four years. All registered voters in Volusia County can vote in this race.

In separate interviews with The West Volusia Beacon, the candidates outlined their platforms and explained why they are running.

The State Attorneys Office is responsible for all criminal prosecution in the 7th Circuit. The state attorney administers and manages the agency, including supervising more than 200 employees.

Larizza said during his stint as state attorney, crime has gone down every year throughout the 7th Judicial Circuit, which includes Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns counties in addition to Volusia.

We have been very successful in my 12 years as state attorney in terms of the crime-reduction rate, Larizza said. I want to continue that trend.

But Dempsey sees the need for reform in the criminal-justice system. For instance, he said, Larizzas office is too quick to seek lengthy sentences, especially for first offenders and those convicted of minor or victimless crimes, such as drug possession.

A lot of people are getting lengthy prison sentences, Dempsey said. My complaint isnt with law enforcement, but once a case gets to the State Attorneys Office.

Dempsey said prosecutors are pressured to ask for longer sentences because it enhances the State Attorneys Offices conviction rate. Prosecutors, also, are encouraged not to drop cases, such as the cases of people who go through Veterans Court, a diversionary program to help veterans accused of relatively minor crimes.

More people should be cut a break so their lives are not destroyed, especially first-time offenders, Dempsey said. But prosecutors wont do it unless they get approval from their supervisor, and that goes against their stats on conviction rates.

Because judges are often bound by minimum-mandatory-sentencing laws, Dempsey said, change is up to the State Attorneys Office.

Prosecutors, basically, have sole discretion, Dempsey said.

Dempsey would like to see resources allocated differently; for example, to an economic-crimes bureau to investigate cases where the victims are elderly or where business people rip off their partners.

But Larizza said there is a fraud unit working economic crimes, and he intends to keep it. He also said his agency is training local police departments and works with them to deal with those kinds of crimes.

Larizza made no bones about being tough on hardened criminals, but he does believe in being compassionate when its appropriate, he said.

Sometimes good people make bad decisions, and sometimes the criminal-justice system lets them down, he said.

Dempsey, though, argues that the State Attorneys Office could do more to reduce the sentences of some people who have been convicted, especially older inmates who have been locked up for far longer than they should have been.

The State Attorneys Office needs some kind of Second Look system to review cases to see if some sentences can be lowered, Dempsey said.

Another of Larizzas focuses is on combating domestic violence.

One out of four murders in the circuit are domestic-related, and they are some of the most difficult cases to prosecute, he said. We are working with domestic-abuse councils in every county, and I have been funneling funding out of my budget to help them. Im trying to get more funding from the state for them.

Larizza said specific prosecutors are working with the councils to try to reduce incidents of domestic violence, with the ultimate goal of eventually reducing the number of homicides.

Dempsey didnt address domestic violence in his interview. Rather, he focused on ways to reform the system and be more compassionate, especially with first offenders and those serving lengthy prison sentences.

Its not being soft on crime; its reprioritizing, Dempsey said. Instead of spending resources on victimless crimes such as minor drug offenses, for example, why not spend more time and money on white-collar crimes against business owners and exploitation of the elderly crimes where there are real victims.

R.J. Larizza, 62, was first elected state attorney in 2008. Before that, he was in private practice in St. Augustine for six years, after spending six-and-a-half years as a prosecutor in Daytona Beach and St. Augustine.

He was a probation-and-parole officer for 13 years before becoming a prosecutor.

Larizza lives in St. Johns County with his wife and two children, and has five grandchildren.

Donald B. Dempsey Jr., 54, was a prosecutor for three years before opening a private law practice in DeLand 27 years ago, specializing in criminal defense.

He is married to County Judge Angela Dempsey, who has been transferred to hear civil cases so there is no conflict with his candidacy. (She will stay on the civil bench if he wins the election, Don Dempsey said.)

Don and Angela Dempsey have a 7-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, and he has a 30-year-old son from a previous relationship. The Dempseys live near DeLand.

According to Florida law, heres what the Office of State Attorney is supposed to do: "The State Attorney or designee, shall appear in the circuit and county courts within the Seventh Judicial Circuit, and prosecute or defend, on behalf of the State, all suits, applications, or motions, civil or criminal, in which the State is a party, unless otherwise provided by law. We shall seek justice by fairly and diligently representing the interests of the people of the Seventh Judicial Circuit and the State of Florida."

The state attorney currently supervises 205 employees, including 78 attorneys, who work to accomplish this mission in the four counties of the 7th Judicial Circuit: Volusia, Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns.

Non-attorney employees of the office include support staff, investigators and victim advocates, for example. The number of employees varies; currently, the State Attorneys Office is operating under a hiring freeze, due to the unknown budgetary effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The state attorneys annual salary is $169,554, plus a state benefits package, and the term of office is four years.

The race is a partisan one. Both R.J. Larizza and Don Dempsey are registered Republicans; however, Dempsey has opted to run with no party affiliation, or NPA.

I think criminal justice should be nonpartisan, Dempsey said. I dont think it should be a partisan issue. Nobody likes crime.

Had both men chosen to run as Republicans, the election would have been in a partisan primary, open to all voters, on Tuesday, Aug. 18. However, because they are running with different party affiliations, that pushes the vote to the general election Tuesday, Nov. 3.

All of Volusia County is within the 7th Circuit, so all registered voters in Volusia County may cast ballots in the race.

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Bitcoin price, charts, market cap, and other metrics …

Posted: at 5:05 pm

What Is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a completely decentralized digital cryptocurrency. Unlike US dollars that you can hold in your hand (or in your bank account), there is no central authority or centralized payment system controlling Bitcoin. Instead, Bitcoin operates in a peer-to-peer network that allows anyone in the world to send and receive Bitcoin without any middleman (like a bank, central bank or payment processor).

Although there are thousands of cryptocurrencies ranked on CMC today, Bitcoin was the very first cryptocurrency ever created. On Oct. 31, 2008 a person (or group of people) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the now-world famous Bitcoin white paper.

The first line reads: A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash, which would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.

The Bitcoin network then launched on Jan. 3, 2009, marking the start of the cryptocurrency revolution.

Bitcoin is a purely decentralized digital currency, which makes it unlike any other asset that came before it.

Before the digital age, everyone transacted in physical forms of currencies, from livestock and salt, to silver and gold, and finally to banknotes. Only in recent times was money digitized allowing bank accounts to exist online, as well as creating the many online payment processing platforms, such as PayPal and Square, that you often use today without thinking about it.

However, all of these digital transactions require a centralized system to operate. Your bank, or financial services like PayPal, needs to ensure that all of their users accounts are constantly updated and tallied correctly. These systems represent the centralized form of digital money.

Bitcoin revolutionized digital money by decentralizing this accounting process. Instead of a central figure that is responsible for making sure that their users transactions were always adding up, Bitcoin works by sharing the account balances and transactions of every user across the globe in a pseudonymous form. In simplest terms, this means that anyone can download and run the free and open-source software required to participate in the Bitcoin protocol.

As a Bitcoin user, all you need to know to send Bitcoin to someone else is their Bitcoin address (a series of letters and numbers, not their name or any personal information!). By sending your Bitcoin to an address, what you are doing is broadcasting your transaction (Hi, Im Alice sending 1 BTC to Bob!) across the Bitcoin network using blockchain technology (more about that below). Since the Bitcoin network has the most up-to-date ledger tracking Alices wallet balance, the system checks her wallet balance (i.e., Alice has 2 BTC in her wallet, so a transaction of 1 BTC to Bob is valid), and then completes the transaction.

In summary, Bitcoin works by ensuring that this shared ledger always tallies up, and that new Bitcoin transactions (Bob sends 2 BTC back to Alice. Go Alice!) are validated, recorded and then added to the ledger in order. That is the heart of blockchain technology, where new blocks of information are added to the chain of blocks that already exist.

Mining refers to the act of adding new blocks to the blockchain. In simple terms, Bitcoin miners dedicate significant amounts of computing power to solve a cryptographic problem, which is basically a very complex puzzle. The successful miner that solves the puzzle before all the other miners gets rewarded with a block reward, which is an allocation of a predetermined number of Bitcoin. In some cases, the block rewards are awarded to mining pools, when miners group together to share resources.

Once the puzzle is solved, the block is confirmed, and it is added to the blockchain. This new information is sent to all nodes, aka participants in the Bitcoin protocol, and the shared ledger is updated once again.

As Bitcoin's price rises, the block reward becomes increasingly more attractive. This incentivizes more miners to join in the competition to mine for blocks. In return, the more miners there are in the system, the more secure the network is. In addition, the increased competition also means miners are continually investing in newer hardware to ensure their computing power remains relevant for the fight for block rewards.

To ensure that the value of Bitcoin is not compromised by an infinite supply, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote in a halving event that happens every 210,000 blocks. When Bitcoins network first began, Bitcoins block reward was 50 BTC per block mined. This was halved in 2012, at block #210,000, where the block reward became 25 BTC. The second halving was in 2016, at block #420,000, and the block reward became 12.5 BTC.

This process will continue every 210,000 blocks, until the total supply of BTC (21 million BTC) has been reached. It is estimated that the final block reward will be paid in 2140! For more information on the Bitcoin halving, check out our Bitcoin Halving page and blog post!

There are many different ways of storing your Bitcoin heres just a few:

There are many Bitcoin different exchanges all over the world. All of these exchanges allow you to sell Bitcoin for other cryptocurrencies (altcoins) or government currencies (USD, EUR, GBP etc.) At the same time, these Bitcoin exchanges allow you to store your BTC with them, which means that the burden of keeping it safe is on them. Do note that incidents have occurred when exchanges have been hacked or lost their customers BTC, so do your own research when youre looking for an exchange thats safe to hold your cryptoassets. For the latest list of exchanges and trading pairs for this cryptocurrency, click on our market pairs tab.

Instead of keeping it on a Bitcoin exchange, you could keep your Bitcoin in a Bitcoin wallet instead. Wallets come in two forms hot and cold. Hot wallets are software that stays connected to the internet, aka storing your Bitcoin online. It is more convenient to transact via a hot wallet, but they logically are more susceptible to being attacked, as they stay connected to the internet.

Cold wallets are wallets that are not online. They are less prone to attack, as hackers cannot access this type of cold storage via the internet, but they are also a lot less convenient for the user as they may be cost-prohibitive and require more technical understanding to operate. Examples of cold wallets are hardware wallets and paper wallets.

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‘Ferocious Rally’: Weiss Ratings Bullish on Bitcoin, Price to Hit $70K Next Year | Markets and Prices – Bitcoin News

Posted: at 5:05 pm

Weiss Ratings has outlined key reasons why investors should be bullish about bitcoin, seeing a ferocious rally with the price of the cryptocurrency expected to hit $70,000 next year. In addition, the Federal Reserves massive money-printing and institutional investments into cryptocurrencies add to the bullishness.

Weiss Ratings analysts Bruce Ng and Juan Villaverde explained last week why investors should be bullish about bitcoin despite some sideways consolidations. Weiss Ratings currently ranks bitcoin first among all cryptocurrencies overall.

One of the three key reasons why the analysts are bullish about bitcoin stems from a price prediction based on the stock-to-flow analysis (S2F). The popular forecasting model now points to a ferocious rally over the next 12 months or so, they wrote.

Ng and Villaverde described that S2F is based on the common-sense notion that the scarcer a commodity is, the more valuable it becomes, adding that scarcity is measured by circulating supply. For example, Gold has an S2F of 62, which is the number of years of current production required to match global above-ground holdings, they clarified.

After the May Bitcoin halving, 6.25 new bitcoins are being created every 10 minutes, meaning it would take an estimated 56 years for new mintage to match Bitcoins circulating supply, they continued. Notice how close that is to the S2F number for gold, which makes sense because bitcoin is fast becoming a major rival to gold as a safe-haven investment.

The analysts added that previous S2F predictions line up quite well with bitcoins actual price performance, as seen in the chart above, elaborating:

Now, based on the history of the halving, current S2F analysis says bitcoin should reach $70,000 by sometime around mid-2021 Even if it turns out to be only half right, you could still triple your money.

The other two reasons Weiss Ratings analysts highlighted were QE infinity and institutional money flowing into cryptocurrencies. The covid-19 pandemic environment has pushed the Federal Reserve to print $2.9 trillion in new paper money in just 13 weeks, or about $22 million a minute, the analysts detailed. By any measure, this is corruption of money on an industrial scale, they exclaimed, predicting that investors will pour money into bitcoin and gold as a safe haven when they lose confidence in paper money.

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has also been saying that central banks printing record amount of money is the best environment for bitcoin.

The last major factor Ng and Villaverde focused on was the increasing interest in cryptocurrency among institutional investors, such as by Paul Tudor Jones who invested about $210 million of his own money into bitcoin. Grayscale Investments has been adding bitcoin to its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust faster than the rate of new coins being mined and recently, venture capitalist Andreessen Horowitz raised half a billion dollars to invest in crypto startups. The analysts opined:

The sheer weight of institutional-sized money flows into a small market like bitcoin can have truly explosive effects.

Are you bullish on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Weiss Ratings

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. 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.

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Crypto Winter Could Really Be Over as New Bitcoin Starts to Bloom – Cointelegraph

Posted: at 5:05 pm

There is no doubt that cryptocurrency specifically Bitcoin (BTC), which is frequently used as a barometer for the health of the entire sector has made a comeback. As of the writing of this article, Bitcoin stands at a little over $9,000, very close to the $10,000 rebound that investors hoped for sometime this year and we are barely in the third quarter.

Although there are signs that crypto winter is over, many experts are still understandably cautious.

Related: What's Next for the Industry as 'Crypto Winter' Thaws?

Cryptocurrency has been a notoriously unstable investment, first selling at less than a penny and then varying from $400 to $1,242 between all of 2013 and 2016. In 2017, crypto investors were gleeful (and some, probably, quite smug) to see the currency reach the insane height of $4,400 and then end the year breaking an astonishing $20,000 all this after plummeting to $2,000 that same September.

Of course, what followed that bright season in the cryptocurrency industry was what we refer to as crypto winter the drastic drop in value following several high-profile Ponzi schemes, successful hacks, crypto-jacking attempts and overall negative media coverage.

In this article, we will discuss the question of whether crypto winter is over, whether those who have already invested have a reason to be hopeful, and whether those who havent should jump on the bandwagon soon before prices skyrocket. We will also place a focus on blockchain technology as it exists both inside and outside the cryptocurrency industry, and why widespread adoption of this new technology is an indicator of cryptocurrencys future success.

For many of the experts, the answer seems to be yes. From crypto enthusiasts to Forbes, the current viewpoint of many is that Bitcoin is poised to make huge gains for the next 10 years. Although the vagaries of the cryptocurrency industry are as mysterious as Satoshi Nakamoto himself, it seems that we have headed into a period of stability during which the fundamentals of cryptocurrency are better understood and trusted.

Only 4% of Americans polled cite cryptocurrency as their preferred long-term investment, but this is very likely going to change in the near future, as Bitcoin has nothing but room to grow.

Many compare the future of Bitcoin to that of the internet, and claim that the commodity is going through the same growing pains of scalability, availability and ease of use that the internet first went through from 1995.

Similarly, market experts note that although only 11% of Americans own Bitcoin, those numbers are on par with other huge technological developments in their early stages, such as smartphones.

Many point out that the disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak to traditional banking and investing institutions may be a motivator to invest in the digital currency to protect against inflation and the questionable resilience of fiat currencies.

Many experts also suggest that cryptocurrency transactions arent completely secure and anonymous without the use of a virtual private network, or VPN. They are also irreversible. Once a coin is gone from your account, it can easily vanish without a trace. Hackers have taken advantage of this by breaking into exchanges and stealing small amounts from each user.

So, it will likely take time until Bitcoin gains trust from the wider public, but for those willing to take a risk, it might be the most profitable investment of 2020, specifically for those who are willing to wait 10 years to witness the true extent of its growth.

Although much is left to be seen about the future of cryptocurrency, no one can deny that the idea of creating a digital-only currency is as old as science fiction. From transportation to food to medicine to video games, a wide variety of industries continue to look to blockchain technology for logistical and transactional solutions. In seven years, it is estimated that $300 billion worth of food products will be tracked using blockchain technology, saving over $100 billion annually.

In 2018, JPMorgan surprised the traditional financial world by publicly stating that blockchain technology is the way of the future for cross-border payments. A year after that, IBM, Citibank and Barclays announced the development of their own blockchain-based platforms, and Dubai made a statement that it has a new goal to become blockchain-powered by 2020.

Although this is still a relatively new technology, there is little doubt that blockchain and the cryptographic technology it uses will rapidly dominate the landscape in coming years. Countless top-tier engineers, product developers and designers are building real solutions on top of blockchain, working to perfect this technology for widespread use across various industries.

It is possible that we may have to wait until blockchain technology is fully understood, utilized and appreciated by the masses in order to provide cryptocurrency a much-needed publicity boost.

After all, although currencies and monetary investments like cryptocurrencies can go through wild ups and downs, there is nothing more stable than an already proven and reliable technological solution like blockchain.

Many unanswered questions and problems that still exist are unsettling to cautious investors, but these obstacles bear resemblance to other successful, ground-breaking technologies such the internet and Apple smartphones. Furthermore, much of the negative press about the problems associated with Bitcoin is due to scams that could have been easily avoided with adequate financial knowledge and cybersecurity.

Also, lets not forget that traditional banking institutions have a vested interest in making cryptocurrency seem like a questionable investment. Of course, big banks and traditional investing platforms have significant power to fund research and news stories that influence opinions on a daily basis. This might be more of a reflection of their fear of competition rather than a legitimate portrayal of the value of the cryptocurrency industry.

Certainly, if you prefer safe and reliable investments with moderate-to-low gains in the short term, Bitcoin is probably not the right investment for you.

However, if you are looking to potentially gain big by investing in a growing new industry, and are not afraid of the spring cleaning that is currently needed to make improvements to the future security and useability of cryptocurrency, it might be just the right time to buy Bitcoin.

After all, where there is no risk, there is no reward and it may be wise not to wait until everyone is singing the praises of Bitcoin in the coming years to make the decision to invest.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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

Sam Bocetta is a freelance journalist specializing in United States diplomacy and national security with an emphasis on technology trends in cyber warfare, cyber defense and cryptography. Previously, Sam was a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, working in partnership with architects and developers to mitigate controls for vulnerabilities identified across applications.

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Bitcoin Thieves Hit Cashaa – Infosecurity Magazine

Posted: at 5:05 pm

Cyber-criminals have compromised a British cryptocurrency exchange, making off with over $3min Bitcoin.

Cashaa has halted all its crypto-related transactions after cyber-criminals stole more than 336 Bitcoin from their exchange. The company has said that prima facia users have not been impacted by the theft.

In a media brief shared with Cointelegraph, Cashaas CEO Kumar Gaurav said: We are still investigating the damage caused by the incident and suspend all the withdrawals for 24 hours.

Kumar said that the theft occurred after malicious hackers compromised one of the exchanges digital wallets. Once access had been gained, the hackers sent the cryptocurrency contained within the wallet to themselves.

Guarav said that he had reason to believe that the cyber-criminals who hit Cashaa are based in East Delhi, India. Acting on this suspicion, the exchange has filed a cyber-crime incident report with the Delhi crime bureau under the cryptocurrency crime category.

A meeting of Cashaas board has been called to determine whether the company will bear all the losses associated with the crime.

Cashaa said it believes that to carry out the theft, cyber-criminals installed malware onto a computer used to make exchange transfers like user withdrawals. This malware sent a notification to the cyber-criminals at 1:23pm on July 10 when an employee logged into the account and made two transfers from a Blockchain.com wallet. It was this wallet that was then compromised and illegally relieved of over 336 Bitcoin.

The company is now taking steps to prevent the cyber-criminals who hit Cashaa from selling the stolen cryptocurrency on exchanges. On Twitter, Cashaa posted the Bitcoin address of the hacker in hopes of tracking any movement of the illegally acquired funds.

Guarav said Bitcoin thefts were on the rise because some cryptocurrency exchanges made it easy for cyber-criminals to launder stolen funds.

As of today, hackers are very confident to hack crypto addresses and move it through exchanges that are facilitating such laundering through their systems, said Guarav.

Exchanges like these must be shut down and owners of these exchanges should be charged with money laundering facilitation crime.

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Bitcoin Trading Volume Slumps; Will TikTok Revive Dogecoin? – Forbes

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Get Forbes' top crypto and blockchain storiesdelivered to your inboxevery week for the latest news on bitcoin, other major cryptocurrencies and enterprise blockchain adoption.

Mustafa Murat Kaynak / Anadolu Agency

Bitcoin enjoyed a modest breakout Monday, gaining close to 5%, though it soon retreated back near where it began the week. After rising more than 150% in a two-month period from mid-March to May, bitcoin has sputtered since its halving and its volatility by the end of June was its lowest since February. A report this week showed that bitcoin trading volumes sank by 36% in June, a decline reminiscent of the lead-up to the crypto winter in early 2019.

One small cryptocurrency did double in value this week with a push from young TikTok users. Dogecoin, which trades for less than half a penny, soared after a viral video with a million views encouraged users to invest.

Brock Pierce, a controversial cryptocurrency investor who cofounded the stablecoin tether, is running for president. While his vanity third-party run isnt getting as much hype as that of rapper Kanye West, Pierce promises that he would have used 21st century technology to get stimulus checks and unemployment to Americans much faster. In a wide-ranging interview, Pierce revealed more details on his policy positions and denied disturbing allegations that he provided drugs to minors and pressured them to have sex in 2000.

The first week of his campaign didnt go so well. A New York appeals court approved an investigation into a number of businesses behind tether, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar and has a market value of $10 billion. Questions about whether or not tether is actually backed dollar-for-dollar have circulated since 2018. The Bitfinex exchange is also a separate respondent in the New York attorney generals investigation.

Sigal Mandelker, a Donald Trump appointee for under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence who stepped down last year to work in the private sector, has reemerged as an investor and board member for Chainalysis. Her venture firm, Ribbit Capital, joined the crypto investigation startups expanded $49 million Series B funding round, and she expects to put her government experience tracing illicit activities to good use.

Bitcoins lightning network was built to speed up low-value bitcoin transactions by moving them off the bitcoin blockchain, but researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem warned that the network is vulnerable against cyberattacks if users arent careful. Computer scientists Jona Harris and Aviv Zohar wrote in a Medium post that since the network is susceptible to blockchain congestion, around $9 million worth of bitcoin could be looted by attackers.

The PlusToken Ponzi scheme masterminds disappeared in 2019 with a $3 billion profit after six people allegedly involved in the scheme were arrested, but after a long quiet period, the XRP holdings of PlusToken wallets are moving again, signaling that some Ponzi schemers may still be at large.

About 285 million XRP tokens were transferred to a pool of accounts on June 19 shuffling the money and making it difficult to trace, though the scammers dont necessarily control this shuffle-pool and it may be law enforcement simply selling seized assets.

Digital asset investment manager Arca launched the Arca U.S. Treasury Fund on Wednesday, making it the first SEC-registered product regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940 to offer digital securities. The fund will use the Ethereum blockchain to offer shares of ArCoins, which will pay out quarterly interest to investors, and ArCoins value is expected to remain stable since the fund will invest primarily in low-risk Treasury securities.

The Federal Reserves Declining Balance Sheet Is Bearish for Bitcoin. Or Is It? [CoinDesk]

Crypto Stablecoins Face Increasing Regulatory Scrutiny [Bloomberg]

Could We Fight Misinformation With Blockchain Technology? [New York Times]

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Listen: What a Bitcoin Researcher Says About Lightning – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Chaincode Labs researcher Clara Shikhelman has been studying mathematics in university since she was 14 years old. Now, as the bitcoin companys newest post-doctoral fellow, she is exploring ways to optimize the Lightning Network.

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This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCrypto.com.

In this audio interview, CoinDesks Leigh Cuen and Chaincode Labs researcherClara Shikhelmantalk aboutbitcoinand what attracted them to it.

As a co-founder of the IsraeliWomen in Mathematics Association, Shikhelman has been researching complex math problems for nearly a decade. But she said bitcoin offers especially interesting puzzles to solve because this technology may have the potential to change the world. Shes one of many young researchers who identify with the cypherpunk movement.

There are a lot of people like me, their main thing is academic, Shikhelman said. They are not the classic cypherpunk people, but [t]hey believe in privacy, in political change.

Until recently, most people associated with thecypherpunk movementwere technologists in the 1980s and 1990s who circulated mailing lists about encryption and other privacy tech topics. The term was created byfeminist hackitvist Judith Milhon, although it is widely associated with software engineers such as bitcoin veteran Adam Back. Many of the original cypherpunks are still active in thecryptocurrency spacetoday. However, theyve also inspired a new generation of self-identified cypherpunks with different skills now also exploring the subcultures proverb that cypherpunks build things.

In Shikhelmans case, shes focused on mathematical research to make bitcoinsLightning Networkreliable. Like her predecessors, she shares a love of cypherpunk literature, such as novels by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson. These fantasy worlds help her think outside the box and apply math to ideas with cypherpunk potential, meaning the potential to use privacy tech to promote social change. Such solutions-oriented research is a fundamental part of building technology, just as valuable as adding open source code to a Github repo.

Lets talk big. Lets think huge. Lets talk about thousands of years in the future, changing humanity, Shikhelman said.

In order to build privacy into the bitcoin ecosystem, technologists first must understand the mathematical aspects of the system. Just as safety equipment works best when it fits the person (an oversized helmet can be more dangerous than none at all), software works best when designed with both the details and holistic value flow in mind.

Lightning will need more than justonion routingfor good privacy guarantees going forward, said cypherpunk journalistJanine Roemer, who writes anewsletterabout bitcoin privacy tech. Lightning is one of many adaptations that will expand Bitcoins ability to carry larger and larger portions of the global economy.

Similar to Shikhelman, Roemer is a researcher who views herself as part of the broader cypherpunk movement.

A lowercase c cypherpunk, she joked, acknowledging she was never involved with the movements founding fathers.

This social movement is not preoccupied with overthrowing or altering governments, in stark contrast with Bitcoin Twitters anarchist undertones. Instead, Roemer said, rather than seizing power the movement is focused on working to make things un-take-over-able. In short, unseizable assets, self-sovereign data and other types of independence in a digital world.

I prefer the term informational self-determination, which is used in the German constitution, Roemer said.

As for bitcoin, Shikhelman described Bitcoin Core as pretty much stable and running, meaning her focus has now turned to privacy-centric usability for the Lightning Network. With regards to bitcoins reliability so far, Roemer agreed.

I hope bitcoin will become/keep being something that survives under adversity, and gives the people who use it at least enough privacy that they can escape from whatever preys on them. Whether thats the state, banks, corporations, abusive family or partners, Roemer concluded.

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The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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