Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin (122)
Cryptocurrency (10)

Synopsis: Economics & finance: Cryptocurrency:

#Bitcoin Exchange Bitstamp Suspends Operations Following Hack Fueling fears of a Mt. Gox-caliber meltdown, Bitstamp--the world second most-trafficked USD bitcoin exchange--ceased operations today in the wake of a hack.

The Slovenia-and UK-based bitcoin marketplace temporarily halted withdrawals, then later completely shut down, after discovering that some of its operational ot walletswere compromised yesterday.

Related: Bitcoin Named Worst-Performing Currency of 2014 In a statement to Entrepreneur late Monday, Bitstamp said that less than 19,000 BTC,

or about $5. 1 million at today's pricing, was lost and assured that all customers will be able to recover the balances they held before service was halted."

"This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are held in secure offline cold storage systems.

Microsoft Is Now the Largest Company in the World to Accept Bitcoin The trouble at the popular exchange couldn come at a worse time for the ultra-hyped virtual money,

the cryptocurrency lowest value since 2013. According to the Coindesk Price index, which Bitstamp was suspended just temporarily from,

Bitcoin is currently trading at $270 a

#UK and U s. Intelligence agencies to Up Cyber security Cooperation Britain and the United states will increase cooperation on cyber security Prime minister David cameron said setting up cyber cells to share intelligence

What s Next##in the Wake of Bitcoin? So, as we look forward, at all the possibilities inherent in crowdfunding, microfinance and microlending,

That s why bitcoin and the latest forms of cryptocurrency are so exciting. Digital currencies like bitcoin have the potential to drive down transaction fees in a big way.

Say, for example, you sell electronics or operate a business where profit margins are slim, say under 5 percent.

But with bitcoin, companies could see a significant reduction in transaction fees and, as a result, a boost to their bottom line.

interchange fees still exist today with bitcoin, and regulation, true anonymity and volatility still remain question marks.

From the rise of peer-to-peer lending models, mobile wallets, digital investment advisory, to the bitcoin revolution, today s digital disintermediation comes in many forms##all of

#Bitcoin: How the digital currency is changing everything Bitcoin Today, the single most prominent, and telling, feature of bitcoin is its massive controversy in the media.

Not a single day goes by without an article or televised mention about its dangers, risks,

and dubious mainstream appeal.####Many in the mainstream seem set in their beliefs that bitcoin is a fad,

or even worse a ponzi scheme, and is destined to fail. Yet when was the last time a ponzi scheme attracted global attention and prominent venture capital investment?

yet cryptocurrency is being so#thoroughly scrutinised? Ironically enough, the ongoing debate about whether or not bitcoin is truly a valuable disruptive technology,

is all the evidence you need that it is. This is because bitcoin as a technology isn t just challenging business models,

or even an entire industry. Plenty of innovative outfits do that with much less flare.

Bitcoin is challenging the financial infrastructure of the whole global economy, and even more, it is challenging entire generations of established political

Bitcoin s exponential growth flouts all of the traditional monetary theory that is the mainstream ideology amongst academics and politicians today.

Bitcoin the currency As a currency, bitcoin is in many ways the antithesis of modern fiat currencies.

and is still taking time to sink in amidst the denials that bitcoin is here to stay.

Bitcoin is not the only example of a homogenousgood being adopted by a population as a currency,

Cryptocurrency is following the same path as precious metals in ancient civilization. Where gold was valued for its color, easy malleability, purity and its anti-corrosive properties,

bitcoin is valued for it s speed, decentralization, anonymity and ultra low transaction costs. Gold was discovered by practically every world civilization

Bitcoin is fast becoming the first commodity since gold to become a widely accepted means of exchange without the need of a central authority backing it.

However unlike gold, Bitcoin is completely#out of the reach of governments #and can t be regulated,

For all its durability and timeless lustre, gold my pale to the longevity of a cryptocurrency system.

However Bitcoin is not just a currency that promises to eventually end the trend of patchwork national currencies that exist for the almost sole purpose of allowing governments to endlessly fund their own deficit spending.

Cryptocurrency is the first major technological advancement that, intentionally or not, is a massive reaction to the trend of Big data.

and it is these key features within the Bitcoin protocol itself that may be the key to weakening the hold of massive data collecting service companies like Google.

all payments with Bitcoin are anonymous, which could allow users to opt out of advertising with anonymous#micropayments.

Yet many#other cryptocurrencies#such as#Namecoin#are attempting to take the protocol that enables this

businesses will hopefully creatively utilize the open source design of Bitcoin to provide entirely secure and anonymous end-to-end experiences.

the $1m sponsor of the#Austin Bitcoin Hackathon#put it: Decentralized applications have the potential to become self-sustaining

At the very least, the ever-growing success of bitcoin thus far candidly illustrates that there is indeed a massive demand for anonymity online,

It s far too tempting to compare bitcoin to PCS the Internet, or even to gold 5, 000 years ago.

bitcoin is it s own phenomena. PCS may have had a huge amount of industry leaders shrugging it off

or denouncing it entirely like bitcoin does now, but it never had whole governments attempting to shut down

whereas the usage of cryptocurrencies has exploded in just a few short years. While bitcoin may have many old conceptual roots,

it is altogether new and powerful. It is ushering in a new paradigm in various aspects of society,

Bitcoin is changing everything, and if you aren t on board, then you re already a dinosaur.

and Bitcoin, these millennials, defined as those born between 1981 and 2000, overwhelmingly believed that the way they access money

#Bitcoin is not only digital currency, it s Napster for finance Bitcoin will start its transformation from a mere currency into an entire open-source.

Bitcoin s valuation didn t just skyrocket in 2013, but its infrastructure, services, and adoption exploded as well,

culminating in recent#announcements that major online retailer Overstock. com and NBA team the Sacramento kings would accept the digital currency as payment.##

##Some still doubt#bitcoin s usefulness and durability, but 2014 may leave skeptics even further behind developers and entrepreneurs are already hard at work building features on top of the Bitcoin protocol that will allow for the decentralized execution of financial services, from currency hedging to loans to stock

issuance to rental and purchase contracts. These new services rely on the same innovative proof-of-work model of distributed security

and record-keeping that has kept the bitcoin currency secure as its value ballooned well past $10 billion.

The Bitcoin protocol (crucially distinct from bitcoin, the currency it underlies) was built from the ground up to support far more complex transactions and relationships than simple value transfers.

Send five bitcoins to Steve.)Some of the kinds of transactions that Bitcoin can support include so-called M of N transactions,

time-locked transactions, in which bitcoins are distributed on a strict schedule, useful for trusts or wills;

with contracts enforced by digital locks interacting with the Bitcoin blockchain to manage real-world leases, mortgages, and purchase contracts.

with their transactional integrity guaranteed by the Bitcoin blockchain, constantly vetted by the vast network ofminers rewarded for their maintenance work with a stream of bitcoin.

In fact the comparison to Napster is somewhat inaccurate, since Napster used centralized servers to track music sharing,

while Bitcoin is distributed entirely. That means loans without banks, contracts without lawyers, and stocks without brokers, executed

says that the Bitcoin protocol is distributed to finance what Internet Protocol has been distributed to information. The blockchain is IP.

the Bitcoin protocol and its miners can support a variety of financial functions. Alternately, Antonopoulos suggests thinking of thebitcoin blockchain as#having an API#(application programming interface) that makes its data usable by third parties,

Efforts to make complex financial functions a part of Bitcoin have been bubbling through 2013, but 2014 will see them come to fruition.

Mastercoin, based on Willett s white paper and programming, is projected to add many functions to the Bitcoin blockchain.

and businesslike, doesn t fit the stereotype of woolly young bitcoin developers. But he slyly describes himself asnot quite an anarchist

and executed with assets already represented in the Bitcoin blockchain, Middleton says they eliminate counterparty risk

The most immediate function Middleton envisions for his system is for hedging bitcoin against existing national currencies.

With bitcoin s valuation still showing huge volatility Middleton claims the availability of distributed hedging will both ensure the value of bitcoin for individuals holding the asset

and provide systemic stability. Given persistent skepticism, there should be plenty of takers to short bitcoin against the dollar.

And the entire system relies on decentralization for its security and integrity: My contracts are peer-to-peer,

Bitcoin makes microtransactions ranging down to fractions of a cent viable, but Middleton says thatright now,

the volatility of bitcoin can really take you out. Because of the low cost of Middleton s swaps,

and former George washington University law professor Nick Szabo (who has come under occasional suspicion of being pseudonymous bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto).

But combining telecommunications with the Bitcoin blockchain presents more intriguing possibilities for example, cars able to read the blockchain could disable themselves

one of the main developers of the Bitcoin architecture alongside the mysterious Nakamoto, has said that any implementation of the concept is at least a decade away because of the need for hardware upgrades on physical goods. The functions that advocates say could be automated through the Bitcoin network

#Bitcoin partisans, from developers down to rank-and-file users, often seem to revel in the idea that they are threatening the control and profits of Wall street institutions,

bitcoin s threat to existing financial institutions would still be substantial. But with a full array of commission-free financial services on the horizon, there is even more reason to take heed.

excitement over value fluctuations in the bitcoin currency is missing the point: It s not a threat as people sit there

and ponder whether bitcoin is a bubble or not. But if people go through the protocol and use their imagination,

it is still difficult to exchange bitcoin for national currencies in a quick, reliable manner.

It s unclear how Middleton s automated dollar-bitcoin hedging will work without a lightning-quick and reliable dollar-bitcoin exchange platform.

the trueautomation of bitcoin functions that integrate with the economy as a whole may require a reconciliation with existing trading platforms.

In practice audit servers could be maintained by a grassroots network much like the servers that host Bittorrent files or log Bitcoin transactions s

#LOT Polish airlines Now Accepting Bitcoin I not a big fan of the accepts bitcointype of post

LOT Polish airlines, the official Polish air carrier, is now accepting bitcoin. What does that mean?

Interestingly, Poland is a leader in payments with a number of clever smaller banks offering more NFC and bitcoin payment options than anywhere else in Europe.

which is why we are one of the first airlines in the world to give its passengers the possibility of paying with Bitcoins as early as today. airbaltic

and Air Lituanica are also accepting bitcoin but LOT is the first major carrier to do so in Europa Centralna.

'Computer users who see the message are directed then to a website that shows them how to buy Bitcoins to pay the hackers.

Bitcoins, an online currency that is hard to trace, are becoming the preferred way hackers collect ransoms, according to FBI Special agent Thomas Grasso,

which the technology that underpins bitcoin-a controversial, web-based"crytocurrency"-can be used in finance.

The blockchain works as a huge, decentralized ledger of every bitcoin transaction ever made that is verified

"The data that can be secured using the technology is restricted not to bitcoin transactions. Two parties could use it to exchange any other information,

whether that would be underpinned by bitcoin's blockchain or another one, such as one being built by Ethereum,

which offers more features than the original bitcoin technology. Once that had been agreed on, Rutter said,

bitcoin for traditional currency; at home 3d printing for manufacturing; and right now in Hong kong, Firechat, which is enabling protesters to circumvent Internet service providers.

#Microsoft Begins Accepting Bitcoin For Windows Windows phone And Xbox Purchases If you want further proof that Microsoft is going through a transformative phase,

you may be interested to hear that the company has jumped on the bitcoin wagon. The Redmond-based tech giant is now accepting bitcoins for buying games

and other digital content on its Windows, Windows phone and Xbox platforms, as the folks at Coindesk noticed today.

Members of Reddit bitcoin subred noted that Microsoft appears to be working with payments firm Bitpay to make this happen.

but the former does have a series of instructions related to bitcoin payments within its illing helppages.

It described its adoption of Bitcoin as being bout giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud.

Customers can use bitcoin to load money into a Microsoft wallet or to create digital gift cards,

but direct payments with the cryptocurrency are supported not at this time. Finally, bitcoin payments appear to be limited to customers in the U s.,according to feedback from Reddit members d

#Sidecar Follows The Competition Starts Charging A $1##Ridesafe##Fee Last year, Uber introduced a afe Ridesfee that added a $1 charge to uberx fares.

#Rakuten To Put Its Bitnet Investment To Work And Accept Bitcoin Worldwide Rakuten, Japan largest online retail firm, has announced that it will soon accept bitcoin across its global marketplaces.

The company is putting its investment in Bitnet a startup that raised $14. 5 million last October to work with this development.

Last year was a breakthrough year for bitcoin as a sea of established retailers, including Dell,

hopped onto the cryptocurrency to give customers an alternative avenue for payments. he integration with Bitnet platform will make Rakuten one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world to begin accepting bitcoin,

because it not only continues the momentum for bitcoin among retailers, but it could help position Bitnet as a credible alternative to the increasingly dominant duopoly that is Coinbase and Bitpay both

and own the most lucrative bitcoin retail partnerships. Coinbase is floated particularly well, having raised $75 million in January in a round that featured several Wall street institutions,

Bitpay raised $30 million last summer in what was at the time the largest round ever for bitcoin startup.

Bitcoin rise showed us how much demand there is for a globally accepted digital currency. However, all the things holding bitcoin backerchant acceptance, instant transactions (bitcoin takes about an hour),

and securityare actively being created by the world social network. This past March, Facebook rolled out free peer-to-peer payments and set the company down a path to becoming one of the world most powerful financial institutions.

Bitcoins Bitcoins only have value when the transactions are confirmed by at least six members of the peer-to-peer network.

Users who participate in transaction confirmations are rewarded with Bitcoins, a process that is called mining. As the value of a Bitcoin has increased,

mining has become harder, because more people want to do it. Today, to make real money at mining Bitcoins,

you need powerful computers but those computers don necessarily have to be yours. Some of the largest botnets run by online criminals today are monetized by mining.

for example, may be mining Bitcoins worth tens of thousands of dollars a day for a Russian cybercrime gang.

#Bitcoin price plummets as investors flee the currency Bitcoin prices have been taking a beating since the new year,

The problem, for Bitcoin, is simple: there are prices at which the majority of mining operations are not possible.

When we published the results of our major Bitcoin study last year, we noted that BTC tended to be deflationary

What this means for Bitcoin long-term is unclear. There are undoubtedly some operations that will continue mining

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