Turkish turmoil fuels Bitcoin adoption
Economic crises will drive adoption, says Coinbase CEO, as Turkey flocks to Bitcoin
Bitcoin 2018 is NOT Bitcoin 2009
With no centralized leadership, the reality of what Bitcoin is, depends almost entirely on what the Bitcoin community *thinks* it is. To that end, new research shows that Bitcoin 2018 bears almost no resemblance to Bitcoin 2009
Bitcoin-backed ETF’s on SEC radar again
Speculation that the regulator might be coming close to approving Bitcoin-backed ETFs is high as the agency asks for public comment on another application for a Bitcoin-backed ETF
This weekend’s Bitcoin debate could be a classic
Macro hedge fund manager Erik Townsend and economist and Bitcoin maximalist Tuur Demeester go head to head in a debate in this weekend's episode of The Investor Podcast.
Cryptocurrencies to takeover online gaming world
Cryptocurrencies and online gaming seem like a match made in digital heaven. The burgeoning popularity of online gaming and esports has led to the creation of in-game digital currencies which could be a valuable addition to the virtual economies of popular online games such as World of Warcraft.
Why bitcoin is not a ‘fraud’ or ‘bubble’, but something you should take seriously
Unless you have been asleep for the last year, you cannot have failed to catch the buzz around bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum’s Ether and Ripple’s XRP. There are even some coins that were created as a joke that are getting significant investments, such as Dogecoin.
State of the Bitcoin nation – India
India has the seventh largest economy in the world and its population is particularly fond of gold. Not surprisingly, therefore, the popularity of the 'digital gold' bitcoin is on the rise as Indians are increasingly starting to see the value of this new digital asset class.
The future of cryptocurrency futures regulation
The chairman of the largest electronic brokerage firm in the U.S. has warned that ‘a catastrophe in the cryptocurrency market that destabilizes a clearing organization will destabilize the real economy.’ Is it time for the CFTC to put safeguards in place?
Mainstream bitcoin futures markets are coming
The age of Bitcoin investments going mainstream is nearly upon us, at least for traders in the US market. Last Wednesday, the highest-volume derivatives market in the world, CME Group, announced that it will open its Bitcoin Futures market on December 18th. The second largest market, the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBOE), then one-upped the CME and announced that they’ll be the first to launch Bitcoin futures trading on December 10th.
Bitcoin 2018: ‘Show me the (institutional) money!’
As an investment asset Bitcoin has been a stellar performer in 2017, eclipsing the returns of equities, bonds, and commodities by a substantial margin. Year-to-date, bitcoin has generated a return on investment of over 950 percent. The S&P 500, on the other hand, is only up 17 percent since the start of the year, while the Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index is up 7 percent and the Rogers International Commodity Index (RICI) is up 2.5 percent year-to-date.
Bitcoin’s ‘future’ Is now
Always an innovative force in the financial services industry, CME Group recently announced it would launch a bitcoin futures contract in early December. As a single bitcoin approaches a valuation equivalent to $10,000, producing a stratospheric return (approximately +900% in 2017), the launch of a new yet widely understood and accepted product could lend legitimacy to the alternative asset and pave the way for user-base expansion.
The need for universal opt-in replay protection
SegWit2x got canceled, and with it probably the most heated "battle" in the Bitcoin space thus far draws to a close. There are many lessons to be learned from this ordeal as well as some other forks that are happening around Bitcoin - what constitutes "consensus" in the community, how will the future forks be handled and so on. One important aspect I haven't seen discussed as much currently is the ongoing issue of fork-proof replay protection - a feature that caused some controversy by its absence in SegWit2x and made Bitcoin Gold a laughing stock when they created a bounty for it very close to their forking date.
Vanuatu becomes the first country to accept bitcoin for citizenship
Earlier this week, Vanuatu became the first sovereign nation to accept bitcoins in return for granting citizenship through its DSP Citizenship Program. The Chairman of the Vanuatu Information Center (VIC) – which oversees Vanuatu citizenship applications - Geoffrey Bond, had sent an official request earlier this month seeking permission to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. Andrew Solomon Napuat MP, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, affirmed the decision last week.
OpenBazaar launches version 2.0 beta
The OpenBazaar project, led by the well-funded startup OB1, has been working towards delivering a mainstream-friendly version of their peer-to-peer marketplace application. The open source software directly connects people, circumventing the need for middlemen, and uses Bitcoin as the main payment method. This makes OpenBazzar a free online marketplace, with no fees or restrictions on what can be sold.
Property selling for bitcoin; Dubai based developers target ‘crypto-investors’ looking to diversify their assets
Bitcoin’s newly-rich have just been offered another temptation as a new development in Dubai is being advertised to the community. The luxury apartments are part of “Aston Plaza Crypto," a complex with two 33-story residential towers and a three-story shopping mall. Under construction now, and costing £250 million, the units are estimated to be complete and ready to hand over to the owners in April 2019. Developer Knox Group is offering the studio, one, and two bedroom units to the cryptocurrency community priced in Bitcoin, although prices are pegged to a US dollar exchange rate. Prices range from 133,000 USD, approximately 30 BTC, to 379,000 USD, approximately 86 BTC, and include “a 15-20% discount for the first tranche of properties,” according to the Knox Group. “Packages for interior design services and furniture will also be offered to purchase in bitcoins.”
Bitcoin fees in decline
After the long-awaited activation of the Bitcoin network’s upgrade SegWit many questions quickly arose about when and how bitcoin users would start to enjoy its benefits. Once wallets and users employ the new SegWit format, blocks can theoretically grow as large as four megabytes each. In practice, however, developers have stated that they’ll be more likely to see 1.7 to 2.1 megabytes blocks. 80 wallet developers, exchanges, pools, and other Bitcoin projects indicated that they were ready for Segwit prior to activation, out of a of 137 entities listed on bitcoincore.org.
