Dutch Bank Flustered Over the Amount of Electricity Bitcoin Consumes

Dutch bank ING is flustered over the fact bitcoin consumes so much energy. Recently, the bank released a report saying bitcoin transactions consume as much electricity as a house does in a month. They seem to believe this is problematic, since traditional electronic payment methods do not use near as much energy, according to the bank. They went on to say fiat cash will still be how people get paid and pay taxes.

An ING senior economist, Teunis Brosens, explained why power usage is so high. “By making sure that verifying transactions is a costly business, the integrity of the network can be preserved as long as benevolent nodes control a majority of computing power.”

The economist then went on to compare bitcoin energy consumption to his household appliances. A Business Insider article captured his thoughts:

This number needs some context. 200 kWh is enough to run over 200 washing cycles. In fact, it’s enough to run my entire home over four weeks, which consumes about 45 kWh per week costing €39 of electricity (at current Dutch consumer prices).

Trusted Third Parties Equals Less Energy Consumption

The ING banker went on to mention that bitcoin’s energy usage model stands in “stark contrast” with legacy financial systems’ energy consumption. He said bitcoin consumes an “exponentially larger” amount of energy. The banker made it seem as if Bitcoin were going to drain all the world of electricity if people do not continue to use the old, “trusted” payment gateways.

The Business Insider article provided the banker’s quote: “Bitcoin’s energy costs stand in stark contrast to payment systems that have the luxury of working with, trusted counterparties. E.g. Visa takes about 0.01kWh (10Wh) per transaction which is 20,000 times less energy.”

Fiat Money is Here to Stay, Say the Bankers

The ING banker concluded by saying that fiat money is here to stay. People will still continue getting their salaries paid in fiat, and they will continue paying tax in fiat. The banker seemed to imply that innovation was unnecessary and legacy financial systems were here to stay, because government and central banks said so. It will be interesting to see what people think about the energy consumption of bitcoin compared to legacy system electricity usage.

Do you agree with the bankers? Does bitcoin power consumption cause a problem? Should people rely on centralized, trusted third parties since energy consumption is so high? Let us know in the comments section below.

At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.

Source : News Bitcoin

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Stay Vigilant When Looking at ICOs

Recently, I was encouraged to write an article going over some of the ways to stay safe while buying, selling, and owning cryptocurrencies. This seems especially relevant in the current climate in which numerous ICOs are out there vying for new investor money. While we have written on topics like this before, it is important to both educate newcomers and remind veterans.

Stay Vigilant — Only You Can Protect Your Coins

Ultimately, the onus of staying safe in any market — crypto or traditional — rests solely on the investor. That being said, here are some of the things I look for when determining the validity of an investment opportunity.

Check Out Its Whitepaper

This should be a pretty obvious one for anyone who has even heard of ICOs. While most projects have them — and if they don’t, be very suspicious — not all whitepapers are the same. Just because a project has one does not mean that it was 1) well thought out or 2) even aligned with the goals of the project.

I realize these can be a little long sometimes, but it is imperative that investors understand what they are putting their money into. Take the time, do your homework, read the whitepaper, and be able to explain it well to someone else before ever considering throwing any amount of money at it.

Check out its Website and Social Accounts

Another obvious aspect to explore is the quality and security of the ICO’s website. It doesn’t need to have the most amazing design or user experience, but make sure the team has put in the work and that they have SSL certification or some other form of security certificate on their site. While design and security do not guarantee the project’s validity, they can be a good way to gauge its overall seriousness.

Most projects should have some sort of a social media or community manager keeping their various web presences healthy. Check those out, pose some questions, or just interact with them. This could be another way of determining how serious the project is.

Check out who (if anyone) Supports it

I say this with an important caveat: not all endorsements mean much and not all projects without endorsements are worthless — with Bitcoin being an obvious example of the latter. However, if you see big names in the blockchain space supporting something, it may give it more clout than support from Paris Hilton or someone else not affiliated with the space.

For The Love of Whatever You Hold Dear, Check Out if its Code has Been Audited

Remember the DAO?  Of course you do; we all do. Auditing helps avoid future DAO-like fiascos, but cannot guarantee success. ICO projects should be audited multiple times by well-respected security researchers. If you don’t know the names of the researchers, look them up, and check them out. Who a project chooses for its audits speaks volumes about how much they respect their own project.

These are just a few of the things that I do before making a decision on how legitimate a given project is; it is not an exhaustive list. Remember: This is not investment or trading advice; you should always conduct your own independent research.

Source : TheMerkle

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Former Bitmain Chip Designer Seeks to Revoke Mining Giant's Patent

Bitcoin's most controversial mining firm, Bitmain, is under threat of having a key chip patent revoked.

Forcing a review of the patent is an ex-employee of the China-based mining giant: former director of design Yang Zuoxing, who has now founded a rival mining firm called Bitewei.

According to documents reviewed and confirmed, the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) is proceeding with a review that could determine if Bitmain can protect its current market dominance under the shield of the patent claim.

Based on SIPO's data, Bitmain filed a patent application for "Serial power supply circuit, virtual digital coin mining machine and computer server" in July 2015, which was authorized on March 30, 2016.

According to the document, the technology provides higher efficiency for cryptocurrency mining chips, reducing electricity consumption and cost. The feature is said to significantly extend the life of miners, potentially resulting in far higher returns from mining activities.

With its patent-backed products, Bitmain is now a dominant force in bitcoin mining. Apart from supplying chips to individual miners and mining pools, Bitmain also runs the mining pool Antpool, which accounts for 20.3 percent of the global bitcoin hash power.

Tit-for-tat battle

Yet, based on the patent law in China, any organization or individual that disagrees with a certain patent authorization can file an application to revoke it, if they provide evidence for their claim. In his review application, Yang claimed that the serial power supply circuit has long been in use and is widely and publicly documented.

While the authority does not specify a timeline when a decision will be made, Yang expects to hear from SIPO in about three months.

He told CoinDesk:

"If [SIPO] stand by the previous decision, we may need to appeal and file more applications to revoke with different evidence."

Yet, Yang did not bring up the procedure voluntarily, he indicated. Instead, it is a countermove made in response to a lawsuit filed by Bitmain against him, claiming patent infringement.

A graduate of Tsinghua University with a doctorate in Engineering Physics, Yang's career has focused on chip design, with over a decade working for several hardware companies in China, and authoring over 20 patents authorized by SIPO.

From 2015 to 2016, he served as Bitmain's director of design, during which time the Bitmain patent was filed and authorized. While his name was not among the group of patent inventors, Yang said that he designed the AntMiner S7 and S9, the two popular bitcoin mining chips manufactured and supplied by Bitmain.

After his departure from the firm, Yang started his own company Bitewei, based in Shenzhen, which manufactures the Whatsminer and also uses the serial power supply circuit to lower electricity consumption.

Bitmain subsequently sued Bitewei for infringing its patent right. According to Yang, Bitmain initially asked for ¥26 billion ($3.8 billion), but later changed the claim to ¥2.6 million ($380,000) as per the court's requirement.

When contacted, Bitmain did not respond to inquiries for comments on the lawsuit or the application for revoking its patent.

Source: Coindesk

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Bernanke at Ripple Event: Blockchain Has 'Obvious' Benefits in Payments

Former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is bullish on blockchain.

Speaking at Ripple's Swell conference in Toronto today, being held the same week and in the same city as Sibos, the annual gathering hosted by Ripple's rival Swift, Bernanke told a room of several hundred attendees that he believes payments can be slow and expensive as designed using existing tools today.

Bernanke, who led the U.S. central bank during the 2008 financial crisis, outlined the complicated process it would take for a bank in Germany to send a payment to a bank in the U.S., before saying:

"It's an obvious area where new technologies like blockchain or these electronic currencies can be used to improve the process."

Bernanke, now a distinguished fellow in residence at the Brookings Institute, called out Ripple by name, saying that he's read about the company's work and thinks that any effort in payments to reduce cost, improve accuracy, speed and reliability and "bring the global economy closer together" is a good thing.

While the conversation mostly focused on monetary policy, Bernanke was asked to comment more on cryptocurrency and blockchain during the question-and-answer session, and his responses should come as no surprise as he gave bitcoin both muted praise and criticism as far back as 2015.

Echoing those past statements, Bernanke said, "bitcoin is meant to be an attempt to replace fiat currencies and evade government regulation and government intervention."

And that attempt, he contends, won't succeed because governments won't allow it. "When bitcoin becomes a threat they'll take whatever action" deemed necessary to quash it, he said.

Unlike bitcoin, which works against regulators, he continued, blockchain businesses that collaborate with governments will likely see more momentum in terms of innovating on the payments system. Central banks around the world (including in Singapore, theU.K. and Europe) have taken more of an interest in blockchain technology recently, trying to figure out how it might create efficiencies within their systems.

Case in point: earlier this month, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Jim Cunha said blockchain and other fintech startups would be pushing incumbent financial institutions and middlemen to be more innovative in their approach.

When asked if bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies and blockchain might affect monetary policy, Bernanke said he doesn't see that happening.

Bernanke said:

"It could be a lack of imagination, but I don't think monetary policy has changed that much. [Central banks] are supportive of these new technologies because they'll improve the payment system ... but it won't affect the ability of the Fed to require a certain amount of reserves of affect interest rates."

Source: Coindesk

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JPMorgan Launches Interbank Payments Platform on Quorum Blockchain

Wall Street banking giant JPMorgan Chase is launching a new interbank payments platform powered by blockchain, the firm announced today.

With the participation of two other banks – Australia-based ANZ and the Royal Bank of Canada (Australia) – the Interbank Information Network (IIN) will be built on Quorum, the ethereum-based blockchain network first unveiled last fall. Additional institutions are expected to join the initiative in the coming months, with a specific focus on the correspondent banking market.

Emma Loftus, head of global payments and foreign exchange for JPMorgan Treasury Services, said in a statement:

"IIN will enhance the client experience, decreasing the amount of time – from weeks to hours – and costs associated with resolving payment delays. Blockchain capabilities have allowed us to rethink how critical information can be sourced and exchanged between global banks."

It's a notable application for the bank, given that its treasury services clear trillions of dollars in transactions per day. Previous reports, including a February 2016 story from the Wall Street Journal, indicated that cross-border payments had emerged as a key use case area for the bank.

And in spite of its CEO's anti-bitcoin stance, the cryptocurrency's underlying tech has been an area of growing focus for the bank in the past year, as seen in its work with Quorum as well as initiatives like the Hyperledger Project and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

Source: Coindesk

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Priced In? Ether Sees Cautious Boost as Blockchain Upgrade Underway

Ether prices rose to a six-week high of $350 today as ethereum, the second largest blockchain by total value, appears to have successfully executed a widely anticipated software upgrade.

The first part of a larger technology update called "Metropolis," the "Byzantium" code was enacted this morning Eastern Standard Time with minimal contention as anticipated by developers. For now, this means ether's price has put a serious headwind behind it – the next so-called hard fork, a risky software upgrade that opens up the possibility new blockchains will be created, isn't expected until 2018.

In response, the ether-US dollar (ETH/USD) exchange rate surged in value in the run-up to the event.

Prices rose from $298 to $345 on Oct. 13 reportedly due to a high degree of confidence among investors, though the record rally in bitcoin could have pulled ether prices higher as well.

At press time, however, indications are the upgrade is unlikely to be winning new market interest. Despite the smooth implementation, ether prices are struggling to break above $350 levels. The loss of bullish momentum indicates the market may have priced-in the implementation.

Furthermore, ETH bulls might be staying on the sidelines in search of more evidence the software has achieved stability.

Still, the price action analysis favors upside in ether. At press time, ether is trading at $342; up 5.5% in the last 24 hours. Week-on-week, the cryptocurrency is up 13.15%, while month-on-month, it is up 30%.

Dayli Chart

The chart shows:

Dip demand: Sunday's candle had a long lower body (also known as lower shadow or wick). Prices usually move in the opposite direction after a long wick makes an appearance. No wonder, ether rose to $350 levels today.

Bullish break of the sideways channel.

Bullish 14-day relative strength index.

View

The outlook remains constructive – it may be only a matter of time before ether breaks above $350 and extends the rally to $370-380 levels.

On the downside, only an end of the day close below $320 (previous day's low) would abort the bullish view on the daily chart. 

Source: Coindesk

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Bank of America Report: Bitcoin's True Value 'Impossible to Assess'

A potential move by global brokerages to offer products around cryptocurrencies could have a big impact on the wider market, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote.

In an Oct. 16 research note entitled "Introducing cryptocurrencies – what are they good for?", the analysts tackle bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies such as ethereum and XRP. The note both covers the basics of the market and dives more specifically into the growing galaxy of open blockchain networks in operation today.

Notably, the report touches on the possible factors that could shape the cryptocurrency market's future progression – including financial products based on the tech.

On this point, the bank's analysts suggest that a move by brokerages to begin offering such services to their clients could affect both the overall liquidity of the market as well as the market capitalization for the relevant cryptocurrencies.

 "The coin universe is dynamic and innovative and volatile; while a true value for cryptocurrencies may be impossible to assess, one factor which we believe could affect their liquidity and market capitalisation would be if one or more global broker/dealers decided to offer institutional-like products," they wrote.

The past year has seen a number of high-profile efforts to build cryptocurrency-tied investment products, and firms like CBOE have described plans to take part in what is still a nascent ecosystem. Even so, regulators in the U.S. have reacted coolly to such proposals thus far.

And according to the Bank of America analysts, it remains far from certain how the market will develop in the months to come.

"At present, these impacts are too far off, and too unpredictable, to form part of an estimate or an investment recommendation," they wrote.

Source : Coindesk

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Crypto Mining Makes Millions for Gold Mining Maverick

Frank Giustra, a well regarded Canadian mining magnate who created one of the world’s most successful mining companies is now moving his operation digitally to mine Cryptocurrency.

Giustra has backed a Blockchain technology company called Hive Blockchain Technologies, which is among the first publicly traded stocks to provide exposure to crypto mining, and for Giustra, he is seeing huge returns.

Six fold returns

The mining mogul has seen rapid growth since entering the Bitcoin market, backing Hive which was previously known as Leeta Gold Corp.

The decision to dig for data servers has paid off as Hive’s shares have soared about 633 percent, giving it a market value of $443 mln since it took over the listing.

Giustra’s foray into the crypto space has been a successful one as he has help drive Hive to be one of the pioneers in terms of a listed crypto mining company.

Hive paid Hong Kong-based Genesis Mining, builder of the world’s largest Ether mining facility, $9 mln and gave it a 30 percent stake to acquire a new data center in Reykjanes, Iceland.

Major mining operation

Hive’s mandate is to expand into other colder countries, such as Iceland and Sweden, in order to mine different coins and amass an inventory which they hope will appreciate. It is with the help of Giustra that they hope to achieve this.

Giustra helped build the company that would become Goldcorp Inc., then founded film studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. He counts Bill Clinton and George Soros among his close connections. Those connections may position him to grasp a nascent corner of finance and navigate Bitcoin’s uncertain regulatory waters.

Still a niche market

Despite the visible success seen from Giustra, companies like Hive are still very much in the minority, and while their pioneering moves are believed to make the market more open and available, there are still those who believed it is niche.

“I suspect the vast majority of accounts aren’t contemplating an investment in virtual currencies right now,” said Jeff Klingelhofer, managing director of Thornburg InvestmentManagement Inc.

Source : Cointelegraph

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IBM Blockchain Payments To Use Stellar In Major Partnership Deal

IBM and payments network KlickEx have announced Stellar as the backbone of its new “cross-border payments solution.”

In what it describes as the first use of public Blockchain technology “being used in production to facilitate cross-border payments in multiple integrated currency corridors,” IBM is already convening a group of big banking partners to further the initiative.

“Currently, cross-border payments take up to several days to clear,” Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb said in an accompanying blog post.

“This new implementation is poised to affect a profound change in the South Pacific region, and once fully scaled by IBM and its banking partners, could potentially change the way money is moved around the world.”

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IBM Blockchain @IBMBlockchain

Multi-asset, real-time and cross-border: Payments solution from IBM #blockchain at #Sibos. Panel, demos and booth: http://bit.ly/2ydJQtP 

3:21 PM - Oct 11, 2017 · Toronto, Ontario

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KlickEx already has an extant payments network operating in Southeast Asia from its base in New Zealand.

Now, a group of “diverse banking leaders” will assist in the”development and deployment process” of the Blockchain-backed solution, which is already in active use, IBM states.

The move sees a significant implementation for Stellar within the global financial framework of legacy institutions, putting it alongside Ripple as one of the principal entities in Blockchain-based institutional settlements.

This caps a year of outreach initiatives, with marketing ploys such as a grants program and the release of the Lightyear spin-off hoping to attract wider attention and participation from investors.

Source : Cointelegraph

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Bitcoin SegWit2x Hard Fork Benefits Not Visible: Bruce Fenton

Bitcoin Foundation executive director Bruce Fenton has become the latest high-profile Bitcoin personality to criticize SegWit2x.

In comments on Twitter Sunday, Fenton triggered responses from other well-known Bitcoin industry and community figures after he wrote that he “didn’t see the benefit” of the hard fork.

“What's the end goal? Switching dev teams alone?” he asked. “What makes it worth it? ROI?”

 Follow

Bruce Fenton @brucefenton

I don't see the benefit of NYA / 2x at this stage.
What's the end goal? Switching dev teams alone?
What makes it worth it? ROI?
Explain.

11:19 AM - Oct 15, 2017

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SegWit2x’s imminent activation has led to increasingly hostile rhetoric from supporters of Bitcoin Core, who frequently suggest the fork is an attempt to unseat its developers as a “hostile takeover.”

Fenton stopped short of stating outright SegWit2x would be hostile to Bitcoin, instead appearing to reinforce the futility of the operation.

“If the goal is to simply to honor agreements then people shouldn't have made those agreements to begin with,” he added in a further tweet.

Reacting, others could not agree on whether the goal of November’s fork was to switch development teams.

“I don't think goal is to switch, but to coerce Core to adopt block size increase,” BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp wrote, while entrepreneur Tuur Demeester conversely stated his opinion to the contrary.

Despite the supposed threat posed to Bitcoin network stability, prices have increased in the run-up to the fork’s November 18 deadline.

Meanwhile, the fifth hard fork of Ethereum occurred problem-free over the weekend, with prices rising towards $350.

Source : Cointelegraph

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