Video: Will Bitcoin Crash or Double in Price After the Halving? Miners Have Their Say

Will the price of bitcoin double or crash during the upcoming halving next year? And how will the mining industry adapt to their revenue stream being cut in half over night? See what professional miners from around the world have to say on the matter.

Also Read: US, EU and UK Companies Can Now Pay Workers in Bitcoin Cash via Bitwage

Miners Talk Bitcoin Halving 2020

The Bitcoin.com team has recently talked with ten prominent people from the crypto mining industry about the upcoming halving at the World Digital Mining Summit 2019 in Frankfurt. Some think that it might cause miners’ revenues to crash, others think prices will quickly rise to compensate for the diminished rewards, all agree it will be a pivotal event for the industry.

The full list of mining experts interviewed in the video includes: Marco Streng, CEO of Genesis Mining; Thomas Heller, F2Pool Global Business Director; Sean M. Walsh, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Hyperblock Inc; Dr. Mervyn G. Maistry, Board Member Cyberian Mine; Carson Blake, CEO of SBI Crypto; Alexander Levin, CEO of Asicseer.com; Eric P. Yingling, an independent miner; Nick Damico, CTO at BitPatagonia; Hugh Tian, Co-founder of Antpool; and Åsmund Myhre, CEO of Oslofjord Datacenter.

In terms of the professional mining industry it seems we should expect to see a major concentration of the business as the halving will take place. Those with larger hashing power and access to cheaper sources of energy will squeeze out from the market operations that need higher margins to survive and make a profit. “The halving is a brutal wipe-out event,” explained Marco Streng. “It knocks out immediately the miners who are not efficient enough and shows no mercy.”

We might also see fluctuations and changes in global hash power distribution during the few weeks that are expected to pass between the BCH halving and the BTC halving, as SHA-256 miners will switch to the most profitable chain to mine at the time.

With regards to the effect the halving will have on prices opinions are more split. We could see prices double as miners will need to keep their current revenue streams, or even take off not long after as has happened in the past. “If you look at six months before the halving and six month after the halving in both previous instances you see massive upward surge in the price of bitcoin,” commented Sean Walsh. “It is a bit scary being a miner and knowing that your revenue stream is gonna get cut in half over night but the exchange rate will more than compensate for the reduction in our bitcoin denominated revenue.”

Watch the whole video on the official Bitcoin.com Youtube channel for the full remarks from all the mining professionals, subscribe and make sure to leave a comment to join the discussion.

What and When Is the Next Halving?

Every time a new block is mined, those who facilitated it are rewarded with a set amount of coins. But once every 210,000 blocks this set reward amount is programmed to decrease by half, hence the name halving. This mechanism was created by Satoshi Nakamoto to ensure current supply is limited, making coins more scarce as there will never be more than 21 million in circulation. It can also create upward pressure on the price in contrast to most fiat currencies that only lose value over time due to inflation.

The first ever halving took place in 2012 when the block reward initially set to 50 coins fell to just 25. The second and last halving so far took place in 2016 when the block reward dropped from 25 to just 12.5 coins.

The upcoming bitcoin cash halving event is expected to be during April 2020. After this happens, BCH miners will lose half the current block reward (12.5 BCH) and receive just 6.25 BCH and fees per block mined. The BTC halving is expected not far after that in May 2020. A German bank recently predicted a tenfold increase in the BTC price when the upcoming block reward halving takes place.

If you want to enter the crypto market before next year’s halving occurs, you can safely and securely purchase bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin core (BTC) with a credit or debit card at buy.Bitcoin.com. You can also trade digital assets for cash in person privately on our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace, local.Bitcoin.com, or try our recently launched premier trading platform, exchange.Bitcoin.com.

What do you think will happen to cryptocurrency prices after the 2020 halving? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

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Do You Know the Newspeak of the Looming ‘NIRP’ Economic Meltdown?

Negative and zero interest rate policy (NIRP and ZIRP) are becoming a new global norm. Endless printing of paper money is said to make economies stronger, while everyday individuals are seeing their savings worth less and less. These policies were traditionally viewed as last ditch, temporary measures to save economies, but are now increasingly being praised with smooth talk from central banks and policymakers as the answer to the world’s problems, paving the way for the next global downturn–possibly even a major economic meltdown.

Also Read: More Filthy Fiat: Two Dozen Central Banks Ramp up the Printing Presses

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Words Make It Less Painful

In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, the political language called Newspeak existed “not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc [the novel’s dystopian political system], but to make all other modes of thought impossible.” Politicians today employ the same techniques.

Euphemism is designed to make unpalatable realities sound inoffensive or even pleasant. Economic terms like “quantitative easing” and “NIRP” don’t sound particularly threatening or bad. The underlying realities successfully obfuscated, however, and central bankers are able to proceed with impunity in economic activity extremely damaging to the finances of the hardworking individuals they govern.

NIRP and ZIRP

NIRP and ZIRP are acronyms for “negative interest rate policy” and “zero interest rate policy” respectively. The acronyms themselves take some of the punch away from the not-so-wonderful meanings, but the expanded terminologies are also misleading. A negative interest rate is commonly known in the real world as a “fee.” If interest is a payment one receives for lending money to another person, business, or financial institution, negative interest would be a charge for doing so.

With politicians and global financial advisory groups saying things like “Over in Europe and Japan they have NEGATIVE RATES. They get paid to borrow money” (Donald Trump), or “Without cash, depositors would have to pay the negative interest rate to keep their money with the bank, making consumption and investment more attractive” (the IMF), the reality of what is being advocated is hidden.

How Does NIRP Work?

Negative interest rates are set by a country’s central bank. They spur spending and discourage saving. Banks cannot afford to leave excess reserves being eaten away in the central bank at these rates, and are thus incentivized to provide more affordable loans. Some retail banks absorb this cost to keep their depositors from moving savings into cash; other banks charge their customers. The low rates and increased loans mean that more people borrow and spend, and the now stimulated economy is thus viewed as “strong” (more newspeak), juiced up on the speed-like drug of increased easy lending. The printing of more money can then justified under this pretext. At some point, however, the chickens of these policies come home to roost, as sound assets and resources are limited, no matter how much paper money a government prints.

ZIRP is the only slightly more conservative cousin of stimulus-addicted NIRP, and is a zero interest rate policy set by a country’s central bank. Unlike NIRP, zero is the limit as to how low nominal rates can be set, and so other measures such as quantitative easing are often implemented.

Quantitative Easing

When zero interest rate policy fails to stimulate an economy adequately, QE, or quantitative easing, may be employed in conjunction. QE is the creation of more money by a central bank, temporarily easing the stress on a given economy. In QE, central banks create more reserves to buy debt and securities from their governments and sometimes even private entities. As finance website thebalance.com notes:

No funds change hands but the central bank issues a credit to the banks’ reserves as it buys the securities. QE has the same effect as increasing the money supply.

With the domestic money supply increased, economic activity is expected to be stimulated. Like the NIRP and ZIRP policies detailed above, however, it’s akin to taking an aspirin for a serious disease, or buying more credit cards to pay off the pile of old, already maxed-out plastic in one’s wallet.

St. Louis Federal Reserve

An increased money supply means higher inflation and the resultant loss of purchasing power. In case QE fails to provide a shot in the arm to a given economy, a phenomenon known as stagflation can also occur where inflation continues in the absence of economic growth. It may seem surprising to consider many world leaders, central banks and financial planners are now praising and implementing policies designed to make money weaker in the name of progress, but that’s the reality.

“Over in Europe and Japan they have NEGATIVE RATES. They get paid to borrow money. Don’t we have to follow our competitors?” @Varneyco Yes we do. The Fed doesn’t have a clue! We have unlimited potential, only held back by the Federal Reserve. But we are winning anyway!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2019

The NIRP Zeitgeist

In its Global Banking Annual Review 2019, management consulting firm McKinsey & Company claimed that “60 percent of banks destroy value” as they are not economically viable. From 2009 to 2018, most banks studied showed a return on equity (ROE) less than their cost of equity (COE). In other words, they are not making ends meet and in the case of another crisis like the global downturn sparked in the late 2000s, may not survive.

Global trends toward negative rates and easing are nevertheless touted by policy makers as necessary. According to research by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, “Central banks that have yet to introduce negative rates may take some comfort from this evidence as there appears to be room below zero for additional economic stimulus.” The media is complicit in being the megaphone for these concepts of endless easing and low rates as well, with even respected financial publications praising such moves. None of the pretty language, of course, changes the stark reality underneath.

Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic

To see where all this is potentially heading, one only needs to look back at the long list of countries where inflation has already spiraled out of control, and the current talk from global monetary policymakers and central banks. While many countries have suffered independently before, the timing now suggests a broader, more global financial meltdown could be on the horizon.

Leadership at the European Central Bank continue to praise and advocate for the extension of NIRP and ZIRP policy. Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark don’t look like they’ll be escaping their deepening, respective NIRP sloughs anytime soon. The U.S., Australia and New Zealand’s rates are all rapidly approaching zero, and New Zealand’s central bank is even considering taxing cash to force people to spend and discourage saving.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) maintained in February 2019:

Severe recessions have historically required 3–6 percentage points cut in policy rates. If another crisis happens, few countries would have that kind of room for monetary policy to respond.

As rates are already so low globally, another recession could spell real disaster. One of the IMF’s proposed solutions was to even eliminate cash, another emergent global theme.

At the end of the day, central bankers appear to be playing a board game. When the colorful strips of play money run out, the banker just writes some numbers on blank pieces paper and the game goes on. In Monopoly, this is all for the sake of fun and leisure. In reality, it’s a game being played with people’s very livelihoods, by saccharine-tongued politicians and central bank governors who have nothing to lose by gambling your money away.

What are your thoughts on NIRP and QE in the context of the global economy? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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How Bitcoin’s Peer-to-Peer Cash System Was Revealed 11 Years Ago

On October 31, 2008, on the eve of Halloween, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. Since then the revolutionary design of the network has changed the lives of many and has transformed how we look at money today.

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

The 11th Anniversary of the Bitcoin Whitepaper

11 years ago today, at 2:10 p.m. Eastern Standard, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper to the Cryptography Mailing List. The service used was a pipermail message service hosted on metzdowd.com run by a group of cypherpunks. The mailing list message title was called “Bitcoin P2P e-cash paper” and Nakamoto explained that he had been “working on a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party.” The anonymous creator also revealed that the paper was hosted on the website bitcoin.org.

The first group of people Satoshi showed his project to were the cypherpunks using the Cryptography Mailing List hosted on metzdowd.com.

Nakamoto emphasized in his email that the main property of the protocol was that “double-spending is prevented with a peer-to-peer network.” He highlighted that there was no mint or trusted third parties and “participants can be anonymous” if they choose to be. The first email detailed that “new coins are made from Hashcash style proof-of-work and the proof-of-work for new coin generation also powers the network to prevent double-spending.”

On the eve of Halloween on October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper for the first time. More than a decade later there are 3,000+ digital currencies in existence following Bitcoin’s initial launch.

The Bitcoin whitepaper announcement wasn’t a huge deal at the time and really only a small number of people witnessed the message and replied. So three days later on November 3, 2008, he decided to write the mailing list again pitching the newly published paper. The Bitcoin inventor mentioned some of the same things that were said in the previous message published on Halloween. A few people had replied to Satoshi at the time and one individual seemed to like the idea, but he didn’t think Bitcoin could scale. Nakamoto dismissed the scaling issue casually and said: “Long before the network gets anywhere near as large as that, it would be safe for users to use Simplified Payment Verification (section 8) to check for double spending, which only requires having the chain of block headers, or about 12KB per day. Only people trying to create new coins would need to run network nodes.” Nakamoto continued:

At first, most users would run network nodes, but as the network grows beyond a certain point, it would be left more and more to specialists with server farms of specialized hardware. A server farm would only need to have one node on the network and the rest of the LAN connects with that one node.

‘P2P Networks Seem to Be Holding Their Own’

Nakamoto also mentioned concepts like Moore’s Law and told the person that it would take several years for the network to grow extremely massive and “by then, sending 2 HD movies over the internet would probably not seem like a big deal.” The same day, Nakamoto replied again in regard to a few attack theories that could be associated with dishonest nodes. Again being the master of his craft, Nakamoto quickly replied and explained that if a “bad guy does overpower the network” the miner would have to outpace the system and it would be much like “bouncing a check.” “To exploit it, he would have to buy something from a merchant, wait till it ships, then overpower the network and try to take his money back. I don’t think he could make as much money trying to pull a carding scheme like that as he could by generating bitcoins,” Nakamoto stressed.

If you haven’t read the Bitcoin whitepaper you can read it here.

More than a decade later, the Bitcoin network and the cryptocurrency ecosystem have grown massive. There are more than 3,000 digital currencies listed on market capitalization websites and there’s roughly a quarter of a trillion dollars in digital currency value being held by people worldwide. Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper and the network that went online the following January created a system of wealth that transcends borders, governments, and corporate control. Nakamoto highlighted two days after his third email that Bitcoin was merely an efficient tool and it wasn’t the cure-all against the monopolistic system of force that still exists in society today.

“You will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography,” Nakamoto remarked on November 6. “But we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.”

So far his forecast has been true and Bitcoin has ushered in a new form of money and a taste of true laissez-faire. People have been able to use bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies to bypass state laws, sanctions, capital controls, and help people who need funds without restrictions. Since the birth of cryptographic currency, many other ideas have stemmed from the technological innovation and people are focused on building platforms like decentralized exchanges and concepts that utilize zero-knowledge proofs. The 11th anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper reminds people how powerful Nakamoto’s invention still is to this day and how it continues to transform the world of finance as we know it.

If you haven’t read the Bitcoin whitepaper you can read it in its entirety here and if you’d like to learn more about the digital currency revolution you can get started here.

What do you think about Satoshi Nakamoto publishing the Bitcoin white paper 11 years ago today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Image credits: Shutterstock, the Bitcoin white paper, the Cryptography Mailing List, and Pixabay.

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Korean Presidential Committee Pushes to Legalize Crypto

A South Korean presidential committee is pushing for the government to establish legal status for cryptocurrency to stay competitive globally. So far, the government’s policies have been risk-focused to curb speculation, which the committee says must change.

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

Presidential Committee Pushes for Crypto Legalization

The South Korean Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (PCFIR), directly under the president, has made several recommendations regarding the country’s cryptocurrency regulation. The PCFIR coordinates policies and reviews matters pertaining to the national master plans and strategies related to the “fourth industrial revolution,” which refers to a highly connected economy supported by advances in areas such as blockchain, 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things.

At the committee’s global policy conference in Seoul on Oct. 25, PCFIR Chairman Chang Byung-gyu said “the government needs to establish the legal status of crypto assets,” several local media outlets quoted him as saying.

The Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution at its Oct. 25 global policy conference.

Emphasizing that the country’s regulations and administrative procedures must be improved to foster innovative startups, Chang stressed:

The legal status of crypto assets should be established as soon as possible, and tax and accounting measures should be taken.

Call for Changes Under New FSC Chairman

The committee also urged the government to promote innovation and the institutionalization of crypto assets in order to stay competitive globally. However, so far, the government has opposed the idea due to concerns of possible side effects raised by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Information, an industry stakeholder told MSN news outlet.

The PCFIR criticized the government’s current crypto policies of focusing primarily on curbing speculation and reducing the kimchi premium, stating:

The government’s deterrence policy, which is indispensable to the cryptocurrency speculation fever, is reducing our global competitiveness in the blockchain and crypto-asset industries … We need to set policy goals to preempt future opportunities.

Led by former chairman Choi Jong-ku, South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) implemented emergency cryptocurrency measures in December 2017 in order to curb the kimchi premium. Several follow-up measures were introduced over the next few months, including the real-name system in January last year. However, only the country’s top four crypto exchanges have been able to use the system so far.

New FSC Chairman Eun Sung-soo

Choi is no longer the chairman of the FSC. He was succeeded by Eun Sung-soo on Sept. 9. Prior to his appointment, Eun served as the president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of Korea and led the Korea Investment Corporation, Korea’s sovereign wealth fund, from January 2016 to September 2017.

After the PCFIR announced its crypto recommendations, Lee Kong-joo, Advisor to the President for Science and Technology, thanked the committee for its efforts, the Bchain publication detailed, quoting him as saying, “I will actively consider ways to make these [recommendations] possible.”

Furthermore, the Hankyoreh reported on Oct. 27 that the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, under the FSC’s supervision, said that it will beef up crypto regulations in compliance with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The announcement followed a recent FATF plenary meeting. The FATF issued guidance on crypto assets and related service providers in June and is currently evaluating how well its member countries are applying the guidelines.

What do you think of this South Korean presidential committee pushing for the legalization of cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

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US, EU and UK Companies Can Now Pay Workers in Bitcoin Cash via Bitwage

Getting at least partially paid with cryptocurrency is a great way to enter the digital asset market without having to do any trading. If you are looking to earn your favorite crypto asset, Bitwage now allows American, European and British companies to pay workers in bitcoin cash following demand for more payment options.

Also Read: Binance to Add Bitcoin Cash to Its Decentralized Exchange

You Can Now Get Paid With Bitcoin Cash

International cryptocurrency payroll and human resources service provider Bitwage has recently announced the launch of bitcoin cash payrolls. This means that anyone working for a U.S., EU or U.K. employer can now receive a portion of their wage in BCH by signing up to the service. Companies can also sign up to fund payrolls in BCH or to offer BCH to their employees and freelancers.

Earlier this year the company expanded beyond just BTC by launching support for ETH payrolls. Shortly after that it took a customer survey to learn what else its users wanted and discovered that there was demand more cryptocurrency payment options. Bitcoin cash, as a consistent top four digital asset, offering low fees and fast transactions, was a natural choice to add.

“As cryptocurrency becomes more mainstream, employees and freelancers are looking to diversify their portfolio of cryptocurrency,” commented Bitwage CEO Jonathan Chester. “Bitwage is making it easier for workers around the world to accumulate their favorite cryptocurrency, through passive dollar-cost-averaging.”

Bitwage Is Used by Workers at Facebook, Google and Uber

Bitwage has been providing direct bitcoin deposits since 2014, and reportedly already serves over 30,000 people including employees, freelancers and independent contractors. It has also reportedly raised around $1 million in total funding from a number of investors such as Draper Associates, Orange and BPI France.

According to the company’s website, the service has been used by workers of Google, Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, American Express, GE, Comcast and other corporations as well as public institutions such as the World Health Organization. Coinciding with the BCH launch, Bitcoin.com has now onboarded as an initial customer, Bitwage revealed.

If you want to get your hands on bitcoin cash without waiting for your next paycheck, you can safely and securely purchase BCH with a credit or debit card at buy.Bitcoin.com, as well as BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC and BNB. You can also trade digital assets for cash in person or with any other payment method privately on our noncustodial, peer-to-peer marketplace, local.Bitcoin.com, or simply join our premier trading platform, exchange.Bitcoin.com.

What do you think about Bitwage enabling US, EU and UK companies to pay their workers with bitcoin cash? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Bitcoin.com Markets, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

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The Xi Effect – Chinese Government to Fund Blockchain Projects

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement that the country would invest heavily in blockchain technology – coupled with a sweeping move to remove online posts suggesting such technology is a scam – has nourished optimism long-held by crypto advocates. Of course, the reality is that China’s marked shift towards pro-blockchain policies is part of a much wider trend which has seen Asian multinationals and governments embrace the considerable potential of distributed ledger technologies.

Also read: China Ranks 35 Crypto Projects as President Xi Pushes Blockchain

A Two-Year Turnaround

President Xi’s announcement centered on the creation of a state-backed digital currency (a stablecoin tied to the renminbi), an idea which has been gestating since the country’s central bank started exploring the possibility as far back as 2014. With the dawn of a new decade, a law will come into effect on January 1 with the aim of “facilitating the development of the cryptography business and ensuring the security of cyberspace and information.”

It is predicted that the currency in question will launch soon after, although perhaps the possibility of blockchain technologies powering the continued transformation of China’s vast industries is of greater significance. Xi specifically mentioned that the technology could be applied to realms including finance, public services, employment, education and infrastructure management. It’s all a far cry from 2017, when the government imposed a general ban on all crypto businesses and exchanges. From deep suspicion, to a state-supervised (albeit heavily surveilled) cryptocurrency, in just two years is quite a turnaround.

Soon after the announcement was made, the local government of Guangzhou announced a $150 million fund for outstanding blockchain projects, with more initiatives expected in the near future.

BREAKING

Local Guangzhou gov just announced a 10B RMB (~$150M USD) government funding dedicated in "blockchain subsidy" for "outstanding blockchain projects"

More details below

I believe all other local govs will follow, overall capital subsidy can be massive

— Dovey 以德服人 Wan 🗝 🦖 (@DoveyWan) October 30, 2019

Surging Interest Across Asia

Needless to say, the news – which provoked a huge spike in search traffic for terms like ‘blockchain’ and ‘bitcoin’ – hasn’t harmed the prospects of Asian crypto projects in general, with stocks of various blockchain companies in the region soaring. On the markets, some of this week’s biggest beneficiaries have been Chinese blockchains, even if there’s nothing to suggest they’re due to receive an influx of fresh business from government enterprises. In fact, six of the seven best-performing crypto assets in the top 50 this week have Chinese origins. Bitcoin cash, up 38% in the past seven days, is the only outlier.

Other companies seem to be riding the wave or at least benefiting in a roundabout way from the prevailing mood music: South Korean conglomerate Samsung has just announced the integration of Tron (TRX) with the Blockchain Keystore found on the Galaxy S10. As well as facilitating the creation of decentralized applications (dapps) running on the Tron ecosystem, the Keystore will let users access and trade TRX directly from the wallet on their handset. Perhaps coincidentally, industry sources are mulling over rumours that Samsung is outsourcing a part of its smartphone manufacturing to China.

Samsung has been experimenting with blockchain technologies for some time now, and with their growing dapp arsenal, their long-term strategy seems positively crypto-centric. It isn’t the only smartphone company testing the blockchain waters either; Taiwanese electronics giant HTC has also invested heavily in decentralized services and a blockchain-powered handset, the Exodus 1, and its successor, the 1s, which can run a full Bitcoin node.

The Xi effect visualized: A look at #bitcoin on-chain transactions during the days of the 40% price spike.

Chinese waking hours:
# of Txns: 169K
Txn Volume: 475K BTC
Avg Txn Value: 2.8 BTC

Other hours:
# of Txns: 175K
Txn Volume: 962K BTC
Avg Txn Value: 5.5 BTC

🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/l1JgtGrLm5

— TokenAnalyst (@thetokenanalyst) October 29, 2019

Where Next for China?

The long-term effect of China’s increasingly pro-blockchain outlook remains to be seen, and until its state cryptocurrency is hatched and various policies put into action, we won’t be able to quantify the consequences for blockchain technology and digital currencies more generally. That said, interest in the region is largely unrelated to the President’s ringing endorsement; according to a report by the Financial Times, Chinese companies have filed more patents on blockchain than companies from any other region in the world. A significant percentage of bitcoin mining is concentrated in the region, and many of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges are either based or were founded in the Asian continent, from Beijing and Singapore to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Regardless of its real ramifications, Asian crypto companies were never going to let President Xi’s decree go to waste.

Do you think China’s pro-blockchain legislation will benefit Bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see what’s happening in the industry.

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Big Name Announcements Will Not Save Your Blockchain Project

At the peak of the ICO bubble it was a common tactic for project promoters to use big name announcements to pump their tokens. Every day we would hear about a new venture that supposedly signed a partnership with a global brand such as Microsoft or Google, to make us think that these tech giants were backing the idea. In reality most of the time it was just a trivial matter such as allowing the project to use free services from the tech giant, as countless other startups do. The tactic is still used today and crypto investors need to keep in mind that it is not a guarantee for success.

Also Read: Low Interest Rates Are Crushing Young People and Fueling Global Riots

Big Name Pumping

As if crypto investors have learned nothing over the past few years, some project promoters continue to try and push their tokens with announcements about big name partnerships. These normal business agreements can be used sometimes to hint, insinuate or even predict a price rise of a related token in an irresponsible way. Companies and startups make a lot of agreements to cooperate with one another and these are not a guarantee of a deal that will bring in more money or users.

Additionally, doing so isn’t just potentially misleading to investors – it can also be very detrimental to the projects themselves. Authorities around the world such as the U.S. SEC and Chinese financial regulators are actively seeking to make examples out of ICOs and crypto ventures to tarnish the whole industry as promoting unregistered securities. Making grandiose partnership statements with the intended purpose of pumping a token is providing them with ammunition.

#TRON will partner with a hundred billion USD megacorporation next week. It will not only benefit $TRX but all TRC10&20 tokens including $BTT & $WIN etc. It will broadly distribute #TRON Dapps and tokens to billions of customers. TBA. Make a guess?

— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) October 25, 2019

A notable recent example came from Tron founder Justin Sun. Last week he tweeted about a deal with a hundred billion dollar “mega corporation” that will “benefit” the native tokens of Tron, Bittorrent and Wink. Many traders indeed responded positively to the news by buying the coins, despite widespread cynicism on crypto forums about all the previous hype from the Tron founder. On Tuesday he revealed that the company’s blockchain is now integrated with the Samsung Blockchain Keystore SDK, meaning that smartphone app developers can build services running on the system like they already can with its main competitor, ETH.

High Profile Partnerships Are No Guarantee for Success

Cryptocurrency investors need to keep in mind that all ventures in this ecosystem are highly risky investments and there is no certainty that the ICO token or other digital asset you invested in will be still valuable in two or three years. The absolute majority of technological startups in all fields don’t survive, with venture capital industry estimates of over 90% failure rate.

This can be despite having a smart team, brilliant idea or great technological innovation. At the end of the day, what matters for all businesses is if you can get enough paying costumers to cover the bills and make a profit. Without this you are just burning investors’ money until further investment comes in or you have to shut down. Partnerships that don’t bring in new money or paying clients won’t change that.

In the digital assets field in particular, with the lingering effects of crypto winter, many projects that once seemed promising are these days find themselves forced to shut down. A recent example of this is Platin, a secure Proof of Location protocol which incentivizes nodes at scale by means of its own blockchain-based token. On Monday the team announced on Medium that the company will be shutting down on November 1, 2019, after which all services will no longer be available. This is despite all the recognition from big names it got over the last two years.

“Japan noticed as Platin was selected by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as one of the world’s leading blockchain innovations. Germany noticed as its Startup Autobahn selected Platin to showcase proof of location to Mercedes Benz, Rolls Royce, Porsche and other automotive giants,” the final letter from the team recounted. “IBM noticed as it selected Platin for its AlphaZONE technology accelerator. The European Space agency noticed as they admitted Platin to the Galileo Positioning System Task Force. EOS and Block.one noticed as they invested in Platin and showcased our technology on the world stage.”

However, at the end the founders explained that “One of the biggest challenges we faced was how to continue pushing forward while our resources were dwindling and turbulent market forces weren’t providing a stable environment in which to operate. We did everything in our power to extend Platin’s operations as far as we could, month after month, continually bootstrapping in the face of great uncertainty. In addition to developing Platin’s visionary technologies, we worked hard every day to secure the next round of funding, which always seemed to be just around the corner. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get there in time.”

What do you think about big name partnerships in the crypto industry? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Op-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.

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Mining Giant Bitmain Confidentially Files for U.S.-Based IPO

According to reports, bitcoin mining manufacturer Bitmain Technologies confidentially filed for a U.S.-based initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The news follows the alleged removal of cofounder and executive director Micree Zhan and the recent announcement of a facility in Texas with the capacity to house 300MW of hashpower.

Also read: Avalon Mining Rig Maker Canaan Files for $400M IPO on Nasdaq

Bitmain Secretly Files for U.S. Initial Public Offering

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently has two mining manufacturers to approve for IPO status in the country. According to Tencent News, the IPO is sponsored by the financial giant Deutsche Bank and it was filed at roughly the same time Canaan Creative filed for its IPO earlier this week. Canaan the makers of Avalon mining rigs and chips filed for a $400 million IPO on Nasdaq but the Bitmain valuation is currently unknown. Tencent’s (sycaijing.com) translated editorial details that Bitmain has hired China-based executive Zheng Hua who once worked with Nasdaq, so there’s a chance the company’s filing is similar to Canaan’s filing as far as listing status.

Mining chip and device manufacturer Bitmain has filed with the SEC for an IPO in the U.S.

The news follows Bitmain’s recent push in Rockdale, Texas where the firm is building a bitcoin mine with up to 300 megawatts (MW) of hashpower. So far the facility houses 25MW and another 25MW will come online soon according to Bitmain. Last year, the company also filed an IPO prospectus in Hong Kong in order to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE). However, in March 2019 the Chinese mining giant let the application lapse and did not file another IPO prospectus in the country. Canaan also filed an IPO in Hong Kong and let the application slide as well. Confidential or ‘secret’ IPO filings are not uncommon in the U.S. as the SEC approved such filings in June 2017.

Canaan filed an IPO for $400 million in the U.S. to be listed on Nasdaq earlier this week. Allegedly Bitmain is shooting for a Nasdaq listing as well but the current valuation is unknown.

Additionally, Bitmain has released and shipped a wide variety of next-generation bitcoin core (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) miners this year. Despite the FUD last year, the company has managed to produce at least 10 new machines including a special edition S9 Antminer. According to Asicminervalue.com, while filtering SHA256 miners specifically, the company’s S17 series rigs are the top two bitcoin miners today just above Innosilicon’s T3. The S17 series Antminers produce a whopping 50+ terahash per second (TH/s) and the firm’s machines coming in December will generate 70+TH/s according to specifications. Machines have been delivered even though there have been rumors of a 7nm shortage at the semiconductor foundries since the last two Samsung and iPhone launches.

Bitmain has produced roughly 10 new machines this year and an anniversary S9 edition as well.

Cofounder Ousted

The IPO filing news also developed after the recent headlines that said Micree Ketuan Zhan, the cofounder of Bitmain, was ousted. Leaked reports disclosed that Bitmain cofounder Jihan Wu disagreed with Zhan in regard to the artificial intelligence (AI) chip production which is allegedly floundering. Wu has reportedly taken over the head leadership position at the company and Zhan’s dismissal was “effective immediately” and includes “all roles” at the firm.

(Left) Bitmain cofounder Jihan Wu, (Right) Bitmain cofounder Micree Ketuan Zhan.

“Bitmain’s co-founder, chairman, legal representative, and executive director Jihan Wu has decided to dismiss all roles of Ketuan Zhan, effective immediately,” a circulating email disclosed. “Any Bitmain staff shall no longer take any direction from Zhan, or participate in any meeting organized by Zhan. Bitmain may, based on the situation, consider terminating employment contracts of those who violate this note.” Since the Bitmain management shake-up, the price of bitcoin cash (BCH) rose by double digits on October 29.

What do you think about Bitmain confidentially filing for a U.S.-based initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship 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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Image credits: Shutterstock, Bitmain, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

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Satoshi’s Final Messages Leave Tantalizing Clues to His Disappearance

As Jameson Lopp once quipped, the smartest thing Satoshi did after creating Bitcoin was to disappear. The question isn’t ‘why did Satoshi disappear?’ but rather ‘why then?’ Was Satoshi’s departure in early 2011 scheduled long in advance, or did unforeseen events compel Nakamoto to pack his bags and flee the community he had founded, never to return? Several credible theories abound.

Also read: Why a VPN Is the First Layer You Should Pull On When Browsing the Web

Theory 1: It Was Planned All Along

Satoshi Nakamoto was a methodical and meticulous man. That much we can ascertain from his writings. He doesn’t seem the sort to wake up one morning and YOLO his way out of the community he created. Knowing there would be no coming back once he’d made the decision to leave, Satoshi may have had his departure scheduled months or even years in advance, and worked diligently to that deadline. If so, it would explain why his last forum post was a typically business-like despatch, leaving parting instructions on what had been remedied in build 0.3.19 of Bitcoin Core.

Theory 2: It Was Wikileaks

Satoshi tended to keep his emotions in check when posting on the Bitcointalk forum. He had the air of a man who knew he had a lot to do and a short time in which to do it, and thus refrained from shitposting or shooting the breeze. He could occasionally be brusque (“If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry”), but was never rude or prone to venting. His penultimate forum post, however, portrays a twinge of annoyance.

In response to a PC World article commenting on Wikileaks’ adoption of bitcoin to circumvent its financial blockade, Satoshi famously wrote: “It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet’s nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.” Could Wikileaks thrusting Bitcoin and its enigmatic creator into the spotlight have been the last straw that sent Satoshi scurrying for cover? The argument that Bitcoin was getting too big too fast, which expedited Satoshi’s departure, seems credible.

Theory 3: It Was the CIA

Satoshi’s final correspondence, from an April 26, 2011 email to Gavin Andresen, has given rise to another theory as to why he abruptly left. He wrote:

I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure, the press just turns that into a pirate currency angle. Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors; it helps motivate them.

When Gavin replied, he informed Satoshi that he had been invited to speak at an event hosted by an organization under the CIA. Satoshi never replied. Did the mention of spooks spook Satoshi?

Theory 4: It Was Personal

We know nothing about Satoshi Nakamoto’s personal life. It is quite possible that his exodus was triggered by events that he could never have publicly communicated. Failing health, injury or new responsibilities (family, professional, personal) could have forced Satoshi’s hand, compelling him to bow out earlier than anticipated. If that were the case, we’d have no way of knowing. To this day, there are many who believe Satoshi is no longer with us because he is no longer alive.

Theory 5: It Was Symbolic

Satoshi Nakamoto and the birth of Bitcoin is a saga shrouded in symbology that reads like a Dan Brown novel for cypherpunks. From the name assigned to the genesis block to the sudden disappearance of its creator, it’s hard to avoid the religious undertones. Aside from its name, there is the oddity of the genesis block taking six days to mine. As speculated in an old Bitcointalk forum thread, this may have been an easter egg left by Satoshi in homage to the biblical account of creation. As Genesis 2:2 recounts: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested.”

For those interested in ascribing symbology to Satoshi’s actions, there’s more. Christ’s ministry on earth is believed to have lasted for around three years. Satoshi’s first known contact with the world occurred on August 22, 2008, in an email to b-money creator Wei Dai, though he is believed to have reached out to Adam Back before that. Satoshi’s final verified email was to Gavin Andresen on April 26, 2011, meaning that his ministry also lasted for around three years.

The fact that Satoshi’s teachings have been subject to extensive interpretation and misinterpretation in the years since, while his disciples await the second coming of Bitcoin’s creator, has further solidified the parallels with Christ. Satoshi wasn’t perfect – his code tells us that much – and common sense tells us that putting fallible men on pedestals is the antithesis of everything Bitcoin stands for. It is possible to be opposed to leadership cults, however, while also assigning messianic qualities to the life and times of Satoshi Nakamoto.

There is evidence, incidentally, that Satoshi was tiring of the cult that was beginning to form around him; the PC World article on Wikileaks he took exception to claimed that “Bitcoin is the creation of Japanese programmer Satoshi Nakamoto,” while in his final email to Gavin Andresen he complained “I wish you wouldn’t keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure … Maybe instead make it about the open source project and give more credit to your dev contributors.” Satoshi had no interest in becoming a living legend and overshadowing his magnum opus.

Theory 6: Bitcoin Was Ready

According to the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ last recorded words were “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Satoshi, on the other hand, checked out of this world in the belief that those around him knew exactly what they were doing. As he was to remark in one of his final emails, sent to Mike Hearn on April 23, 2011, “I’ve moved on to other things. It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.”

Satoshi had nursed Bitcoin through its formative years, and now it was capable of surviving without him solo mining, solo-fixing critical bugs and pushing out new Core releases. Perhaps Satoshi left because he had done all he had to do. Staying around would only tarnish his legacy and heighten the risk of him being doxxed as the world began to take a keen interest in his creation.

If so, the timing of Satoshi’s exit was to prove as impeccable as his arrival in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Despite internecine conflict, chain splits, and factions, Bitcoin hasn’t just survived – it’s thrived, morphing into an unstoppable organism that cannot be controlled by any one man.

Why do you think Satoshi Nakamoto left Bitcoin in 2011? Let us know in the comments section below.

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The post Satoshi’s Final Messages Leave Tantalizing Clues to His Disappearance appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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