Tidbits: Kraken CEO Offers Help in Quadrigacx Case, Iranian Bitcoiner Learns Expensive Lesson

Tidbits is a roundup of talking points from across the cryptosphere. In this edition, Jesse Powell offers to help the Canadian police investigate the supposed death of Quadrigacx CEO Gerald Cotten and the subsequent movement of funds. Also, the r/btc community teaches Iranian redditor Cdaemon how to keep his crypto safe. 

Also read: Canadian Exchange Insolvent After CEO Dies With Keys to $145M of Cryptocurrency

A Helping Hand

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell has offered to work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the investigation of Quadrigacx CEO Gerald Cotten’s supposed death and lost private keys. Powell went on to explain that Kraken knows thousands of wallet addresses that belong to Quadrigacx.

We have thousands of wallet addresses known to belong to @QuadrigaCoinEx and are investigating the bizarre and, frankly, unbelievable story of the founder's death and lost keys. I'm not normally calling for subpoenas but if @rcmpgrcpolice are looking in to this, contact @krakenfx

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) February 3, 2019

The reactions to Cotten’s demise have been mixed. Some believe the CEO actually died, while others believed he faked his own death. Commentator “I am Nomad” argued that Cotten probably did die, on the basis that death is common in the backwoods of India. However, Powell was dissatisfied with this response and remained suspicious given that Quadrigacx was having problems with fiat and crypto withdrawals in the month leading up to Cotten’s death.

To make the case that Cotten probably faked his own death, Twitter user Ken A posted a video of a person easily buying a fake death certificate in India for just 25,000 rupees or $450. After seeing the video, Powell was amazed at the ease of getting an official-looking yet fake death certificate in India.

Such a big amount Involved, hopefully the necessary paperwork will be provided.

Jesse, I have watched this recently and understand what you mean.https://t.co/zqqLJx2GmC

— Ken A. (@2Canadians) February 3, 2019

r/btc Gives Iranian Bitcoiner Advice

On r/btc, Iranian bitcoiner Cdaemon lamented the loss his lifesavings on Bittrex after the exchange froze his account. Cdaemon explained that he left his funds on the exchange because he was unable to purchase hardware wallets to store his cryptocurrency in 2017 due to sanctions against Iran. Prior to using Bittrex and having his account frozen, Cdaemon claimed to have confirmed with Bittrex customer support that Iranians could use their exchange.

While many redditors sympathized with Cdaemon, they also questioned why he would keep his cryptocurrency on an exchange and not in his own wallet. One commentator pyalot explained that there are plenty of desktop, mobile and paper wallets for bitcoin. In response, Cdaemon incorrectly argued that these options didn’t exist back in 2017. Pyalot corrected Cdaemon, and then explained the mantra of “not your keys, not your bitcoin.”

Further down the thread, Cdaemon argued that he was unable to access online wallets as they also adhered to U.S. sanction laws back in 2017. In response, commentator Maeler argued that the U.S. has no sanction on wallets and Cdaemon could have easily downloaded and used the Bitcoin.com wallet.

What do you think of the speculation that Gerald Cotten faked his own death? Let us know in the comments below. 

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BCH Community Responds to Allegations of Faked Coinbase Video

The BTC community recently accused Coinbase of editing a video to make zero-conf BCH payments appear quicker than they actually are. In response, Bitcoin Cash supporters have provided pictorial evidence that the video was not faked. They then went on to discuss ways in which replace-by-fee has altered the reliability of 0-conf on BTC. 

Also read: Coinbase Suspends Ethereum Classic Following 51 Percent Attack

BTC Community Angered by Coinbase Video

Recently, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted a video of a popup donut shop at Coinbase that accepted cryptocurrency for payments. The 15-second video showed a person paying for the donuts with a 0-conf BCH transaction that took a mere three seconds to be received on a tablet.

Popup donut shop accepting crypto at @coinbase today. Doing more user testing important to improve usability. pic.twitter.com/G6QH2vjWVL

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 26, 2019

Bitcoin Core (BTC) maximalist Whalepanda and cryptography consultant Peter Todd both accused Coinbase of editing the video to make BCH 0-conf transactions appear quicker than they are. They believed that Coinbase had minimized the wait time with a video edit that was made to look like a camera zoom on the tablet receiving payment.

No.

1) coinbase publishes a video that looks like it used a zoom to hide a cut.

— Peter Todd (@peterktodd) January 30, 2019

Other BTC community members like DJ Booth and zndtoshi were also unhappy with Armstrong’s video and requested the Coinbase CEO use Lightning instead of BCH for quicker transactions in the future.

BCH Community Responds

In response, video director and BCH supporter Collin Enstad took a snapshot of a frame in the video that showed the payment had already been confirmed before the camera had even zoomed in.

No edit. There's one frame when the green checkmark and the QR code is barely visible, right before the zoom. pic.twitter.com/qTLCCpATzm

— Collin Enstad (@CollinEnstad) January 26, 2019

Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia also joined in the conversation with a light-hearted response, and teased that the integration of Avalanche would make BCH transactions confirm even quicker than currently.

r/btc Debates 0-Conf and Replace-by-Fee

The debate continued on reddit, as r/btc commentator lechango questioned whether Todd and Whalepanda had received BTC transactions in the past, since 0-conf also exists on BTC. However, reddit user Recentbobcat quickly pointed out that the replace-by-fee feature on BTC had made 0-conf transactions unreliable. This was the reason why the BCH community got rid of the replace-by-fee feature, Recentbobcat explained.

Toddler thinks Coinbase’s BCH demo is still "fake news"…. from btc

Another reddit commentator, s_tec, jumped in and pointed out that 0-conf transactions would still work on BTC because replace-by-fee is an opt-in feature. This means that merchants that accept BTC can look out for replace-by-fee on incoming payments and decide accordingly whether to accept the original transaction.

What do you think about the Coinbase video and the response it elicited? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tidbits: Voorhees Believes Maximalism Is Flawed, Craig Wright Self-Proclaimed Largest BTC Holder

Tidbits summarizes interesting chatter from across the cryptosphere. Today, the crypto community reacts to Erik Voorhees’s argument that maximalism is a flawed ideology. Jonathan Silverblood recommends using the bear market as an opportunity to build while earning crypto and Craig Wright claims he owns more BTC than anyone else in the world. 

Also read: Judge Denies Craig Wright’s Motion to Dismiss Billion-Dollar Bitcoin Lawsuit  

Crypto Community Responds to Erik Voorhees

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees recently took to social media to point out the inherent flaw of the Bitcoin maximalist mindset.

Maximalism: The idea that decentralization is extremely important but only one blockchain and only one form of money is acceptable

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 28, 2019

Voorhees also explained that open markets have always led to situations where there are multiple solutions, so altcoins will continue to exist in the cryptocurrency space. In response, one commentator brought up TCP/IP as a monopoly in an open market, but Voorhees argued that there are many other popular internet protocols like VOIP, SMTP, and http.

Director of research at Tierion and Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc had an interesting take on the debate Voorhees stirred up. Sztorc brought up scholar Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s observation that almost all drinks are kosher in the United States, even though the kosher population represents less than three tenths of a percent of the residents. Drawing upon the dictatorship of the intolerant minority concept, Sztorc argued that the most intolerant cryptocurrency community will end up producing the most widely used coin.

It's important to read your Taleb!

"The Kosher population represents less than three tenth of a percent of the residents of the United States. Yet, it appears that almost all drinks are Kosher." https://t.co/51D5limIMh

— Paul Sztorc (@Truthcoin) January 28, 2019

Using the Bear Market Bottom as an Opportunity

Bitcoin Unlimited developer Jonathan Silverblood recently urged his followers on social media to use the bottom of a bear market as an opportunity to help rebuild. Silverblood argued that builders will be able to profit financially while helping the crypto industry to recover from the bear market.

There is no better time to transition to getting your income in crypto than during the bottoms between bull markets – not only do you add value to the ecosystem helping it recover, you also financially benefit from the recovery.

— Jonathan Silverblood (@monsterbitar) January 28, 2019

Silverblood went on to recommend sites like honest.cash, bitbacker.io and cash.gateway for builders to get started.

Craig Wright Claims He Owns the Most BTC

Nchain chief scientist Craig Wright raised eyebrows on social media recently when he claimed to own the largest BTC bags in the entire world. Wright also predicted that BTC prices will fall to zero.

I own more BTC than you. For any you.

My only comment re CoreCoin, BTC.

It is headed to zero

I will enjoy the ride down pic.twitter.com/txZqM3umjS

— Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) January 29, 2019

A commentator asked Wright to dump his BTC onto the open market, but Wright refused to do so because it would be illegal under commodities trading laws. Another commentator asked Wright to spend his BTC instead, but Wright claimed that he currently has too many possessions.

What do you think of Wright’s self-proclaimed title as largest BTC holder? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tidbits: Jesse Powell Criticizes Custodial Ownership, Simon Dixon Slams the Banking System

Tidbits is a roundup of talking points from across the cryptosphere. Today, Jesse Powell and Samson Mow both voice their opinions on the custodial ownership of assets through trusted, third parties. Paul Sztorc shows the Bitcoin community that forks are not as frequent as they think and Simon Dixon breaks down his three problems with the banking system.     

Also read: Kraken Launches Margin Trading for BCH Pairings 

Not Your Vault, Not Your Gold

Recently, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime was denied the withdrawal of $1.2 billion worth of gold out of the Bank of England. Kraken exchange CEO Jesse Powell quickly pointed out that Maduro’s regime never owned their own gold, because they never stored it in their own vaults.

Not your vault, not your gold. https://t.co/ThSkkuXGqO

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) January 25, 2019

Similarly, Blockstream CSO Samson Mow took the opportunity to point out the similarities between Maduro regime’s gold and the oil that supposedly backs the Petro cryptocurrency. Both are assets that are held in custody by trusted, third parties that cannot be trusted.

And for the people of Venezuela: Not your barrel of oil, not your Petro. https://t.co/T2UiTK5dbQ

— Samson Mow (@Excellion) January 25, 2019

Forks Not as Frequent as Bitcoin Community Thinks

Director of research at Tierion and Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc recently assembled all Bitcoin upgrade events into a pivot table. Interestingly, his findings showed forks were significantly less frequent than what the Bitcoin community initially assumed.

I was browsing @BitMEXResearch 's page here https://t.co/P2aTB1sZVm , which collated all Bitcoin fork events.

They're quite rare. People talk about "forks" often, but they are very infrequent.

I collated the upgrades, and placed them into this pivot table: pic.twitter.com/jyMxdv07EY

— Paul Sztorc (@Truthcoin) January 25, 2019

Sztorc goes on to explain that 2010 had about as many protocol forks as all other years. Also, the last normal upgrade was in July 2016, and the only upgrade since then was segwit.

Simon Dixon’s Three Problems With Banking

Banktothefuture CEO Simon Dixon was recently interviewed, and he explained the three increasingly problematic issues with the banking industry. Dixon believes that the banks are both unable and unwilling to solve these three problems.

The first problem occurs when clients deposit money into banks, and the banks become the legal owner of their clients’ money. During this period, the banks are able to use their clients’ funds any way they see fit. The next issue is that the banks decide how to inject their clients’ money into the economy via loans. Therefore, banks control the economy. Lastly, the monetary system is structured in a way that encourages debt rather than savings. Thus, there is innovation on the government level, the banking level and the investment banking level, to entice people, corporations and governments deeper into debt to increase the money supply. Eventually, this debt will need to be repaid, recycled into new debt, or bailed out through quantitative easing. In summary, banks are problematic because they earn money through the debt they create.

What do you think of custodial ownership of assets? Let us know in the comments below.

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Tidbits: Peter Todd on Passphrase Memorization, Antonopoulos Explains Transaction Fees

Tidbits is a roundup of talking points from across the cryptosphere. In this edition, Peter Todd suggests memorizing randomly generated passphrases to secure recovery keys. Amaury Séchet explains how the BCH community faces an uphill battle with adoption, and Andreas Antonopoulos explains why transaction fees don’t show up as a transaction output in the block explorer. 

Also read: Hollywood Actor Kevin Connolly Directs New Television Pilot ‘Cryptos’ 

Peter Todd Recommends Memorizing Randomly Generated Passphrases

Cryptographer Christopher Allen recently asked his followers if they keep redundant copies of their own recovery keys. One commentator responded to the thread, arguing that it was safe to keep multiple copies of recovery keys as long as they are properly protected by a good passphrase. Adding to that train of thought, Bitcoin pundit Peter Todd explained that it was important to use and memorize randomly generated passphrases to protect recovery keys. Todd also practices this himself, because unauthorized access of recovery keys is riskier than losing access to them.

Personally, I *do* rely 100% on memorizing randomly generated passphrases for quite a lot of stuff, because I considered unauthorized access more of a risk than losing access. But I also have unencrypted backups of other things. Case by case decisions.

— Peter Todd (@peterktodd) January 22, 2019

Amaury Séchet on BCH’s Uphill Battle With Adoption

Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Séchet has explained how he has been warning the crypto community about negative merchant adoption since 2017. In the past, BTC users were able to purchase Dell computers, Steam games and goods from numerous merchants with BTC.

People who joined the cryptocurrency space over the last 2 years or so (probably the majority by now) may not realize this, but you used to be able to purchase @Dell computer, games on @steam_games and numerous shops. 1/2 https://t.co/W7kTla58VF

— Deadal Nix (@deadalnix) January 22, 2019

Séchet went on to explain that BCH has fixed the issues that caused merchants to stop accepting BTC as a means of payment, but the BCH community is now facing an uphill battle to reboot merchant adoption. He finished the thread on a hopeful note, explaining that increased merchant adoption could help hasten the return of a crypto bull market.

Andreas Antonopoulos Explains Transaction Fees

Mastering Bitcoin author Andreas Antonopoulos recently put out a video explaining why transaction fees don’t show up as a transaction output in block explorers.

Antonopoulos explained that transactions do not include a specific output for fees in the block explorer, because fees are not explicitly part of the transaction. One of the reasons fees are not part of the output is that the address of the miner is unknown at the time the transaction is made. Also, if fees were an output, then there would be an extra output in every transaction. So if there were 4,000 transactions in a block, there would be 4,000 extra outputs for fees. This would not make sense, as all the fees of the transactions in that block would go to one miner or one mining pool.

Instead, fees are just the difference between the inputs and outputs of a transaction. Bitcoin users create a fee in a bitcoin transaction by funding the transaction with inputs, and then spending less than the entire amount. Whatever is left over goes to miners as fees.

What do you think about the concept of memorizing randomly generated passphrases? Let us know in the comments below.

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Chatter Report: Luke Says Segwit Harmful to BTC, Baker Explains Stablecoin Regulation

In today’s roundup of crypto chatter, Luke Dash Jr. voices concerns that segwit is bad for BTC because it leads to centralization. Also, Brad Mills shares his insight after using Cointext. Lastly, Lawson Baker, Blake Moore and Andreas Brekken discuss how regulation affects stablecoins.

Also read: Bitcoin and Market-Related Headlines Dominated Crypto News Coverage in 2018

Luke Dash Jr. Reminds Users Not to Use Segwit

Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dash Jr. took to Twitter recently to remind users not to use segwit for non-lightning wallets. Luke argued that segwit adds to the growing centralization of BTC because it enables larger blocks.

As a reminder, you should NOT use #Segwit for non-Lightning wallets. It is harmful to #Bitcoin by enabling larger blocks and increasing the growing rate of centralisation. (This *includes* Bech32 addresses! Try to use 1xxx or 3xxx addresses you're sure are not Segwit)

— Luke Dashjr (@LukeDashjr) January 17, 2019

However, he did say users who have their long-term savings in BTC can use segwit in a couple of years because it will probably be on lightning. Also in the same thread, Luke explained that segwit is dangerous because of sync times, and not because of the possibility of theft.

Brad Mills Shares Insights on Cointext

BTC maximalist Brad Mills recently posted his thoughts on the crypto sms service provider Cointext. Mills had a positive user experience of sending his own grandmother $5 in BTC using Cointext.

1/ The only interesting service to come out of bcash was @CoinText

This SMS crypto payment service was so good it got me to use BCH multiple times.

After a year of pleading, they now support Bitcoin

I texted my grandmother $5 in BTC

This is a great marketing tool pic.twitter.com/yVA01Z95wJ

— Brad Mills [Feb/3] (@bradmillscan) January 17, 2019

Since Mill’s Cointext transaction had cost $0.04 in fees, he argued that BTC can now compete with BCH as a method of payment again. However, Mills did point out that BTC transaction fees will eventually rise and make it difficult to use BTC on Cointext. Thus, users should only keep small amounts of BTC on Cointext.

Mills also pointed out additional dangers associated with Cointext, like Cointext losing their sms gateway relationships and sim swapping. The former situation will make it difficult for Cointext users to withdraw their BTC, while the latter means users will lose their funds.

Lawson Baker, Blake Moore and Andreas Brekken Discuss Stablecoins

Tokensoft’s head of special projects Lawson Baker, Bitcoin.com e-commerce manager Blake Moore and Shitcoin.com CEO Andreas Brekken recently had a thorough discussion on stablecoins. Their discussion was posted as a two part video series on the Shitcoin.com Youtube channel.

One of the interesting points they touched on, was the way regulations work for stablecoins like USDT or USDC. Baker explained that the entities that design stablecoins backed by U.S. dollars need to follow the laws and jurisdiction of the U.S. federal government, Fincen and the Treasury. Thus, the companies that design stablecoins have to make sure their users can’t send money to certain countries or certain people in these countries and they are supposed to know where their stablecoins are at all times.

What do you think of Luke’s advice to not use segwit? Let us know in the comments below.

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Chatter Report: Pacia Shows Avalanche Regtest Data, Powell Advocates Hardware Wallets

In today’s chatter report, Chris Pacia reveals his BCH transaction using Avalanche on regtest finalized in just 185.822377 milliseconds. Also, Changpeng Zhao advocates storing crypto on reputable exchanges while Jesse Powell advises his followers to store crypto on hardware wallets. Lastly, Eric Wall proposes targeting children to spread crypto adoption. 

Also Read: Jason Cox Extends Open Invitation for Assistance With Development and Review of Bitcoin Cash Code

Avalanche Regtest Results

Recently, Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia was testing the pre-consensus implementation Avalanche on regtest. Pacia was optimistic when sharing his results, as his transaction finalized in just 185.822377 milliseconds.

Chris Pacia: 2019-01-14 18:20:01.776 [INF] AVAL: Starting avalanche for tx 46db02b656673509670b5a952215015bebd4a97155022132d6cb206c046c6178 2019-01-14 18:20:01.963 [INF] AVAL: Avalanche finalized transaction 46db02b656673509670b5a952215015bebd4a97155022132d6cb206c046c6178 in 185.822377ms from btc

In an attempt to lower expectations, lead developer of Bitcoin ABC Amaury Séchet explained that he does not believe that transactions will confirm at the same speed on mainnet, because a round trip around the earth via the internet typically takes 500-600 milliseconds.

When asked by Reddit user “CatatonicAdenosine” if Pacia thinks the numbers will stay this low, Pacia said he doesn’t expect transactions to take more than one to two seconds to finalize. Pacia also stated that he plans to run pre-consensus mechanism Avalanche on mainnet in a few weeks and begin logging data.

CZ’s Advice on Safe Crypto Storage Causes a Stir

In response to Cryptopia exchange being hacked, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao proposed three different options for storing cryptocurrency safely. Many users were critical of Zhao’s proposal to store coins on “reputable” exchanges and raised eyebrows when Zhao criticized the practice of storing coins in noncustodial wallets.

Store coins yourself. You fight hackers yourself, and guard from losing wallet yourself. Computer breaks, USBs gets lost.

Store on an exchange. Only use the most reputable, proven secure, exchanges.

Or move to DEX, disrupt ourselves. https://t.co/Ci4ux9I3VD

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 15, 2019

Zhao’s comments were in contrast to those of Kraken exchange CEO Jesse Powell, who advised users to store only the coins they plan to actively trade with, and no more, on exchanges. Powell also advised storing crypto on a Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet instead of an exchange.

PLEASE do not store more coins on an exchange (including @krakenfx) than you need to actively trade. Use @LedgerHQ or @Trezor. DEXes are not a panacea — look at The DAO. Open source just means exploits will be discovered sooner (probably not by good guys). https://t.co/LmzhtCjpM0

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) January 16, 2019

Other cryptocurrency community members like developer David Shares also echoed Powell’s advice, advising users to store crypto in a wallet where they control their own private keys.

Targeting Children For Crypto Adoption

Cinnober cryptocurrency lead Eric Wall recently took to Twitter to argue that children should be a target for spreading future crypto adoption. While many in the cryptocurrency space believe that the future of crypto adoption lies with people living in emerging markets, Wall believes the focus should be on children, as they are an unbanked group that are more likely to adopt the technology.

1/ There's a lot of talk about crypto banking the unbanked (people living in emerging markets), but I think there's a larger (>2bn) unbanked group that is far more likely to adopt crypto in the near-term. An innovative, playful group who are great at using apps:

Children.

— Eric Wall (@ercwl) January 15, 2019

The 17-strong tweet-storm contains some compelling arguments on why children will integrate well with the crypto ecosystem. Wall believes that kids are more sophisticated when it comes to using social media apps because they explore the full functionality of them. They also are better at online marketing as they direct message all their friends instead of just uploading content like adults do. Also, kids today understand virtual goods and in-app purchases because of things like Fortnite V-bucks and WoW gold. Creating crypto-based apps that directly target children, Wall believes, will help to spread adoption and introduce the next generation to cryptocurrencies

What do you think of Eric Wall’s hypothesis? Let us know in the comments below.

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Chatter Report: Antonopoulos on Rolling Checkpoints, Vays Defends Song’s Stance on Credit Cards

In today’s roundup of crypto chatter, Andreas Antonopoulos explains rolling checkpoints and how consensus is achieved between miners, developers, exchanges, merchants, and wallets. Chris DeRose believes new Bitcoin pundits are toxic compared to the old ones. Also, Tone Vays defends Jimmy Song’s position on using credit cards over bitcoin.  

Also read: Hash Wars: A Successful BCH Upgrade and a ‘High Risk’ Exchange Listing  

Andreas Antonopoulos Explains Rolling Checkpoints

Recently, Mastering Bitcoin author Andreas Antonopoulos released a video that explained his thoughts on the rolling 10-block checkpoint that prevents reorganizations of the BCH chain. In the video, he explained that the rolling checkpoint is a feature to protect BCH against secret mining, which could have been used to cause disruption or initiate a hostile takeover of the ABC chain. He also noted that the implementation of rolling checkpoints has the effect of shifting some power away from miners and giving it to developers.

Then, Antonopoulos explained that consensus is a multi-constituency mechanism and that checkpoints are a matter of the relative power of two constituencies in consensus. The common misconception is that consensus is achieved only between miners and developers. Instead, he argues that consensus is achieved between five different groups with overlapping influence and power: miners, developers, exchanges, merchants, and wallets. All of these parties contribute to emergent consensus.

Thus, the decision to side with rolling checkpoints is subjective to each of the five groups. Some may believe rolling checkpoints are justified as certain parties have threatened to spend millions of dollars purely to damage the ABC chain, while others may not.

Regardless of their stance, each of the five groups will express their position through a consensus vote. By deciding what software to run on their nodes, they express their consensus vote and contribute to the emergent consensus.

The Old Guard vs the New

Bitcoin Uncensored host Chris DeRose recently took to Twitter to express his views on the evolving Bitcoin community. In his tweets, DeRose explained that the old guard of Bitcoin, comprising figures like Gavin Andresen, Amir Taaki, Roger Ver and many others are being rejected by the Bitcoin community even though they played pivotal roles in ensuring Bitcoin’s early success.

The simplest explanation is that the new baghodlrs were in fact the greatest fools, and the old guard passed on the bag to a sorry lot. I'm hoping a better explanation shows up…

— Chris DeRose (@derose) January 13, 2019

By contrast, the new guard of Bitcoin, like The Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous, developer Jimmy Song, and Blockstream CSO Samson Mow, have had a negative impact on the Bitcoin community. DeRose explained that the new guard leads by using spite and fear. They also believe that it is ok for bitcoin to lose value, so long as other cryptocurrencies lose value with it.

In response, co-owner of Bitcoin.org Cobra explained to DeRose that the new guard have virtually no influence on Bitcoin. Despite having a large social media following, their influence is negated by others with a large social media presence like Roger Ver and Craig Wright.

A Time and Place for Credit Cards

Recently, Bitcoin commentator Colin compared Song’s infamous statement of using credit cards over bitcoin akin to the CEO of Nike asking people to walk barefoot. Trader Tone Vays has defended Song’s position, and argued that using BTC on sites like Expedia or Cheapair has the same effect as selling BTC on exchanges. This is because some merchants use services like Bitpay and opt to convert all BTC payments for fiat.

There are times to use #Bitcoin vs CC just like there r times to use shoes vs barefoot.
I know for a fact that if I use $BTC at Expedia or CheapAir it's same as market selling it on Exchanges lowering the price. Just like if I swim in the ocean in sneakers, i won't make it far. https://t.co/4XMAkr0KdQ

— Tone Vays [@Bitcoin] (@ToneVays) January 14, 2019

What do you think of rolling checkpoints? Let us know in the comments below.

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Jason Cox Extends Open Invitation for Assistance With Development and Review of Bitcoin Cash Code

BCH developer conversations have been taking place ahead of the upcoming May 2019 upgrade. In their latest video meeting, devs agreed that they need to know how much BCH is locked up in p2sh segwit addresses. It was also agreed that Andrea Suisani will take charge of the byte transaction size limit and Mark Lundeberg will review Amaury Sechet’s code on Schnorr signatures. Lastly, Jason Cox extended an open invitation for the qualified to assist with the development and review of BCH code.

Also read: Major Mining Pools Have a ‘High Die-Off Rate’ Study Reveals

Meeting of the Minds

A BCH developer meeting was held recently to get the ball rolling for the upcoming May 2019 upgrade. The meeting was moderated by David R Allen and consisted of lead developer of Bitcoin ABC Amaury Sechet, Bitcoin Unlimited developer Andrea Suisani, Bitcoin ABC developer Antony Zegers, Bitcoin ABC developer Jason B. Cox, Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia, CTO of Bitcoin.com Emil Oldenburg, and Bitcoin Cash developer Mark Lundeberg.

Agenda One: BIP 62, Attempts to Fix Third Party Malleability

After introductions, the meeting opened with discussions on BIP 62. Zegers pointed out that some BCH users are unable to recover their funds because they are sending BCH to BTC segwit P2SH addresses. Then, Cox asked if it was possible to identify the extent of this problem. In response, Oldenburg proposed indexing all segwit addresses and then checking the UTXOs, an extremely time-consuming process.

Alternatively, Lunderberg proposed a way to fix third party malleability by applying the clean stack rule to Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash and Pay-to-Script-Hash multisig. That way every other script would have to manually check itself using OP_DEPTH. However, he noted that his solution would require another hard fork on top of the May 2019 hard fork.

In conclusion, the developers concluded that they need to measure the amount of coins that are locked in p2sh segwit addresses before proceeding on BIP 62.

Agenda Two: Changing the 100 Byte Transaction Size

Lunderberg pointed out that since the August 2017 hard fork, there have been in the ballpark of ten transactions that were less than 100 bytes. Since a 100-byte limit could affect some transactions, he proposed relaxing it to 64 bytes.

Interestingly, Cox pointed out that it’s easier to to lower the byte transaction size limit than it is to raise it. Suisani added to Cox’s point, and explained that raising the byte transaction size limit would have to be implemented by hard fork.

At the end of the discussion, Suisani offered to lead the second agenda by maintaining a stream of communication between the developers, and writing notes to rationalize tweaking the constraint.

Agenda Three: Schnorr Signatures

On the topic of Schnorr signatures, Sechet pointed out that Schnorr has cost advantages because of batch validation. For example, computing and verifying eight signatures as a batch is more cost-effective than checking eight signatures individually. He then pointed out that Schnorr will aid with user privacy and is better for the Bitcoin network itself.

Even though Sechet had made an implementation of Schnorr just over a year ago, his code has not yet been thoroughly reviewed. The lead developer of Bitcoin ABC warned that the code would have to be reviewed more than usual and implemented carefully, otherwise the network would become susceptible to side-channel attacks through the branch predictor of the CPU and through the cache hierarchy of the CPU.

After Sechet’s explanation, Lunderberg agreed to review the former’s code within a month and a half. Sensing that everyone in the group was stretched thin, Cox issued an open invite to cryptographers and developers to assist with development and review of Bitcoin Cash code.

Agenda Four: Old Opcodes

As this point, most of the developers in the meeting had their plates full. In response, Suisani explained that he would reach out to the other Bitcoin Unlimited developers to see if they were interested in working on the old opcodes. Suisani explained that Bitcoin Unlimited developers were the logical choice as they had previously included Nchain implementation in the SV client they produced.

Closing Thoughts

Towards the end of the meeting, Oldenburg mentioned that there is currently a 25 unconfirmed transaction chain limit that is affecting various protocols right now, which needs fixing. He also mentioned that Bitcoin.com was currently working on its own on-chain dice game similar to Satoshidice. In response, news.Bitcoin.com reached out to Oldenburg for some closing thoughts on the developers meeting. The Bitcoin.com CTO was positive about the meeting overall, especially since the “limitation of unconfirmed chained transactions will be removed long term.”

Do you think you have what it takes to be a BCH developer? Let us know in the comments below.

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Chatter Report: Zhao Says Blocking Customers ‘Not up to Us’, Lee Introduces the Term ‘Bitcoin Extremist’

In today’s chatter report, we delve into the Bitcoin Cash community’s responses to Cheapair.com re-enabling BCH payments for their travel services. Also, Changpeng Zhao explains Binance’s decision to block users. Finally, Crypto Twitter fires back at Charlie Lee’s new term ‘Bitcoin Extremist’. 

Also read: Cheapair.com Considers Bitpay as Coinbase Terminates Merchant Processing Solutions

Bitcoin Cash Re-enabled on Cheapair.com

Bitcoin Cash was recently re-enabled as a form of payment on travel booking website Cheapair.com and the r/btc subreddit rejoiced. While BCH payments have been re-enabled, commentator u/today_in_reddit noted that the travel site appears to have currently disabled Litecoin and Dash payments. The same reddit user also pointed out that prices on Cheapair.com were about about 8% more expensive than booking.com, with about 75% of the hotel selection.

Bitcoin Cash is back up on Cheapair.com!! from btc

Other community members like BTC_StKN marveled at the crypto community’s ability to live on crypto through the combined use of Cheapair.com, crypto ATM’s and crypto debit cards.

Changpeng Zhao Responds to District Restriction Queries

Binance exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao was recently asked by crypto community member Crypto Leprechaun whether U.S. citizens would ever be able to access Binance Launchpad, the token sale arm of Binance.

I feel the sadness, sadly, it's not up to us. We want to be available to everyone in the world. Many (novice/naive) people mistakenly think it's our decision to implement blocks, and blame us. They need to figure out how the world works and find the right place(s) to vent.

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 6, 2019

Zhao expressed deep regret, as the decision to block users from certain countries was not up to the Binance team. Ideally, Zhao would prefer to Binance’s services to be available to everyone worldwide.

Charlie Lee Polls Followers on Bitcoin Extremism

Recently, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee introduced the term “Bitcoin Extremists” on social media. Lee took to Twitter to distinguish Bitcoin Maximalists as people that believe Bitcoin will hold it’s place as the dominant cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin Extremists as those who believe that all altcoins are worthless scams. Lee then polled his followers to see if they were Bitcoin Extremists, Bitcoin Maximalists, Altcoin Maximalists, or Nocoiners.

Some self-proclaimed Bitcoin Maximalists are actually Bitcoin Extremists. They think all other coins are scams and will go to zero.

Maximalists think Bitcoin is and will remain the dominant cryptocurrency but there is room for altcoins to exist and even do well.

What are you?

— Charlie Lee [LTC] (@SatoshiLite) January 6, 2019

Most of the responses to Lee were negative, with CTO of Casahodl Jameson Lopp sarcastically replying that he preferred the term “Bitcoin Supremacist” over Bitcoin Extremist.

Trader Tone Vays also did not like Lee’s new term. The former accused Lee Orwellian-like control over the narrative to demonize the Bitcoin maximalist community.

AND IT BEGGINS, #shitcoin(ers) will NOW change the language narative to calling people who speak sense about #Crypto, #tech, #money & #Economics as #Bitcoin EXTREMISTS because the word #Maximalist is just NOT Visceral Enough to Demonize! https://t.co/yICRX1uCH9

— Tone Vays [@Bitcoin] (@ToneVays) January 6, 2019

What do you think of the new term Bitcoin Extremist? Let us know in the comments below.

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Play with confidence! We guarantee that every Video Poker game you play at Bitcoin Games is completely fair. You will be dealt a completely random deck of cards every game, and we can provably demonstrate that we have in no way manipulated the shuffle.

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Chatter Report: Sechet Claims Cashaccount a Potential ‘Privacy Disaster’, Voorhees Defends Coinbase

In today’s roundup of crypto chatter, Jonathan Silverblood responds to Amaury Sechet’s privacy concerns with Cashaccount. Erik Voorhees defends Brian Armstrong from criticism on the latter’s 10 year Bitcoin anniversary tweets. Also, Nikita Zhavoronkov congratulates Bitcoin for creating 1 billion outputs on the BTC blockchain.

Also read: The Cashaccount.info Platform Tethers Names to Bitcoin Cash Addresses  

Amaury Sechet’s Privacy Concerns With Cashaccount

Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Sechet took to Twitter recently, proclaiming that the new BCH-powered alias-address system Cashaccount will be a privacy disaster. Surprisingly, Cashaccount creator Jonathan Silverblood agreed with Sechet, as the founder believes his project will lead to more BCH users reusing Bitcoin addresses. This would be bad for privacy, as reused addresses can be used to discover financial information that users may not wish to disclose.

I agree – it will undoubtedly increase the number of people that will reuse addresses.

Perhaps you can spend some time and help get those stealth keys that @ChrisPacia was working on more widely supported, or help progress the BIP-47 support?

— Jonathan Silverblood (@monsterbitar) January 3, 2019

To resolve the potential lack of privacy, Silverblood asked Sechet to collaborate with Openbazaar developer Chris Pacia on stealth keys, or to assist with the development of BIP-47.

However, other commentators like Crypto Pelé were not as concerned with a lack of privacy. Pelé pointed out that some BCH users are fine with the transparency that comes with reusing addresses.

Erik Voorhees Defends Brian Armstrong From Criticism

To commemorate Bitcoin’s 10th year anniversary of the Genesis Block, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted a series of tweets reminiscing how he first got into bitcoin.

1/ Today is a big day for Bitcoin, as it marks 10 years since the Genesis Block. Some people think I don’t like to talk about Bitcoin (), but today I have a few words to say

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) January 3, 2019

In the thread, Armstrong recounts reading the Bitcoin white paper in 2010 and becoming obsessed about Bitcoin for the subsequent 6 months. He began building a bitcoin wallet for Android devices as a side project, but then pivoted to a hosted wallet and a custom Bitcoin node. After securing funding from Ycombinator, Armstrong started working on his business idea full time and settled on the company name Coinbase. He then ended the tweet-storm on a positive note, boldly proclaiming that he has “never had more conviction” on the future of cryptocurrencies.

Not everyone responded positively to Armstrong’s tweets. Commentator Simon Moon called Armstrong out for being a fake libertarian, arguing that Coinbase is a government-backed monopoly.

Hah… as if their business just “appeared” and had a moat of regulation around it. The regulation isn’t their fault, and they have to walk a very delicate line. Yet millions enter the ecosystem because of the tools (read: bridge) that CoinBase has built.

— Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) January 4, 2019

Shapeshift CEO Erik Voorhees quickly stepped in to defend Coinbase’s CEO. Voorhees pointed out that regulation was not Coinbase’s fault and that Coinbase has helped introduce millions of people to cryptocurrency.

1 Billion Outputs on the BTC Blockchain

Blockchair lead developer Nikita Zhavoronkov also took to social media to wish Bitcoin a happy 10th birthday. While many congratulated Bitcoin on it’s Genesis Block, Zhavoronkov took the opportunity to congratulate Bitcoin for creating 1 billion outputs on the BTC blockchain.

Not only it’s the 10th Bitcoin birthday today, but also a new landmark has been achieved — now there are more than 1 billion outputs created on the Bitcoin blockchain (see https://t.co/bKMI1xgYsf for stats) — what an interesting coincidence! pic.twitter.com/jeWJwLkVQ1

— Nikita Zhavoronkov (@nikzh) January 3, 2019

What do you think of privacy issues surrounding the Cashaccount’s identification system? Let us know in the comments below.

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Chatter Report: Troutner Proposes Algorithmic Stablecoin on BCH, Sztorc Believes Austrian Economics Unnecessary

In today’s roundup of crypto chatter, Chris Troutner and Andreas Brekken play around with the idea of building an algorithmic stablecoin on BCH. Vin Armani debates with Painted Frog on Bitcoin’s similarities to Visa. Also, Paul Sztorc thinks that understanding Austrian economics is not that important to comprehend Bitcoin.  

Also read: Developer Paul Sztorc Launches the First Version of Drivechain

Building an Algorithmic Stablecoin on BCH

Recently Shitcoin.com CEO Andreas Brekken took to crypto Twitter to wish everyone a happy new year. In his tweet, Brekken casually mentioned algorithmic stablecoins, an idea that Bitcoin.com senior developer Chris Troutner picked up on.

Do you know of any algorithmic stable coins worth checking into, other than DAI?

— Chris Troutner (@christroutner) December 30, 2018

Troutner queried Brekken for alternatives to the DAI, but the latter was not familiar with the field. Brekken then explained that he was optimistic about the technology, even though many academics and maximalists don’t believe algorithmic stablecoins are possible.

In response, Troutner called for the BCH community to bring DAI’s algorithmic technology onto BCH. He suggested using the Wormhole JavaScript SDK at developer.bitcoin.com to create an ERC20 token on the BCH blockchain. Instead of ETH, BCH would serve as a collateral asset. Even lead developer of Bitcoin ABC Amaury Sechet jumped into the thread, as he was positive on the idea.

Whormhole or kekoen can most likely do this.

— Deadal Nix (@deadalnix) December 31, 2018

Bitcoin More Similar to Visa Than Gold

Recently, CTO of Cointext Vin Armani had a debate with his followers on what the catalyst for Bitcoin mass adoption would be. Armani argued that those who stand to gain financially from bitcoin usage are the ones most likely to increase Bitcoin adoption.

Incentivizing Bitcoin Mass Adoption

Q. Who has the greatest incentive to convince you to use Visa?

A. Visa

Why? Because every time you use Visa, Visa makes money.

Those who will be the catalyst for Bitcoin mass adoption will be those who get paid every time you use Bitcoin.

— Ⓥin Ⓐrmani (@vinarmani) December 30, 2018

Not everyone responded well to Armani’s theory, as commentator Painted Frog argued that Bitcoin is intrinsically valuable like gold. Since society didn’t need to be convinced to use gold in the past, Bitcoin like gold, will eventually be used everywhere.

Armani responded by explaining that Bitcoin is more similar to Visa because both are systems and networks. On the other hand, gold is simply a shiny rock and an inert element.

Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System

Note the last word. That's the noun. What precedes it are adjectives.

Bitcoin, like Visa, is a SYSTEM, a network. Gold is an inert element. A rock is not a system.

— Ⓥin Ⓐrmani (@vinarmani) December 30, 2018

The Importance of Austrian Economics In Bitcoin

Austrian economics has always been a huge part of the Bitcoin community, and the growing popularity of Bitcoin has sparked a revived interest in Austrian economics. This was pointed out by the President of the Nakamoto Institute Michael Goldstein on social media. Some like cryptocurrency pundit Murad Mahmudov agreed with Goldstein and tweeted that cryptocurrency community members who understand Austrian economics have an edge over those who don’t.

Crypto market participants who do not have a grasp of Austrian econ are at a disadvantage. I’d argue that Bitcoin is an ‘Austrian’ technology & its success is breaking the legitimacy and relevance of a number of other economic schools in real time.

“We are all Austrians now” https://t.co/glhjz0aFBQ

— Murad Mahmudov (@MustStopMurad) December 29, 2018

However, director of research at Tierion Paul Sztorc and bitcoin pundit nic__carter both argued that the importance of Austrian economics is highly overstated in the cryptocurrency space. While nic__carter confessed that he had never read any books on Austrian economics, Sztorc explained that he was very familiar with the Austrian school of thought.

Nor do I.

A cursory understand of the inflation tax is sufficient.

(And I say this despite having read AE very extensively.) https://t.co/B59qLJqHVJ

— Paul Sztorc (@Truthcoin) December 30, 2018

Despite a thorough understanding of Austrian Economics, Sztorc insists that only a brief understanding of how the government prints away purchasing power, also known as inflation tax, is enough to understand Bitcoin.

What do you think of an algorithmic stablecoin built on BCH? Let us know in the comments below.

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