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Questions about the value of bitcoins as an investment will likely differ depending on who you ask. Those with a vision of a fully-distributed future in which the lack of a centralized overseer becomes key to an asset’s value will tell you that, yes, bitcoins are poised to become only more valuable in the future. Others who put more value in the traditional trust afforded by banks and government institutions would likely steer you away from bitcoins as an investment. While determining how “good” any investment will be is ultimately a guessing game, there are some tried and true ways to determine an asset’s worth. One of the simplest ways to think about bitcoin as an investment is to consider its rise against the U.S. dollar. Recently, bitcoin prices eclipsed $1,000 and have reached beyond $1,500. If you had invested in the digital currency when its worth was still hovering around $150 just a few years ago, or when it was first introduced in 2009 and worth nothin

If you are thinking through the process of accruing bitcoins, you may be wondering where to keep them once you’ve done so. After investing time and resources into the digital asset, can you be sure they are locked safely away for when you want to use them? In truth, bitcoins aren’t “stored” anywhere. As a purely digital entity, it is not as if they are held in bank vaults or stuffed under mattresses. They are accessible through Bitcoin addresses, which require a set of digital keys for entry. So, the question of how to securely store bitcoins comes down to the security of these keys. Every Bitcoin address has two keys: a “public key” and a “private key.” Bitcoin addresses are derived from public keys, and these Bitcoin addresses are shared. Think of it like sharing your email address with someone: they can send you an email but can’t get into your inbox to read your mail. Similarly, nobody can get into a wallet and take bitcoins from it with a public key; it can only b

Image caption"Accepting cryptocurrencies broadens my client-base," says Eleesa Dadiani Why is the art world getting excited about digital currency Bitcoin and its underlying technology blockchain? Eleesa Dadiani owns and runs an art gallery in London's famous Cork Street. She was born in Georgia in the Caucasus and was "breastfed by gypsies". But she is also a passionate believer in the power of Bitcoin and other digital currencies. When we meet she is busy preparing for an exhibition of sculptures made from the exhausts of former Formula 1 racing cars. One of these strange rib-cage-like creations made from the super-strong alloy inconel has been gold-plated and will sell for about £35,000. "These are pieces of history," she tells me. In a first for the tradition-bound art world of Cork Street, her international clientele will have the opportunity to pay using Bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency underpinned by blockchain technology. The galle

Bitcoin price is pushing on with its bullish gains as the cryptocurrency continues to reach the dizzying heights scaled in early March during the lead-up the SEC decision of the Winklevoss bitcoin electronic traded fund (ETF). It has been a month of continuing gains with a positive trend for the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency. Having started April at $1,068 on the Bitstamp Price Index (BPI), today’s trading shows price reach a high of $1,274. Bitcoin has now gained nearly 20% in value since the turn of April. Bitcoin prices since April began. BPI data reveals trading on Monday begain at $1,241 and a sustained trading period has seen an upward climb for the value of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin prices were hovering above $1,250 at the start of Tuesday (midnight UTC) into the early hours of the day. At 07:30, a surge spurred prices from $1,252 to $1,260 in a 2-hour period. A more notable spike followed in the next 2-hour period as price pushed upwards of $1,270 to peak at $1,2

Contrary to most claims, Segregated Witness (Segwit) doesn’t necessarily require users to manually upgrade their systems or wallets in order to receive Segwit transactions. The activation of Segwit does provide notable changes to the layer one of the bitcoin network and as a result, wallet platforms will be required to alter their applications pertaining to the changes made by Segwit to the bitcoin protocol. For users of major bitcoin wallet platforms which already are Segwit-ready such as Blockchain, Coinbase, Copay, Ledger and Keepkey, upon the activation of Segwit, they will be able to receive Segwit-enabled transactions. // Let us help you become financially independent. Read exclusive stories, bitcoin analysis, and tutorials. Use the coupon code "CCN5" and get $5 off. Join  Hacked.com  now. // According to David Harding, the co-author of the Bitcoin.org developer documentation, users will be automatically introduced to Segwit-enabled versions of wallets, wallet addre

byMichael Scott The Republic of Ireland, as it is officially referenced, has a population of 4,757,976 according to the 2016 census. The county’s economy grew a respectable  5.2 percent last year — a rate that exceeded all other euro zone countries and most official forecasts for the third successive year. It is the country’s ascension, though, as an epicenter for blockchain innovation in Europe that is garnering attention. Highlighting this was the  blockchain hackathon event  that took place in November of 2016 at Dublin City University. It attracted more than 150 technologists and fintech entrepreneurs, collaborating together on the creation of new apps and services using blockchain technology. Last year also saw  Travacoin , an Irish startup, achieve acclaim for its work on a blockchain-based voucher system that facilitates a refund and compensation system for delayed and canceled flights. In early 2017, global consulting firm Deloitte, which works with 90 percent of the world

Drew Llewellyn bought his first Bitcoin in 2011. Over the years, he has paid up to £899 ($1,100) and as little as £14.70 ($18) for one Bitcoin, as the value of the digital currency has dramatically risen and crashed. But now, for the first time,  one Bitcoin has topped the value of an ounce of gold. And Drew, who owns 18, is pretty happy about it. On Thursday night, the value of a Bitcoin closed at £1,036 ($1,268) while an ounce of gold stood at $1,233. Morerelated stories Guide: What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin value tops gold for first time Does Bitcoin still matter? "For years critics have said Bitcoin will never last - that its value will drop, that it will never be adopted, and even that it's some kind of  ponzi scheme ," he told Newsbeat. "Today's all time high is another example of how, year on year, Bitcoin is becoming more prevalent, reliable and valuable." What can you buy with Bitcoin? Drew, who works in IT in North

Bitcoin  and  digital currency  are exciting new areas of business and finance, and an ideal target for anybody looking to break into the tech industry or change career paths. The revolutionary potential of digital currency is only just starting to be fulfilled, meaning that there is a huge range of opportunities for businesses to take advantage of. But because of the fact that it is so new and different, there is also a huge shortage of knowledgeable, experienced and skilled professionals able to take on the challenge of helping businesses to capitalize on the potential of Bitcoin and digital currency. All of which means that this is an ideal time for tech savvy workers looking to get a job in Bitcoin or other digital currency related companies. If you are a digital currency enthusiast with a bit of knowledge about the industry, and any transferable skills such as in marketing, journalism, business admin, or actually writing programming code, then you can expect to command a great s

For nearly the past two years, various alternatives to Bitcoin Core have attempted to increase Bitcoin’s  block  size limit via  hard-forking changes  to the codebase run by nodes on the network. While manageable capacity increases are desired by many Bitcoin users, the complications associated with hard forks have left the network unwilling to adopt an increase to the block size limit. A hard fork requires every economically-relevant Bitcoin full node (or at least nearly all of them) to upgrade to a new network, while a  soft-forking change  is backwards compatible. As illustrated by  Ethereum’s hard fork to bailout DAO token holders , contentious hard forks can be difficult to pull off. Of course, a sufficiently contentious soft fork could also lead to users hard forking away from the current group of miners in an effort to opt-out of that particular version of Bitcoin, which could potentially lead to two different versions of Bitcoin continuing to exist (similar to

Previously, before the People’s Bank of China requested local bitcoin exchanges to implement a trading fee system, the vast majority of traders and investors believed that the Chinese market controlled over 90% of the global bitcoin exchange market. While the Chinese market certainly did demonstrate dominance over the global bitcoin market in the past, the emergence and development of major US and Japanese bitcoin exchanges including Kraken, Bitfinex, and Bitflyer allowed the two countries to takeover and outpace China. Naturally, the PBoC’s involvement and statements on bitcoin showed diminishing impact on the value of bitcoin and the global bitcoin market has become less dependent on China, its government and exchange market. The weakening authority of the PBoC over the bitcoin exchange market allowed the digital currency to r eecover relatively quickly  amidst substantial declines in value and demonstrate a higher level of resilience towards the PBOC and regulator

The  Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ , Japan’s largest bank, has chosen blockchain technology as the core infrastructure toward testing the digitization of checks using Singapore’s Fintech-friendly regulatory sandbox installed by the country’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. First  announced  [PDF] last year, the Proof of Concept (PoC) testing is the result of a joint endeavor between the bank and major Japanese conglomerate Hitachi. The two companies developed a blockchain-based infrastructure to issue, transfer and collect electronic checks. With the PoC testing, the bank issued and settled checks while the Hitachi Group’s companies in Singapore received the electronic checks and then deposited the funds. “The project is to digitalize entire check processing – from issuing checks to clearing checks,”  stated Hirofumi Aihara, general manager at MUFG’s Asian Systems Office, recently. What is commonly seen as a paper-only process, a bank first issuing checks to the cus

U.S. FinTech investments in 2016 reached  $4.27 billion  illustrating that the financial technology sector in the country is continuing to grow at a significant pace. However, with this amount of FinTech investment you would naturally assume that the U.S. is one country where the topic of regulation is not an issue, reports  Tech Crunch . And yet, that’s not the case. According to a report from  Reuters  in 2016, investments declined by around 30 percent in the U.S. even if the nation did still manage to bring in over $4 billion. However, while the U.S. is producing FinTech companies that are lucrative to investors, a report undertaken by the Treasury of the U.K. [ PDF ] found that the U.S. ranked last and second-to-last when it came to regulatory regimes, government programs, and taxation. When mentioning regulators, the report references The Department of Business Oversight in California and the Department of Financial Services in New York and says: Engagement wit

Executive Brief The US regulation of digital currencies is out of date, impractical, and damaging to a potentially lucrative economy. The lack of unity in state regulations has created an unworkable system that makes the operations of Fintech (Financial Technology) companies complicated and confusing. A unified and clear regulatory policy would clear these muddy waters and benefit the digital currency industry, and have a positive impact on the American economy as a whole. Read the full story below.  The US Once Led the Bitcoin Revolution Every country is feeling their way through this relatively new digital currency, but America was initially proactive in the digital currency industry. For example, the US Senate was the first to conduct hearings on Bitcoin in 2013. The IRS was the first to release information on taxes in relation to Bitcoin, and FINCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) was the first crime agency to make any reference to the digital currency.

After buying up digital currency transfer company PayCash, Daimler has signaled it may use digital currency to build up its presence in Africa. DAIMLER: ‘CLEAR SIGNAL OF FURTHER AFRICAN GROWTH’ The continent is providing huge demand for transport networks, yet businesses are continually faced with financing problems, the vehicle giant  told  industry magazine Autconomy this week. “We are already present in over 30 marketplaces in Africa and are still expanding both our product range and our service operations network,” said a spokesperson. “This is a clear signal that we expect further growth in Africa.” The scale of under access to financing means in developing economies is staggering. Two billion individuals and 200 million companies lack suitable support, Autconomy says, giving a clear advantage to digital currency-based alternatives, which businesses can use to cut out hungry middlemen. When Daimler  quietly purchased  Luxemburg-based digital currency transfer ope

Eric Lombrozo, a Bitcoin core developer, believes that bitcoin is about monetary independence and freedom, instead of offering a centralized settlement network which already serves because the backbone of today’s international economic environment. During the last two years, various bitcoin communities, analysts and specialists have debated on the characterization of bitcoin, especially whether bitcoin demonstrates the qualities of a settlement network or virtual gold. Since the preliminary deployment of the bitcoin network, Bitcoin core creators and different abilties in the open source improvement community of bitcoin have focused on strengthening security measures to remove the presence of a government in the bitcoin network and ensure the network itself will not be compromised in the future. The prioritization of safety rather than flexibility and capability as seen in opportunity failed blockchain initiatives allowed bitcoin to prosper and evolve into a decentralized

The powerful and user-friendly CoinVert makes use of an isolated and highly secure system to give users everything they need 24/7 for instantly exchanging 20 major cryptocurrencies with more added each month. The platform prides itself on having a fee between 0.1% while providing better exchange rates than all major competitors like ShapeShift or Changelly. CoinVert.io was conceived in 2015 and launched in May 2016 as an instant cryptocurrency exchange platform. Currently Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, ZCash, BitCrystals, BitShares, Dash, DigixDao, Dogecoin, Factoids, Lisk, MaidSafeCoin, Namecoin, Nxt, Peercoin, Steem, Counterparty and Ripple can be exchanged instantly and securely. CoinVert keeps customer privacy in mind, no account or personal information is requested to complete an exchange. The digital exchange platform never stores client data. “We launched the service over a year ago with a very clear aim: to always have the lowest fee in the whole marke

P. H. Mador e   Bitcoin is by default and by nature a currency which  shows no respect for borders . One of the less popularized advantages of Bitcoin is that, through the power of encryption, immutable transactions are possible, as well as the ability to withhold funds from seizure. In the nations which are currently producing the most refugees, Bitcoin’s digitization is another great aspect of it – people are less likely to steal what they cannot see. A private key can be written and stored virtually anywhere. For all intents and purposes, Bitcoin is precisely the currency you would want if your world were torn apart by war and famine, provided you had some way to turn it into usable goods. AirBNB recently entered the political conversation by launching its #WeAccept campaign. The decentralized rental service made a stern political statement, despite having a bright and positive message, with the following commercial: The sentiments expressed were not l