The rise of the digital currency

Many different currencies have used the Bitcoin name in an effort to gain traction. The latest venture to do exactly that goes by the name of Bitcoin Cash Plus, and is scheduled to launch in January of 2018. Although it is very likely this is a mere joke project, it just goes to show how surreal things can be in this industry. BITCOIN CASH PLUS – REAL OR FAKE? That question becomes a lot harder to answer as we see more and more of these projects pop up in the cryptocurrency world. Many people assumed  Bitcoin Cash  was a joke at first as well until it recently surged to US$2,800 per BCH. Moreover, we have seen various new Bitcoin-themed currencies and digital tokens come to market recently, which is something that needs to be addressed sooner or later.  On CoinMarketCap.com alone, we see many different Bitcoin clones listed.  BitcoinDark , Bitcoin Plus, BitcoinZ, Bitcoin Scrypt, Bitcoin Red, and BitcoinFast are just some of thos...

Bitcoin is booming and has finally reached mainstream awareness levels. According to a recent  survey   by Lendedu, which asked 1,000 Americans whether they had heard of bitcoin, 78.6 percent responded ‘yes’. This is in contrast to a similar survey conducted by  Bloomberg  in 2013 when only 42 percent had heard of it. Bitcoin can now be purchased via ATMs in many major cities, on various regulated online exchanges, and even at post offices in Austria. Furthermore, countries such as   Japan   and the   Philippines   have officially legalized bitcoin as a digital payment system as they recognize the value it can bring to their economies. Whether early bitcoin adopters like it or not, the reality is that bitcoin is slowly but surely becoming a part of the global financial industry. A ‘fork’ in the community? Given that bitcoin’s gradual integration into the global financial system goes against its disruptive, “be your own bank” ethos, howev...

We recently noted that the US government is increasingly tracking Bitcoin users with the help of the Chainalysis firm. It turns out there is growing interest in conducting Bitcoin surveillance globally. Moreover, there is an increasing need to track privacy-centric cryptocurrencies such as Zcash and Monero. That may prove to be more difficult than originally assumed, though. PRIVACY-ORIENTED CURRENCIES GET SCRUTINIZED It has become increasingly evident that anyone who values cryptocurrency for privacy or anonymity reasons shouldn’t use Bitcoin whatsoever. Not only is it one of the most transparent cryptocurrencies in existence today, it is also a major target for  blockchain analysis   firms these days. The US government is spending a lot of money to keep tabs on Bitcoin users these days, and it is expected other countries will follow suit in the not-so-distant future. However, the focus of a lot of governments may not just be Bitcoi...

Think bitcoin’s price of over $7,000 is absurd? Have a look at Zimbabwe. As the country’s military  seized power  Wednesday, putting 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe under house arrest, the price of one bitcoin on a local exchange surged as high as $13,500 —  a $1,500 swing in the space of 24 hours. The demand for bitcoin has skyrocketed in Zimbabwe in recent weeks, with the  Golix exchange  recording $1 million worth of transactions in the last 30 days alone, compared to just $100,000 in the whole of 2016. Zimbabweans are turning to bitcoin — as well as cars, real estate and stocks — as an alternative way to secure their money as fears that hyperinflation could wipe out people’s savings. On Wednesday, people lined up in long queues  outside banks in Harare , with some reportedly sleeping overnight to withdraw their money. Mugabe has overseen a cataclysmic decline in the country’s economy since 2000, when a combination of drought and ...

The richest Floridian has a big beef with Bitcoin. Thomas Peterffy, founder and chairman of futures commission merchant and broker-dealer Interactive Brokers LLC, took out a full-page ad in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal that warns the rise of Bitcoin could destabilize the economy. He calls for a ban on Bitcoin and other so-called cryptocurrencies from using the same clearing organization as other financial products. In his open letter to J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Peterffy says there is no fundamental basis to set a value for Bitcoin, a worldwide digital payment system that critics have long decried as susceptible to abuse through illegal money transfers. That lack of a fundamental basis, Peterffy wrote, means Bitcoin can assume any price from one day to the next. "This has been illustrated quite clearly in 2017 as the price of Bitcoin has increased by nearly 1,000 percent," he wrote. There is also no regulat...

Bitcoin’s market is expanding and value is increasing Between November 2016 and November 2017, Bitcoin saw its market-cap increase by 1034 per cent to a record breaking value of $128,982,906,067 on coinmarketcap.com . November also saw Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high against the British Pound and US Dollar, with xe.com valuing a single bitcoin at £5889.18 and $7720.66 respectively. With bitcoin’s market expanding, value increasing, and its near-global adoption favoured for its decentralised system, it’s no wonder that more people are looking to earn, spend, and even gamble with the cryptocurrency. According to FortuneJack (the biggest online Bitcoin gambling casino), these are some reasons why businesses and individuals use bitcoin: Privacy and Security Unlike online purchases using credit cards, which require you to input of all your secret information, bitcoin works on a public and private key system. Not only does this make the transaction more secure but al...

Bitcoin  is the undisputed poster boy of the cryptocurrency world and it has been so for quite some time now. Both in terms of price per coin, which is close to $7000, and the market cap, which exceeds $100 billion, Bitcoin is far ahead of the No. 2 coin in the crypto world, which has been Ethereum for most of the time. Like the faithful servant following the master, ETH prices have generally tended to rise and fall along with the changes in the bitcoin prices. With ETH being the favored crypto for the  ICOs  as far as their backbone is concerned, there was no question of why it was the second most sought-after crypto. Ethereum Fades for a Brief Period But, of late,  Ethereum  has fallen a bit off favor as far as the investors and traders are concerned. Also, with the mining difficulty also increasing in an exponential manner, it has seen the prices begin to taper off. Also, the hard fork which the ETH industry underwent less than a month back could not be ...

Bitcoin climbed as much as 10 percent on Zimbabwe’s Golix exchange yesterday. The price of the cryptocurrency in the Southern African nation jumped as high as $13 499, almost double the rate at which it trades in international markets, according to prices cited on Golix’s website. Demand for Bitcoin in Zimbabwe has surged amid a shortage of hard currency. Golix processed more than $1 million of transactions in the past 30 days, compared with turnover of $100 000 for the whole of 2016, according to data on the exchange’s website. Zimbabwe doesn’t have its own currency, with the government adopting the US dollar and South African rand, among others, as legal tender in 2009 after hyperinflation rendered the local dollar worthless. Golix, an unregulated platform that also trades other cryptocurrencies, has been in operation since 2014. Prices for Bitcoin are set by supply and demand, according to Taurai Chinyamakobvu, co-owner of the exchange. Sellers are paid in...

The problem is getting your money out. After some serious hyperinflation, the country abandoned its own currency in favor of the U.S. dollar in 2009, and it has become increasingly more difficult to extract capital. Foreign investors have been trapped in their holdings for most of this year, unable to exit or cash in what look like huge profits. Stocks have become Zimbabwe's version of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's version of Zimbabwe seems to be having a good day.  All That Glitters The 60% fall from 2013 to 2016 reflects concerns about the real economy, but the recent jump reflects a panic for liquid assetsLook before you leap. Zimbabwe's political shake-up isn't exactly the first step on the road to investment.  A jump of 390 percent year-to-date in the benchmark Zimbabwe Industrial Index, which has a market capitalization of $14.5 billion and excludes mining companies, looks fabulous news for frontier funds invested in what used to be called Africa's br...

What would it take for an average bitcoin investor to sell all of his or her bitcoin position? According to LendEDU, a marketplace of private loans, the answer is nearly $200,000. The implication, of course, is that current holders of bitcoin do not believe it’s in a bubble. Yet. On Wednesday, bitcoin was trading at $7,200, having risen more than seven-fold since the start of the year. Last week, it hit an all-time high above $7,800. But gauging investor sentiment when it comes to cryptocurrencies has been tricky, as there is a dearth of available data on holders and holdings. LendEDU  in a November survey  polled some 564 Americans who have invested in bitcoin to get a clearer picture of the current sentiment and future expectations of bitcoin investors. Surveys like this, however, should be taken with a grain of salt, as people have a tendency to say one thing but act the opposite way about investing, especially during major drops in prices. Still, the survey ha...