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Articles by Rupert Hackett
Bitcoin and Tether: Mortal Frenemies?
Anyone who has been in the cryptocurrency space for a little while has almost certainly heard something about Tether. It’s a hot topic, there are a lot of strong opinions, and the facts can be murky and difficult to sort out. What is Tether, how closely tied are Bitcoin and Tether, and what is all of the fuss about? First of all, there is Tether the company and tether, or USDT, the currency. (We’ll use uppercase for the company and lowercase or USDT for the currency going forward).
The Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining: An Exploration
2017 ignited a cryptocurrency boom that is showing no signs of slowing down. While mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and other digital currencies continues to rise, many people have started to question the environmental impact of mining. Critics have honed in on Bitcoin’s carbon footprint, arguing that mining is a huge waste of energy that is damaging to the environment. While resource consumption is a valid concern, it is important to look at the facts and put things in perspective.
Arsenal First Football Team to Use Cryptocurrency
When the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, Ripple could officially be termed the best performing cryptocurrency of 2017 with a 36,000% increase in value. But the start of 2018 put a different currency in the spotlight: XLM Lumens, the native currency of the Stellar network. The superior performance of XLM propelled Stellar up into the top 10 cryptocurrencies according to market capitalization.
JPMorgan CEO delivers bitcoin's 164th death notice
At the annual Delivering Alpha Conference on September 12, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon kicked up a storm by describing Bitcoin (BTC) as “a fraud” that “will eventually be closed.” He went further to warn that he would fire any JPMorgan staff member who traded bitcoins: “It [bitcoin] is worse than tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed.” This is the second time Dimon has predicted governments will stop bitcoin.
Bitcoin Cash: What you need to know
If you’ve been following the Bitcoin scaling efforts lately, you already know that the Bitcoin blockchain forked yesterday, giving birth to a new currency called Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The event was surrounded by quite a bit of uncertainty over how well the new currency would perform. Would it flatline for lack of support? How would it hold value compared to Bitcoin proper?
BitMixer shuts down to ‘make Bitcoin ecosystem more clean’
Bitcoin mixing service BitMixer announced Saturday that it was shutting down its operations effective immediately. In a statement on the Bitcointalk forum, the service’s administrator cited altruism as the reason for the action. He wrote: “I hope our decision will help to make [the] Bitcoin ecosystem more clean and transparent.
How ICOs Are Changing Startups and Investing - The Market Mogul
On July 1, Tezos, a startup building a blockchain with a self-governance mechanism included in its protocol, raised $222m in 14 days through an initial coin offering (ICO). Venture advisor, entrepreneur, and author William Mougayar, who organised the 25 May Token Summit in New York City, said of ICOs and the opportunities they provide to start-ups: Tezos is just one more name on a growing list of startups that have recently raised astronomical funds from the public through blockchain technology.
Why Bitcoin's value could get even more volatile
Bitcoin’s price could be in for a big drop, and that’s because the cryptocurrency is facing a potentially contentious upgrade to its core software in August. If you haven’t heard about the impending deadline for a “user-activated soft fork”, here’s the story: For close to six years, the Bitcoin community has struggled to arrive at a consensus on how to scale the 1MB block size to meet growing popularity and adoption.
How blockchains could save us from another Flint-like contamination crisis
After the city of Flint, Michigan, temporarily switched water sources in 2014, residents began to develop unusual medical conditions. The city later learned the water was contaminated with high levels of lead and other toxins. Flint has a population of over 100,000. At first, state and city officials, including the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, refuted the discovery and reassured residents the city water was safe for drinking.
How blockchains could save us from another Flint-like contamination crisis
After the city of Flint, Michigan, temporarily switched water sources in 2014, residents began to develop unusual medical conditions. The city later learned the water was contaminated with high levels of lead and other toxins. Flint has a population of over 100,000. At first, state and city officials, including the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, refuted the discovery and reassured residents the city water was safe for drinking.
'People prefer cash' -- and that’s good news for bitcoin
“Sorry, Bitcoin: Cash Is Still King Around the World.” So says an article that Time published in its money section last month. The article is based on research published by the International Journal of Central Banking (IJCB), which showed consumers around the world still prefer cash to electronic payment methods. According to the IJCB report: “Cash is still used extensively — particularly for low-value transactions.
The coming drop in new bitcoins doesn’t guarantee a price surge
Here’s what we’re all hearing: The number of new bitcoins getting into circulation every 10 minutes will halve from 25 to 12.5 on July 12 at 00:20:18, and the bitcoin price will surge as a result. Maybe it will surge a little. Maybe not at all. But it’s widely expected to rise. Indeed, many people are looking forward to seeing the value of their bitcoins grow by staggering percentages. Some are even planning to buy up additional coins as an investment before D-day.
Opposition to bitcoin isn’t unique. We've seen this before -- with a happy ending
Over the weekend, I found myself watching “Tesla: Master of Lightning,” a PBS production streaming on Netflix. From the story of Nikola Tesla, I saw parallels between his invention, alternating current (AC), and what bitcoin has been experiencing for some time now. On June 6, 1884, Tesla arrived in New York. The Serbian immigrant, who was from modern day Croatia, was thrilled to finally meet his hero, Thomas Edison, the renowned American inventor, who was the force behind direct current (DC).
Fear or greed: Why are Australian banks cutting off Bitcoin businesses?
Throughout 2015, Bitcoin exchanges, mining, and trading firms in Australia received letters from their bankers. The message was the same; the commercial banks were withdrawing their services. The banks gave little explanation for the move, but these termination of service notices set a dangerous precedent that other countries could follow. “Our members have been unable to obtain any formal clarification on the reasons for closure, except for references to policy or risk.
Bitcoin transactions jump following consensus on how to scale the currency
On the February 23, 2016, bitcoin saw the highest number of bitcoin transactions so far in a single day. According to a tracking graph on Blockchain.info, there were about 260,578 transactions in the day. The highest peak before this was in October, 2015, when about 241,346 transactions were carried out in a single day.
Bitcoin is not dying
Between last Thursday and Saturday, Bitcoin lost over 13% of its value to settle at below $365 for the first time since early December last year.
How banks are trying squelch Bitcoin's momentum
There is no question that Bitcoin is causing a lot of worry and hand-wringing in the banking sector — and in national governments uncertain of how to regulate it. It is, after all, a highly disruptive technology — one of very few alternatives the world has seen in centuries to creating and handling money securely and efficiently outside of the government and the bank.
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