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There are so many benefits to using a cryptocurrency, that it would seem foolish to neglect such an invention. For example, it allows you to send money anywhere in the world in an instant, with basically no fees involved. Everyone can be included in the financial system, it will change the way we interact with money, it can prevent fraud, and much more.
After more than five years of business, Dream is preparing to close its doors. The darknet marketplace (DNM) will shut up shop within a month, before relaunching under a new name and onion domain. The move has caused jitters within the darknet community, with buyers seeking reassurances that the site hasn’t been compromised by law enforcement.
Also read: 6 Popular Darknet Marketplaces That Accept Cryptocurrency
In the post-Silk Road era, Dream has came to be known as the darknet’s most reliable marketplace, both in terms of uptime and vendor reputation. It appeared to be impervious from law enforcement and from hackers seeking to extort money from the marketplace. In the last few weeks, however, Dream has suffered from intermittent service, with a determined DDoSer knocking the site offline. In a post shared on Reddit-like darknet forum Dread, Dream admins explained they were being extorted for $400K by the DDoSer, who has persisted with his attack for the past seven weeks.
Urging everyone to ignore the FUD suggesting the site had been compromised by law enforcement, Dream admins promised that the new-look market will be “as good as Dream.” As an infographic by the EU Drugs Agency shows, the number of scammy darknet markets has vastly exceeded the number of legitimate ones over the years. The loss of Dream has been hard to stomach for users, even if its replacement is promised to be every bit as good. Many customers rushed to withdraw their funds from Dream following the announcement, only to find the site had been knocked offline again, with pages loading sporadically.
The uncertainty over Dream’s impending closure has proved a boon to other DNMs, which have enjoyed an influx of buyers and vendors. Wall Street Market appears to have been the prime beneficiary; Point marketplace, meanwhile, has been suffering from its own bout of downtime. “I’m heartbroken,” wrote one Redditor in reaction to news of the darknet’s largest marketplace shutting shop. “I exclusively use Dream and it has never let me down.”
TMG has closed for registration while the whole Dream thing gets sorted out. The Hub has still not come back online. It's lights off in the dark web at the moment pic.twitter.com/QBCOt1Atf3
— Eileen Ormsby (the Darkest Web) (@EileenOrmsby) March 28, 2019
While Wall Street accepts BTC and XMR, Dream is powered by the two bitcoins – BTC and BCH. It is unclear whether its successor will retain the same format, both in terms of digital assets and wares. It’s also unclear how the move to a new onion domain will mitigate the DDoS attacks that have plagued the DNM of late. Buyers, many of whom use darknet markets to purchase narcotics, recall the time when law enforcement shut down Alphabay and then funneled users to Hansa, which they had also compromised. The latter served as a honeypot, and significantly increased the number of arrests while decreasing trust in the darknet’s opaque ecosystem.
There is nothing to suggest that Dream has been compromised, but until such a time as its replacement can launch successfully and rebuild trust, speculation will continue to mount. Will the domain earmarked for the rebranded Dream – weroidjkazxqds2l.onion – show the logo of the brand new darknet market leader when it launches? Or will it, as Silk Road did on the day of Ross Ulbricht’s arrest, show the logo of the Federal Bureau of Investigation? The DNM community shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
What are your thoughts on Dream’s closure? Let us know in the comments section below.
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The post The Darknet’s Largest Marketplace Is Closing – But a Replacement Is on Its Way appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Last summer, Bitcoin.com launched a developer suite so Bitcoin Cash (BCH) programmers could have access to a slew of resources, tools, and software development kits (SDK). At the time, the web portal contained three key tools for blockchain programmers: the Bitbox SDK, REST, and the GUI platform. Now, Developer.Bitcoin.com hosts two more SDKs so developers can build applications with Badger Wallet and the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP).
Also read: Mempool ‘Spam’ and Rising Fees: The Consequences of Veriblock’s Mainnet Launch
Bitcoin.com believes that BCH has the potential to change the world and provide people with economic freedom. On account of this conviction, our web portal provides resources, tools, and other helpful services so individuals and groups can dive right into this innovative industry that’s transforming our world. After providing a wide variety of resources for retail investors and newbies, last July we launched Developer.Bitcoin.com in order to provide assistance to the BCH development community. The service includes a bunch of tools that leverage the BCH blockchain to build decentralized and censorship-resistant applications. Initially, the software included on Developer.Bitcoin.com consisted of Bitbox SDK, REST, and GUI tools, but we’ve added two more SDKs to the mix.
The first is the Badger SDK which can act as a gateway to the world of BCH apps. Programmers can utilize the Badger API and provide website visitors with the ability to allow apps to request their permission to send BCH, send tokens, or authenticate with the Cash-ID protocol. Badger Wallet has become the BCH version of Metamask as it allows connections to a variety of BCH applications and tokens. For instance, it supports SLP tokens and has been easily integrated with popular platforms such as Satoshi Dice and Sideshift. The Chrome and Firefox-based Badger software has the ability to process micropayments and smart assets, fuel decentralized exchanges, and power distributed autonomous organizations. Badger is also connected to the Cash-ID protocol which can give users the ability to sign in to web pages and BCH-based applications and unlock content using their private keys. Developer.Bitcoin.com also hosts Badger React components that make integrating Bitcoin Cash into any project much easier.
Lastly, the development suite now has a Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) SDK so users can experiment with the SLP token universe. Ever since the launch of SLP cryptocurrency, people have been creating all types of tokens built on top of the BCH network. The SLP development kit provides programmers with a fully featured Javascript framework powered by Bitbox. This means developers will have access to everything they need to issue, spend or trade a token backed by the security of the BCH chain. The SLP framework is robust and extensible toward the light wallet ecosystem and programmers can apply multi-signature addresses and other Bitcoin script features with SLP tokens as well. Moreover, there’s a built-in console with REPL, Bitbox, and a Bitcoin Cash JSON RPC API. The SLP SDK is also coupled to REST, so no further setup is necessary.
There’s been a ton of new applications that use the innovation and security instilled within the Bitcoin Cash network and at Bitcoin.com we want to keep the momentum going. Developer.Bitcoin.com is designed to bolster the innovation and building happening in the cryptocurrency space and all of the resources are free. At Bitcoin.com we hope our developer platform will help you change the world by leveraging the benefits of the peer-to-peer electronic cash system we all love.
What do you think about Developer.Bitcoin.com? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Image credits: Bitcoin.com
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The post Supercharge Your BCH Workflow With Bitcoin.com’s SLP and Badger SDKs appeared first on Bitcoin News.
On March 29, the two largest mining rig manufacturers, Canaan Creative and Bitmain Technologies, announced the sale of their next generation devices that process the SHA-256 algorithm. Both firms are gearing up to sell the new products this spring as a slew of mining operations have been prepping up new facilities in order to take advantage of the wet season in China.
Also read: Mempool ‘Spam’ and Rising Fees: The Consequences of Veriblock’s Mainnet Launch
Bitcoin miners will be interested in the latest rigs that will be sold in the near future by the industry’s leading manufacturers. On Friday, Bitmain announced a sale date so the public can purchase devices from the Antminer 17 series which include the Antminer S17 Pro, Antminer S17, and the Antminer T17. The rigs will be sold globally on April 9, and come packed with Bitmain’s newly improved second generation 7nm ASIC BM1397 mining chips. During the announcement, Bitmain’s product manager of the latest Antminer series, Yangxin, revealed some details about the relationship between the company and the semiconductor foundry TSMC.
“The new miner offers a steep improvement in the hashrate in terms of space and power consumption,” Yangxin noted.
The BM1397 chips are produced using TSMC’s 7nm Finfet process and Yangxin claims the revamped 17 series will provide miners with 28.6 percent more efficiency than the previous 7nm equipped model using the BM1391. Yangxin stated that the future of mega-efficient SHA-256 miners will go beyond the 7nm scope. “From a technical point of view, there is no end to the development of technology. However, in the short run, the driving force behind the development of next-gen miners beyond 7nm chips is slowing down due to physical limitations,” Yangxin explained. The product manager continued:
With the nm size shrinking quantum effects, among other new challenges, come into play. It is promising that TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is already in the process of building 5nm chips.
Bitmain’s announcement does not reveal the new products’ hashrate but the previous Antminer S15 produces 28 trillion hashes per second (TH/s). The 17 series specifications will be available on the official website when the devices go up for sale. Yangxin did disclose that there is a noticeable performance improvement compared to the previous generation chip and the 17 series models have a “higher hashrate in a single miner.”
Following Bitmain’s announcement, Chinese firm Canaan Creative released information on the launch of its latest Avalon series. Canaan announced the new Avalonminer A10 on the company’s official Wechat account on Friday as well. Interestingly, Canaan’s ad says that the new miner will go on sale in March 2019, yet the official sale date is still unknown. Moreover, during the spring, Chinese miners have been flocking to Sichuan for cheap electricity during the wet season and mining operations have been buying up rigs for new facilities.
Canaan does reveal some of the specifications tied to the A10 device which include 31TH/s and power consumption of around 1736W off the wall. This means the machine boasts a possible 50W/T (watt per terahash) at max capacity. Other details such as the new Avalon rig’s price per unit are still unknown. The news follows rumors of Canaan reapplying for the company’s initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong because it expired. The finance publication Securities Times also reported that Canaan raised “several hundred million U.S. dollars” on March 11. Bitmain’s IPO application expired as well and the company has recently disclosed that the corporation will also attempt to go public again by reapplying.
What do you think about Canaan and Bitmain’s latest announcements concerning next-generation machines? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Image credits: Canaan Creative, and Bitmain Technologies.
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The post Manufacturing Giants Bitmain and Canaan Announce Second-Generation Miners appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Two companies from different parts of Europe have recently announced new products that cater to the financial needs of businesses in the crypto industry. The services range from opening bank accounts to providing payment processing solutions. Developers say they will give crypto companies the peace of mind they need to focus on their core activities without having to worry about banking.
Also read: Cryptojobs Is a Platform With 1,300 Vacancies in the Cryptocurrency Industry
Coinacquiring, a London-based consulting firm, has announced it now offers help in opening “crypto-friendly bank accounts” for companies in the sector. The corporate banking assistance will expand its portfolio, which already includes another sought after service, fiat-to-crypto payment processing provided to merchants accepting digital currencies.
The bank accounts will be available in multiple fiat currencies including British pound, euro, U.S. dollar, Swiss franc, and Japanese yen, along with many other currencies such as Czech koruna, Romanian leu and South African rand, for example. They will also support SEPA instant credit transfers and wire transfers via Swift.
Banking and payment processing services are in high demand in the sector and the company receives several requests a day as David Jones, senior payments consultant at Coinacquiring, told news.Bitcoin.com. Jones believes banks turn the crypto businesses away because they don’t fully understand how to evaluate risk in the crypto industry.
To provide more security and stability to cryptocurrency merchants, Coinacquiring maintains relationships with a number of traditional financial institutions. “We have several Tier 1 European banks we work with and also options with smaller banks further afield,” the company representative assured.
Coinacquiring charges a fixed $500 account opening fee and additional fees are negotiated directly between the merchant and the respective bank. Jones added that these processing rates typically tend to be between 3 and 5 percent.
“We know how difficult fiat to crypto payment processing can be to set up,” David Jones was quoted as saying in a press release sent by the company earlier this week. “We want to create a space where crypto businesses can focus on building exciting products and technologies instead of having to worry about whether their banking infrastructure is reliable or not,” he emphasized.
Coinacquiring also offers assistance with opening foreign exchange accounts, although this service is not that frequently requested. “As an extension to this we will look to provide some treasury management solutions for exchanges working in multiple fiat currencies. However, this is a few months off,” Jones explained.
The consultant noted that there are currently plenty of crypto-to-fiat payment processing options and Coinacquiring wouldn’t be filling a void if it decided to offer this kind of service too. “As we grow I guess it makes sense to include this for completeness more than anything else,” Jones remarked when asked about the company’s plans for the future.
Meanwhile, a new crypto-to-fiat payment processing system has been developed in Eastern Europe, despite strong existing competition in this niche. One of the established companies in the field, Paytomat, already has a network of merchants accepting cryptocurrencies using its services for instant conversion to local fiat. Their clients are based in a dozen countries around the world, from Ukraine to Venezuela.
Now Synell, an IT company headquartered in Belarus and with offices in Russia and the U.S., is promoting its offering to the growing market, its software capable of processing direct crypto payments and converting digital coins to fiat money for businesses that wish to provide their customers with the option to pay with cryptocurrency.
The platform, called Acquiring, can accept payments in three major digital currencies – bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). The developers note, however, that support for other coins can be added upon request from interested parties. The team has also developed an API and a mobile application that enables users to receive payments directly at their store checkout.
The software package is now up for sale and offered to companies that would like to invest more time and effort into its further development and integration, Synell CEO Denis Gorskin told news.Bitcoin.com. The crypto payment processing platform, which costs $18,000, was originally designed for Russian clients but it can be adapted to any other market and already has an English-language version.
Do you think the launch of new services designed specifically for crypto companies indicates that the industry is recovering? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. 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 content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.
The post New Crypto-Friendly Banking and Payment Services Launch in the UK and Russia appeared first on Bitcoin News.
The number of travel websites accepting cryptocurrencies has been growing with the popularity of digital coins. One well-established platform, Bitcoin.travel, now supports payments in seven cryptos, including bitcoin cash (BCH).
Also read: Cryptojobs Is a Platform With 1,300 Vacancies in the Cryptocurrency Industry
Bitcoin.travel works with businesses from the travel industry willing to accept decentralized digital currencies for their services. On the platform, which is available in dozens of languages, users can search for flights, hotels and rentals offered by numerous partners around the world.
Starting originally with BTC payments, the travel site has expanded the number of supported cryptocurrencies to seven. Currently, it can also process incoming transactions in bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), ethereum classic (ETC), litecoin (LTC), dash and dogecoin.
Travelers can book a desired destination, accommodation or other service using their preferred cryptocurrency. The payment is accepted on confirmation but is transferred to the provider at least 24 hours after guests check in.
Businesses are welcome to list their places and services on Bitcoin.travel free of charge, providing a description, pictures and price rates. As per the terms of service, they can request a withdrawal of the due amount a day after the arrival of their customer. Payouts are made in BTC, BCH, ETH, and LTC.
What other crypto-friendly travel websites do you know or use? Share your experience in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned companies or any of their affiliates or services. 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 content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more.
The post Book Flights and Hotels With BCH and 6 Other Coins at Bitcoin.Travel appeared first on Bitcoin News.
India’s impending general election could affect the government’s process of regulating the crypto industry. A local lawyer has explained to news.Bitcoin.com how the election could impact regulations. According to the Indian Election Commission’s code of conduct rules, no new law can be passed during the election.
Also read: Indian Supreme Court Postpones Crypto Case at Government’s Request
India’s general election is approaching with the voting due to take place in seven phases between April 11 and May 19. The results will be announced on May 23. Explaining his interpretation of the law pertaining to how the election could have an impact on crypto regulation in India, lawyer Varun Sethi, founder of Blockchain Lawyer, told news.Bitcoin.com Saturday:
During election time in India, ‘aachar sanhita’ or code of conduct applies. Thereby no new law can be passed. Thereby we do not expect government to officially announce any regulation regarding cryptos or others.
Sumit Gupta, CEO of local crypto exchange Coindcx, also shared with news.Bitcoin.com that “According to the Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct, no major welfare policy decisions can be made once the dates for general elections have been set.” He elaborated, “Since the dates for the 2019 general elections have been made public, the government of India might be able to ‘postpone’ crypto-regulations until after the general elections.”
Sethi further noted, “Till the time the supreme court case is pending for [the] hearing, the government is shielded from making an announcement.” He also clarified that laws could be passed immediately after the results of the election are out since “The code of conduct applies prior to elections not post it.”
The Supreme Court of India gave the government four weeks on Feb. 25 to come up with a report on crypto regulation. The court expected to hear about the regulation on Friday from the interministerial committee headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. However, it adjourned at the request of the government’s counsel until July.
The Indian government has been drafting a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency for quite some time. Garg previously said on television that a draft crypto regulation would be ready in July last year. However, the government has yet to announce any form of regulation for the crypto industry.
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance told Lok Sabha that “the department is pursuing the matter with due caution,” adding that “It is difficult to state a specific timeline to come up with clear recommendations.” Nonetheless, the government told the supreme court during the February hearing that the panel was in the final stages of deliberations.
Sethi further shared with news.Bitcoin.com:
Post election, the government as a populist measure may consider adoption of new technology and cryptos could benefit from it. However that would happen only if the supreme court passes other than negative order.
Gupta remarked that crypto regulation is “a critical decision so it should not be taken in a hurry,” emphasizing that it is “best to take time to come up with a good regulatory framework rather than taking any wrong steps.” He asserted that the “election could be the most probable reason” for the supreme court’s decision on Friday “as everyone is busy with general elections … and no one wants to hurry in such a critical step.”
Meanwhile, Reuters reported Friday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has predicted an easy victory, believing that “his ruling coalition would increase its majority in India’s upcoming election, despite some independent analysts suggesting it could disappear due to discontent over lack of jobs and depressed farm incomes.”
How do you think the Indian election could impact crypto regulation? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse or support claims made by any parties in this article. None of the information in this article is intended as investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Neither Bitcoin.com 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.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the government of India.
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The post How India’s Election Could Impact Crypto Regulation appeared first on Bitcoin News.
🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧🛑🚧 Bitcoin Cash: Forked at Block 478558, 1 August 2017, For each 1 BTC you get 1 BCH Bytether: Cross for...