Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Happy 10th Bitcoin 🎂

October 31, 2018

Happy 10th Birthday Bitcoin, You Crazy... Whatever You Are

10 years ago, Satoshi, arguably the most famous anonymous person (or group of people) ever, released a paper describing Bitcoin.

On that day - October 31st, 2008 - a beast was born that would aim to completely revolutionize the way governments, institutions, and individuals interacted with each other financially.

In celebration of Bitcoin’s 10th birthday, we’ve decided to share 3 of the most fascinating features of the world’s first cryptocurrency.

Censorship Resistant

Described in the first sentence Bitcoin’s white paper, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that allows the transfer of value without the need to go through a financial institution. That means no government or company could block payments on the network - something they can do if they don’t agree with your transaction in the traditional financial system.

While many people around the world are privileged to live in countries with competent governments, some are not. In drastic cases, citizens cannot send money or interact with economies outside of their borders.

However, with Bitcoin, no single entity can inhibit the ability to transact. A liberty that some wouldn’t take for granted.

Scarcity

There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoins to ever exist. While new coins continue to be created from miners at this point in time, once the 21 million cap is reached, no more Bitcoins will be produced.

This was intentional. According to Bitcoin’s white paper, Bitcoin was made to be “inflation free” so that the value of Bitcoin could not be debased by governments that control currency circulation.

In some countries, inflation has gotten out of control and has left families holding large sums of their national currency that is now worth next to nothing.

Open-Source

Bitcoin is an open-source code that you, me, or anyone else in the world can contribute to. The project’s transparency is most likely a piece of what helped build so much loyalty within the growing crypto community.

This is contrast to the closed source codes that many companies use in their software. While companies try to protect their competitive advantage, customers can be on the short end of the stick.

For Bitcoin, however, code can be reviewed, discussed, and improved upon by anyone who wishes. This has allowed developers from all walks of life to rally around Bitcoin’s development in the last 10 years to bring it to where it is today.

Cheers to another decade Bitcoin

Well Bitcoin, you’ve made it to your 10th birthday. While in the last 10 years you have touched the lives of millions and have grown to over $100 billion by market cap, you still have much to accomplish.

Still, not too shabby for a 10 year-old.

NEWS

Coinbase Completes Another Funding Round, Now Valued at $8 Billion

Funding secured

Coinbase has just completed its Series E funding round, raising $300 million from a group of investors led by Tiger Global. This investment values the cryptocurrency exchange at $8 billion and brings its total funding to $525 million.

An $8 billion valuation is quite an uptick for Coinbase. The last time the company raised funding was back in 2017. At that point in time, investors valued Coinbase at $1.6 billion. The bear market does not seem to be effecting Coinbase.

Coinbase is now more valuable than all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

Putting the money to use

With new capital in its hands, Coinbase plans to accelerate its growth. The exchange has expanded its operations quite a bit in the past year but hopes to take its business to the next level.

Coinbase has a great presence in the United States, but is lacking in other parts of the world. A portion of this new funding will be used in efforts to expand the exchange's operations to additional countries, bringing fiat-to-crypto capabilities around the world.

Another area that Coinbase hopes to improve on is its lineup of coins. In comparison to most exchanges, Coinbase has very limited listings. This is due to regulations within the United States. The company foresees it adding 'thousands' of coins to its platform in the future and these new funds will propel that initiative.

IPO next?

Coinbase has long been rumored to be gearing up for an initial public offering. This Series E may be Coinbase's last go around in the private equity realm.

Going public would give Coinbase access to even more capital than it can get from venture capital. The exchanges private investors may be pushing the company to go public so that they can exit and cash out on their investment.

OPINION

Former Fed Chair Says She is "Not a Fan" of Bitcoin

Central banker against crypto, shocking

Janet Yellen, who served as the U.S. Federal Reserve chair from 2014 until earlier this year, recently spoke at the Canada Fintech Forum. Yellen took time during her speech to address cryptocurrencies, specifically Bitcoin.

The ex-Fed Chairwoman told the audience that she is "not a fan" of Bitcoin and provided a few reasons why she doesn't believe the king of crypto is a useful currency.

Yellen criticized Bitcoin for its price volatility and described it as a "highly speculative asset". In addition, she argued that Bitcoin is a risky investment that is frequently targeted by hackers. She continued her Bitcoin bashing by claiming "very few transactions are actually handled by bitcoin, and many of those do take place on bitcoin are illegal, illicit transactions."

A direct quote from Yellen's speech reads:

"It is one ... thought that for something to be a useful currency, it needs to be a stable source of value, and bitcoin is anything but. So it's not used for a lot of transactions, it's not a stable source of value and it's also not an efficient means for processing payments. It's very slow in handling payments."

BITS

But wait, there's more...

EY has announced a prototype that uses zero-knowledge proofs to allow companies to create ethereum tokens while keeping transaction private.
A legitimate-looking cryptocurrency price tracker app may also be monitoring users' keystrokes, according to Malwarebytes.
The chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) has affirmed that crypto exchanges should face no issues with banking provisions.

MEME