THE MARKETS - BTC: $5,535.00 | -$791.77 (-12.51%) since last week
- ETH: $176.23 | -$31.88 (-15.34%) since last week
| | BITCOIN CASH
Bitcoin Cash has undergone a hard fork this week after unresolved deliberations on a number of key upgrades, and tensions are running high. Two of the largest Bitcoin Cash implementations (Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV) are at odds over which features to include, and as a result, a "hash war" has broken out.
Bitcoin SV is led by Craig Wright (of nChain fame), while Bitcoin ABC is supported by the controversial crypto influencer Roger Ver. Both implementations are incompatible with each other, which means that in theory, only one can continue to be the "real" Bitcoin Cash.
A hash war consists of two competing sides that are boosting their computing power in a bid to gain increased influence (and show support for) a preferred implementation, with mining power being used as a weapon to potentially kill off another blockchain.
This is done using a pooling of hash power resources, which are the total computing resources assembled by a group of miners in the interest of keeping a blockchain secure. If either side has more than 51% of the hashing power in Bitcoin Cash, the dominating side would, in theory, be able to launch debilitating attacks on the smaller chain. This represents a troubling turn of events for a community that's been equal parts competitive and collaborative in recent years.
Perhaps most important here is that neither side has implemented replay protection in the lead-up to the hash war. Replay protection is what allows traders to safely spend their funds when a fork takes place, and without it, any hard fork can quickly become a dangerous proposition.
A lack of replay protection means that both chains intent to keep boosting their hash rate until the other loses, with the victor becoming the "one true chain" for Bitcoin Cash traders. Crypto investors on the losing side stand to lose a lot of money, and that's part of what makes this war amidst a hard fork so risky.
On the exchanges front, most are already listing both Bitcoin Cash hard forks as trading pairs. Some (such as Poloniex) have suspended Bitcoin Cash trading altogether until the outcome is confirmed.
With a number of attacks that can be launched, both sides seem willing to fight to the death for the right to control Bitcoin Cash's future. While it seems likely ABC will emerge as the victor in this hash war, SV could still execute an attack to destroy ABC.
Both blockchains are being pushed to their limits, and it's a great way for the crypto community to see the pros and cons of each. To follow the hash war live, check out Hashware Live or read this primer on the battle. | | GOOD READS
The $799 Coinmine One looks like an Xbox that prints money
Crypto mining has long been the domain of hardware hackers and crypto enthusiasts, but that's about the change. The Coinmine One is the first crypto mining machine designed for the general public, and it's being funded by Coinbase Ventures and Arrington Capital.
The IMF's digital currency push isn't about crypto - it's all about centralizing banking
Despite giving a speech earlier this week on digital currencies, many suspect IMF head Christine Lagarde isn't really looking to adopt crypto as an international standard - but instead use it as a tool to centralize banking power yet again.
Here are some of the coolest enterprise Ethereum use cases by industry
Innovation in the Ethereum ecosystem has been on a tear as of late. This rundown analyzes the most exciting use cases for Ethereum in the enterprise space, ranging from supply chain management to energy and commodities.
Triggered by the Bitcoin Cash conflict, Bitcoin has reached its lowest value in a year
After news broke out of the coming "hash war" within Bitcoin Cash, the value of Bitcoin dropped below $5,500 for the first time since 2017. The decline dragged other cryptocurrencies with it, and earlier in the week the overall market dropped by 12% in less than 24 hours.
CoinDesk has just announced an entirely new way to explore crypto-economic data
CoinDesk's new Crypto-Economics Explorer is a game changer. It's a great way to track activity and interest in a given token, read news about hundreds of crypto projects, and analyze their economic properties at the click of a button.
Here's how Ethereum became the world's next supercomputer
Ethereum is rapidly surpassing Bitcoin as a usable platform for applications, and this piece outlines how that came to be - all the way from its inception in 2013, to its status as one of the leaders in crypto today.
Serious questions are being raised over Bitmain's profits after its IPO filing
Bitmain's IPO is just months away, but key investors are beginning to raise questions with the Bitcoin mining giant's leadership after profits stated in its IPO prospectus turned out to be far lower than those published during the company's pre-IPO funding round. | | COMMUNITY NEWS - Check out these 101 interesting facts about Bitcoin. Link
- Binance is going to list USD Coin, the USD-pegged stablecoin. Link
- Mike Novogratz's crypto firm is pivoting to tokenization of real estate. Link
- Binance Academy is now available in Spanish. Link
- Malaysia's CIMB is now partnering with Ripple on cross-border payments. Link
- KuCoin has just raised $20M in funding from a group of VCs. Link
- OKEx's parent company has launched support for crypto trading in Argentina. Link
- Binance just created the largest unspent transaction output existing today (but not all time) at 109k BTC (nearly $600M). Link
- International charity Oxfam formally launches blockchain rice tracker in Cambodia. Link
- COBINHOOD welcomes Jill Shih as CEO. Link
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is now officially a billionaire. Link
- Join Token2049 in Hong Kong from March 13-14, 2019. Link
- Ripple is hiring an Account Manager in Dubai. Link
- We just added 72 new crypto companies, 23 new ICOs, 6 new exchanges and more to CryptoList. Link
| | | |
