The one good thing that has come out of the recent so-called BCH hash war is that the original Bitcoin is back—now in the form of Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision).
Bitcoin SV is the only cryptocurrency with a blockchain that massively scales; it’s the only one that has utility value and the one that can do it all. At the CoinGeek Week Conference, taking place at The Mermaid at Puddle Dock in London, CoinGeek founder Calvin Ayre explains how BSV is set to take over and replace other non-scaling platforms, and then also grow utility value.
“I believe firmly that the business models of all the alternative coins, the ICOs and the digital gold and whatnot are actually not real business models and that they actually, it’s a bit of an illusion or a mirage that is being sold to people, and people who don’t understand how this stuff works are being sold a bill of goods. I think one positive outcome of the hash war is the fact that people were forced to focus on the technical choices in front of them, and I think a lot of people got educated on what the differences are,” he said. “The only one that’s got a sustainable business model, that can have growth and take enterprise investment is Bitcoin SV, which is the original Bitcoin. It’s the original economic model.”
The CoinGeek Week Conference is the perfect place to hear from thought leaders about the implications of the world’s first Bitcoin Hash War fought according to Nakamoto Consensus. The three-day conference, with a special invitation-only Miners Day kicking off the week’s events, is important for anyone already involved in crypto, as well as those looking to get started. As the only cryptocurrency that is being developed to truly serve as a digital currency, Bitcoin—now in Bitcoin SV—has the most potential to make a difference in the retail industry.
Ayre said, “This is about learning, but it’s also about planning. We’re getting a lot of thought leaders together here to plan how to move ahead to actually finally show what the power of the economic model is in Bitcoin. Because now the people that were kneecapping the business model aren’t here anymore so from that perspective, there’s a lot of euphoria about the opportunities and a lot of planning going around it, but it’s also a celebration of sorts. I mean, it’s the 10-year anniversary now of the birth of the original Bitcoin and it’s also ironically the rebirth birthday, so instead of having two birthdays like what we thought we had with BCH and BTC, we’re back to having one. And that one birthday is the birth of Bitcoin because Bitcoin SV is Bitcoin.”
There’s still time to secure your seat to the last day of CoinGeek Week, where a major announcement is about to be made. Don’t be stuck on the sidelines watching as history is made at CoinGeek Week Day 3, buy your tickets to the conference via Eventbrite today.
The post Calvin Ayre: The only one that’s got sustainable business model is Bitcoin SV appeared first on Coingeek.
在考虑任何具体的首次公开上市时，退一步思考并提出最基本的问题将大有裨益。公司究竟为什么要上市？最初为什么会出现资本市场？出售一家公司的股票有什么意义？当然，答案就是为了筹措资金并最终将其重新投资到公司的发展之中，而代价就是与众多股东共享利润。
人们期待已久的Bitmain IPO即将到来，而投资者也许希望退后一步思考，同样向自己
提出这些最基本的问题。首先，Bitmain为什么决定上市？我们可以一如既往给出一个标
准答案，其中一定程度上也会包括一些真实信息。比如说，Bitmain希望筹措资金来发展
公司，这是完全合法的。但对于Bitmain来说，有些情有可原的情形使其不得不去进行IPO，而这对于初期投资者来有可能存在风险。
比如说Bitmain的资产负债表。您可以在Bitmain向香港证券交易所提交的申请版本的
第216页找到它。截至6月30日，公司持有价值8.87亿美元的加密货币。其中大多数为比特币现金（BCH）。6月30日，比特币现金的美元价位为大约728美元，这意味着Bitmain大约持有比特币现金市场资本的7%，超过了比特币现金的24小时平均交易量。而Bitmain仅持有（截止至6月20日）3.43亿美元的现金或现金等价物。
由于Bitmain是最初从事生产、推广私有去中心化货币的大型公司之一，注定会遇到一些其它产业中的任何公司从未遇到过的财务问题。最为明显的问题之一就是，它如何收取服务费？当然，完全以现金支付是个很好的选择，但如果Bitmain不接受以自己实际上正在推广的加密货币付款，实质上就会自相矛盾。
为此，Bitmain接受用加密货币付款购买其挖矿硬件和ASIC芯片，这正是为什么它积累的加密货币越来越多，此外还有内部挖矿运营中所产生的收益。但怎么处理这些加密货币呢？无论加密货币支持者有多么坚定，但现实在于加密货币并不具备现金的流动性。现金的基本特点之一就是流动性，使其在完成任何大小的交易之后继续保持相对价值。只要缺乏流动性，那就仅仅是一种资产或保值手段，而不能发挥现金的作用。在某种程度上，这一类别包括了大多数商品，并不需要大费周折地讨论。事实就是如此。举例来说，石油。短短不到六周的时间就下跌了23%。再过六周石油的价位是多少，没人知道。世界各地各行各业都在使用石油，但是它却不是现金。
在加密货币真正成为现金之前，可能还需要许多年，Bitmain仍然需要面对这个复杂的问题。如果Bitmain想要筹措资金，要么拒绝接受使用加密货币购买自己的产品、只接受现金，要么出售加密货币变现。第一种方法会让Bitmain看起来虚伪无比，而第二种方法会极大地损害其资产负债表。因此只有另一种选择——首次公开上市。
这本身并不是一种危险信号。如果Bitmain必须通过上市才能融资，那没什么问题。但这会导致其它结构性问题，导致这次首次公开上市面临风险。让我们来看一看为什么。
当Bitmain三分之二的流动资产（根据最初财务报表公布之后比特币现金价位波动推断得
出）流动性较差时，如何避免资产负债表出现大幅波动？或者，由于Bitmain无法一次性出售比特币，因为这样会导致其大部分资产的市场价格崩溃，那么Bitmain是如何将比特币现金作为直接现金呢来使用呢？那就要采用一些财务技巧。根据其上市前发布的财务报表，Bitmain将加密货币记为“成本，而不是在每个会计参照日重新评估加密货币的公允价值，以期避免加密货币价位短期内出现大幅波动，这有可能会歪曲我们的运营结果以及财务状况。” 这情有可原，但当加密货币的价值出现大幅波动时，如何将这种波动记入损益呢？减去净处置收益并将其作为处置日的总体损益。
换句话说，Bitmain在这里白纸黑字地披露的是，只要它不出售加密货币，那么这些货币就以购置日期的价值记入资产负债表（对于Bitmain来说，其持有的比特币现金价值要高于当前的市场价位）。出售这些资产，它就必须披露账面损失。持有这些资产，严格意义上来说，资产负债表看起来仍然很好，因为这掩盖了价格波动。
当然，这些风险必须加以管理。但在Bitmain IPO申请第179页的加密货币风险管理一章中，
并没有多少实质性的内容。一般来说，这类波动资产的风险管理要包括期权或者期货对
冲。假设某家航空公司希望控制航空燃油价格的波动性，则可以在价位较低时买入看涨期权，或在价位较高时买入看跌期权。或者某家希望控制利率风险的公司会进行利率掉期交易来固定浮动利率借贷成本。然而，这里的问题在于使用加密货币衍生品来控制资产本身的风险并不可行，因为购买足够数量的衍生品来控制资产本身的风险会让资产价格向不利方向发展。缺乏流动性的问题依旧不变。切实的风险管理根本不可能。Bitmain将其风险管理策略概括如下：
我们的财务部会每天监控正常运营所收加密货币的市场价格波动量，并且根据公司运营以及现金流需求建议管理团队将加密货币兑换为标准货币。
言外之意，Bitmain实际上是说它只能为了满足运营和现金流需求才会将加密货币兑换为标准货币。这里没有提到的是它不能出售加密货币来筹措资金去发展公司 。当然，如果
Bitmain需要筹集发展资本，它不能出售其持有的大部分比特币现金（BCH），因为任何大规模的出售行为很有可能会导致其主要资产比特币现金（BCH）的市场价格下滑。Bitmain陷于两难之地，这也是它需要首次公开上市的原因。面前没有其它道路可选。
但是这还会导致另外一个结构性问题。整个加密货币行业得以壮大的政治原因就在于去中心化。这是加密货币如此令人兴奋的原因。这是加密货币如此与众不同的原因。这也是加密货币具有划时代意义的原因。但这也是使得加密货币成为对于像Bitmain这样的市场领导者的一把双刃剑。进入加密货币挖矿设备制造以及挖矿活动本身的门槛几乎已经不复存在。几乎没有任何许可证要求。人们不需要投入数百万美元来申请一张人为导致稀缺的许可证才能开始运营。
在主流行业中，市场主导者一直游说政府施加更多的管制与保护，实质上就是建立起一道保护网来将竞争者排除在外。对于Bitmain或任何在这一行业中力争上游的竞争者来说，能采取这种做法的可能微乎其微。尽管各国政府可能会在不同程度上允许加密货币行业的存在，但政府与加密货币之间建立起共生关系（或寄生关系，取决于从哪一方的角度来看待这个问题）基本是不可能的事情。
再者，行业的客户群体十分集中、易于识别、并且相互联系。有效、高效地游说行业中有影响的人并不难。当然，这非常好，但同时这也让任何公司都无法占有过多的主导地位。
直到现在，Bitmain一直处于主导地位，但它从加密货币行业尚处于襁褓之中时起就一直发挥着主导作用。随着比特币现金成为真正的比特币，而其他竞争币逐步得到认可，其他公司将加入这场竞争——实际上许多公司已经置身其中。在市场最终恢复平衡之前，每家行业参与者的利润率只会越来越低。对于Bitmain来说，利润率已经大幅下降，从2016年的41%下降到了今年的26%。其他挖矿设备制造商逐渐壮大并参与竞争，例如Canaan、eBang、Whatsminer以及其它厂商，Bitmain的利润率还将进一步下滑。
Bitmain的IPO估值将基于其未来的增长预测，而这主要基于它已经披露的财务信息以及过去在整个行业刚刚起步并且进入前所未有的阶段时所披露的信息。Bitmain作为先行者之一最初取得的巨大成功不可能长期延续下去。无论从最初市场竞争的角度来看，还是从加密货币的中期价位来看，闪电战的时代已经终结。如果Bitmain初期获得市场资本是由于早期的增长预测，那么随着主流投资者开始意识到这样的增长率无法长期维持时，其股价将会开始下滑。
哈希算力大战带来的风险
对于Bitmain及其IPO，让财务状况变得更有风险的是，Bitmain正在准备就11月15日比特币现金协议升级打一场代价极为昂贵的哈希算力战争。这场哈希算力大战将会让Bitmain面临耗费更多现金或加密货币储备的危险。
在即将到来的比特币现金哈希算力大战中，Bitmain站在Bitcoin ABC的阵营。Bitmain从比特币现金诞生以来一直支持长期处于领导地位的比特币现金（BCH）全节点实现。然而，
由于Bitcoin ABC技术路线图寻求改变最初的比特币协议，CoinGeek（最大的比特币现金
挖矿组织）对此持不同意见，转而支持新兴的比特币现金实现竞争对手Bitcoin SV。 Bitcoin SV，意为比特币“中本聪愿景”（Satoshi Vision），旨在实现中本聪最初在比特币白皮书和协议中描述的愿景。与ABC等其它竞争比特币现金实现不同，Bitcoin SV的路线图是恢复最初的中本聪协议，让其保持稳定，使其可以实现大规模扩容，并且给大公司信心去进一步发展壮大比特币现金。
在这场大战中，与CoinGeek一道支持Bitcoin SV的还有一家主要区块链研发公司nChain，
其拥有自己的下属挖矿组织BMG Pool。nChain首席科学家克雷格·怀特博士（Dr. Craig Wright）的个人项目SVPool以及新矿池Mempool均支持Bitcoin SV。根据Coin.dance公布
的数据，截至2018年11月12日，比特币现金的总挖矿哈希算力中，大约62%到72%支持Bitcoin SV。因此，在即将到来的哈希算力大战中，Bitcoin SV已经获得了超过了自己所需的绝对多数算力支持。
据报道称，Bitmain正准备启用位于新疆的矿机，数量在9万甚至15万台之多，而在哈希算力大战中将用其支持Bitcoin ABC。如果这一报道属实，人们一定想知道已经向Bitmain
订购的矿机但尚未收货的客户听到自己购买的设备将被Bitmain挪作他用后感受如何。
此外，有消息称，Bitmain将“租赁”或补贴临时哈希算力来从比特币网络迁移至比特币现金网络，从而在哈希算力大战中为Bitcoin SV提供更有力的支持。这些租赁哈希算力将来自
Bitmain控制的比特币矿池（Antpool和BTC.com）或与其关系密切的矿池（BTC.top）。如果矿工在哈希算力大战中转而挖掘比特币现金所获得的收入要低于留在比特币网络中原本可获得的收入，就要求Bitmain每天支付数百万美元来补贴矿工。 CoinGeek与nChain已经宣布在这场哈希算力大战中将坚持到底，从而捍卫最初的比特币愿景。因此，如果Bitmain每天支付数百万美元来租赁比特币哈希算力来推动其对比特币现金的理念，很快就会耗尽数千万美元的现金或加密货币储备。这笔钱当然要来自于之前的投资者或者Bitmain股东拥有权益的资金，而Bitmain需要履行受托人责任来正确地管理资金。
Bitmain IPO未来的投资者不大可能愿意用自己投入的资金来支持一只加密货币的持久战，
而Bitmain的经营支持着多种加密货币。
因此，这场哈希算力大战将发生在Bitmain及其IPO极为脆弱的时刻，而Bitmain的投资者和股东应当提出这样一个简单的问题： Bitmain改变比特币现金的理念是否如此重要，以至
于可以去冒着风险在未来长时间内耗尽其巨大的现金与加密货币储备。
结论
一家核心加密货币公司发起IPO的概念本身就会带来一些利益冲突。一家挖掘私营去中心化货币、与政府中央银行管制相竞争的公司运用中心化政府管制市场去筹措现金，会让人心里感觉不是滋味。您越是坚信比特币现金是未来的货币，就更难以去解决这种两难之局。
Bitmain需要IPO，但却质疑整个加密社区是否需要这种融资机制。未来一两年中，这种二元论的结论将变得更加显而易见。
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Bitmain首次公开上市（IPO） 带来的危机以及Bitmain在比特币现金哈希算力大战中的战斗 appeared first on Coingeek.
When thinking about any specific initial public offering, it’s helpful to take a step back and ask the most basic of questions. Why do companies go public at all? Why are there capital markets in the first place? What’s the point of selling shares in a company? The answer is, of course, in order to raise money that will ultimately be reinvested in growth at the price of sharing profits with stockholders.
The long-anticipated Bitmain IPO is imminent, and investors may want to take a step back and ask themselves the same basic question. Why is Bitmain going public in the first place? We can always just give the standard answer that no doubt has some truth to it. Bitmain wants to raise money to grow the company, and that’s perfectly legitimate. But in the case of Bitmain, there are extenuating circumstances that make an IPO almost imperative, and that could be dangerous for initial investors.
Consider Bitmain’s balance sheet. You can find it on page 216 of their Application Proof to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As of June 30, 2018, the company held USD $887M worth of cryptocurrencies. Most of that is held in Bitcoin Cash (BCH). On June 30th, the USD price of BCH was around $728, which means that Bitmain holds about 7% of the BCH market cap, more than the currency’s average 24-hour trading volume. Bitmain only held (as of June 20) $343M in cash or cash equivalents.
In mainstream industries, market leaders constantly lobby for more and more government regulation and protection that basically builds a protective wall to keep out competitors. It is highly unlikely that Bitmain, or any other contender for market leader in this industry, will be able to do this. While governments may tolerate the cryptocurrency industry to a greater or lesser extent, a symbiotic (or parasitic, depending on what side you’re on) relationship between government and cryptocurrencies is a nonstarter.
Further, the industry’s customer base is concentrated, easily identifiable, and interconnected. It doesn’t take much effort to advertise to the movers effectively and efficiently. This all is of course a wonderful thing, but at the same time it serves to keep any one firm from being too dominant.
Up until now, Bitmain has been dominant, but its dominance has only been through the infant bubble phase of the cryptocurrency industry. As BCH as the true Bitcoin and altcoins gain more acceptance, other firms will enter the fray – indeed many already are – and profit margins for everyone will start to fall until the market eventually finds equilibrium. For Bitmain, profit margins have already fallen substantially, from 41% in 2016 to 26% this year. They will continue to fall as competition from other mining rig manufacturers ramps up – such as from challenges Canaan, eBang, Whatsminer, and more.
Bitmain’s IPO valuation will be based on growth projections that will be based on the financial disclosures it has already made, disclosures based on the past, on the beginning of an entire industry in the rare phase when it was on fire. Its initial wild success as one of the first movers in mining are unlikely to be sustained long term. The blitz is over, both in terms of the initial lack of competition, and in terms of the price of cryptocurrencies themselves in the medium term. If Bitmain’s initial market cap is based on growth projections using its early growth figures as a starting point, its share price will likely start to deteriorate as mainstream investors begin to realize that those growth figures are unlikely to be sustained.
Hash War Dangers
Making financial matters even more risky for Bitmain and its IPO, Bitmain is preparing to fight a very expensive hash war over the BCH protocol, which will upgrade on November 15. This hash war could lead Bitmain to perilously deplete even more cash or cryptocurrency reserves.
In the upcoming BCH hash war, Bitmain is backing Bitcoin ABC, the historically lead full node implementation for BCH which it has been supporting since the BCH was birthed However, due to disagreements with Bitcoin ABC’s technical roadmap which seeks to change the original Bitcoin protocol, CoinGeek (the largest BCH miner) is backing a new competing BCH implementation called Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin SV, which stands for Satoshi Vision, is designed to fulfill the vision set out by Satoshi Nakaomoto’s original Bitcoin white paper and protocol. Unlike other competing BCH implementations such as ABC, Bitcoin SV’s roadmap is to restore the original Satoshi protocol, keep it stable, enable it to massively scale, and allow major businesses to confidently build on top of BCH.
It has been reported that Bitmain is preparing to activate 90,000 to even 150,000 new mining rigs in Xinjiang, and itself operate them to support Bitcoin ABC in the hash war. If that is true, one must wonder whether customers who have ordered mining rigs from Bitmain but have not yet received new rigs will be happy to know units are being re-directed for Bitmain’s own purposes.
The hash war comes at a fragile time for Bitmain and its IPO, and should make Bitmain’s investors and shareholders ask this simple question: is Bitmain’s ideological view of changing BCH so important as to risk depleting huge amounts of Bitmain’s remaining cash and cryptocurrency reserves for a long period of time?
Conclusion
The concept of an IPO for a cryptocurrency mainstay is itself something of a conflict of interest. A company in the business of mining decentralized, private currency that competes with government central-bank-controlled fiat, itself utilizing centralized government-regulated markets in order to raise fiat cash, can leave a sour taste in your mouth. The deeper you believe in BCH as the future of money, the harder it is to square the circle here.
Bitmain needs this IPO for itself, but it is doubtful that the broader crypto-community needs it as a whole. In a year or two, that dichotomy may become glaringly evident.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post The Dangers of a Bitmain IPO and Bitmain’s Fight in the BCH Hash War appeared first on Coingeek.
Ideally, it should be quick, clear, and decisive. There’s talk of a long protracted hash-war, and I wanted to illustrate the circumstances in which such a thing can happen and what it would mean for the eco-system.
Dragging this out is in nobody’s interest. But the reality is that there indeed is a chance of this occurring. It may not be likely, but the possibility is there.
There are two ways I see this playing out.
The first scenario is straight forward. Both camps put all their resources up-front and forward, and we wait out to see the winning competing chain. The real trouble with this measure is that there is no definitive block count that settles a winner. But this scenario does make the assumption that whoever takes the lead early, will continue with this mining power and therefore maintain the lead.
The outcome would then look similar to the graph below:
The x axis is intentionally omitted here since the time-line on determinations is rather subjective. But suffice to say that the longer the period, the clearer the winning team of the longest chain becomes.
The possibility of the second scenario, complicates the first however. There have been rumours for example, stating that Bitmain may employ intermittent hash bursts, borrowed or rented from elsewhere (ie. A BTC pool) to ensure their chain stays ahead. I’m not here to comment on the validity of these rumours. They are at this stage, rumours, and until the hashwar is underway, we probably won’t know with certainty. But they do present a dilemma in calculating the victor.
The outcome would look something more like this:
Camp 1 in the above diagram employs an early mining effort with borrowed hash to get ahead and attempt to declare an early victory. The borrowed hash effort ends, and if Camp 2 truly has more dedicated hash, then it would begin to claw its way back to a longer chain. As Camp 2 threatens, it would re-employ the same strategy to remain in front.
This can oscillate indefinitely, and it would be a scenario that nobody would want. For many the oscillating lead would be insufficient in declaring a clear winner, and further, it has the potential to not only affect the wait time on exchanges halting withdrawals, but also, create more uncertainty for merchants, and as well as even more inconsistent block confirmations.
Coingeek is hoping that dedicated hash is used alone to settle the score. To find a victor early on and then move forward with building BCH to be a global currency. It is in part one of the reasons why Calvin Ayre referred to this possibility as market manipulation.
My personal position on this hash battle is that the longest chain should settle things once and for all. We have so much to gain, and ironically, so much to lose. I asked Calvin on his position should ABC win the hash battle, and he responded “If ABC win, then I will follow and constantly work on striving to make future changes for the better.”
I felt this was a very level headed response. If we keep saying BCH is Bitcoin, then hash power decides. The argument that hash power decides BTC is technically Bitcoin is mute simply for the fact that BTC is not even cash. It is a Frankenstein project now designed to be something else entirely different. Roger had the perfect tweet in response to this:
Being the chain originating from the genesis block with the highest accumulated proof of work is only one of the metrics that makes Bitcoin Bitcoin.
Edit and decide for yourself which has more Bitcoin-ness: https://t.co/lldt4n2W4C pic.twitter.com/FnZGye39cF— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) April 27, 2018
At Coingeek we maintain that BCH is Bitcoin, and we will continue to fight for it to remain Bitcoin.
Eli Afram
@justicemate
The post Will this be a protracted hash-war? appeared first on Coingeek.
We have heard from multiple sources close to Bitcoin mining manufacturer Bitmain that the company is no longer receiving chips from its chief supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Bitmain’s account with TSMC is reportedly in arrears to the tune of over $300 million. Bitmain owed TSMC $1 billion but could only manage to pay $700 million and is unable to pay the remaining debts.
This news comes just two months after market research firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co published a report suggesting the Chinese ASIC manufacturer’s prospects were so dire that TSMC should abandon favourable credit terms with Bitmain.
We have yet to receive a response from TSMC regarding Bitmain’s debts, but our sources tell us that it’s unlikely TSMC will continue to do business with Bitmain even if they are able to make their debt payments.
“If TSMC continues to do business with Bitmain, they’ll require a good behaviour bond. Their chips will slow to market as they won’t start work until they’ve received payments for future orders in full.”
Allegedly, Bitmain is contemplating reaching out to Korea’s Samsung to make a chip deal, but such a deal would likely be dead in the water as Samsung has no interest in working with any company that has burned their past suppliers.
According to our source, Bitmain’s CEO Jihan Wu is running out of time to pay off the company’s debts. With close to a quarter of a billion dollars owed to other accounts, he has less than six months to make his creditors whole.
The company’s IPO seems more in doubt by the day as analysts have picked apart the misinformation contained in their prospectus.
Hash war rages on
In his effort to win the current hash war happening on the BCH chain, Wu is apparently renting hash power from BTC miners (such as those in pools controlled by Bitmain – Antpool and BTC.com) and moving that hash temporarily to the BCH chain.
As a result, when one of these mercenary miners mines a block, Bitmain must pay them in BTC coins (which are guaranteed to be liquid), rather than in BCH coins. The amount paid in BTC would be the approximate monetary amount a miner would have earned (12.5 coins in block reward and transaction fees) if their hash was still mining on the BTC chain, plus some incentive amount for temporarily renting their hash.
While Bitmain could receive back the BCH block rewards mined by that rented hash, the BCH payouts will be worth significantly less in monetary value than what Bitmain will be paying out in BTC. With BCH currently in the US$550 range and BTC a little over $6200, this hash-renting is very expensive, could easily cost Bitmain millions of dollars per day, and will only exacerbate Bitmain’s massive debt load.
We’re watching the beginning of the end for the once mighty Bitmain. The group that was the dominant force in the crypto industry is now burdened with corporate and personal debt, losing suppliers and clinging to the hopes their wormhole boondoggle pays off.
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Malaysia-based GoByte has launched its GoByte Pay mobile app that allows merchants to accept Bitcoin Cash (BCH) without incurring fees.
The app, available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play for Android, is also designed for customers paying with their digital wallets. It also facilitates transfers between a user’s wallets, and provides an easy-to-view transaction history.
Among security features are Touch ID and Face ID options, in addition to password-protected accounts.
The app also provides synchronized access between desktop and mobile versions; QR code payments; live conversion of various currencies and displaying of one’s current balance in U.S. dollars; a built-in address book; and push notifications.
In an email to CoinGeek, the GoByte team confirmed that Bitcoin BCH is one of the first crypto coins that will be integrated in the payment system.
GoByte CEO Hisyam Nasir said, “GoByte’s mission is to be the leader in making cryptocurrency payments easier for users and merchants around the world, through the GoByte Pay platform.”
Nasir said development was still ongoing, noting, “We are developing a simple, powerful and adaptable platform which includes features that small and large businesses require to accept and process cryptocurrency payments.”
Brad Nickel, Adviser for GoByte, said in a blog post that the company will be implementing additional components, such as multi-currency compatibility, easy to implement shopping cart functions, and improving overall functionality of its apps already out on the market.
Developers of the app are working to improve integration with point-of-sale (POS) terminals, which would support random switching between addresses, audio-visual indication of payments made, and offline functionality.
GoByte has signed an agreement with retail management solutions firm iVend to have GoByte Pay installed in iVend’s POS systems located around the world.
The company also said it plans to issue cryptocurrency debit cards, ATMs, and POS terminals.
Apart from its mobile and desktop payment app, GoByte has a cryptocurrency GBX, said to be “an enhanced version” of Dash, as well as an online wallet.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
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The Bitcoin BCH blockchain continues to show itself to be a versatile and strong platform. Not only is it behind the highly popular cryptocurrency by the same name, but the network itself has seen an extensive amount of developments lately that show how useful it is in real-world scenarios. Most recently, Donald Mulders, a dedicated Bitcoin BCH enthusiast, posted on Yours.org about his attempts to create a website on the blockchain, and requested some assistance. He found what he needed, and more, and the on-chain hosted Bitcoin Cash Hoarder is now live.
Explains Mulders, “I started playing around with an idea to see how far I could take it — The idea is to host a simple HTML website on the bitcoin cash blockchain that easily could be viewed in a browser so that even my own mother is able to view it as if it was just an ordinary website.”
He further offers, “Imagine if someone could publish sensitive information without the need for organisations such as [WikiLeaks], readable as a website for anyone in the world — This way anyone could publish information anonymously without endangering themselves or any middleman.”
After creating the idea, Mulders proceeded to create the site. It is a simple variation of the Snake game in JavaScript and was uploaded using cryptograffiti. The next step was to extract the data from the blockchain in order for it to be developed on a website, for which he used the BitDB platform to query the code. At this point, Mulders hit a brick wall and asked for some help, which is where unwriter stepped in.
Mulders was able to capture the attention of unwriter, who is behind several Bitcoin BCH projects, including BitDB 2.0. Using a tool called cryptograffitiweb, they were successfully able to create a simple HTML page tied to the Bitcoin BCH blockchain.
Explained unwriter, “I actually went ahead and wrote a simple web app that successfully renders [the HTML file].” He added that there it’s possible the site content may change, as it loads from the first transaction from that particular address. Nonetheless, it is still the first website hosted on the BCH chain in this manner. “And here it is… A website served from Bitcoin — Written in 5 minutes, with 59 lines of code,” exclaimed unwriter.
To see the site live, point your browser to the Bitcoin Cash Hoarder address. The source code for the site can be found in the Github repository for Cryptograffitiweb. While this early iteration of a Bitcoin BCH-hosted website may be a little clunky, it shows what’s possible with the blockchain. Having uncensorable webpages hosted on a network is a very big deal, and a huge advance for the technology.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post It’s now possible to launch a website on the Bitcoin BCH blockchain appeared first on Coingeek.
September 1 marked the day a massive stress test was done on the Bitcoin BCH network, and the results are in. Over 2.1 million transactions were registered on the network with a significant number of 10MB blocks—and some up to 21MB—being mined, with most of the 10MB blocks being mined by CoinGeek, the worlds first enterprise-level Bitcoin mining operation. The stress test was administered to verify the strength of the network prior to the upcoming hard fork scheduled for this November, and will more than likely turn into a regular annual event.
The number of transactions seen on the Bitcoin BCH network equates to 63% of all cryptocurrency transactions registered last September 1. It overwhelmed that of the second-most seen currency in the period, Ethereum, and was over 20 times that of BTC. According to Coin Dance, the number of microtransactions on the BCH network spiked to 14,300 per block. The average number for BTC is around 1,000 to 1,500.
As an added benefit, there was no increase in transaction fees. In fact, according to BitInfoCharts, the transaction fees actually dropped. They dipped from the normal average of $0.022 to $0.0017.
Jameson Lopp, software engineer and founder of bitcoinsig.com, was somewhat impressed by the results. He tweeted that the test had “succeeded in breaking various transaction and mempool visualizers.” In a separate tweet he posted more of the technical details of the stress test, pointing to some limitations. He said, “BCH Stress test recap: * Bottlenecks caused services such as the transaction generators to slow & error out, preventing mempool from exceeding 22 MB. * Largest block: 21.35 MB * Avg block size was ~3.6 MB: 11% of max capacity * 16% of Bitcoin ABC nodes dropped off the network.”
Not only did Bitcoin ABC have trouble keeping up, so did ViaBTC. This isn’t too much of a surprise, as Dr. Craig Wright had already predicted that the mining operation would not be able to function properly in a large-scale scenario and said that it couldn’t handle blocks larger than 8MB. As the information seen on blockchair.com confirms, ViaBTC didn’t mine any blocks above 7.999MB. For miners, it’s high time to upgrade to suppliers offering software that can scale as Bitcoin clearly scales already if you are working with the correct suppliers.
The stress test has also been successful for Bitcoin BCH’s price. It rose from $521 a week ago to hit $648 on September 1. As of this writing, it sits at $634.61, an increase of 2.78% over the past 24 hours.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Bitcoin BCH stress test a huge success, over 10MB blocks mined appeared first on Coingeek.
As part of his “We Are All Satoshi” series, Bitcoin BCH pioneer and supporter Rick Falkvinge has published his latest video. Falkvinge raises several good points about the motivation behind different cryptocurrencies and how these motivations impact the direction the currency takes. It all comes down to one fundamental question: Why are we here?
In perusing the various cryptocurrency forums, patterns of discussion begin to emerge. On the one hand, the BTC community has a propensity to discuss price, almost to the point of being obsessed with how the value changes from one minute to the next or how to make the biggest return on a BTC investment. On the other hand, the topics of concern in the Bitcoin BCH forums are more focused on the community and developing the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
While it may appear, then, that the Bitcoin BCH community is apathetic toward the price of the currency. It would almost seem as though the topic of price is being suppressed. However, as Falkvinge points out, this isn’t the case. Instead, there is a “collective disinterest.” The difference is that Bitcoin BCH proponents are more concerned with ensuring the development and survivability of cryptocurrency than they are with lining their own pockets.
In the early days of cryptocurrency, it seemed that supporters were breaking off into one of two camps—activists or entrepreneurs. Activists can live off of what’s available, while entrepreneurs want to make money. An entrepreneur who only wants to make money will only turn out to be an “acceptable entrepreneur.” Great entrepreneurs excel because they want to make a difference in the world. These types of entrepreneurs have a great deal in common with the activists.
Falkvinge’s rightfully points out that the number one “guiding star”—or prime directive, as he calls it—for cryptocurrency, in keeping with the original design created by Satoshi Nakamoto, is to employ the “create liberty through profit” motive. In other words, liberty comes first, profit is secondary. This is the complete opposite of the way the BTC community, which is singularly focused on making money, thinks. To them, it’s a status symbol, not a digital currency. This isn’t how you change the world.
This is why BCH community doesn’t care about getting rich. It is concerned about making things better. Falkvinge acknowledges what virtually all cryptocurrency enthusiasts think—that if it makes money in the process, it will be great. However, this is not, nor should it be, the primary goal of cryptocurrency.
Note: Tokens on the Bitcoin Core (segwit) Chain are Referred to as BTC coins. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is today the only Bitcoin implementation that follows Satoshi Nakamoto’s original whitepaper for Peer to Peer Electronic Cash. Bitcoin BCH is the only major public blockchain that maintains the original vision for Bitcoin as fast, frictionless, electronic cash.
The post Rick Falkvinge on why Bitcoin BCH is true driver of digital currency appeared first on Coingeek.
