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Bitcoin's stellar run continues with prices leaping one major psychological hurdle after another. At 11:00 UTC today, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value reached a new lifetime high of $15,058, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) . In the last 24 hours, bitcoin (BTC) has appreciated by more than $2,000. As per  CoinMarketCap , gains are close to 19 percent over the same period. Prices have since dropped back slightly and stand at $14,562 at press time The primary theory about the astonishing rally being put forward by investors on  social media  is that bitcoin is pricing in the entry of big institutional money via the introduction of the first BTC futures products. Both  CBOE Global Markets  and CME Group are set to launch the new futures contracts on Dec. 10 and Dec. 17, respectively. With the notable shift in the industry, bitcoin may remain well bid at least until Sunday's listing of BTC futures on the CBOE. That said, the t...

Customers of  Square’s Cash app  have gotten a surprise in the past week. The app, which is used for payments between friends and is a competitor to Venmo, has also given them the option to buy or sell Bitcoin. A few rejoiced on Twitter — probably much to the delight of Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of the social media site. Few rejoiced on Twitter — probably much to the delight of Square CEO Jack Dorsey, who is also CEO of the social media site. since when can you buy bitcoin through  @SquareCash ?!”. “OMG! Just noticed I can now invest in Bitcoin using my Cash app! I seriously think this is my most useful app….ever,” tweeted another. A Square spokesperson said in a statement: “We’re always listening to our customers and we’ve found that they are interested in using the Cash App to buy Bitcoin. We’re exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out t...

Paul Krugman thought little of the Internet’s potential, predicting, “The growth of the Internet will slow drastically,” he wrote, “most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.” It’s fair to look back and acknowledge not everyone fully appreciates a technology at the time of its inception or early years. The same is true for Bitcoin, or will be. Mainstream accounts of Bitcoin range from terrifying criminal portrayals to a speculative mania rarely seen. While some of that is for sure going-on, the vast majority of Bitcoiners are people interested in a reliable payment system and a money that holds its value (or better). Leave the hype behind, both good and bad, and instead consider the basics of Bitcoin as a network and bitcoin as a money. Install a Wallet on Your Phone or Computer Think of it like electronic mail, email. You don’t really understand how it wo...

Although scant technical specifications have been made available regarding the rig, Samsung has reportedly claimed that eight Samsung Galaxy S5s can mine with superior energy efficiency compared to a standard desktop computer. The mining rig was unveiled during a recent Samsung developer meeting held in San Francisco. The rig is the brainchild of Samsung’s Creative Lab – an internal hub for innovation and development within Samsung that is located at the Samsung Digital City. Aside from the cryptocurrency mining rig, Samsung program has also seen an old Galaxy table turned into an ubuntu-powered laptop, and a Galaxy S3 smartphone repurposed to monitor a fishtank. The company has also utilized an old phone featuring facial recognition software as the basis for the home security system. Upcycling Software Available to All The company has pledged to make plans for the showcased projects freely available online, in addition to the software that allowed Samsung’s Creative Lab ...

A Bitcoin and Dollar notes are seen in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2017. A copy of bitcoin standing on PC motherboard is seen in this illustration picture, October 26, 2017. Picture taken October 26, 2017. REUTERS/DADO RUVIC Aggregate value of all cryptocurrencies hit a record high of around $184 billion on Wednesday, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, making their reported market value worth around the same as that of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley combined. The new peak came as the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, bitcoin, hit a record high of more than $6,500 BTC=BTSP. That took its own "market cap" - its price multiplied by the number of coins that have been released into circulation - to a record high just shy of $110 billion. The latest surge in bitcoin - which has seen an eye-watering increase of almost 800 percent in the past 12 months - was driven by news on Tuesday that CME Group (CME.O), the world's largest derivative ...

January 2016, I spent $3,000 to buy 7.4 bitcoins. At the time, it seemed an entirely worthwhile thing to do. I had recently started working as a research director at the Institute for the Future’s Blockchain Futures Lab, and I wanted firsthand experience with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that uses a blockchain to record transactions on its network. I had no way of knowing that this transaction would lead to a white-knuckle scramble to avoid losing a small fortune. My experiments with bitcoin were fascinating. It was surprisingly easy to buy stuff with the cryptocurrency. I used the airBitz app to buy Starbucks credit. I used Purse.io to buy a wireless security camera doorbell from Amazon. I used bitcoin at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles to buy graphic novels. November, bitcoin’s value had nearly doubled since January and was continuing to increase almost daily. My cryptocurrency stash was starting to turn into some real money. I’d been keeping my bitcoin keys on a web-based wallet, but ...

McAfee had perfectly captured the crypto enthusiasts’ sentiment. Blockchain technology has begun to erode governments’ control over money and will continue to do so. These governments has responded by lashing out in a form of crypto inquisition that parallels the American prohibition. We also learned that many bitcoin exchange executives were not allowed to leave China amidst the recent regulation rulings. Surprisingly, McAfee’s comments did not encourage fear, but inspired a strong sense of community among the crowd. He walked off the stage to a thunderous applause. Shape the Future also provided insights into an alternative view of Bitcoin not shaped by the mainstream r/bitcoin pages at Reddit. Both Jihan Wu and Roger Ver shared the view that the mainstream bitcoin media has been censoring any views that opposes that of bitcoin core and blockstream. Both speeches revolved around the strength of the larger block sizes in Bitcoin cash which makes it better for scaling...

The cryptocurrency was trading around $4,333 on Tuesday. The third quarter has been one of the most eventful in bitcoin's history. It is up over 74 percent in the September quarter, with a shifting landscape in regulation and developments in the underlying technology taking place in the last three months. Bitcoin faced record-high transaction times due to congestion on the network. To solve that, the amount of data that could be processed in one transaction needed to increase. But the community was divided on how to solve this. This resulted in a "fork" earlier this year that split bitcoin in two. Bitcoin remained, but a new crytocurrency called  bitcoin cash was created . On the core bitcoin network, an upgrade known as SegWit2X was implemented, which would help increase the transaction speed.  Bitcoin's market cap is about 10 times that of bitcoin cash. Since it started trading at the beginning of August, bitcoin cash has risen to nearly $900 before falling to...

The story of how a Brazilian man was able to use bitcoin to evade a corrupt judge’s extortionate demands has been published by  Panampost . The story recounts how Daniel Fraga was able to utilize a loophole stemming from Brazil’s lack of legal classification surrounding bitcoin to avoid a slew of arbitrary fines incurred through Daniel publishing media that was critical of a local Sao Paolo mayoral election. During the Brazilian 2012 local electoral season, Sao Polo citizen Daniel Fraga uploaded a video to Youtube that criticized a candidate running for mayor in Sao Jose dos Campos. The video expresses Fraga’s criticisms of the candidate for requesting the judiciary to mandate the removal of negative internet memes about his campaign from Facebook. Fraga’s video also focusses on the judge who empathized with the candidate’s request, going as far as establishing a fine for dissidents who circulate ‘offensive’ memes. Undeterred, Fraga continued to record videos detailing the situatio...

bitcoin: The Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain-based advancements in the payments industry were among the many themes explored at TRANSACT, a tech-centric, payments industry conference held on May 10–12 in Las Vegas. A panel discussion entitled “How IoT is Revolutionizing Payments” included a brief discussion regarding the emerging intersection between the Internet of Things and blockchain technology in this industry. On a similar trajectory as the blockchain, much attention has been given to the future of IoT, defined as an ecosystem of physical devices — from mobile phones to wearable tracking sensors — that gather and share electronic information with one another. Research firm IHS Markit (https://ihsmarkit.com/) estimates that 30.7 billion IoT devices will be communicating with one another by 2021. This complements a global blockchain technology market that’s expected to grow from $210.2 million in 2016 to $2.3 billion by 2021 according t...