Bitcoin UTXO Growth Hits New All-Time High, But What Does it Mean? @bitcoinist #Bitcoin #News #News teaser #btc #btc price #jameson lopp #UTXO

The Bitcoin (BTC) record is showing one indicator of extreme growth this year – the count of Unspent Transaction Outputs, or UTXO. This growth points to several potential explanations. UTXO Growth May Signal Coin Mixing Activity Each bitcoin transaction has the potential to generate UTXO, or “change”, which is then redistributed to a change address. Jameson Lopp showed that UTXO transactions are now happening more often, with a clear growth trend in 2019. Bitcoin's UTXO set rose from 49.6M to an all-time high of 64.5M, adding a net new UTXO every 2 seconds. https://t.co/temn8DGaEy pic.twitter.com/oz4dxRPBTj — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) December 30, 2019 What UTXO levels indicate may be a technicality in the way miners report them. Alternative explanations included the usage of mixers. Mixing coins can split the coins into multiple small transactions, then consolidate them. But the most bullish explanation is that small amounts of bitcoin is now used more often, while becoming more valuable. Hence the small amount of spent coins that move through the ecosystem seems to be growing, and the need for small change also increases. However, at the current prices, the levels of BTC usage is somewhat close to that of 2018, making the UTXO growth an even more mystifying anomaly. Additionally, most large-scale wallets hold onto the coins, and the current spike in transactions comes from coins dedicated for trading and active usage. We saw yet again in 2019 that the value of UTXOs consumed (spent) appears to be uncorrelated with bitcoin's exchange rate. Spending velocity averaged 16 BTC per second, barely more than 2018's 13 BTC per second. https://t.co/oQDgcJz4GO pic.twitter.com/60IyxKUUmK — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) December 30, 2019 Bitcoin transactions have grown almost continuously over the years, along with the wallets generated. But in 2019, bitcoin saw an increase in both small-scale wallets, and “whale” stashes of 1,000 BTC and above. Coin movements have also responded to market conditions almost immediately, with transfers growing as BTC prices went through short-term rallies. Bitcoin Indicators Evolved in 2019 Lopp, a Bitcoin maximalist, has tracked other indicators showing how bitcoin evolved in 2019. One of the factors saw mining grow to a highly competitive industrial activity. When it comes to network security, the Bitcoin protocol reached peak attack resistance this November, with the indicator worsening in the past month. The amount of time it would take for an attacker with 100% of the current hashrate to rewrite the entire bitcoin blockchain dropped by 100 days due to the accelerating hashrate in 2019 but has recovered half of that recently. https://t.co/fm3inll7uV pic.twitter.com/loyMHhAPq2 — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) December 31, 2019 If, hypothetically, a miner owned enough hashrate to match the current network, a deep reorg to write over the entire blockchain would still take months. The scenario may not be viable in the real world, but it shows the capabilities of bitcoin. Still, mining made impressive gains in 2019, going up by 162% and establishing China as a mining powerhouse. Bitcoin's network hashrate increased by 162% during 2019, from 38 to 100 exahash per second. https://t.co/fm3inll7uV pic.twitter.com/WiloJcJsk8 — Jameson Lopp (@lopp) December 31, 2019   Whatever the statistics, bitcoin remains an asset that is still discovering its price range, as well as use cases. The Bitcoin network has seen multiple anomalies, ranging from deliberate spam to secondary projects generating millions of small transactions for verification. The bitcoin space also has multiple new players, ranging from startups to crypto-based finance, and new whales may be made through trading. What do you think about BTC transactional activity? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @lopp The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/bitcoin-utxo-growth-hits-new-alltime-high-but-what-does-it-mean-5e0c9c8176237754012db638

Ripple exec builds platform for artists to sell music for XRP and keep ‘100% of revenue’ @TheBlock__ #Ripple #$XRP #artists #Craig DeWitt #music #Payburner #songs #xSongs

Craig DeWitt, director of product at Ripple, has been working on a personal project for a couple of months now. His mission is to connect digital content creators, such as musicians, directly with consumers to help cut costs.

“When you cut...

Craig DeWitt, director of product at Ripple, has been working on a personal project for a couple of months now. His mission is to connect digital content creators, such as musicians, directly with consumers to help cut costs.

“When you cut out the middlemen you get lower prices, more revenue to the artists, and more art,” DeWitt told The Block. To that end, he has built a blockchain-based platform called xSongs, where artists can upload and sell their music directly to users for XRP. When an artist uploads music to the platform, xSongs runs a series of checks, including copyrights.

The platform has gone live today in beta form, which means users can buy songs in XRP. They can pay either via the Payburner wallet or any other wallet. Payburner is a noncustodial crypto wallet, also developed by DeWitt, on top of the XRP Ledger.

“We’ve built a wallet experience designed to allow artists to accept payments from anywhere in the world and for buyers to have that 'one click' experience anywhere on the web,” DeWitt told The Block.

DeWitt further said that he got inspiration from Bandcamp for developing the xSongs platform. Bandcamp is an online music company that allows artists to share and earn money from their music.  “They’ve done an amazing thing and they clearly care about their indie artists who would probably never be able to monetize without their platform,” he said, adding:

“While Bandcamp charges 15% plus a 6% processing fee for a total of +21%, xSongs is a direct to artist model which means that platform fees and processing fees will always be 0%.”

Despite those fees, fans have paid artists $445 million using Bandcamp, and $8.9 million in the past 30 days, according to its website.

Monetization plans?

When asked about monetization plans for xSongs, DeWitt said he is currently “not interested” in doing so. “I’m personally covering the costs...I think when you build something that people love, then monetization stuff will take care of itself in time.”

DeWitt said he has personally funded about 500 Payburner accounts i.e. 10,000 XRPs - currently worth about $1970 (When you initially fund an account on XRPL, the ledger reserves 20 XRPs).

Previously available in closed beta form, xSongs had around 100 artists and about 500 songs on the platform, said DeWitt. Looking ahead, he hopes to have at least 1,000 artists on the platform and 10,000 music sales by H2 2020.

DeWitt is currently working with Chris Opler, a software engineer at Ripple, on the xSongs project. The duo has also got a hackathon team that is starting to work on the project in their free time, said DeWitt.

“Once we have a following and are seeing some real scale, we’ll start adding the same kind of artist-centric marketing and content that Bandcamp offers today,” DeWitt told The Block.

He added that music is “just the beginning;” anything digital such as e-books, art, etc. will eventually be sold directly from creators to users. “With a peer to peer music marketplace scaling on its own, imagine all the other digital content that could be sold in a similar fashion."

source https://www.tokentalk.co/The Block/ripple-exec-builds-platform-for-artists-to-sell-music-for-xrp-and-keep-100-of-revenue-5e0cb8a176237754012db63b

U.S Coast Guard Attacked by New Crypto-Locking Ransomware @bitcoinist #Bitcoin #News #News teaser #bitcoin #Coast Guard #Ransomware #Ryuk

The US Coast Guard has issued a security warning following a ransomware attack on a federally regulated maritime facility. The intrusion at the unnamed facility, caused a 30+ hour shutdown of primary operations while a response was conducted. Coast Guard Caught Phishing The Ryuk ransomware is believed to have gained access to the facility’s IT network when an employee opened a malicious link in a phishing email. It encrypted a significant number of critical files, and disrupted camera and physical-access control systems, losing critical process control monitoring systems. The alert recommends other facilities to enhance network monitoring tools, use up to date virus software, and make regular backups. It also suggests the measure of segmenting networks to prevent IT systems from accessing the operational technology (OT) environment. As the incident is still under investigation, there has been no confirmation of when the event occurred, or whether a bitcoin ransom was demanded or been paid. However, during a similar incident at the port of San Diego in September 2018, attackers did demand a ransom in bitcoin, although the facility did not provide details of how much or whether it was paid. Ransomware On The Rise Over the past year, ransomware has rising in popularity with cybercriminals, overtaking crypto-jacking as their preferred modus operandi. Earlier this month, an attacker targeted the Argentinian government, demanding 50 BTC to withdraw the attack. With bitcoin being the favoured payment method in the majority of cases, this tends to provide fuel to those who like to decry the top cryptocurrency as being purely the preserve of criminals. However research suggests that a lot of the tools used by these cybercriminals originally come from government sources. However, despite getting the blame, it is possible that bitcoin gets the last laugh, as the demand for BTC driven by the increasing prevalence of ransomware attacks could potentially be driving up prices. What are your thoughts on the new Ryuk ransomware? Let us know in the comment section below! Images via Shutterstock The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/us-coast-guard-attacked-by-new-cryptolocking-ransomware-5e0c96e176237754012db636

Year 2020 May Turn Out to be a Great Year for Crypto-Gambling @newsbtc #Industry

The year 2019 has been good to the cryptocurrency gambling industry, thanks to an increasing number of savvy internet users choosing the crypto-based online gaming platforms over conventional fiat-based gaming counterparts. The shift in trend is furt...The year 2019 has been good to the cryptocurrency gambling industry, thanks to an increasing number of savvy internet users choosing the crypto-based online gaming platforms over conventional fiat-based gaming counterparts. The shift in trend is further fueled by the rising awareness about cryptocurrencies and their advantages, combined with access to faster internet connectivity and smartphone penetration across the globe. In addition to the obvious reasons, a recent report indicates a changing trend among the online gambling platforms when it comes to establishing a strong online presence. The platforms have started to expand their customer base by connecting with users on social media like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which has allowed them to reach out to more people across the world. The global reach combined with support for cryptocurrencies allows them to cater to people from across geographies without having to worry about region-specific banking and legal restrictions which are generally applicable to gambling-related fiat payments. Also, cryptocurrency payments enable secure transactions with quick deposit and withdrawal options. Currently, there are a number of cryptocurrency casinos in the world where users can play online with bitcoin and other leading digital assets. The gambling market is segmented into betting casino, poker, lottery, online bingo and others, of which the most growth is found to be in the online casino segment which has the largest market share as of 2018, followed closely by online poker. The overall online gambling market is growing at a rate of about 13.2 percent with Europe holding the largest market share. Other attractive markets for gambling are North America, Asia Pacific, MENA and South America. Online casinos in Australia are gradually catching up with rest of the regions as platforms like Syndicate Casino gain prominence among the gambling community. Owned and operated by Direx N.V., the platform caters to a global customer base by offering a range of games from renowned game providers. The online casino not only accepts cryptocurrency deposits, but also fiat payments through Skrill, Neteller, PaySafe, Visa and MasterCard credit cares and more. At the current rate of growth, the next few years will see Asia-Pacific emerge as the leading market for online gambling. Contributing to the growth will be increased adoption of cryptocurrency as it gets legalized in various jurisdictions, increased foreign investments and a rising popularity of mobile gaming among millennials. With these developments, the crypto gambling segment is exhibiting a strong outlook for the year 2020, which could possibly translate to a great gambling experience for players as well.   Image by Nemanja_us from Pixabay The post appeared first on NewsBTC.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/NewsBTC/year-2020-may-turn-out-to-be-a-great-year-for-cryptogambling-5e0cb7b176237754012db63a

LAToken’s Daily Crypto Volume and Holdings Figures Don’t Match @bitcoinist #Altcoins #Bitcoin Exchange #News #News teaser #Coinmarketcap #Elon Musk #exchange scam #IEO #LAToken

CoinMarketCap, o...

CoinMarketCap, one of the central crypto price listing websites, has been used as a vehicle to present newly arrived exchanges. Usually, those new markets show up with immense volumes, rising to the top while aiming to become industry names. LAToken’s Crypto Volumes Once Again in Spotlight LAToken, one of those exchanges, has caught attention for its specific brand of shady activity. The market operator looks undercapitalized while reporting disproportionately high volumes. CryptoTwitter is currently lambasting LAToken, for reporting volumes on par with Binance, while showing rather scant resources. Great thread breaking down LAToken I agree that @CoinMarketCap should be getting more heat for aiding and abetting these exchanges $900mill reported daily volume vs only a few k ETH in exchange wallet IEO sales going straight to EOS ICO https://t.co/BSSgUTcql4 — Su Zhu (@zhusu) January 1, 2020 To be sure, CoinMarketCap has wised up on the disparity between reported and adjusted volumes and has started excluding exchanges with obviously inflated activity from its reporting. LAToken is holding just 0.58% of the Bitcoin (BTC) market and is nowhere near top exchanges. However, the market is also showing an unusual relationship with CoinMarketCap. Unlike other exchanges, this marketplace has an expanded profile presenting the project in a rather positive light. Not even large, proven markets like Binance or Kraken have a similar profile. The presentation for LAToken also looks rather dated, running a rather positive promotion for an ICO platform and an issuer of ERC-20 tokens. This profile still stands, expounding on the benefits of the LAToken ecosystem, which reportedly includes an ICO incubator, a decentralized exchange, and an upcoming LAChain for security tokens. Unfortunately, most of the markets that LAToken aims to are either dead or have failed to take off. ICOs are in a freeze, as the US Securities and Exchange Commission is cutting through a backlog of token sales, hitting startups with fines or cease-and-desist orders. As for security tokens, there is almost no interest in issuing those types of assets, and trading is immensely difficult. LAToken Keeps Listing Shady Coins, Rides IEO Hype Despite its promises, LAToken shows the activity of a typical crypto-to-crypto exchange, with the most activity linked to BTC and top altcoins, especially Ethereum (ETH). But the listing selection among its 122 trading pairs shows the market has been ready to list rather exotic assets, including LOLToken, among others. For a relatively long time, LAToken (LA) has been called a scam, with criticism coming ever since the project ran its own ICO in 2017. But the dubious activity has not stopped, and the market keeps offering listings to projects that are viewed as scam coins or tokens. ALERT #latoken will list the scam #zynecoin French, Belgian, Swiss and Canadian friends I do not recommend trade on this exchange !!!!! https://t.co/EeQI9TGiQ1@Val_preo@latokens@MohantySonny@KillianLatoken@carltonshultz@LatokenAU@RamazanRiman@LATokenJeff — Le mouton dissident (@moutondis) December 3, 2019 Additionally, LAToken rode the IEO craze, with accusations of faking token sale volumes or generally listing highly suspicious offerings. Just months ago, the exchange offered an IEO apparently backed by “Dr.” Elon Musk. If you weren't convinced yet that #LAToken is a cesspool of scam tokens & fake projects, apparently Dr @elonmusk has launched a new IEO campaign pic.twitter.com/IcQFgkcs6G — KJ Magill (@kjmagill) October 30, 2019 LAToken still reports trading activity above $500 million per day, a significant feat for this type of market, and often as high as $900 million. The flagship token, LA, has taken the usual trajectory, rising to $1.88 during the crypto boom in late 2017, and then crashing to its current level of $0.08. But there is no telling what other damage this exchange can do. It has been known for months the market operator freezes and suspends accounts with almost no explanation. Users have also reported deposits disappearing, further adding to the image of LAToken as a danger zone in the world of crypto. What do you think about LAToken and its high visibility on CoinMarketCap? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images via Shutterstock, Twitter: @zhusu, @moutondis, @kjmagill The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Bitcoinist/latokens-daily-crypto-volume-and-holdings-figures-dont-match-5e0c914176237754012db635

These are the New Year’s Resolutions of blockchain leaders @decryptmedia #Business #Blockchain #celsius #cryptocurrency #cryptocurrency adoption #cryptocurrency development #decred #etoro #HTC #ledger #Tezos

We’ve gathered together leading figures from the blockchain and crypto space to find out how they’re committing to grow the community in 2020.

The post These are the New Year’s Resolutions of blockchain leaders appeared first on Decrypt.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Decrypt/these-are-the-new-years-resolutions-of-blockchain-leaders-5e0caa9276237754012db639

Litecoin’s $70,000 Mimblewimble Development Plan Has Begun @crypto_briefing #Uncategorized #Litecoin

Private transactions are closer than ever.

Litecoin’s Mimblewimble-based privacy efforts are finally underway. David Burkett, the...

Private transactions are closer than ever.

Litecoin’s Mimblewimble-based privacy efforts are finally underway. David Burkett, the developer behind the subproject, has announced that he has completed the first month of development. “After months of planning, development of the Mimblewimble extension block has officially started,” Burkett posted to Litecointalk on Dec. 29.

This project has been in progress for nearly a year. In January 2019, Litecoin creator Charlie Lee announced plans for private transactions. In August, the project recruited David Burkett, who is known for his work on Grin, a Mimblewimble-based privacy coin. Specifically, Burkett develops Grin++, a wallet and implementation for Grin.

Progress So Far

Burkett announced several details in early December. At that time, he noted that he had redesigned Grin++ for easier integration with Litecoin. He also confirmed that the feature would be integrated via Litecoin’s extension blocks, eliminating the need for a time-consuming hard fork. Finally, he introduced Tor and CoinJoin as extra privacy features.

In this week’s update, Burkett revealed that he has restructured and standardized parts of the project. He added that he will determine a build method, define Litecoin models, migrate database implementations, and speed up sync time in January. The end result seems to be that development on Litecoin and Grin++ is closely interrelated.

Plenty of Funding

Burkett is being paid at a rate of $6000 per month. So far, Litecoin’s community has donated $18,500 worth of cryptocurrency to a development fund, which it intends to grow to $72,000. Much of this amount has come from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, who has also donated 1.5 BTC ($10,000) to Grin++ to help fund the project’s security audit.

Litecoin is arguably spending a lot of money on a minor side feature. However, its efforts could benefit Mimblewimble greatly. Grin and Beam, the two largest Mimblewimble coins, both have sub-100 market caps. Along with similar integration efforts from Monero’s Tari sidechain, Litecoin’s efforts could help Mimblewimble climb higher.

The post Litecoin’s $70,000 Mimblewimble Development Plan Has Begun appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

source https://www.tokentalk.co/Crypto Briefing/litecoins-70000-mimblewimble-development-plan-has-begun-5e0c338176237754012db630