Lebanon’s Financial System is Crumbling, And It Shows What Bitcoin Can Do

Mass protests in Lebanon, which began as a demonstration over tax proposals, have since escalated into a full-blown financial crisis. As such, Bitcoin, and other decentralized cryptocurrencies, demonstrate, once again, the importance of financial sovereignty. Lebanese protestors. (Source: shutterstock.com) Lebanon Is In Crisis Lebanon has a history of conflict, such as the civil war which saw sectarian violence during the mid-seventies. And more recently, it has experienced instability as a result of the problems in Syria. Map of West Asia. (Source: google.com) But it was in October 2019, when the…

Lebanon’s Financial System is Crumbling, And It Shows What Bitcoin Can Do

Mass protests in Lebanon, which began as a demonstration over tax proposals, have since escalated into a full-blown financial crisis. As such, Bitcoin, and other decentralized cryptocurrencies, demonstrate, once again, the importance of financial sovereignty. Lebanese protestors. (Source: shutterstock.com) Lebanon Is In Crisis Lebanon has a history of conflict, such as the civil war which saw sectarian violence during the mid-seventies. And more recently, it has experienced instability as a result of the problems in Syria. Map of West Asia. (Source: google.com) But it was in October 2019, when the…

Over 1,000 Bitcoin Miners Granted Licenses in Iran: Report

Iran is actively regulating cryptocurrency miners, months after the government introduced a new licensing regime. The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade has issued more than 1,000 permits to cryptocurrency miners, according to an official at the Iranian ICT Guild Organization (IIG), an industry body representing the country’s computing sector. However, IIG’s Amir Hossein Saeedi Naeini told the Financial Tribune on Friday that although there are now licensed cryptocurrency mining operations in the country, the new regulations have not attracted much foreign investment. “Our studies show that the crypto mining industry…

Bitcoin Gold Suffers Another 51% Attack with $72,000 Double-Spent

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has suffered another 51% network exploit with the attacker reportedly double-spending $75,000 in BTG tokens. Details of the Bitcoin Gold 51% Attack According to MIT crypto researcher James Lovejoy, Bitcoin Gold, one of the Bitcoin hard forks is once again the victim of a 51% attack. In a post published on GitHub, Lovejoy revealed that the attacker carried out two which resulted in a double-spend of 1,900 BTG and 5,267 BTG respectively. Together, both exploits amount to more than $72,000 based on the current price of Bitcoin…

‘Different Type of Shakeout’ — Trader Says Bitcoin Unlikely to Hit $6K

Bitcoin (BTC) hitting $6,000 again is not only unlikely but would be “concerning,” a well-known commentator has told Cointelegraph.  Speaking in a market discussion with Cointelegraph, EzeeTrader partner Charlie Burton said that should current market behavior continue, those waiting to buy in closer to $6,000 will face disappointment. Burton: A fast move will come for BTC “…I think we’ll have upside and then we’ll have downside again, just to the point where a number of players will just get bored and move on,” he said. Burton continued: “And then there’ll…

‘Different Type of Shakeout’ — Trader Says Bitcoin Unlikely to Hit $6

Bitcoin (BTC) hitting $6,000 again is not only unlikely but would be “concerning,” a well-known commentator has told Cointelegraph.  Speaking in a market discussion with Cointelegraph, EzeeTrader partner Charlie Burton said that should current market behavior continue, those waiting to buy in closer to $6,000 will face disappointment. Burton: A fast move will come for BTC “…I think we’ll have upside and then we’ll have downside again, just to the point where a number of players will just get bored and move on,” he said. Burton continued: “And then there’ll…

Tron to Dedicate Conference to Deceased Basketball Star Kobe Bryant

The Tron Foundation will dedicate its 2020 niTROn Summit to Kobe Bryant, an American NBA superstar who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Bryant, a “member of the Tron Family” who is known for participating in Tron’s events, died at age 41 in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles along with his 13-year-old daughter on Jan. 26. Following the tragic news, the Tron Foundation announced that the upcoming niTROn Summit, a major Tron-hosted event that will be held from Feb. 29 to March 1 in Seoul, will be devoted…

New Research Shows Bitcoin-Denominated Payments Still a ‘Fantasy’

A growing precision in the amount of decimals for Bitcoin (BTC) points to decreasing usage as a unit of account. This is one of the conclusions of a Jan. 27 report by BitMEX Research, which analyzed transaction outputs for the past decade. The report evaluated a total of 1.3 billion outputs, amounting to 5.4 billion BTC worth $12 trillion. Each transaction was categorized by its degree of decimal precision — what is the last non-zero value in a payment.  Over 70% of Bitcoin outputs currently use the highest degree of…

Bitcoin Price Is Trapped in Narrow Ranges after Volatile Week

Bitcoin, which is the largest digital asset by market capitalization, settled past the price level at $8,600 after a pullback to a price level of $8,217 on January 24. At the hour of composing, the Bitcoin price was trending on the level at $8,712 mainly unaltered from the start of the day. The digital asset market on Monday showed a trend in the bullish bias triangle. The Saturday bears did not lead to much movement, and several altcoins moved away from support levels and attempted recovery. The market capitalization of…

Major Swiss Banking Firm Julius Baer Launches Services for Cryptocurrencies

Major Swiss private banking and wealth management group Julius Baer has launched a digital assets trading and custodial service via a partnership with regulated crypto-specialist Seba. Julius Baer announced its new digital assets offering on Jan. 21, the result of its 2018 minority equity stake acquisition and later partnership with crypto startup Seba Bank AG in February 2019.  Seba, which was founded in April 2018 by former UBS bankers, was granted a securities dealer and banking license by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, known as FINMA, in August 2019.…