Day: February 20, 2020

This Is Why the Dow Jones Unexpectedly Dove on Thursday

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U.S. stocks are falling on Thursday as a jittery Wall Street continues to eye the expansion of the coronavirus around the world. Dow bulls are nervously watching what could be a new base camp for the disease in Daegu, South Korea. The city of 2.5 million residents faces a possible quarantine. The Dow Jones dropped sharply on Thursday, and the sudden 400 point dip left Wall Street scratching its head. As the day wore on, it became apparent that the Dow’s jitters likely originated from the steady spread of the…

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Is Growing ‘Increasingly Centralized,’ Researchers Find

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Bitcoin’s lightning network is growing “increasingly centralized,” making it more susceptible to attacks, asserts a new paper by security researchers. Seen as a potential solution to bitcoin’s scaling headaches, lightning is a payment network allowing for speedier and cheaper transactions. Partly to make lightning more robust, developers and researchers have been trying to spot holes in the network. Released earlier this month, the paper “Lightning Network: a second path towards centralisation of the Bitcoin economy” (by researchers Jian-Hong Lin, Kevin Primicerio, Tiziano Squartini, Christian Decker and Claudio J. Tessone) concludes…

Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Is Growing ‘Increasingly Centralized,’ Researchers Find

boss

Bitcoin’s lightning network is growing “increasingly centralized,” making it more susceptible to attacks, asserts a new paper by security researchers. Seen as a potential solution to bitcoin’s scaling headaches, lightning is a payment network allowing for speedier and cheaper transactions. Partly to make lightning more robust, developers and researchers have been trying to spot holes in the network. Released earlier this month, the paper “Lightning Network: a second path towards centralisation of the Bitcoin economy” (by researchers Jian-Hong Lin, Kevin Primicerio, Tiziano Squartini, Christian Decker and Claudio J. Tessone) concludes…

Gold Price Hits 7-Year High as Fed Scrambles to Curb Rate-Cut Mania

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Gold surged 0.9% to $1,626.50/oz., a new seven-year high. Federal Reserve Board members are pouring cold water on expectations of gradual rate cuts this year. Stocks suffer a major setback over coronavirus, overvaluation fears. Gold charted a fresh seven-year high Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s top brass tried to temper the market’s expectation of another rate cut this year. As CCN reported earlier in the week, traders aren’t buying the Fed’s narrative on monetary policy amid signs the global economy was headed for a soft landing. Gold Extends Rally Gold…

How a Kamikaze Nation State Could Kill Bitcoin

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Bitcoin has so far survived for more than 11 years. The network continues to function as intended, in part, thanks to an assumption that miners will always act in their own best interests economically. But what if a powerful, rich actor set its sights on destroying Bitcoin? What if that actor had no interest in preserving the value of the network? Does Bitcoin’s Security Model Fall Apart When Actors Behave Irrationally? Bitcoin protects itself from attack using its incentive structure. Miners playing by the rules pick up block rewards and…

Why We Should Stop Thinking of ‘Crypto’ as a Single Industry

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Enterprise blockchains, central bank digital currencies, digital collectibles, DeFi and bitcoin. How much do they really have to do with one another? The “crypto” industry is having a hard time fitting everything that’s happening inside that one monolithic term. On this episode, @nlw looks at current news stories from across at least five different categories – DeFi, enterprise blockchain, central bank digital currencies, digital collectibles and bitcoin (BTC) – to ask whether they really all belong lumped in in the same category.  The episode also looks at: Disclosure Read More…

What You Should Know About the Epic Games Store Freebie

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Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Faeria are available for free right now on the Epic Games Store. Next week’s freebie is stylish exploration game InnerSpace. A second game should be announced in the coming days. It’s Thursday, and Epic Games’ duo of free games are up for grabs on the Games Store. The availability of this week’s games is great and all, but the exciting part is finding out what Epic Games has in store for next week. Epic Games Store Freebies This week you can get your hands on two…

Bitcoin Suddenly Crashes 8% as Momentum Fades After the Recent Rally

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The crypto space can be highly volatile for traders, and over the years, Bitcoin (BTC) has proven to be among the more volatile cryptocurrencies. Over the past few days, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency by market cap had managed to make a comeback of sorts, but the volatility returned once again today. Such volatility was last seen back in November 2019. Key Drivers At around 5 in the morning Hong Kong time, the cryptocurrency plunged by as much as 8% within a matter of 45 minutes, dropping down to $9,320 per…

Ireland Seizes Bitcoin Stash Worth $56M in Criminal Forfeiture Ruling

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Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seized 6,000 BTC from a Dublin resident who was accused of growing cannabis on property located in the Wicklow Mountain region. The police found around €450,000 of marijuana plants but the €52 million ($56.1M) of BTC was the biggest single-value asset seizure by the CAB since 1996. A new era could be upon us where governments holding large quantities of bitcoin will be the norm. Also read: US Government Auctioning off Bitcoins Worth $37 Million in 2 Weeks **This article has been updated at 3:28…

Ireland Seizes Bitcoin Stash Worth $56M But Can’t Sell for 7 Years

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Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seized 6,000 BTC from a Dublin resident who was accused of growing cannabis on property located in the Wicklow Mountain region. The police found around €450,000 of marijuana plants but the €52 million ($56.1M) of BTC was the biggest single-value asset seizure by the CAB since 1996. A new era could be upon us where governments holding large quantities of bitcoin will be the norm. Also read: US Government Auctioning off Bitcoins Worth $37 Million in 2 Weeks Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau Seizes 6,000 BTC…