text: January 22, 2016 - Helena Bitcoin Mining
  1 BTC = $4033.77
  January 22, 2016 by Pete Rizzo
  Bitcoin ProtocolBitFuryBitmainBlock SizeMiningTNABC
  Cryptsy CEO: Bitcoin Theft Kept Hidden to Avoid 'Panic'
  January 22, 2016 by Stan Higgins
  Yet, last week's disclosure raises questions as to why exchange customers weren't told about the true nature of the problems at the exchange.
  A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by CoinDesk points to reported withdrawal problems dating back to early 2014. Some critics have suggested that exchange itself may be behind the thefts.
  In new comments, CEO Paul Vernon reiterated the exchange's earlier statement that it kept the information hidden to prevent "a panic".
  "Since the funds were not moving, we thought it may be possible to get them back. We did not want to cause a panic with the users, especially if we were still able to fulfill withdrawal requests."
  Vernon said that customers were allowed to continue making deposits despite the insolvency problems because "we were continuing to try and find solutions" to the issues, steps that he said included a reduction in operational costs.
  "Any other reason would have caused a panic," he said.
  "FinCEN told us they didn't want any reports of cryptocurrency transactions, they only cared about fiat," he said.
  The exchange indicated that it "may take some time" before customers are fully refunded.
  "The majority of the altcoins in the system are still under our control. The remaining few such as bitcoin, litecoin and a couple others are under control of the unknown suspect," he said.
  AltcoinsCryptsyExchanges
  January 22, 2016 by Samburaj Das
  European bitcoin exchange operator BTC-e has revealed that users in the Russian Federation won't get access to its website following a ban imposed by a Russian regulator today.
  In what may be sign of things to come prior to the review of a draft bill that seeks a Bitcoin ban by the Russian legislature , the official twitter account of European bitcoin and alt coins exchange BTC-e has revealed that it won't be accessible by Russian users.
  В связи с блокировкой роскомнадзора, с 22.01.2016 домен https://t.co/jsWC3YEETn может быть не доступен для пользователей РФ #btce
  — BTC-E (@btcecom) January 22, 2016
  The tweet mentions a lock by Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom regulator which effectively puts the domain btc-e.com in a blacklist that will not be accessible via Russian ISPs.
  In connection with roskomnadzor lock [from] 22.01.2016 [the] domain btc-e.com may not be available for users of the RUSSIAN FEDERATION #btce
  However, a following tweet confirms that the exchange is already looking at solutions.
  В течение 24 часов будет опубликована подробная информация о способах входа в аккаунт на территории РФ #btce
  A rough translation shows:
  Within 24 hours [there will] detailed information published on how to access your account [within] the territory of the Russian Federation #btce
  The messages come within a week after Bitstamp's revelation that the Russian government was seeking to prohibit access to Bitstamp's websites within the country's borders. The exchange communicated the news via emails to its customers.
  We have not been officially notified of the reason for this action, which we view as unjustified. We are not aware of any misuse of our services involving any Russian customer.
  Bitstamp poses no threat to the security of Russia or its economy. Bitstamp is a recognized leader in operating a safe, fully compliant exchange. We are attempting to contact officials in Russia to determine why they have taken this unfortunate action.
  This resulted in the exchange temporarily blocking access to all Russian IP addresses.
  Bitstamp added that issued the temporary block to avoid legal concerns and sanctions that may face its customers.
  There have been no reports or known instances of Bitstamp users facing connectivity concerns with the website since.
  Dragons.tl Presents Feather Balance, A Unique Multiplayer Game
  January 22, 2016 by Gola Yashu
  MMORPG gaming platform Dragons.tl has transformed the way players perceive Bitcoin casinos. Instead of taking cues from traditional vegas games, the online casino presents a virtual island filled with numerous skill and luck-based games: each bringing fair probabilities of players winning attractive financial rewards.
  Feather Balance — a game of both luck and skill — is also counted among one such games where players get adequate opportunities to win as well as spend a fun-filled time. The game, as the title suggests, features a pile of feathers that need to be balanced according to few simple rules of mathematics. It goes like this:
  Dragons.tl Feather Balance is a game of three players. Each player takes turn to pick tuft, with each turf carrying weight between 1-9. A player needs to make sure that the turf it is picking has weight that happens to lie in the middle of the sum of the weight of other two tufts – or pass. An excerpt from Dragons.tl wiki guide elaborates:
  "Players can play against other people or house bots (dealers), at a few different stakes. There are 27 'tufts' to start with, and each player takes one per turn until they are all used up. Each tuft also has a value from 1-9, you try and get your side of the scales to have the middle weight by deciding whether to take a tuft or pass."
  It added: "You can also win by causing balance. This is when both the other players/dealers have the same weight and you have a different weight. In this case the player with the different weight wins."
  Dragons.tl also ensures the quickest Bitcoin payment and withdrawals option to all its players — with utmost security.
  The opinions expressed in this article do not represent the views of NewsBTC or any of its team members.  NewsBTC is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied in Sponsored Stories such as this one.
  January 22, 2016 by James Moreau
  Today in his Newsweek Op-Ed, Blockchain.info co-founder Nic Cary has come out with a few straightforward arguments why he believes Bitcoin is still alive and well.
  What he argues is that many of the reasons Bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn says Bitcoin has failed are prematurely spurned indicators that Bitcoin is actually succeeding. Cary points to some signs of hope for the future of Bitcoin in his piece, taking aim at traditional banks and contrarians who believe Bitcoin cannot and will not be able to disrupt the status quo.
  Using a phrase often reserved for huge banking institutions, Cary refers to Bitcoin as "too big to fail." Pointing to Bitcoin's growth trajectory and steady adoption over the past 5 years, Cary concedes that the overall system which Bitcoin runs on needs upgrading to continue to function well, however, he also asserts that it's a good problem to have.
  "What began as a small experiment is now a rapidly expanding ecosystem. There are so many people using it now that we have to plan for more capacity. It was never a secret that the software powering Bitcoin would have to get upgraded occasionally—just like the software on your iPhone."
  While some in the cryptocurrency industry have angst around the 20-30 minute delay surrounding transfers and confirmations of transactions surrounding Bitcoin, Cary has a bit of a more optimistic viewpoint in that established and traditional banks can still take several days to transfer money overseas and the costs can be high as well. Cary believes that Bitcoin's place in the market will drive growth in both adoption and innovation in the coming 5 years.
  "The Bitcoin blockchain will catalyze innovation over the coming years. As citizens of the internet we demand transparency and ease of use. In 2016 people expect to be able to send money over the internet as quickly and cheaply as sending an email. The fact that it still takes several days to send an international money transfer is a throwback to yesteryear. Bitcoin solves that problem."
  Cary's place at the head of Blockchain.info certainly makes him a person who has a vested interest in Bitcoin succeeding, but as seen in his writing, many of these reasons seem to be as much tied to larger social issues as they are financial. As he references a Bloomberg article saying Bitcoin was the "best-performing currency of 2015," it remains to be seen how the positivity that he and other influencers who remain at the helm of the Bitcoin movement will guide the currency into 2016 and beyond.
  January 22, 2016 by Bitcoin Magazine
  This is a guest post by Senthil Radhakrishnan, the Vice President and Head of Capital Market Solutions Group at Virtusa. Senthil has 16+ years' experience focused in capital markets technology with investment banks such as UBS, JPMC, Barclays, and others.
  As one of the hottest technological developments making the rounds in financial circles, the blockchain has a lot of people hooked. But there is not yet much clarity on how blockchain technology will impact private business, given that it is so unlike traditional IT architectures.
  Private blockchain applications are amalgams of cryptography, immutable transaction log/ledgers, federated transaction approval mechanisms, distributed databases and peer-to-peer software. Since any proprietary business function using blockchain technology is by definition private, the network is only accessible to a limited audience. That's why it is a good idea to consider the following elements when deciding to test processes on a blockchain model.
  Not all functions should be made on the blockchain. High volume non-transactional data attributes (like trading instrument data) are stored in platforms like reference data systems. Such systems can sit outside the blockchain. Avoid the redundancy of duplicating a large data island – like reference data – across many nodes.
  Blockchain systems will run along those in the non-blockchain world. To enable this, there has to be free flow of assets between the two ecosystems. Some issues to consider:
  How does one control the quantity of assets to be issued?
  Assets may have to enter and exit the blockchain system; how can this be tracked?
  The life cycle of an asset.
  Protect against user mistakes. The nodes/wallets in a blockchain are referenced by public key hash. This makes the system susceptible to mistakes. On the Internet, domain name services make it easy to remember names instead of numeric IP addresses (e.g. 192.168.2.33). A similar paradigm is required here.
  Keep it lightweight. The blockchain ledger replicates itself on every node as new blocks get added.In a business model, there could be a need to store a lot of information, but items such as documents can make the blockchain heavy. Linking it to an external data storage system solves this problem. The downside of an external data source, however, is lessened reliability given that the data is not all in one specific place.
  Managing a private key can be unwieldy. In a large organization with processes and policies this can slow things down. Some critical questions to ask: What happens if the key file is lost or is corrupted? Who will have access to the key file? It needs to be both secure and available for extensive use.
  Blockchain as a database is still limiting. Private blockchain applications are being used like databases by some businesses who benefit from blockchain features such as replication and immutability. But limiting data storage to the blockchain for any large-scale application may not be practical. Most businesses also need typical database features, including querying, reporting, triggers and mapped relationships between entities. This could add to the complexity of building large-scale systems.
  Allow realistic timelines. A typical private blockchain use involves a set of organizations agreeing to use the same software. It's common to see organizations communicating or interfacing with each other using a common protocol/data format. Getting an agreement on common protocol between organizations takes several iterations and time. Convincing organizations to use the same blockchain software stack is an even bigger challenge.
  Choose wisely between the Bitcoin blockchain and custom blockchain software. Extending the existing Bitcoin blockchain software to serve business purposes is a logical first thought. Bitcoin has evolved over time and is tested, robust and stabile. But Bitcoin's blockchain has features like public read access which may not be suitable for certain business needs. Too much customization or redevelopment of the original blockchain introduces the risk of an untested complex technology platform. So give due consideration to the pros and cons of Bitcoin workarounds vs. untested custom blockchain software before selecting a model.
  The greatest features of the blockchain – its openness, democratic nature and potential efficiencies – have endeared it to everyone. One can only hope that a future blockchain-driven world retains these principles. Focusing on closed-door startups will in effect transfer the centralist nature of existing business models (like government, banks, etc.) to private software entities. We've seen this already as banks pour money into blockchain startups whose software isn't in the public domain. A more open and crowdsourced approach to address the business challenges in mass blockchain adoption is the better long-term option for leveraging the tremendous potential of blockchain technology.
  Read More: data bitcoin organizations systems features assets banks processes more…
  PricewaterhouseCoopers Puts Together Specialist Team for Bitcoin's Blockchain
  Global services powerhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has announced the assembling of a new global technology team studying Bitcoin's blockchain.
  The world's largest professional services firm has recruited 15 leading technology specialists to 'exploit and commercialize' Bitcoin's blockchain, a press release stated.
  The now 15-member team is also expected to more than double over the course of 2016. Based in PwC's Belfast office in Northern Ireland, the team could see a rise to over 40 digital and technology specialists this year.
  The firm's decision to invest in blockchain technology specialists is a "major step" in its endeavor to develop Fintech solutionsthat are quickly proving to be a "catalyst for change and innovation in the financial services industry," the announcement confirmed.
  PwC partner EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Fintech leader Steve Davies points to governments, banks and institutions looking at blockchain technology for their storage and distribution solutions. PwC's move toward researching Bitcoin's blockchain technology also comes from increasing interest and a demand from the firm's clients to understand the technology, he confirmed.
  So, as the blockchain juggernaut continues to gather pace, PwC will be well placed to service our clients' needs at a global level.
  The press release also made a marked point about the recent proposal put forth by the chief scientific advisor of the UK – Sir Mark Walpor, urging the government to embrace and trial blockchain technology in real world scenarios and the public sector.
  The challenge facing the technology is the awareness, or the lack of it among leading asset managers, PwC points out. In an upcoming Global Fintech survey that polled 545 leading asset managers, Fintech businesses and even key players in fund transfer payment companies, insurers and banks, only 9% are very familiar with blockchain technology. Furthermore, 3 in 10 of those polled are not at all familiar with blockchain, the survey discovered.
  PwC mentions the continuing debate of Bitcoin's role as a mainstream currency and highlighted the underlying blockchain to be highly resistant to malicious tampering.
  However, the media release also noted blockchain technology as what could potentially be the 'single greatest advance in the FinTech sector in a decade,' according to EMEA consulting leader and PwC UK executive board member Ashley Unwin.
  Blockchain technology is worrying major players in the financial services industry as they don't know where it will go or its potential to disrupt business models. However, in document delivery and settlement processing alone, it will offer significant cost reduction and efficiency gains.
  The move to focus and explore the technology, from a multinational services firm — the largest in the world after recently beating Deloitte to the top spot — could mean significant implications and the spread of awareness among companies and firms everywhere for blockchain technology and its pioneer, Bitcoin.
  A PwC wasn't immediately available for a comment at the time of publishing.
  Featured image of PwC building in Madrid from Shutterstock.
  Following what can be best described as a vocal exit of developer Mike Hearn, the long-simmering debate over whether to scale the bitcoin blockchain to promote wider use has escalated.
  Though the exact lines of division remain blurry, the resulting media scrutiny has seemingly awakened the bitcoin mining and business community to what they perceive as a lack of movement by Bitcoin Core, the ecosystem's largely volunteer development team.
  As a result, businesses are voicing their support for Bitcoin Classic, an alternative proposal to a strategic road map proposed by Bitcoin Core that would increase the size of data blocks on the blockchain to 2MB, up from 1MB today. Bitcoin Core has advocated for Segregated Witness, a proposal that would result in more capacity, without necessitating a hard fork, a process by which a mandatory network-wide software upgrade would be needed.
  Proponents of Bitcoin Classic contend that the solution simply introduces a choice into the market, and that, should their proposal succeed, they believe Bitcoin Core's developers will simply migrate to a newly branded code base without much impact.
  However, Austin Hill, CEO of $21m startup Blockstream, believes that, despite these claims, the lack of support for Core developers is creating a "toxic" environment.
  Hill told CoinDesk:
  "It's created an environment where a whole bunch of companies have been building on bitcoin, enjoying the hard work of a community of developers who are now saying, without saying thank you, I don't like the color of what you shipped me so I'm going to abandon you."
  In interview, Hill sought to give voice to what he called a "frustration" among Core developers regarding the perception that they have not sought to address the problem. Blockstream notably funds a number of the more prominent Core developers including Gregory Maxwell, Matt Corallo and Pieter Wiulle, the ecosystem's most active developer.
  "Since December, there's been three versions of the Segregated Witness deployed [on the bitcoin testnet, a dedicated blockchain for testing]. I do think that part of it is optics and marketing. … There are people who are signed on to [Bitcoin] Classic, who are really doing it because they want to see this issue come to a resolution," Hill continued.
  Providing support for Hill's view is that Bitcoin Core officially opened the Segregated Witness testnet to developers on 21st January.
  In the official statement from the group, the developers sought to stress the research that has so far gone into the proposal, which they contend has benefits beyond simply increasing the block size.
  Vetted proposal
  In his remarks, Hill emphasized the he believes not enough attention has been paid to the fact that Bitcoin Core carefully researched its proposal, a process that included two conferences, one in Montreal and Hong Kong.
  "In the last six months, 15 to 20 research papers have been released and a number of those things have been coded and deployed. Some of the [proposed] changes, we can discuss them because of the work by Core devs to improve signature validation," Hill said.
  As such, Hill suggested there could be a message sent to the development community, should business interests align behind Bitcoin Classic, or another similar effort.
  Hill went so far as to imply that some developers may grow frustrated with what is already an effort that tests their endurance. As put forth in The New York Times, some developers have even received death threats over their views on increasing the block size .
  "When you have a community of developers that have put in thousands of hours without any major breakdowns or a security flaw … and say we're going to do a one or two-pass fork and we're going to change how the project goes by turning it into a democratic voting system, they may say 'That's not what I worked so hard for,'" he argued.
  Hill acknowledge there is an inherent political element in the argument, one made more pronounced that former Bitcoin Core maintainer Gavin Andresen is now writing code for Bitcoin Classic along with developer Jeff Garzik.
  Though the names are well-known by the media, Hill said that both Andresen and Garzik are no longer as active on everyday coding, meaning they speak for themselves as individuals and may not best represent sentiment in the community.
  "I know a number of Blockstream people are frustrated by people who aren't discussing things with them, talking to other media outlets and advocating for another approach that they feel undermines their hard work," he said.
  Hill went on to suggest that he views the conduct of the discussion as more contentious than the actual ideas, which are similar to a proposal put forth by Blockstream co-founder Adam Back that would scale the network to 2MB, 4MB and then 8MB over a period of years.
  "If a lot of their hard work and what they believe are proper tradeoffs are ignored, it's a dangerous precedent and very discouraging to [Core developers]," he said.
  Despite his issues with how the process has played out, Hill sought to stress that everyone in the community shares a common goal of promoting the network, but that the sentiment of developers is crucial given their role in the network.
  For example, he noted developers helped move the community to the proposals being considered today after working to analyze alternatives.
  "We saw some people advocating for 20MB blocks saying if they didn't adopt it the network would fall apart. But there's real data that says anything larger than 3MB could break the network," he said. "The Core developers base their solutions on data, and we saw data."
  Going forward, Hill implied that the industry should keep these factors in mind, even as other groups work toward solutions that could rebrand the code base and alter the governance aspects of the development process.
  "The question comes down to priorities," Hill said, adding:
  "Scale at any cost, I think most people would agree is very dangerous."
  Austin Hill image via YouTube
  After almost two years of being in a state of confusion on how to deal with the advent of digital currencies, it appears Russia is ready to lay down the law on Bitcoin – and it may be sooner rather than later.
  According to Russian news blog Forklog the country shares a two-party system with the West when it comes to the legislation of such matters. The more liberal-minded are called techlibs, who are mostly economists who favor allowing Bitcoin into the Russian market. Conservative figures in law enforcement are known as secruocrats, who are not fans of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, labeling them "money surrogates," and are working to ban them. Each side has drafted laws either for or against Bitcoin usage in Russia.
  The rumor mill of Bitcoin regulation has been churning for the better part of the last 18 months. A pro-Bitcoin draft of law will be under review by the Duma, the Russian parliament, where it is due for an official "reading" as early as next month.
  Meanwhile the anti-Bitcoin securocrats are readying their draft for submission soon, according to Russian Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov.
  "We will continue protecting the consumers of financial services," Siluanov said. "We're developing penalties for distribution of money surrogates, including bitcoins, and for the establishment of Ponzi schemes. We will prepare the draft laws and submit them to the State Duma."
  Russia has a very different take on new currencies than the West does, considering the fact that they do not have a global reserve currency status behind them. In fact, the Russian economy is shaky at best, heavily reliant on oil exports, and, with oil prices tanking recently, the country does not need something new that may further devalue the Russian ruble.
  Like Bitcoin in 2014, Russia's native currency also lost close to 50 percent of its value due to economic sanctions from the West and changes in the price of oil. The ruble has dropped again to an all-time low due to the recent drop in the price of oil worldwide. So this may not be the best time to bring in a new currency that the government does not control.
  "It would be better to suppress distribution of money surrogates at early stages of the market's development," Siluanov said in an interview with the Russian government publication Rossiyskaya Gazeta. "According to experts, the turnover amount of money surrogates in Russia has reached 1 percent of GDP. Once the parameter exceeds 10 percent, the tool will pose a real threat to the state's financial stability. Uncontrolled expansion of money supply in the turnover at the expense of the surrogates will result in devaluation, and gradual supersedure of the ruble from the currency market. Eventually, the state could lose its money issuance monopoly and revenue from this kind of activity."
  Like many nations and corporations worldwide, Russia seems to be in greater solidarity when it comes to Bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology. Its advantages over currency systems appear to have interested Russian government agencies, as well. The ministry's press center stated as much in a release to Forklog, which included another shot at Bitcoin entering the established economy:
  "We see the convenience and usefulness of the blockchain technology for e-commerce, so we think the technology shall have permission to develop," said Siluanov. "However, bitcoins, as they are, and especially their inclusion in the real economy and real banking sector, may be extremely hazardous."
  A weak ruble may have Russia looking at Bitcoin somewhat differently than other major nations. This fact may make Bitcoin even more attractive to Russian citizens looking to protect their wealth by investing in an appreciating global asset.
  Can Russia stop its citizens from sharing Bitcoin on their smartphones, or forming a black market for digital currencies in general? According to Local Bitcoins, Russians are transacting about 83 million rubles or just over $1 million USD per week using its peer-to-peer exchange. Bitcoin is a hotly contested topic in a region that seems interested in resolving this issue quickly.
  Evander Smart is a bitcoin writer, enthusiast and business owner. He trains people about how Bitcoin works at BitcoinVideoUniversity.com.