Bitcoin Cash

Bitcoin Cash Sees Mining Pool Shift and Hashrate Surpass 4 Exahash

22/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin Cash Mining Sees Pools Shift While Hashrate Surpasses 4 Exahash

While people have watched the BTC network surpass 100 exahash per second (EH/s), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has been steadily gathering hashrate as well. Since the November 15, 2018 blockchain split, which produced the Bitcoin SV (BSV) chain, BCH hashrate has jumped by more than 3x. Bitcoin cash is often more profitable to mine than BTC and during the last seven days, the BCH hashrate has averaged around 4EH/s.

Also Read: Debate Ensues After 68% of BCH Hashrate Mined by Stealth Miners

Bitcoin Cash Hashrate Climbs Over 4 Exahash per Second

It’s been well over a year since BSV split off from the BCH network during the mid-November 2018 hash war. After a week or so, both chains saw hashrates drop below 1EH/s and there was a period of significant profitability changes between BTC and BCH miners. Since then, BCH miners have picked up the pace and are hashing far more than they did following the hash war aftermath.

Bitcoin Cash Sees Mining Pool Shift and Hashrate Surpass 4 Exahash — BCH hashrate on January 21, 2020. — Did you know you can earn BTC and BCH through Bitcoin Mining? If you already own hardware, connect it to our powerful Bitcoin mining pool. If not, you can easily get started through one of our flexible Bitcoin cloud mining contracts.

On November 15, just before the split, there was more than 5EH/s hashing away at the BCH chain, but that plummeted to its lowest point on December 17, 2018. Today, according to multiple hashrate recording websites, the BCH hashrate spiked over 8EH/s three hours ago, as recorded by fork.lol. The Bitcoin Cash network’s average during the last week has been around 4EH/s. This means that from mid-December until now, BCH has seen a hashrate increase of more than three times the daily average.

In fact, all three SHA256 networks have seen a hashrate rise since mid-December 2018. The BTC hashrate expanded from 32EH/s to this week’s 110EH/s average. Bitcoin SV (BSV) has also seen its network hashrate swell, as it jumped from 1EH/s to 3.3EH/s on January 21, 2020. Coin Dance also shows that BCH has been more profitable to mine in contrast to BTC for more than half of 2019.

For instance, at 12:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday afternoon, “it is currently 3.50% more profitable to mine on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain,” Coin Dance data informs visitors. Since the recent price spike, BSV has been more profitable to mine against BTC. At the time of writing, “it is currently 11.80% more profitable to mine on the Bitcoin SV blockchain,” says the Coin Dance SV website.

Satoshi Probably Didn’t Envision Three Competing SHA256 Networks

As the BCH network has seen a significant increase in hashrate, a large number of stealth miners have been hashing away at the network. News.Bitcoin.com reported on the topic in December 2019 and the trend has remained consistent. During the last week, BCH has had 49% of the network being hashed by unknown mining entities. In the last 24 hours, unknown miners captured roughly 57% of the network hashrate.

Since we published that mining report, a mining operation called Taal has appeared on the Bitcoin Cash network. On January 10, a stealth miner who at one time signed BCH block coinbases as “fezi3*,” changed the block signature to “taal.com/fezi3*.” Taal is associated with Calvin Ayre’s Squire Mining Inc. rebrand and BSV backers Craig Wright and Jimmy Nguyen are advisors for Taal. The name Taal is also the name of a volcano that just erupted near one of Ayre’s island villas. Just prior to advertising onchain that it was mining BCH, Taal implemented a concept called Miner ID.

All Three Networks Will See a Reward Halving This Spring

Alongside Taal, which captures 2% of BCH blocks today, there are nine other identified BCH pools mining the network. This includes Bitcoin.com, Prohashing, Okex, Huobi, Btc.com, Viabtc, Poolin, Antpool, and Btc.top. Seven of the known BCH mining pools today also mine the BTC chain. There are four BCH miners that mine the BSV chain and two of them mine on the BTC network. No one knows exactly why there’s a lot of stealth miners mining the BCH chain or why there’s been such a shift in mining pools. It’s anyone’s guess as to why BSV miners are mining the BCH chain as well and only the pool operators themselves know the moves they are making.

In the last three days, unknown miners from BTC have dipped to around 3% of the network, but a few weeks prior, BTC had more than 20%. BSV’s hashrate also has a high concentration of stealth miners hashing away at the chain. At press time there’s around 55% of unknown hash processing the BSV chain during the last 24 hours. Despite the uncertainty of why pool operators are stealth mining and the shift in hashrate on all three networks, a number of speculators believe the changes are due to the upcoming halvings. All three SHA256 networks will see a block subsidy reward halving in the spring of 2020 and miners may be steadily preparing for this event.

What do you think about the BCH network hashrate climbing more than 3x the number it held in mid-December 2018? What do you think about the changes and shifts between all three SHA256 networks with BTC and BSV included? Do you think these shifts have anything to do with the upcoming halvings? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Coin Dance, Charts.Bitcoin.com, Fork.lol, Wiki Commons, Fair Use, and Pixabay.

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Why User Experience Is Crypto’s True ‘Killer App’

21/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

There’s been a lot of buzz in the space recently about the importance of user experience. Kim Dotcom’s proclamation that “Mass utility is going to lead to mass adoption,” speaks to this. Peter Schiff’s bitcoin wallet fiasco, CZ’s claim that centralized exchanges are safer than private wallets, and promises of a still undependable Lightning Network as salvation all point to the same. As cashless payment systems proliferate around the globe, one thing becomes crystal clear: crypto doesn’t need a killer app – it is the killer app. Crypto needs better UX.

Also Read: Bitcoin Cash Gets Significant Privacy Boost With Cashfusion Alpha Launch

The Ongoing Quest for Crypto’s Killer App

When it comes to the search for Bitcoin’s killer app, internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has been on the hunt for years. Though his recent kind words about bitcoin cash and jarring reality check to the cryptosphere have ruffled feathers, his conversation with Tone Vays and Willy Woo nonetheless resounds:

It’s nice to be a store of value, but if you really want to succeed in this game, you need to be the electronic cash … Right now only 2% of internet users have even been exposed to crypto. We are a niche, small piece of shit in the universe of business.

Dotcom goes on to note that almost nobody knows or cares about the bickering and tribalism in the crypto space, but that users will naturally gravitate to “the currency that gives them the cheapest fees, the fastest transactions, the most reliability.” The entrepreneur adds that “currently, unfortunately, that is not bitcoin [BTC].” He noted the importance of many developments in the areas of privacy and security on the BCH network as well, to the uncomfortable fidgeting of his friends.

UX Discussions Take Center Stage on Crypto Twitter

Even for BTC maximalists and neutral parties in the everyday tribal feuds, Kim’s sentiments don’t go unrecognized. Monday’s “forgetful wallet” fiasco involving Peter Schiff generated not only humorous mockery, but also observations about the general usability of bitcoin wallets in the first place. After all, if Schiff can’t use it, your grandfather probably can’t either.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao took the opportunity to mock Schiff and leverage questionable UX to send more folks to exchanges, tweeting:

“Many hardcore crypto ogs advocate storing your own keys. But the truth is, today most people are not able to secure a key even from themselves (losing it). A trusted centralized exchange is #SAFUer for most people. The numbers speak for themselves. Need to work on wallets.”

Overlooking the fact CZ just called us all too stupid to hold our own private keys in a bid to drum up business, his comment on the state of crypto wallets does have merit. User experience in crypto is still very difficult, compared to the slick products everyday consumers are used to.

Bitcoin ABC Lead Developer Amaury Sachet and Cointext CTO Vin Armani also sounded off on the topic, with Armani asserting that “Bitcoin’s UX is so far from ‘working,’ it’s laughable.” Sachet noted further down the thread: “This space value new shit rather that slick shit, so we get a ton of new shit and none of it is slick.” He continued:

There is no secret, good UX require many iterations and nobody is going to do that if this is not valued.

Though one might not agree with all the views of these entrepreneurs and devs, one thing stands out: they’re all seeing something wrong with the current state of bitcoin UX in general — this even across bitter lines of tribalist allegiance. Even Tone Vays thinks something needs to change. For him, salvation lies in the Lightning Network, a developing solution still so riddled with problems and plagued by constant delays that mentioning it in the same sentence as UX almost seems like a joke.

Anarchy in the UX

The world has gone from centrally controlled fiat money, routine privacy invasions, forced payments and usage to the realized possibility of completely permissionless exchange without a third party. For those who can remember sending or receiving their first bitcoin back in the day, the experience was almost spiritual for its clean mathematical simplicity. Crypto itself is the coolest ‘app’ there currently is in finance, hands down.

Threat of state force notwithstanding (granted, that’s a big one), a clean and easy UX for crypto apps is really all that stands in the way of mass adoption. Easy, cashless payment systems with intuitive and simple user interfaces are already proliferating worldwide.

This is what Japan fintech payments just in a 7 Eleven stores. You can see even with all these payments bitcoin is not here. pic.twitter.com/MTIQmYRsyw

— TiENCHATHK (@tienchathk) January 18, 2020

When even those who could care less about ideas like economic sovereignty can shop online, buy a cheeseburger, interact with social media, or pay their utilities with crypto easily, a paradigm shift begins to occur. Obsolete institutions will become too top-heavy to stand without popular support. They’ll have to adapt or fall under their own weight. This further opens the door for more freedom-minded users to transact however they want with less risk. Ongoing privacy enhancements also bring greater fungibility and continued convenience to this process.

So while there are a great many apps, crypto itself and an excellent UX are the real killer feature being sought. Enjoyable and efficient user experience is what keeps people using Apple products, coming back to Facebook even if they claim to “hate it,” or using Google search. We’ve got the tech. The next step is to show everybody just how killer it is.

What do you think will be crypto’s “killer app”? Let us know in the comments section below.

Op-ed disclaimer: This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.

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UK Tax Agency to Pay $100K for Blockchain Surveillance Software

21/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

On January 17, the UK tax agency Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) published a job opportunity for a private contractor to design a cryptocurrency blockchain analysis tool. According to the listing, the contract is for one year and HMRC will pay the contractor $100,000 for software that can “identify and cluster crypto asset transactions.”

Also read: Britain’s Tax Authority Updates Crypto Guidelines

HMRC Wants a Blockchain Analysis Tool and Is Willing to Pay $100,000

Governments worldwide have been cracking down on cryptocurrency holders in order to make sure they are paying taxes. In the U.S., the country’s tax agency the IRS has initiated a broad stroke of tax enforcement against people who may own or at one time possessed cryptos. In the United Kingdom, HMRC has been following a similar path as the tax entity issued guidance for individual cryptocurrency holders in 2018 and then published more guidelines for businesses on November 1, 2019. HMRC’s updated crypto rules highlight the fact that they believe “individuals residing in the UK should file their tax obligations.” Despite the new guidelines toward cryptocurrency use, the tax authority’s rules are still not clearly defined and people still don’t understand their tax obligations. Nevertheless, just like the IRS and its confusing guidelines, HMRC plans to crackdown on tax evaders anyway.

On Friday, a representative from England published an advertisement for HMRC looking for a software engineer to build a blockchain surveillance tool. According to the employment listing, the contractor can work from “any region” remotely. The contract runs from January 2020 to February 2021 and the value of the contract is $100,000. However, a group of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) contractors cannot apply. Small to medium enterprises (SME) are allowed to apply for the position to build the official HMRC blockchain analysis tool. HMRC’s description states:

Provision of a tool that will support intelligence-gathering methods to identify and cluster Crypto asset transactions into linked transactions and identify those linked to Crypto asset service providers.

Governments Worldwide Aim to Combat Crypto Tax Evasion and Money Laundering

The tool must also de-anonymize blockchain activities by cluster analysis and identify confidence ratings in clusters. The tool needs to provide an “attribution of a cluster/address to a known commercial entity (exchange) or a known service provider (mixing service, gambling service, dark market, etc).” The platform must be web-based and offer a visualization of blockchain analytics in order to identify crypto-using suspects and build intelligence. At minimum, the tool needs to support blockchains such as BTC, BCH, ETH, ETC, XRP, USDT, and LTC. HMRC’s job application emphasizes that the tax agency would love for the tool to analyze monero, dash, and zcash as well. The contractor must also provide secondary training so other government employees can learn how to utilize the blockchain analysis tool. The crypto contractor will be paid via HMRC’s dedicated payment portal Ariba.

Additionally, the contractor applying for HMRC’s job has to fill out a lengthy security questionnaire as part of the blockchain tool proposal response. HMRC’s job application proposal cites that crypto assets are being used for “tax evasion and money laundering.” U.S. regulators, specifically Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), have been working with the IRS to tackle money laundering and tax evaders as well. In 2016, an affadavit revealed that HSI created a special task force to identify unlicensed bitcoin exchangers. Two years later, HSI published its 2019 fiscal year pre-solicitation documents which show the agency asked for money for blockchain analysis tools.

“This proposal seeks applications of blockchain forensic analytics for newer cryptocurrencies, such as zcash and monero,” the solicitation letter explains. “Blockchain forensic analytics for the homeland security enterprise can help the DHS law enforcement and security operations across components as well as state and local law enforcement operations,” states page 21 of the DHS solicitation letter. “Private financial institutions can likewise benefit from such capabilities in enforcing “know your customer” and anti-money laundering compliance.”

HMRC’s newly updated tax guidelines toward crypto-related activities note that most crypto asset operations are “taxable economic activity.” This includes cryptocurrency mining as well as buying, selling, and exchanging a digital asset for another type. Individuals and SMEs interested in HMRC’s blockchain analysis tool contract have until January 27 to submit a proposal alongside the security questionnaire. The UK tax agency’s employment listing shows that governments are actively searching for ways to de-anonymize crypto transactions. HMRC’s crypto analysis tool application underscores that the tax agency is there to make sure the collection of money pays for the UK’s public services. The contract proposal notes that the agency wants to “make it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat the system.”

What do you think about Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs job listing looking for a contractor to build a blockchain surveillance tool? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, HMRC application, Fair Use, Wiki Commons, and Pixabay.

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Popular Crypto Wallet Imtoken Adds Bitcoin Cash Support

21/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Consistently among the top digital assets in the world by market cap, Bitcoin Cash is accepted by most crypto service providers and the list just keeps growing. The latest platform to add BCH support is the popular crypto wallet with over 10 million downloads, Imtoken.

Also Read: Bitcoin.com Partners With Mecon Cash, Enabling Withdrawal at ATMs Across South Korea

Imtoken Now Offers a Bitcoin Cash Wallet

The company operating the digital asset management tool Imtoken has announced today it has added bitcoin cash support to its multi-chain crypto wallet app following a cooperation agreement with Bitcoin.com. The new BCH wallet option will enable the millions of Imtoken users to make fast, cheap and reliable payments with all the numerous services and merchants that accept the popular cryptocurrency.

Ben He, CEO of Imtoken, stated: “We are excited to support BCH as we have one common goal, which is to enable mobile payments. Payments in digital assets has seen a fair growth in recent years, and we are excited to offer our users – with BCH – a way for fast and cheaper payments.”

As part of its mission to bring economic freedom to the world, Bitcoin.com is strongly promoting BCH adoption as peer-to-peer electronic money, as well as the development of the surrounding Simple Ledger Protocol tokens ecosystem, with all its business partners.

Bitcoin.com CEO Stefan Rust commented: “Great to see Imtoken join the ever-rising activity around BCH as more companies want to take part in this community. With 10 million downloads Imtoken is responding to user demand for bitcoin cash. SLP support I’m sure will come soon as well.”

Over 10 Million Wallet Downloads

Founded in May 2016, Imtoken was designed to bridge the gap between blockchain technology and the general masses with a simple, secure yet powerful digital asset management tool. From its home market of China it soon expanded to millions of users from more than 200 countries, becoming known as the world’s most popular Ethereum wallet.

In May 2018, Venture firm IDG Capital invested $10 million in the Series A funding round by Imtoken. The money raised then was said to help the wallet company fund an international expansion beyond its home market of China, as well as add support for new cryptos and tokens. In June 2018 Imtoken officially established the Singapore office as their global headquarters.

The wallet app has already achieved over 10 million downloads around the world, with 8 million coming from China alone. It also enables users to access a decentralized value exchange and Dapp browsing in one place. Its development team strives to uphold impeccable security standards, without compromising on user interface and user experience design.

What do you think about Imtoken adding bitcoin cash support? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Bitcoin Cash Gets Significant Privacy Boost With Cashfusion Alpha Launch

21/01/2020 by Idelto Editor

Bitcoin Cash Gets a Significant Privacy Boost With Cashfusion Alpha Launch

On January 17, the BCH developer known as Acidsploit announced the launch of the highly anticipated Cashfusion alpha. Interested parties can reach out to the Cashfusion developers via the team’s Telegram group to become an alpha tester. The news of the launch excited the BCH community a great deal, as it means a significant privacy tool is coming to the Bitcoin Cash environment.

Also read: How to Create Custom SLP Tokens With the Bitcoin.com Mint

Bitcoin Cash Is Becoming More Fungible

During the last few months, there’s been a lot of chatter about the Cashshuffle protocol and the newest privacy-preserving concept Cashfusion. Since the inception of the original Cashshuffle project which launched on March 27, 2019, there’s been over 200,000 BCH shuffled. According to @Acidsploit’s data, that’s a total of 42,446 shuffles to date and daily recorded volumes show shuffling really picks up on the weekends. The developer’s Cashshuffle site also shows the number of Cashfusion transactions, and there are now 1,322 fusions at the time of publication. Cashshuffle leverages the Coinjoin concept, but there are still a few ways shufflers can leak data about their original addresses when they do things like spend change or consolidate funds.

Bitcoin Cash Gets Significant Privacy Boost With Cashfusion Alpha Launch — Acidsploit’s Bitcoin Cash Privacy Stats website notes there’s been 1,322 fusions so far and 42,446 shuffles.

Recently, former lead Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen wrote about the issues with consolidating coins and spending change after using the Coinjoin-styled ethereum wallet Tornado.cash. Cashfusion, however, goes beyond the traditional Coinjoin idea because developers claim Cashfusion-based Coinjoin transactions can be done without the equal amount requirement. Electron Cash developer Jonald Fyookball published a paper about the combinatoric math in Cashfusion. A quote in Fyookball’s paper from software developer Mark Lundeberg states:

In Cashfusion, we have opted to abandon the equal-amount concept altogether. While this is at first glance no different than the old naive schemes, mathematical analysis shows it in fact becomes highly private by simply increasing the numbers of inputs and outputs. For example, with hundreds of inputs and outputs, it is not just computationally impractical to iterate through all partitions, but even with infinite computing power, one would find a large number of valid partitions.

The Bitcoin Privacy Game-Changer Cashfusion Is Here

Additionally, the privacy-centric Wasabi wallet developer recently complimented the Cashfusion project and said that if the math works it could benefit Bitcoin privacy significantly. “I am not convinced if this is true, but if it is, it’s a game-changer in Bitcoin privacy,” the Wasabi engineer tweeted. Then on January 17, after the Cashfusion developers teased the early software would be available soon, Acidsploit announced the Cashfusion alpha launch via the read.cash blog.

“The alpha version has been polished enough so that it can be used by power users to get an initial feel of the tool and to test the protocol for stability and robustness,” Acidsploit’s announcement revealed. “We are actively looking for more people to test,” he added. Interested people who want to test the early version of Cashfusion can do so by reaching out to the Cashfusion developers via the team’s Telegram chat group.

The developer also noted that the current alpha Cashfusion client leverages the following features:

Enable/Disable Cashfusion
Integrated TOR client
Monitor status
Coin target setting (number of coins, size of coins, random fraction)
Multi queueing
Self Fusion (temporary for better liquidity during testing)

The developer remarked that there are other features coming that are scheduled in the Cashfusion roadmap like the ability to track fused coins to determine the level of privacy. Two options for “smart coin choosers” are coming, such as avoiding the combination of tainted and non-tainted coins as much as possible and choosing properly fused coins when doing payments. Lastly, the engineer detailed the Cashfusion developers want to add a limiter on perpetual fusing. “When you join a Cashfusion (CF) transaction, you specify the inputs you want to join with and the outputs you expect,” the developer’s post notes. “When the transaction is built, you are asked to sign it [and] the client verifies that the CF transaction contains the inputs and outputs you specified. If that is not the case, your client will not sign the transaction and it will fail.” Acidsploit further stressed:

Cashfusion transactions are atomic, meaning when something goes wrong for a participant for whatever reason, the CF transaction will fail as a whole.

Throughout crypto forums and social media, the Cashfusion launch announcement was welcomed with open arms, as the protocol could benefit bitcoin cash fungibility a great deal. Bitcoin.com Executive Chairman Roger Ver excitedly wrote “Privacy on Bitcoin Cash” and was asked if the protocol would be implemented in a future version of the Bitcoin.com Wallet. “Absolutely,” Ver responded, while other BCH supporters discussed the importance of the alpha release. “Enhanced privacy and fungibility are the cornerstones of making BCH truly peer to peer cash, a place BTC never got to, and never will as it spirals into institutionalized custodial fed-chains,” one user wrote on Reddit. In addition to the launch announcement, Acidsploit’s read.cash post also has a step-by-step guide on how to use Cashfusion by utilizing the Electron Cash wallet.

What do you think about the Cashfusion alpha being released and added privacy coming to the Bitcoin Cash network? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Acidsploit, read.cash, Acidsploit’s stats pages, and

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