Blockchain

Film Reels and Steel: Github Plans to Archive Bitcoin Code for 1,000 Years

01/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Microsoft subsidiary, Github recently revealed the “Archive Program,” an initiative that aims to preserve open source technologies for 1,000 years. The newly launched effort plans to store snapshots of open source technology 250 meters underground on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. The source code management and collaboration platform also plans to store the Bitcoin Core software. Archivists will etch the blockchain network’s code on film reels and encase the project in a steel capsule.

Also read: US Mortgage Industry Could Collapse as Housing Crisis Looms, Experts Say

Bitcoin Codebase and Other Open Source Crypto Projects Will be Stored Underground in a Time Capsule

Github plans to store the Bitcoin Core codebase within the depths of a mountainous region located in Norway. The project is a time capsule concept and Github is calling it the Archive Program. The program’s main goal is to store a number of open source technologies underground for 1,000 years so humans can access them in the future. Github says the mission of the program is to “preserve open source software for future generations.” The announcement reads:

The company is also partnering with the Long Now Foundation, the Internet Archive, the Software Heritage Foundation, Arctic World Archive, Microsoft Research, the Bodleian Library, and Stanford Libraries to ensure the long-term preservation of the world’s open source software. We will protect this priceless knowledge by storing multiple copies, on an ongoing basis, across various data formats and locations, including a very-long-term archive designed to last at least 1,000 years.

The Bitcoin Core repository will not be the only cryptocurrency-based repo added to Github’s time capsule initiative. A slew of other blockchain projects will be stored as well including the Ethereum and Dogecoin codebase and the Lightning Network. The company’s collaborating with Github believe in archiving software across various forms of ephemeral media and hosting platforms. The scheme is called “LOCKSS,” which stands for “Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe.” In order to ensure the safety and longevity of codebases like Bitcoin Core, the program will include “much longer-term media to address the risk of data loss over time.”

The Archive Program Hopes Future Historians Can Access Open Source Software Without Worrying About Lost Tech and Abandoned Code

There’s a significant history of events that show lost technologies and abandoned code can lead to catastrophe. The Archive Program aims to stop mistakes that society has seen in the past like the Saturn V blueprints, anti-malarial DFDT, and Roman concrete. “Like any backup, the GitHub Archive Program is also intended for currently unforeseeable futures as well,” the announcement highlights.

“Future historians will be able to learn about us from open source projects and metadata,” the Archive Program website reads. “They might regard our age of open source ubiquity, volunteer communities, and Moore’s Law as historically significant. We are already partnering with Stanford Libraries to help archive curated repositories along with the cultural and other context in which they are set, as key elements of wide-ranging historical and social research and analysis,” Github added.

After the announcement, software developers and cryptocurrency proponents discussed the topic on social media and forums. “[The Archive Program], and cockroaches, will be around long after the coronavirus kills us all,” one person jokingly tweeted. Seeing how the announcement was revealed on April 1, some people thought the news was an April Fool’s Day joke as well.

What do you think about Github storing the Bitcoin Core protocol for 1,000 years? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Film Reels and Steel: Github Plans to Archive Bitcoin Code for 1,000 Years appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The Many Facts Pointing to Wei Dai Being Satoshi

01/04/2020 by Idelto Editor

Satoshi Nakamoto has been an enigma for well over a decade and there’s been a number of suspects and self-styled Bitcoin inventors. One particular suspect is the computer engineer Wei Dai, the creator of the b-money system and the Crypto++ cryptographic library. Since the Bitcoin network was launched in 2009, a number of people have had suspicions that Wei Dai could have played the role of Nakamoto.

Also Read: The Many Facts Pointing to Ian Grigg Being Satoshi

Wei Dai and Satoshi Nakamoto

We don’t know who is behind the real identity of the person or group of people that created Bitcoin. The anonymous creator(s) not only invented the concept of cryptocurrency, but also managed to keep the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto a secret for more than 11 years. In our fifth installment of the “Many Facts” series, we discussed how Dorian Nakamoto was mistaken for being the anonymous Bitcoin creator in 2014. The following is the sixth installment in the series, offering a comprehensive look at the circumstantial evidence that might point to Wei Dai being Satoshi. Dai is a well known cypherpunk and he is referenced in the citations section at the end of the Bitcoin white paper. Over the last decade, a number of speculators have assumed Dai might be the cryptocurrency’s creator and a few armchair sleuths have tried to tie the two together as one.

One reason people think that Dai played the Nakamoto part, is because the talented cryptographer has the smarts to pull it off. Moreover, Dai created a C++ library for cryptographic functions called Crypto++ and he’s still a member of the academic and cypherpunk community. Dai is also a staunch supporter of privacy and the New York Times described the cryptographer as an “intensely private computer engineer.” Dai’s theories about anonymous electronic cash infrastructure can also be found on the cypherpunks mailing list well before Bitcoin was released. The cryptographer also crafted an electronic money system called “b-money” and it is the reason he is referenced in the Bitcoin white paper. In addition to his white paper reference, Dai and Nakamoto also exchanged a few emails in 2008, according to documents hosted on gwern.net.

Gwern.net hosts a few emails sent to Dai in 2008 that were originally published in a Sunday Times article in 2014. In the email pictured above, Satoshi explains that he’s finished the first version of the Bitcoin protocol.

B-money is an interesting system and Dai explained in 1998 that Tim May’s crypto-anarchy “fascinated” him. “Unlike the communities traditionally associated with the word ‘anarchy,’ in a crypto-anarchy the government is not temporarily destroyed but permanently forbidden and permanently unnecessary,” Dai wrote in the first section of the b-money white paper. “It’s a community where the threat of violence is impotent because violence is impossible, and violence is impossible because its participants cannot be linked to their true names or physical locations,” the computer engineer added.

An excerpt from Wei Dai’s “b-money” system.

Expanding Ideas

Dai was already a well-established character well before Satoshi allegedly emailed him in order to discuss peer-to-peer electronic cash concepts. In the 2008 emails, the two discuss Nick Szabo and Dai assumes that the conversations prove Szabo could not be Nakamoto. The emails between Nakamoto and Dai were originally published in March 2014’s Sunday Times editorial. “The more important reason for me thinking Nick isn’t Satoshi, is the parts of Satoshi’s emails to me that are quoted in the Sunday Times,” Dai wrote. On August 22, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote to Dai and said:

I was very interested to read your b-money page. I’m getting ready to release a paper that expands on your ideas into a complete working system.

Further, the entropy similarities between Wei Dai and Satoshi Nakamoto’s written text also adds to the list of supporting evidence that Dai could be the mysterious creator. The only person who scored higher than Dai was former Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen. Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi who has yet to prove himself, has 12 people above him after Dai.

Some speculators hunting for Satoshi Nakamoto believe that the creator of Bitcoin could have easily played two roles with any one of his correspondents. Just because Wei Dai and Nakamoto have had conversations it doesn’t mean people haven’t assumed they are the same person. Other people who had engaged with Nakamoto who have been considered ‘Satoshi suspects’ as well include Hal Finney, Nick Szabo, James Donald, Gavin Andresen, and others.

Other than mere circumstances and coincidence, there’s really not a smoking gun pointing to Dai actually being Nakamoto and he’s never admitted it either. Theories of Dai being Nakamoto are also dismissed because Dai and Nakamoto engaged in email conversations and he’s referenced in the white paper, so he would have to be playing ‘double agent’ roles. But that hasn’t stopped speculators in the crypto community who believe people like James Donald and Hal Finney could have been Nakamoto too and played double roles.

Do you think Wei Dai could be Satoshi? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Many Facts Pointing to Wei Dai Being Satoshi appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Judge Grants Injunction Halting Telegram’s TON Release Again, Notice of Appeal Reportedly Filed

25/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

Judge Grants Injunction Halting Telegram's TON Release Once Again, Notice of Appeal Reportedly Filed

The embattled Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain and its native gram cryptocurrency have seen plans for launch stifled once again, with a preliminary injunction granted by Southern District of New York Judge P. Kevin Castel. The March 24 injunction sides with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), concluding that the messaging giant’s plans “amount to the distribution of securities, thereby requiring compliance with section 5.”

Also read: Regulatory Roundup: Crypto Regulations Advance Despite Global Crisis, Cash Shortages, Bank Closures

More Delays for TON

“The Court finds that the SEC has shown a substantial likelihood of success in proving that the Gram Purchase Agreements, Telegram’s implied undertakings, and its understandings with the Initial Purchasers … amount to the distribution of securities, thereby requiring compliance with section 5,” the March 24 injunction reads.

The ruling is the latest blow to the project, which has been struggling to prove grams are not securities under U.S. law since October, when the regulator obtained a temporary restraining order against Telegram.

The SEC filed a complaint at the time alleging that “defendants failed to register their offers and sales of Grams, which are securities, in violation of the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.” Telegram addressed the issue by bumping back the launch date to April 30 after consulting with investors, but now that plan is also halted for the time being.

Court Says Grams Are More Than Just Cryptocurrency

The judge found that grams met criteria of the Howey Test, stating: “The Court rejects Telegram’s characterization of the purported security in this case. While helpful as a shorthand reference, the security in this case is not simply the Gram, which is little more than alphanumeric cryptographic sequence,” elaborating:

This case presents a ‘scheme’ to be evaluated under Howey that consists of the full set of contracts, expectations, and understandings centered on the sales and distribution of the Gram.

According to the Opinion & Appeal, the court “finds that Telegram did not intend for the Grams to come to rest with the Initial Purchasers” and that “Telegram’s goal of establishing Grams as ‘the first mass market cryptocurrency’ required that the 58% of all Grams sold in the 2018 Sales reach a much wider pool than the 175 Initial Purchasers.”

As such, the judge maintains in his ruling that Telegram sought out buyers and firms with investment intent, who were looking to make profit on the offering. Telegram, for its part, has notified potential TON participants that they shouldn’t expect profits, and that grams are meant as a medium of exchange.

Telegram Says It Will Have ‘No Control’ Over TON, Judge Not Swayed

In a February hearing, Telegram’s legal counsel has argued the tokens would not be accompanied by managerial oversight to increase their value after launch, so they don’t qualify as securities.

Though the group maintains they are “like an architect who designed a skyscraper [but] can’t control what happens with the building after it’s finished,” Castel was not convinced. “An injunction, prohibiting the delivery of Grams to the Initial Purchasers and thereby preventing the culmination of this ongoing violation, is appropriate and will be granted,” the order reads.

The repeated challenges presented by the SEC have understandably left many investors frustrated, and likely the messaging service itself, who hasn’t bent over backwards to please the regulator. Amidst all the legal chaos, in January, the group reportedly refused to turn over TON bank records detailing how it spent $1.7 billion raised from investors.

Telegram has reportedly filed notice of interlocutory appeal since the new Opinion & Order was issued. However, appellate review at this juncture is generally viewed as unlikely, and a permanent injunction is expected by observers.

What do you think about the judge’s decision in this case? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post Judge Grants Injunction Halting Telegram’s TON Release Again, Notice of Appeal Reportedly Filed appeared first on Bitcoin News.

While You’re Under Quarantine, Check These Sites for Remote Crypto Jobs

22/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

With Coronavirus Spreading, Check These Sites for Remote Jobs in the Crypto Industry

If you are on the lookout for a job in these pressing times, when the coronavirus pandemic has limited public movement and shut down businesses, it’s worth exploring opportunities to work from the relative safety of your home. The number of people doing so globally has been steadily growing, including in the crypto industry which is more decentralized than other sectors.

Also read: 10 Loan Providers Taking Crypto as Collateral, If You Think the Time Is Right for Hodling

Working From Home Is Healthier and More Productive

Remote jobs have been on the rise over the past few years. Stats gathered by Virtual Vocations, for example, show a 197% increase in such roles in the company’s database between 2015 and 2019. New openings registered by the telecommuting jobs platform grew by 25% last year, according to its latest annual report. Another source, an analysis conducted by Flexjobs and Global Workplace Analytics, points to a 44% increase of Americans working remotely in the last five years. The study also suggests that remote workers are more productive, better paid and healthier.

While You're Under Quarantine, Check These Sites for Remote Crypto Jobs — Source: Virtual Vocations

Although it’s difficult to precisely estimate the share of remote employees, all jobs in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, where this type of employment arrangement is popular, were generally growing last year and in early 2020, as news.Bitcoin.com reported. With restrictions due to the global covid-19 epidemic hitting other sectors hard, the crypto space may be affected too. The decentralized nature of the business, however, is likely to limit the damage to a certain extent. Working from home definitely has certain advantages in that respect.

Platforms Listing Remote Jobs in the Crypto Space

If you are looking for a remote job in the crypto sector, a number of job posting sites will help you find the right vacancy. You can try established platforms such as Indeed.com, a global leader among employment-related search engines with over 250 million monthly visitors. Entering keywords like “cryptocurrency” and “blockchain” in the ‘What’ box and then specifying “remote” under ‘Where’ will return dozens of ads with detailed descriptions. Multiple filtering options are also available for you to select the positions you may be interested in.

Cryptocurrencyjobs.co is a specialized platform for job seekers in the crypto space that allows companies to post job ads and seekers to find their next occupation. When searching for an opening, select “Remote” under Location and you’ll be offered over 100 current blockchain jobs you can work from distance, including from well-known companies in the industry such as Binance, Xapo, and Bitrefill. Crypto.jobs is a similar website, with almost 1,800 ads at the time of writing, and a dedicated Remote Jobs section. Cryptojobslist.com has published over 1,000 postings and you can filter the remote positions too. Cryptojobslist.com is another popular option for cryptocurrency careers.

Another website that can help you to start or continue a blockchain career is Blockew.com. You can pull a decent list of remote jobs in the Job Opportunities menu where you’ll find ads from Kraken, Brave, and other familiar crypto brands. And if you are looking for a source that’s entirely devoted to remote working options, you should go to Remoteok.io which claims to have the largest collection of remote jobs for digital nomads. You’ll find many offers from blockchain companies among over 39,000 listed vacancies. Freelancers with interest and background in the cryptosphere can also check out platforms such as Freelance for Coins and Blocklancer.net for jobs that pay with cryptocurrencies.

What other websites posting remote jobs would you recommend? Let us know in the comments below.

The post While You’re Under Quarantine, Check These Sites for Remote Crypto Jobs appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Can’t Lock Down Bitcoin: Trump Ponders Halting Stock Trading, Grounding US Passenger Flights

21/03/2020 by Idelto Editor

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and a looming recession, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration are contemplating halting stock markets next week. The White House is currently considering grounding all passenger planes and ordering a nationwide shelter. However, bureaucrats from the White House believe that the grounding of U.S. passenger planes and the execution of a federal lockdown order will wreak havoc on Wall Street. In order to curb panic, bipartisan U.S. representatives are considering plans to temporarily stop stock trading.

Also read: US Real Estate in Jeopardy – Analysts Predict Housing Market Crash to 29-Year Lows

Trump Considers Stopping Wall Street Trades and Grounding US Passenger Flights

Reports on Saturday, March 21, note that U.S. President Donald Trump is contemplating drastic measures in order to combat the covid-19 outbreak. According to various publications, including the Washington Examiner, Trump and his team are thinking about announcing a nationwide shelter-in-place order in the near future, if the virus grows more persistent. Basically, a shelter-in-place order means residents will be asked to stay home and not leave their residence to travel unless it’s an emergency.

Can't Lock Down Bitcoin: Trump Ponders Halting Stock Trading, Grounding US Passenger Flights — Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard writes that “Trump eyes grounding jets, halting stock trading, and ordering shelter-in-place.” The report notes that in order to combat a financial fallout, the Trump administration also has plans to close Wall Street for an unspecified time frame.

In order to make the executive order stick, Trump is also considering grounding all U.S. passenger planes. No one will be allowed to take a plane to another state and sources familiar with the matter say the measure being considered is for an unspecified time frame. Moreover, the U.S. President and bipartisan members of Congress have already enacted several executive orders like forcing corporations to produce certain goods. Trump and his team understand that grounding U.S. passenger planes might send shock waves through financial markets and they are prepared to tackle this issue.

From FDR to George W. Bush – Presidents in the Past Have Shut Down Stock Trading

Key officials and unnamed sources told the Washington Examiner that the Trump administration is seriously considering to shut down the stock market at the same time it grounds the U.S. passenger fleet and Trump orders a nationwide shelter-in-place, the report notes. Places like California have already enacted shelter-in-place orders throughout the entire state. It’s not the first time an American President has shut Wall Street down either, as Wall Street was closed for a whole week right after the 9/11 attacks.

In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) also stopped Wall Street with the Emergency Banking Act, which shut down the banking system, Wall Street trading, and the Federal Reserve’s operations. FDR initiated the Glass-Steagall Act too and broadened the powers of the acting president more than any of his predecessors. Furthermore, FDR banned gold hoarding and ordinary people’s stashes of gold were stolen and repatriated. All the legislation FDR created under the ‘New Deal,’ made it so government examiners could investigate bank reserves and as soon as a bank was deemed “financially secure” it could reopen.

Bitcoin Network Commands 99.9% Uptime Since 2009

One thing that President Trump cannot do, however, is stop the censorship-resistant cryptocurrency networks fueled by millions of peers. Unlike Wall Street trades, no one can stop people from transacting on the BTC network, which has been operational for 99.9849602734% of the time since its inception on Jan. 3, 2009. Trump can’t create a ‘Bitcoin Holiday’ and make it so people will stop trading bitcoins and other digital assets. Moreover, there are 5,000+ cryptocurrency protocols in the wild today that will simply continue operating no matter how hard the president or any bureaucrats try to stop them. For instance, right now people can start using bitcoin cash (BCH) in a permissionless manner that’s free from bank charges, delays, and fraud.

After FDR stole gold from hard-working American citizens and froze America’s financial markets in its tracks, people had often said it would never happen again. Individuals thought that after FDR gave the American people a solution to the financial woes, they would be well protected from future financial catastrophes. The 9/11 attacks had proved them wrong, as they learned that Wall Street could be closed again in the face of an emergency. Once again and especially in 2020, people are swiftly learning that the American government will do whatever it wants when there’s a crisis.

The state of American affairs today and what’s happened so far indicate that it’s not out of the question that Trump and his administration will ground passenger planes and halt stock trading. What is out of the question is the fact that no politician, government, corporate entity, or group can stop the cryptoconomy and bring it to a halt. While Wall Street traders twiddle their thumbs and wait for the markets to reopen, crypto advocates will know they can trade and swap value without any third-party interference.

What do you think about President Trump contemplating grounding passenger planes and temporarily closing Wall Street? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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