Bitcoin

Cryptocurrency mining has in many respects become an industrialized business. But despite the concentration of hashing power, the increasing difficulty and diminishing returns, in some cases it can still be profitable to mint coins as an amateur miner, probably the most honest way to earn some digital cash. Here’s a guide on how to build a mining rig.   Also read: Iran to Allow Mining Hardware Imports, Cyprus Creates Fintech Hub Is It Late to Get Started With Crypto Mining? The reduced market capitalization of digital assets, in comparison to last year’s all-time highs, has inevitably affected the profitability of cryptocurrency mining. That’s a fact of life but still there’s a number of other factors that can influence the outcome of mining – electricity rates, regulations, hardware prices, and even climate, to name a few. Their weight in the equation may vary significantly in different locations, from one jurisdiction to another. In times when major producers of highly specializ

Wallet provider Blockchain.com has created an OTC trading desk as part of its efforts to cater to institutional investors. Also in The Daily this Sunday, Shapeshift launches the redesigned Coincap tracker, Kraken lists Cardano and Qtum, and Compound offers its users the option to short cryptocurrencies. Also read: Fiat vs Crypto Laundering, Bitcoin Anniversary Cash-Ins Blockchain.com Launches OTC Trading Desk for Institutional Investors Blockchain.com, the popular cryptocurrency wallet provider, has launched an over the counter (OTC) trading desk as part of its plans to attract institutional investors. The company already offers custodial services tailored to serve the needs of clients such as hedge funds and asset managers. The move will allow Blockchain to conduct large private crypto trades outside of public exchanges. Former DRW fixed-income trader, Vince Machi, is running the new OTC desk, according to a source familiar with the development, quoted by The Block. The news com

Montana’s second most populous county, Missoula County, has rejected the proposal for a moratorium on cryptocurrency operations. The proposal was first presented at a public hearing in June but was postponed for three months. Also read:  160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals Proposed Crypto Moratorium Rejected Missoula County’s board of commissioners held a public hearing Thursday to decide whether to accept or reject the proposal for a one-year emergency moratorium on new or expanded cryptocurrency operations. Crypto mining could be limited in the county “under temporary emergency interim zoning,” the Missoulian described. The mining moratorium proposal was first presented at a public hearing in June but the decision was postponed for three months “to give staff more time to consider various options,” the publication added. After Thursday’s hearing, the county posted a notice on its website stating: The commissioners voted not to adopt interim

Indonesian cryptocurrency and payments company Pundix has introduced a point of sale terminal at a shop in Nigeria, allowing people in the West African country to make purchases using cryptocurrency, including bitcoin. The move is seen as key to scaling up cryptocurrency adoption and development in Africa’s biggest bitcoin market. Also read:  Payments Platform Wirex Launches Iban For Spanish and French Users, Doubles Account Limits Payments Go Crypto With ‘a First for Africa’, in Nigeria, by Pundix A Nigerian importer and distributor of agriculture products has installed a point of sale payment system that is underpinned by cryptocurrency such as bitcoin (BTC), in what the owners claim ‘is a first for Africa.’ In addition to using conventional currency, shoppers at Joetech Systems Ltd can now pay for goods and services on the XPOS terminal using bitcoin and three other virtual currencies, including ethereum. Payment is completed within seconds. The terminal has been launched in

Three U.S. agencies have taken action against international bitcoin-funded securities dealer 1pool Ltd., aka 1Broker. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says 1Broker violated federal securities laws. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says it violated the Commodity Exchange Act. Meanwhile, the company says it is working on letting customers withdraw their funds. Also read:  160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals SEC’s Action The SEC announced Thursday that it has filed charges against Marshall Islands-registered 1pool Ltd., aka 1Broker, and its Austria-based CEO, Patrick Brunner, “for allegedly violating the federal securities laws in connection with security-based swaps funded with bitcoins.” The agency explained: Investors could open accounts by simply providing an email address and a user name – no additional information was required – and could only fund their account using bitcoins. The SEC alleges that an undercover

Following some notable premiers in the genre recently, the next batch of stablecoins is on the way. A British startup is partnering with a bank to launch a GBP-pegged crypto, a Swiss commodities trader wants to mint a coin backed by metals, and a Mongolian telecom has been licensed to issue the country’s first digital currency with the same value as the national fiat. Also read: European Regulator Renews Restrictions on Crypto-Based Derivatives    Pound-Pegged Stablecoin on the Horizon in the UK The last couple weeks saw the arrival of new stablecoins in the crypto space. The US dollar-pegged Tether (USDT) will have to compete against two alternative cryptocurrencies boasting similar features to those that made Tether popular among traders and speculators. Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Paxos Standard (PAX), both approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services, are ERC20 tokens backed one-to-one with US fiat currency. And both, like Tether, sparked controversy almost imm

The Satoshi Revolution: A Revolution of Rising Expectations Section 4: State Versus Society Chapter 10, Part 6 Crypto’s Means are Its End, as Crypto-Statists Well Know The problem of the Means is, as I see it, a twofold problem: first, the problem of End and Means; second, the problem of the People and the State, that is, the means by which the people can supervise or control the State….[M]eans must be proportioned and appropriate to the end, since they are ways to the end, so to speak, the end itself in its very process of coming to existence. So that applying intrinsically evil means to attain an intrinsically good end is simple nonsense and a failure. -Jacques Maritain, Man and the State The 20 th century French Christian philosopher Jacques Maritain saw End and Means as the problem of political philosophy. He based his conclusion on political science, religion, and the lessons of history. The French Revolution provided a model of how an End failed because the Means used to

This week the software developers behind the mining operation Slush Pool have announced a new organization alongside releasing an open source operating system (OS) for cryptocurrency devices. The new offshoot company called Braiins has produced a Linux based system for bitcoin mining rigs and they plan to extend the OS to other digital currency software embedded devices. Also Read:  Developers Unveil Two New Bitcoin Cash Full Node Clients Written in Go Slush Pool Developers Launch  Braiins Operating System The cryptocurrency mining ecosystem relentlessly transforms every single day as the race to capture these digital assets becomes ever more competitive. This week the programmers who have been developing and operating Slush Pool since its inception have introduced a new company called Braiins. The Braiins team has released its first project called the Braiins OS which is an open source Linux (Openwrt) operating system for cryptocurrency software embedded devices such as an appli

Welcome to another weekend filled with tales of cryptocurrency intrigue. From shameless Bitcoin anniversary cash-ins to exaggerated claims of crypto money laundering, the Saturday edition of The Daily covers the good, the bad, and the greedy. Also read:  Popular Bitcoin Wallet Samourai Ditches All Government Currencies Shapeshift CEO Hits Back at Money Laundering Claims After a less than flattering profile of Shapeshift, and its unwitting role in allegedly facilitating money laundering appeared in the Wall Street Journal , Erik Voorhees has hit back. Describing it as a “poorly-researched piece” whose “implications are disingenuous and misleading”, the CEO compared the amount laundered by banks, at some $2.7 billion a day, to the minuscule $9 million allegedly washed through Shapeshift in two years. Accusations of being complicit in money laundering are a particularly sore point for Erik Voorhees, who was recently forced to steer Shapeshift towards full KYC, believed to be in res

In recent news pertaining to cryptocurrency exchanges, anonymous sources have stated that Ledgerx is preparing to launch ETH futures trading, Coinbase has announced a partnership with Caspian intended to target institutional investors, and the chief executive officer of Binance has shared his opinions regarding “trans-fee mining” and decentralized exchanges. Also Read:  European Regulator Renews Restrictions on Crypto-Based Derivatives Ledgerx Reportedly Readying to Launch ETH Futures According to an anonymous  source , cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, Ledgerx, is readying to launch ETH futures. The source states that the company has an Ethereum options product ready for launch, however, is currently awaiting regulatory approval for such. The source added that Ledgerx currently has a meeting with the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission scheduled for the 5th of October. At the start of September, Business Insider cited anonymous sources in reporting t

In what could be construed as calling the casual enthusiast’s bluff, BTC maximalists at the Samourai project announced, “All fiat currency conversions have been removed from Samourai Wallet. We understand this may inconvenience some, it may even be enough to cause us to lose some users, but we believe it is fundamental that our existing and future users understand that when they transact within the Bitcoin network, when they participate in the Bitcoin economy, they are transacting with the token native to the Bitcoin network, BTC, and nothing else.” Also read: Colombia Crypto Exchange Asks New President for Banking Help Samourai Wallet Increases Native Languages, Gives Fiat Currencies the Boot “0.98.87 – Welcome new international users, and saying adieu to fiat currency” , came the ad hoc title alerting users to a wallet update through Google Play and Github. The notoriously privacy-obsessed project revealed, “Samourai Wallet is now available in 12 languages with French and Chines