Bitcoin vs Gold ... Gold 2.0

Bitcoin is often called “Gold 2.0” because they share many of the same traits. As we have magazines dedicated to “head to head” matchups in cars, motorcycles, computer parts, cell phones, etc. – perhaps we should have a head-to-head matchup between gold 1.0 and gold 2.0, Metal vs Digital. Money is commonly recognized to have six essential elements that make it ideal for transferring value between parties. These will be our criteria.

·         Durability

·         Portability

·         Divisibility

·         Fungible

·         Limited supply

·         Acceptability

WHO WILL WIN?

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Mt Gox Forgets About, Then Finds 200,000 Bitcoin.

You might think a bitcoin exchange that was doing as much business at Mt. Gox was at one time would have a system in place that would allow it to keep track of where exactly all the Bitcoin it was holding for customers was. That would be an incorrect assumption though after the firm admitted to having lost about 850,000 bitcoins during its operations.

Mt. Gox has been in some big trouble over the last several months with the company first halting withdrawals due to a technical issue having to do with potential fraud. Mt. Gox later filed bankruptcy in the US. The bitcoin exchange has now announced that it has found 200,000 missing bitcoins in an old wallet it had forgot about.

That old digital wallet had been around since 2011 and had bitcoins worth about $116 million. With the recovery of 200,000 bitcoins, the total number of virtual coins lost by Mt. Gox now stands at about 650,000.

The CEO of Mt. Gox says that it had some old format wallets that were used in the past that the firm thought no longer had bitcoins in them. However, it discovered that the old format wallet indeed held a huge number of bitcoins. It's easy to wonder if Mt. Gox might have deleted some other old format wallets that held huge numbers of coins, accounting for some of the hundreds of thousands of bitcoins still missing.

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The State of Bitcoin and Altcoin

What lies ahead for the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency?
Recent musings ...

Since ASIC mining is now coming to Scrypt, it puts most miners (many of which who have already been pushed out of bitcoin mining) out of Scrypt mining soon.

Along with steep declines in revenue from the mining pursuits, mainly due to the influx of new miners entering in the last few months, it is likely that most miners will experience difficulty breaking even on their hardware investments.

Throw in all the hacked exchanges (Mt. Gox, Coinex, Poloniex, Flexcoin, etc.), negative press, the Dorian Nakamoto Newsweek blunder, a flood of pointless pump and dump scamcoins, and negative government and central banking actions ... well let's say it's an uphill battle for legitimacy and global acceptance at the moment.

Anything that has the capacity to change the way the world works - the way business and transactions are performed - will have complications. To paint a visual, digital currency acceptance can be likened to ocean waves, battering against yesterday's bricks and mortar world.

Long term, I'm very bullish on bitcoin and altcoin ... but as it often goes, there will be a lot of casualties on the road to victory.

Linux Crypto Worm 'Darlloz' found in 31k devices by Symantec

Linux worm diversifies to mine cryptocurrencies ... Symantec has found 31,000 devices that have variants of the 'crypto' worm named Darlloz, which targets routers and set-top boxes, among other 'Internet of Things' devices.



The latest variant was found by Symantec in mid-January which looks specifically for Intel architecture, along with other embedded devise like PPC, MIPS, and MIPSEL.

Since cryptocoins like Mincoin and Dogecoin use the scrypt algorithm, they can still be successfully mined on home PCs. Bitcoin difficulty requires custom ASIC chips.

The vulnerability was exposed through the backdoors of certain router types, which typically do not have the rigorous safety requirements of PC operating systems. The importance of up-to-date firmware cannot be stressed enough.

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CoinEX.pw Bitcurex, Polionex ... how about stop using 'ex'?

CoinEX.pw, at least, is gracious enough to cover the recent losses out of pocket for their customers. That's a fortunate break, unlike the recent attacks to hit multiple digital currency exchanges in the last 2 weeks.

CoinEX.pw has confirmed it recently suffered a hack resulting in the theft of all the bitcoins in its possession.

The digital currency exchange has assured customers that it is going to cover the losses out of its own pocket, although it didn’t confirm the total number of bitcoins lost.

In a post on the Bitcoin Talk forum, a CoinEX.pw representative under the username ‘erundook’ said:

“Long story short: yes, our wallet server got hacked and all funds were withdrawn.”

He also asked users to keep calm and asserted the company’s operators are not “doing a runner”.

 

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The Future of National Crypto Coins - Spaincoin and Auroracoin

Wild swings abound in the national cryptocoin scene. Rumour has it Spaincoin should see another big burst by the end of this week due to potential news coming out of Argentina. We patiently wait, and maybe stock up on some coin just in case ...

"Bitcoin's market capitalisation was slightly down by 2.1% while it's closest rival in value litecoin saw a rise of 3.2% in value.

However it was the country-based coins which saw the most spectacular gains and falls. The big riser from Monday - spaincoin - fell almost as spectacularly as it rose, dropping 45% in value in just 24 hours - though as spaincoin is still very young, this type of fluctuation is typical.

Yesterday we reported that auroracoin, the Icelandic cryptocurrency, had lost 50% of its value in 24 hours. Today however things have been reversed and the value of the coin has grown by almost 90%.

The fluctuations probably won't be welcome by the coin's developers ahead of the airdrop next week when each Icelandic citizen will be handed out 31.8 pre-mined coins.

The rebound comes after the Icelandic parliament held a closed session to discuss the cryptocurrency on 14 March. Creator of auroracoin, Baldur Friggjar Óðinsson, told CoinDesk that the government didn't invite him or anyone associated with the virtual currency to take part in the discussions.

The future for auroracoin is uncertain however, and there remains a distinct possibility that auroracoin could be made illegal in Iceland, if some reports are true. Adding to the uncertainty is chairman of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Trade, Frosti Sigurjónsson, who said in a blog post: "There is evidence however that this is a case of [a money] scam and illegal.""

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China Bitcoin Transactions Made Easy For Foreigners

Hey r/bitcoin, I just thought I’d chime in from China (I live in Ningbo). A little perspective first, this is not a technical article and I am not an economist or academic. I’m just a white dude living and working in China. But I think BTC changes lives on an individual level, so I’d like to just give you my thoughts from my perspective from my life, nothing else. A lot of what I am writing about it anecdotal and non-scientific evidence. I am just assuming many other foreigners share the same problems as me.

That said, here’s how BTC makes my life easier in China and why I think it might really catch on with the other 21M foreigners who come here every year, 1M of whom live here permanently as I do:

• Ease of transferring funds to and from native bank accounts to Chinese bank accounts. <snip> Location just became irrelevent for my savings accounts, and remittances are now easy and cheap
• Ease of purchasing goods within China (not yet, but hopefully soon). <snip>I’m not sure, but I think it’s possible we will see major Chinese retailers accept BTC for payments again. If so, this makes buying stuff way easier as a foreigner.
• Compared to banking in China as a foreigner, BTC is a cake walk. <snip>Red tape and language difficulties make banking a bitch here. BTC can simplify 90% of this.
• Ease of purchasing goods from other Asian countries and around the world. <snip>people living in Asia don’t just buy stuff from where they live, they buy from all over the region. My disposable income in yuan/China is now disposable income in many other currencies/places. Hello global shopping.
• Purchasing BTC through Chinese exchanges is actually not that hard. <snip>You can get BTC in China. I’ve done it, and I’m a computer/tech idiot.
• BTC has the potential of permanently disrupting international trade. (I could write an entire article on this subject alone.)<snip>The financial industry is not the only multi-trillion dollar industry waiting to be disrupted. Dorian’s bitcom train is chugging along!! CHOO CHOO MOTHERFUCKERS!
• If cryptographic contracts ever take off, that would be a huge boon to foreign business people.<snip>Hiring Chinese staff is a legal headache (putting it extremely charitably). If a blockchain based contract solution comes to be accepted here, watch a ton of foreign entrepreneurs thrive in China.
• Shanghai is going to have a huge BTC conference in August I don’t know too many details about this, but I plan to attend myself. I can only assume that if a large BTC conference can be organized in Shanghai, China will not be turning its back to BTC any time soon.

Living and doing business in China (as a foreigner) can be a pain in the ass when it comes to money and financial services. BTC has the potential to make it 95% easier to live here, and I suspect the same for other expats living in other countries around the world.

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