New Spanish Exchange Converts Bitcoin and Fiat Currencies at 7,000 ATMs


HolyTransaction Trade is a new universal cryptocurrency wallet in Spain that enables bitcoin and Euro instant conversions. Within Spain’s 7,000 ATMs, a person can convert their bitcoin into fiat currencies and vice versa, helping to push the country into the digital world.

HolyTransaction has teamed up with HalCash, a global electronic platform that allows users, both banked and unbanked, to send and receive money, nationally and internationally, instantly and securely. This means that any banks linked to the HalCash network can convert bitcoin into Euros and withdraw cash from the banks ATMs.

Speaking to CCN, Francesco Simonetti, CEO of HolyTransaction, said:

We started working with HalCash and a local payment processor to enable the withdrawal of cash for HolyTransaction’s Spanish customers. [We] then decided to help expand HalCash’s network to more countries.

On top of Spain the HalCash network also includes Poland, bringing the total number of ATMs that can convert bitcoin and Euros up to more than 10,000.

With the use of Teleingreso, a fast and secure payment processor, an individual can purchase bitcoin through its network of over 3,000 ATMs, 2,000 post offices, and 300 retail stores.

By selecting Teleingreso as the preferred online payment method, a person will receive a unique nine-digit code, which enables a payment to be made after visiting any of the networked ATMs to make a payment.

Bitcoin on the Rise After 2008

Since the 2008 financial crisis, which saw many European economies including Spain’s fall into decline, many people started seeking alternative measures that didn’t require traditional banking methods.

Simonetti states that the rise of bitcoin in Spain has increased since then with bitcoin continuing to advance in the Spanish nation.

Since a lot of people lost their houses during the financial crisis, more people started to look into bitcoin in order to live without using a bank.

In October last year, a report from Europa Press found that AMETIC, an information technology foundation in Spain, had announced that there was a need for the Spanish government to form a Ministry of Economy and Digital Society. It was reported that this was to help define the digital strategy for Spain.

Simonetti believes, however, that it is down to the regulated environment and the readiness of local banks to help with bitcoin services that is helping to drive the digital currency in the country.

What Next?

To use HolyTransaction a person doesn’t require a wallet on the platform and doesn’t require registering either. However, if they already have a wallet from a different wallet provider this can be used on HolyTransaction.

Customers of the exchange also have the opportunity of creating a prepaid virtual Visa card with bitcoin that enables them to buy anything they want online with most e-commerce shops accepting Visa payments.

According to Simonetti the recently launched platform has attracted thousands of customers from around the world, but he points out that they have plans to grow the company.

Israel's Tax Authority Wants to Treat Bitcoin As a Kind of Property

Israel's government is set to apply capital gains tax to bitcoin sales, categorizing digital currencies as a type of property.

According to a statement published on 11th January, the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) said that it would consider bitcoin and other digital currencies as a kind of intangible asset rather than a foreign currency.

Profits would then be taxed at the capital gains rate, which in Israel begins at 25%.

The agency said in a translated statement:

"...and therefore [bitcoins] will be considered in accordance with the Income Tax Ordinance as assets and their sale will be taxed as a sale of 'property' and income from their sale will be classified as capital.”

Individuals involved in the sale or mining of digital currencies would be subject to business tax rates. Further, any commercial sales of bitcoin or transactions involved with trading are subject to value-added tax (VAT), the agency said.

The release comes more than three years after word first emerged that Israel would seek some degree of taxation on bitcoin transactions. In late 2013, officials from the tax agency were quoted as saying that they wanted to pursue a means of taxing profits on bitcoin sales, but that they were uncertain on how to do so.

The move echoes the decision made by US tax authorities in 2014, when it moved to classify bitcoin as a type of taxable property.

DIX is included in coinmarketcap

I do not know what to say, I do not care much, we'll see what happens and how good it is.

What does bmw have to do with this, I did not see that I bought any token?

BTCUSD Price Technical Analysis: Downtrend Gaining Traction?


BTCUSD has been selling off after testing record highs recently due to profit-taking and as a reaction to Chinese government action. Last week, monetary authorities in the mainland warned consumers and exchanges about bitcoin trading and investment, emphasizing that it is not currency and shouldn’t be treated as such.

Bitcoin firms were prompted to cancel marketing events that promote the anonymity of BTCUSD trading as authorities reiterated the need to implement KYC and AML checks on trading. With that, investors continued liquidating their long positions and might continue to do so in the next few days.


Bitcoin price found support around $815 and has since pulled up to the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level on the latest swing high and low. Price is still stalling close to the 38.2% Fib and might be ready to drop back to the previous lows and beyond. The 100 SMA has crossed below the longer-term 200 SMA on this time frame to confirm that sellers are taking control of price action.

RSI is heading south but is nearing the oversold region, possibly drawing some bullish pressure to the game. Stochastic is treading sideways near the oversold region as well, but it has room to go lower so BTCUSD might follow suit.

On the longer-term time frames, it can be seen that BTCUSD is still on a steady ascent and is moving above a rising trend line connecting the lows since August 2016. However, price is moving dangerously close to this support zone and several technical areas so a break below the $700-800 area could constitute a long-term drop.

On the other hand, if the support area keeps losses in check and investors regain confidence in BTCUSD, price could still recoup its recent losses and go for a test of the $1000 area once more. For the time being, though, it seems that the Chinese government’s warnings has taken a huge toll on demand and the cryptocurrency might trade cautiously in the next few days.

Keep in mind that Chinese officials have already taken some action in the currency market, punishing sellers who bet that the yuan is in for more depreciation. Similar action could be imposed on bitcoin trading, although experts have mentioned that it will be much hard to implement than in theory.

Until investor confidence is revived, bitcoin could trade lower or sideways. A break below the nearby floor could trigger a test of the $500-600 area of interest in the next few weeks while a bounce could spark a climb back to $900.

BTCCNY Price Technical Analysis: Watch Out for a Triangle Breakout

BTCCNY has calmed down after its recent slump, consolidating inside a symmetrical triangle pattern with its lower highs and higher lows on the 15-minute time frame. Price is still in the consolidation pattern so a breakout in either direction is possible.

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA on this chart so the path of least resistance might be to the downside, taking BTCCNY to the 5500.00 triangle lows. An upside breakout, on the other hand, could lead to another test of the 7000.00 region.

Stochastic is heading south so BTCCNY price could follow suit while sellers remain in control. RSI is also moving lower so there’s some selling pressure left. However, both oscillators are also nearing the oversold regions and an upward crossover could draw buyers to the mix if they seek to catch the long-term climb at cheaper levels.


In the past few days, the Chinese government has been working hard in reining in offshore investment and bitcoin activity. It has issued warnings to exchanges reiterating the need for KYC and AML checks while reminding investors that bitcoin is not currency and shouldn’t be treated as such. This led to massive liquidation in long BTCCNY positions as investors worried that authorities could take action to restrict bitcoin trading in the mainland.

At the same time, the Chinese central bank’s intervention efforts to set the yuan trading range higher also hurt speculators who were betting on further depreciation of the Chinese currency. For many, this demonstrated the power of the PBOC in terms of influencing financial market movements, causing them to ease up on their speculative positions.

However, bitcoin industry experts have repeatedly emphasized that it would be difficult for authorities to crack down on BTCCNY trading due to the anonymous nature of the network and its transactions. Still, the news was enough to spook many bulls and traders are likely waiting for the jitters to die down before reestablishing their long positions.

From a longer-term standpoint, BTCCNY is still on its uptrend but is currently testing several inflection points. Several reversal candlesticks can be seen on the daily and weekly time frames while the 100 SMA remains above the longer-term 200 SMA on those charts. Also, price seems to be finding support at the rising trend line connecting the lows of price action since last year.

A break below those significant support areas around 6000.00 could be an early signal of an uptrend reversal, likely triggering a test of the 5000.00 area down the line. On the other hand, a bounce could fuel a climb back to the latest highs near 9000.00 but it’s more likely that consolidation could be seen for the near-term.

Interest in “Bitcoin” according to Google search data shows that the the world’s hedge fund capital tops all other places in the Tri-State area.

Hedge Funds Paying Attention

The latest stats from Google trends reveal that most of the interest in Bitcoin for the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, CT)  is coming from the greater Greenwich area of Connecticut.



While the global uptick in Bitcoin interest was already covered, it appears to be in an upswing particularly in regions commonly associated with hedge funds and Wall Street. For instance, number two Hoboken, New Jersey is also home to many people from Wall Street given its proximity to Manhattan with Stamford and Bridgewater also in the mix.

“On the global scale, the greater Greenwich hedge fund zone, which includes Westport, Norwalk and Stamford — where the likes of Greenwich resident Steven A. Cohen and Darien’s Richard Chilton set up their hedge funds — comes in at No. 3 as New York and London breeze past the region.” explains the founder and president of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association Bruce McGuire.

    Really what is meant when people say Greenwich, or Connecticut, is the hedge fund capital is a density rating.

The so-called “smart money” appears to be taking notice as Bitcoin has been the best performing currency for the past six out of seven years. So it’s likely greed—and not coincidence—that an area with the greatest density of hedge funds, and a high percentage of the wealthy in general, is looking at Bitcoin.


In fact, eight of the top ten largest hedge funds in the world reside in either Connecticut or New York, according to Wikipedia.

“Right now, Connecticut is No. 2 in the U.S., when you’re looking at the assets under management. With about $350 billion in assets in the state, we’re second to New York City,” McGuire adds.
Greed Will Drive Interest in Bitcoin

By definition, “hedge funds are alternative investments using pooled funds that employ numerous different strategies to earn active return, or alpha, for their investors.” They’re also typically set up as private investment limited partnerships, are only accessible to a limited number of accredited investors, and require a large initial minimum investment.


But the halcyon days of hedge funds seem to be behind us. In fact, big hedge funds have gotten slaughtered in 2016. One striking example is the Senfina hedge fund, which was shut down by Blackstone after losing 24% in 2016 alone.

“The market environment in 2016 for long/short hedge funds was unprecedented,” Paula Chirhart, a spokeswoman for Blackstone, told Bloomberg. “We did what was in the best interest of our investors to preserve their capital.”

Moreover, hedge funds have underperformed both the S&P and Bond Indexes every year since the financial crash of 2008.


Let’s now compare this to Bitcoin’s track-record:


Therefore, it may be a no-brainer for prudent hedge fund managers to not only skip the latest Ferrari this year, but also look at this promising new asset class (i.e. Bitcoin) in an attempt to turn the ship around.

Indeed, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin being increasingly mentioned alongside Gold as a “portfolio staple” as Bitcoin nears parity with the world’s most popular precious metal.

Additionally, with the rise of Bitcoin-related financial instruments such as IRAs and ETFs, including GBTC and the much-anticipated Winklevoss twins’ COIN, investing in Bitcoin will undoubtedly become much easier for traditional investors with time.

So will so-called ‘smart money’ flock to Bitcoin next?

Some experts certainly think so as Bitcoin continues to prove the naysayers wrong with every “near-death” experience. But if Bitcoin keeps up its stellar performance, it will surely become irresistible to traditional investors who are looking for the next big thing.

Will hedge funds beginning flocking to Bitcoin in the future? Share your thoughts below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Wall Street Journal, Wikipedia, Google Trends, Pantera Capital

4,000 Stores, Broad Optimism Makes Japan Land Of Rising Bits

Bitcoin in Japan is bigger than ever, with over 4,200 stores accepting it in 2017 and Tokyo exchange Quoine set for $1.5 billion turnover this year.
Bitcoin Hits The High Street

Local news resource NHK reported Tuesday that according to a december survey, the number of stores accepting Bitcoin in Japan had risen by 460% since the same time in 2015.

“[Bitcoin] has spread to various sectors such as beauty and nail salons… in addition to extant eating and drinking establishments,” it says.

With cryptocurrency payment becoming standard in Japan’s ubiquitous consumer industries, there is cause for optimism indeed as neighboring China sees trading explode.


In an interview with Deal Street Asia, Quoine exchange CEO Mike Kayamori shared the sentiment that the only way is up.

“It could be a corporate currency, it could be a loyalty point currency, it could be a gold-backed cryptocurrency and it could be a national one as well right?” he said, along with supporting China’s various digital currency experiments.  

    In regards to China coming up with their own, I’m an advocate of any country or a large multinational corporate formulating their own digital currency. I think the possibilities are infinite.

Quoine CEO: Transaction Volume ‘Will Be Much Bigger’

Quoine expanded from Singapore in 2016 after receiving $20 million in a funding round, and is looking to transform to a universal services provider in future. Remittances, payments and other financial services are all in the pipeline, Kayamori said.

“So in terms of market capitalization, when you define it at $2 billion or $20 billion – I don’t know how you’ll define the performance – then I can [tell] you that the transaction volume, especially from an exchange perspective, is going to be so much bigger than that,” he forecasted.

    I think it’s going to be trillions when you look at it from a transaction volume perspective. There’s going to be multi-billion dollar blockchain cryptocurrency exchanges that are going to be acquired or go public.

Traditional Finance Catching Up

In light of the Japanese government’s de facto recognition of cryptocurrencies as a payment method in 2016, the country’s financial market is wasting no time getting to grips with Blockchain technology.

Bitcoinist_Bitcoin Japanese Stock Market

Fellow exchange BitFlyer was selected by a Blockchain Study Group consisting of four major financial institutions to build a prototype technology for interbank Blockchain usage.

The study group itself authored a report in November, which found that Bitcoin technology should be used to maintain Japan’s competitiveness against European and US markets.

What do you think about the future of Bitcoin in Japan? Let us know in the comments below!

Governments’ Bitcoin Reserves?

Currently, sitting at around $900 with a $14.55 Million market cap, Bitcoin has been making regular appearances in mainstream media, gaining attention from regular users as well as investors. However, a class of investors that is usually not associated with Bitcoin may soon start to stock up on the digital currency: national governments. A prediction that has been made by Civic CEO Vinny Lingham, earlier in May.


Although no country has made any official statement regarding this, Bitcoin’s amazing performance throughout 2016 may cause governments to acquire small portions of the cryptocurrency as a store of value. If one country starts doing so, Bitcoin reserves could become a global practice as no government would want to be left high and dry with its paper notes.

Lingham writes,

    Imagine if China started buying up large amounts of Bitcoin — would the rest of the world governments stand idly by and watch? I don’t think so — so my prediction here is that by 2017, governments will become the largest buyers of Bitcoin, pushing the price up to new highs.

‘Zero Risk, All Upside’

Indeed, perhaps a surge in Bitcoin price will not only make governments take notice, but may facilitate their purchase of bitcoin. Abra CEO Bill Barhydt echoed Lingham via Twitter saying,

The zero-risk factor is obvious when realizing that Bitcoin can be bought with almost any national currency in existence. Although buying Bitcoin comes as a major risk for individuals, governments do not share this problem, as they have access to foreign exchange reserves and can typically print more.

Moreover, Bitcoin is often dubbed as ‘digital gold’ through its many similarities with the precious metal as a potential store of value amid ever-decreasing volatility. However, a Bitcoin reserve would have various advantages over gold since it’s much cheaper to store and transfer.
Accumulating in Stealth

Some believe that this “cryptocurrency race” may have already started in secrecy and that it is being accompanied by price manipulation. The Public Bank of China (PBOC) has recently met with domestic exchanges to discuss state regulations.


Following the meeting, a warning by the PoBC has been issued, in which it states,

    Bitcoin is a specific virtual good and does not have the same legal status as a currency, as so it can not and should not be used as money in the market circulation. Participating institutions and individuals should carefully engage in activities such as Bitcoin investment and bear the corresponding responsibilities and risks.

Bitcoin marketing in the country will also be restricted and Chinese regulators are exploring how the cryptocurrency can be used to circumvent capital controls.

These series of developments have caused Bitcoin to fall in price against the CNY, the biggest driving force in the market, as some mainstream media outlets spun the news as “Bitcoin banned,” which is incorrect.

As Samson Mow, COO of China’s oldest Bitcoin exchange BTCC, tersely tweeted:

Nevertheless, some claim that these may be moves made by the Chinese government to keep the price of Bitcoin low, while acquiring coins for storage. Most Bitcoin mining operations reside in China to boot. Secrecy on this matter would also be essential.

If the predictions of Lingham and Barhydt come to fruition, however, the price of Bitcoin should move to unprecedented heights. Bitcoin will then be in position to become a a true global and apolitical currency. Needless to say, Bitcoin’s public image issues will be instantly cast away as well.

Will governments start stocking up on Bitcoin? Are they doing it already? Share in the comments below!

99Bitcoins Has Passed 1.5 Million Readers in 2016

99Bitcoins gets to celebrate yet another major milestone. With bitcoin enjoying ever increasing popularity and growth, 99Bitcoins also saw a strong surge in readership throughout 2016.
1.5 Million Readers and Growing

99Bitcoins was established in January 2014 and has since emerged as a leader in the bitcoin community. The site offers a wide range of news and current event articles, tutorials, analysis and insights, opinion pieces, and other content. It is also frequently mentioned by leading magazines and websites, especially due to the popular Bitcoin Obituaries section.


So what has spurred the site’s growth? Throughout the autumn bitcoin experienced a surge in price. This price surge seems to have corresponded with increased interest in the crypto-currency as investors in China, India, and other emerging markets have been looking to alternatives for traditional cash. Meanwhile, in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, many people have been rattled by the election of Donald Trump, and have been searching out “safe havens.” To no surprise, bitcoin has emerged as a preferred safe haven asset.
As investors have been researching bitcoin, 99Bitcoins has emerged as a popular source for guides, reviews and insights. 99Bitcoins has also increased its profile as a respected authority. Throughout 2016 the site was mentioned in numerous prestigious publications and websites. Yahoo!, Newsweek, MSN, Gizmodo, Coindesk, and Seeking Alpha are just some of the many high profile sites that have referenced 99Bitcoins in recent months.
Unsurprisingly, the site enjoys strong readership among avid investors and technophiles. Males aged 25 to 34 also constituted the bulk of our audience. This reflects overall demographic trends among bitcoin investors.
The United States remained our biggest source of traffic, with 36.1% of readers coming from America. India also performed strongly, producing 5.1% of the readers, while the United Kingdom provided 3.93%.

The United States is expected to remain among the site’s biggest sources of traffic, but as awareness of bitcoin grows, diversification is anticipated. Bitcoin offers numerous advantages to people in emerging markets, which are more prone to market disruptions and dramatic currency swings. As such, emerging markets will likely continue to play an increasingly important role in the bitcoin community as a whole.

How Blockchain is Impacting Clean Energy


(VentureBeat) – By now we have all heard about the potential of solar and other renewables to shake up the energy market, but you might not know that blockchain technology also has its place in the mix. Several startups are developing projects that integrate blockchain and solar energy.

No one enjoys paying their electricity bill. It keeps going up and up, with a bunch of new nonsense fees thrown on top every few years. What’s worse is that many parts of the world still rely on dirty fossil fuels to produce this energy. By now we have all heard about the potential of solar and other renewables to shake up the energy market, but you might not know that blockchain technology also has its place in the mix.

Several startups are developing projects that integrate blockchain and solar energy. Their ideas range from developing alt-coins for trading and incentivizing power production to using smart contracts for administering energy transactions.
SolarCoin

SolarCoin is an eco-minded cryptocurrency that aims to incentivize solar power production. The coin was launched in 2014 and hopes to drive the generation of 97,500 terawatt hours worth of solar power over 40 years. It originally used a proof-of-work system for verification but has since switched over to a proof-of-stake-time system because it is more environmentally friendly. Anyone can mine the coins, from individuals to solar farms. For every 1 MWh of electricity generated (and verified by a third party), the producer recieves one SolarCoin. Solar farms wanting to earn extra income by generating SolarCoin coins for the power they produce don’t have to pay anything to participate, and SolarCoin does not take any of the power; it merely provides the coins as an incentive to produce clean energy.

Granted, one SolarCoin is worth under 7 cents at the time of writing, but then Bitcoin was only worth about 30 cents when it was the same age. The hope is that enough people will have confidence in the coin to give it real value and allow it to be used in transactions. While Bitcoin famously takes large amounts of electricity to mine, SolarCoin incentivizes a responsible use of energy.

ElectricChain, an affiliate of SolarCoin, is also working on a number of blockchain- and solar-based projects. Its main aim is to “build the world’s largest open scientific solar monitoring device with the SolarCoin blockchain.” It plans to use this system for various scientific and financial purposes. One of its current projects is to integrate current solar panel investors into the ElectricChain and SolarCoin. It hopes this program will speed up the transition to cleaner energy.
Smart Solar

Back in 2002, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) were created to incentivize investment in renewable energy. An REC is a certificate that proves 1 megawatt hour of electricity has been produced by renewable sources. Solar farms and other renewable electricity providers issue RECs to represent the amount of clean energy they have generated. They then sell them to utility companies, which are required to use certain levels of renewable power.

The problem with this system is that the amount of renewable energy produced is calculated by estimates and projections. This then leads to some very creative accounting practices, and the reality is that less renewable energy is being made and used than the certificates might say.

IDEO CoLab, along with Nazdaq and Filament, have partnered up to solve this problem. Smart Solar is their collaborative project. It uses blockchain technology and the Internet of Things to allow solar panels to calculate their own levels of energy production and then issue RECs to the owner. They have already constructed a prototype, which proves it is possible to incentivize solar energy without such a convoluted system.

Brooklyn Microgrid

Traditional grids are a logistical nightmare. Transferring power from where it is generated to where it is needed and accommodating the peaks and troughs is immensely complex. The other downside is that citywide grids are vulnerable. In an event like Hurricane Sandy, a whole network can go down, bringing an entire city to a halt and endangering people’s lives.

Microgrids are a new option for delivering electricity. They aim to promote cost-effective, secure, sustainable energy production and distribution in a local area. Brooklyn Microgrid is just one such project that is testing the waters, and it’s doing so with blockchain.

The system will use Ethereum, a public blockchain platform with a smart contract functionality that permits microgrid users to commit to contracts that cannot be falsified or misrepresented. The service will automatically update transactions and energy use in real-time using a cryptographically secure list.

Brooklyn Microgrid also hopes to boost the amount of clean energy that is produced within its local community. It can manage energy production and distribution throughout emergencies and blackouts, helping to keep the community safe and the economy running. Brooklyn Microgrid also offers financial incentives for investment in clean energy, which assists in keep the community green and helps to provide more environmentally friendly jobs.
Blockchain and solar: Just the beginning of a clean energy partnership

With the continued push towards renewable resources, blockchain technology provides a way to further incentivize and account for clean energy production. There are many startups currently experimenting with combining the two in innovative ways. Now is just the beginning, but there is potential for blockchain and solar to contribute to the world in numerous ways, from the local community to the globe on a grand scale.

Beijing News: Vulnerable Monetary System Led to Bitcoin’s Growth

Beijing News, a prominent Chinese mainstream media outlet, stated in a recent coverage of bitcoin that the rapid growth of the digital currency is directly attributable to vulnerable monetary systems which serve the global financial ecosystem as its backbone.

Over the past two weeks, bitcoin reached an all-time high price at 8,895 yuan in the Chinese market, surpassing the previous record set in late 2013. However, a sensible statement from the Chinese government and its central bank the People’s Bank of China was misunderstood by the media, leading to a 21% decline in the price of bitcoin.

As predicted, bitcoin quickly recovered and gained momentum, rising back to the $900 trading margin for both the Chinese and global bitcoin market.

Regardless of the controversial announcement and media coverage this past week, bitcoin still recorded a 14.1% monthly increase in value, increasing from $773 in early December to $900.
Bitcoin’s Resilience & Ability to Recover

Several mainstream media outlets including Beijing News stated that bitcoin’s resilience and ability to recover ultimately stems from its consumer base, that are currently holding bitcoin to speculate the market. The Beijing News claimed that nearly 90% of bitcoin users are still speculators and a small niche market exists wherein users actually utilize bitcoin as a currency and a store of value.

Thus, amid economic uncertainty and financial instability, analysts at Beijing News explain that the 90% of speculators move to bitcoin in an attempt to protect their assets. In other words, the vast majority of bitcoin users are relying on the digital currency to avoid vulnerable monetary and financial systems.

In the end, it comes down to the decline in trust and confidence from the general population towards traditional banking systems and financial services. Consumers have begun to lose credence in current monetary systems revolving around cash. Banks have lost reliability after various cases of corruption and unlawful activities were unraveled over the past few decades.

Yang Guoying, analyst at Beijing News and researcher at China Financial Think Tank, wrote:

“The vulnerability of the current monetary system is an important reason for the prevalence of Bitcoin.:

Guoying further emphasized that bitcoin reflects attributes of an efficient and practical currency, if it succeeds to solve various problems involving scalability and privacy. Because the number of users seeking out for bitcoin as a store of value and currency is rapidly increasing, Guoying noted that it will be interesting to see how bitcoin operates side by side with existing monetary systems and regulatory frameworks.

We have no date, we will tell you here, we are also seeing the purchase of an important asset

Btc seems to cut after the strong increases, is consolidating


http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170109/anrgu57y.png

Nxt keeps recovering, Nxt is still recovering, if it exceeds 0.0000723 it would enter into a bullish trend


http://fs5.directupload.net/images/170109/hgnb3xvd.png

Until it passes the 0.015 would not be in a bullish trend

2017: When Ethereum Will Go From IT to Enterprise


Jeremy Millar began his career as one of the first Java architects at Oracle, and is now the chief instigator at blockchain firm ConsenSys, where he plays a lead in its evolving enterprise strategy.

In this CoinDesk 2016 in Review special feature, Millar discusses how he believes the community galvanizing around the ethereum blockchain will continue to grow – and gain big business support – in 2017.

Enterprise use of blockchain technology has evolved at an almost unfathomable rate over the past 24 months.

From early bitcoin experiments, to senior bankers joining startups, to the launch of the public ethereum decentralized application platform, to the many private, permissioned systems using the technology, blockchain has emerged as one of the top enterprise IT trends entering 2017.

Yet, the market has already moved beyond the incubation phase where innovators effectively build the technology along with their initial applications, and possibly beyond the early adopter phase, too.

Increasingly, mainstream enterprise IT organizations are not only educating themselves and experimenting with blockchain, they are also aiming to tackle novel use cases and complex IT challenges with the technology.

More and more frequently, our clients are asking for assistance building MVPs not PoCs, or hardening environments for production readiness.

With this whirlwind of adoption, it is also clear that certain key technologies are emerging as potential de facto standards as blockchain platforms.
Why IT loves ethereum

Ethereum is, arguably, the most commonly used blockchain technology for enterprise development today.

With more than 20,000 developers globally, the benefits of a public chain holding roughly $1bn of value, not to mention an emerging open-source ecosystem of development tools, it is little wonder that Accenture observed "every self-respecting innovation lab" is running and experimenting with it.

Cloud vendors are also supporting ethereum as a first-class citizen: Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft Azure, RedHat OpenShift, Pivotal CloudFoundry all feature ethereum as one of their, if not their primary, blockchain offering.

Why? The software is widely available and its simple to download an ethereum client; pick your favorite development environment and get going.

Ethereum is general purpose and easy to program – full stack and web developers can pick up the basics of the Solidity smart contract programming language in a matter of hours and develop initial applications in days.

Documentation is plentiful, as are code samples, deployment frameworks and training. Little wonder that so many companies are using ethereum as their blockchain of choice.

Today, enterprises are deploying private ethereum networks in or near production in areas as diverse as supply chain tracking, payments, data privacy, compliance and asset tokenization just to name a few.
Three challenges

Now certainly, we are some time away from seeing investment banks fully migrate securities clearing and settlement to ethereum networks.

That said, however, we already do see private ethereum blockchain networks in production – even in financial services.

Enterprises adopting ethereum face a number of challenges, notably:

    Ethereum was developed initially for public chain deployment, where trustless transaction requirements outweigh absolute performance. The current public chain consensus algorithms (notably, proof of work) are overkill for networks with trusted actors and high throughput requirements.
    Public chains by definition have limited (at least initially) privacy and permissioning requirements. Although ethereum does enable permissioning to be implemented within the smart contract and network layers, it is not readily compatible 'out of the box' with traditional enterprise security and identity architectures, or data privacy requirements.
    Naturally, the current Ethereum Improvement Process is largely dominated by public chain matters, and it has been challenging for enterprise IT requirements to be prioritized within it.

As a result, many enterprises who have implemented private ethereum networks have either 'tweaked' or forked open-source implementations, or relied on proprietary vendor extensions to meet their requirements.

Some of these are extremely sophisticated and are on the cutting edge of computer science; for example: BlockApps STRATO, Hydrachain, Quorum, Parity, Dfinity and Raiden.

While understandable, and in fact until now, the only effective approach, the downsides are obvious: lack of application portability, code base fragmentation, and vendor lock-in.
Historical parallels

Not surprisingly, this has been a point of conversation for some months between enterprise tech vendors, corporate users and ethereum startups.

These discussions have expanded, with the blessing and involvement of ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and the non-profit Ethereum Foundation, into a dedicated group of vendors where the largest corporate users and ethereum infrastructure leaders are collaborating to define a roadmap, legal structure, governance and initial technical developments.

To some extent, this parallels the paths of other significant platform technologies, such as TCP/IP and HTTP and perhaps (from a software perspective) more relevantly Java and Hadoop.

Java was never intended to be a broadly used enterprise development tool; it was in fact developed originally for interactive television (specifically set-top boxes and smart cards – who remembers Java Card?).

However, Java had many advantages for web development with database back-ends (known as web client-server or three-tier architecture): it had comprehensive web and database APIs, it provided 'write-once, run anywhere' platform portability, simplified object-oriented programming constructs with familiar syntax, and a rapidly development ecosystem.

Indeed, it was not even Sun that created Java Enterprise Edition (at that time, J2EE); it was a plucky startup (WebLogic) and a group of enterprise customers and other vendors. Similarly, Hadoop was originally created to index the web and for advertising serving.

And who knew TCP/IP would emerge into a protocol that today, literally exists everywhere?
Solutions on the way

In this way, I would argue ethereum is one of the few, indeed perhaps the only, blockchain technology with a similar trajectory and potential.

Even the early "public permissionless" vs "private permissioned" differentiation strongly echoes the Internet vs intranet deployment considerations that were so prevalent before businesses became comfortable with security and scalability issues of public infrastructure.

By banding together the key adopters, supporters and shapers of enterprise usage of ethereum, we are seeking to provide a platform not only for the technology, but also to provide the governance and tools to create a standard for 'Enterprise Ethereum'.

It is a group of builders and doers, developing sufficient governance for enterprise requirements, but not 'death by committee' and without 'pay to play'.

Some of our collaborators have noted the refreshing nature of this approach and the pace of technical progress that is achievable from working off a single standard and open-source code base.

Moreover, Enterprise Ethereum will build upon the current ethereum scaling roadmap and maintain compatibility and interoperability with public ethereum. In fact, we believe Enterprise Ethereum will soon contribute significantly to the overall development of ethereum.