Bitcoin in the News : 2017-04 More++

In contrast to the price news -- 'Bitcoin Price Breaks All-Time High', etc. (see Bitcoin in the News : 2017-04 Price) -- April was a relatively quiet month for other bitcoin news. Of the more significant stories, another contrast appeared in the adoption of bitcoin by two of the planet's more important economies. While Japan moved forward...

• 2017-04-03: Japan Finally Recognizes Bitcoin After Long Battle (investopedia.com)
• 2017-04-06: By This Summer, Bitcoin Will Be Accepted at More Than 260,000 Stores in Japan (futurism.com)

...India moved backward in political circles and sideways elsewhere.

• 2017-04-05: ‘Bitcoin Should be Declared Illegal’ Demands Indian Politician (cryptocoinsnews.com) • 'Kirit Somaiya, a member of the Indian Parliament who belongs to the BJP, India’s conservative ruling party at the center, questioned if bitcoin is a "pyramid ponzi scheme"'
• 2017-04-08: Bitcoin Startups Fear No Ban in India, Say Technology Will Make Inroads (entrepreneur.com)

Other news included a typical story related to bitcoin's mysterious origins...

• 2017-04-13: Bitcoin: Self-Proclaimed Inventor's Firm Sold to Private Equity (fortune.com) • 'A company built around the research of Craig Wright, who has claimed to have invented the bitcoin cryptocurrency, has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal the company says is the biggest to date involving bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology.'

...and a couple of stories that enhance bitcoin's bad boy reputation:-

• 2017-04-11: Mirai botnet variant turns IoT devices into bitcoin mining slaves (theinquirer.net)
• 2017-04-15: Bitcoin Wallets Under Siege From 'Large Collider' Attack (fortune.com)

That last story leads back to the mysterious origins.

But some speculate the goal of the project is not to rob a whole lot of wallets, but instead to strike a mother lode from a long-lost wallet from bitcoin's early days: "About 10% of Bitcoins were created early, before 2012, and have never been traded. If somebody ever finds the key of the early lost Bitcoins, they'll have a huge payoff, over a billion dollars. Speculation is that either "Satoshi Nakamoto", whoever he is, is holding onto them for a big payoff, or somebody lost the private key for all those early Bitcoins."

With that in mind, it takes a business school professor to ask the question:-

• 2017-04-18: Can Bitcoin Be the Foundation of a Fairer Financial System? ([MIT] technologyreview.com)

If your answer is 'Yes!', then the next story is for you.

• 2017-04-22: The Need for Bitcoin Evangelists and How to Be One (themerkle.com)

Does having a bitcoin blog make me an evangelist? Short answer: 'No!'. Long answer: 'No, of course not!'.

Bitcoin in the News : 2017-04 Price

Just like last month, in Bitcoin in the News : 2017-03 Price, let's look at bitcoin price action for the month of April. The chart for the last 30 days shows a slow upward trend for the first few weeks, followed by a sharp rise near the end of the month.

Bitcoin Price Index

The main stories from Bitcoin price analysis (cointelegraph.com) for this period were:-

• 2017-04-21: Bitcoin Price Heads To Pre-ETF Highs, Exceeding $1,250 • 'Following a month of subdued value after the Winklevoss ETF rejection in March, a steady resurgence has been underway.'
• 2017-04-26: Bitcoin Price Breaks All-Time High, Hits $1,300: Potential Factors • 'Most analysts seem to believe that the recent surge in bitcoin price was caused by the SEC’s decision to re-examine the bitcoin ETF proposal of the Winklevoss twins.' [...] 'It is likely that the arbitrage in the US market caused by Bitfinex and other exchanges’ inability to process withdrawals and deposits in fiat money is causing bitcoin price to increase at a rapid rate.'
• 2017-04-29: Bitcoin Price Sets New All-Time High at $1,377: Main Factors • Ditto.

Arbitrage making the price rise -- how does that work? From the second link:-

Bitcoin price in the US, which holds 26.6 percent of the global Bitcoin exchange market share averaging at $1,315. On the other hand, Japan, the largest Bitcoin exchange market, is demonstrating an average price of $1,297. Competitors in the US Bitcoin exchange market including Bitstamp expressed their concerns over the current Bitfinex issue and its conflict with its intermediary banks.

The logic here isn't at all clear to me. Neither is the logic behind these predictions from the same source:-

• 2017-04-17: Bitcoin Price at $500,000 by 2030: African Projection • 'The advent of new services that use the digital currency for the purpose of sending money from one point to another has started eating into the roughly $4 bln per year cost that banks and other institutions make from international transfers to Africa.'
• 2017-04-27: Bitcoin Price Over $10,000 by 2021 If It Manages to Hold Market Share: Voorhees Prediction • 'The entirety of the token market, which as an asset class has surpassed $30 bln, would be worth more than $300 bln in the next four years.'

That's not bad for an asset that isn't backed by anything tangible.

Bitcoin in the News : 2017-03 More++

In my previous post, Bitcoin in the News : 2017-03 Price, I identified two underlying reasons for the price changes in March: the SEC ETF decision and the scalability debate. Let's look at those ongoing sagas in more depth.

• 2017-03-10: S.E.C. Rejects Winklevoss Brothers’ Bid to Create Bitcoin ETF (nytimes.com; Nathaniel Popper)

Quoting from the article,

The commission said it was rejecting the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust because the markets where Bitcoin are currently traded are largely unregulated. The lack of such regulation, the commission said, raised "concerns about the potential for fraudulent or manipulative acts and practices in this market."

and later,

The twins already won regulatory approval from New York authorities for their Gemini Exchange, where virtual currencies can be bought and sold by professional traders. The proposed ETF would have been tied to the price of Bitcoin on the exchange. Most Bitcoin, however, are traded outside the United States, beyond the reach of American regulators. The virtual currency emerged in 2009 and was celebrated for its ability to circumvent government authorities. [NB: 'Bitcoin are traded', i.e. capitalized and plural]

Many bitcoiners are passionately proud that the object of their affection is outside any central government control. Looks like another example of cake that can't be eaten. As for the scalability debate, I noted a slew of stories from the same source, cointelegraph.com [NB: 'Bitcoin Core' (BTC) vs. 'Bitcoin Unlimited' (BTU)]:-

• 2017-03-22: Bitcoin Hard Fork Will Be Felt Deeper Than Ethereum’s: Experts
• 2017-03-25: How Bitcoin Exchange Market is Preparing for Hard Fork
• 2017-03-28: Why Canadian Companies Unanimously Rejecting Bitcoin Unlimited
• 2017-03-29: RIP Bitcoin Unlimited, Bitcoin Can't and Won't Fork: F2Pool Owner • 'F2Pool, the second largest Bitcoin mining pool in the world behind AntPool, turned down Bitcoin Unlimited earlier this week.'

Although the last word has yet to be said, the hard fork isn't looking good for bitcoiners. ETF and scalability in the same month: looks like another example of the old double whammy. I noted a handful of other stories that expanded my knowledge of bitcoin.

• 2017-03-03: Something Odd Is Happening at Bitcoin’s Largest Mining Pool (bitcoinmagazine.com) • 'When asked for specifics on why AntPool is not mining full blocks whenever possible, an Antpool representative did not have any comments to share'
• 2017-03-11: Using Google Trends to Detect Bitcoin Price Bubbles (coindesk.com)
• 2017-03-20: Top 13 Major Bitcoin Price Crashes: Endurance of An Idea (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-03-20: The Gambler’s Guide to Bitcoin Casinos (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-03-29: Bitcoin Value Is High Only Due To "Lawbreakers": Forbes Analyst (cointelegraph.com) • 'If we could flip a switch and eliminate all illegal uses of Bitcoin, there would be nothing left of the cybercurrency.'

Three out of those five stories are again from cointelegraph.com. That in itself is a story.

Bitcoin in the News : 2017-03 Price

I ended last month's post, Bitcoin in the News : 2017-02 Price, with,

I'm almost certain that I'll be doing a post next month for 2017-03 Price.

And so it is! One important difference needs to be flagged: the chart source has changed so a straightforward month-to-month comparison isn't possible.

Bitcoin Price Index

The new source is Live Bitcoin price and market cap (cryptocompare.com). Squinting at the post for '2017-02 Price' tells me that the previous source was BitcoinChain.com. The previous source allowed a custom date range, which the new source doesn't offer, so the chart shown above shows the month preceding my snapshot. As for the stories behind the price chart, I once again turn to Bitcoin price analysis (cointelegraph.com):-

• 2017-03-10: Bitcoin Price Hits $1,300 Prior to ETF Decision
• 2017-03-14: Bitcoin Price Maintains Stability at $1225, Resilient Towards ETF Ruling • 'On March 10, the US Securities and Exchange Commission officially disapproved the Winklevoss twins’ Bitcoin ETF COIN approval..'
• 2017-03-19: Bitcoin Price Declines to $926 But Recovers, Drops 16% in One Day • Why? 'Bitcoin price heavily fluctuated in value, mostly due to the unresolved issues surrounding Bitcoin scalability.'
• 2017-03-27: Bitcoin Price Stabilizes at $1,022, Scalability Debate Continues

Buy on the rumors, sell on the news? -or- Pump and dump? Maybe they are one and the same.

April Fool!

The biggest joke of them all!

Bitcoin in the News : 2017-02 More++

Am I constrained by a pattern here? In the previous post, Bitcoin in the News : 2017-02 Price, I wrote,

For the third consecutive month I'm practically forced to start Bitcoin in the News with a post about the preceding month's price.

In addition to that, my second post for February, Bitcoin in the News : 2017-01 More++, concluded,

Were there any other new stories in the bitcoin space that grabbed everyone's attention [last month]? No, there weren't. I did, however, pick up on one theme : how well bitcoin is accepted by national authorities. Here is a list of stories in chronological order.

I could say exactly the same thing this month. Here's the list:-

• 2017-02-01: India Assaults Cash Again, 100% Fine For Cash Use Will Boost Bitcoin Price (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-02-03: Why Venezuela's Currency Crisis Is A Case Study For Bitcoin (forbes.com)
• 2017-02-09: Bitcoin is tanking after Chinese exchanges block withdrawals (businessinsider.com)
• 2017-02-09: Iran Stops Using US Dollar, Could Become Next Major Bitcoin Market (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-02-12: Bitcoin Or Bust: Taking British Banking Out Of Exchanges (forbes.com)
• 2017-02-12: The Philippines Officially Legitimize Bitcoin as Payment Method (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-02-15: Bitcoin Conquers Morocco As Underground Crypto Bazaar is Flourishing (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-02-18: Bitcoin Price in Tunisia 20% Higher Than in the US, Due to Capital Controls: Bitcoin Entrepreneur (cointelegraph.com)
• 2017-02-21: Has Trump Made Mexico the Next Hotspot for Bitcoin? (nasdaq.com)

Still following last month's pattern: 'Short takes: Things I learned from this month's news exercise.'

• 2017-02-05: Top 5 Bitcoin Communities (themerkle.com)
• 2017-02-05: Long-Term Indicators of Bitcoin: Transactions, Hashrate & More (cryptocoinsnews.com)
• 2017-02-12: Are Bitcoin Traders Planning for an ETF Approval? (coindesk.com; This topic was one of the most popular in February)

And again: 'And that's a wrap. See you again at the beginning of March! April!' Cookie cutter blogging, here I am...

Bitcoin in the News : 2017-02 Price

For the third consecutive month I'm practically forced to start Bitcoin in the News with a post about the preceding month's price; see 2017-01 Price for last month.

Bitcoin Price Index

The chart from Cointelegraph.com shows the price crossing USD $1000 at the beginning of the month, dropping below that psychological level to a local low on 10 February, then rising to nearly $1200 by the end of the month. A number of articles from the same source attempt to provide an explanation. Once again, the single most dominant reason is *China*.

• 2017-02-01: Bitcoin Price Surpasses $1000 in China and South Korea, Again
• 2017-02-09: Bitcoin Price Falls 9% Overnight As Two Chinese Exchanges Stop Withdrawals
• 2017-02-15: Bitcoin Price 30-Day Moving Average At Highest Ever
• 2017-03-02: Bitcoin Price Breaks $1228 All-Time High Again With ETF Nearing

The phrase 'ETF Nearing' expands to 'the industry’s optimism towards the Winklevoss twin’s Bitcoin ETF approval on March 11'. With that in mind, I'm almost certain that I'll be doing a post next month for 2017-03 Price.