Thursday, September 24, 2015
LottoShares: World’s First Physical Lottery on the Blockchain
World Economic Forum: Distributed Technology to Go Mainstream by 2027
MIT's John Clippinger Talks Bitcoin’s Inherent Politics
A Glimpse into the Future of Decentralized Media
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Press Release: BitStarz Player Lands Record-breaking Win at the Bitcoin Casino
Just a couple weeks ago, one lucky player at BitStarz managed to land the biggest win the casino had ever seen. A few days later, it was time again. A new depositing player won a whopping 95.106 BTC while playing the ever-popular slot Lucky Coin, thus breaking the record again.
BitStarz Casino pays out two record-breaking wins in less than 2 weeks time!
Beginners luck strikes again at BitStarz where yet another new player managed to land an incredible record-breaking win. The player, know by his nickname “badwinner” won an incredible 95 BTC (equivalent of over €20,000) in just one spin, and is thereby the record-holder for the single largest win in BitStarz history!
The win occurred on one of the most popular slot games in the casino, Lucky Coin. The slot itself is a stunning premium slot with an Asian theme, and features a thrilling free spins bonus round combined with a generous multiplier. The generosity of the game was something the player experienced first hand as one of his spins resulted in 5 scatters and a 95 BTC payout.
Bitstarz.com is the leading Bitcoin Casino in Europe, and is offering an extensive range of premium slots and table games from top game providers.
Sasha Jade, marketing manager at BitStarz, had this to say: “Once more we are able to bring much joy to the life of one of our players. What was really surprising was the amount won, which far exceeding our top win, becoming the greatest single win we have had at our casino so far. Our hard work has paid off and we continue to be able to offer a great experience to our users while maintaining the highest quality of services and games.”
BitStarz got in touch with the player right after the big win and needless to say, he was incredibly happy: “I was at a restaurant and when the 5 scatters came I jumped out of my seat! I was blown away! I will use the money to upgrade to a newer car and will print and frame the winning round to have as a trophy on my wall!”
About BitStarz
www.bitstarz.com
BitStarz is a well-established casino brand and is pioneering the Bitcoin Casino industry. The company was the first to offer wagering in both Bitcoin and real money and offers more than 550 games in its portfolio. It boasts a gaming license issued from Antillephone N.V., based in Curacao.
For more information, please contact Sasha Jade at sasha.jade@bitstarz.com
Press contact:
Sasha Jade
Marketing Manager
sasha.jade@bitstarz.com
www.bitstarz.com
Is Bitcoin on its Death Bed? (Op-Ed)
BitGo Posts $1 Billion in Bitcoin Transactions in Single Quarter
Bank of England Chief Economist: Blockchain-based Digital Currency Issued by Central Banks Could Replace Cash
In a talk given at the Portadown Chamber of Commerce in Northern Ireland on September 18, Andrew G Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England (BoE), has hinted at the possibility that the U.K. government might issue a digital currency. Though the disclaimer “The views are not necessarily those of the Bank of England or the Monetary Policy Committee” ensures plausible deniability, Haldane’s talk seems to indicate that the BoE is at least seriously considering the possibility.
Haldane is chief economist at the BoE and executive director of monetary analysis and statistics. Listed by Time Magazine in 2014 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Haldane is a member of BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee and oversees research and statistics across the bank.
Haldane focuses on the inability of central banks to set negative interest rates to stimulate economic growth, which hinders the effectiveness of monetary policy and is known as the Zero Lower Bound (ZLB) problem.
“A central bank cannot reduce nominal interest rates below zero,” explained a 2014 IMF working paper cited by Haldane. “This constraint arises from the existence of an asset, cash, with a guaranteed return of zero. A negative interest rate would mean that someone lends $100 and receives less than $100 in the future. Such a loan would never occur, because the lender could do better by putting cash in a safe deposit box.”
Therefore, Haldane suggests looking for technological means for implementing a negative interest rate on physical currency. More than a century ago, German economist Silvio Gesell proposed a stamp tax on currency to generate a negative interest rate. Modern variants of the stamp tax on currency have been proposed – for example, by randomly invalidating banknotes by serial number.
Another possibility is to abolish paper currency, which would also represent a way to fight criminal activities that rely on cash exchange.
Yet another possibility would be to issue government-backed currency in an electronic rather than paper form.
“This would preserve the social convention of a state-issued unit of account and medium of exchange, albeit with currency now held in digital rather than physical wallets,” says Haldane. “But it would allow negative interest rates to be levied on currency easily and speedily, so relaxing the ZLB constraint.”
Haldane observes that the technology underpinning digital currencies has changed rapidly over the past few years, due to the emergence of Bitcoin and crypto-currencies.
“What I think is now reasonably clear is that the distributed payment technology embodied in Bitcoin has real potential,” says Haldane. “On the face of it, it solves a deep problem in monetary economics: how to establish trust – the essence of money – in a distributed network. Bitcoin’s “blockchain” technology appears to offer an imaginative solution to that distributed trust problem.”
Whether a variant of this technology could support central bank-issued digital currency, and whether the public would accept it as a substitute for paper currency, are, according to Haldane, open questions that do not have easy answers.
“That is why work on central bank-issued digital currencies forms a core part of the bank’s current research agenda,” concludes Haldane. “Although the hurdles to implementation are high, so too is the potential prize if the ZLB constraint could be slackened. Perhaps central bank money is ripe for its own great technological leap forward, prompted by the pressing demands of the ZLB.”
In a previous presentation, Haldane stated that digital currencies are “harder money” than a gold standard, because “sustained adoption would see ongoing deflation.” A few months ago the Bank of England published a research paper titled “Innovations in payment technologies and the emergence of digital currencies.”
“The distributed ledger is a genuine technological innovation that demonstrates that digital records can be held securely without any central authority,” reads the conclusion of the paper. A recent U.K. Treasury document titled “Digital Currencies: Response to the Call for Information” shows that the British government is interested in supporting and understanding blockchain-based digital fintech, and understands the potential benefits it could bring to society.
Sig3 Launches an Automated Policy-Based Transaction Cosigner for Multisig Bitcoin Transactions
Bitcoin startup Sig3 has introduced an independent third-party automated co-signer which automatically co-signs transactions based on the policies and criteria implemented by its users.
With Sig3, users can customize and set their own policies to determine the criteria for transaction authorization and verification. Based on the policies implemented by the user, Sig3 automatically co-signs the transaction, adding another layer of security on top of the multi-sig transaction.
The platform is currently integrated with Copay, an open-source multi-signature wallet from leading bitcoin processor BitPay. With Copay, users will be able to send secure transactions by distributing three private keys between Copay, Sig3 and themselves. Since all three private keys held by the user, Copay and Sig3 are required to send or settle a transaction, it creates a whole new level of security limited with other multi-signature platforms available in the market.
“Sig3’s goal is to make transacting with bitcoin as easy as it used to be, but with the security of the future,” explains the Sig3 team.
The startup has begun developing an API for developers and for easier integration process. Sig3 will also be integrating more multi-signature wallets to its platform, to provide its users with a variety of options.
BitGo Processes Over $1 Billion in Bitcoin Transactions in Third Quarter
Leading bitcoin security platform and multi-signature / P2SH (pay-to-script hash) bitcoin wallet provider BitGo has transacted more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin transactions in a single quarter.
“BitGo was the first to pioneer the secure, multi-signature wallet platform for bitcoin,” said BitGo CEO and co-founder Mike Belshe. “Security is never a finished feature, so we’re continually raising the bar. As we reach this billion-dollar milestone, we’re happy know so many customers are seeing the value of our solution.”
The BitGo wallet platform and API have not experienced a single breach or theft of bitcoin since its launch in 2013. The company has been focused on creating the world’s most secure bitcoin wallet, prioritizing security and multi-signature solutions.
The platform’s API services and products designed for both developers and institutions enable users to create hundreds of thousands of addresses, with a real-time view of digital asset transactions and settlements.
“For the sake of accuracy, our metrics do not count change address outputs. As an example, if a user sends someone $13 from a wallet with $17 in it, we only count the $13 transaction and not the transfer of $4 back into the wallet.” said Regina Scolaro, Director of Marketing for BitGo. “We have chosen to use this methodology because we believe that in order to get a true sense of activity within the Bitcoin space, this should be the standard measurement.”
Furthermore, the BitGo platform has secured its bitcoin wallets with multi-signature pay-to-script hash technology, also known as P2SH, allowing users to send bitcoin to addresses secured in various unusual ways without knowing much about the security details, thus creating completely unique transactions and settlements.
‘Sex’ & ‘News’ Lead Keyword Pre-Sale for Bitcoin-Powered Search Engine
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
How China Captured the Global Bitcoin Market (Op-Ed)
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