90% of Ethereum's portfolios have unrealized losses

Key facts:

The price of ether suffered a 54% drop in the second half of 2019.

Only 8% of Erhereum's portfolios record gains at the current ETH price.

The second largest cryptocurrency on the market, which gives life to the Ethereum blockchain, is currently traded at the price of USD 126, representing a 91% drop from its historical high of USD 1,431 reached in early January of the 2018, according to the Messari price index.

This relentless price drop has led to 90%, or 31.31 million of Ethereum's portfolios running out of "money" or losses, according to blockchains intelligence company, IntoTheBlock.

An address is said to be at a loss if the current price of the ether is less than the average price at which it was acquired or the price at which the currency was sent to an address.

This means that 31.31 million addresses acquired the cryptocurrency at an average price greater than the current price of USD 126 for each ether.

A large number of the addresses with losses bought the coins when the price of it was in a price range between USD 211 and USD 530. It should be noted that the largest group, around 4.77 million addresses, obtained the cryptocurrencies in a Price range between USD 262 and USD 352, as shown in the following graph.

About 3.58 million addresses acquired the cryptocurrency in the price range between USD 745 and USD 1,340. Since the cryptocurrency was launched, the ether had only been traded below USD 747 for only six months, from the meteoric bullish season between October and December 2017, until the price of the cryptocurrency declined in the first quarter of the 2018.

Meanwhile, there are only 8%, or 2.79 million addresses that have profits, this means that the price at which the cryptocurrency was acquired is lower than the current price of ether, and 1.78% of the addresses without losses , with an average purchase price almost equal to the current ether price.

Most of the addresses with earnings acquired the cryptocurrency in the price range between USD 0 and USD 130, although 4,120 addresses have a current balance of USD 0. These could be addresses of those early buyers, who bought the currency in the period between August and December 2015, when the cryptocurrency was traded for pennies.

Although the number of addresses with gains is small, the volume of ether that maintains these addresses is quite significant.

Only 8% of the addresses currently have profits, but these maintain 31.24% of the total number of ethers held in all directions, which is equivalent to 34.05 million ethers (USD 4.5 billion). These investors have seen their massive profits evaporate in the last 23 months and could get rid of their cryptocurrency positions if the price found acceptance below USD 100, which would add to the downward pressure around ether

Addresses that report losses maintain 73.13 million ethers. Address groups whose cryptocurrency purchase price ranges are between USD 144 and USD 170, USD 212 and USD 262, or between USD 262 and USD 352, hold a total of 36.24 million ethers.

A devastating year for Ethereum

The number of addresses with earnings could have been greater by half of the second quarter of this year, when ether was being traded at an average price of USD 360.

In the first six months of 2019, the cryptocurrency showed an increase in the price of more than 120%, and then decreased 54% in the second half of the year.

In fact, ether is not the only cryptocurrency that has faced intense selling pressure in recent times. The market in general has received its blows, courtesy of the fall in the price of bitcoin from the high reached in June of USD 13,800 to the recent low around USD 6,400.

However, bitcoin, the main cryptocurrency, is still 103% above its price based on annual data. On the other hand, at the time of this publication ether is reporting a marginal loss with respect to one year.

Some observers believe that the persistent problems of ether scalability probably diminished investor confidence, leading to a fall in price.

"Ethereum has consistently failed to meet deadlines for protocol improvements," said Connor Abendschein, a researcher and analyst at Digital Asset Data. "It is assumed that Ethereum 2.0 should have taken effect by the beginning of this year, and this has not yet happened."

Ethereum 2.0 is a major update of the ethereum protocol that will change the current consensus algorithm of the Proof of Work to Participation Test blockchain, and transfer the validation functions of the miners to special network validators.

Under the Proof of Work protocol, miners compete with each other to solve difficult puzzles (algorithms) to include each block in the chain. Under the Participation Test protocol, there is no such competition, since the creator of the block will be selected based on the user's participation in the project, in other words, depending on the number of ethers that the user maintains.

The market is waiting for the first update to be carried out by 2020. However, Ryan Selki, CEO of Messari, thinks that the transition will not take place until 2022.

Apart from the breach of the deadlines, the sale of ethers from an early buyer is likely to cause a greater fall in the price of the cryptocurrency.

As noted by Alex Svanevik, an information scientist at Crypto Land and co-founder of the data science company D 5, an address created in 2015 has moved more than 300,000 ethers to a exchange house in the last four months.

This new protocol allows loans and credits with bitcoin

Key facts:

The protocol is called Money on Chain and allows you to market stablecoins backed up in Bitcoin.

The platform has two tokens, the DoC anchored to the dollar and the BPRO that generates bitcoin liabilities.

A new platform for anchored cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, backed by smart contracts that use bitcoins, is already active in the RSK network. Today, December 12, the Money on Chain and IOVLabs companies confirmed the launch of the initiative, after 11 months of development of the new software.

Money on Chain, translated into Spanish as "money in the chain", is a protocol that uses RSK smart contracts to generate cryptocurrencies stable or anchored to the price of another asset (stablecoin). In this way, crypto assets are collapsed in Bitcoin, providing decentralized financial services for BTC holders.

The protocol consists of two different tokens, called Dollar on Chain (DoC) and BitPRO (BPRO). The DoC token is anchored to the value of the US dollar, such as the stablecoins Tether, USDC and DAI. Users can send, receive or save in DoC by using the protocol, the company says.

On the other hand, bitcoin holders can generate liabilities with their saved cryptocurrencies, using the BPRO token. Any user who purchases BPRO will receive a percentage of the fees charged by the Money on Chain platform. You will also receive interest rate gains and leverage on the price of Bitcoin.

The developers, both RSK and Money on Chain, were working on the execution of this protocol for 11 months. During this period they carried out several simulations, functional tests and two audits before launching this Alpha version to the market.

The idea of creators of Money on Chain and IOVLabs is to generate a decentralized financial services (DeFi) platform for bitcoin holders. Max Cajurzaa, CEO of Money on Chain, stressed that through this platform you can develop a market for loans, credits and commerce for bitcoin users. An idea that has also been explored by Venezuelan entrepreneur Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, in his Ledn project.

Beam announces integration of atomic exchanges in version 4.0 of its wallet

Key facts:

Users can make fully decentralized exchanges of Beam from their wallet.

The wallet accepts, at the moment, direct exchanges of BEAM with BTC, LTC and QTUM.

Beam users, cryptocurrency based on the MimbleWimble privacy protocol, can now make atomic exchanges to acquire other crypto assets. The developers of the official Beam wallet, Double Doppler 4.0, announced that the feature is already directly active in the application.

Atomic exchange, also known as Atomic Swaps, is a type of cryptocurrency exchange that takes place without the need for an intermediary. That is, it is a tool that makes the commercialization of fully decentralized cryptocurrencies possible, allowing users to maintain control of their private keys.

The latest version of the Double Doppler wallet makes atomic exchanges possible directly from the application where the funds are managed. In this way, a private individual only needs to access his wallet to acquire bitcoins, litecoins or QTUM in exchange for BEAM, notes Qtum founder Patrick Dai in a tweet.

You can now publish offers and execute Beam<>QTUM swaps right from the Beam Wallet, in a fully decentralized manner, confidentially and without any counterparty risk. https://t.co/KtAknzXhUh

— Patrick Dai (@PatrickXDai) 5 de diciembre de 2019

Beam becomes the first currency based on MimbleWimble that can be traded through atomic exchanges. Alexander Zaidelson, CEO of Beam, said that this wallet update was carried out to provide greater confidentiality and decentralization to Beam's trade. "Atomic Swaps allows an easy and confidential way for users to get on board (in the project) and receive their first Beams without exposing themselves," he concluded.

The Beam team has been active in recent months with updates that have transformed its mining and commercialization. For example, in August the community successfully completed its first hard anti-ASIC fork, which seeks to cancel the use of specialized mining equipment to confirm transactions in that blockchain. They also launched their official wallet for both Android and iOS operating systems. In addition, with these apps it is possible to run a complete node of the Beam blockchain, without compromising battery performance.

This week, the community around Beam celebrates its first anniversary, and announced the creation of the Beam Foundation on November 25. Beam expresses in the foundation's announcement document, which he hopes, that more independent developers will start on the project. "We hope, however, that between 6 and 18 months of the foundation's existence, much of the work will be carried out by the Beam Core Group."

3 advertisements on the Internet generate 5.5 times more revenue than cryptojacking

Key facts:

The research was conducted by the University of Crete and the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Cryptojacking generates serious negative effects on users' computers.

Malicious cryptocurrency mining on the web, also known as cryptojacking, dirve-by mining or hidden mining, never had the opportunity to become an alternative source of revenue or replace the classic ads.

According to new academic research published this month, a website that includes three ads generates 5.5 times more revenue than a website that deploys a cryptojacking script, for the average duration of a web visit.

To be profitable, a website that uses cryptojacking script would need to keep a user on its pages for more 5.53 minutes, the researchers said.

Mining in web search engines slows down computers

But keeping users in sites with cryptojacking scripting has negative side effects on the user's device, since web mining scripts quickly clog resources and slow down the user's device.

Researchers at the University of Crete and the University of Illinois at Chicago said that websites that use cryptojacking script end up consuming 59 times more CPU resources than a website that shows ads.

Websites with cryptojacking script also require 1.7 times more RAM than classic websites with ads.

In addition, websites maintained by cryptojacking generate 3.4 times more background traffic than sites maintained by advertisements, as they need to constantly report their profits to mining services.

The researchers also found that miners within the browser also severely affect parallel execution processes, as cryptojacking sites degrade the performance of parallel execution applications up to 57% when left in the browser background.

However, the research team said that visiting a website that uses cryptojacking script consumes 2.08 more energy on average than regular ad-based sites, and the user's device works with up to 52.8% more Of temperature.

Good in some places, but bad for most

However, the researchers conclude that cryptojacking can be an effective monetization scheme, but only for a certain class of websites, where users tend to spend a lot of time, such as movie streaming services or online games.

Here, browser miners have a good amount of time to collect revenue for website operators, revenue that would never have been available just by displaying a few ads when loading the page.

But, on the other hand, the use of classic ads will generate more benefits and avoid disturbing users with scripts that increase functions on their CPUs and slow down their devices, which can lead to damage to the reputation of websites that are They engage in such practices.

Cryptojacking is dead

The cryptojacking phenomenon on the web has largely disappeared these days, after experiencing an explosion at the end of 2017 and throughout 2018.

When it was launched, it was criticized as an alternative source of revenue for the classic ad-supported model, which has its own flaws and more.

However, mining within the browser never reached popular websites, and was mostly abused by groups of cybercriminals who hacked legitimate websites and left scripts to mine Monero devices on sites without permission.

Most cryptojacking operations died after the closure of the Coinhive service in March 2019 and, according to Malwarebytes, most of the websites that continue to work with browser miners are abandoned sites that have been hacked in the last two years and nobody He has bothered to clean them.

Zcash: nodes must update software to correct significant security breach

Key facts:

On September 13, developers were informed of this vulnerability.

The software update of the nodes would not pose a risk to user funds

The company behind the Zcash cryptocurrency is urging network participants to update the software of their nodes, with the aim of immediately adopting the latest version, as it contains an important security update.

"Users should update their nodes to version 2.0.7-3 immediately, and discontinue the use of previous versions," commented a newsletter dated September 24.

The notification indicates to users that this important update for the security of Zcash nodes will not place their funds at risk of "being stolen or forged" before promising further details at future dates.

Earlier this year, the news exploded with the fact that Zcash developers had kept a high vulnerability secret for eight months, before it was fixed.

Had the fault been exploited, infinite amounts of the Zcash cryptocurrency could have been falsified, which in turn would have paralyzed its entire ecosystem.

In this case, the vulnerability was initially reported to Zcash developers for the first time on September 13.

The Hard Fork information medium has requested more information from Electric Coin, which maintains the Zcash software, and will update on this news once more responses have been obtained.

Chinese Army plans to use blockchains to manage military personnel data

Key facts:

The plan is to use a blockchain platform to keep track of staff performance.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army seeks to conduct a more objective assessment of the troops.

The Chinese army could adopt blockchains technologies to manage their personnel data, stimulate training and mission performance, as well as deliver soldiers with tokens that could be used as collectible rewards. This is a strategy that experts say could give more immediate incentives to military personnel compared to previously used reward systems.

To the extent that blockchains technologies gain importance in the management area, their proper use in the military field could boost innovation in the development of army management, according to the information reported by the official newspaper of the Liberation Army of the Chinese people (PLA).

Blockchain technology, described as an open and distributed ledger or a transaction log between two parties that cannot be manipulated, could be used to store information from military personnel, including basic information, professional background, missions performed and Rewards received, the media commented, noting that such data would be technically guaranteed to be real and reliable.

Since a blockchain platform can record information about military training, professional skills and assigned missions, a soldier's performance record could be calculated and evaluated. In this way good performance could be rewarded with additional tokens, while poor performance could result in token deduction, according to the official media report.

This token system could also generate an objective assessment of the troops and help motivate military personnel, the newspaper added.

This token system could also generate an objective assessment of the troops and help motivate military personnel, the newspaper added.

About it, an anonymous expert, familiar with the administrative work of the PLA, told a media outlet that the token system could be a more immediate incentive compared to reward and promotion systems previously used by the Chinese People's Liberation Army . Among these systems, the citations of merits that are delivered only after outstanding achievements and the promotion of ranks, based on years of service and long-term performance, are mentioned.

"It sounds similar to the KPI (key performance indicator) system that provides feedback to troops quite frequently," experts said, noting that the PLA might still need to find out what the rewards might be. The tokens are probably not allowed to circulate as money, so they could only be used to exchange for rewards if the system is created, experts predicted.

Blockchain technology could also provide a secure data transmission, while providing the military with an advantage in terms of confidentiality, concludes the PLA newspaper report.

Free cryptocurrency training school awaits the nomination of entrepreneurs

Key facts:

The program will run from February to April 2020.

Participants do not need advanced knowledge about the blockchain world.

The US venture capital fund UU. Andreessen Horowitz (also known as a16z) announced on November 8 that he will begin accepting documents for the free training camp of his new special school for future entrepreneurs of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The program is face-to-face and the conferences will take place in the city of Menlo Park, in California.

The company known for investing in projects such as Coinbase, Ripple and OpenBazaar, announced in a statement that the Crypto Startup School will feature guest speakers from Paradigm, Union Square Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Facebook Calibra and others.

In addition, the statement indicates that the program will run from February to April next year. It will last approximately 7 weeks and will feature expert guest speakers, including Linda Xie from Scalar Capital; Michael Jordan, Paradigm researcher; Dani Grant, an analyst at Union Square Ventures and Morgan Beller, head of Calibra's strategy at Facebook.

“We have been involved in crypto / blockchains for almost seven years, and as a team, we have had the opportunity to learn from world-class entrepreneurs and technologists on topics such as product design and technology, organizational development, marketing, strategy and best legal practices. / regulatory. We believe that sharing the most important lessons we have learned could accelerate the development of existing projects and inspire more talented people to join the space. ”

Chris Dixon general partner of Andreessen Horowitz.

Some of the experts of the cryptocurrency ecosystem that will guide the participants through their learning process. Source: events.a16z.com.

The curriculum includes basic and advanced topics ranging from: What are crypto networks and why are they important? Description of application development tools, Development of blockchain applications and regulatory landscape, and Business models in the field of cryptocurrencies, among others. At the end of the program there will be a demonstration day in which each project will be presented. Although participants do not need knowledge about the blockchain world, they must have a technical background and be comfortable learning Solidity, the programming language of Ethereum.

On the other hand, the firm reported in June 2018 an investment of USD 300 million in emerging projects, incorporated companies and crypto-related protocols. The Silicon Valley-based investment fund, which manages businesses valued at USD 2.7 billion, announced its idea of ​​developing investments in crypto assets, ensuring that it is a business model that they plan to maintain in the sector for more than 10 years.

A similar program was launched in February this year by the educational platform focused on C9 cryptoactive technology, which together with the Department of Decentralization (DoD), formerly called ETHBerlin, announced the opening of a period of Selection to offer a free mentoring, training and certification program to 1,000 students, aspiring to become Ethereum developers.

Bakkt bitcoin futures reach daily trading maximum

Key facts:

Bakkt's total bitcoin futures volume is USD 106.74 million (12,012 BTC).

The increase could be related to a program to encourage liquidity.

Bakkt, the provider of cryptocurrency derivatives, has just recorded the highest trading volume in a single day of its bitcoin futures, physically liquidated in the period of one month.

The volume of USD 15.33 million reached on Friday exceeds its previous maximum of USD 10.25 million, as of October 25. The total volume of Bakkt's monthly bitcoin futures is now USD 106.74 million (12,012 BTC) since its launch on September 23.

The average volume has been USD 3.05 million (343.2 BTC) daily, during the last 35 days of trading. Undoubtedly, USD 15 million is a small fraction of the average daily turnover on the most established cryptocurrency futures trading platforms, such as CME Group. But this figure represents a jump from the slow start of the trade of this product.

Bakkt recently announced that it plans to launch an application and a commercial portal for cryptocurrency users in the first half of 2020, alongside Starbucks, the provider's first launch partner. Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), also announced in a report discussed at a conference that many financial institutions were in communication with Bakkt to explore the possibility of adopting their offer. ICE is the main sponsor of Bakkt.

On November 1, the company launched a program to incentivize liquidity on the platform, which could be playing a role in the recent volume growth.

Hong Kong regulators will apply new scheme to cryptocurrency exchange houses

Key facts:

Exchange houses must apply KYC and anti-money laundering procedures.

The new regulatory scheme will require exchange houses to submit annual reports.

According to the second round of regulatory guidance for industries, the supervisory entity of the Hong Kong stock exchange will begin to treat cryptocurrency trading platforms as traditional stock exchanges, if they offer securities tokens.

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) revealed a document establishing its position on the exchange houses of digital assets or cryptocurrencies, in which they announce a new licensing scheme, which they claim is no different from the It applies to the Hong Kong stock exchanges and automated trading centers.

Any cryptocurrency company that trades at least one value token will fall under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong regulators. Applications for peer-to-peer exchange houses (P2P), as well as decentralized exchange houses (DEX) or non-custodial trading platforms, will not be examined by the SFC.

Under the new permit conditions, regulated cryptocurrency exchange houses can only offer their products to “professional investors” as defined by the SFC. The companies, following the approval of the regulators, could also modify their services and products and must have an existing relationship with an independent auditing industry, and annually they must fill out reports on the activities of the exchange house. The exchange houses must also submit monthly reports to the commission.

Hot wallets, cryptocurrency storage centers with internet connection, cannot keep more than 2% of the total funds of the exchange houses. In that same order, the exchange houses will have the obligation to have insurance for all assets, so that they can be backed up in the event of a violation or an attack on the platforms, the SFC said.

Anti-money laundering and knowing-your-client (KYC) procedures are cited as a major concern, so the SFC says that cryptocurrency exchanges should take steps to "establish the complete and true identity of each of its clients, of the financial situation, their experience in investments and the investment objectives of these ».

When licenses are guaranteed, companies enter the SFC Regulatory Framework, which, according to regulators, offers more accurate monitoring reports and standards.

Hong Kong regulators also issued warnings on Wednesday for those suppliers of cryptocurrency-based futures products, which target Hong Kong citizens without proper documentation. The SFC said that to date “they have not licensed or authorized any person within Hong Kong to offer or trade digital asset futures contracts” and that it remains “unlikely that they will grant licenses or authorizations to carry out a business under those contracts. ”

Cryptocurrency derivatives providers, such as BitMEX and OKEx have already restricted access to their products to citizens in Hong Kong.

The first licensing scheme referring to cryptocurrencies, which was initially presented in November 2018 and which has been updated this October, referring to exchange houses that invest 10% or more of their cryptocurrency portfolio, have only given their approval to a single investment fund in the past year.

AMD's new CPU will achieve greater processing power in Monero

Key facts:

Miners can get up to 30% more hashrate compared to the previous version of the CPU.

The Ryzen 9 3950X is positioned as one of the best processors on the market alongside the Intel Xeon.

AMD will launch its new Ryzen 9 3950X processor in November, which could become one of the most powerful CPUs to undermine Monero. This new version reaches 30% more hashrate than the Ryzen 9 3900X, which went into circulation in September, according to mining experts.

The equipment offers 16 CPU cores, 32 threads, 4.7 activations per second (Ghz) and a maximum power (TDP) of 105W. It also works with its own cooling system, called Wrath Prism. All these features allow you to reach a processing power of 1.75 Kh / s in Monero.

Ryzen 9 3950X is positioned as the second most powerful processor in the market, being surpassed only by the Gold 6140 of Intel Xeon that achieves a hashrate of 1.86 Kh / s. Analysts believe that this new version could be very popular both for its capacity and its background. In September AMD launched another of its third generation equipment, the Ryzen 9 3900x, which had a very good acceptance among miners, players and computer enthusiasts.

This equipment has 12 cores, 24 threads and performs up to 4.6 activations per second. Although its performance is lower than the Ryzen 9 3950X and the Ryzen Threadripper, it reaches a hashrate of 1.35 Kh / s. The CPU has had such a high demand that the equipment has been scarce in the network, producing a spiral of speculation. Because of this, you cannot know for sure how much it costs to acquire one of these processors. However, if it is known that the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X will cost about $ 749 at the time of its launch.

Other powerful processors

The miners of Monero are, today, one of the most interested groups in this type of processors, since after the last fork, mining with ASIC cannot be carried out in said network. Although other networks can also be mined with CPUs, without a doubt thanks to the RandomX algorithm mining with processors such as Ryzen 9 3950X is much more profitable in Monero.

For those interested, Intel is one of the companies that has several of the most powerful processors in the market, but also the most expensive. For example, your Xeon® Gold 6140 CPU is the one that has the highest hashrate in the market today, registering 1.86 Kh / s. The product has one 18 cores, 36 threads, can reach up to 3, 70 Gh / z and has a TDP of 140W for the price of more than $ 2,300. Also, the Intel® Xeon® E5-2698 v4 CPU can process up to 1.69 Kh / s of hashrate on Linux operating systems worth more than $ 3,000.


ADM has also managed to position the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X as one of its best and most economical processors. The CPU has 16 cores, about 32 threads, activations every 4.0 Gh / z and a TDP of 180W. In this way, the processor manages to reach a hashrate of 140 Kh / s in Monero. Each of these CPUs can cost about 570 dollars, a price that positions AMD as a cheap option in this ecosystem.

Bitcoin reaches historical maximum in commissions accrued by transactions

Key facts:

Bitcoin transaction fees reached record highs.

Since 2009, 204,808,3479 BTC have been distributed among miners, for transaction fees.

On October 30, 2019, the bitcoin blockchain reached a record high of USD 1 billion accumulated in transaction fees.

"This milestone is really great, just because it shows how much people value the blockchains ecosystem," said Bryan Aulds, founder of the Billfold bitcoin management portfolio. "And this is something that people don't mind paying, which I think is something really important to keep moving forward."

According to information from BlockChair, the amount of commissions accumulated annually for bitcoin transactions has decreased in recent years, despite the increases that have occurred at specific times. This is due to the arrival of Bitcoin scalability solutions, including SegWit (Segregated Witness) and Lightning Network.

While the cumulative amount of commissions for bitcoin transactions is roughly equivalent to USD billion. The amount of fact is even greater if you consider the valuation of bitcoin in the market for October 30. According to the information of Coin Metrics, since 2009, 204,808,3479 BTC have been distributed among miners for transaction fees. Taking into account the price of bitcoin for October 30, this amount equals USD 1.86 billion.

It's official. The Bitcoin network has surpassed 1 billion USD in cumulative fee revenue. pic.twitter.com/lKzstEX3eI

— Yassine Elmandjra (@yassineARK) 30 de octubre de 2019

The cumulative size of transaction fees in the bitcoin network is set to grow more in the coming years, especially as this is an alternative mechanism to reward miners as the subsidies for gradually mining blocks decrease.

"In the long term, transaction fees will have to replace block [rewards]," said Jameson Lopp, CTO de Casa, a startup focused on bitcoin management. “There is a reason why [the reward] is called block subsidy in the code. This is because it is subsidizing network security, ”he added:

We have long understood that this subsidy through inflation will have to be replaced by people who pay to use the network through transaction fees.

Jameson Lopp, CTO of House.

Securing the Bitcoin network

Taking a step back, transaction fees play a fundamental role in the Bitcoin blockchain, as these serve to ensure the integrity and resistance to network censorship.

First, annexing commissions to Bitcoin transactions discourages those who contemplate the possibility of carrying out denial of service (DoS) attacks, also called “spam” attacks, which aim to delay the overall operation of the network.

"When you create a transaction, you can use bandwidth and write data to the hard drive of anyone running a node on the network," Loop said. "If there is no cost to do that then you can saturate the bandwidth and fill anyone's hard drive."

Second, the commissions serve to prioritize which transactions are confirmed and recorded in blocks before others. In this regard, David Steinberg, vice president of cryptocurrency mining consultancy Navier, said:

It's quite simple: if you pay more, you will have your transaction confirmation faster. So this mechanism is a fair way to participate in a pool of pending transactions.

David Steinberg, vice president of Navier.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, transaction fees also ensure the objective of Bitcoin in terms of security. Together with the Bitcoin block reward, which is currently at 12.5 BTC and decreases 50% every four years, transaction fees encourage miners not to intentionally stop or edit the blockchain.

Without this monetary incentive, miners could easily be bribed by malicious actors so that they unfairly prevent any or all transactions from being added to the blockchain.


"Together, transaction fees plus block subsidy provide the probabilistic resolution of Bitcoin system transactions," said Pierre Rochard, founder of the Advisory consultancy, adding:

The larger the resolution, the less time those responsible for making the transaction will have to wait before having the confidence that the transactions will not be censored or double spending.

Pierre Rochard, founder of Advisory.

What is coming in the future?

"We have another 10 or 13 years of decent subsidies [or rewards] before it fades to a fairly insignificant amount," said Billfodl Alud.

When this happens, miners will have to start adjusting profitability measures around comparatively more volatile values of transaction fees, as opposed to block subsidies.


"You have to start thinking more about game theory about the profitability of the miners and what could happen if the profitability of the miners becomes more volatile every hour and day," said Lopp. "For example, we already know that there are daily and weekly cycles of demand for the space of the blocks."

New milestone for bitcoin after mining 18 million

Key facts:

With this Friday's broadcast, 85% of the total available BTC has been mined.

There are still 3 million bitcoins left to be mined and to complete the total of 21 million.

More than 18 million bitcoins are already in circulation after the night of this Friday, October 18, the BTC was issued that represents this milestone for the main cryptocurrency in the market. The figure means that so far 85% of the total 21 million bitcoins available have been mined. That is, only 3 million BTC remains to be mined.

As for the block in which the event was recorded, there are those who claim that it was reached in block 600.014, while others point out that bitcoin 18 million was achieved in block 600.002. In any case, the milestone occurred seven months after the next halving on the network, scheduled for May 14, 2020, which will reduce the mining reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

According to Bitcoin Block Half figures, the hash rate or processing power of the network was approximately 96.54 trillion hashes per second (Eh / s) at the time the incident occurred, with a difficulty of 13.008.091.666.972 . In the register that statoshi.info bears it is indicated that the 18 million bitcoin was issued around 11:00 at night on Friday.

Active community

The bitcoiner community remained active in social networks to announce the expected figure and exchange opinions on what bitcoin currently represents. Both on twitter and reddit the comments revolved around adoption, its price and the energy consumption of mining.

For the Reddit user OzzTechnoHead, the bitcoin market has evolved over the years, but believes that greater use of this cryptocurrency could boost its price in the future.

“Bitcoin was new before, which attracted more and more people. Now it is well established and you have to do other things to see it increase (its price). I would say that adoption will be the biggest driver, ”he said.

On twitter @GenesisRipple raised the debate about the amount of energy used to mine bitcoins and if this will continue like this in the future. “How much time and how much power does this have / will it consume? I am beginning to think that Satoshi is really just the energy companies in a crazy plot to make money, ”it was published in the aforementioned account referring to Satoshi Nakamoto the creator of Bitcoin.

It is important to comment that every day around 1,800 bitcoins are generated at a rate of 144 blocks every 24 hours. Each block occurs approximately every 10 minutes. It is estimated that the last bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140.

This fact comes days after Wang Shenlin, sales director of Innosilicon, one of the leading mining equipment manufacturing companies, said the bitcoin mining market could demand an additional 1.5 million of equipment from the four million teams. operational today.

At the time of writing this article, the price of bitcoin was US $ 8,493, according to the Crypto News market section.

Cryptocurrencies are quoted above the official value of the dollar in Argentina

Key facts:

Bitcoin and DAI show 12% and 27% spreads respectively against the official dollar.

Increase in exchange restrictions in Argentina would be generating this effect.

In Argentina, the investors who decided to protect the value of their funds by taking refuge in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or the stable DAI, would already be seeing premiums in their assets. This was stated on Wednesday, September 18, the Chilean-born financial journalist Camila Russo, in a post on her Twitter account.

The journalist, who runs a newsletter on DeFi (decentralized finance), calculated the premiums currently presented by the price differential in Argentine pesos (ARS) against the official dollar and other means of exchange. In this regard, he pointed out that the stable DAI, a currency anchored in a 1: 1 ratio to the price of the US dollar, is trading in Argentina for ARS 71.6, while the official value for USD is ARS 56. This implies a premium. 27% for DAI.

Along these same lines, Russo estimated that bitcoin reflects a 12% differential with respect to the official price. Likewise, the unofficial price of the US dollar, known in Argentina as “blue dollar” or parallel, would be quoted 7% above the 56 official pesos. The analyst said that these differentials have their origin in the tightening of currency control in Argentina.

It should be remembered that last September first, the Argentine government decreed an exchange rate, which prevents the free commercialization of currencies, such as the US dollar, in that country. The new exchange control, which will be in force until the end of 2019, is part of the fall of the Argentine peso, as a result of the adverse results obtained by the ruling party in the primary elections of August 11.

“Why DAI on nitcoin? It is less volatile and linked to Argentina's favorite safe haven for years. Why DAI on black market dollars (‘blue dollar’)? You can buy it on your laptop, store it in a digital wallet, transfer it, take an interest in DeFi, ”said financial journalist Camila Russo.

In Argentina, Dai is trading at 71.6 pesos, while the U.S. dollar rate is at 56. That's a huge premium to hold digital dollars. Reason: Tightening currency controls 💸💸

Argentina's $$ Premiums:
Black market USD: 7%
Bitcoin: 12%
Dai: 27%

(h/t @rubendario222 for pic)

(1/2) pic.twitter.com/m1E1cxZ59K

— Camila Russo (@CamiRusso) 18 de septiembre de 2019

Mariano Di Pietrantonio, community leader of the stablecoin DAI in Argentina, recently told a local media that the volume of operations of this currency was multiplied by 20 after the August election results. “When there is a currency that is devalued, crypto always appears as an alternative. We saw it in Venezuela and Colombia, for talking about two countries in the region, ”Di Pietrantonio told La Nación newspaper.

 As CriptoNoticias reported, Argentine financial analyst Guillermo Escudero has already seen, since August of this year, a possible boost to the cryptocurrency market in Argentina. At the time, Escudero said that investors would seek alternatives to place their funds, within the framework of the Argentine peso's decline. "That's where bitcoin comes in," said the analyst, who said the volume of bitcoin trade would increase gradually, especially because "there is more and more culture on the subject" in Argentina.                                                         

More recently, three other spokespersons for the Argentine ecosystem told CriptoNoticias that exchange control is another factor that encourages the growth of the bitcoin market in Argentina.

Brazil: deputies defend the regulation of the cryptocurrency market

Key facts:
The regulation of cryptocurrencies would protect users, according to the Chamber of Deputies.
The purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies are an alternative resource transfer in Brazil.

Public hearings on bill 2303/2015 indicate that many deputies want regulation for the sector, but, unlike what was discussed in the past, the trend is not the prohibition of cryptocurrencies in Brazil, as indicated the portal of the Chamber of Deputies.

"The lack of regulation puts everything at risk, because people who invest and lose their money have no one to turn to," said Deputy Aureo Ribeiro, author of the bill. “People want to establish a regulation without‘ taxing ’, to give peace of mind to those who use cryptocurrencies in Brazil.” 

According to the report, the director of business and operations of the National Federation of Banks, Leandro Vilain, recognized the need for regulation, but stressed the importance of deepening the discussion on the fiscal issue. 

"The purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies in different geographies has been seen as an alternative to the transfer of resources without performing a formal exchange operation and without the taxation of traditional exchange operations," he said. 

The report also highlights that the president of the Commission, Deputy Gustinho Ribeiro, said that the regulation, in addition to creating rules on those transactions, will also limit crimes related to the commercialization of cryptocurrencies. 

“Many people use cryptocurrencies for money laundering. The scams have been applied due to the ease that the virtual world offers to people who want to commit those crimes, ”he said. "We have to build a transparent environment so that companies and individuals can operate safely in that market."