Side Chains: The How, The Challenges and the Potential

Disclosure: the author of this article is the founder and Chief Scientist of the Ethereum project Last week, Adam Back and Austin Hill came out with an announcement on Let’s Talk Bitcoin, in which they announced their newest project: “sidechains”. The idea, they described, would allow for the existence of alternative blockchains, perhaps with different…

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Bitcoin & Money

  Rome wasn’t built in a day, and today’s money mechanics certainly didn’t come in a single treaty.  Our global financial system, like any human system, is not perfect and can be outright cruel and inhumane.  We have witnessed injections and bailouts for some, and austerity and social benefit cuts for the poor- that’s money…

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Weaving Is A Better Metaphor for Bitcoin, Instead of Mining

In order to create a broad appeal for the concepts behind cryptocurrencies clear communication is crucial. Some of the terminology used in describing Bitcoin has been widely accepted, and taken as a given, almost unchangeable feature of cryptocurrencies. Other, more precisely codified components of the protocol can be changed as long as there is consensus around…

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This American photographer has a new project inspired by Bitcoin

Megan Miller is the name of the Los Angeles-based photographer that recently decided to kick-off a new project inspired by the world’s most famous digital coin. But how can you take a picture of a currency that doesn’t have a physical existence? Well, that is exactly the point. Miller is not exactly photographing Bitcoins, but objects…

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Bitcoin exchange BTC-e affected by DDoS attack

The world’s second-largest Bitcoin exchange, BTC-e, suspended trading this Sunday (14) for brief instants after its servers suffered a strong DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack.  To avoid any speculation – especially after the Mt. Gox and Neo & Bee cases -, the exchange quickly confirmed the attack and dismissed all rumours. BTC-e published an announcement…

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Bringing Bitcoin to the Middle East – Cointalks Dubai

Weeks ago, it seemed that Dubai may have been turning into a major Bitcoin hub. An image released on various social media platforms and news sources depicted upwards of 400 Bitcoin ATMs in a warehouse, with headlines like “Dubai About to Roll Out 400 Bitcoin ATMs.” However, later that week, the UAE Department of Economic…

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The Gatekeepers

This post was released for Issue 19 of Bitcoin Magazine as part of a series of  articles about puzzles and games that started with Issue 12. This series of puzzles and games was inspired by a talk given by the founder of the Pirate Party, Rick Falkvinge, at the European Bitcoin Conference in Prague on…

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New Bitcoin ATM pops up in South Korea

A new Bitcoin ATM that allows the users to buy and sell cryptocurrency has recently been installed in Seoul, South Korea. The machine was developed by the exchange Coinplug within a partnership with the well-known company Nautilus Hyosung, an international brand dedicated to the production of ATMs. No identification is required to use the machine, which is connected…

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Litecoin Electrum Beta Testing

Electrum is arguably the most well known Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) wallet, fully implementing BIP0032. An HD wallet generates all Bitcoin addresses using a specific algorithm from a single seed. A seed is the starting point and can be anything. Further, as Electrum is a ‘Type 2’ HD wallet, the seed from which all key pairs…

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