Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies

After famed dealmaker Warren Buffett warned investors to stay away from Bitcoin, calling it "a mirage," venture capitalist (and Bitcoin investor) Marc Andreessen called him an "old white man crapping on new technology he doesn't understand."

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Legendary investor Warren Buffett and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen debate the merits of Bitcoin. Earlier this month, famed dealmaker

Warren Buffett warned investors to stay away from Bitcoin, calling it “a mirage,” saying that, while it may be a better way of transmitting money, the “idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke.” While interviewing Bitcoin investor Marc Andreessen at a CoinSummit “fireside chat” (minus the fire) Tuesday, I asked him to respond to Buffett. He supplied the missing flames.

“The historical track record of old white men crapping on new technology they don’t understand is at, I think, 100%,” said venture capitalist (and younger white man) Marc Andreessen. Fellow Andreessen Horowitz partner Balaji Srinivasan quipped that Bitcoin has outperformed Buffett’s “Berkshire Hathaway by a lot in the last year.” (42 minute mark)



Andreessen’s “skewering” of Buffett has gotten lots of news coverage, but the answers were actually rather glib. Lots of burn, but not much kindle. So I followed up with Andreessen, whose firm has made Bitcoin plays including a $25 million investment in Bitcoin wallet and merchant processing service Coinbase, for a more substantive response to Buffett’s Bitcoin criticism. Here’s Buffett’s full Bitcoin takedown:

“Stay away. Bitcoin is a mirage. It’s a method of transmitting money. It’s a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view.”

Buffett says Bitcoin is a very fast anonymous money order. Companies that send money orders make money off of them, so investing in the companies that control the money orders makes sense (the Coinbases and Bitpays of the world) but the money orders themselves (i.e. Bitcoins) aren’t worth buying as an investment. That’s a valid critique. During our chat, Andreessen and Srinivasan said Bitcoin is the “next Internet.” People often compare it to Internet protocols that enabled the development of email and the World Wide Web as we know it. But protocols and the “Internet” don’t make money; the valuable systems built on top of them do. Buffett is essentially saying Bitcoin is a protocol like TCP/IP that isn’t a money maker, and is encouraging investors not to drop $600 bucks/coin (even if unlike TCP/IP, the supply of Bitcoin is limited).

“This is a standard trope of technology criticism by people who don’t understand technology,” says Andreessen by email. “‘Yes, sure, it’s great technology, but it won’t be useful or valuable in the way that those crazy nerds think it will be useful or valuable.’ I’ve heard it my whole life applied to every new important technology. It’s fake sophistication — it sounds nuanced but it’s not.”

Andreesen says the argument “completely misses the logic flow of how Bitcoin works.” When I suggested that the actual value of “a bitcoin” is arbitrary, and that more important than the value is the fact that it’s fluid, and easily converted to “real money,” he objected.

“A value of a BTC is not arbitrary, in fact it’s the opposite of arbitrary,” he says. “It equals the value of a single slot in a finite sized public cryptographic ledger through which value can move. The total Bitcoin ledger has value corresponding to the volume and velocity of transactions that will run through it in the future; by extension, each slot in the ledger has fractional value determined by the total number of slots (which, in Bitcoin’s case, are limited to 11 million today and 21 million ever).”

“So saying what Warren is saying is like saying ‘a car is great technology but it’ll never actually get anyone from point A to point B,” he continued. “Bitcoin is great technology BECAUSE it lets people get value from point A to point B through the public ledger; that functional use creates the value of the ledger, and a single BTC has a corresponding fractional value of the ledger.”

To belabor the car analogy, isn’t Bitcoin more like a taxi than a car one owns? The value is in giving money a ride from one place to another. Those in the taxi don’t care what the taxi’s worth, just how much the ride will cost, i.e. what the Bitcoin transaction fees would be. So why does the value of the Bitcoin taxi matter, and why should people invest in it assuming it will go up? In fact, it seems problematic if you care about the value of the taxi (or the Bitcoin), because then you might not want to drive it/use it, assuming it’s going to get more valuable. That means fewer slots on the ledger that can be used for value transfer — the whole point of Bitcoin.

Andreessen then broke out economic theory, saying that the velocity of money will overcome the effect of Bitcoin hoarders, and that hoarders will essentially lead to more valuable Bitcoin.

“The market cap of the ledger needs to be high enough to accommodate all of the value that wants to PASS THROUGH it in any period of time (volume & velocity of value passing through),” Andreessen wrote. “So then, the intrinsic value of a BTC is emergent from the functional value of the ledger as a way to exchange value (or, more accurately, emergent from the collective forecast of the future volume & velocity of value that will pass through the ledger).”

This of course assumes that lots of people settle on using Bitcoin as their cryptocurrency of choice, rather than one of the alt-coins out there or a cryptocurrency without a limit on coins created. And it requires lots of systems dependent on Bitcoin, to up the amount of value that wants to pass through.

So Buffett and Andreessen’s disagreement will remain unresolved. Only a time traveler could declare the victor.

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Karmacoin: A Bitcoin-based Digital Currency for Righteous People

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Mar 29, 2014 10:01PM BST

With the number of cryptocurrencies just single-figures away to cross the 200-mark, any new digital currency will work solely on its market innovation. The never-heard-before saying is proved authentic by Auroracoin, a Litecoin-based digital coin which emerged using the tagline of the first nation-based cryptocurrency. The currency once even touched the third highest market cap, leaving behind Litecoin itself; but based on what but an innovative marketing approach.

There is now a new cryptocurrency that has found its foot in the real “virtual” world. Named as Karmacoin, this new digital coin has the Bitcoin’s DNA like any other decentralized currency, but distinguishes itself from the rest by creating an avatar of a currency for righteous people.
The approach here is simple, involving people to make the world a better place and rewarding them for their valuable contribution with a Karmacoin; quite like a merit badge of some Scouting organization. Only in this case, the badge can be traded in exchange of money. It’s like bribing for good, if one tries to sum up simply with no offence to the creators.

The very first examples of the Karmacoin’s style has also started to appear already. In its recent post at Business Wire, Karmacoin acknowledged its contribution in raising around $200 to compensate the losses of a girl scout who were given fake $50 bills in exchange of the cookies they were selling. Although the amount is very little in comparison to what Dogecoin raises almost every week, but is quite good enough to make Karmacoin’s presence feel.
“It’s perhaps a bit ironic that a digital currency would come to the rescue of the victims of a fake currency scam. This was probably why we were so compelled to help out. We wouldn’t want this incident to diminish the Girl Scouts’ mission of building courage, confidence, and character,” said Tony Sorel, Director of Karmacoin. “Our own motto is based on good deeds towards others, so both organizations share a common purpose.”

The director also specified that the use of Karmacoin is suitable for small transactions and donations, as the sending comes free. Although he never mentioned anything about the coin’s use in larger transactions.

We have also catered few other details on Karmacoin, as per mentioned in its recent press release. Like it ensures secure and anonymous transfers like any other digital currency; it funds transacted in seconds and automatically verified in minutes; credit card-like chargebacks are not possible, protecting merchants and charities; and others.

It is though too soon to predict the possible prospects of Karmacoin, but we can’t deny it is indeed unique in its own way. It gives you reason to be good, seriously.

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Mt. Gox CEO Once Again Under Suspicion for Mishandling Customers’ Accounts

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News | Mar 30, 2014 3:19PM BST




Alleged facts about Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles mishandling the customers’ accounts were revealed, after a panel of exchange current and former staff underwent a discussion with Reuters. As per the three interviewed employees, Mr. Karpeles, two year before the exchange’s bankruptcy, was using the customers’ money to cover the company’s operative costs.

Started as a small venture, Mt. Gox quickly emerged as the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange platform. Also emerged were the company’s costs, which included of rented office space in Tokyo’s reputed business center, installation of hi-tech robots, and Karpeles’s very own Honda Civic from Britain. The Mt. Gox employees exposed the involvement of Mark in diverting the clients’ money for such expenditures, saying they were not even given any sort of financial details back then.

Facts that directly points to Mark Karpeles’s involvement in draining client’s money also include his expenses that were paid by the same bank which stored the customer’s deposits, stated Reuters. The employees also informed of a one-hour meeting with Karpeles in 2012, in which he assured them that the clients’ money was not used in company’s expenditures. The doubts of the employees raised when the man denied to share the financial details with them, as mentioned above.

The Mt. Gox Conspiracy Theory

If reports are to be believed, one can assume that Mt. Gox CEO was gradually taking out expenses from the customer’s bank accounts, especially when he was a part of an unregulated financial institution. Early rumors about the Mark’s alleged involvement in the February’s million-dollar theft at Mt. Gox is now investigable. Recently, experts have also found out that only a handful of Bitcoins were stolen from Mt. Gox due to the much-hyped DDoS attack.

The fall is now on Tokyo investigation panel that whether it will consider the latest revealed facts or not.

New Zealand First Bitcoin ATMs Launched in Auckland

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Apr 1, 2014 1:20AM BST




New Zealand’s first Bitcoin ATMs were unveiled in Auckland, which allow the locals to purchase the virtual currency in cash.

The two ATMs were launched by a local company called Bitto NZ. According to Bitto co-founder Jonathan Ewing, the machines were manufactured by Lammasu, a Portuguese firm and they are part of the 120 ATMs currently active across the world.

The machines are not the “fixed-on-the wall” type of ATMs and will be provided only by appointment or used in events, according to Ewing. The machines can only allow users to purchase Bitcoin using cash, but will not facilitate withdrawal of the New Zealand dollars or allow users to sell the Bitcoin.

Ewing said the move was motivated by the urge to encourage more people to use Bitcoins.
"We don't want to see them cash-out. There are other methods and ways for them to do that and we can point people in the right direction but we're all about helping people get into Bitcoin."

Users will buy bitcoins by loading a QR code of their respective Bitcoin wallet and then inserting cash into the machine.

"Using the machine, you will immediately receive the funds in Bitcoin 30 seconds later, with an up to 10 minute confirmation time," he said.


According to The New Zealand Herald, 8 ATMs will be rolled out in New Zealand; two in Wellington and six in Auckland. One of them will be a machine that will allow users to buy and sell Bitcoins, i.e. a “two-way” ATM.

Bitcoin Gains 10%, Briefly Trades Above $500

After stabilising around the $455 area in yesterday’s trading session, BTC/USD rallied $45 to reach a high of $500 today. The pair was unable to break past the important psychological level however and is currently trading somewhat lower at $486.15 on BTC-E. One bitcoin is quoted at $480 on BitStamp.

Steven Woodrow, the lawyer heading the US class action case against the defunct exchange MtGox, told Coindesk that Mark Karpeles is attempting to block his motion to have him testify on US soil. The next hearing in the on-going Chapter 15 US bankruptcy protection will take place today in a Dallas, Texas. According to the lawyer, Mark had offered to fly to Taiwan instead. If Karpeles is not willing to visit the country, Woodrow suggested that Karpeles or his companies shouldn’t be granted the protection of the US courts.

‘’Really what this comes down to is a lack of transparency, there are things happening, bitcoins being moved, supposed proceedings that are occurring, other investigations that are ongoing and US creditors are at a real disadvantage. They receive this information piecemeal in confusing ways and they don’t know what to believe. Given that lack of transparency, we need to have Mr Karpeles come to the US to answer questions in a fluid way, not force everyone to fly around the globe to depose him through an interpreter.’’

People’s Bank of China officials offered differing views on the fledgling cryptocurrency. Zhang Niannian compared bitcoin exchanges to casinos and called into question the legitimacy of btc businesses, speculating that they could take off with the funds at any time and leave customers with little legal recourse.

Xu Nuojin, deputy head of the PBOC’s Statistics and Analysis Department, said that bitcoin is ‘’ kind of folk currency, so it is a currency, but it is not a legal tender. This is a breakthrough concept of sovereignty currency’’. He went on to say that bitcoin is still not recognized by central banks as a currency and that it lacked the recognition of an institution like the US Federal Reserve that would ensure its use.

Officially, the People’s Bank of China is still keeping silent on the rumored deposit ban that sent bitcoin prices plunging below the $500 mark few days ago.

Cryptocurrencies: Technology Demystified

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Cryptocurrency News | Apr 13, 2014 4:17PM BST





While this is an established fact that the mainstream users and newcomers to the cryptocurrency business do not care much about the working of the currency, it is imperative that we understand the basic working methodology underlying prominent cryptocurrencies so as to safeguard ourselves from the speculative bubbles building around some.

Working

Cryptocurrencies are physical precompiled files that use a public key (easily available) / private key (unique to a user) pair generated around a specific encryption algorithm. The key establishes ownership of each key pair, or ‘coin,’ to the person who is in possession of the private key. These key pairs are stored in a file named ‘wallet.dat,’ that resides in a default hidden directory on the owner’s hard drive. The private keys are sent to counter party involved in the transaction through dynamic wallet addresses generated by the user. The destination payment address usually is the public key of the currency key pair. There is a limited amount of each type of cryptocoin available on the network, and value of each unit is assigned based purely on a couple of factors. First the supply and demand and second the fluctuating difficulty/constraint levels required for mining each coin.

It goes without saying that the wallet.dat file is the most important file of the cryptocurrency software architecture, as that is where the physical cryptographic private key file is stored analogous to cash. If a user loses their wallet.dat file, or has it stolen, the cryptocurrency is lost.

To the rescue of the common user, the decentralized nature of open source protocol ensures that the control of the network remains in the fists of the user. Transactions are dependent solely on participants in the network, and the user being responsible for the security of their own finances and data, thus negating the need for reliance on third parties such as banking institutions.
For example, the Bitcoin operates much like a p2p file sharing protocol, and similar to the torrent technology. The essence being, a p2p network relies on user participation for successful trusted data exchange. Each transaction is confirmed through key verification on multiple nodes in the network before reaching its destination.

Market Participants

Talking about the market, with no regulators or monitory bodies in place, the exchange trading platforms such as BTC-e and Vircurex are essentially the backbones of the cryptocurrency economy. These trading platforms provide the place for miners and speculators to engage primarily in arbitrage among various cryptocurrencies.

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Meet NewYorkCoin, the Latest Litecoin-Inspired Cryptocurrency for New Yorkers

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Apr 16, 2014 6:48PM BST





It has been over a month since its launch and yet there hasn’t been much buzz about NewYorkCoin in the cryptocurrency markets. Despite the fact that this part-Litecoin-part-Dogecoin inspired local coin has squeezed its way in cryptocurrency exchanges like BITTREX, Xnigma and Bleutrade, NewYorkCoin is still an unknown currency to many. Even a CTRL+F on the famous Coin Market Cap couldn’t find it in the top 100.

But that doesn’t mean the currency has come and gone erratically. Instead, we at ForexMinute believe that NewYorkCoin is not relying on quick-fame like its other counterparts, and is rather working towards building a scholastic community of Bitcoin believers in New York. The digital coin is far-sighted and has chosen the economy center of America to launch itself, which by chance is also the city which will soon host graduate-level Bitcoin courses.

NewYorkCoin is the idea of New York Foundation – a community that is working towards bringing digital currency enthusiasts, including miners, entrepreneurs, investors, merchants, and developers under one roof.

The community is ready to give alternate options to New Yorkers the way they have been using their money. And they are indeed working innovatively to reach people.

Renowned altcoin exchanges like Cryptsy, CryptoRush and MintPal have shown interest in adding NewYorkCoin to their portfolio. Furthermore, there are “other promotions or bounties offered as well which include a sign up bonus of 10,000,000NYC and the NYC sticker that can be posted in their window to the first 100 merchants who accept the coins. The maximum coin number is 100 billion,” as stated in the NewYorkCoin’s press release.

Another wonderful example of NewYorkCoin’s innovative promotional scheme is them including free 1,000,000NYC if a New Yorker is able to find the photo of newyorkco.in stickers that are posted around Manhattan. The cryptocurrency can also be mined for 0% pool fee.

Technical Specifications

NewYorkCoin is based on Litecoin’s Scrypt Algorithm, with a mere 30 seconds block time. The maximum number of NewYorkCoins that can be mined is 10 billion. It’s one block, which has over 907k NewYorkCoins is pre-mined and will be returned to community via bounties, giveaways, faucets, and other means. “Through promotions and bounties the foundation plans to establish a base for wide spread acceptance of the currency and provide an enhanced user experience as well,” says one of the representatives from the New York Foundation.

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The Last Effort to Save Mt. Gox from a Group of Investors

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Apr 20, 2014 9:17AM BST




With Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles giving up on the idea of rehabilitating the Bitcoin exchange in favor of liquidating its assets, a group of investors is now seeking to buy it has launched a website to garner support from creditors of the bankrupt Bitcoin exchange to prevent a liquidation of its assets.

The new attempt from the investors’ group came after Mark Karpeles relinquished control to the Tokyo District Court, which will decide the fate of Mt. Gox in the coming weeks. Now the group on its website says that it needs creditors’ help to stop liquidation, which would be good neither for Mt. Gox creditors nor Bitcoin's reputation.

According to the release by the group the liquidation of the Bitcoin exchange will leave the wrong impression with the general public and regulators. The group has been demonstrating against Mt. Gox in Tokyo against the company which had 127,000 customers at the time of its closure, and each of them is now a creditor with little hope of recovering the money.

The Group Asks Creditors to Fill a Form to Support Them

The group says that if somebody is a Mt. Gox creditor, he is requested to fill the form to support our plan to rehabilitate the exchange, conduct an audit to determine the true status of each customer's balance, distribute the coin on a pro rata basis to the creditors, and help in recouping the remainder of the losses.

According to this group of investors liquidation is a last resort when all other avenues fail, including rehabilitation. It also accuses that there have not been any attempts to save Mt. Gox. No efforts were made to get it audited or hear the creditors and their losses by the Tokyo District Court.

The Likely Impact of Liquidation

The website also reveals the grave impact liquidation of Mt. Gox will have. It says that it will mean the loss of millions of dollars worth of lost Bitcoins. Liquidation will also set a dangerous precedent for the community sending a message that these enterprises are either too difficult to untangle or not important enough to save.

The group of investors showed their concern about the interest of creditors as according to it they would likely receive a meager percentage of their holdings and not the one that they deserve because most of the assets would go to paying bankruptcy lawyers and the like. The worst part about the entire process is that it will take years.



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Cryptocurrency Trading News: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin Stumble; Mastercoin Crashes

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency News, Litecoin | Apr 23, 2014 11:04AM BST



Last 24 hours were though full of joyous moments, but the cryptocurrency markets once again fell on a blink of speculations. This time, it is the much-talked-about Safecoin presale whose uncertainties are seeming to affect the entire cryptocurrency clan.
The sale guidelines released by MaidSafe said “the sale event will run until ten percent of all Safecoin (429,496,729) are sold or 30 days have passed, which ever happens first”. The company had promised to offer attractive leverages on both Bitcoin and Mastercoin for Maidsafecoin, but soon after the presale, the company dumped Mastercoin from the sale, leaving its market value in havoc.
While Bitcoin was able to sustain its value throughout yesterday, owing to US-based private equity firm NEA’s decision to invest a huge capital in Bitcoin companies, its altcoins including Litecoin, Dogecoin and others were not so fortunate. Here is how the market is looking for now:

BTC/USD

The BTC/USD is on a downtrend since Monday, after reaching to its peak at around $501.525. The pair gradually faced a series of pushes and pullbacks in last 24 hours, meanwhile finding resistance at $494 and support at $491. Right before entering today’s trading hours, the pair’s value once though fell slightly below the $490 mark, but recovered in the following hours.
At this time of writing, the BTC/USD pair is trading at around $490, falling 0.5% since 0000 UTC today.

Litecoin, Dogecoin also stumbles

Similar dips were seen in the altcoins as well. The LTC/USD once again slipped 1.55%, reaching $12.05 in the last 24 hours after touching the peak value of $12.35 yesterday. The downtrend is similar to the one of Bitcoin, for obvious reasons.
The DOGE/USD meanwhile fell a little too much within last 24 hours. The pair is currently trading around $0.00055, while at yesterday’s close it was trading at $0.00058.

Mastercoin Falls Ominously

As MaidSafe withdrew Mastercoin from its Safecoin presale, the MSC/USD fell massively around 50%, taking its value from the week’s peak $87 to as low as $50. The scandalized crash was never even reported by MaidSafe which further sent negative shivers throughout the cryptocurrency market.

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Bitcoin News Mash-Up: Yelp to Endorse Bitcoin Businesses; US Govt. Sells Bitcoins; and Many More

By Forexminute - Yashu Gola | Bitcoin News | Apr 29, 2014 6:38PM BST





The following are the major Bitcoin events that took place between April 28th and April 29th

Yelp Now Lists Merchants who Accepts Bitcoin

The famous business directory Yelp (market cap: U.S. $4 billion) added a new function that will allow merchants, who accepts the digital currency Bitcoin, to advertise on its platform. The company unveiled this new release by a notice posted on its website. “For those who haven’t heard the buzz about Bitcoin,” they wrote, “it’s a new payment technology that allows consumers and businesses to make fast, secure and low-cost digital payments from any Internet-enabled device. Bitcoin also allows for consumers and businesses to transact without having to store sensitive data like a credit card number. Finally, like cash, Bitcoin's transactions are one-way, so businesses don't have to worry about chargebacks.”

U.S. government Sells Bitcoins Seized from Silk Road Ex-User

Cornelis Jan Slomp, a Dutch ex-user of Silk Road, pleaded guilty for importing illegal substances from the United States and also selling them in other countries between March 2012 and August 2013. The convict is likely to face the harsh penalty of 40 years in prison. Gary Hartwig, special agent in charge of the area of Homeland Security Investigations Agent in Chicago, said: "Those who mistakenly believe the anonymity of the Internet – even on the Deep Web – shields them from scrutiny are finding out they can’t evade detection in cyberspace". According to Assistant Prosecutor in the case, Randall Sanborn, the government has already sold more than $3 million in revenue, but declined to provide details about the sale.

South Korea: Winklevoss Twins to Participate in Bitcoin Event

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss twins are scheduled next month to attend the largest conference on technology-related startups in South Korea, called beLAUNCH. Known investors will participate in a panel on Bitcoin to be named "The Tipping Point of Bitcoin".

Agreement between the National Stock Exchange U.S. and Atlas ATS

The exchange Atlas ATS and the National Stock Exchange of the United States (NSX for short) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow NSX to regulate the exchange site. Thus, Atlas became the first North American exchange that is a fully regulated. David Harris, president and CEO of the Stock Exchange, said: "We are very excited about working with Atlas ATS and all other market participants in the digital currency space to create a framework for safe, transparent and auditable rules applied to a unique market place."

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