Friday, December 1, 2017

Bitcoin is Back Over $10,000 - Can It Hold?

Bitcoin had, by all accounts, a remarkably volatile week, losing $3 bln in market cap in just 90 minutes as the price slid from $11,400 to close to $9,000. Nevertheless, within 24 hours, the cryptocurrency has rebounded to over $10,500.
Causes down and up
The cause for the sudden slump is not clear, though it appears that the market’s incredible bull run, pushing through over $2,000 in valuation in just a week, made room for profit takers at the peak. As the price rose to dizzying heights, some found an opportunity to sell positions that they had purchased at much lower prices.
The upside, though, as the currency pushed back over $10,000, had a clear cause. The release of the futures decision by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which announcedFriday that CME Group and CBOE had met the requirements for regulated trading, led to raucous calls for massive gains in the cryptocurrency and pushed the price back toward the highs near $11,000.
While the bulls are back with the major news, it still remains unclear whether Bitcoin will be able to hold on and consolidate the gains above $10,000, and then press on for more. Some (notably billionaire Carl Icahn) have recently called Bitcoin a bubble, decrying any possibility for further gains. Others, though, are not as sure.

more info: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-is-back-over-10000-can-it-hold

Regulators Greenlight Bitcoin Futures


Bitcoin futures contracts to be offered by CME Group Inc. and Cboe Futures Exchange to mainstream investors.
CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange, has announced that it has self-certified the initial listing of its Bitcoin futures contract. CME first announced its intentions to launch a Bitcoin futures product on October 31, 2017.
The new contract will be available for trading on the CME Globex electronic trading platform effective on Sunday, December 17, 2017, for a trade date of December 18.

What is a bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an open-source, peer-to-peer, digital decentralized cryptocurrency. Powered by the Blockchain technology, its defining characteristic is its decentralization, i.e. the lack of central governing authority, such as a central bank or a ministry of finance. Bitcoin's issuance and circulation are ensured by regular users via a process known as "Bitcoin mining". Bitcoin can be sent anywhere, anytime, (almost) for free, and with little regard for national borders or government/bank-imposed restrictions.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system.[8]:3 It is the first decentralized digital currency – the system works without a central repository or single administrator.[8]:1[9] The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly through the use of cryptography, without an intermediary.[8]:4 These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto[10] and released as open-source software in 2009.[11]
Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies,[12]products, and services. As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment.[13]Research produced by Cambridge University estimates that in 2017, there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.[14]

What is a cryptocurrency?

A cryptocurrency (or crypto currency) is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure the transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets.[1][2][3] Cryptocurrencies are classified as a subset of digital currencies and are also classified as a subset of alternative currencies and virtual currencies.
Bitcoin, created in 2009, was the first decentralized cryptocurrency.[4] Since then, numerous cryptocurrencies have been created.[5] These are frequently called altcoins, as a blend of bitcoin alternative.[6][7][8] Bitcoin and its derivatives use decentralized control[9] as opposed to centralized electronic money/central banking systems.[10] The decentralized control is related to the use of bitcoin's blockchain transaction database in the role of a distributed ledger.[11]

What is blockchain?

A blockchain[1][2][3] – originally block chain[4][5] – is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography.[1][6] Each block typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block,[6] a timestamp and transaction data.[7]By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. A blockchain is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way."[8] For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority.
Blockchains are secure by design and are an example of a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralizedconsensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain.[9] This makes blockchains potentially suitable for the recording of events, medical records,[10][11] and other records management activities, such as identity management,[12][13][14] transaction processing, documenting provenance, or food traceability.[15]
The first blockchain was conceptualised in 2008 by an anonymous person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto and implemented in 2009 as a core component of bitcoin where it serves as the public ledger for all transactions.[1] The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has been the inspiration for other applications.[1][3]

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