Category Archives: Bitcoin
Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade Expected to Begin Activation in July – CoinDesk
A release date and activation timeline are set for Bitcoins Taproot upgrade, but developers and other stakeholders are still debating the best method to coordinate Bitcoins biggest upgrade since SegWit.
Per a public IRC chat discussion, the code for the fully primed-and-ready Taproot upgrade will be deployed sometime between March 17 and March 31 (or April if necessary), but the actual signaling that kick-starts the activation process probably wont start until July.
If everything goes as planned, then Bitcoins economic majority (miners and node operators who run Bitcoins code) could update within two weeks of the signaling periods start. Come August 2022, Taproots activation period will reach its timeoutheight and signaling will end.
Assuming mining pools reflecting 90%+ of Bitcoins hashrate support Taproot before the timeoutheight (as one survey indicates), then the vast majority of support would ensure Taproot is a success, and the other 10% or so (the economic minority) can update without consequence afterward.
But what happens if the mining pools dont signal to activate Taproot? Well, thats where the hang-up is in discussion right now. But for some of Bitcoins stakeholders the hang-up shouldnt even exist.
True or false?
First, a quick note about Bitcoin upgrades.
Unlike a centralized network, whose central operators can mandate an upgrade whenever and however they choose, Bitcoins network is decentralized, so upgrades require deliberate decision-making and discussion among Bitcoins stakeholders (namely, developers, miners, business and power users). Taproot is a soft fork, meaning a change that is compatible with previous versions of the software (unlike a hard fork, where newer rule-sets and older rule-sets are incompatible).
Soft fork or not, at the heart of the matter for activating Taproot is whether to give node operators (those individuals running Bitcoins source code) an option to force activate the upgrade if a supermajority of miners fail to support it before the timeout.
This would allow node operators to reject blocks from miners who dont support the upgrade. This sort of measure (a so-called user-activated soft fork) was used to prod along the SegWit upgrade activation in 2017 and is believed to have budged the Overton window for miners to accept the upgrade.
The other option is to not include this feature at all. These Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) options to force or not force the upgrade are referred to respectively as BIP8 (true) and BIP8 (false), also known as LOT=true and LOT=false. LOT is short for lockinontime, a feature that dictates whether Taproot will be locked in if network-wide activation isnt reached when the timeoutheight is reached; the (true) option automatically mandates the upgrade after the activation window expires, while (false) lets it fail entirely.
Opponents of BIP8 (true) say this aggressive measure is gratuitous because Taproot isnt at risk of failing. As Bitcoin Core contributor Andrew Chow put it, with the Taproot activation survey sent to miners, the community has already decided to activate, [so] theres no need to [do] LOT=true. Miners are part of the community.
Could Taproot activation cause a Bitcoin chain split?
Still others in favor of BIP8 (true) believe it is a necessary feature for coordinating the upgrade, which in the rarer circumstance of extreme discoordination, could split the Bitcoin network into incompatible versions if something goes wrong.
LOT=true does not split the chain. It strictly reduces the likelihood of that, BIP8 (true) primary proponent Luke Dashjr said in the chat.
Dashjr shares this view with others, like hsjoberg, who noted, Lot=true would make sure upgraded nodes mandate a specific chain. This means that node operators who run true would mandate that the Taproot-activated version of Bitcoin is the real chain, so theoretically this would help coordinate consensus between actors to avoid a split.
One brg444 contended that if lot=true activates there will be a network split. But this would only be if the forced activation went through. Brg444 said they think this is unlikely, because the threat of this very split would be enough to scare miners into activating before the forced activation occurs.
The ghost of SegWit past
But is a scare tactic really necessary or is it an egregious show of force?
[In my opinion, people] have PTSD from SegWit [theyre] being preemptively defensive for seemingly no reason other than theyre afraid of past events that now seem to have a low probability of actually occurring, Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun said in the chat, referring to miners originally opposing the activation of SegWit.
[P]pl are just shadow boxing casper rn lol, he said later. Lets give [BIP8 (false)] a shot and revise afterwards if stuff actually happens.
After all, if six months or so after activation begins miners havent signaled for Taproot, then LOT=true could be coded in after the fact to enforce the upgrade.
Still, this would add yet another step to the process, and making this change post-factum would be more cumbersome than just including it in the initial release. But some think its a more prudent decision, especially considering the stigma that brands Bitcoin development as a closed garden that is subject to the tending of developers only.
LOT=true appears as if the developers are forcing a change upon the community. While that may not necessarily be the case, the appearance of that happening is not a good thing. Given that we dont believe there will be any issues with activation, I would prefer LOT=false to avoid this view, Chow said.
A question of coordination
Notably, the last meeting to discuss Taproot seemed to indicate majority support for LOT=false. With only 100 or so attendees this round (as opposed to nearly double the attendance last time), and some favor growing for LOT=true, though, we cant really measure community consensus, contributor Darosoir said.
According to the Taproot activation wiki, 26 attendees in yesterdays meeting vocally favored LOT=false while 19 favored LOT=true (some more neutral parties indicated they would be fine with either).
Hardly representative of Bitcoins sprawling international community, the IRC chatters left the meeting without clear consensus on the precise activation parameters, with some voicing the need to boil down the complexities of the process to get a more informed opinion from the wider community.
I will say, though, that I think this discussion would have benefitted from having a more clear view of the community overwhelmingly supporting this. Off topic for this meeting, but anyone interested in how to get better data around this, Id be interested to work with, Keagan McClelland, co-founder of Start9 Labs, wrote in the chat.
With a date set for the end of March and the bulk of the activation parameters chosen in BIP8, the final question to answer for Taproots deployment is whether or not to include the user activated soft fork measure from the get-go or not.
Taproot will ship by BIP8 in late March and activation is slated for July, so this question will have to be answered within the month.
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Bitcoin Taproot Upgrade Expected to Begin Activation in July - CoinDesk
Bitcoin Trades Above $50,000 for First Time – The Wall Street Journal
Bitcoin topped $50,000 for the first time Tuesday, doubling in value in less than two months.
The digital currency traded as high as $50,584.85, before closing at $48,642.45, according to CoinDesk, up 0.95% for the day and 68% for the year, with a total market value in circulation close to $909 billion.
The $50,000 level is an emotional level for people in the space, said Brian Melville, head of strategy at trading firm Cumberland. But it is also a simple result of supply and demand, he added.
From August through December, about 150,000 new bitcoins were minted, he estimated. The firm calculated that about 359,000 bitcoins were bought in the same period, and that imbalance has continued in 2021. Its a really important metric to watch, he added.
That buying demand has brought not only a price rally, but growing acceptance and recognition of an asset that was once an object of derision for regulators and lawmakers.
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Bitcoin Trades Above $50,000 for First Time - The Wall Street Journal
Riot Blockchain, Canaan, and The9 Stock All Soared Today as Bitcoin Becomes $1 Trillion Asset – Motley Fool
What happened
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) reached an unprecedented milestone for a cryptocurrency on Friday morning. The price of Bitcoin tokens surpassed $53,700 each, carrying Bitcoin's market capitalization over $1 trillion. And stocks that are related to Bitcoin like Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ:RIOT), Canaan (NASDAQ:CAN), and The9 Limited (NASDAQ:NCTY) are all soaring today as a result, up 21%, 33%, and 23%, respectively, as of noon EST.
According to Coinbase, Bitcoin is up around 5% over the past 24 hours, hitting all-time highs above $54,300.But there are other cryptocurrencies making much bigger moves today. One is Binance Coin (CRYPTO:BNB), up roughly 49% as of this writing. And this outsize move is probably telling us something.
Image source: Getty Images.
For the record, Riot Blockchain, Canaan, and The9 didn't report news that warranted moving their stock prices this much. Canaan and The9 didn't report anything at all. Riot Blockchain filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), showing insider Hannah Cho acquired 12,500 shares.On the surface it seems bullish. However, Cho was recently added to the board of directors, and these shares came free with the deal.
Therefore, the real news today is what's going on with Bitcoin. So far in 2021, we've seen growing adoption from Wall Street. One recent adopter was Tesla, which added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin tokens to the balance sheet. CEO Elon Musk took to social media today to explain the move, essentially saying it was a way to hedge against inflation.
In time, there's a chance more companies will see this issue as Tesla has, creating more demand for Bitcoin as they buy tokens (by the way, even private companies are buying Bitcoin, including The Motley Fool). But not all corporations add a small Bitcoin position as a hedge. Some, like MicroStrategy (NASDAQ:MSTR), appear to be going all in.
MicroStrategy just issued over $1 billion in convertible notes to buy more Bitcoin. On one hand, it's going to buy less than Tesla bought. But Tesla is a $760 billion company. By contrast, the market cap of MicroStrategy is under $10 billion. Moreover, the company already owns over 71,000 Bitcoin tokens worth around $3.8 billion. Therefore, whatever happens to the price of Bitcoin going forward is going to directly impact MicroStrategy stock one way or the other.
Image source: Getty Images.
While it's just one company, MicroStrategy's $1 billion demand for Bitcoin is enough to outpace the new supply of tokens in the short term. This can cause the price to keep rising. And as the price quickly rises, it can attract more buyers who are afraid of missing out. And that may be what's happening.
Let's come full circle back to Binance Coin. It's the native token of Binance -- one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Demand for this coin is increasing as more people start using Binance. Beyond that, it appears Binance's PancakeSwap is creating more demand for Binance Coin as well.
I'll try not to stray too far into the weeds. Blockchain networks facilitate decentralized finance (DeFi) -- no one is in charge, and there's not a physical headquarters. There are only computer protocols facilitating exchange. One popular decentralized exchange is Uniswap, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain.
However, some complain that the fees on the Ethereum blockchain are too high. PancakeSwap works like Uniswap, but is built on the cheaper Binance blockchain. Therefore, it appears new users are flooding Binance and switching to PancakeSwap in recent days, causing the price of Binance Coin to surge.
The point is, the rising price of Bitcoin is getting a lot of attention. More and more, people are looking to invest in cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency stocks. On one hand, I personally think there's some good investments in the space. However, investors should always be cautious when approaching a new investment -- fear of missing out (FOMO) should never be the foundation of your investing thesis.
Furthermore, even when you've developed a good investing thesis, it's still important to maintain a diversified portfolio because it spreads out risk. And there's undoubtedly risk with cryptocurrencies.
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Riot Blockchain, Canaan, and The9 Stock All Soared Today as Bitcoin Becomes $1 Trillion Asset - Motley Fool
Bitcoin’s next resistance level isn’t until $170k, the ‘sky is the limit,’ says trader – CNBC
Bitcoin's record-breaking rally rolls on.
The cryptocurrency crossed above $52,000 on Wednesday for the first time ever, adding to a 46% rally over the past month.
Todd Gordon, founder of TradingAnalysis.com and a bitcoin bull, sees the run continuing.
"We're getting corporate and institutional players entering the market. I think the sky is the limit. I don't want to be overly bullish, but just simple technical analysis, you don't see resistance till about [$170,000]," Gordon told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Wednesday.
Bitcoin's "market cap ... is $1 trillion, where gold is at $10.5 trillion. I think there's a lot more room to go," said Gordon.
As bitcoin's rally has picked up steam, gold's has flagged. Over the past month, gold prices have fallen 3%.
Quint Tatro, president of Joule Financial, is sticking with gold despite recent weakness.
"I've got to be candid, it's been very, very difficult to be long gold here, but we still believe that longer term it's in an uptrend," Tatro said during the same interview. "It has risen from $1,100 to $1,900 within 2019 and 2020, and then is pulling back, so we're still a buyer here of the weakness in gold, as hard as it is."
Gold has risen 34% in the past two years. Prices hit a peak above $2,000 in August.
Disclosure: Gordon holds bitcoin. Joule Financial is long gold.
Disclaimer
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Bitcoin's next resistance level isn't until $170k, the 'sky is the limit,' says trader - CNBC
$56.3K Bitcoin price and $1T market cap signal BTC is here to stay – Cointelegraph
As Bitcoin (BTC) price pushed above $55,300 in the morning trading session, its market cap surpassed $1 trillion for the first time on Feb. 19. The breakout continued throughout the day and within the past hour BTC price hit another all-time high at $56,368.
Now that Bitcoin has cemented its status as a trillion-dollar asset among the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google, legacy banks are showing increasing interest in offering cryptocurrency custody services for their customers.
According to Treyce Dahlem, an analyst at TheTIE, social media conversations including Bitcoin as a keyword have increased by 38% since Feb. 18. More than 102,000 tweets have been sent out in the past 24-hours, and this is only 30,000 tweets shy of setting a new record high.
Dahlem said:
Multiple altcoins joined BTC and Ether (ETH) in establishing new all-time highs as both centralized and decentralized exchange tokens experienced strong breakouts.
Binance Coin (BNB) continued to benefit from the growing influence of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as surging volume lifted the token to a new high of $348.72.
This parabolic rally secured BNBs spot as the third-ranked project by market capitalization behind Bitcoin and Ether.
DeFi-related projects like PancakeSwap (CAKE) and Venus (VXS) are two of the top attractions on the BSC and both hit new highs at $20.62 and $101.50 respectively. REN also made waves after its recent integration with BSC helped lift the token to a record high at $1.69.
Following a week of new highs for the major indices, traditional markets closed the week mixed on Friday as the U.S. economy faces continued fallout from the pandemic and rising unemployment.
The NASDAQ finished the day up 0.07% while the Dow was flat. The S&P 500 declined by 0.19%.
As traditional markets close up for the week, the bullish momentum propelling Bitcoin and altcoins high is showing no signs of slowing down. Recent historical data shows that Bitcoins rallies in 2021 have a tendency to occur on the weeked and many analysts believe the top-ranked digital asset could attack the $60,000 level over the weekend.
The round the clock nature of the crypto sector means that markets are always active somewhere on the planet. As the current bull market attracts wider attention from retail and institutional investors, the trend of trading volume decreasing on weekends seems to no longer be in effect.
While Ether (ETH) price has remained pinned below $2,000, it still managed to rally to a new all-time high at $1,974.
There are increasing bullish murmurs that institutional investors are deeply interested in the returns being offered through staking on Eth2 as well as participating in the growing DeFi sector, both of which are the driving force behind the growing demand for Ether.
Recent price breakouts from top tokens like Bitcoin and Binance Coin and DeFi superstars like REN and CAKE have also helped lift the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency sector to a new record $1.705 trillion. Bitcoins dominance currently stands at 61.1%
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$56.3K Bitcoin price and $1T market cap signal BTC is here to stay - Cointelegraph
Bitcoin briefly breaks the $50,000 barrier as Coinbases direct listing looms – TechCrunch
The hodl-crew are having quite the moment as bitcoin passed the $50,000 mark earlier today for the first time. Data pegs the peak at just over $50,500.
The price of bitcoin, the worlds best-known cryptocurrency, has historically proven a reasonable proxy for consumer interest in the cryptocurrency space, and for trading activity amongst blockchain-based assets. Bitcoins price has retreated since the milestone, and is now worth just over $49,000.
Bitcoin has been on a tear this year, rising from around the $30,000 mark at the start of 2021 to its recent $50,000 milestone, a gain of around 66%. Looking back a year and the gains are even more impressive, with the price of bitcoin rising from around $10,000 a year ago to its current price, a gain of 400%.
Luckily for investors and believers in other decentralized tokens, its not just bitcoin that is enjoying a valuation updraft. Cardano, one of the most highly valued blockchain assets, is up around 27% in the last week, according to CoinMarketCap. Its total value is nearing the $27 billion mark.
Companies built atop the burgeoning cryptocurrency space could be enjoying a boom as the price of bitcoin advances; as trading activity and consumer interest tend to rise along with the price of bitcoin, and companies like Coinbase make money from trading activity and consumer use, 2021 is starting off strongly.
Coinbase has filed to go public, and intends to pursue a direct listing in short order.
Whats driving up the price of bitcoin and its sister-tokens in the short-term? In a market melt-up its hard to point fingers with any accuracy. But broadly speaking, if it feels that nearly every asset class is setting new all-time records, so why not bitcoin as well?
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Bitcoin briefly breaks the $50,000 barrier as Coinbases direct listing looms - TechCrunch
With its prophet and its texts, Bitcoin is like a religion : The Indicator from Planet Money – NPR
ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images
ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images
On Tuesday, February 16th, the price of one bitcoin climbed above 50 thousand dollars for the first time ever. A year earlier, Bitcoin was priced at less than 10 thousand dollars.
The rise was baffling. But then, Bitcoin has been baffling people since its inception 12 years ago. As a currency, Bitcoin is not backed by any government, or even any commodity. Its value derived entirely from the continued faith that people who own Bitcoin have in its future. With the sometimes fanatical devotion of its followers, its mysterious creator, its rituals and its holidays, Bitcoin looks a lot like a religion.
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With its prophet and its texts, Bitcoin is like a religion : The Indicator from Planet Money - NPR
Feeling the heat from employees, Wall Street banks get closer to adopting bitcoin – CNBC
Pressure is building on Wall Street banks to accept bitcoin as a legitimate asset class and it's coming from within, CNBC has learned.
Last month, during a town hall meeting held for thousands of JPMorgan Chase traders and sales personnel around the world, global markets head Troy Rohrbaugh acknowledged a question that is increasingly being asked by the bank's own employees: When will they get involved in bitcoin?
To answer that question, Rohrbaugh, who had logged into the Jan. 18 Zoom call from his New York office, brought on his boss, JPMorgan co-president Daniel Pinto, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.
In a response that took up a chunk of the hour-long call, Pinto signaled he was open-minded about bitcoin, said the people, who declined to be identified when speaking about an internal event. When asked later by CNBC to clarify his remarks, Pinto, who leads the world's biggest investment bank by revenue, said the firm's decision would be informed by whether a critical mass of clients wanted the firm to trade bitcoin.
"If over time an asset class develops that is going to be used by different asset managers and investors, we will have to be involved," Pinto said in an interview. "The demand isn't there yet, but I'm sure it will be at some point."
JPMorgan traders aren't the only ranks of the cryptocurious at big banks. Last week, Goldman Sachs hosted a private forum with Mike Novogratz, the CEO-founder of crypto firm Galaxy Digital, for employees and clients. Novogratz expounded on his thesis for bitcoin, ethereum and other digital assets as well as their macroeconomic backdrop during the 90-minute virtual event.
Wall Street's newfound openness to cryptocurrency shows that the industry is being forced to contend with bitcoin as its latest dizzying ascent and increased adoption among institutional investors, corporations and fintech competitors spark fears of being left behind.
Banks, which generally face the highest regulatory scrutiny among financial firms because of the breadth of their operations and crucial role in the economy, have been largely reluctant to play in the crypto space, preferring to focus on related technology including blockchain. If one of the six biggest U.S. banks decides to embrace bitcoin, it would be a major stamp of legitimacy for the nascent asset class.
During bitcoin's earlier 2017-era boom cycle, banks including Goldman flirted with the idea of setting up dedicated crypto trading desks, but they ultimately shelved most of their plans. Born less than a decade earlier out of the wreckage of the global financial crisis, bitcoin was deemed too speculative and risky for bank clients. As the price of bitcoin skyrocketed in late 2017, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called bitcoin a fraud that wouldn't end well.
But by merely continuing to exist through 2018 and 2019, lean years known as crypto winter when bitcoin traded for below $4,000, the technology showed its staying power. Then the coronavirus pandemic struck, and governments led by the U.S. unleashed trillions of dollars in support for markets, businesses and individuals during the crisis.
A new narrative emerged, seemingly tailor-made for the era and adopted by billionaire hedge fund managers like Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller: Bitcoin, which is limited in supply by design, is a hedge against inflation and the debasement of the U.S. dollar.
Fear of currency debasement is the major theme of clients who ask about bitcoin, according to the head of a major bank's wealth management business for clients worth at least $25 million. The bank is considering matching buyers and sellers of bitcoin for clients, but is studying how to integrate the cryptocurrency into its risk management systems.
There is irony here: In a few short years, bitcoin went from an idealistic technology meant to cut out banks and other intermediaries to a store of value used mostly by rich people so they can remain rich.
Now, as a steady stream of news on adopters seems to propel bitcoin ever higher, industry insiders say it's only a matter of time before traditional banks get more involved.
In particular, JPMorgan's Pinto cited the move last month by BlackRock, the biggest asset manager in the world, to add bitcoin futures as an eligible investment in two of its funds as evidence of broader adoption. Regulation of bitcoin trading would be manageable, Pinto said, adding that if it happened, trades would involve vetted clients and reputable exchanges including Coinbase.
This week alone, electric car manufacturer Tesla became the latest company to plow corporate cash into bitcoin, and payments network Mastercard and custody bank BNY Mellon said they will become more involved in crypto. With each announcement, the likelihood rises that banks, including JPMorgan and others, decide to join the party.
Damien Vanderwilt, co-president of Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz founder of Galaxy, and Chris Ferraro, co-president of Galaxy
Source: Galaxy Digital
"For the large banks, the volume of client inquiry and demand at some point will break the camel's back," said Damien Vanderwilt, co-president of Galaxy and head of its global markets division. "Banks eventually get strong-armed into developing these products by their clients."
Vanderwilt would know. Before joining Galaxy last month, he spent more than two decades at Goldman Sachs, where he led efforts to modernize the bank's trading infrastructure, most recently as a partner and global head of fixed-income execution services.
During his tenure, there were a handful of times when his bank was slow to adopt new trading techniques or spot emerging trends like quantitative trading, which eventually forced them to play catch-up, he said.
For banks to avoid a similar fate with crypto, Galaxy which views itself as a bridge between established finance and digital natives can help accelerate the development of products for their clients, he said.
Vanderwilt hinted at upcoming collaborations with traditional banks, saying "it's possible Galaxy could help Goldman and other banks facing the same challenges; we're uniquely positioned to do that, as the nexus for financial services in the digital asset sector."
As for adopters in the corporate world, Vanderwilt said many companies haven't yet publicly disclosed their bitcoin investments. "You're going to see a range of releases over 2021, there will be more corporates, pensions, more insurance companies" investing in bitcoin, he said.
Meanwhile, as its price continues to surge, some traders at big banks eye bitcoin's charts with envy. Just two months ago, bitcoin made headlines for breaching $20,000 for the first time. On Thursday, it traded for more than $48,000, according to Coin Metrics.
"In this industry, we're always looking for things that make money," said a trader who only agreed to be quoted on condition of anonymity. "And there's this shiny thing that's so freaking volatile and we're told we can't touch it it's like the forbidden fruit."
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Feeling the heat from employees, Wall Street banks get closer to adopting bitcoin - CNBC
Bitcoin Miners Earn Record Hourly Revenue of $4M – CoinDesk – CoinDesk
Bitcoins price rally is proving a windfall for the miners of the worlds biggest blockchain.
Miners collected a record single-hour revenue of $4.06 million during the 60 minutes to 17:00 UTC on Thursday, according to data provided by the blockchain analytics firm Glassnode. Transaction fees accounted for more than $47,000 of the record hourly revenue.
Miners use powerful computers to solve complex mathematical problems to mine blocks and confirm transactions on the publicly distributed ledger. As a reward for their services, miners receive newly created bitcoins along with transaction processing fees.
Currently, miners are paid 6.25 bitcoin (BTC) for every block mined. The number was reduced by 50% in May 2020 via a process called mining reward halving, which is repeated every four years.
While hourly income reached a lifetime high on Thursday, daily revenue hit a three-year high of $50.78 million earlier this week, marking at least a fivefold increase since mid-October, reflecting the rise in the price of BTC during that period.
Income earned through transaction fees has also increased substantially over the past few months, reaching a $9.14 million on Feb. 9.
Turnovers have risen sharply, with bitcoins price rallying by nearly 400% to record levels above $48,000 in the past four months.
Miners revenue could continue to rise throughout 2021 and beyond, as traders foresee a pick up in corporate demand in the wake of Teslas decision to buy the cryptocurrency, leading to a stronger price rally. The percentage of revenue earned through transaction fees could rise, with payment giants such as Mastercard announcing support for cryptocurrencies.
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Bitcoin Miners Earn Record Hourly Revenue of $4M - CoinDesk - CoinDesk
Apple Pay can now be used to spend Bitcoin – CNET
Angela Lang/CNET
Bitcoin wallet BitPay's Prepaid Mastercard users in the US can now add their card to Apple Wallet andApple Pay will now allow Bitcoin to be spent online, in stores and in apps, BitPay said Friday.
The BitPay Wallet app supports not only Bitcoin but also cryptocurrencies Ether and Bitcoin Cash as well as the dollar-pegged stable coins USD Coin, Gemini Dollar, Paxos Standard and Binance USD.
Read more: The 8 best payment apps
BitPay plans to add support for Google Pay and Samsung Pay by the end of March.
"We have thousands of BitPay Wallet app customers using the BitPay Card," BitPay CEO Stephen Pair said in a statement. "Adding Apple Pay and soon Google and Samsung Pay makes it easy and convenient to use the BitPay Card in more places."
To add your BitPay card to Apple Wallet, you need to have the most recent BitPay app.
The addition of cryptocurrency spending to Apple Pay follows an analyst report Monday suggesting Apple should launch its own cryptocurrency exchange. Since Apple Wallet is used by millions, it could generate more than $40 billion by making the jump to cryptocurrency, said the report by RBC Capital Markets.
Apple adding Bitcoin also follows shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk voiced interest in cryptocurrency Dogecoin.Teslasaid it will soon accept bitcoins as paymentfor its electric cars.
Discover the latest news and best reviews in smartphones and carriers from CNET's mobile experts.
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Apple Pay can now be used to spend Bitcoin - CNET