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Node40, a blockchain governance company and one of the biggest server hosting providers for the Dash network,has created a service that allows Americans to properly report their cryptocurrency holdings to the tax authorities.

Node40 Balance, available for Dash today and Bitcoin later this year, calculates net gains and losses for every single transaction made throughout the calendar year, and rolls it all into the relevant IRS form. During two years of development, the software has undergone comprehensive beta testing using real-world use cases, the company reports.

CEO of Node40 Perry Woodin said: Node40 Balance is a feature packed blockchain accounting service that brings the familiarity of services like QuickBooks or TurboTax to the world of digital currency. Node40 Balance analyzes the blockchain and provides valuation data for all of your transactions. You annotate your transactions according to your real-world needs and Node40 Balance provides reports with your gains, losses, and income. What makes Node40 Balance unique is the precision in which gains and losses are calculated. A simple FIFO strategy is not sufficient for dealing with digital currency transactions. Node40 Balance uses the true carrying cost and days held to calculate precise valuations that ensure you are not over-reporting your tax liability.

The need for this innovation is the ambiguous IRS policy on cryptocurrency and that when people try to report such transactions themselves they cant really take minute-by-minute price fluctuations into consideration.

The burden of calculating tax liability falls completely on the user. Most people do one of two things; use software that does not calculate the level of accuracy that we required, or go to accountants who will apply a very simple FIFO strategy to determine gains or losses, which we know to be incorrect. This strategy works well for traditional investments where you are selling whole units, but it is not a good strategy for digital currency. When transacting in digital currency, most transactions will have multiple inputs, each with a different cost basis. Unless you are able to create an exact transaction, the cost basis of the change needs to be tracked along with the amount of days carried. Users of Dash and Bitcoin, both experiencing meteoric rises this year, have genuinely been crying out for a product like this for a long time. We anticipate significant demand, Woodin added.

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Node40 Wants to Be the TurboTax of American Cryptocurrency Users - Finance Magnates

The prices of ether (ETH), Dash (DASH) and Monero (XMR), among others, have surged in the past month as investors are growing more confident of cryptocurrencies and looking for investment opportunities beyond bitcoin.

Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network, has been amongst the most notable rallies, rising by up to 231% between March 01, and March 17, to reach an all-time-high of 53 USD/ETH. According to data from Coinmarketcap.com, ether is currently trading at around 43 USD/ETH.

eToro, a European social trading and multi asset brokerage company, launched ether trading in January 2017. Trading volumes over the last few days have increased by over 1,680% as traders are becoming more enthusiastic about the prospects of Ethereum.

The moves were seeing today are reminiscent of May 2013 when the price Bitcoin rallied from US$3 to US$126 inside a week, said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro.

What were seeing today is a further sign of growing investor confidence in cryptocurrencies. Certainly the SEC announcement earlier this month was a disappointment, but Ethereum has been rallying since then and Bitcoin bounced back almost immediately. With more announcements due in the coming months, we expect our traders will continue to remain confident on the future prospects of the asset class.

On the eToro platform, 96% of traders are buying Ethereum, Greenspan said, adding that the bullish sentiment has being driven by two key elements: firstly, he noted that the proposed Hyperledger project has been considering using the Ethereum blockchain to create a global monetary settlement system. The Hyperledger project includes more than 100 of the worlds leading financial institutions.

Secondly, he said that speculation has been rife within the Ethereum community of an upcoming upgrade to a new system called Casper, which promises to be much faster and stronger than the current format.

Alongside ether, another cryptocurrency that has rallied is Dash. Dash, a cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy and speed, has seen its price skyrocket by about 321% between February 27 and March 18 to hit an all-time-high of 118 USD/DASH. At the time of writing, Dash is hovering around 97 USD/DASH.

According to Ryan Taylor, director of finance at Dash, the price of Dash has surged for many reasons, including the numerous developments that have been undergoing in the ecosystem.

We have a full pipeline of integrations in the works as we continue to close the gap to Bitcoin in terms of the variety of services available through our network, Taylor told CoinJournal. Weve also seen a number of influential personalities become public supporters of Dash, which is forcing investors to evaluate our currency often for the first time.

He noted that Dash offered solutions to many of the issues that are plaguing Bitcoins growth with features and distinctivenesss that include instant transactions, enhanced privacy and strong governance.

Furthermore, Taylor said that Bitcoins scaling issues have crippled its growth.

I suspect that were seeing renewed openness toward alternative currencies for a few key reasons. Firstly, I think its becoming increasingly clear that solutions to Bitcoins scaling issues are still a long way from being resolved, and Bitcoins capacity constraints may be spilling over into other currencies, Taylor said. Secondly, its becoming clear that Bitcoin may be ill-equipped to resolve conflicts and disputes arising within their network, and many investors are simply looking to hedge against the risks that entails.

He concluded:

I think the market is finally recognizing that first-mover advantage is not a guarantee that one currency can address all customer market segments. There are many currencies that provide value by focusing on performing specific tasks incredibly well.

Dash is set to deliver its next major release later this year. Evolution will focus on creating a digital currency and ecosystem capable of reaching a mass audience by stripping away all the complexity of using cryptocurrency, including eliminating cryptographic addresses.

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Ether, Dash & Monero Prices Surge Amid Growing Investors ... - CoinJournal (blog)

The online cryptocurrency Bitcoinis rapidly becoming 2017s go-to currency. The Bitcoin demand is on the rise, and one Bitcoin is worth around $1010.

Currently, there is a threat of a hard fork on the cryptocurrency network, causing many users to concern over their cryptocurrency accounts.Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, which is not controlled by any organization. It was originally developed by a software developer called Satoshi Nakamoto. The idea was to create a decentralized form of currency, which would be used for economic transactions with low transaction fees, according to CoinDesk.

Bitcoins are not printed physically because they are created digitally by a community of people that can be joined by anyone in the world. The currency creates mining bitcoins, which means that transactions for online coins are tracked by computers, in order to confirm that they have a monetary value.

The copy for every blockchain is available for anyone participating in the cryptocurrency business, but miners have to confirm that the blocks -seeing as theyre not being regulated by anyone- are in fact a legitimate transaction. To do this, they run a mathematical formula to the block, turning it into a hash, that allows miners to know if a block has been tampered with, meaning that the block is fake.

The bitcoin network deals with this by collecting all of the transactions made during set period into a list, called a block. Its the miners job to confirm those transactions, and write them into a general ledger, explains CoinDesk. This general ledger is a long list of blocks, known as the blockchain. It can be used to explore any transaction made between any bitcoin addresses, at any point of the network.

Miners use hashes to seal off a block, and they use software written to mine the blocks. When a miner creates a successful hash, they earn 25 bitcoins, and the information is added to the blockchain. However, creating hashes from data available isnt too hard -although more specifications to filter the number of successful hashes have been added- and the cryptocurrency network is growing larger every day.

Cryptocurrency is growing so fast as a currency option, that a hard fork is predicted for Bitcoins.Circle Internet Financial, a technology company that offers user online wallets for cryptocurrency, sent out an email to users on Monday suggesting that they should sell all of their bitcoins, to avoid the potential consequences of the upcoming hard fork.

The tech company used to trade bitcoins while users were able to sell and buy bitcoins on the page, but it stopped offering the service in December, only keeping the online wallets. The company explained in the email, that if a hard fork were to happen, their bitcoin services would be disrupted for an extended period of time.

As it relates to blockchain technology, a hard fork (or sometimes hardfork) is a radical change to the protocol that makes previously invalid block/transactions valid (or vice-versa), and as such requires all nods or users to upgrade to the latest version of the protocol software, according to Investopedia. This essentially creates a fork in the blockchain, one path which follows the new upgraded blockchain, and one path which continues along the old path.

The hard fork is not unheard of in the cryptocurrency network. Last year, the Ethereum hard fork took place in October, when a software development team, named Ethereum, designed a hard fork to increase the gas cost of transactions. However, the hard fork increased the number of service attacks, known as DoS attacks. This has lead to Bitcoin users raising their concern about the called replay attacks that the server may suffer after the hard fork.

The Merkle describes the bitcoin replay attack as an issue that would allow attackers to steal other users coins. The coins stolen may or may not go to the attackers wallet, but either way, the vulnerability could empty users wallets.

The rise of cryptocurrency is fueled by economic measures around the world, as the bitcoin is calculated taken the worlds economy into account. Estimates predict that with President Trumps economic policies, the currency could rise to $2,000 dollars in 2017. The rise has been real, as in early December the Bitcoin was traded at $754.Boby Lee, CEO of BTCC talked to CoinDesk about the rise in the cryptocurrency.

I think 2017 could be a continuation of 2016, in terms of it being a growth year for bitcoins price, said Lee. We are clearly in a bull market for bitcoin now, and my experience tells me that bitcoin bull markets dont end until the previous high ($1,150 in December 2013) is exceeded, and that the new price is several multiples higher than the previous high.

Experts and cryptocurrency-trading companies say that there is a plan to protect users Bitcoins in the event of a hard fork. However, if a hard fork takes place, two copies of the blockchain, two networks and two versions of the software would be created, leaving users to gamble on which one to use. Experts also said that if the hard fork takes place, all exchanges are likely to freeze for a period of time before and after it occurs.

Source: CoinDesk

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The sudden rise of cryptocurrency in 2017 explained - Pulse Headlines