Posts

Showing posts from October, 2017

The Bitcoin Gold Hard Fork Explained (Coming October 25)

Bitcoin Gold (BTG/Bgold) is an upcoming hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain that’s scheduled to occur on October 25 . Bgold has nothing to do with the yellow metal, so it shouldn’t be confused with BitGold, the gold investment and payments firm. Bgold is equally unrelatedf to both the previous hard fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH/Bcash), which occurred on August 1 , and the upcoming SegWit2x (S2X/Bizcoin) hard fork, which is scheduled for mid-November. Why Bitcoin Gold? Bitcoin Gold will alter Bitcoin’s proof-of-work algorithm from SHA-256, which is currently dominated mostly by Chinese ASIC miners, to the Equihash algorithm . Equihash is also employed by the Ethereum, zCash (Classic), Zencash, and Hush cryptocurrencies.  Equihash is mostly mined by graphics cards (GPUs).  According to the Bgold pitch, returning Bitcoin mining to home users will bring forth greater decentralization. However, massive Russian and Japanese Bitcoin mining operations have been planned for 2018, so it seems

Support for Segwit2x the New York Agreement, and the Upcoming Bitcoin Fork Explained

A little over three months ago, SegWit, a Bitcoin upgrade, was activated after a long and hefty debate. The result of this debate also created an altcoin called Bitcoin Cash, which was created as the opposition to the Segwit solution. Now, we’re on the verge of another split in the Bitcoin network called Segwit2x. For a complete history of everything that’s happened until now, read this post. The much-awaited Segwit activation came with a condition: a block -size increase within three months of activation (i.e., a hard fork ). Miners who were initially against Segwit activated it under the terms of the so-called New York Agreement (NYA). The NYA is also known as the Silbert or DCG Agreement after Barry Silbert, the deal’s broker and the founder of the Digital Currency Group. Silbert brokered the deal between various industry players, most notably mining firm Bitmain, the Coinbase exchange, and the BitPay payment service. The SegWit soft fork is seeing steadily increasing usage

Web Mining Monetize Your Website through User Browsers

Coinhive is a Monero (XMR) miner that runs on users’ web browsers when they’re visiting certain sites (don’t worry, we don’t employ this on 99Bitcoins). Recently, The Pirate Bay and CBS’s Showtime were busted for running Coinhive on visitors’ browsers without their knowledge or consent. Before we get into a discussion about how to use Coinhive to monetize your content, let’s first discuss why website owners might want to use it instead of the tried-and-true method of online revenue generation: ads. The Rise of Ad Blocking Software that blocks online advertisements—usually referred to as an ad blocker—is rapidly becoming the standard. According to PageFair, a company dedicated to analyzing and mitigating this trend, about 615 million devices were using ad blockers at the end of 2016. The total number of internet users in mid-2016 was estimated to be 3.4 billion. This means that around 20% of users employ ad blockers. Because most ad blockers are free and easy to install, there

Bitcoin Margin Trading Options for Beginners

Everyone I know is making a fortune either holding or trading Bitcoin. In all reality, buying Bitcoin and holding it for the long term offers the potential for huge profits without having to stare at order books all day long. However, the potential to double or triple one’s holdings is often just a mere trade away, especially when margin trading. That’s why so many people are giving up their day jobs to trade Bitcoin and altcoins full time. Trading cryptocurrencies is the digital version of the 1849 Gold Rush, where computers and trading software have replaced shovels and sluice boxes. Anyone who is new to buying Bitcoin and trading Bitcoin on exchanges may find it a bit daunting at first. However, trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies isn’t all that complicated after you get past the learning curve. So let’s take a look at the basics of trading cryptocurrencies and then examine the advantages and disadvantages of margin trading. How to Trade on Exchanges The trading

How to Buy Bitcoins if You’re a Noob – Bitcoin Whiteboard Tuesday

Every few weeks, we’re going to send you a cool new video, just like this one, explaining some Bitcoin basics. You can use them to learn more about Bitcoin yourself, or you can forward them to friends or family members who have questions. How to buy your first Bitcoin If you’ve followed our previous lessons, then you’re probably somewhat of a Bitcoin expert by now. However, nothing will teach you more about Bitcoin and how it works than having a firsthand experience with a live Bitcoin transaction. By buying even a small amount of bitcoins, you’ll probably learn more than by watching this whole video series. So let’s get started! Get a Bitcoin Wallet Before you can buy Bitcoins, you’re going to need a wallet to hold them. If you’ve watched our previous episode about wallets, then you’re all set. However, if you’re completely new to Bitcoin, or if you can’t quite recall what we talked about in the video, here’s a short refresher: Bitcoin wallets are programs that help you send