Bitcoin core now

Crypto Gaming United, a startup aiming to build a global community of nonfungible token (NFT)-focused play-to-earn gamers, has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round. A Sept. 8 announcement notes the round was led by famed Australian venture capitalist Mark Carnegie and Chrono.tech CEO Sergei Sergienko — with the pair having co-founded the crypto-focused asset manager MHC Digital Finance. Australian investment managers Shaw and Partners and Blockchain Assets also participated in the round. Crypto Gaming United was established in August of this year and has already attracted more than 1,500 members and has a waiting list of almost 40,000. The guild helps members to play the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity by offering scholarships where sponsors provide expensive game assets to players who can use them to generate revenue. Despite its seed round being led by Australian investors, the guild is comprised predominantly of Filipino players, with users also hailing from Indonesia, South Africa, and India. With most guild members hailing from low-income economies, many players may not have the means to acquire the expensive digital assets needed to play Axie Infinity amid a surging crypto bull market. Crypto Gaming United is not the only company offering Axie Infinity scholarships, with sponsorship programs typically taking a share of the profits earned by players. Sergienko stated: “The opportunity for wealth creation in the NFT space is no longer limited to those with the means, such as sports celebrities. At Crypto Gaming United, we are overcoming the cost barrier required for admission to play, thereby allowing players to generate income through their gaming exploits.” The gaming guild ambitiously hopes to amass a user base of more than 100,000 within the next 18 months. Carnegie is not alone in believing the innovative play-to-earn titles built on NFTs will see the crypto sector capture an increasing share of the $200 billion annual online gaming industry. On Sept. 7, Zebedee raised $11.5 million in Series A funding to expand its gaming initiatives including enabling game developers to pay out rewards to players in the form of crypto assets. Launched in 2019, Zebedee provides the platform and tools to enable Bitcoin to be used as in-game rewards and micro-transactions via Lightning Network infrastructure. Simon Cowell, co-founder and CEO, was previously head of corporate development at Bitstamp, the world’s longest-standing Bitcoin exchange. Zebedee’s round was led by Lakestar, and also featured participation from Initial Capital, New Form Capital, and numerous gaming angels. Related article: Philippine regulator tells Axie Infinity players they must pay tax on income from game Crypto-native gaming has already seen explosive growth this year, with Axie Infinity’s user base growing from 30,000 in April to more than one million last month. Yield Guild Games, a Philippine play-to-earn gaming collective offering Axie sponsorships, also raised $12.5 million via an initial DEX offering (IDO) in just minutes during July.

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Bitcoin’s Impacts

In April of 2011, the price of one bitcoin was $1; this April it reached an all-time high of almost $65,000, and as of this writing each one is worth approximately $48,000. Because some bitcoin investors have become millionaires overnight, more and more people are intrigued by the possibility of striking it rich through investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But Bitcoin’s rising popularity may make it impossible for the world to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, because the energy consumption of this cryptocurrency is enormous and its environmental implications are far-reaching. To understand Bitcoin’s environmental impacts, we first need to know what it is and how it works. What is Bitcoin? A cryptocurrency is a virtual medium of exchange that exists only electronically; it has no physical counterpart such as a coin or dollar bill, and no money has been staked to start it. R.A. Farrokhnia, Columbia Business School professor and executive director of the Columbia Fintech Initiative, said, “It’s a marketplace and as long as people are willing to assign value to it, then that’s it.” Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in the world, accounting for more than half of all cryptocurrency, can be used to buy cars, furnishings, vacations and much more. This month, the world’s bitcoins were worth $903 billion. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning that there is no central authority like a bank or government to regulate them. The advantage of this is that there are no transaction fees, anyone can use it, and it makes transactions like sending money across national borders simpler. While transactions are tracked, the people making them remain anonymous. This anonymity and lack of centralized regulation, however, means that tax evaders, criminals, and terrorists can also potentially use cryptocurrencies for nefarious purposes. Without physical money or a central authority, cryptocurrencies had to find a way to ensure that transactions were secure and that their tokens could not be spent more than once. Bitcoin was born in 2008 when a mysterious person (or persons) named Satoshi Nakamoto (whose true identity remains unknown), found a solution to these issues. Nakamoto’s answer was a digital ledger system with trust in the system achieved through mathematics and cryptography, and with transactions recorded in blockchain. Blockchain is a transparent database that is shared across a network with all transactions recorded in blocks linked together. Nodes—powerful computers connected to the other computers in the network—run the Bitcoin software and validate transactions and blocks. Each node has a copy of the entire blockchain with a history of every transaction that has been executed on it. Nakamoto capped the number of bitcoins that could be created at 21 million. While there is speculation about the math theories that led to the choice of that number, no one really knows the reason behind it. As of this month, an estimated 18.8 million bitcoins were in circulation; it’s expected that all remaining bitcoins will be released by 2140. How do bitcoins enter circulation? New bitcoins are released through mining, which is actually the process of validating and recording new transactions in the blockchain. The miner who achieves this first is rewarded with new bitcoin. Bitcoin mining farm. Photo: Marko Ahtisaari Miners must verify the validity of a number of bitcoin transactions which are bundled into a block. This involves checking 20-30 different variables, such as address, name, timestamp, making sure senders have enough value in their accounts and that they have not already spent it, etc. Miners then compete to be the first to have their validation accepted by solving a puzzle of sorts. The puzzle involves coming up with a number—called the nonce, for ‘number used once’—that when combined with the data in the block and run through a specific algorithm generates a random 64-digit string of numbers and letters. This random number must be less than or equal to the 64-digit target set by the system, known as the target hash. Once the nonce is found that generates the target hash, the winning miner’s new block is linked to the previous block so that all blocks are chained together. This makes the network tamper-proof because changing one block would change all subsequent blocks. The result is broadcast to the rest of the blockchain network and all nodes then update their copies of the blockchain. This validation process, or consensus mechanism, is known as proof of work.The winning miner receives newly minted bitcoin as well as transaction fees paid by the sender. The higher the price of bitcoin, the more miners are competing, and the harder the puzzles get. The Bitcoin protocol aims to have blocks of transactions mined every ten minutes, so if there are more miners on the network with more computing power, the probability of finding the nonce in less than ten minutes increases. The system then makes the target hash more difficult to find by adding more zeroes to the front of it; the more zeros at the front of the target hash, the lower that number is, and the harder it is to generate a random number below it. If there is less computing power operating, the system makes the puzzle easier by removing zeroes. The Bitcoin network adjusts the difficulty of mining about every two weeks to keep block production to ten minutes. Every 210,000 blocks, the bitcoin reward for miners is halved. According to Investopedia, when bitcoin was first mined in 2009, mining one block would earn 50 bitcoins. By November of 2020, the reward was 6.25 bitcoins, but the price was about $17,900 per bitcoin, so a miner would earn $111,875 (6.25 x 17,900) for completing a block. It’s estimated that there are one million bitcoin miners operating and competing, though it’s impossible to be sure because miners with less computing power of their own can join mining pools, which need not report how many active miners they have. “I have a suspicion that Nakamoto had the notion that everyone could be a miner—that you could mine with nothing more than your laptop,” said Farrokhnia. “But as Bitcoin became more popular and more people got on the system and the rewards were actually worth money, you began to see the advent of these mining pools which significantly increased the difficulty level. This turned into a vicious cycle—an arms race—to have the most powerful computers, but then the more powerful hardware miners have, the more difficult it is to find the nonce.” This intense competition is where the environmental impacts of Bitcoin come in. Bitcoin’s environmental impacts Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions The process of trying to come up with the right nonce that will generate the target hash is basically trial and error—in the manner of a thief trying random passwords to hack yours—and can take trillions of tries. With hundreds of thousands or more computers churning out guesses, Bitcoin is thought to consume 707 kwH per transaction. In addition, the computers consume additional energy because they generate heat and need to be kept cool. And while it’s impossible to know exactly how much electricity Bitcoin uses because different computers and cooling systems have varying levels of energy efficiency, a University of Cambridge analysis estimated that bitcoin mining consumes 121.36 terawatt hours a year. This is more than all of Argentina consumes, or more than the consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft combined.

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Earning Crypto Accounts

Cryptocurrency owners are not just bragging about outlandish returns — there’s also the yield. Today, many platforms help you earn high returns just by depositing your crypto assets. The idea seems to be gaining quick ground: Deposits in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications grew from about $1 billion in June 2020 to just under $40 billion by late January 2021. But questions loom: How does it work? How high is the interest rate? Are there any risks? Who is it ideal for? This article covers all your questions and hopefully more so that you can get a solid understanding of interest-earning crypto accounts. How a Cryptocurrency Interest-Earning Account Works The premise of an interest-earning crypto account is the same as a regular savings account. You deposit your Bitcoin or altcoin and earn compound interest on your assets. The only difference is that the rate of return is significantly higher compared to traditional savings account rates. You can also receive weekly payouts to your wallets and withdraw funds anytime. Currently, the most you can earn from a savings account in the U.S. is 0.7% annual percentage yield (APY), offered by Sallie Mae's SmartyPig account — 11 times the FDIC’s national average of 0.06%. Crypto interest-earning accounts offer interests up to 7.5% APY, on average. But some platforms can even allow you to earn interest up to 12.73% APY on your cryptocurrencies — no lock-up or deposit limits. The interest is driven by market effects and is paid out in cryptocurrency. You may need to pay a withdrawal fee, which is regularly adjusted according to blockchain conditions. Your platform can offer you high interest because it lends your crypto assets to individuals, corporations or institutions that use it depending on their business functions. The borrowers return the assets with high interest, and your platform takes a small portion of the interest and passes the rest to you. Is This Risky? A high reward indeed comes with high risk. But in this case, the risk is directly proportional to the platform you choose to invest in. In general, there are 2 main risks you should be wary about: hacks and borrower defaults. Hackers can easily access platforms that have a weak safety infrastructure, no encryptions and store your tokens in a hot wallet. Additionally, companies that are not licensed with an operating permit may be prone to a breach. As for borrower defaults, it heavily depends on who the platform chooses to trust. If a company is transparent about its lending standards and maintains a stringent requirement for its counterparties, that lowers the level of risk. It’s advisable to look into what precautions a platform takes before you deposit your interest. For example, interest-earning crypto accounts like Hodlnaut employ Fireblock’s multiparty computation wallet infrastructure to secure funds. It also offers an optional user custody protection, an alternative to traditional insurance. In the case of default, the company takes on the loss and pays its users from its equity funds. In such instances, the risk can be rather low. Are Crypto Interest-Earning Accounts for you? Cryptocurrency investments are a great way to diversify your portfolio. Although many think of it as a way to make money in the short term, its true potential will be seen when decentralized finance becomes more mainstream — a reality that is increasingly apparent every day. For crypto owners who want to hold their assets for the long term, interest-earning accounts offer a sweet reward for patience. But, before you deposit your crypto holdings into an interest-earning account, make sure you do your due diligence so that you can be at ease.

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Bitcoin Provide You A New Investment Life

 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a peer to peer electronic cash system created by Dr. Craig Wright under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It was first detailed in the Bitcoin Whitepaper in October 2008, and the source code was released in January 2009. The Bitcoin ledger and Block chain were established with the generation of the Genesis block on the 3rd of January 2009 and the mining of Block 1 six days later on the 9th of January 2009.

Bitcoin allows electronic payments to be sent directly from one party to another, without requiring a central institution or server to process transactions and/or store funds.

The leaderless structure of the network is viewed as a resolution to The Byzantine Generals Problem allowing disconnected entities to follow a common direction without centralised instruction. This solves several issues previously seen as unsolvable in distributed networks, including the problem of preventing Double-spending of coins.

Applications

Bitcoin is primarily a payment system which supports peer to peer connection and Instant Transactions. Early in the History of Bitcoin payments required users to understand complicated technical details of Bitcoin's technological underpinnings to make transactions. But developments such as Paymail and Simplified Payment Verification are changing the landscape and making it much easier for users to connect.

Bitcoin also supports the development of application layer protocols which make use of Bitcoin Transactions as a transport layer for information exchange. Several Application layer protocols already exist for BitcoinSV - for more detail see Building on Bitcoin. The Metanet fuses Bitcoin's highly secure and instant sub-cent transactions with onchain data storage and transferability enabling efficient and secure web usage. This will bring forth an Internet of Value where Micropayments become a means to both access and monetize data.

Applications which make use of the immutable nature of the BitcoinBit Ledger to store and retrieve data are emerging at an increasing rate. False Return scripts and other scripts that use Pushdata Opcodes to push data into Bitcoin transactions are creating new ways of recording data for public consumption. Bitcoin acts as a timestamp server allowing data to be validated and referenced using transactions.

Network

The Bitcoin Network is the network that all peers use to access the ledger. The network forms spontaneously over time as more peers access and use the system. There is no central governance that determines how peers on the network must connect, but the incentive structure that Bitcoin employs to bring enterprise miners into the system results in a spontaneously formed system which is simple and resilient.

Once the final restrictions on the protocol are removed in the Chronicle Update (expected early-mid 2021) network users will be able to create partitioned zones which employ specific rulesets particular to their requirements. This will be enabled by creating transactions that use OP_VER to give particular subsets of nodes specialised instructions, and will create the effect of layered network partitions over the core system which are referred to as Bitcoin Layered Networks.

The Ledger

The Bitcoin ledger is a record of all valid transactions that have ever been transmitted to the network. The ledger is formed as a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) where each transaction is a node. The graph starts at the Coinbase transaction of the first block ever found and via chains of digital signatures maps out the entire history of valid exchange actions, allowing the tracing of all bitcoins back to their creation.

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