CryptoDigest@Steem Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Dear Steemians!

Here is the daily press review for bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Recover, store, and send Bitcoin Cash to any bank account with
We wanted to take the time to ensure the best user experience possible when accessing and recovering Bitcoin Cash, while still maintaining the security of your Bitcoin Cash. This means, you can send Bitcoin Cash to any bank account easily as you normally would with Bitcoin or any of our 60+ supported cryptocurrencies. In August the Bitcoin network experienced a chain split, or commonly known as a hardfork, which created a new kind of cryptocurrency: Bitcoin Cash (BCH). To access and use your Bitcoin Cash, you need to extract it from your BTC wallet to a BCH wallet. If you had Bitcoin stored in your Bitwala wallets before the August 1st hardfork, you can now easily recover Bitcoin Cash and store them in your Bitwala BCH wallet. (bitwala.com)

A Hacker Warning for Bitcoin
Gox bitcoin exchange collapse, but it's a warning that transparency and trust are rare commodities in this world. About $31 million was stolen from Tether, a Bitcoin peer that issues U.S. dollar-backed tokens for easier trading on crypto exchanges, and sent to what the company calls an unauthorized bitcoin address. Already, before the hack, Tether's legal small-print made clear that its tokens were neither money, nor stored value, nor currency. So Tether's wider impact could hit both general liquidity on crypto exchanges and any companies with which it has ties. The hack is drying up another pool of crypto liquidity: Several exchanges say they're suspending Tether transactions, according to news website Bitcoin.com. (bloomberg.com)

A $31 million hack sent bitcoin's price plunging
Understanding @Bitfinexed’s theory (explained in detail at Alphaville) explains why the market briefly panicked on the Tether hack news. That collapse was pre-dated by fund withdrawal troubles, opaque statements from the exchange operator, hacks—and a rapidly rising bitcoin price. Crypto traders have been traumatized by similar crashes before, that have flattened the bitcoin price for years. The price of bitcoin plunged by around 6% in the early morning today (Nov. 21) after news broke that nearly $31 million worth of Tether tokens had been hacked and stolen. Bitcoin’s price appears to have recovered—it’s almost back to where it was before the Tether news broke. (qz.com)

Bitstamp To Launch Bitcoin Cash Trading
It was the first nationally licensed Bitcoin exchange, a designation that applied across all 28 European Union countries. Bitstamp, one of the oldest cryptocurrency exchanges, announced it will launch trading of Bitcoin Cash, a new currency that many Bitcoin supporters view as a rival.“We get requests from our users who want to trade it,” said Bitstamp CEO Nejc Kodric. “We want to be as agnostic as possible so we look at the system, and if we believe there is sufficient demand and there will be trading and trading volume, we’re going to list it.”Trading of Bitcoin Cash on Bitstamp, which is the third-largest in the world for U.S. dollar and euro trading of Bitcoin, begins in the next couple weeks. Regarding the politically charged atmosphere around Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, Kodric said that the exchange has not generally been supportive of the big block side, and did not sign the agreement to do the SegWit2x fork. “By listing Bitcoin Cash, we’re not endorsing anything,” he said. “We’re just a marketplace where people can go with their money. The move could indicate possible growing acceptance of a cryptocurrency that many hardcore Bitcoiners view as an unwanted stepchild of Bitcoin and potential threat to the top cryptocurrency. It's also significant because Bitstamp is one of the more conservative exchanges and currently only offers trading in the other four cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin, Ethereum's Ether, Litecoin and Ripple's XRP — that round out the top five by market capitalization. (forbes.com)

Untethered? Bitcoin Shrugs Hack to Push Above $8,000
Bitcoin is bouncing back from losses arising from the hack of an alternative cryptocurrency. Tether was set up as a proxy for US dollars that can be sent between exchanges, including Bitfinex, Poloniex and others. Bitcoin could set new highs around the resistance at $8,553 (0.618 Fibonacci extensions). As per CoinMarketCap, the bitcoin-U.S. dollar (BTC/USD) exchange rate slumped to a low of $7,762 at 04:59 UTC, before quickly recovering to $8,100. Thus, the initial response from the market was cautious, as traders weighed the possible market ramifications. (coindesk.com)

Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency, but here are its four closest rivals
Here’s how the cryptocurrency market currently looks, and the key differences between the five largest currencies. Bitcoin is attracting enormous attention from investors, who keep driving the price to new records, but it is not the only "cryptocurrency" in existence. As fears grow that Bitcoin will prove to be a bubble, more and more people are starting to consider its rivals. With a total "market value" – the price of an individual coin multiplied by the number in existence – of £102bn, Bitcoin is still the dominant... There are now hundreds of cryptocurrencies and, while they have significant differences, all are based on “blockchain” technology. (telegraph.co.uk)

Bitcoin Is Creeping Into Real Estate Deals
The real-estate industry is taking its first steps in adopting cryptocurrencies and the technology that backs them in what could eventually produce important changes in the way property is bought and sold. While noticeable differences might be years or even decades away, several U.S. states already have changed laws to allow the technology to be used in property deals. (wsj.com)

Wealth Managers Are Being Inundated With Calls About Bitcoin
Boyd, who owns bitcoin in what he calls a “long, long, long-term investment,” also warns clients not keep their wallet on the platform where they bought a digital currency. Now he’s being inundated with questions about the latest soaring asset to confound investors -- bitcoin.“Clients bring up bitcoin all the time,” said Kotok. “They think it’s cool. Greg Sullivan, chief executive officer of Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney, steers clients away from bitcoin by telling them to think about supply and demand. For more on the basics of bitcoin and blockchain, click hereKotok, whose Sarasota, Florida-based firm manages about $3 billion for high net-worth clients, warns them off bitcoin, calling it a classic momentum trade. As bitcoin mania moves to Main Street, thanks to its spectacular rise from about $750 to $8,200 in a year, five advisers offer some suggestions. (bloomberg.com)

30 Percent of CFOs Still Call Bitcoin a Bubble: CNBC Survey
Of those that did almost 30 percent of them said they believed that Bitcoin is ‘real’ but in a bubble. In the survey, 14 percent of the CFOs stated they believe Bitcoin is "real and still going higher." CNBC surveyed 97 CFOs from companies that range from AT&T, Aviva, Levi and Mastercard, and within that group, 43 responded. However, the view on it has been softening as the digital currency continues to overcome hurdles. When it comes to institutionalized money, as well as companies who operate in the traditional money market, there is still a great divide on the opinion of Bitcoin. (cointelegraph.com)

Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Take a Hit After Another Cryptocurrency Was Hacked
Tether is not exactly a big player in the cryptocurrency scene, like bitcoin or Ethereum are. According to Bloomberg, the news knocked bitcoin’s value down by 5.4%, its worst fall in a week. The value of bitcoin briefly took a dip on Monday evening after a big theft allegedly affected a separate virtual currency system called Tether. EST. Ethereum also took a small hit. Tether’s cryptocurrency, the USDT, is pegged to the U.S. dollar. (fortune.com)

Lightning Can Scale Bitcoin, But Are Costs a Barrier?
These volume results might seem "disappointing" in that some bitcoin developers envision Lightning Network replacing most, if not all, bitcoin transactions, Zohar remarked. At issue is whether people will actually use it, or if they will simply send normal bitcoin transactions. "What we want to see is how many Lightning transactions would happen and how many big transactions. As such, Zohar believes there could be some competition between Lightning transactions and on-chain transactions. It's possible bitcoin's Lightning Network will fall short of its lofty ambition – at least, that's what a group of researchers are arguing. (coindesk.com)

Bitcoin outfit 'Tether' reveals US$31m BitBuck BitHeist
The company gives is tokens names like “USD₮” to indicate they're a “tether” on a blockchain, rather than the folding stuff. As a result, the company's wallet service has been suspended. Tether is in beta and seems to have been going about its business with the ambitious earnestness typical of the field, until the Monday November 20th post that revealed “$30,950,010 USDT was removed from the Tether Treasury wallet on November 19, 2017 and sent to an unauthorized bitcoin address.”“Yesterday, we discovered that funds were improperly removed from the Tether treasury wallet through malicious action by an external attacker,” the post continued. The company was able to identify the destination of its missing bitbucks: the bitcoin address and warned world+dog not to accept any tokens from that entity, as they will not be redeemable for currency, virtual, cryptographic, notional or otherwise constituted. ® Tether offers the chance to “to store, send and receive digital tokens pegged to dollars, euros, and yen person-to-person, globally, instantly, and securely for a fraction of the cost of any alternative.” Those tokens are exchangeable 1:1 with the boring old pre-digital currencies and the company even retains fiat currencies in a reserve account to keep things stable. (theregister.co.uk)

Bitcoin and Ethereum fall after a $31 million crypto heist
LONDON — The major cryptocurrencies bitcoin and Ethereum were falling against the dollar on Tuesday morning after a $31 million heist elsewhere in the digital currency world. ET):Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down by 1.5% against the dollar at the same time:Bitcoin cash, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is down over 5%: Bitcoin was down almost 1% against the dollar at 7.45 a.m. Tether is down 0.3% against the dollar on the back of the news, according to CoinMarketCap.com. The theft appears to have shaken wider confidence in crypto markets. (businessinsider.com)

Bitcoin Recovers to Set Record After Hack of Crypto Peer Tether
The company behind tether, a cryptocurrency used by bitcoin exchanges to facilitate trades with fiat currencies, announced the theft on Tuesday. Anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules have prevented many bitcoin exchanges from opening bank accounts needed to hold fiat currencies. The company behind tether has said that the tokens are 100 percent backed by fiat currencies. The tokens are pegged to fiat currencies, allowing users to store and transfer globally and instantly, according to the website. Bitcoin hit a record high, shrugging off earlier losses posted after the $31 million theft of a cryptocurrency peer renewed concern about the security of digital coins. (bloomberg.com)

Tether, a startup that works with bitcoin exchanges, claims a hacker stole $31M
As Coindesk reports, the incident is sure to throw up more questions about the relationship between Tether and the secretive exchange Bitfinex. At the time of writing, bitcoin’s value stood at $8,126.71, down 1.35 percent over 24 hours, according to Coindesk. One of the partners that uses Tether is crypto exchange Bitfinex, which itself lost 119,756 bitcoin — then worth $72 million but valued at over $950 million today — in a hack over a year ago. The duo are rumored to share owners, and have been accused of leaning on each other to manipulate the market. Tether operates USDT, a cryptocurrency asset that it backs via the U.S. dollar. (techcrunch.com)

Finance chiefs say bitcoin is 'real' but many think it's in a bubble right now
Bitcoin is a "real" asset but it's currently in a bubble, according to a CNBC survey of global finance bosses, with many calling it a "fraud." Ninety-seven chief financial officers (CFOs) on CNBC's Global CFO Council were asked their view on bitcoin. Karim Hajjar, chief financial officer of Solvay, and a member of CNBC's Global CFO Council said, that the "jury is out on bitcoin." Out of the 43 that responded, 27.9 percent said the cryptocurrency is "real but in a bubble." Another 14 percent said that bitcoin is "real and still going higher." (cnbc.com)

Bitcoin Series #4 - The Bitcoin Arms Race
Instead of each miner playing a game of adding more computing power to find bitcoins faster, he’s instead adding more computing power to get a larger share of all the computing power devoted to finding bitcoins. This series started with:And will be followed by articles on:The present article will delve into “The Bitcoin Arms Race.” Or, more specifically, into what the race to add more computing power to mine for bitcoins means. It’s thus not a coincidence that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature has been replaced by something of an oligopoly of Bitcoin mining pools. Anyway, although players are really battling among themselves for the new blocks, the need for more computing power isn’t diminished. Given the Antminer S9 example above, one could easily think that the Bitcoin network would continue to see increased hashing power. (seekingalpha.com)

According to BNP Paribas, Absence of Central Bank Will Limit Bitcoin's Future
According to BNP Paribas, this would result in significant risks and undermine monetary policy. BNP Paribas is also active in adopting Blockchain technology, having experimented with real-time transfer from bank accounts in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Just a couple of years ago, BNP Paribas had published a report calling Bitcoin a disruptive invention like the combustion engine. BNP Paribas' primary concern is that in case of a financial crisis (like 2008-09), there is no central authority to regulate the products based on Bitcoin. BNP Paribas has joined the chorus, saying that Bitcoin's future is limited because there is no 'lender of last resort.'According to a report published in the Telegraph, BNP Paribas has stated that the future of Bitcoin is limited, primarily because of the lack of a lender of last resort. (cointelegraph.com)

More on these and other related news can be found at http://zentrade.online/bitcoin-news-digest-tuesday-november-21-2017/