The mining difficulty has risen to 220,755,908,330.3723, which is 1.56% above the previous value, corresponding to a network hashrate around 1.6 EH/s.
Category Archives: Bitcoin
Network Difficult Hits New High In Third Post Halving Adjustment
Bitcoin network mining difficult climbed ~7.67 percent to a new all time high of 217375482757.23764038, up from 213492501107.51336670 where it fell after a small drop last adjustment. The drama outlook remains Bullish with Bitfinex following the path of earlier your losses, we're sorry.
The "Your Loss" Playbook
Before we at Qntra can be sorry for your loss, someone else has to bake your loss first.When a "business" decides to live at the intersection of Bitcoin money and fiat currencies your loss tends to follow the same few steps. There may be a few variation on these steps depending on whether your chosen loser is BitInstant, MtGox, Mcxnow, Homero Garza, Buterin,1 or Bitfinex.
- Make, buy, or steal a thing to be calling your business. If you are a true pioneer like Intersango you make it. You buy it if you are Mt Gox or Butterfly Labs. If you are Bitfinex you just straight up steal it.2
- You start making noise. If you are Trendon Shavers you recruit "privileged insiders" to do your selling. If you are Butterfly Labs you buy a bunch of advertising. If you are Homero Garza you buy advertising from all the media outlets and do a bit of the privileged insider thing.
- You build some history for either spectacular returns and reliability. You paper over the complaints with lies and declarations of "This is just how we do things" to justify the insanity. You lean on your loyal bought and paid for noisemakers3 to toe your party line.
- Your Loss, we are sorry.4
- When the complaints get too loud the payment processor and all manner of accessories to the scheme start getting scapegoated. Mt Gox had Dwolla. BitInstant had numerous payment processors to blame. At this point the existence of the loss is clear, but some effort is made to conceal the loss is yours.
- Tokens! A market for them! See MtGox Bitcoins on Bitcoin Builder, BFX Tokens on Bitfinex, and the entire Paycoin scheme that emerged when GAW could no longer hold up the pretense of mining.
- The pretense is suddenly lifted. Every one is sorry for your loss.
History rhymes and this is the story of your losses. Just like the various color revolutions, your loss follows a pattern. We're sorry.
The various altcoin scams invariably end up actually being fiat/Bitcoin interface scams when the scammers need to eat off of customer deposits and pimp their rides. ↩
preferably from another scam that too moribund to care at the time ↩
Roger Ver and Andreas Derpolopolis are very popular and affordable choices. ↩
The steps following this case can be skipped in the event of Trendon Shavers ↩
Eulora 0.1.2 Update Released, Record Loot Follows
Earlier this week the Ministry of Games released version 0.1.2 of their real cash economy MMORPG Eulora to the world. The new client software was made available July 31st and the servers rolled over to the new version on August 3rd. Shortly after the update was made available Daniel P. Barron (WOT:danielpbarron) found a record setting loot pop in the game world. The drop composed of boulders and assorted other loot has a base value of 0.81 Bitcoins with a potentially higher market value in the game's real money economy. Eulora's real cash economy makes it one of several avenues available for earning Bitcoin without dealing with the AML/KYC indignity of the various fiat/Bitcoin interfaces.
Bitfinex Director Claims 119,756 Bitcoins Lost
Reddit user zanetackett, Director of Community and Product Development for Bitfinex, is now claiming that losses total 119,756 BTC in the hack reported on earlier today. Attackers were apparently able to obtain the offline keys used for the multisig setup used by the exchange, though Buttfinex officials have yet to comment on the exact attack vector. The company further states that "their insurance does not cover these losses" and that "Any settlements will be at the current market prices as of 18:00 UTC" which was just at $600 per coin.
Network Difficulty Experiences Modest Drop Of ~5.4% In Second Change Post Halving
Bitcoin network difficulty fell ~5.43 percent from 213492501107.51336670 to 201893210853.05895996 in its second adjustment following the second halving of the Bitcoin block reward subsidy. The first adjustment following the halving was a very slight increase in difficulty. Paired with the bleeding and breaking occurring among fiat/Bitcoin interfaces it looks like the short term forecast is "there will be lulz."
Coinbase Engineering Director Jokes That Roger VERified Their Coins Are Safe
Coinbase Director of Engineering Charles Lee1 (WOT:coblee) today joked on Twitter that Roger Ver has VERified the Coinbase coins are safe. Roger similarly VERified that the coins at Mt Gox were safe and present in their reserves up until the moment Mt Gox died and even then for a bit of time after that. The history of Roger VERified jokes stretches back to December of 2012.
In December 2012 Roger Ver (WOT:nonperson) used his access to the administrative panel of Blockchain.info in order to compromise the supposedly secret information of a user of that service following a dispute over a payment error made by an unrelated venture of Roger Ver's (archived). The payment error was for 4.5119 Bitcoin, an amount that summed to less than 50 United States dollars at a time when buying that amount of Bitcoin was still an easy task.2
Compounding Roger Ver's mistake was his attempt at a cover up insisting that he was a sufficiently special snowflake to have all threads discussing the matter retitled, locked, and deleted (archived). At the time MPOE-PR (WOT:hanbot) wrote of his efforts:
We're not discussing the "change the thread title" part of your statement. We're discussing the "better yet, lock the thread and ask the mods to delete it" part of your statement.
It is not this thread that is causing undue alarm. The alarm is very much due, this BS of divulging customer details is widespread to the point of universality. Aurum did it, MtGox did it, the list is pretty much "everyone except MPEx". This has to cease, universally, as it has no place in BTC.
The other thing that has to cease is the unwarranted delusions of self importance. You personally are not great enough to request moderators to delete the signs of your stupidity "so as not to harm bitcoin". Should you want to request it, do it in the adequate terms, which are "I've been really stupid, please delete this before it ruins my reputation".
That aside, you personally are not big enough to harm Bitcoin, for one, and moreover this "too big to fail" mentality and the corresponding expectation of throwing everything to the wind for the sake of propping up random doods with self-awarded VIP status is completely irrational.
Since the Blockchain.info episode Roger Ver has continued his pursuit of pennies at the expense of potential fortunes. He publicly defended the insovlent Mt Gox, engaged in premature passport shennanigans that greatly restricted his ability to travel, further sold his illusion of credibility in the XTCoin and ClassicCoin pushes, and jumped on the ether huffing train shortly before their huffing bag detonated. Sorry for your Roger VERified loss.
Of "Litecoin" infamy. Litecoin was this "better Bitcoin" endorsed by Wired Magazine in August 2013 much like DogeCoin and Ethereum would later be "better Bitcoins" endorsed by mainstream media rags until they sunk. ↩
It was indeed less that four years ago that a person could acquire 5 whole Bitcoins for less than the price of a nice restaurant meal. ↩
First Difficulty Adjustment After Halving: Very Slight Increase
The Bitcoin network mining difficulty went from 213398925331.32391357 t0 213492501107.51336670 an increase of 0.04385016% in the first difficulty adjustment after the network's second halving. Prices reported by fiat/Bitcoin interfaces have been similarly stable staying with the number of United States dollars required to purchase a Bitcoin remaining in the middle 600s much of the time. HODL on!
Bitcoin Foundation Chair On Bitcoin's Second Halving
Today, Saturday, July 9th 2016, the Bitcoin block reward subsidy has been halved from 25 BTC per block, to 12.5 per block. This is the second block reward halving event to have occurred during the time of our most serene republic. The first reward halving was nearly four years ago on November 28th, 2012, which reduced the subsidy from 50 BTC to 25 BTC per block. The Bitcoin protocol schedules these reductions automatically: every 210,000 blocks.
At the time of this writing, we are currently at block 420,011. The total number of bitcoins in circulation is 15,750,050, or about 75% of the total 21 Million coins to be mined.
Today, we diligently watch the blockchain and celebrate in our chamber, #trilema. Join in, or follow along by reading the congressional transcript.
Starting with block 630,000, the next reward subsidy will become 6.25 BTC per block. See you then!
Viva Bitcoin y La Serenissima
mod6 (WOT:mod6) is a co-chair of the Bitcoin Foundation
The Bitcoin Block Reward Has Halved A Second Time
As of the recently mined block 420,000 the Bitcoin network has now halved its mining subsidy from 25 Bitcoin to 12.5 Bitcoin. The first halving took the subsidy from the 50 Bitcoin reward this new world was born with to 25 Bitcoin. As always miners are still free to take less than the maximum subsidy when mining a block though few seem to ever make this choice. This second halving also marks three quarters of all Bitcoin to ever exist having been introduced into circulation. Hodl up!