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Crypto

Bitcoin (BTC) Mining – Only 4 Million BTC Left For Mining

Bitcoin (BTC), the first and the most dominant cryptocurrency in the market, recently reached a round figure, as the 17 millionth Bitcoin was mined at block 520,013. The amount is extremely significant, leaving only 4 million Bitcoin (BTC) to mine on the horizon.

Let’s remember that Bitcoin’s White Paper, authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, included a maximum of 21 million bitcoins. However, despite the apparent closeness to the figure, it is estimated that the last Bitcoin (BTC) will be mined at the height of block 6,929,999, somewhen in the year 2140, according to the nowadays technologies.

The readjustment of the mining difficulty, which occurs every 2016 blocks, and the reductions in the reward are the key to this activity

The programmed reduction of the coins is called halving and occurs every 210,000 mined blocks (approximately every four years), halving the reward.

The first reduction occurred in November 2012 and the split reward was from 50 to 25 BTC. The second, occurring in July 2016, let miners earn only 12.5 BTC per a single mined block.

When reset to 0, miners will only receive rewards for commissions paid for transactions made by users.

Bitcoin (BTC) is a deflationary cryptocurrency

The fact that there are only 21 million BTC is important, as this limit prevents inflation. The amount of coins produced through mining is reduced in a programmed manner, which helps to make this cryptocurrency deflationary.

With increasing difficulty, Bitcoin (BTC) mining is demanding for more and more high-end equipment with increased computing capacity.

In fact, BTC can currently be mined only with ASIC chips specialized in the SHA-256 algorithm. The Chinese company Bitmain is the largest producer of this type of hardware and its most powerful equipment, so far, is the Antminer S9.

It is estimated that the concentration of ASIC miners in a blockchain threatens the decentralization of the blockchain, especially if they belong to the same producer, mainly due to the powerful computing capacity of this equipment.

Other cryptocurrencies, such as Etherum (ETH) or Ripple (XPR), on the other hand, do not have a clear production limit, so they have important inflation rates. However, at least the Ethereum community and its own founder, Vitalik Buterin, have begun to examine this aspect and to assess the advisability of setting a maximum.

In short, Bitcoin (BTC) mining has reached to only 4 million BTC left, thus, the Bitcoin (BTC) is becoming rarer. Thus, Bitcoin (BTC) might go up.

 

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News Tech

Candy Crush Saga Latest Version Download Available on Windows 10

It looks like Windows 10 users are plagued with the never ending curse of the Candy Crush Saga being an ever-present feature on their computers. How can that happen? Well, in some cases users even complained that Windows 10 installed Candy Crush without their consent on their computers which is not that much odd as it is completely annoying.

Doomed by the April Patch

It looks like the Patch that was released this Tuesday pre-installed the game on Windows 10 users’ computers. They complained that people that never decided to install the game or that never had it pre-installed on their computers suddenly saw that the Candy Crush Saga was installed onto their computers right after they decided to install the issued monthly patch.

People are so over suddenly coming across with this game installed on their computers when they did not want it in the first place that there is now even a Reddit thread that deals specifically with how one can uninstall Candy Crush for their computers.

Since we identified the issue, it is now time that we try and take a look at which exact patch is responsible for this process. Now, users on Reddit managed to pin point the exact patches that raised the crushing game from the dead, the KB4093112 and the KB4093119. These two are the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and the Anniversary Update.

Now we finally have our culprits. But can one really completely get rid of Candy Crush from their computers? The answer is no. There are a number of workaround that one can find on the web but they are not guaranteed to work for everyone so, if you are in this situation yourself, your only hope is to uninstall the game and pray that the May update will not bring it back.

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News Tech

iPhone 11 and Samsung’s Competition to Reach New Levels in 2018

With the next iPhone phone to be released this year, people are already trying to gather as much information as they can about this phone. From what The Wall Street Journal has found, it looks like iPhone 11 is going to come with a Samsung screen. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg compared to all the rumors that we have heard and all the information that we have gathered.

The latest leaks

From what we have heard, back in 2017 Apple decided to invest almost 3 billion dollars into an LG display screen just so that it can stop relying so much on its biggest competitor on the market, Samsung, However, things do not seem to be working as well as they thought. The main issue is not yet known but from what has been seen, LG’s production of OLED screens has reached a turning point and it looks like they will not be able to meet the demand for the iPhone X2.

If that amount of pressure was not enough, Apple is meant to release two version of the iPhone X this year, the difference being that one has 5.8-inch display whereas the other has a 6.5-inch display screen. So since LG is probably not going to meet their quota, Apple will inevitably have to source their OLED panels from Samsung. Yes, that does sound unusual and that is unusual., big competitors almost never buy pieces from one another.

If Samsung wanted to hurt Apple’s profits, it could raise the cost for these screens which would inevitably make Apple raise the price for their phone, making Samsung’s phones the more cost-friendly option. So far we do not how this situation is going to unfold but what we do not is that whatever happens, Apple must be fast on its feet in order to maintain its position.

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News Tech

iPhone X2 to ditch 3D Touch and Comes with Major Update

We do not know a lot of information concerning the release of iPhone X2 but the rumors that are starting to go around paint a pretty picture of the era of tech that Apple is going to incorporate into their phones. As it goes with any rumors that start to spread around, their credibility tends to be questioned depending on the sourced. However, until we hear Apple say something official we can only sit and wait to find out what is about to come.

The major update

Cost constraints are the number one reason that the rumor offers for Apple’s possible decision to scrap the 3D Touch technology on their new, top of the line, 6.1in phone. This information came from Ming-Chi Kuo, a KGI Securities analyst.

What would this be replaced with?

Well, 3D Touch is supposedly going to be replaced with a Cover Glass Sensor (CGS) technology. By using this, the touch control module is going to be incorporated into the actual glass whereas before it was behind the glass. Why is this better? Well, for starters it would make the phone lighter and the display would be better equipped to resist against shocks.

Apple is rumored to do more than what we have just told you. They want to add a touch film sensor to the glass. We do not know yet what this sensor will do but what we do know is that this would make the construction of the panel slightly more expensive, going from 26 dollars per panel whereas before it was 23 dollars per panel.

In order to offset this cost, the 3D Touch is going to be removed. It looks like all further iPhones will not have 3D Touch since Apple is going into a whole new direction when it comes to the functionality of their phones.

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Crypto News

Ripple (XRP) Awaits 5 New Partnerships – Ripple Is Consolidating Its Position In Asia And The EU

In accordance with the most recent press releases, Ripple (XRP) is earning more acceptance in Asia and within the EU as a pile of news talk about 5 financial companies which will deal with Ripple, accepting the use of the crypto’s xVia API to build a well-established and secure environment for cross-border transaction via the RippleNet.

FairFX, RationalFX, Exchange4Free, UniPAY, and MoneyMatch are called as the 5 companies which will sign up for Ripple (XRP) payments platforms.

These companies will test RippleNet and its xVia API during the next days, aiming to provide cheaper and instantaneous cross-border transactions for their clients.

The team behind Ripple (XRP) is continuously developing its payments platform

While Ripple (XRP) is earning more and more acceptance, worldwide, the team behind it makes the financial sector strive for Ripple’s platforms even more, as it is bringing new updates and innovations, day after day.

All of these customers run into the same problem: building bespoke connections to banks and networks all over the world. It’s expensive and time-consuming. xVia enables them to grow their overall market share by reaching new customers in new markets, easier than ever before

Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s Senior VP for the product

The future is bright for Ripple (XRP)

At the moment of this article, XRP is trading at $0.82, recording a slight 0.26% increase in the last 24 hours.

However, besides these 5 companies, which are new to Ripple and its platforms, the Canada-based Zip Remit and the Brazil-based Beetech, also payments processors, announced their plans to adopt Ripple (XRP) xVia API to use the RippleNet for cheaper and faster transactions.

Ripple (XRP) is gaining more and more and dealing with more financial institutions, week after week, which makes us believe the statement made by Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, that Ripple will be the partner of more than 50% of the world’s banks, in the next five years.

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