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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.

 

Categories
Crypto

Cryptocurrencies Market Dropped, Even Though 20% Of The Trading Companies Announced They’d Invest In Cryptos In 2018

According to a survey conducted by Thomson Reuters whose results were released yesterday, 20% of the trading companies of the world would consider investing in cryptocurrencies in 2018. However, despite the good news, the cryptocurrencies market dropped significantly today in the context of other external factors.

20% of the trading companies showed interest in investing in cryptocurrencies

This study, which has been conducted among 400 trading companies, also showed that among those companies considering cryptocurrencies as an interesting asset in 2018, about 70% are already making viable plans to invest in the next 3 to 6 months, while 22% of them are planning to start investing in 6 to 12 months.

According to some analysts, the survey’s results suggest that cryptocurrencies investments are viewed more as short-term projects rather than long-term investment.

“Cryptocurrencies still represent a small part of the trading market but this study shows that this niche segment is beginning to reach the public of the financial services industry. This is a major change from the previous year,” stated Neill Penney from the Thomson Reuters.

Cryptocurrencies market lost its bullish sentiment of the last days

Today, the cryptocurrencies market recorded massive losses despite the strong bullish sentiment which was surrounding the market until earlier.

Bitcoin (BTC) dropped by about 4% to $8,960, Ethereum (ETH) lost 11.4% hitting the $620 level, while Ripple (XRP), the 3rd coin by market cap, declined by 11.48% reaching at $0.81.

Also, the total cryptocurrencies market cap dropped from yesterday’s $426 billion to about $391 billion, at the time of this article.

After a strong upward momentum, which characterized the cryptos in the last few days, these generalized decline is due to the hack on MyEtherWallet.com, which is one of the most popular and used online cryptocurrencies wallets.

Although the total amount which was stolen is of only $136,000 in ETH, so nothing huge, the simple idea that, once again, a crypto-related digital asset has been hacked was enough for investors to keep themselves away from the market.

Nonetheless, the cryptocurrencies market will recover, for sure, and, since there is good news surrounding it such as the announcement that 20% of the trading companies are planning on investing in cryptos, the recovery might come sooner than expected.

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Crypto Finance News

The Connection Between Online Gambling, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies

From what we have already seen for some time, it looks like crypto coins and blockchain technology can improve a number of aspects of our daily lives but it seems like the one of the best areas where it can be used is online gambling.

What is a blockchain?

For those that do not know, a blockchain is a list of records that is made to be secure through cryptography and some of the best uses of this technology lie in the gambling sphere. When applied to online gaming, it greatly increases the speed of transactions, including those of withdrawals, as some of you may know that for an online transaction to be finalized it may take between 3 and 5 business days.

Blockchain perks

It is well known that in order for you to be able to play in an online gambling event you will need a traditional bank account in order to get your bets and your withdrawals, if you are lucky. However, when one uses a blockchain then he or she is going to be able to play in such an event just by having a computer and an internet connection, making the process easier.

How to adopt this process

So far the number of platform that use this blockchain system are few and far in between but it looks like more and more are working to incorporate it onto their online gambling platform which means that there is hope for the future. Were we to name a couple of platform that already have this feature, we could gladly say that Lottery.com and Greentube have both made this step. However, the problem with security levels still stands since the need to stop young gamblers and problem gamblers from playing still stand. That will remain to be fixed in the near future.

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