Bitcoin developments (November 2018)
November 19, 2018
Bitcoin developments (June 2020)
June 9, 2020
Dutch ABN AMRO bank is experimenting with its own Bitcoin wallet
Wallie – it is the name of ABN AMRO’s own Bitcoin wallet. A small-scale test is currently being conducted among 500 customers. If the test is a success, the app will be further developed and rolled out.
The image shows the iOS version of Wallie. In the UI we see basic wallet functions, including being able to send and receive bitcoin, and probably being able to view balances and addresses.
It is a good development that Dutch banks will now also support Bitcoin. This will ensure that Bitcoin is more positively positioned to the general public.
However, the question is whether you want to store Bitcoins with a bank. What happens if the bank goes bankrupt? Have you also lost your Bitcoins? A well-known Bitcoin expert Andreas Antonopoulos says it often enough: “Not your keys, not your Bitcoin”. See also the video below.
Growth of Bitcoin Lightning Network
Lightning Network is under heavy development. With the Lightning Network it is possible to make (small) Bitcoin payments very quickly. Despite the fact that the software is still in Beta, more and more Lightning Nodes are coming online that can process payments. The number of nodes is now at 7798 (April 4, 2019) and is growing now with more than 10% per month. The number of payment channels has grown with more than 20% in the same period.
source: https://1ml.com/statistics
New Bitcoin Lightning wallet
There is a new Bitcoin Lightning wallet with which you can do Bitcoin Lightning payments at lightning speed. The wallet with the name BlueWallet is available for both iOS and Android. Here is a screenshot of the Lightning wallet.
Pay attention. The software is still in Beta and the lightning network is still being developed. It is better not to work with large amounts (yet).
More info: https://bluewallet.io/
A Bitcoin Lightning Web Standard, Inspired By Ethereum, Is Gaining Steam
Sending bitcoin lightning payments over the web might soon get easier.
That’s because a new bitcoin standard for simplifying lightning payments, the open-source WebLN standard, is gaining traction, now being used by Lightning Joule and Bluewallet, two of the more popular lightning wallets, as well as apps like Lightning Spin, to slim down the number of steps a user needs to make a payment.
WebLN allows in browser Lightning payments and provide a better user experience – like one-tap payments.
source: https://www.coindesk.com/a-bitcoin-lightning-web-standard-inspired-by-ethereum-is-gaining-steam
Square Is Hiring New Crypto Engineers — And It Wants to Pay Them in Bitcoin
Payments startup Square plans to hire a number of engineers and a designer to work on its crypto initiatives, according to tweets from CEO Jack Dorsey.
Dorsey, who also founded and runs Twitter, announced that Square plans to hire three or four engineers and one designer “to work full-time on open source contributions to the bitcoin/crypto ecosystem.” A Square spokesman said there was no additional information to share beyond the tweets.
Perhaps more notably, these new hires have the option of being paid in bitcoin, Dorsey said.
All work will be open source, and according to Dorsey, the new hires will not be focusing on Square’s own commercial interests, but rather, “on what’s best for the crypto community.”
Dorsey has long been a proponent of bitcoin, repeatedly saying he hopes that bitcoin will become the internet’s – and the world’s – single native currency in the far future.
In a recent tweet thread, Dorsey added that improving the crypto ecosystem seems to be “the most impactful thing” Square can do for the community, going on to say:
“Square has taken a lot from the open source community to get us here. We haven’t given enough back. This is a small way to give back, and one that’s aligned with our broader interests: a more accessible global financial system for the internet.”
This will be Square’s first open source initiative independent of our business objectives. These folks will focus entirely on what’s best for the crypto community and individual economic empowerment, not on Square’s commercial interests. All resulting work will be open and free.
— jack (@jack) March 20, 2019
Square’s Cash App already supports bitcoin purchases and sales, and Dorsey previously announced that it would support the Lightning Network, a layer-2 solution aimed at facilitating small, fast transactions.
source: https://www.coindesk.com/square-hiring-crypto-engineers-bitcoin
Crypto ATM Market Set for Over 47% Annual Growth Rate
A new report has now revealed the potential for Crypto ATM machines to return a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.61% by 2024.
The potential for the ATM market to blossom to USD 183.779 million over the next five years was revealed in the same recently released report entitled ‘Crypto ATM Market – Forecasts from 2019 to 2024’.
A great deal of this expected surge in the need for crypto ATMs will come from the Asia Pacific region according to the report, due to a “rising disposable income and growing popularity of cryptocurrency”. It’s also expected that the hospitality industry will see a greater demand for crypto ATMs over the coming years.
This interest from Asia has been illustrated recently by the Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) launching a two-way cryptocurrency ATM under its sandbox program; an initiative was has been designed to allow crypto users to buy and sell crypto for fiat, hopefully, increasing the adoption of crypto usage in the country.
Back in the US New York now offers customers the opportunity to purchase Bitcoin using a regular credit card at machines supplied by ATM provider LibertyX with Chicago currently undergoing its own battle of the ATMs with many providers vying for trade.
The number of installed Bitcoin ATMs has increased by 720 percent since 2016 and is set to increase for one clear reason according to Dom Garret, director of engagement at Coinme:
“Much like the current financial system, the digital currency economy has roadblocks to those who want to take part. From those who do not have access to a bank/debit card to those operating in a cash economy, the physical machines represent an ideal on-ramp that people trust to enter the digital currency economy.”
Source: https://bitcoinnews.com/crypto-atm-market-set-for-over-47-annual-growth-rate/
Although Bitcoin Cash has more capacity, Bitcoin is much more popular for on chain transactions
Supporters of the alt-coin Bitcoin Cash always highlight the fact that their alt-coin has a bigger capacity compared to Bitcoin due to the fact that blocksize of Bitcoin Cash is much larger (32 MB) than the maximum blocksize of Bitcoin (2 MB with Segwith). To show how big the difference is they build website which shows the real-time transactions (traffic) on both blockchains. The unintentionally effect: it is now easy to see that Bitcoin is much more popular than Bitcoin Cash.
The main reason why Bitcoin want to keep the blocksize small is because a larger blocksize makes it very expensive to run a Bitcoin node, causing centralization which is bad. A decentralized network is key if you want a permissionless -and privacy secure payment system. To increase the capacity of the Bitcoin payment network other solutions like Lightning network are now being build on top of Bitcoin without sacrificing decentralization.
New Report Confirms Terrorists Prefer Cash to Crypto
A new report confirms that that terrorist activities continue to be backed by cash rather than cryptocurrencies, which don’t offer such groups the anonymity they seek.
It is a fact that has been known for some time, despite many government departments in jurisdictions around the world citing cryptocurrency links to terrorism, a connection well disproven over time. A 72-page long report published by Europol late last year confirmed conventional banking as the primary source of terrorist funding such as the recent attacks on European cities.
source: https://bitcoinnews.com/new-report-confirms-terrorists-still-prefer-cash-to-crypto/
