Litecoin emerges as low-price challenger

Make way, bitcoin: A competing digital currency is angling for the spotlight. Merchants and investors are taking notice of litecoin, pitched by its developers as cheaper to generate, more plentiful and easier to use for small transactions than bitcoin.

While prices for both have slid since a surge late last year, litecoin’s remains about 490 percent higher than six months ago, compared with about 140 percent for bitcoin. Daily litecoin transactions also have climbed faster.

The total value of litecoins available for use ranks second only to bitcoin’s, according to CoinMarketCap, a website tracking more than 200 digital currencies. That status has helped make litecoin an obvious alternative for investors and enthusiasts seeking new opportunities to profit from virtual money. “Litecoin right now is where bitcoin was the same time last year,” Michael Curry, co-founder of Canadian digital-currency exchange Vault of Satoshi, said in an interview. “As people are becoming more familiar with bitcoin, they are starting to see there are other coins out there.”

Bitcoins jumped from about $13 at the start of last year to more than $1,200 in December, then slid to about $490 late last week, according to CoinDesk, which tracks prices across key exchanges. Litecoins, which surpassed $48 in November, was trading for about $12 last week, according to data from exchange BTC-e. The average number of daily transactions in litecoins this month is 155 percent greater than October’s level, according to CoinDesk data. That compares with a 19 percent increase for bitcoins. Daily transactions in bitcoins this month still outnumber those in litecoins almost sevenfold, the data show.

Technology enthusiasts and venture capitalists are pitching digital currencies as fast and cheap alternatives to traditional financial systems, in which middlemen such as networks, merchant acquirers and banks take a cut. Backers also argue that instruments such as bitcoin may be of use to people and businesses in countries with unstable currencies. Litecoins are drawing notice in part because they can be mined more cheaply than bitcoins. The process uses computers to solve software problems and unlock new digital coins. While bitcoin speculators compete with increasingly expensive machines, litecoins were designed to be efficiently mined with consumer-grade hardware, even if some miners prefer powerful processors. Sam Cole, co-founder of KnCMiner, one of the biggest mining companies, said equipment used for mining litecoins and similarly designed alternative currencies now accounts for 60 percent of sales.

source: http://litecoinblog.org/litecoin-emerges-low-price-challenger/

Litecoin emerges as low-price challenger

US Treasury FinCEN Ruling Clarifies Money Transmission

New US Treasury FinCEN Ruling Clarifies Money Transmission Status Of Renting Bitcoin Miners And Hashing Power

Washington D.C., 4/29/14, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the enforcement arm of the United States Treasury Department, has issued its most recent ruling related to Bitcoin. A concerned American miner sent a letter to FinCEN on 2/26/14 asking whether or not the rental of computer systems for mining virtual currency would make his company an “administrator” of virtual currency or a money transmitter under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The FinCEN ruling states that selling hashing power in timed contracts, which has become increasingly popular a la CEX.io, does not a money transmitter make. That is, as long as all virtual currency mined by the third party remains the third party’s property.

CCN

FinCEN, for the purpose of guidances related to virtual currencies, forms three distinct categories to help identify who is and who isn’t a money transmitter.

An “exchanger” is a person engaged as a business in the exchange of virtual currency for real currency, funds, or other virtual currency. An “administrator” is a person engaged as a business in issuing (putting into circulation) a virtual currency, and who has the authority to redeem (to withdraw from circulation) such virtual currency. A “user” is a person that obtains virtual currency to purchase goods or services on the user’s own behalf.

FinCEN’s rulings were criticized for being too ambiguous by the Bitcoin community over the last year. Since the first March 2013 guidance, to the January 2014 guidance, FinCEN has always chosen its wording intentionally. That is because FinCEN guidance was formed around centralized virtual currencies first, and applied to decentralized virtual currencies as an afterthought. Even as recently as 2013, Bitcoin was not at all on the US government’s immediate radar. Centralized virtual currencies, such as Liberty Reserve, have very clear administrators; on the other hand, Bitcoin does not have an administrator. Bitcoin exchanges and services do have administrators that would be classified as “exchangers,” though, that the book can still be thrown at.

Back in January, FinCEN clarified that “users” of virtual currencies are not money transmitters. Furthermore they explicitly stated:

How a user obtains a virtual currency may be described using any number of other terms, such as “earning,” “harvesting,” “mining,” “creating,” “auto-generating,” “manufacturing,” or “purchasing,” depending on the details of the specific virtual currency model involved. The label applied to a particular process of obtaining a virtual currency is not material to the legal characterization under the BSA of the process or of the person engaging in the process to send that virtual currency or its equivalent value to any other person or place. What is material to the conclusion that a person is not an MSB is not the mechanism by which a person obtains the convertible virtual currency, but what the person uses the convertible virtual currency for, and for whose benefit.

FinCEN also reminded Bitcoiners that:

The regulations specifically exempt from money transmitter status a person that only provides the delivery, communication, or network data access services used by a money transmitter to supply money transmission services.

This means that multi-signature transaction based escrow services, like CoSign Coin or Bitrated, are not money transmitters. It is refreshing to see the United States government respond to personal inquiries from the public in a way that is mutually beneficial for the regulators and the regulated. Though it has been over a year since FinCEN’s first mention of Bitcoin and virtual currencies, the attention is growing from all corners of US government. Concerned Bitcoiners and regulators alike have since turned their attention towards changing the IRS Virtual Currency Guidance which treats Bitcoin as property, not money.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/new-us-treasury-fincen-ruling-clarifies-money-transmission-status-renting-bitcoin-miners-hashing-power/2014/04/29

US Treasury FinCEN Ruling Clarifies Money Transmission

The Love Of Money - part 3

Back From The Brink

The series on the global crash examines the month that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, as the world stared into the abyss of total financial collapse. The final part tells the extraordinary story of how politicians reacted, and asks what has been learnt from the entire calamity and could it happen again?

The Love Of Money - part 3

The Love Of Money - part 2

The Age of Risk

The second film in the BBC series, THE LOVE OF MONEY, examines the boom years before the global financial crash of 2008.

The Love Of Money - part 2

The Love Of Money - part 1

The Bank That Bust The World

Series offering a definitive account of the greatest financial crisis for eighty years. In September 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers tipped the world into recession. National leaders, finance ministers and CEOs describe the tense negotiations as the investment institution headed towards bankruptcy. Gordon Brown, Tim Geithner and Alistair Darling reveal the dilemmas they faced and the decisions they took. One year on, the programme explains why the collapse of one bank had such disastrous consequences for the world’s economy.

The Love Of Money - part 1

The Secret Life of a Superpower - part 2

BBC – WikiLeaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower (Ep. 2)

In the second of two programmes about American diplomacy and the leaked US embassy cables, Richard Bilton examines what the cables reveal about how America handles its enemies and rivals.

The Secret Life of a Superpower - part 2

The Secret Life of a Superpower - part 1

BBC – WikiLeaks: The Secret Life of a Superpower (Ep. 1)

Richard Bilton uncovers a struggle at the heart of US diplomacy between the ideals of freedom and spreading democracy, and the ruthless demands of American security and narrow self-interest. He examines what the WikiLeaks cables reveal about America’s conflicted dealings with Egypt’s deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, and shows how US diplomats in Cairo missed warning signs that revolution in Egypt was coming. And he details the moral tension in US diplomacy brought about by America’s controversial War on Terror. Using the cables, Richard uncovers the moral compromises made by America’s diplomats over the repatriation of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, and he shows the secret US efforts to block investigations into alleged CIA rendition and abuse.

The Secret Life of a Superpower - part 1

1929 The Great Depression Part 7

Arsenal of democracy.

1929 The Great Depression Part 7

1929 The Great Depression Part 6

To be somebody.

1929 The Great Depression Part 6

1929 The Great Depression Part 5

Mean things happening.

1929 The Great Depression Part 5

1929 The Great Depression Part 4

We have a plan.

1929 The Great Depression Part 4

1929 The Great Depression Part 3

New Deal/New York.

1929 The Great Depression Part 3

1929 The Great Depression Part 2

The Road to rock bottom.

1929 The Great Depression Part 2

1929 The Great Depression Part 1

1929 The Great Depression Part 1

1929 The Great Depression Part 1

1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash

This particular part about Wall Street crash of 1929 is from episode 5 of the series with title: Cosmopolis.

1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash

The Crooked E - The Unshredded Truth About Enron

The Crooked E – The Unshredded Truth About Enron (2003)

The Crooked E - The Unshredded Truth About Enron

Other People's Money - 1991

Opening scene is best “Devito performance” ever.

Other People's Money - 1991

Limit Up - Director's Cut

Limit Up Richard Martini Director’s Cut

Limit Up - Director's Cut

Edward Snowden, A Truth Unveiled

Edward Snowden, A Truth Unveiled (Documentary)

Edward Snowden, A Truth Unveiled

SaveGOX

Mark Karpales CEO of Mt Gox has given up on the idea of rehabilitating the bitcoin exchange in favor of liquidating its assets. He has relinquished control to the Tokyo District Court, which will decide the fate of MtGox in the coming weeks.

We need your help to stop a liquidation, which would be good neither for MtGox creditors nor Bitcoin’s reputation with the general public and regulators!

If you are a MtGox creditor, please click here to support our plan to rehabilitate the exchange, conduct an audit to determine the true status of each customer’s balance, distribute the coin on a pro rata basis to the creditors, and help you recoup the remainder of your losses.

Liquidation is a last resort when all other avenues fail, including rehabilitation. No attempt has yet been made to save MtGox. There has been no audit and until recently we were not afforded any opportunity to make our case to the Tokyo District Court.

MtGox’s 127,000 customers across the globe would be best served by rehabilitation of the exchange.

As recently reported by the Wall Street Journal, Mark Karpales CEO of Mt Gox had been working on such a plan with Sunlot Holdings Ltd., a new company formed by our group of seasoned industry professionals who include digital entrepreneurs Brock Pierce and Jonathan Yantis, venture capitalists William Quigley and Matthew Roszak, and Wall Street veteran John Betts.

Our goal? To provide restitution to customers and restore faith in the digital currency.

If the Bitcoin community can prove to be self healing without government bailouts, the entire ecosystem will benefit, including our portfolio of bitcoin investments.

We believe Mark Karpeles has changed course in an effort to avoid personal liability, but in doing so has sacrificed your interests.

What impact would a liquidation have?

• Millions of dollars worth of lost bitcoins would probably never be found.


• A dangerous precedent would be set for the community sending a message that these enterprises are either too difficult to untangle or not important enough to save.


• MtGox’s creditors would likely receive a meager percentage of their holdings because most of the assets would go to paying bankruptcy lawyers and the like.


• Repayment could take years: Creditors of Japanese companies that go through a bankruptcy process recoup an average of only 3% of their assets after enduring a process that takes an average of 10 years.


• Any appreciation in the value of bitcoins would be lost because of conversion of MtGox’s 200,000 recovered bitcoins to fiat currency as part of the distribution of assets.

Under our proposal, MtGox’s remaining assets would be distributed to customers immediately. Creditors would be made whole over time by sharing revenue generated from business operations and from other recovery programs, such as participating in the upside if they continue doing business with the rebuilt exchange.

We are prepared to invest heavily in this business once we have conducted a full accounting of MtGox’s assets and legal liabilities. When MtGox was hacked, customer balances potentially were altered, resulting in the deficits that forced the exchange to shut down. Until a qualified audit has been undertaken by a suitable internationally recognized auditor, the size of those liabilities will remain unknown.

Our group would like to begin this due diligence immediately. Only then will we know the extent of the risks and the capital required to rebuild the business.

Once the valuation is completed, our goals are to:

1. Remove the information vacuum by disclosing in a timely fashion what happened to the missing bitcoins, the true status of MtGox assets and by providing creditors with audited statements of their balances.


2. Relaunch MtGox with a rebuilt and secure platform that will incorporate security, compliance, treasury and risk functions not previously in place.


3. Administer the recovery fund to repay customers who lost money, with ongoing monitoring by a public auditor.

This process will take time and patience. We need to work with the courts, and within the framework of the civil rehabilitation procedure, which can restrict what we communicate and when.

Understanding your justified frustration over the failure of MtGox, we launched this site to begin an ongoing dialogue with MtGox customers and the Bitcoin community at large. We want your feedback and support as we work through the near-term challenges of our proposed buyout and the long process of rebuilding MtGox.

The survival of MtGox can send a powerful message to the broader public and regulators. Stay tuned to this site for regular updates and thank you for supporting our efforts to rehabilitate rather than liquidate MtGox.

source: http://www.savegox.com/

SaveGOX

Bitcoin traders settle class actions over failed Mt Gox

(Reuters) – U.S. and Canadian customers of failed Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt.

Gox have agreed to settle their proposed class action lawsuits that alleged the company defrauded them of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The class action plaintiffs agreed to support a plan by Sunlot Holdings to buy the shuttered exchange and accept their share of bitcoins still held by Mt. Gox, according to a statement and court filings.

Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan and the United States earlier this year after saying it lost some 850,000 bitcoins – worth more than $400 million – in a hacking attack. It subsequently said it found 200,000 bitcoins.

“BEST OPTION”

Once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox is slated to be liquidated after the Tokyo District Court granted the company’s request to abandon plans to revive its business.In return for settling separate class actions, the U.S. and Canadian customers will share in a 16.5 percent stake after Mt. Gox is sold to Sunlot, a firm backed by child actor-turned entrepreneur Brock Pierce and venture capitalist William Quigley.In addition, the customers will split the 200,000 bitcoins that Mt. Gox said it found after seeking bankruptcy protection, and will also split up to $20 million in fiat currency held by the administrator for Mt. Gox.

“This is the customers’ best option and the only chance they have for full restitution,” said a statement from Jay Edelson of the Edelson law firm, the lead attorney in the U.S. case.Sunlot has proposed buying Mt. Gox for one bitcoin, or less than $500, according to the Wall Street Journal. A sale to Sunlot must be approved by the Tokyo court.The court-appointed administrator for Mt. Gox, attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, a national holiday in Japan.The settlement releases Mt. Gox’s founder, Jed McCaleb, and Gonzague Gay-Bouchery, once the exchange’s chief marketing officer. The pair committed to help pursue the class action against the remaining defendants: Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, parent company Tibanne, the company’s banking partner Mizuho Bank Ltd and others.The settlement needs to be approved by the Canadian and U.S. courts overseeing the class actions cases.

The U.S. class action is Gregory Greene et al v Mt. Gox Inc et al; United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No. 14-01437

The Canadian class action is David Joyce et al v Mt. Gox Inc et al, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, CV-14-500253-00CP

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Nathan Layne in Tokyo; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/29/us-bitcoin-mtgox-settlement-idUSBREA3S02W20140429

Bitcoin traders settle class actions over failed Mt Gox

Feathercoin Weekly Update #24

Feathercoin Key Stats 336 days since genesis block creation

Approx. 36,700,000 of Feathercoins created

Approx. 16.36 days behind target generation rate

Today we have special newsletter which for the first time features a piece written by a new team member talking about why he overcame his self doubt and committed to his passion.

Before I do I would like to situate it in context with a point that Adam B Levine made in his interview with Dogecoin tipbot founder Josh Mohland recently:

Adam:

The hope going forward then is that [Dogecoin] isn’t just a new currency thing because ultimately Doge is what, a little over two months old?… Doge blew up early but there are a lot of coins that really focus on the community and focus on ‘oh it’s such a great place to be’ and they give out lots of coins and everyone’s very generous at the beginning because you’re still trying to vest stakeholders… is there a certain point where you think that this dynamic doesn’t really grow anymore? Or do you think that the specific fundamentals of Doge lend it to a longer tail for this?

Josh:

You know I think it’s really too early to tell. Especially with the first block halving which is happening roughly around Friday of this week. I think after we see the first halving take affect there’s going to be there’s going to be kind of the, we’re going to see what happens to the network, see what happens to the hash rate, if it goes down, if it goes up. See what happens to the price. For a coin that’s two months old that has this amount of growth it’s too early to tell really.

Like in business with Cryptocurrencies failure is the norm. Not just with the adoption curve but with the blockchain itself. Only one miner can receive the reward per block. Having the courage to commit knowing that the odds are stacked against you takes courage and commitment to an identity you want to make for yourself. It’s about owning your decisions and every action you take and caring more than everyone else.

The market is there to test your resilience, it’s there to make you prove yourself. Being committed to the right values and helping relate your work the needs of others first is vital to success.

Feathercoin has some of the nicest people in the space, people who are here for all the right reasons not to score cheap PR points with faux gratitude so they can win over the masses, now it’s time to let them do the talking…

Getting your hands dirty

by @MyWyrm

I’ve recently joined the team and usually my first ‘default’ or ‘stock’ thought in these sorts of situations is one of extreme doubt in my own abilities. It is rarely a doubt shared by the people that know me best, it’s instead a less than useful self doubt. I’ve always attributed it to fear, a most illogical and very human of fears, it is a fear of starting something, giving it my all and it not being good enough. The active avoidance of difficulty for fear of failure is a common and ironic failing and one which I’d encourage everyone to actively beat off with a large and very positive stick.

The best stick is a project which you are passionate about. Feathercoin is my large stick and beating it back is honestly satisfying and enriching. Uncomfortable situations like writing this article? WHACK! Take that doubt.

The way I see it, communities are like floors held up by pillars, the strength isn’t in a single person it’s in the combined effort. If you have read Ruthie’s post asking for members to come forward and help with the team and talked yourself out of it, please reconsider, please get involved and please give it a go.

For anyone else, if you’ve considered setting up Crypto meetings in your area, outreaching to your local businesses or setting up a website, blog or business. It’s there for the taking.

Please check out Bre Pettis’s excellent ‘Cult of Done Manifesto‘, it’s a fantastic motivational read.

CoinsManager

by @Adrien

CoinsManager is a free open source, multi-address, multi-currency Portfolio. You only need to add your public addresses to the application, and it will find for you the associated coin, the coin balance, and the total value in your favourite fiat currency. We only plan on adding a lot more features after the MVP, especially through gamification elements (example a game to learn more about crypto currencies?)

Feathercoin has been implemented a few days ago, so we’re hoping to get some love from the Feathercoin community Contributions and donations would be very much appreciated. You can read a lot more to understand the project at our press releases, and directly test the application at alpha.coinsmanager.com.

Thank you for your interest, and if you have any question, please ask me, and I’ll answer as soon as possible.

Charity Fundraiser

by @Uncle Muddy

So far we have raised a massive 4,502 FTC for Prostate Cancer UK and continue to push forwards to the 6,000 FTC goal. The Lottery will be running for a further 2 weeks before we park it and press on with the final push towards the end of April and the final presentation at the 1 year Birthday Bash where we hope to have a representative of PCUK to receive the final amount. @Ruthie has kindly sponsored the next two weeks of lottery to give you even better odds of winning! But you’ve got to be in it to win it.

The Rules All stakes need to be received by 17:00 UK time on a Saturday Night, the reported confirmed transaction time on the wallet will be used to monitor this

Max 5 entries per person

www.random.org will be used to select the winning numbers

20% of all stakes will go to the charity fund, the rest will be awarded as 1st Prize

The Prize Fund – Saturday 22nd March 2014 1st Prize will be 80% of all stakes received

2nd 20FTC

3rd 10FTC

4th 5FTC

5th 5FTC

How to Join In If you have an address from the raffle you can use that to send in your stake, if you don’t or you need it again drop me a PM and I’ll send you one over. I will post up a list of names for the lottery draw by 18:30 on the Saturday night in the post just below this one. I will video the draw taking place around 19:00 and the winners will be paid out shortly afterwards.

Other ways to donate to the cause You could always just donate by sending coins to the charity pot using the address 6eshhwBr7W8ynbFobDyoMD5zPK9F5E5ghP (coins sent here will not be included in the lottery!)or you could donate some hashing power to the community payback P2Pool node. Keep your eyes peeled on the forum, for the next big event due to be announced soon, once we have finalised the details. Thanks for your support once again, and massive thanks to Ruthie for sponsoring the lottery!

Feathercoin meet up Oxford.

by @Ruthie

We’re holding the next Feathecoin meet up on Saturday March 29th at The Oxford Blue, 32 Marston Street, Oxford from 3pm onwards. Would love to meet new comers so all are welcome. If anyone would like to set a meet up in the their local area I encourage you to do so, if you meet up on the same day we can link up online.

With our one year anniversary coming up could I also draw your attention to the One Year Birthday Meetup thread, feel free to post with your ideas.

by @ChrisJ

This project of ours is about debt extinguishment, about $16 trillion or so globally. Crypto is not free money, it’s money backed by energy, commitment from caring individuals and a global self stabilising consensus. The first of its kind in human history I might add. Being part of one of the first ever global currencies gives you the chance to tell others how they can be a part of something bigger than themselves and maybe, just maybe we can stop talking about the price and start talking about what really matters.

source: https://www.feathercoin.com/feathercoin-official-weekly-update-23-2/

Feathercoin Weekly Update #24

Feathercoin 0.8.6.2 Released - Hard fork on block 204,639

Feathercoin 0.8.6.2 is now released and is available to download from the front page of this website.

The changes are already live on GitHub in the master-0.8 default repository. This update is mandatory and involves a hard fork on block 204,639 which will happen roughly at 12:00GMT on the 24th April. The new release uses the latest version of OpenSSL so has the fix against the Heartbleed vulnerability. This vulnerability will only affect those who use the rpcssl command line option. It also affects the request payment feature in the Bitcoin 0.9 Qt client but this feature is currently disabled in Feathercoin.

The aim of the new version is to limit the effect of multipools, they are currently mining Feathercoin in such a way that leaves no room at all for people who want to solely mine us. Our last effort to fix this issue worked for a while but the multipools figured out a way to use the last change against us and manage to mine us without moving the difficulty as much as they should but leave the difficulty higher overall. Considering this Wrapper and Wellenreiter have put months into analyzing our current difficulty and multipools including how they mine other coins, not just us.

Wrapper and Wellenreiter have made simulations to see the effect of multipools on us and can see how bad their impact on us is.They have also been able to use these simulations to work out the best possible defense against these pools. After months of analysis the best possible solution was chosen and we have spent the last month running this on the testnet in various forms to gather as much data as possible. The testnet showed that the changes performed exactly as the simulations predicted and that the difficulty closely follows the network hashrate. This is a sign of quality in the simulations that were created, we have powerful tools for developing Feathercoin.

After block 204,639 the following changes will come into effect.

Block time reduced to 1 minute. We handle more transactions and reduce the window for double spend.

Block reward is reduced to 80 coins a block to maintain the same inflation model. 80 coins * 2.5 minutes = 200 coins

Retarget every block compared to every 126 block currently

Use combined average from 15, 120 and 480 block averages with .25 damping

The new Mac client has been built with QR code support.

EDIT: This release was 0.8.6.1 and as now been updated to 0.8.6.2 which provides a fix for the full chain sync issue reported by several users.

source: https://forum.feathercoin.com/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F6937-feathercoin-0862-released-hard-fork-on-block-204639%2F

Feathercoin 0.8.6.2 Released - Hard fork on block 204,639

Crypto Congress and a Birthday for Feathercoin

Another week in the unpredictable world of alternative digital currencies has yielded some interesting developments. Read on for just a taste of the many things going on in the altcoin world today!

Happy birthday, feathercoin!

Feathercoin turned one year old this past week. The scrypt-based proof-of-work coin debuted on 16th April 2013, and has long possessed a passionate and involved community.

In a message posted on the official feathercoin forum, lead developer Bushtar thanked the community for its dedication and meditated on some of the events of the past year. At the same time, he acknowledged some of the challenges lying ahead for feathercoin.

CoinDesk has learned that an anniversary party will be held at The Oxford Blue in the UK on Saturday, 26th April.

The community has also raised 6,000 FTC, or about $900, to be donated to Prostate Cancer UK.

Mastercoin team looks to expand

The mastercoin development team announced on its official blog that it is seeking a new hiring manager.

Mastercoin’s team also posted other open positions, including product manager and web team lead, at the beginning of April.

In the blog post, team member Ripper234 laid out the qualifications perspective candidates need to present. The position is not full-time, but any applicants should have experience working as a tech hiring manager, possess developed communication skills and be “superficially familiar with Bitcoin”.

source: http://www.coindesk.com/things-alt-crypto-congress-birthday-feathercoin/

Crypto Congress and a Birthday for Feathercoin

Dogecoin support NASCAR racer at Talladega

(CNN) — What do you get when you combine a cryptocurrency, 752 left turns and a 16-year-old Reddit user?

For NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Josh Wise, it all adds up to sponsorship for one of the most exciting races of the year and a new bunch of tech-savvy fans.

The story begins with a teenage racing fan from Niles, Illinois. Reddit user Denis Pavel was watching some of the early races in the 2014 NASCAR season and noticed a black Ford Fusion with no sponsorship and a driver “racing the wheels off the car.”

Pavel was also a member of the subreddit /r/NASCAR and had seen the online community rally behind other drivers and the various fundraising and other campaigns they endorsed.

His idea was grander.

The teenager wanted to get the No. 98 car sponsored at one of the fastest tracks on the circuit: the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. Drivers race side-by-side on the 2.66-mile track, sometimes reaching speeds of more than 200 mph.

Enter the cryptocurrency.

Introduced in late 2013 and named for a silly Internet meme, Dogecoin is digital currency like Bitcoin — basically cash for the Internet. Money can be transferred nearly anywhere in the world for less than a penny per transaction and has been used prominently for charitable and notable causes.

Related: Man selling home for $135,000 in Dogecoins

“I knew that Dogecoin had done some significant fundraisers, like sending the Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics,” Pavel said. “I was thinking what kind of response I would get if I did ask the (Reddit) community about sponsoring a Sprint Cup car. They were all with it.”

Armed with support, Pavel reached out to the owner of the No. 98 car, Phil Parsons, through Twitter. After exchanging telephone numbers, Pavel told Parsons about the plan to sponsor the car and how it was going to happen.

“I asked if he knew about Reddit or Dogecoin. He said no,” Pavel said. “He told me the pricing of a full wrap and just a logo on the quarter panel. I don’t know if he thought I was pulling his leg.”

Parsons told Pavel that a full wrap, meaning main sponsorship all over the car, would cost $50,000. Pavel felt confident the /r/NASCAR community would get there with the help of Dogecoin.

Within a week, the community raised more than $55,000, or 67 million Dogecoins, to sponsor the car and put the Dogecoin Ford Fusion in the Aaron’s 499 race in May.

Wise, who admits he had not been very active on the Internet, has been pumped up by the online support.

“The more we’ve walked through this (fundraising effort), it has really been special to us,” Wise said. “People are noticing our effort. We’re a tiny little team with 7 or 8 employees. The amount of support we’re getting from the Reddit community … we’re just trying to do the best job we can.”

For his part, Wise promoted the effort on Twitter and also did an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on /r/dogecoin. He even claimed the Reddit user name “dogedriver” to keep the momentum going.

Ben Doernberg, a board member at the Dogecoin Foundation, said that raising the money for the sponsorship was done in record time. Beyond sports ventures, Dogecoin has raised money to build clean water wells in Kenya and for a charity that trains service animals to work with children with autism and other disabilities.

“We are all about fun and goofiness,” Doernberg said. “At the same time, we want to make sure that digital currency is really giving back to the world. We do feel like this is a technology that can make the world a better place, and we want to put that into practice by doing fundraisers.”

Doernberg said the NASCAR sponsorship is one of the largest fundraisers they’ve done to date.

Since the money was raised on the Internet, it was only fair that the color scheme of the car be chosen there as well.

A poll posted on /r/dogecoin asked users to choose between gold, silver or black as the main color. Black garnered more than 57% of the vote, and the design was finalized. Reddit users also helped develop the fire suits that will be worn by the team on race day.

Wise said users asked him during his AMA what he wanted the design to look like. He told them just have fun with it.

“I wasn’t going to hold them back on anything they wanted,” he said. “It actually a little more conservative than I probably expected — something wild and off the wall, but they kept it pretty tame, actually.”

The car and suits prominently feature the Shiba Inu dog face commonly associated with the “doge” Internet meme, along with a rocket ship and the phrase “To the Moon,” commonly used for the popularity of Dogecoin.

But Wise and Parsons weren’t done with Dogecoin after just one race.

The Sprint Cup Series All-Star race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 17 pits the previous year’s race winners and two top qualifiers in a winner-take-all race.

One driver voted in by the fans gets to participate as well. Wise and Parsons said they would race the Dogecoin car if Reddit users vote Wise into the race.

The Dogecoin car is also likely to be made into a die-cast 1:24 scale car as part of a NASCAR deal with Lionel Racing Collectibles. Fans of the NASCAR ’14 video game will also get the chance to race the Dogecoin car for themselves when it is added in an upcoming DLC pack.

“As the company behind the NASCAR video games and mobile games, we love to see more technology-oriented partners getting involved in NASCAR,” said Ed Martin, executive vice president of Eutechnyx, developer of the video game. “I think it will bring NASCAR to the attention of a lot of people that haven’t been exposed before.”

For Pavel, who has loved NASCAR racing all his life, the video game might be the closest he gets to his dream.

“I want to get into NASCAR and want to head to my local tracks like Rockford Speedway. I hopefully one day want to get into a real race car,” he said.

For now, Pavel will cheer on the No. 98 Dogecar and Josh Wise at Talladega on May 4.

source: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/24/tech/web/nascar-dogecoin-talladega/

Dogecoin support NASCAR racer at Talladega

Bitcoin and Litecoin Analysis

Bitcoin price has fallen below major support at $440 and seems on its way to testing $400. Litecoin’s chart confirms that the decline has some distance to go.

Takeaway

Most market participants and analysts are expecting a reversal from current levels and an imminent flight of glory on board the Bitcoin Moon Rocket. However, I believe it is not a moon rocket at all, and that there are technical reasons that argue for continued decline. Traders and investors should take advantage of the price lows to buy Bitcoin at a discount. An interim target of $400 awaits, followed by a retracement and a subsequent target around $350. Expect increased volatility and lower lows.

Long-term Forecast

Last week CCN published an analysis report that made some medium- and long-term price predictions for BTC/USD. Here is the accompanying chart again:

BTCUSD Daily Candle Chart 2014

Long-term Price analysis show likely targets and their dates.

Confirmation

The ongoing decline confirms the long-term forecast of a Bitcoin market low in the $140-$260 price zone. It is anticipated, by the price action of previous waves down, that this final terminal decline will unfold as an ending diagonal – most likely of the expanding variety.

Although still too early to accurately define the trendlines that will delineate price action to the market low, the following 4 Hour candle chart (BTC-e) outlines a likely resistance zone that may contain price (click on the chart to enlarge).

Bitcoin Chart BTC-e H4 28 April 2014

BTC/USD decline is in its terminal phase

Fibonacci extensions of the initial A wave are used to determine major wave endings. 1.618, 2.618 and 3.618 Fibonacci extensions are projected to the downside and the consistency with which Bitcoin price targets these specific levels can be seen in the previous wave example on the left of the chart. Readers are encouraged to confirm this phenomenon in prior waves that are not shown above. Price is currently resolving issues at the 1.618 extension of the first wave of the current decline, which happens to fall exactly on an established support and resistance level.

As downside progresses it can be assumed, with some degree of certainty, that volatility will ramp up as buyers enter large positions in anticipation of a change in trend.

Litecoin

Turning to the Litecoin (LTC/USD) BTC-e chart, we see a familiar picture. Given Litecoin’s later arrival, LTC/USD is unfolding with a different wave count and at a different degree of trend than BTC/USD. Even so, some likely downside targets can be established, and we have a likely target range between $4-5.50.

Litecoin LTCUSD H4 Chart 28 April 2014

Will Litecoin follow Bitcoin to new price highs? Or will it meander eternally and EUR/USD-like, in sideways triangles for the rest of its existence? The chart seems to indicate new all time highs are possible, but in the end it will be up to the market to decide its fate.

Man Bites Dog

Having mentioned the EUR/USD, it is worth pointing out an important lesson this forex pair teaches us about the supposed forces that act upon price.

It is common for market commentators to attribute price action to news releases or external events. For example, “Bitcoin Crashes on China Ban”. However, a rational consideration of market behavior shows that it is neither the news itself nor its face-value positivity/negativity that induces a price move. Rather, it is the general market’s collective mood that uses news as a flag event to signal collective buying and selling.

So, with the EUR/USD, and its reaction to war, one can find various crashes and rallies sparked by major wars in the past 20 years. In some instances, the market buys Euros and sells Dollars in reaction to the outbreak of war, and vice versa in other circumstances – but the material fact of war remains the same.

Hence, a rational conclusion seems to be that news or fundamental facts in themselves do not have a predetermined or repeatable effect on price direction. Instead, the common factor is the buyers and sellers that comprise “the market”, who will buy or sell bitcoin based on the collective psychology that uses news as a catalyst for premeditated action rather than a determinant of direction.

In this view of market behavior, it is feasible that the next piece of “negative” news out of China or the US, for example, ignites a rally of several hundred dollars in the BTC/USD price.

Arise, Chickun!

Due to still suffering from a “fiat mentality”, market participants crave approval and decree from the same authorities which they ordinarily despise. However, readers should remember that Bitcoin, by design, does not require the approval or say-so of politicians and bankers to fulfill its destiny – in the same way the lion does not require the gazelle’s approval to hunt.

When a central bank, therefore, makes some announcement regarding cryptocurrency, it has no fundamental bearing what-so-ever (null) on the future of Bitcoin or its task of mounting the central banks. Yet, ironically, the market projects ultimate significance onto regulatory “news” according to the mindset it currently holds, en masse- sheep-like and in complete deference to its overlords.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/bitcoin-price-decline-confirms-forecast-bitcoin-litecoin-analysis/2014/04/28

Bitcoin and Litecoin Analysis

Alderney attempts set up of global bitcoin centre

Alderney, everyone’s favourite channel island, is attempting to set itself up as a global centre for bitcoin, much like the Isle of Man.

Things, however, are not going as well as the island had initially hoped. Jane Wild, writing in this morning’s Financial Times, writes that, Alderney is finding crypto harder to turn into gold than it had expected. Alderney had planned to issue physical bitcoins, onto the market, made from gold. Bitcoin can be bought, sold and traded, in a practically anonymous transaction, through online exchanges, and although libertarians love Bitcoin, governments, with a few exceptions, have not been found to be as positive. The official position within many states is that they are concerned with Bitcoin’s use in the illicit trade in drugs as well as its use in the alleged, laundering of money. The unofficial position is that states are concerned with, what they see, as a lack of control of their citizens money and their subsequent inability to tax and govern their transactions.

CCN

Alderney had been involved, in a joint venture, with the Royal Mint, on a commemorative bitcoin that was expected to launch in the summer. Alderney has now announced that The Royal Mint has suddenly pulled out of talks. Robert McDowell, the Deputy Chairman of Alderney’s Policy and Finance committee and Chair of the Finance committee, said that he was surprised and disappointed that The Royal Mint had unexpectedly pulled out just before a final proposal was expected. He went on to say that it was his belief that UK government officials had exerted pressure on the mint. When contacted, The Royal Mint declined to comment.

This is not the first setback that Alderney has encountered. Previously, their larger neighbour, Guernsey, from which it must seek regulatory approval, had informed it that it would not grant permission to set up cryptocurrencies because of the ‘reputational dangers’ involved. The setbacks Alderney has encountered have not put other islands off, however. The Isle of Man, everyone’s favourite island between Ireland and the UK, has been looking at how it can set itself up as a global cryptocurrency centre, and reap the rewards therein.

Alderney has vowed to push on with it’s investigations into having more involvement in cryptocurrencies; Alderney is already involved in the provision of services to on-line gambling and earns approximately 40 Million Pounds per annum. Alderney is currently seeking to develop greater financial independence from Guernsey, and it clearly sees cryptocurrencies as a means to achieve this. Alderney has developed an index to track cryptocurrencies and intends to create a fund that it will base in another offshore territory such as Gibraltar or Isle of Man, although Dubai is also being investigated as a possible venue, Alderney has already received investment from Dubai.

“It would be wonderful to have such an index established in Alderney, however the index could be sited in another jurisdiction that is more welcoming of financial innovation.” Said Mr. McDowall. He continued:

“Quantitative easing, the continuing destruction of savings and increased unsustainable levels of government debt require radical measures to cure the viral weakness they have brought to the world economies. Radical measures are required to address the viral illness. Private currencies, which Bitcoin are classified as in the UK, are but one contributory solution.”

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/alderney-attempts-set-global-bitcoin-centre/2014/04/27

Alderney attempts set up of global bitcoin centre

China Bitcoin BAN

The Payment and Clearing Organization of China, has been having meetings and interviews with commercial banks, third party payment processors, and Bitcoin exchanges within China.

PBOC officials made it very clear that they wished to completely cut off the funding line of Chinese RMB into Bitcoin trading platforms around the country. The renewed interest in Bitcoin by the PBOC has led to funding shuffles from every Chinese Bitcoin exchange. Cryptocurrency exchange rates across the board have suffered since the first rumors of renewed the renewed PBOC crackdown when they surfaced in March. The previous deadline for Chinese payment processors, including banks, to halt services for Chinese Bitcoin companies was supposed to be 4/15/14. However, on that date, Chinese Bitcoin exchanges announced their future plans and the exchange rate soared, much to the embarrassment of the PBOC. In recent response, the PBOC stressed that vouchers, codes, and roundabout recharge methods still counted as providing services to Bitcoin trading platforms. Now, it seems that Chinese Bitcoin exchanges will need to expedite their plans for webapps, ATMs, overseas accounts, and overseas websites.

CCN

BTC China, the first Chinese Bitcoin Exchange to adapt to the original PBOC notice in December of 2013, has been using a code recharge system for Chinese Yuan (RMB) deposits for the last several months. However, this morning they have announced an end to Chinese RMB deposits on their website, for now. For other Chinese Bitcoin exchanges, the previous source of Chinese RMB recharges/deposits, recharge codes, have since dried up. Searching on Chinese online marketplace Taobao for “bitcoin” will result in an error message as the PBOC specifically mentioned that online marketplaces providing these auctions were facilitating Bitcoin trade.

In March, Caixin reported on an internal memo sent from the PBOC to banks and third party payment processors within China titled: Notice on Further Strengthening Bitcoin Risk Prevention Measures. The Notice prompted BTC China’s competitors to emulate BTC China’s funding model. In the light of the recent strict crack down on Chinese banks providing accounts to Chinese Bitcoin exchanges, some Chinese Bitcoin exchanges are turning to more unconventional funding methods: such as ATMs. The PBOC is now trying to ensure that all Chinese banks and third party payment processors cease any and all contact with Chinese Bitcoin exchanges. It’s always worth mentioning that the Chinese government has not stated that bitcoin is banned for merchants or individuals to use.

BTC China #BitcoinAnnouncement

BTC China posted to their Weibo microblogging site early on 4/27/14, in China:

由于招商银行近日发出公告，比特币中国出于对用户资金安全及平台稳定运营的考虑，决定暂时停止招行账户的人民币充值。后续更新，敬请关注我们的官网和微博，再次感谢您对比特币中国的关心和支持 #比特币公告#

A translation is provided below:

Because of this morning’s announcement by the China Merchants Bank, BTC China, in the interest of its users and platforms security, has decided to suspend Chinese RMB recharges (deposits). For subsequent updates, please follow our official website and Weibo account, thanks again for your patronage and support of BTC China #BitcoinAnnouncement#

The Bitcoin community around the world is eager to see how Chinese Bitcoiners will respond to these most recent PBOC actions. Some onlookers have hinted that Hong Kong, or other Special Economic Zones in China, might welcome Chinese Bitcoin exchanges. Furthermore, that the Chinese government might turn a blind eye and allow them to thrive and innovate there, as has been a standard modus operandi for the last few decades for risky new industries.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/btc-china-halts-chinese-rmb-deposits-light-renewed-pboc-crackdown/2014/04/26

China Bitcoin BAN

Bitcoin Mining Malware

Computer security is becoming a staple of headlines around the world.

Snowden’s disclosures have dramatically increased the public’s awareness of such issues. The damage from such sprawling breaches as Heartbleed will likely take years to repair. The subject is naturally of particular interest to Bitcoiners, whose fortunes are only as secure as their devices.

CCN

Chicago-based hosting company, SingleHop, provide dedicated or cloud servers and managed hosting services. In 2011, they were named as America’s 25th fastest growing company.

logoSingleHop today reached out to several clients with notification that Bitcoin mining malware was discovered across a number of servers. The function of the malicious software was to redirect server cycles into Bitcoin mining. This would have led to degraded performance which likely alerted clients to the possibility of compromise. A report by MalwareBytes indicates that such mining can slow a CPU by up to 50%. According to a prior conversation with Venzen, many hosting companies disallow the installation of even legitimate Bitcoin mining software for this reason. The increased resource utilization would surely have been noticed by SingleHop system administrators sooner rather than later.

Once detected, SingleHop took prompt action to scan all their servers and clean those found to be infected.

bugA Rising Trend

In their advisory email, SingleHop describe this as a growing problem around the web, referencing similar attacks experienced by Iowa State University and Amazon Web Services.

Infosec experts at professional services firm Ernst & Young are of the opinion that Bitcoin’s dramatic price appreciation is spurring further such attack. Speaking in late 2013, EY’s assistant director of fraud investigation and dispute services, Mattew Rees, was quoted as saying:

“I would strongly expect there to be more of this kind of thing happening in the future simply because Bitcoin is so much in the news now.

Bitcoin is a very interesting technology that may well open up whole new avenues of trading, of people being able to use micro-payments. But that’s not what’s in the press at the moment, it’s that these things have rocketed in value from virtually nothing a year ago to US $1,000 a piece now. So there’s advantage being taken of that noise.”

How Servers Were Compromised

SingleHop describe immunization actions taken after affected services were cleaned as follows:

“SingleHop engineers have implemented basic security measures to prevent re-infection by the malware on your server, including resetting the server(s) root and/or administrator password In the coming days, your account manager will reach out to you with additional information that becomes available during our investigation, and to discuss additional steps that you can take to secure your servers and data.”

Speculation on my part: the above is suggestive of a Heartbleed attack in which the login details of administrators were captured and used to access servers to covertly install the malware. In other words, it’s hard to blame SingleHop for falling to an exploit which the NSA were more interested in exploiting than reporting or fixing.

Extent of the Compromise

My source for this story remarks that all SingleHop users seemed to be affected, but this has not yet been confirmed. CCN is currently awaiting further comment from SingleHop.

In a less consequential version of this Bitcoin mining malware story, it was reported nearly three weeks ago by The Register that “Dimwit hackers use security camera DVRs as SUPER-SLOW Bitcoin-mining rig[s].” This is another instance of incredibly slow hackers, or incomplete information from SingleHop. CPU cycles spent on Bitcoin mining are all but wasted given a CPU’s low hashrate when compared with an ASIC, which the majority of the network is compromised of.

These stories of CPU cycles on computers and mobile phones being used for Bitcoin mining only serve to distract the general media from actual events in the Bitcoin world. Please comment below if your SingleHop server has been reset due to this malware.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/bitcoin-mining-malware-encountered-across-several-singlehop-servers/2014/04/26

Bitcoin Mining Malware

CoinURL

Interstitial ads – paid for each impressions, can be placed on the shortened links, as well as on the websites using overlay script (user visits a web page, get redirected to the ad page, then returned back to the source).

This type of ads sometimes annoys users, but you get paid for each visitor regardless his interest in the visiting advertisers’ websites. Waiting time before redirect, unlike AdFly and other competitors, is variable.

Banner ads – paid for clicks, similar to the Google AdSense. Non-intrusive, very high quality of the traffic for advertisers, safe. Available standard 12 text and image ad formats:

728×90

468×60

336×280

300×250

250×250

234×60

200×200

180×150

160×600

125×125

120×600

120×240

Now we offer for the customers:

Keyword-based context advertising for web pages and search results;

Location, language, device and URL targeting (both preferring and blocking);

Goal tracking;

Bidding network-wide (like Anonymous Ads) and particular sites (like Operation Fabulous);

Ad editing and deletion;

Ad schedule;

Analytical tools: impression and clicks charts for different time periods, locations, languages, referrers, platforms browsers, devices;

SSL protocol;

Privacy settings, hidden stats, possibility to delete logs with sensitive info;

Filtering of the adult content by multiple categories;

Protection against fraudulent clicks, manual review every day and refund to the advertisers rejected clicks;

Fast support service for our customers.

 

Join here: https://coinurl.com/index.php?ref=c0f4de35007aadf538e009da5054a80b

 

source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102717.0

CoinURL

EarnCrypto.com

Here is a fun way for you to earn crypto currencies without having to spend any money!

Earncrypto.com allows you to take surveys, watch movies, and take quizzes to earn crypto currencies.

I’m not impressed with the bugs on the site (some of the survey links failed, for example), BUT I did earn my first Dogecoins through this service! How cool!

I gave the site a 3/5 for moms at home. This is because some of the surveys are waaaaay too long to complete if you’re also watching kiddos and because there were several annoying time wasting bugs.

Worth it if you want to try out some new currencies, though! They will pay out the Dogecoins once you reach 3,000. While those bad boys are worth a fraction of a cent, I’ll be thrilled if they reach $1 each and my 45 minutes playing on the site pays off $3k!

Referrals are people you get to signup to EarnCrypto. Any new user you get to join EarnCrypto through your referral link, you will receive 25% of the Points they earn! So if they earn 1,000 Points, you will get a free 250 Points!

How to gain referrals?

-give your referral link to friends who will create a EarnCrypto account

-put referral link in game profiles

-put referral link in your signature at forums

The more people who join EarnCrypto with your refer link, the quicker those referer points will add up. Its free points just for showing your friends the site!

Read more at http://www.earncrypto.com/earn-free-bitcoin/?r=39261

source: http://www.thebitmom.com/earn-crypto-currencies/

EarnCrypto.com

Comkort exchange

With so many new exchanges emerging lately, it is hard to find a differentiated product – the one that would really stand out. At Comkort our goal is to deliver exactly such a product!

Comkort platform was designed to include a wide range of cryptocurrencies and has just finished its Beta testing*. During this period our team was closely monitoring all operations to eliminate even the most insignificant errors. Also we fine-tuned our interface and security features and can now boast some real good quality service.

So, what is it that makes Comkort different from others out there. Here is a short-list of our most noteworthy features:

Highly user-friendly interface with multiple markets capacity

Browser notifications – now that you even switched tabs, you can still monitor your account activity

Continuous security monitoring and user balance tracking

Two factor Google authentication

Unique order tracking window – now users can see all active orders for all markets in a single click to a dropdown block

As of March 19th, 2014, 34 forks available for trade, with 6 new coins every week based on voting results

Incentive based referral and bonus system

Real-time trading

Highly responsive tech support

There are more features to be discovered on Comkort! We welcome both experienced traders and newcomers as our system is equally tailored for the needs of either. Comkort’s goal is to give more people chance to trade by offering a wide range of alt-coins. We make trading simple and intuitive and are always there

Visit comkort.com

source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=524015.0

Comkort exchange

Dogecoin Just Solved A Problem

In a message on Github this weekend, Sydney-based co-creator Jackson Palmer announced the amount of Dogecoin would not be fixed, meaning it’s possible for an infinite amount of Dogecoin to be created.

(This was first spotted by Ars Technica’s Cyrus Favriar). Every new “block” of Dogecoin that gets mined will yield 10,000 units of the currency.

“This will help maintain mining and stabilise the number of coins in circulation (considering lost wallets and various other ways coins may be destroyed) at 100 billion,” Palmer wrote.

This is close to how a normal fiat currency like the U.S. dollar works. Like the greenback, Dogecoin will now better be able to respond to increasing demand, as well as potential damages like those outlined by Palmer. It also gives incentives for miners to keep operating, thus helping keep the network more secure — as in Bitcoin, “mining” Dogecoin also serves to confirm the transactions taking place on the digital currency’s master exchange ledger.

These all happen to be problems Bitcoin currently faces. Bitcoin has a early adoption and miner-arms-race regime. Those who got in earliest, or can mine the most, enjoy lopsided control over the Bitcoin market. We’ve discussed this elsewhere. The result is that they are crossing their fingers that Bitcoin adoption will become widespread, thus helping drive up value. It’s hard to tell what’s driving what, but the price has settled at $US800 for a couple months now. That’s a lot to pay for a single Bitcoin for someone just entering the market.

Ripple’s David Schwartz wrote about this online recently:

“A fixed supply that can’t respond to demand is a bad thing. Money, like every commodity, works best when the supply can adjust efficiently to the demand. (The people who don’t like this are primarily people who want to make other people act against their own interests just so that they personally can make a large profit by not doing anything but holding money.)”

That description would apply to Bitcoin miners that are in ovedrive to acquire enough Bitcoin as possible. They are not generating any more demand — they are merely banking that demand will come in time, and thus increase the value of their holdings.

Others have tried to do this with Dogecoin. “I’m strictly in it for the money,” wrote GitHub user MadCold. “I bought in to massive amounts of DogeCoin when the price was cheap, expecting it to rise. So far it looks like the value of the currency is tanking. Nearly 10c per 1K over the past few hours. I still demand [Palmer] answer for what he’s doing to ruin the DogeCoin currency.”

Secondly, Bitcoin is already approaching the point where mega-miners will have to begin charging fees to continue mining. As we discussed above, mining helps keep the network secure, so the cost of security is going to increase. By creating a steady rate of inflation, Dogecoin can keep security cheap.

As GitHub user Chkwok writes, the new decision will allow Dogecoin to reach a much wider audience:

“The ones making the most noise in the pro-deflation camp aren’t the ones we want to serve, if we’re to become the Internet’s currency, we’ll have to reach the mainstream users which don’t care about hoarding massive amounts of Ɖ for profit, the max 5% loss of value per year caused by inflation in the worst case or broken promises on a Bitcointalk thread. They care about having a currency where micropayments are properly implemented (without the insane fees and minimums PayPal & friends want) and tipping is effortless.”

source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/dogecoin-just-solved-a-problem-bitcoin-will-face-2014-2

Dogecoin Just Solved A Problem

Quarkcoin & Zetacoin - The Future of Crytpo Currency

What really triggered this blog post was a tweet I saw by Keiser, featuring Quarkcoin (QRK) alongside Bitcoin and Litecoin as the cryptocurrenies of choice.

I first saw the word Quarkcoin when it broke into the top 10 market cap with over 300% increase in market capaitalization value overnight.

I overlooked it even after seeing it rise from 6th to 5th, until I saw what Keiser tweeted:

If Jesus were born today, the 3 wise men would bring him BTC, LTC and Quark.

— Max Keiser (@maxkeiser) November 30, 2013

If Keiser said it, it has to be worth something. With his reach and influence within the Bitcoin community, we could see a huge jump in Quark prices soon, even if it doesn’t have much value. From my research so far, I found out that Quark uses nine rounds of secure hashing from six different algorithms to make Quark transactions super secure. Many programmers have been worried about whether or not the Bitcoin protocol is hackable, but Quark has just made it even closer to impossible by using a mix of algorithms. On the other hand, what intrigues me is that 98.9% of the Quarks have already been mined (see the Reddit discussion here ), which makes me wonder how this is a good thing. If you know how this is beneficial to the community, please drop a comment down below! Greatly appreciated!

Apparently the prices surged after a video of Bill Still, a legendary Economics cult figure went viral among the Bitcoin community. What’s notable is that Bill will be appearing on a Keiser Report interview, which airs on the 19th of December, so keep your eyes peeled.

And lastly, we could see Quark on a Chinese exchange over the next few days. If this is true, you better get your Quarks as soon as you can!

During my research into Quark, I found out about Zetacoin (ZET) . The prices of Zetacoin have increased 550% against the bitcoin, with ZET/BTC prices skyrocketing from 0.0065 at the beginning of 30th November to a peak of 0.055 and is currently hovering around 0.036 at the time of posting (Source: Cryptocoincharts.com ). Looking into Zetacoin, I found that it actually has an inflationary characteristic. There are a total of 160 million Zetacoins, and upon the depletion of this initial supply, 1 million additional Zetacoins will be added to the supply every year. This is quite a different take from the limited supply of all other cryptocurrencies, and could be an interesting tweak that can potentially solve some of Bitcoin’s existing limitations.

I’m still not entirely sure about the benefit and utility of Zetacoin, but I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and bet on the hype of the Zetacoin, while I do more research over the next few days.

To buy either of these 2 cryptocurrencies, along with almost any other alt coin out there, set up an account at Cryptsy.com to get started! I only started my account today, and I’ve had a pretty decent experience so far. Still some problems with the site such as:

Deposits take way longer than they should. Bitcoin deposits take about 45mins to 2 hours.

Cancellation of open orders will result in your funds being “stuck” in limbo for up to an hour.

It took 45 mins for my account verification email to arrive.

Interface is less responsive (laggier) than I would prefer.

I think its just a problem with them being unable to handle the surge in traffic over the last 5 days, and I hope that fix it soon. But apart from these problems, looks really good, and I’m definitely using this over BTC-e from now on.

I hope this post was useful for you. These are my own views and thoughts, which like the Bitcoin market, is largely driven by speculation. Follow my recommendations at your own risk. With that said, to all of you guys holding Quarks and Zetacoins.

source: http://alunacrypto.blogspot.cz/2013/12/insider-news-and-predictions-eyes-on.html

Quarkcoin & Zetacoin - The Future of Crytpo Currency

Bitcoin Alternative Franko

Bitcoin alternative Franko Experiences another week of 500% gains in value with more and more merchants accepting franko (FRK) as a payment method.

December 4th, 2013 /MarketersMedia/ — Franko (FRK), the fair, rare and fast digital currency , has risen in value by another 500%, right after last week`s 500% increase in value. As of the time of writing, one FRK is now worth over six dollars in Bitcoin equivalent. Merchant adoption rates of Franko are also soaring, with E Pawn, a nine-store chain in Atlanta, recently announcing they are accepting payment in Franko. Merchant adoption is set to further increase as CoinPayments.net has just integrated Franko support into its popular crypto payment gateway and invoicing solutions for merchants.

Thanksgiving week saw an incredible rise in value of many digital currencies. Franko`s rise stands out after seeing five-fold gains for two weeks in a row. Franko can be traded on Cryptsy and Coins-E, and Franko trading will also be included in the soon to be launched Copia Market.

CoinPayments, the crypto payment gateway which has fueled merchant adoption of many digital currencies has just announced Franko support to its growing list of supported currencies. Online merchants wishing to accept Franko as a payment method can now easily issue invoices in Franko and accept FRK through Coinpayments` solutions. CoinPayments allows merchant invoicing as well as instant Franko payments through their merchant payment gateway solutions.

E Pawn is the largest chain of pawn shops in Atlanta; with a great selection of items for people to buy at bargain prices. In a world first it is the first bricks and mortar store on the planet to accept payment in Franko. Crypto-knight.org has also just announced it is now selling Franko for cash.

With both value and merchant adoption rates soaring (including the bricks and mortar variety) Franko is poised to be a winner in the currently exploding digital currency space. Even more importantly, behind Franko is a solid, healthy and growing ecosystem. This bodes well for the longevity and continued value of the increasingly popular digital currency.

Official Franko website: http://www.frankos.org/

Franko Payment Processor For Online Merchant Payment Gateways and Invoicing in FRK: http://coinpayments.net

source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoin-alternative-franko-frk-merchant-073201491.html

Bitcoin Alternative Franko

PBOC Is Meeting With Banks And Payment Processors

Caixin Article Claims PBOC Is Meeting With Banks And Payment Processors To Completely Cut Off Funding To Bitcoin Trading

Bitcoin prices have dropped nearly 10% across all Bitcoin exchanges, with the bulk of the action understandably located on Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges. A few hours ago, Caixin published a Chinese article claiming that the PBOC has met with commercial banks and third party payment processors, in particular those that do, or have done, business with Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges to remind them of the PBOC’s stance. This Caixin article is written by a different author than the last Caixin article that was commented on in Western media (which broke the news of the March PBOC Notice). The PBOC is cracking down on the adaptive funding methods that Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges have come up with, and is even moving to stop cash withdrawals. However, they still are not enforcing anything for individuals nor merchants.

CCN

Upon running the article through Google Translate, some Redditors discovered a line that was incorrectly translated as saying the PBOC desired to “ban all transactions.” Needless to say, again, this is simply not the case. The PBOC is, however, taking a much more hard-line approach to the pressing issue of capital flight from RMB to BTC to Satoshi knows what: They wish to “completely cut off the funding line into Bitcoin trading.” The PBOC is talking with both compliant and non-compliant banks, Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges, and third party payment processors in meetings overseen by the Payment and Clearing Organization of China, hopefully there will be meaningful two-way dialogue that may soften the PBOC’s stance.

Many Chinese Bitcoin onlookers have been perplexed by the silence of the PBOC following all the hubbub earlier in April concerning the now-long-gone 4/15/14 deadline for commercial banks and 3rd party payment processors in China to stop doing business with Chinese Bitcoin trading platforms. Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges have been adapting over the last few weeks as many had their bank accounts closed. The government forced anti-Bitcoin moves of most of China’s major banks have forced Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges to turn to unconventional methods for funding, such as ATMs. Some Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges plan on taking their funding methods, and even their websites, overseas to more favorable regulatory environments.

Original Chinese Article.

English Translation of first page:

【Caixin】（Reporter: Li SuiSui）

In the morning of April 24, PBOC met with some commercial banks and 3rd party payment processors to discuss the next step in bitcoin risk prevention, hoping to completely cut off the funding line into Bitcoin trading.

On 4/22, the Central Bank, through the Payment and Clearing Organization of China, initiated this meeting. Interviewees include all commercial banks and 3rd party payment processors related to Bitcoin, with the total number of participants no less than 20. These include various large commercial banks, Paypal, Tenpay and other large scale payment processors which includes Huobi.com’s recharge code provider, EPRO payments.

The meeting is chaired by the Central Bank Department of Treaty and Law Director Mu Huaipeng, other participants include Secretary Lai Yue as well as other PBOC officials, all of who have higher standards than ever before.

Central bankers have stated that this meeting is focused on Bitcoin’s significant price rebound after 4/15, which led to an awkward situation as accounts were not cleared to expectations.

It was in March that the PBOC issued the 《Notice on Further Strengthening Bitcoin Risk Prevention Measures》, that emphasized that commercial banks and 3rd party payments processors were not to perform services for Bitcoin trading，establishing 4/15/14 as a deadline. However，come 4/15，many Bitcoin trading platforms were still functioning; Bitcoin’s exchange rate also soared from 2,500 Yuan to 3,000 Yuan.

The “Notice on Further Strengthening Bitcoin Risk Prevention Measures” still hasn’t been seen by Bitcoiners, but there is no doubt that it exists. It will be interesting to see the end result of these PBOC meetings. Will we have a slew of Chinese Bitcoin Exchanges announce the simultaneous end to one funding method and the rise of another? When will the Chinese government, and all governments for that matter, realize that they can’t keep playing whack-a-mole to stymie Fiat leaking into Bitcoin? As always, stay tuned to CCN for the latest in Bitcoin news out of China. We will include a link to the full English translation as soon as it is released from English.Caixin.com.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/caixin-article-claims-pboc-meeting-banks-payment-processors-completely-cut-funding-bitcoin-trading/2014/04/25

PBOC Is Meeting With Banks And Payment Processors

Mt Gox Claims Will Not Be Investigated Until

Earlier today, the Mt. Gox website was updated with a new document from the bankruptcy trustee assigned by the Tokyo District Court for the MtGox Co., Ltd Case No. 3830.

The document revealed Nobuaki Kobayashi as the Attorney-at-law appointed as bankruptcy trustee. His appointment means that Mr. Kobayashi will have the power and authority to administer and dispose of the assets of the Company as well as the power to implement the bankruptcy proceedings, realization of assets, and investigation of claims. Since the Mt Gox fiasco first imploded/exploded over a month ago, Gox has moved through every possible solution and has been unable to find a buyer. From civil rehabilitation to liquidation, it’s been a rough ride. Unfortunately for folks with Bitcoins or Fiat stuck in the collapsed Mt. Gox, the ride won’t be finished until at least February 25th, 2015.

CCN

A few hours ago, Mt Gox updated their website with a second document for 4/24/14. This document was issued by the Tokyo District Court in charge of the MtGox Co., Ltd Case No. 3830. The document includes Japanese and English versions of the judgement passed down from Tokyo District Court 20th Civil Chamber Head Judge Yasushi Kanokogi, Judge Hideki Kanazawa, and Judge Masaki Higuchi.

JUDGEMENT

A bankruptcy procedure shall commence with regard to debtor MtGox Co., Ltd.

REASONS

From the records of a case, it is recognized that the debtor is in a situation of insolvency.

Accordingly, this judgement is decided.

Further, together with this decision, it is also hereby decided as follows.

1. Bankruptcy trustee Attorney-at-law Nobuaki Kobayashi

Bankruptcy Trustee Room

MtGox Co., Ltd.

Shibuya 2-11-5, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

2. Period for filing proofs of claims until November 28, 2014

3. Date of Creditors’ meeting for reporting the status of property July 23, 2014 1:30pm

4. Date for investigation of claims February 25, 2015 10am

The Claim Climb Up Mt Gox

Those with money stuck in Mt Gox will have until 11/28/14 to file a claim with Mt Gox. However, the investigation of the claims will not begin until 2/25/15, a full eight months from now. These claims must be filed in order for the claimant to be eligible for liquidation distribution. The claims will require claimants’ names and addresses to verify with company records. For unverified users that never gave Mt Gox their personal information won’t receive any notice from the company asking for a filing, and instead will have to wait for more information to come out. The detailed forms and information for filing proof of claims will be posted to Mtgox.com when they are ready. In the next eight months, Mr. Kobayashi will have the unsavory task of figuring out exactly “What in the Hell” happened at Mt. Gox. More specifically, Mr. Kobayashi will be working with “certain experts” to determine the “actual amount and value of bitcoins and cash of the Company.” In addition, the bankruptcy trustee will investigate the bitcoins and cash that are said to be lost; however, most are skeptical that anything will come of this. As of right now, it is not even guaranteed that there will be a “liquidating distribution” of Mt Gox’s liquid funds where Mt Gox claimants will be able to receive twenty cents on the dollar (calculated at a Bitcoin exchange rate of $150 BTC/USD). To keep this genre of fiasco from ever happening again, Bitcoiners need to demand Proof of Solvency, like Vault of Satoshi recently provided in fairly comprehensive manner.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/mt-gox-claims-will-investigated-february-25th-2015/2014/04/25

Mt Gox Claims Will Not Be Investigated Until

Missing Gox Coins Flowing into Maidsafe IPO

Many have proclaimed Mt. Gox dead, myself among them, yet the ghost of Gox has seemingly returned to haunt the already-troubled MaidSafe IPO.

Missing Gox Coins Entering MaidSafe

A few hours prior to press-time, Templar77 of the BitcoinTalk forum conducted a blockchain investigation. He claims that it proves 5 000 BTC flowed from a wallet publically linked to Mt. Gox into the address assigned to the MaidSafe IPO:

The originating “Gox” wallet still holds a further 886 458 BTC.

As the MaidSafe IPO wallet currently holds a total of 6 908 BTC, this potentially means that the missing Goxcoins have funded over 70% of MaidSafe’s vaunted $5 million USD IPO ($3.3 mil from Bitcoin, the rest presumably from Mastercoin sales).

The Alleged Crime

The presumed offense here is that Karpeles – or the hacker who stole the Mt. Gox coins – is using the MaidSafe IPO as a means to launder their ill-gotten gains. Once Goxcoins magically become SafeCoins, who would be able to trace them?

A degree of plausible deniability exists in the fact the Gox funds have flowed through a number of address before hitting MaidSafe’s IPO address. Indeed, as noted in the comments section by dannoferrin, there is no absolute proof as to the coins’ origin despite Blockchain.info approving their “Stolen coins from mtgox” tag…

Address Tags as Evidence

Clarification: Blockchain.info reserves the right to allow any address within their database to be linked to an address tag. The tag in question links to the following website http://canibuildasitehandlingotherpeoplesmoney.com/b.html – belonging to the person who submitted the tag. The name seems to be a lolcat-style reaction to Mt. Gox’s fiduciary record.

Templar77, speaking to me from Mexico over IRC, informs me that the Drt address was tagged shortly after 2bitidiot’s leak of Mt. Gox documents.

The Clue

Templar77 claims (apart from being a fkng genius) to have discovered the account movement due to 30 minute time intervals suggestive of programmed behaviour. He reasons that a sophisticated operate is deliberately attempting to disguise their trail by obfuscation. Karpeles is known for using bots, including “Willy,” who was seemingly assigned Karpele’s insider trading duties as Gox was de-synchronising from consensus prices.

Templar77 goes on to state that his curiosity was first peaked when he noticed an un-escrowed investment of 900 BTC (roughly $44k USD) into the MaidSafe IPO. He traced these funds as stemming from the administrator of BTC Guild, a prominent Bitcoin mining pool which at one time approached majority hash power.

Investigating further, Templar77 then discovered 149 BTC from an address he traced back to the tagged Gox wallet. The following image records that transaction:

Templar77′s clue, an account he traced back to Gox sending 149 BTC to the MaidSafe IPO.

The Trail

Here is the transaction identity (TX ID) trail Templar77 followed to trace that back to the tagged Gox address. In his words:

https://blockchain.info/es/tx/270fbda0ecf96dd2626f13bf96cedc1eb033a06cb213883ed34385a9a271abd5
https://blockchain.info/es/tx/1762c3f9176d3916f11410c4aa0a9b7cd78de9fa955b5c20c59be46b395c2e22
https://blockchain.info/es/tx/12827a6fc4191600d88e08623b098dc989232d9bac4e31b732e6783dff513b83
https://blockchain.info/es/tx/eaca95cb55531acafdc4e260033e6dd899c4322382cae13bc6b8a17039d2c70f
https://blockchain.info/es/tx/e2135e375ee20389e75aa842afb774f6f35c9a3a084832d9570e3548b75a2e0e
https://blockchain.info/es/tx/ce8cc4a1d51e2a98973c928c49ae468f4fcb6aab2f0002247fad0ce9957edd46
and you reach this address: https://blockchain.info/es/address/1Drt3c8pSdrkyjuBiwVcSSixZwQtMZ3Tew

Templar77 describes the full sequence of events as follows, with numbers linking to his related posts on BitcoinTalk:

1) This was my first post there.

I posted it cause I saw this.

My first theory was that it was a big bitcoin holder scamming, making it look like there were many investors.

Then my second post: 2) – I found some coins where coming from the same place but it looked like they [the sender] tried to hide the fact they were coming from the same place.

Then here I found the 900 btc transaction: 3)

Then here I found the Mtgox wallet but didn’t know yet what it was: 4)

Here’s when I found out that it was the Mt. Gox labelled address: 5)

What is MaidSafe?

Maidsafe is a project to produce a decentralised internet which appears technically promising. However, as reported two days ago, the IPO has been tainted by the questionable handling of Mastercoin pre-orders for MaidSafe’s Safecoin operating tokens. Currently, participants may purchase what are essentially vouchers which will be redeemed when the final MSAFE coin yet to be issued.

Quoting Wikipedia’s description of MaidSafe:

MaidSafe is an open-source program that enables a decentralized internet platform, called the SAFE Network. MaidSafe autonomously handles static and dynamic data including communications. Data stored on the network is either encrypted or cryptographically signed by MaidSafe connected applications (clients). In either case the network itself cannot decrypt any of the data. MaidSafe also distributes all data on the network without the need for centralized servers.

The idea was originally conceived by David Irvine who leads a small team building the base layer services. The system source code is open source and hosted on GitHub.

The MaidSafe IPO

Essentially, what went wrong is that David Irvine, the man behind MaidSafe, authorised the sale of the redeemable SafeCoin vouchers for Mastercoin, as well as Bitcoin. This led to a rush of investors / speculators purchasing Mastercoin with which to purchase Safecoin vouchers. Naturally this ran up the price of Mastercoin. Then, as Mastercoin sales exceeded Irvine’s expectations and threatened to buy up the share portion reserved for later Bitcoin buyers, Irvine halted Mastercoin sales. This led to a Wiley Coyote for new Mastercoin bagholders, and a price collapse soon followed which certainly pinched a few wallets and evoked disgruntlement and conspiratorial mutterings among the affected parties.

source: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/breaking-mt-gox-maidsafe-gox-coins-flowing-maidsafe-ipo/2014/04/24

Missing Gox Coins Flowing into Maidsafe IPO

Primecoin World Records

PRIMECOIN NETWORK BREAKS THREE MAJOR WORLD RECORDS IN PRIMES

Primecoin is a cryptocurrency network released on July 7th, the first of its kind generating scientific computing values.

“In March 2013, I realized that searching for prime chains could potentially be such an alternative proof-of-work system. With some effort a pure prime number based proof-of-work has been designed, providing both minting and security for cryptocurrency networks similar to hashcash type of proof-of-work. The project is named primecoin.” as quoted by Sunny King, the developer of Primecoin (XPM).

Primecoin is different: Unlike Bitcoin mining which requires investing in specialized computer hardware to be profitable, Primecoin users can mine profitably with regular PC’s, while having the opportunity to make new world records in simultaneous primes.

Most Notable NEW World Records Broken by the Primecoin Network:

12-Primes:

97 digit Cunningham chain of 2nd kind, discovered on July 21, 2013

2636633268864093784733413870472713369741228379484962777696213963272946411408938 08 x 43# x 2^n + 1, n = 0, 1, 2, … , 11

11-Primes:

116 digit Cunningham chain of 1st kind, discovered on July 26, 2013

5660024353533890484701951541976337153276398093541500793553503466718605648249499 63 x 89# x 2^n – 1, n = 0, 1, 2, …, 10

10-Primes:

138 digit Bi-Twin chain, discovered on July 27, 2013

3902776190280200771461852872539736358510892137723584803244082313244746478765369 7269 x 139# x 2^n ± 1, n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4

The largest known simultaneous primes world records currently consist of 21 records, from the single prime record to 21-primes record. Jens Kruse Andersen, maintainer of the record book for simultaneous primes has confirmed the new discoveries. Dirk Augustin, still holder of 5 records among the 21 with the 10-primes and 12-primes records surpassed, congratulated Primecoin and praised for its ‘strong improvement of records for Cunningham chains’. The fledgling cryptocurrency network now holds 3 of the 21 world records, while the old time favorite distributed computing network GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) holds the 1-prime record with its 17-million digit Mersenne prime discovered in January this year.

FAQ

A) Why is Primecoin scientifically significant? The prime chains Primecoin searches for are related to prime distribution, an important area of number theory which includes the twin prime conjecture as special case.

B) Are the primes practically useful? The Cunningham chains are already considered useful in cryptography and may find even more uses in the future for other computing purposes.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunningham_chain (reference: ElGamal cryptosystem)

Resources:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin

Official Whitepaper: http://ppcoin.org/static/primecoin-paper.pdf

Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/primecoin-2013-7

Bitcoin Magazine: http://bitcoinmagazine.com/primecoin-the-cryptocurrency-whose-mining-is-actually-useful/

GIMPS found 17-million digit prime: http://www.mersenne.org/various/57885161.htm

Breakthrough on Twin Prime Conjecture, a special case of simultaneous primes

Simultaneous Primes Record Book maintained by Jens Kruse Andersen

Cunningham Chain Record Book maintained by Dirk Augustin

Bi-twin ChainRecord Book maintained by Henri Lifchitz

Reach The Team

For media inquiries please contact press adam@Primecoiner.com. Contact Sunny King, the developer/creator: sandi@Primecoiner.com

Media / Editors / Press – Submit a form here: http://www.primecoiner.com/contacts ~ Please provide a link to this article for references.

Note: For all media, editors, & press: You have permission to re-write, edit, modify, add, and remove content as you wish in your own copy. 2013.

source: http://www.primecoiner.com/primecoin-network-breaks-world-records/

Primecoin World Records

Prime Numbers

Prime Numbers, An Odyssey

Prime numbers, a simple yet profound construct in arithmetic, have perplexed

generations of brilliant mathematicians. Its infinite existence was

known as early as Euclid over 2000 years ago, yet the prime

number theorem, regarding the distribution of prime numbers, was

only proven in 1896, following Bernhard Riemann’s study of its

connection to the Riemann zeta function. There remain still

numerous unsolved conjectures to this day.

The world records in prime numbers have been largely focused on

Mersenne prime 2p–1, named after French monk Marin Mersenne

(1588-1648), due to its long history and importance in number

theory, and the fact that modulo 2p–1 can be computed without

Bernhard Riemann

1826-1866

Pierre de Fermat

1601-1665

division for the efficient Lucas-Lehmer test. Currently the top 10

largest known primes are all Mersenne primes.

Two well-known types of prime pairs are, twin primes, where

both p and p+2 are primes, and Sophie Germain (1776-1831)

primes, where both p and 2p+1 are primes. Extending the

concept of Sophie Germain prime pairs, a chain of nearly

doubled primes is named after Allan Cunningham (1842-1928),

where Cunningham chain of the first kind has each prime one

more than the double of previous prime in chain, and where

Cunningham chain of the second kind has each prime one less than the double of

previous prime in chain. A variation of the form is known as bi-twin chain, that is, a

chain of twin primes where each twin pair basically doubles the previous twin pair.

Let’s look at some small examples to better understand these prime chains. 5 and 7 are

twin primes, 6 is their center. Let’s double 6, arriving at 12, whereas 11 and 13 are twin

primes again. So 5, 7, 11, 13 is a bi-twin chain of length 4, also known as bi-twin chain of

one link (a link from twin 5, 7 to twin 11, 13). The bi-twin chain can actually be split

from their centers, giving one Cunningham chain of first kind, and one Cunningham

chain of second kind. Now if we split through centers 6, 12 of bi-twin chain 5, 7, 11, 13,

those below the centers are 5, 11, a Cunningham chain of first kind, those above the

centers are 7, 13, a Cunningham chain of second kind. I call the first center, the number 6

in this example, the origin of the prime chain. From this origin you can keep doubling to

find your primes immediately adjacent to the center numbers.

There are also other prime formations known as prime constellations or tuplets, and

prime arithmetic progressions. Of interest to these prime pairs and formations, is that

their distribution seems to follow a similar but more rare pattern than the distribution of

prime numbers. Heuristic distribution formulas have been conjectured, however, none of

their infinite existence is proven (the twin prime conjecture being the most well known

among them [Goldston 2009]), let alone their distribution.

source: http://www.primecoiner.com/prime-numbers-an-odyssey/

Prime Numbers