Square’s Open-Sources Bitcoin Cold Storage Solution 2123

Late last year, Square began offering the ability to buy and sell Bitcoin with Cash App. As part of that launch Square invested heavily in building out our cryptocurrency infrastructure to help protect Square customers’ funds, and Square itself, from both internal and external threats.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin require private keys to access and move funds. Securing these private keys is important because transfers are irrevocable. An unauthorized person who gains access to the private keys can move funds and due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, it would be practically impossible to identify the person or recover the funds.

Since launching Bitcoin support, Square developed a robust approach to Bitcoin cold storage, and we recognize the importance of sharing our work with the community. As a result, today we’re open-sourcing the documentation, code, and tools for “Subzero” our HSM-backed solution for protecting Square’s Bitcoin holdings.

Cash App customers have the ability to buy, sell and withdraw Bitcoins. They can view the balance for their account, but the actual Bitcoins are held by Square in a combination of hot and cold wallets. Cold storage is a term used to refer to a Bitcoin wallet that is offline, meaning that the private keys for the wallet are stored in such a way that they are inaccessible from any network. Storing Bitcoin in a cold wallet reduces the risk of remote attack.

Without remote access, it is more difficult for an attacker to obtain the private keys that give access to the Bitcoin stored in the cold storage wallet. Transferring funds out of cold storage requires physical access to the private keys or the device on which they are stored. On the other hand, an online or hot wallet is able to send funds at any time. Keeping a small amount of funds in online wallets and the majority of funds in cold wallets is a good way to get the best of both worlds.

There are many ways to implement cold storage. You can print the key material on a piece of paper (a so-called “paper wallet”), carve it into stone, save it on a computer that is kept disconnected from networks, or use a specialized hardware wallet device, such as Trezor or Ledger.

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Will Bitcoin continue to fall? 6379

Bitcoin

It’s no secret that the cryptocurrency market is quite volatile. Almost any piece of global news can affect the price of digital assets in one way or another. Take billionaire Elon Musk, for example, who was able to influence the price of Dogecoin simply by tweeting. However, this does not always happen because of a particular case and with a particular coin. In 2020, for example, the world went into lockdown for the first time in a long time. Countries’ borders were closed and the logistics of many goods began to be disrupted. People had to stay at home, fearing for their health. The Covid-19 pandemic was to blame. You would think that a virus could have an impact on digital assets. As it turns out, it was able to reach cryptocurrency as well. Because of problems in the economy, cryptocurrency has begun to lose value.

This did not last long, and a year later Bitcoin set a new historical high. The price of the first cryptocurrency was above $63,000. Those enthusiasts, who during the chaos and lockdown did not stop believing that cryptocurrency was the future and continued to invest in digital gold, were able to make good money in just one year. Bitcoin began to be prophesied to reach $100,000 in the near future. There were many explanations from analysts and financial experts that Bitcoin could do this. Today, however, the picture for the crypto industry does not look so rosy.

Since the beginning of 2022, the first cryptocurrency began to lose heavily in price, for various reasons. Today, we can observe that Bitcoin is in prolonged drawdown, just like all other digital assets. Some call it a “crypto-winter”. This has already happened to the crypto market more than once. But why is the fall so noticeable?

Experts attribute the prolonged decline in quotations to the fact that the Federal Reserve System is tightening policy in the US, which raises rates to contain inflation in the country.

As cryptocurrency is a risky asset, investors and traders are trying to get rid of it or keep it to a minimum.

Also, the recent news that one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX, has filed for bankruptcy has not had a positive impact on the value of digital assets either. The first cryptocurrency still remains in a kind of sideways position. At the time of writing, it stands at $16,993, according to CoinGecko.

What if Bitcoin keeps falling?

If the cryptocurrency drawdown continues, nothing good can come of it. As analysts say, this will entail quite serious and large changes in the global crypto market. A similar scenario was discussed this summer, in the online edition of CNews. The publication’s experts believe that continued drawdown will mean that many tokens that are not widely known will simply disappear, until there are only the top and in-demand coins that are able to survive in today’s realities.

Of course it is too early to talk about it now, things may change tomorrow if there is any positive news. But we can only wait and see what happens.

And to start trading cryptocurrencies today, you can use the RevenueBot cryptocurrency bot service.

CME Group Announces Launch of Euro-denominated Bitcoin and Ether Futures 6891

CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today launched Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures.

“The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts,” said Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equity and FX Products, CME Group. “Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the U.S., with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.”

Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures contracts will be sized at five bitcoin and 50 ether per contract. These new contracts will be cash-settled, based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate and CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, which serve as once-a-day reference rates of the euro-denominated price of bitcoin and ether.

These new futures contracts will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.

For more information on this product, please visit https://www.cmegroup.com/cryptocurrencies#explore-our-cryptocurrency-products.

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals. The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform. In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.

How ViaBTC, a Pool Founded 6 Years ago, Continues to Rank Top Globally by Hashrates 5617

Recently, the BTC hashrate has reached a new high. The previous record was 248.11EH/s, which was exceeded when the hashrate figure peaked at 254.77EH/s this month. Despite sluggish market conditions in 2022, the interest in mining remains unabated. In addition, as more people joined the mining community, the BTC hashrate kept going up, and the difficulty also soared. Running low hashrates, individual miners are becoming less competitive, yet the advent of mining pools brought them a ray of hope and also revolutionized conventional mining models.

Of the many pools that have popped up, ViaBTC Pool has left miners with a deep impression. In 2021, some countries cracked down on BTC mining, and many pools went out of business as a result. However, the strict policies didn’t hurt ViaBTC’s BTC hashrate. Instead, it has ranked 1st for a while thanks to the pool’s globally distributed business model and the recognition from global miners.

As a pool founded in 2016, ViaBTC managed to survive and record world-leading hashrates all thanks to the following factors.

A strong team

To create a stable mining environment, the ViaBTC team has deployed nodes all over the world to match miners with the nearest node, which minimizes delays and makes the mining network stabler. So far, ViaBTC remains the pool with the lowest orphan rate in the entire industry, which shows the strength of its team.

At ViaBTC, over 60% of the staff are members of the product and R&D teams, the primary members of which are all seasoned developers from world-renowned Internet-based companies. Led by ViaBTC’s founder Haipo Yang, the team has continued to upgrade and improve the pool. As it keeps the pool secure and stable, the R&D team has introduced more versatile products and features and built a full set of matching tools.

Innovation

To address existing flaws of the mining industry, ViaBTC Pool has rolled out many innovative products. For instance, the pool invented PPS+, which was the first payment method of its kind in the industry, and created Transaction Accelerator, also a unique product. Plus, it is also the first pool to support “Convert Now”. These products have not only improved the mining revenue but also solved the problem of congested transactions under extreme market conditions. Meanwhile, the hourly pay of mining revenue effectively avoids risks arising from price fluctuations.

A well-established blockchain ecosystem

ViaBTC has been trying to build an all-encompassing blockchain ecosystem that integrates products, tools, and investment. In addition to ViaBTC Pool, the group now also boasts other four key business segments, including CoinEx Exchange, ViaWallet, CoinEx Smart Chain (CSC), and ViaBTC Capital, which makes it one of the best-established blockchain firms out there.

Relying on its strong ecosystem, ViaBTC has simplified the tedious process that goes from crypto mining to transaction and circulation. When withdrawing cryptos from ViaBTC Pool to CoinEx Exchange, miners do not have to pay any fees, and withdrawals arrive in real time. Moreover, Staking, a built-in service of ViaWallet, provides miners with all kinds of different ways to preserve the value of their assets in an extended bear market.

Popular BTM Operator: Bitcoin of America Welcomes Shiba Inu Coin to Its Bitcoin ATMs 8147

Bitcoin of America has officially announced the newest addition to their Bitcoin ATMs (BTMs). Shiba Inu coin is now available at Bitcoin of America ATM locations. Bitcoin of America has more than 1800 BTMs across 31 states. They recognized the growing popularity of Shiba Inu and decided it was time to include it in their BTMs. Bitcoin of America also offers Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum options. This news comes after their recent addition of Dogecoin in March of this year.

Bitcoin of America is a popular virtual currency exchange registered as a money services business with the United States Department of Treasury (FinCEN)(RegNum). They are known for their top-of-the-line customer support while also providing a fast and hassle-free transaction.

Bitcoin of America makes it easy for everyday businesses to get their hands on a Bitcoin ATM and for customers to buy Bitcoin. They take care of their host locations by providing passive income, increased foot traffic, and marketing. They even handle customer support and any maintenance/installation services.

The popular operator has made many updates to its BTMs and services over the past year. They launched their universal kiosks, which operate as a traditional ATM combined with BTM functions. Bitcoin of America has created a point-of-sale system for their tablet program, which has allowed businesses to accept cryptocurrency as a new form of payment. Bitcoin of America is constantly expanding and improving its services.

Data Mynt Payment Processing Platform Now Supports Bitcoin Payments 8029

Data Mynt, a leading provider of simple, stable cryptocurrency payment products, now enables payments over the Bitcoin network, which already supports roughly 225,000 transactions per day and $30 billion USD dollar equivalent volume per day worldwide (as of publishing).

Data Mynt merchants and partners join the 15,000 retailers that accept Bitcoin today, making it the world’s most widely used digital asset for payments. Retailers include Twitter, Whole Foods and Overstock.com.

Now the Data Mynt payment processing platform enables payments from any wallet and asset across the $2 trillion combined market cap (as of publishing) available to make a payment over the Bitcoin, Ethereum Mainnet and Polygon networks.

The Data Mynt payment processing solution enables merchants and enterprises to expand their payment options for their customers and partners. At the same time, it reduces payment processing costs and eliminates frictions such as chargebacks and crypto price volatility.

“As a payment processor, it only makes sense for us to enable our merchants and partners to accept what the world already accepts—the biggest cryptocurrency,” noted Data Mynt CEO Alex Christian. “Almost one-quarter of the US population owns Bitcoin. Many other countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, UAE, Singapore, Israel, India, Mexico, and South Africa have even higher adoption rates. Data Mynt merchants can feel good knowing they offer these Bitcoin owners another payment option.”

The dedicated Data Mynt global sales team began rolling out its payment platform in Q1 of 2022.

About Data Mynt

Data Mynt is a leading crypto payment processor. Its wallet, asset and blockchain-agnostic suite of solutions offer partners and merchants an omnichannel approach to accepting on-chain crypto payments free from volatility and the risks and costs of traditional payment methods. The Data Mynt payment platform is also designed to streamline implementation delivering a seamless customer experience. DataMynt.com

Popular BTM Operator Bitcoin of America Wins Silver in 11th Annual Best in Biz Awards 10231

Bitcoin of America has been named a silver winner in the Company of the Year – Midwest category in Best in Biz Awards, the only independent business awards program judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America. Bitcoin of America is a popular virtual currency exchange, registered as a money services business with the United States Department of Treasury (FinCEN)(RegNum). Apart from ensuring a fast and hassle-free transaction, their customer support makes them the best in the industry.

Bitcoin of America has demonstrated rapid growth. In June of this year, Bitcoin of America’s Chief Financial Officer reported record company growth. In January, the company had a total of 630 Bitcoin ATMs. To date, they have seen a 138.095% increase in their number of locations. They even hit a major achievement of 1500 plus BTMs. Bitcoin of America has also seen enormous growth in their number of employees. In just one year their team grew over 32 percent.

Bitcoin of America also added new products, services, and even updates to their BTMS. In May, they announced the launch of their new universal kiosk. The kiosk combines the capabilities of a traditional ATM with a Bitcoin ATM. The universal kiosk is known to offer 3 different functions. The first is the traditional ATM feature where customers can dispense cash from a debit card. The second function is being able to buy bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies with cash. The last is that customers can sell crypto in return for cash. This is huge for business owners. These universal kiosks are bringing stores additional revenue streams, while also saving floor space. They also announced that Ethereum would be available for customers to purchase from any of their locations.

Besides offering cryptocurrency services to customers, Bitcoin of America has helped hundreds of businesses across the United States. Bitcoin of America offers a host program for store owners who are interested in cryptocurrency or are just looking to earn extra income. They take care of their host locations by providing them with passive income, increased foot traffic, and marketing. They even handle customer support and any maintenance/installation services.