Topic: [ANN][NOTE]DNotes - Celebrating DNotes 3rd Birthday - Forum Now Open - page 50. (Read 814539 times)

Although indeed a Brexit would likely push up Btc's price, we may not have to wait that long. The political situation is deteriorating fast.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/european-response-to-refugee-crisis-fracturing-a-1079547.html

There was 'Grexit' in 2015 leading to the financial crises of Greece and the possibility of the struggling nation leaving the European Union (EU).

And now instability in the eurozone is prompting the possibility of a 'Brexit', which would see the UK leaving the 28-nation European Union.

So far it has not been a big price boost for Bitcoin and other digital currencies; but may be, this is barely the beginning of serious financial and social-economic crises among the 28 EU nations no one could have imagined.


Brexit Rumors Fail to Boost Market as Bitcoin Price Steady at $420
Charles Bovaird | Published on February 26, 2016 at 19:08 GMT

Despite periods of volatility, the global bitcoin market remained calm this week, gaining 1% while fluctuating between $410 and $450.

The digital currency was trading at $423.52 at 00:00 (UTC) on 26th February, up from $421.16 at 00:00 (UTC) on 19th February, according to the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI).

What may be most notable, however, is the lack of a price increase given potential macro-economic instability in the eurozone.

One geopolitical development that coincided with bitcoin’s price volatility was the possibility of aBrexit, which would see the UK leaving the 28-nation European Union (EU). The event is of interest to traders given bitcoin’s historical response to similar events, rising substantially on the rumored 'Grexit' in 2015 and emerging as an asset class in 2013 given its strong climb in response to economic uncertainties in Cyprus.
Still, there were periods of turbulence in the latest trading cycle.

The currency rose sharply on 20th February, appreciating to $443.02 by 18:00 (UTC), up from $421.33 at 00:00 (UTC) for a more than 5% gain. Bitcoin also climbed the following day, rising from $436.13 at 00:00 (UTC) to $446.74 at 07:00 (UTC). However, by 14:00 (UTC), the digital currency had fallen to $429.99.

This price turbulence continued later in the week, as bitcoin dropped from $423.34 at 00:00 (UTC) on 24th February to $411.77 at 05:00 (UTC). The digital currency quickly recovered from this dip, rising to $424.45 by 15:00 (UTC).

This compared to the seven-day period between 12th February and 19th February, when the digital currency rose from $377.82 to $421.69.
Brexit fails to stir market
While UK citizens have long been skeptical of the EU, the tension surrounding the country’s participation in the political and economic partnership has thus far not been strong enough for the nation to break free.
However, disrest has been growing, and a survey conducted in September showed 43% of participants thought the UK should remain in the EU and 40% believed the nation should leave. A separate poll done in February indicated 38% of respondents wanted to exit the 28-nation partnership, while 37% wanted to stay.
Now, the nation is looking ahead to June 23, when voters will go to the polls and participate in a referendum to decide whether the nation stays in the EU or goes its own way. The anticipation surrounding this event has created significant uncertainty, which may be providing tailwinds for bitcoin prices.

In times of market turmoil, bitcoin frequently enjoys a bump in price, as some consider it a safe haven. While the chance the UK might leave is likely placing upward pressure on the digital currency’s price, a Brexit would probably fuel sharper gains.

Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of digital currency exchange BitMEX, commented on how this event could affect bitcoin prices, telling CoinDesk:

"If by June the odds of Brexit occurring are substantial, we could see a Grexit sized pump in the bitcoin price."

Read More: http://www.coindesk.com/brexit-rumors-fail-to-spark-market-as-bitcoin-price-steady-at-420/

Just talk so far. We'll see what actually happens yet. I'm for the 2MB fork though.

So obviously there is no done deal.

I appreciated this write up on medium from Brian Armstrong (Coinbase CEO) as a call to action for bitcoin's scaling issue. The Bitcoin Roundtable Consensus Proposal — Too Little, Too Late.

The roundtable’s consensus proposal falls short in several areas, and only offers words (not working code). Luckily, we already have a working solution to solve bitcoin’s scaling challenge today: BitcoinClassic’s 2MB hard fork.
I think bitcoin will be best served by continuing on the following path:
1 Over the next few weeks the industry should continue upgrading to BitcoinClassic. This will provide some immediate relief to bitcoin’s scaling problem and help restore confidence in the system. Once 75% of recent blocks mined contain a vote for Classic, there will be a 30 day waiting period during which the remaining 25% (and other actors) can upgrade. After the waiting period, the network will upgrade to 2MB blocks with 99% of the network or more (I believe) on a single chain.
2 The bitcoin price will go up and confidence will be restored as we’ve bought ourselves some time on the scaling issue.
3 After this, bitcoin will be in an era of multiple competing teams and nodes, which will accelerate bitcoin’s protocol development. Core, Classic, or any other team can propose upgrades to the protocol that everyone in the industry can vote on. Future protocol upgrades will be decided by consensus using the blockchain (longest valid chain wins), instead of consensus using industry meetings and letters.
If we follow this model, we can have bitcoin’s protocol upgraded to 2MB by April 2016, and keep right on moving to additional upgrades (such as Core’s excellent SegWit work).
If you are a bitcoin miner or business owner, please join the existing companies who have upgraded to BitcoinClassic to help bitcoin scale, and don’t delay based on a promise of what may come in the future. Thank you.

I do remember reading that, but I don't remember if anyone posted, good article anyway.

Anyone pos this yet? Good read
How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/big-banks-interest-in-blockchain-r3-052723646.html

Blockchain Weekly Recap 2-27-2016

Mizuho Launches Two Blockchain Endeavors
Mediachain Protocol Offers Promise of Digital Content Rights Database
New European Central Bank Report Explains New Interest in Blockchain
Factom Partners with China’s Ancun Zhengxin for Blockchain Notary service
UK FCA: No Blockchain Regulation for Now
ISITC Believes Blockchain Evolution to Become Clearer within Eighteen Months

http://dcebrief.com/blockchain-weekly-recap-2-27-2016/

Thanks yavuzc78, sent in a few to get you started.

Must be fixed now Chase.

I tried to deposit a few, but keep getting "Invalid address"??

Dnotes Faucet

Please make it live

http://altcoinix.com/dnotes-faucet/

Where there is strong leadership, inspiring followers to work as a team towards the attainment of common goals that are mutually beneficial to everyone, the outcomes are consistently more predictable and productive. A lot more can be accomplished with very little. Once it gained sufficient momentum the network effect can quickly dominate.

On the other hand, the leaderless model is likely to gain larger participation and network effect earlier, but far less productive; more political and chaotic. Hence, as the author correctly pointed out, "We constantly get brilliant engineering solutions, but it’s the social problems that hurt us the most."

Unless Bitcoin can develop leadership structure, it surely won't live up to its full potential. Drafting guidelines for community participation as suggested in the article, is a good start, but will not solve the problem of division within the community. Like the Abraham Lincoln speech goes, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

DNotes on the other hand is a model for the balance needed between strong leadership and community involvement.

Nicely done Ken. The blockchain without bitcoin concept has been frequently debated, the bottom line is it will have to be a centralized system without a token reward.

Very interesting article. The followings caught my attention:

"I’m absolutely convinced that part of the issue is that bitcoin as an idea is so revolutionary and controversial that it not only attracts the smartest and the brightest, it also appeals to scam artists, idiots, politicians, economists and anyone with an Internet connection who thinks they have something to say."

"I would argue it's an approach that's ultimately destined to fail."

"We constantly get brilliant engineering solutions, but it’s the social problems that hurt us the most."

Pretty interesting read. Warning a bit of unnecessary explicit language. His case could be an argument for or against needing leadership, depending on how you read it. The more I read, the more I was convinced there needs to be leadership. I think he may be confusing control and leadership though. My biggest problem is that he eludes to excluding the opinions of non-coders..... ..... .....

Bitcoin Has No Leader, and Maybe That's a Good Thing

Brian Hoffman is the CEO of OB1, the startup overseeing development of blockchain-based marketplace project OpenBazaar, and a former lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.

In this opinion piece, Hoffman discusses the ongoing debate over how bitcoin should be scaled, and why the network's lack of leadership may be both a blessing and a curse.

Thanks to Mark for providing this link, I found the following article rather thought probing.  

But frankly, I do not know for sure what to expect when it comes to each nation around the world issuing their version of digital currency individually. There is so much potential for mishaps, it would likely ended up with serious unintended consequences. 

The warning signs for the future of cash
FEBRUARY 25, 201612:27PM

REMEMBER when cash was king? Now cash is more like a minor duke whose stately home is badly in need of repairs. Cheques are nearly forgotten and now Aussies are giving up on the lobster ($20 note), the pineapple ($50 note), and all the rest of them as well. The decline of cash is accelerating.

The number of ATM withdrawals has also been falling fast since 2010, according to banks. Cash lasts a lot longer when you can PayPass your way through each day. Sometimes these days, I find a $20 note in my wallet and I can’t remember when I got it. Probably weeks ago.

While we don’t have as much actual use for cash any more, we still really like it.

On Wednesday, the RBA started talking about issuing digital cash, which would have some similarities with Bitcoin.

“The digital currency would presumably circulate in parallel (and at par) with banknotes and other existing forms of the national currency,” said the RBA’s head of payments policy. He emphasised the RBA “has not reached a stage where it is actively considering this.”

The central banks of England, Canada and China are also looking into digital currencies. They would let you transact using an electronic system, more anonymous and quite separate to your bank account.

But still, the rise of a digital currency instead of cold hard cash frightens a lot of people.

But it could make sense for governments to dump cash.
Cash gives government problems. They have to make it, watch out for counterfeits,recycle the old notes and coins and make sure nobody is stealing them.

Cash also undermines monetary policy, used to boost the economy. If the RBA need to cut interest rates to give the economy a boost, but if interest rates are already at zero, the government has a problem. If they cut interest rates to negative interest rates, we could just withdraw our money and keep it as cash. But without cash, you can’t withdraw your cash and negative interest rates become possible, giving monetary policy makers more options.

And there are more everyday problems — cash lets many dodgy things happen without the government knowing.

Just this week, a woman was arrested on the Hume Highway with $920,000 in the boot of her car. Sure, maybe she was just heading to Sydney to buy the median price house. But those amounts of cash are mainly the preserve of criminals.

In fact, criminal activity probably explains the mystery of the missing hundreds. The RBA keeps printing hundred dollar bills, but nobody seems to spend them, and we’re not sure where they end up.
The reason criminals love cash is however also the reason to be nervous about losing it. Cash is anonymous. If there is no cash, the government can see every little thing you do.

Whether privacy becomes the big issue of the next century is not yet clear. Maybe governments and businesses will know our every move and leave us alone. If they don’t, privacy could become our biggest headache. Until that is clear, there is a very strong argument for keeping cash.

Jason Murphy is an economist. He publishes the blog Thomas The Thinkengine.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/finance/money/wealth/the-warning-signs-for-the-future-of-cash/news-story/2a5607982ba7bbbb679cf058135bbc0e

Bitcoin Weekly Recap 2-26-2016

CTFC Bitcoin Advisor Chou: Blockchain without Bitcoin Concept ‘Misguided’.
Confronting Bitcoin Challenges at MIT-Hosted bitcoin Expo in March.
E-Coin to be integrated into Wirex Service.
Hong Kong Meeting Produces Some Agreement on Bitcoin Challenges.
Former Green Beret Explains How He Could Disrupt Bitcoin.

http://dcebrief.com/bitcoin-weekly-recap-2-26-2016/

Correct, Dnotes; but what intrigued me -- I hope I have untangled the basic details -- is that the currency they're tokenising is itself already the currency of an alliance of nations -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Caribbean_dollar

That is, a 'currency-alliance fiat' crypto -- !?

Very interesting, much of what he discussed is already happening. We should be able to learn a lot from sabotage attempts on Bitcoin, and as this style of attack becomes more prevelant, it will be much less effective.

You're right, "do not engage" is a great piece of advice.