Long Way Traveled by Bitcoin since Its Birth

Alexander Salazar
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Long Way Traveled by Bitcoin since Its Birth

The Bitcoin network began operating on January 3rd, 2009, with the formation of its genesis block. Bitcoin, together with all its users, has become an established social construct in 11 years.

It is said that a person or group of people, called Satoshi Nakamoto, created the first block of the Bitcoin network 11 years ago. With this event, known as genesis or zero, which occurred on January 3rd, 2009, the operation of the Bitcoin network began. Since then it has remained active without stopping and has been used by anyone interested in participating in it, without requiring permission from a third party.

To demonstrate that this first block was produced on January 3rd, 2009, and not before this date, Satoshi inserted the head of the British newspaper The Times in the field of Coinbase, in hexadecimal language within block 0, which can be confirmed on any block explorer. He added the name of the newspaper, its publication date and the headline that says “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

This phrase has been immortalized as a sample of the motivations that led Satoshi to create Bitcoin. Until now, the real relevance that Satoshi wanted to give it is still being discussed, by using precisely this headline relative to one of the consequences of the global economic crisis of 2008. Probably, that event, by the time he launched the cryptocurrency, led him to design the Bitcoin monetary system so that it would be an alternative to current monetary systems.

Since then, Bitcoin has been running 99.98% of the time, only stopping twice in its history, which allows its users to move the number of funds that they want, anytime and anywhere worldwide, without requiring a third party to grant permission to move balances, as banks do.

Bitcoin’s ability to resist censorship has been increasing in the network since every startup centralized with Satoshi has been decentralized since then. It should be noted that the pioneering cryptocurrency is currently a fairly robust monetary system and represents an alternative to national currencies.

Even though it seems an alternative to fiat currencies, Bitcoin may never replace the monetary system of any country, since this would have to hand over its economic control to a currency that cannot be controlled. It is very unlikely that a given government willingly accepts to lose power to its citizens when its very existence depends on this fact.

Of course, this does not mean that Bitcoin has failed in its mission since it currently proves to be a successful project. It has existed for over 11 years, which leads to saying that the entire world knows about it. Although it is not an easy technology to learn, it has a decent adoption if compared to altcoins. It has also become an important commodity in international markets, while some countries with economic problems have used it as both a safeguard of value and a payment alternative.

 Many people may say that Bitcoin is “old technology” and that there are now more efficient 5.0 blockchains. These new clones may not even have Bitcoin’s current branding or network effects. This network is not just technology but also an established social construct, which continues growing little by little every day after these 11 years.

By Alexander Salazar

UN Secretary-General Considers It Necessary to Adopt Technologies like Blockchain

Willmen Blanco
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UN Secretary-General Considers It Necessary to Adopt Technologies like Blockchain

António Guterres believes that blockchains can help sustainable development. The organization sees the potential for transparency of decentralized networks.

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres, from Portugal, gave his support to distributed ledger technology (DLT), or blockchain, saying that it is needed to help accelerate and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The official believes that this technology, which is original from Bitcoin as a digital system, could be key to help eradicate poverty and hunger, ensure good health and well-being, have quality an education, achieve gender equality and produce affordable and clean energy, among others, if it is well applied.

Guterres stated that, for the United Nations to better fulfill their mandate in the digital age, they need to adopt technologies like blockchain that can help them accelerate the achievement of those Sustainable Development Goals.

It should be noted that these are a list of 17 points that the United Nations adopted in 2015 as an action plan to help people and the planet achieve greater levels of prosperity, quality of life and promote sustainable economic growth, among other things.

The Secretary-General of the UN, one of the most important organizations at the global level, sees all the potential that blockchain technology has for human development. This is a clear signal that decentralized networks offer usefulness, not only in the financial aspect as in the case of cryptocurrencies but also in the social, human rights and environmental sectors.

Blockchain as a Global Trend

The potential approach of the United Nations to blockchains is in line with the global trend of other organizations and countries that have already announced their development or are already working on them. The most recent case with the greatest news impact was the announcement made by the president of China, Xi Jinping, who is betting heavily on this technology by saying that the Asian country should take the lead in this area, which is in full process of expansion.

A similar point of view, although oriented to the social sector, has been mentioned by the European Commission. This organization considers that blockchains have the potential to benefit society in multiple areas, which range from food distribution to the care of refugees in Europe.

In the words of Guterres, decentralized networks of this kind could gain more exposure and arouse greater interest among those who still only relate them to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. In Latin America, many projects are based on blockchains. This is the recent case of Brazil, which will activate a register of foreign trade with the member countries of the Common Market of the South or “Mercosur” (Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) for greater transparency in their exchanges.

Another recent case is that of Argentina, where volunteers who participate with their social work in a community kitchen in Buenos Aires will be rewarded with a token.

DLT is a technology that allows two or more people to conduct any type of transaction without the intervention of intermediaries or trusted third parties. In other words, participants use the Internet through an encrypted platform to send information from one person to another.

By Willmen Blanco

More Than 60% of the Ethereum Nodes Were Updated for the Muir Glacier Hard Fork

Willmen Blanco
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More Than 60% of the Ethereum Nodes Were Updated for the Muir Glacier Hard Fork

The hard fork was scheduled to occur during the early hours of Thursday, January 2nd, 2020. The most popular clients among the node operators are Geth and Parity Ethereum.

Ethereum’s new hard fork, Muir Glacier, already had 64% of its nodes updated, according to the real-time monitoring that was conducted by ethernodes.org. The hard fork was scheduled to take place during the early hours of Thursday, January 2nd, at the height of block 9,200,000.

The developers announced the hard fork to implement Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 2387, which aims to delay the difficulty bomb. The activation comes less than a month after the network adjusted its activity to the Istanbul hard fork, which led to six code changes and did not contemplate this adjustment as the programmers’ estimates were wrong.

Hudson Jameson, a lead developer of the Ethereum Foundation, stated that the nodes had to be updated by December 30th and that the scheduled time for the hard fork could vary according to time zones and block variations.

At the time of writing this article, according to data from ethernodes.org, about 35.6% of the nodes remained to update their clients, a figure that gradually reduced as the date of the hard fork approached. The most used clients by the node operators are Geth, Parity Ethereum, Nethermind, Multigeth, Teth, and Aleth.

The first proposal for the upgrade was EIP 2384, which was initially created on November 20th by Eric Conner but then finalized by James Hancock with EIP 2387 two days later. The fact that it runs so close to the previous hard fork suggests that the Muir Glacier update occurred on an emergency basis.

Difficulty Bomb

The difficulty of bomb delay is a mechanism within Ethereum’s Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm for a refocus of mining difficulty. In other words, it is an element within the system that ensures a constant block time as it controls the difficulty with which mining is conducted under this scheme.

On this occasion, the difficulty bomb will be delayed by another four million blocks, equivalent to 611 days or 1.67 years. When the times of the blocks are too short or too long (less than 10 seconds or more than 20 seconds, respectively), the mechanism adjusts the difficulty. It should be noted that this also increases the value of every 100,000 blocks.

The Muir Glacier hard fork occurred since the developers calculated, while planning the Istanbul hard fork, that the difficulty bomb would be unnoticed until mid-2020. This began to be predicted in October of last year at the height of the 8,600,000 block, which has led to a total of three delays of the difficulty bomb.

The decisions of Ethereum’s programmers revolve around an extensive process of transition of the network aiming to migrate from a PoW scheme, which is currently used, to a Proof of Participation (PoS) consensus, something to which its co-founder Vitalik Buterin has constantly referred and that is known within the ecosystem as Ethereum 2.0.

By Willmen Blanco

Burger King Venezuela Accepts Bitcoin Payments in 40 Stores

Maria Rodríguez
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Burger King Venezuela Accepts Bitcoin Payments in 40 Stores

The store also receives Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Dash (DASH) and the stablecoin Tether (USDT).

Cryptocurrencies are a mean of payment in countries such as the United States, Germany, and even in some restaurants of Argentina, where people can buy clothes and food products using Bitcoin (BTC) or altcoins.

It is possible to buy a coffee in Starbucks using cryptocurrencies. This company uses Flexa, an app that allows paying with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether or Litecoin. Similarly, OrderTakeaways, based in the United Kingdom and with more than 50.000 restaurants, sells pizza through a delivery service. Customers can pay with cryptocurrencies too.

In Germany, a Burger King store accepts Bitcoin as payment. Now, 40 Burger King stores in Venezuela accepts bitcoin.

The news was confirmed recently in a tweet sent by a single Burger King branch in Sambil, a mall located in Caracas, the capital city of the South American country. The store also receives Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Dash (DASH) and the stablecoin Tether (USDT).

Altcoins Join the Initiative

Almost 40 locations in Venezuela will follow the decision, according to a blog post from Dash executives about the project.

There are options to make possible the payment through cryptocurrencies. Cryptobuyer is a Panama-based cryptocurrency startup that also runs a fleet of Bitcoin ATMs. It allows to convert cryptocurrency funds for businesses and then it pays out in fiat money to complete the operation.

“We are pleased to announce our commercial alliance with @BurgerKingVE”, part of the company’s tweet reads about the initiative that will benefit crypto users.

The global fast-food retailer reports an annual profit of 20 billion dollars and has 11 million clients worldwide. If all those stores decide to accept cryptocurrencies, the adoption of these digital currencies will be greater.

Cryptocurrencies in Venezuela

Venezuela opened its doors to crypto assets since this country has its cryptocurrency, Petro, and faces an economic crisis so it resorts to the use of digital currencies.

Petro, the controversial state-backed cryptocurrency, is the weapon of the Venezuelan government to intent combat the crisis. It also is accepted to pay essential services, such as passports, although the price of these ID documents is now very high for most people.

However, although the Venezuelan government supports that national cryptocurrency, some users work on the Internet to get bitcoins or prefer receiving Dash, according to ex-Dash Core Group CEO, Ryan Taylor. But the use of cryptocurrencies among merchants remains low.

While bitcoin is one of the cryptocurrencies most used in Venezuela, especially in peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, the data shows more weakness in the “Sovereign Bolivar” than in Bitcoin adoption.

In establishments like Traki, Venezuelans can buy food, clothes and different products using cryptocurrencies. Since the government has made payments to retirees in Petros, supermarkets accept the currency and also have devices to execute the payment.

But it is very early to determine how will work the crypto-initiative of Burger King in Venezuela. In Russia and different countries of Europe, these proposals appeared to be short-lived, disappearing soon after launch.

The company’s Russian presence also began a dedicated loyalty scheme called “Whoppercoin”, which called the attention of the country’s prosecutor. Now it is time to see the behavior and evolution of the idea in Venezuela.

By María Rodríguez

Telegram Refuses to Tell SEC How It Spent USD 1.7 Billion of ICO

Maria Rodríguez
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Telegram Refuses to Tell SEC How It Spent USD 1.7 Billion of ICO

The entity alleges that the amount raised selling Gram tokens is an unregistered securities sale, although Telegram denied that the tokens were securities.

Last January 2nd, District Judge P. Kevin Castel, of the New York Southern District Court, ordered Telegram to respond to a request made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The messaging platform must explain how the funds raised in its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) have been spent.

The SEC explained that the information related to the investment is necessary ahead of next week’s deposition of three Telegram employees, including founder and CEO Pavel Durov. It claims that the requested records are highly relevant to its ongoing case against Telegram.

In this way, the SEC alleges that the USD 1.7 billion raised selling Gram tokens constituted an unregistered securities sale.

“The requested bank records are highly relevant to the issues in dispute in this case, including how much money Telegram has spent, and in what manner, in developing the TON blockchain, the Telegram Messenger application to be integrated with the TON blockchain, and related applications”, the SEC affirms about why it needs the information.

The filing requests both testimony and documentation from Telegram relating to the amounts, sources, and use of the funds raised from investors.

“Defendant’s refusal to fully disclose and answer questions about their disposition of the USD 1.7 billion they raised from investors is deeply troubling”, the SEC’s letter states.

The Background

In October, the SEC announced emergency action against Telegram. At that moment, the institution said that the Gram token offering was an unlicensed securities sale although Telegram denied that the tokens were securities.

All of this led to a delay in the launch of the TON blockchain. Telegram had to explain the situation to its investors. The official launch was previously scheduled for October 31st, 2019. Then, it was planned for April 30th, 2020.

“We do not agree with the legal position of SEC, and we intend to defend ourselves vigorously against the lawsuit. We are proposing the extension of the deadline with the purpose of providing us with additional time to resolve SEC’s demand and work with other government entities before the launch of the TON network”, Telegram explained to its investors last October.

In response to SEC’s requests, Telegram has refused to hand over ICO allocation records relevant to the “efforts of others”, part of the Honey Test used by the SEC to determine if a financial product is a security.

“The SEC is asking the court for an order compelling production of this information immediately, in advance of an upcoming deposition”, Compound Finance general counsel, Jake Chervinsky said.

He adds: “The judge may already plan to grant the motion and just wants to give Telegram its chance to be heard before doing so. I wouldn’t be surprised if Telegram responds in a few hours and the judge issues an order granting the motion a few hours after that”.

The New York court ordered Durov to be deposed at a mutually agreed upon location. The deposition is scheduled for January 7-8 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Now, it waits for Telegram’s answer.

By María Rodríguez

Guangdong Blockchain Platform Will Help Boost Small Businesses

Maria Rodríguez
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Guangdong Blockchain Platform Will Help Boost Small Businesses

Sometimes, small companies need loans to continue working. Blockchain technology could help them store financial information to ask for economic support.

The government of Guangdong, the Chinese province located on the southeast coast of that Asian country, launched a blockchain-based financing platform to help small companies in the region receive loans faster from commercial banks.

One of the largest insures of China, Ping An Insurance, supports the government-led project through a subsidiary whose name is OneConnect. Local media report that Ant Financial, the Alibaba’s Financial Technology (FinTech) arm, also supports the development.

The main objective of the project is to streamline the process for commercial banks to lend funds to small businesses with more detailed and reliable profiles, including credit ratings, provided by its blockchain network.

Last July, the government of Guangdong launched the new blockchain initiative. The idea is to use the blockchain financing platform to connect with nearby Hong Kong and Macao to help small businesses over there to get loans easier.

“Borrowing money from commercial banks for small and companies has been slow and expensive”, explained Xiaojun He, the Director of Guangdong Local Financial Regulatory Bureau, according to a local report. That is the reason why they want to implement blockchain technology.

During November, Ant Financial announced it planned to test its blockchain network, called Ant Blockchain Open Alliance, to support startups. Besides, OneConnect filed a $468 million initial public offering in the United States of America, in the same month.

To achieve its objective, the new platform creates credit ratings for small and medium businesses based on their financial and administrative information through a blockchain network of 26 government agencies such as the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

Blockchain technology is known as a platform that allows storing information securely. It is used in different fields. In the food industry, for example, it allows tracing the origin of any product and its advance in a supply chain.

Now, with this platform, small businesses will be able to use their intellectual property and export-import trading records to apply for funds from commercial banks, something that is impossible under the status quo.

This would be possible thanks to that particular advantage that blockchain technology offers. Storing all about the export-import trading records would help conclude these processes faster and automatically since, with that information, the company would be able to apply for a fund in a commercial bank.

The platform can also match small companies with 319 financial products, depending on their financial situations. This will reinforce the first benefit in favor of those small businesses that use blockchain technology.

According to the reports of local media, the platform has collected information from more than 11 million companies, as well as 129 financial institutions.

So far, it has processed three transactions between local technology startups and commercial banks, including the Industrial Commerce Bank of the People’s Republic of China. This is the case of China Construction Bank and China Construction Bank and Ping An Bank.

Small companies will benefit from blockchain and internal processes would be faster thanks to new technologies.

By María Rodríguez

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