Nodes Reject Block for Presumably Altering Bitcoin Issuance

Willmen Blanco
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Nodes Reject Block for Presumably Altering Bitcoin Issuance

According to Jameson Lopp, the event occurred because of an error in the block-building template. The miner who created the block lost his money, since the block was orphaned.

It was reported that a Bitcoin miner tried to add a block to the blockchain, which exceeded by 0.77 BTC the maximum Bitcoin issuance limit of 12.5 bitcoins BTC) every 10 minutes. However, he did not succeed, as a consequence of full Bitcoin nodes that rejected the block for not complying with the necessary features.

The Developer of Bitcoin Jameson Lopp explained that the miner tried to add a block in which the block template did not erase the amount of the commissions from the previous block. Consequently, he was going to receive an extra amount of 0.77 BTC, since the block was found some seconds after the previous block.

Lopp believes that there might have been an error in the block template generator, which could not erase the commissions from the previous template where the block was created. He posted on his twitter account that Bitcoin is an impenetrable fortress of validation and any requests intended to inflate the monetary supply faster than in the established agreement would be denied.

Similarly, Developer Luke Dashjr highlighted that this attempt to alter the reward for creating a block perceived by the miners of the network raises the importance of having more and more users joining Bitcoin. He argued that these elements allow maintaining the security of the blockchain and the operation of the protocol, ensuring that only valid transaction blocks can be added to the chain.

The Spanish developer identified as jochemin, who did not want to reveal his real name, provided some information aimed at helping understand the event better. The developer stated that a miner had created a block that did not respect the rules of consensus, which specify that a Coinbase transaction can never be higher than the number of new bitcoins issued (12.5 BTC) plus the commissions of the transactions included in the block. In this case, transactions were not included; thus, the maximum amount of Coinbase could be 12.5 BTC.

He said that he agrees with Lopp on the argument that this block was unintentionally created. He considers that they simply built the tx Coinbase with the commissions of the transactions that were not included in the block for some reason. In this case, the miner lost money because the block created was not propagated.

He emphasized that propagating a block that does not comply with the consensus is the same as throwing money away, since complete nodes always certify that the rules are fulfilled.

Jochemin noted that the design of the protocol indicates that a miner can never include a block that does not comply with those rules regardless the amount of hash that it uses. The nodes rejected the block and it was orphaned, that is, it was not added to the Bitcoin blockchain, so the event only became an expensive experience for the miner.

By Willmen Blanco

US Senate Committee Approves Law that Promotes Blockchain Technology

Maria Rodríguez
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US Senate Committee Approves Law that Promotes Blockchain Technology

Implementing blockchain technology would help to provide better services, prevent tax fraud, improve government functions and eliminate bureaucracy

The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the US Senate approved the Blockchain Promotion Act recently, as local media reported this week.

As a fundamental part, the bill brings closer the United States to a definition of “blockchain” at the federal level and establishes a blockchain working group within the Department of Commerce, since the regulation of this project instructs the department to elaborate a standard definition of “blockchain”.

The members of the working group should be representatives of federal agencies that could use blockchain or non-governmental stakeholders.

Among the non-governmental participants are information and communication technology manufacturers, suppliers, software suppliers, service providers, sellers and experts.

Legislators from both sides of the Capitol evaluate how to properly define the concept of “blockchain”, as well as understand the instrumentation and the benefit of this technology by the government.

The Expectations and Processes

Among the steps that the group has to follow, it should be noted that after a year of its establishment, the working group must present to the Congress a report recommending a definition of blockchain.

In addition, the report should also recommend conducting an investigation about the impact of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) on the electromagnetic spectrum norms, recommendations about other possible applications and ideas of ​​possible uses by the federal agencies.

These developments occur in the midst of the criticisms that US President Donald Trump has recently expressed regarding cryptocurrencies, since he has opposed digital assets such as Bitcoin and Libra, through his official account in the social network Twitter.

With the aim to know even better the cryptocurrency project of Facebook, Libra, the Committee of Financial Services of the House of Representatives of the United States will hold a hearing about the virtual currency next July 17th.

Instead of this, the senator of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and co-sponsor of the project, Ed Markey, emphasized, through a statement, that “blockchain is an exciting new technology with great potential”. He assured that “this legislation will help to better understand the applications for this technology and to explore opportunities for its use within the federal government”.

The senator commented that this technology “is being used in the private sector to expand access to renewable energies, improve health services, delivery systems, and improve the efficiency of the supply chain”.

Is Bitcoin going to replace dollars?

Some senators believe that cryptocurrencies will become a threat to the US financial system, as they consider the possibility of Bitcoin replacing the dollar as a value of the world’s reserve.

About this point, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell commented that The United States should not assume that the dollar will be a single currency of the Federal Reserve during “all of life”.

In detail, the Blockchain Promotion Law envisages preventing a mosaic of definitions of these technologies at the state level, as well as establishing a precedent for the future regulation of technology.

The congresswoman Doris Matsui, a California Democrat, commented that “this bicameral project bill will bring together a broad group of stakeholders to develop a common definition of blockchain”.

According to the general opinion, implementing blockchain technology would help to provide better services, prevent tax fraud, improve government functions and eliminate bureaucracy, with the aim to avoid wasting time and money.

By María Rodríguez

Bitcoin ATMs are a Problematic Topic for Money Laundering Laws, Per the Spanish Police

Andres Chavez
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Bitcoin ATMs are a Problematic Topic for Money Laundering Laws, Per the Spanish Police

As cryptocurrencies, and most specifically Bitcoin, grow in prominence and usage, governments and authorities around the world become more concerned about the rules of that use. That is why the regulation of these assets has been such a controversial topic in several locations.

In this case, Spanish law enforcement agencies identify Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) as potentially problematic spots for money laundering laws, specifically to the European Union’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations. The piece of news was reported by Bloomberg this week.

A 9 Million Euros Transaction

According to the publication made by the specialized site, the police in Spain busted a local group of criminals that took advantage of Bitcoin ATMs to perform a 9 million euros (approximately $10 million) transaction to people connected to drug traffic in Colombia and other nations.

The site uses representatives of the Guardia Civil, one of Spain’s law enforcement agencies, as sources, which preferred to stay anonymous. They explain that the band hired to machines from trading sites and proceeded to install them in an office located in the nation’s capital city, Madrid.

To perform their shady acts, the gang misguided people into thinking the office was actually a center for remittances and crypto trading services. Instead, the criminals took advantage of the situation and the physical settings to transfer funds from bank accounts to trading ecosystems to obtain cryptocurrencies (via QR codes or numerical codes,) which were sent to the drug dealers previously mentioned.

Two BTC ATMs, 20 Online Wallets and Four Cold Wallets Confiscated

The law enforcement organization seized two BTC ATMs, 20 online wallets, and four could wallets in the raid. As Bloomberg observes, prosecutors are in the process of proving that there was a correlation between the confiscated digital goods and the machines in question.

Bitcoin ATMs are quickly growing in popularity, as they represent a smoother transition to people unfamiliarized with crypto exchanges that want to acquire digital assets. They are relatively new, but despite their youth, they are already spread around the world.

In fact, at the moment of writing this piece, there are over 5,400 machines already installed in dozens of locations, most of which were deployed over the last year, per Coin ATM Radar’s data. Eighty-nine of those devices are in Spanish soil. Owners of crypto ATMs do not have to respect any strict AML laws, but that may be about to change in the EU.

Defining Bitcoin

As Bloomberg reports, in a separated case, Spanish Supreme Court ruled that Bitcoins are not legal electronic money but are assets, “and that any repayment of the fraud would need to happen in euros. The Civil Guard officials said the ruling was welcome because it starts to define Bitcoin.”

This is not the first case of its kind, and the situation has already prompted other locations to search for possible solutions to alleviate the risk of using ATMs as means for money laundering. For instance, Vancouver, a Canadian city, was considering banning these machines for similar concerns.

By Andres Chavez

Government of India Will Train Police to Identify and Combat Crypto Scams

Andres Chavez
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Government of India Will Train Police to Identify and Combat Crypto Scams

The digital assets industry, especially cryptocurrencies, is marching towards mainstream adoption. Aided by Bitcoin’s price surge, more people are jumping on board of trading and acquiring regular crypto and stablecoins, and more investors are being born and welcomed to the field.

However, if there is one thing preventing crypto from becoming a truly global phenomenon, it is the fear of vulnerabilities, most precisely, frauds and scams. Fear of losing everything still exists, and it has been increasing hand in hand with some of the most impactful hacking attacks and crypto scams of 2018 and 2019.

Developing “Domain Expertise” In Crypto Crimes

However, some good news on that front have appeared in India, a country with increasing interest in crypto projects and assets. According to a government filing, the country’s Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to offer police offers an intensive training session to develop what they call “domain expertise” in crimes in the cryptocurrency industry.

The report explains that the Ministry of Home Affairs of India will cover all the expenses of the training course, which is expected to last two days. The initiative has been welcomed by both the police and investors in the surging Asian nation.

The name of the course is “Investigation of Cases Involving Crypto Currencies,” and will include subjects such as introduction to the blockchain technology (a key component of cryptocurrencies,) standing legal traditions, and the interpretation of notorious crypto crimes.

The course is scheduled to be held at the S. V. P. National Police Academy in Hyderabad, from September 5th to September 6th.  It is destined for the IPS police officers of the rank of Addl. Superintendent of Police to Inspector General of Police.

The program is optional, as policemen will not be required to complete it. However, officers will be nominated to participate. To complete the course, those who have expressed any degree of interest in “cybercrime and IT” will integrate a list, and some participants will be picked from that population.

A Controversial Topic

As we have stated, India not only has become more interested in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, but it has also become a center of controversy regarding those subjects because the government has planned bans to these assets. For example, the Reserve Bank of India recently prohibited any kind of relationship between banks and crypto firms. The measure is currently facing arbitration in the nation’s Supreme Court.

The Reserve Bank of India is not the only governmental entity that has showed an anti-crypto stance. Mostly due to perceived concerns about security, tax evasion, money laundering, and fraud, extensions such as The Department of Economic Affairs, Central Board of Direct Taxes, and the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority all put pen to paper on a draft bill named “Banning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019.”

There are reasons behind those organisms’ fear, and that is why the police will receive training to better handle these situations. For example, this past month, the police arrested a fraudster connected to a firm called Liberty Coin: some people claimed to have lost tens of thousands of dollars, which is worrying because they were promised 5,000% ROI (return on investment.)

By Andres Chavez

Tron uses BTT to speed downloads with BitTorrent Speed

Willmen Blanco
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Tron uses BTT to speed downloads with BitTorrent Speed

A test with the application showed a 20% increase in download speed. Each new user receives 10 BTT to start using the application.

The Tron Foundation officially announced the launch of BitTorrent Speed ​​on July 9th. This application offers an increase in download speed through the tokenization of user participation.

BitTorrent’s Vice President of Product, Justin Knoll, explained that the new application allows connecting with one or more peers, who receive payments in BitTorrent (BTT) so that they extend their download capacity. The interaction with other users in these terms was already a fundamental part of the process. The incentive of the BTT token now comes into play.

Any user can be rewarded in this way by sharing files already downloaded. This, according to BitTorrent developers, is what stimulates greater activity in the network. This leads to the increase in download speeds.

Increase in Speed

BitTorrent’s new tool has proved to really increase download speed. It could be seen that, when turning on the speed increase option, the application located other users that were sharing and it increased the speed in more than 20%, compared to the uTorrent application alone.

At first, BitTorrent Speed ​​showed unrealistic figures, with percentages higher than 200% increase in download speed. These data were stabilized to show smaller but sustained numbers.

Along with the download of the Tron application, each new BitTorrent Speed ​​user receives 10 BTT. That amount allows users to start using the application to improve the download speed. During the test with a file of just over 0.5 GB, the balance shown in the wallet of the application did not change.

Little Expense and Little Profit at an Early Stage

During the launch, Knoll assured that it is unlikely that the use of this initial version of the program will produce drastic changes in users’ balance. Also, he said that they are more likely to see higher download speeds and a balance that stays about the same as when they installed it.

This occurs at a stage where the network seeks expansion, said Justin Sun, CEO of the Tron Foundation, which acquired BitTorrent in 2018. He argued that these balance variations will grow along with the network, with greater participation of users.

In addition, he explained that, in the event that the balance is effectively depleted, users can always recharge it by depositing more BTT from an external wallet. There is also the option to earn by sharing files in the network. However, Knoll considers that these gains will depend on several factors.

The demand of the file in the network and the number of participants sharing it are among these elements. He indicated that it is easier to gain when sharing a file that has a lower number of seeds (users sharing) than when there are many users.

After a controversial situation in Tron offices, which affected the price of its cryptocurrency TRX momentarily, this crypto asset has remained in green, despite most of the main 20 cryptocurrencies showing losses.

TRX has increased more than 2%, only surpassed by Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV).

By Willmen Blanco

Binance Will Create Platform to Market Cryptocurrency Futures

Maria Rodríguez
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Binance Will Create Platform to Market Cryptocurrency Futures

The new platform will be able to leverage up to 20 times more. In the coming weeks, Binance will launch a pilot system test to improve the tool promptly.

The largest and most important company in terms of volume of transactions and commercialization of digital assets, Binance, recently announced that it will launch a platform very soon that will allow the commercialization of cryptocurrency futures.

The company gave the news to the public during its presentation at the event of the Asian Blockchain Summit, which took place a few weeks ago in Taipei. During the presentation of the company, Changpeng Zhao, CEO and Founder of Binance, showed the participants a project interface that will soon be available for users. Futures trading on the Binance platform will have features such as cryptocurrency short, among other things.

During Zhao’s speech, the Founder of Binance commented that “Binance will be launching a futures platform very soon. I don’t have the exact date yet. The simulation test version will be live in a few weeks”. These words were mentioned whilst projecting images of the interface that have advanced until now. In addition, Zhao added: “This is an actual screenshot of the working system. So Binance futures is coming”.

This announcement keeps many people on the lookout to wait for what Binance could develop on this system of cryptocurrency futures and its subsequent commercialization.

The presentation had an extensive presentation where it was specified that “the leverage could be up to 20 times”, as well as being offered to work with Bitcoin (BTC).

Although, as in Zhao’s words, the official launch date stills unknown, it was announced, through a company spokesperson, that they would launch a pilot test in about two weeks, in which they will seek to put the system in operation and perfect details for its official launch in the future.

It is believed that this new initiative is due to the leverage system that Binance promised to offer its users last month. This new tool of future contracts will complete a whole network with new services. “Negotiations with leverage will first be extended to all users around July 11th, and then future test networks will come a week after that”, the company spokesperson explained.

This is the reason why during the announcement of said piece of news last month that Binance stated it is preparing a large-scale service network that complements each other and creates a concrete connection between all of them to create a full service set-up with new financial technologies.

Right now, many users are waiting for the leverage system to be enabled and they can get access their benefits. For the moment, this service will be available only to selected users.

The futures of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies allow users to trade digital assets in a foreseen period of time, establishing their prices. At the end of the negotiation, the buyer can receive cash in fiat currencies if he wants it. The futures are part of traditional economy and now are present in financial technology (FinTech) too.

By María Rodríguez

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