This week’s summary of various cryptocurrency news and developments: Support for a UASF has been building up Last week, DeepDotweb reported some miners were allegedly engaging in unfair practices that can harm the network, and that was just one more chapter of bitcoin’s seemingly never-ending scaling debate.News of these alleged practices created a movement, as many believe there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that proves some miners are indeed engaging in unfair practices.The movement is based on a fix that would stop such practices, as SegWit would kill the advantage miners are gaining from AsicBoost, and it even has its own website: it calls for a UASF (User-Activated Soft Fork).Coinkite CEO and co-founder Rodolfo Novak, an advocate for the movement, told CoinDesk: According to the same source, due to the nature of a UASF, bitcoin’s “economic majority” – major economic players such as exchanges and wallets – need to show explicit support.So far, that hasn’t been the case, according to data from Coin.Dance.

Notorious IoT Mirai botnet may be looking into a bitcoin mining venture The Mirai botnet, designed to find and embed onto IoT (Internet of Things) devices to then engage in DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, notorious for an attack that took down major websites such as Reddit, Twitter, and CNN last year, has been found mining bitcoin.bitcoin vending machine near meAccording to IBM research team X-Force, there is a new variant of the malware ELF Linux/Mirai that conducted a short-lived bitcoin mining campaign with the use of a special add-on: a bitcoin miner slave.bitcoin entropayThe campaign wasn’t successful as most infected devices aren’t exactly supercomputers.ethereum price alertAlthough one simple IoT device will never be able to mine a worthwhile amount of bitcoin, if the thousands of infected machines start working in tandem as one large miner, then the botnet could, while idle and waiting for instructions, go into mining mode and make a profit.windows rdp bitcoin

Bitfinex withdrew its lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex, filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo in a federal court in San Francisco late last week, alleging the US banking giant prohibited Taiwan-based banks from completing outbound wire transfers.bitcoin block explainedThis week, the plaintiffs, which included two British Virgin Islands-based subsidiaries and digital asset transfer firm Tether as well as IFinex, filed a “notice of voluntary dismissal”, effectively withdrawing the lawsuit.comprar bitcoin fisicoPopular exchange Kraken added Dash to its platform US-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken recently added Dash trading to its platform, citing the currency’s recent exponential growth both in price and in trading volume.bitcoin documentary 2015

Dash’s market cap recently went from roughly $48 million to over $500 million at the time of press, its supply is limited to 22 million and there are currently 7,2 million coins circuiting.Traders will be able to trade dash for dollars, bitcoin, and euros, and margin trading is a possibility in the future, according to the exchange.como cambiar bitcoin por dineroNorth Korean hackers allegedly stole 100 million won in bitcoin every month between 2013-2015 According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, North Korean hackers stole over 100 million won (roughly $88,000) in bitcoin per month between 2013-2015 in an effort to increase the country’s hard currency reserves.bitcoin telegram groupChoi Sang-myong, a senior official at cybersecurity firm Hauri Inc., alleged that the theft occurred weeks after Seoul shut down operations in Kaesong, a North Korean city that hosted a joint industrial zone.

Choi added that South Korea wasn’t the only target, and speculated that the hackers have since moved on to more lucrative operations Indian government to study digital currency framework The Indian government recently announced the creation of an interdisciplinary committee that is to study the existing framework surrounding digital currencies, and propose new regulations.The committee includes the Reserve Bank of India (the country’s central bank), as well as representatives from NTI Aayog, a think-tank backed by the government.A report is expected to be delivered within three months.The announcement reads: Bitcoin at $1185,9, as adoption grows This month, Japan recognized bitcoin as a legal payment method and as reported above, India is looking into new regulations.Russia may also be legally recognizing bitcoin in the near future, as Alexei Moiseev, deputy finance minister of the Russian Federation, recently hinted at it this week.A central bank official, however, stated that it is still premature to say bitcoin will be legal in the country in 2018.

This, however, has been helping bitcoin’s value, and even though there is a seemingly endless scaling debate going on, the currency is still close to its all-time high, as one bitcoin is worth $1185,9 at the time of press, according to CoinMarketCap.Markets Weekly is a weekly column analyzing price movements in the global digital currency markets, and the technology's use case as an asset class Bitcoin prices fluctuated largely within a tight range between $415 and $425 during the seven days ending 15th April, while the value of ether, the native token on the Ethereum blockchain, declined sharply after weeks of advances.Bitcoin's lack of volatility largely mirrored the last several weeks, when the digital currency was stable across international markets.This stability again took place amid modest volume, as market participants traded just over 11m BTC during the seven days through 9:45 EST on 15th April, according to figures from Bitcoinity.Transaction volume was similar during the week through 8th April, far below the robust trading activity that had existed in preceding weeks.

While bitcoin has seen range-bound prices, ether plunged more than 56% during the week ending 15th April at 12:00 UTC, according to Poloniex figures.George Samman, blockchain advisor and consultant, described the development as one that had been foreshadowed by changes in market fundamentals."Ether has fallen back to earth for sure," Samman told CoinDesk."Its technicals were deteriorating for a while and finally price fell with them."Christopher Burniske, analyst and blockchain products lead at investment management firm ARK Invest, spoke to the currency’s selloff, noting that exchange data signaled a shift was forthcoming as well."The sell order book on [digital currency exchange] Poloniex has consistently been 30-50% deeper than the buy order book," he told CoinDesk.But while ether has been suffering sharp price volatility, it has also been experiencing robust transaction activity.The currency’s daily trades neared 35,000 on 14th April and remained above 30,000 during the several days prior.

Since mid-March, these daily transactions have almost always stayed above 30,000.In comparison, the digital currency did not consistently exceed 10,000 trades per day before December 2015.Ether has also been enjoying a steadily rising hashrate, as this measure of processing power reached 2,000 GH/s on 14th April, compared to 1,232 GH/s a month before, Etherscan.io figures reveal.The figures indicate that interest in rewards for transaction processing on the network is increasing.As for what ether prices will do going forward, experts provided varying forecasts.Samman offered a bearish prediction, speaking to technical analysis performed on the digital currency."I expect more downside follow through in the coming weeks and $6.50 area is pretty major support," he stated."On the upside, $8.80 to $9.00, which was support is now resistance.It should continue to be volatile as traders look for new levels."Burniske offered a different point of view, choosing to focus on basic market variables.

"As fundamental transaction use continues to build over time, ether could enjoy a sustained rise," he stated, adding: "As with all markets, it’s a function of supply vs demand, buyers vs sellers, and it will be particularly interesting to see what happens over time, as Ethereum is constructed to always release new coins each year, albeit at a lower percentage of total outstanding."On the bitcoin side, some experts have emphasized that at least for now, the digital currency is stuck in a holding pattern."In bitcoin, volume and volatility continue to drop," said Samman."At this point as it sits range-bound and I've been saying this for a few weeks, it’s a broken record.It’s still ‘sit on your hands’ and wait time."However, Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, sees a light at the end of the tunnel.Geopolitical turmoil in Europe will push bitcoin prices higher over the coming months, he predicted.Such a development could provide bitcoin with headwinds, as market observers have repeatedly observed that in times of market turmoil, the digital currency can act like a safe haven similar to gold.