Bitcoin crossed the psychologically key $2,500 level Wednesday to a record after a late Tuesday announcement from the Digital Currency Group alleviated worries about a fractious debate among cryptocurrency investors and technological developers."I think it's mostly to do with the fact they may have ended the ongoing political stalemate over scaling may be over," Andrew Keys, head of global business development at blockchain software developer ConsenSys, told CNBC in an email.Blockchain is the technology behind bitcoin that many expect can have broader, transformative applications in industries such as financial services.Bitcoin rose more than 10 percent to an all-time high of $2,537.16, after earlier in the day topping $2,400 for the first time, according to CoinDesk.The latest move marks a more than $500 gain since Saturday, when the digital currency first topped $2,000.That brings bitcoin's 5-day gain to just over 40 percent and its gain for May so far to 88 percent.Bitcoin has more than doubled this year, up more than 160 percent with Wednesday afternoon's surge.

The scaling agreement is a significant step forward for proponents of the digital currency.Fifty-six companies around the world and 83 percent of bitcoin miners supported the "Bitcoin Scaling Agreement," according to the Digital Currency Group.The document lays out an upgrade that should increase bitcoin's transaction capacity.Brian Kelly, CEO of BKCM and a CNBC contributor, said the market sentiment was most important for bitcoin prices."This upgrade is needed because more applications can be built on top of bitcoin and more value can be added to bitcoin," he said.Kelly manages a fund focusing on digital currencies.Trade denominated in Korean won also increased a share of total volume — up from single digits Tuesday to more than 12 percent Wednesday, according to CryptoCompare.To be sure, bitcoin is a highly volatile asset, and analysts remained cautious that the Digital Currency Group's agreement sounded the all-clear for the currency.Alex Sunnarborg, a research analyst at CoinDesk, pointed out that "not everyone is on board" with the scaling agreement as they felt it was rushed.

traditional assets Regardless, the digital currency is gaining more attention in the U.S., especially from high-profile institutional investors.Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, tweeted Tuesday that there could be a connection between bitcoin's surge this year and the drop in the Shanghai composite stock index.The theory is that Chinese looking for investments outside of a weakening yuan have turned to the digital currency.Chinese yuan-denominated trade volume in bitcoin shrank in the last few months after Beijing began investigating the digital currency exchanges, while the local stock market came under increased regulation.But the Shanghai composite, down 0.4 percent year to date, isn't the only global asset that's fallen while bitcoin has more than doubled in price.2015 Media Partner of Money20/202014 Media Partner of Money20/20CoinDeskCoinDesk is the world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies.We cover news and analysis on the trends, price movements, technologies, companies and people in the bitcoin and digital currency world.Our per-minute Bitcoin Price Index, a derived measure of bitcoin’s value based on an agreed set of criteria, also serves as a point of reference for those involved in the bitcoin industry.If you’re new to bitcoin, read our straightforward guides on the basics of what bitcoin is, why people use it, where to buy bitcoins and how to spend them.

We also explain the basics of bitcoin mining, how to set up a bitcoin miner, and how bitcoin transactions work.Digital currency is a rapidly evolving industry and we believe one of the biggest developments in internet history in the making.There are bitcoin exchanges, merchants accepting and promoting bitcoin, investors, traders, startups and developers all contributing to the ecosystem.ethereum to usd coinbaseThere are also regulatory bodies all over the world trying to understand more about bitcoin, take a stance on it and assign guidelines to companies trading in or otherwise involved with bitcoin.We strive to cover news accurately, fairly, objectively and responsibly.bitcoins kaufen credit cardObtaining original comment, corroborating information from other sources, and showcasing original opinion are fundamental to this.CoinDesk is an independent publication with reporters all over the world.2015 Media Partner of Money20/202014 Media Partner of Money20/20free bitcoin hourly

There are many resources and online publications covering Bitcoin, Blockchain, and cryptocurrencies in general, some of my personal favorites in addition to creating a Daily Google Alert for the terms “Blockchain” and “Ethereum” are:Also, a new Bitcoin Directory was recently released which is incredible as its all socially curated submissions from the public that meets the quality code: High Quality Bitcoin Websites.bitcoin bet botSkip to main content You are hereHome APIs Track API Summary SDKs Articles How To Sample Source Code Libraries Developers Followers Commentstor bitcoin donationStarting next September, some logistics companies in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia will begin outfitting shipping containers with a soda-can-size device that will beam out the cargo’s location, how much it’s vibrating as it travels, and its ambient temperature.litecoin mining 4 gpu

The data will flow into a repository in the cloud so the entire supply chain can be informed if a shipment’s been delayed.That will prevent redundant e-mails and phone calls.“There are massive problems communicating between companies,” says Mika Lammi, who’s overseeing the project from his perch at Kouvola Innovation, a business development agency in southern Finland.profitable bitcoin mining 2015“Instead of having separate databases, why not have a single blockchain where everyone can pool information?”Blockchain is the technology created to support bitcoin, but it may soon surpass the crypto-currency in importance.bitcoin price usd coinbaseIn the first quarter of 2016, venture capital investment in startups commercializing blockchain eclipsed that in pure-play bitcoin companies for the first time, according to industry researcher CoinDesk, which has tallied $1.1 billion in deals to date.The simplest way to understand blockchain is to see it as the evolution of the ledger, a record-keeping tool that’s been central to commerce since ancient times.bitcoin difficulty chart over time

Ledgers track the movement of assets, whether they’re parcels of land or shares in a company, but they have a big limitation: Access to the trove of data is restricted, ostensibly for security reasons, but often because that’s how its custodians make money.In the age of the cloud, it’s possible for a network of banks or companies in a supply chain to maintain what’s called a distributed ledger that all authorized participants can tap into without needing to go through an intermediary.Another benefit of a blockchain-based system is that it’s more secure.Criminals cannot commandeer individual machines to gain access to a network, as they did with recent attacks on Asian banks, by way of fake messages on Swift, a platform banks use to communicate with one another.In February, that method was used to siphon about $80 million out of an account of the central bank of Bangladesh.“Hacking a blockchain is generally considered a low risk,” says Richard Johnson, a market structure analyst at Greenwich Associates.

“Bitcoin has never been hacked.”The technology is drawing interest from finance, shipping, manufacturing, and entertainment.Gilles Gravier, an adviser at Wipro, the Indian outsourcing giant, says blockchain today is where the Internet was in 1995.Companies will need “courage,” he says, to use the technology to “allow them to do what they haven’t done before.”Blockchain’s boosters say it will drive big improvements in efficiency by streamlining logistics and cutting out intermediaries.Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, a Los Angeles-based investment bank, estimates that savings in trading securities and other assets could reach tens of billions a year.R3, a private consortium of more than 45 institutions, including JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, and Wells Fargo, is working to develop and commercialize blockchain applications.In February the New York-based group revealed it had successfully simulated trades of digital assets on a private network spanning four continents.

Tim Grant, managing director of R3, says blockchain could speed the often lengthy process of shifting assets from one party to another.That includes overseas wire transfer, which he says can take days to complete because of antiquated systems and procedures.“It’s manual processes that can be automated in a very secure and transparent way via distributed ledger,” he says.“We’re just trying to collapse these inefficiencies.”John Hancock Financial, a Boston company that sells life insurance and mutual funds, is also experimenting with blockchain.Four staffers in its innovation lab have created a virtual currency for the purpose of rewarding employees, who could use it to buy gift cards, for example, says Ace Moghimi, John Hancock’s head of innovation in North America.“The whole point here is, let’s build the capability and figure out where you can apply it,” he says.“It could potentially have really big implications for the business.” At Deloitte, the technology underpins an experimental airline loyalty program in which terms and discounts can be adjusted at will so that, for example, a customer whose flight was grounded would be able to use airline points to pay for a meal at a restaurant during a layover.

“Suddenly what you enable is a very different customer experience and behavior, and you can increase your revenue,” says Eric Piscini, a principal at Deloitte.If they pan out, these applications may boost the market for cloud services, already a $175 billion-a-year business globally.Microsoft, which last fall began offering tools for developers to build such systems quickly, has 5,000 blockchains on its servers, up from 50 in December, according to Marley Gray, director for business development for blockchain at the company.The demand is off the charts,” says Jerry Cuomo, vice president for blockchain technologies at IBM, which has developed open source blockchain code that has about 1,000 active users.Despite the excitement, blockchain faces obstacles.Speed is one—the technology may be too slow to accommodate a large volume of transactions.Integrating new technology into existing systems may also be a challenge.And regulatory hurdles could deter or slow the adoption of blockchain.Deloitte’s Piscini says the hype is causing some confusion about what the technology is good for—and what it isn’t.