Chinese investors looking for a refuge from the weakening yuan are turning to bitcoin.Total trading in the virtual currency reached 47 million bitcoins last week, the highest-ever level based on data going back to 2011.Prices meanwhile hit a more-than four-month high of $742.46 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk data.The vast majority... Most Popular Videos Film Clip: 'The Big Sick' A New Road to Income: Barron's Buzz 'Bridge Crew': Voice Command Comes to 'Star Trek' VR Videogame Lower Your Wireless Bill With These Tips Opinion Journal: Macron vs.Elephant in the Room: China dominated Bitcoin mining (self.Bitcoin)submitted by So during the last Bitcoin rally China managed to crush the excitement by suddenly announcing a Bitcoin ban, afterwards they made similar announcements many times (every time there was a major upswing) to hold Bitcoin back.By keeping the price for Bitcoin low they managed to make most of the worlds mining stations uncompetitive.Because China offers almost free electricity for the mining stations, they managed to capture the majority of the worldwide hashing power.

For example the following mining pools are based in China: AntPool/BTCC/F2Pool/BW Mining and others Look at videos of the scaling Bitcoin conference and observe that in the scenes where all the main representatives of the mining industry are on stage (representing 95% hashing power), one thing is very clear: Almost everybody is Chinese.Also: Keep in mind that the two biggest exchanges in the Bitcoin industry: Okcoin and Huobi are both located in China, and they are operating in legal grey territory, allowing officials to change their mind any moment.So why is this a problem?What will happen if China decides to become scared of Bitcoin again during the next Bitcoin rally?Will they suddenly decide to confiscate the majority of the networks hashing power, leaving us defenceless against their attacks?Will they suddenly shut down the two biggest exchanges and dump their coins down international exchanges to have maximum impact?I might sound like I am spreading FUD, but I am genuinely concerned by this, and I have not heard of any action plan addressing this issue.

**Title is supposed to read: Elephant in the Room: China dominates Bitcoin mining EDIT: The assumption that miners will work in their own best interest to protect their investment and protect the Bitcoin eco-system assumes they wont be forced to do otherwise.The Chinese government is very powerful inside china, and all that mining equipment is inside chinas borders.I think one important thing to realize is that decentralization of nodes is important, but even more important is geographic distribution of hashing power in separate jurisdictions.If they shut down the hashing power then Bitcoin will easily survive, because it has been designed to automatically solve such events.But if they manage to organize efficiently and confiscate 80% of the networks hashing power and use it to purposely sabotage Bitcoin, then there is no mechanism in place that will defend against this.What I am saying is, everyone focusses on a certain Mining pool getting too much power, but people are ignoring the fact that location of mining equipment might be much more important, since governments might be the main adversary of Bitcoin, not mining pool operators.

Bitcoin’s blistering postelection rally continued on Tuesday as the price of the world’s most popular digital currency hit a 34-month high.Bitcoin traded as high as $788.49, its highest price since the collapse of Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt.The collapse of Gox effectively ended a period of exuberance that saw bitcoin’s price peak just below $1,200 in late 2013.litecoin history dataThe cryptocurrency, which has a market capitalization of $12.5 billion, has been trending higher since August, but its gains accelerated in October following reports that the Chinese government might crack down on cryptocurrency-related capital outflows, said Chris Burniske, blockchain analyst at ARK Invest, in a research note.bitcoin thuật toánThe digital currency began its most recent run higher in October.bitcoin puebla

Read: Bitcoin price hits highest level since August Read: Bitcoin price climbs to highest level in nearly 3 years China continues to dominate the bitcoin arena: China-based exchanges handle the bulk of trading volume, and many of the largest bitcoin miners are based there as well.dogecoin transaction feeut, Burniske noted, bitcoin trading in Venezuela has soared sevenfold this year as the collapse of the Venezuelan bolivar forced Venezuelans to find creative ways to preserve their wealth.spinning bitcoin gifHigher inflation expectations have also benefited bitcoin, Burniske said, because investors see the cryptocurrency as a useful inflation hedge.bitcoin trusted nodesNEW YORK — Long off the public radar, digital payment network bitcoin has been gaining momentum this fall, bolstering the views of some advocates that bitcoins will be a mainstream currency worldwide in the not-too-distant future.The value of a bitcoin surged to more than $400 last week from its low this year of $177.28 in mid-January.ethereum forecast 2017

Meanwhile, the technology known as blockchain that underlies bitcoin trading is slowly being adopted for uses far removed from currency.Analysts also are getting more bullish on the bitcoin system."Webelieve bitcoin and its associated blockchain technology have the potential to disrupt the existing financial infrastructure over the next several years, and believe the value of the bitcoin currency will benefit from this trend," Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, wrote in a research report last week.bitcoin hashrate poolsFor the last three years, the virtual currency has struggled with wild price fluctuations that hit more than $1,100, a murky regulatory status and its use on the Internet's dark side, including drug sales.Though the price fell to $337.93 on Wednesday, the recent rally has renewed more favorable attention on the virtual currency than it faced early last year in the collapse of the biggest bitcoin exchange, Mt.preço bitcoin hoje

Gox.The price of a bitcoin surged passed the $400 mark last week for the first time in more than a year before pulling back, but it's still up 25% in the last month and more than 72% from its January lows.Although the reasons for the recent rally are unclear, analysts point to an upsurge in bitcoin trading in China as one reason for the growing momentum, saying the surge may reflect attempts to move money out of the country as the economy slows and financial markets fluctuate.Luria said the price bump also may have been partly driven by recent Chinese regulatory changes allowing for easier transfer of money out of conventional bank accounts to bitcoin exchanges.But he said deeper currents also have been pushing up the price."The long-term price is driven by how many people use it for actual economic applications," he said."The price of bitcoin has sort of caught up to the usage."Inhis report, Luria said that the number of bitcoin transactions per month has grown from about 1 million in October 2012 to more than 4 million last month, and he forecasted a price target of $600 a year from now.

He estimated that the market for online payments, money transfers and other uses for bitcoin will grow from about $8.6 billion last year to about twice that by 2025."Thefluctuations that happen day-to-day don't matter," said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, a nonprofit virtual currency research center, noting that deeper trends are embedding the currency in the economy."It's part of a long march toward normalcy."Undera federal court order last week, the U.S.Marshals Service sold 44,341 bitcoins worth more than $17 million in its fourth bitcoin auction of assets seized in the prosecution of Ross Ulbricht, founder of the online black market Silk Road.The government sale of bitcoins is seen as one more mark of legitimacy for the currency as a store of value.Also, in a September enforcement action against San Francisco start-up Coinflip Inc., the Commodity Futures Trading Commission referred to bitcoin as a commodity, lending further regulatory legitimacy to the currency, observers said.Meanwhile, prominent new players are entering the business, led by the opening last month of Gemini, a new Bitcoin exchange backed by Internet entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.To be sure, Bitcoin has a long way to go.

The total value of bitcoins is still a little more than $6 billion, a rounding error in the multitrillion-dollar currency markets.As a decentralized digital currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to operate without a central authority, bitcoin potentially has a large effect on the international money exchange and transmission business now dominated by big banks and players such as PayPal and Western Union.Meantime, the blockchain technology has even wider applications.The blockchain is a giant ledger, or spreadsheet, that anyone with an Internet connection can access.However, its entries can't be changed, only added to, allowing transactions to be tracked permanently and theoretically enabling the low-cost, verified exchange of a wide range of assets.A start-up, OneName, has garnered attention with technology that aims to allow users to claim a single, secure identity that can be used across the Internet.This year, the Nasdaq Stock Market launched a pilot ledger, known as Nasdaq Linq, using the blockchain to keep track of and transfer the securities of non-public companies.

, which is providing blockchain technology for the exchange, said the idea was a natural extension to tracking and transferring virtual money."Whatwe're saying is, why shouldn't other assets function this way?"he said.A report released Wednesday said that major banks could start using blockchain technology to track syndicated loans as early as next year.The report, by New York research firm Tabb Group, said the use of the blockchain for such complex tasks as securities trading is probably a decade away but the potential for the technology is nonetheless far-reaching.A consortium of major banks led by financial technology firm R3 is developing a framework for applying blockchain technology to capital markets.In September, the consortium added Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, bringing membership to more than 20.Meanwhile, states are positioning themselves as the most hospitable environment for bitcoin start-ups while protecting consumers against blowups.New York this year issued its much-anticipated BitLicense, but then suffered a backlash amid industry complaints that the license's requirements were ambiguous and unduly onerous.In California, Assemblyman Matt Dababneh (D-Encino) introduced a bitcoin licensing bill that has gained widespread, if not universal, industry support.