The two largest bitcoin exchanges currently available to investors, Bitstamp and BTC-e, both stand to gain market share in the wake of Mt.But some are questioning the safety in using the largely anonymous exchange BTC-e.Not much is known about BTC-e besides its size and some scant information on its website.There\’s evidence that BTC-e is already benefiting from the Mt.Gox halt; a Tuesday update on BTC-e\’s support website noted that the support system would be moved to a new platform \”in order to cope with the increased number of client requests.\” But who runs it, and from where?The terms of use on the exchange\’s website say it is governed by the laws applicable in Cyprus but the website\’s description on Google says the exchange is based in Bulgaria.The support system\’s latest updates are presented in Russian and English.The founders of the BTC-e bitcoin exchange have taken pains to remain anonymous, giving only the names Aleksey and Alexander in a December interview with CoinDesk.

Users are unable to send a message to the site\’s administrator.bitcoin baseball capWhen one tries, as this reporter did, a window pops up with this response: \”Please use tickets to contact us about any questions & problems.\” There is no email address easily available on the website.bitcoin berkeleyBTC-e did not respond to requests for comment sent through the support system and a Twitter account purporting to be from the exchange.litecoin hash rate testInterestingly, the handle @btcecom, on Wednesday only followed one Twitter account — that of Charlie Shrem, the New York-based bitcoin entrepreneur arrested in late January on charges of alleged links to the bitcoin-only drug market Silk Road.wie entsteht bitcoin

The account now follows no one.Zachary Collier, who works as an application developer in Pueblo, Colo., questioned BTC-e\’s legitimacy in a post on Reddit that has nearly 300 comments.bitcoin foundation pdfCollier, 25, told MarketWatch he started using the exchange more than a year ago because it was one of the first to support litecoin, a derivative of bitcoin.bitcoin difficulty chart over time\”I took the risk so I could [convert] some of my cryptocurrencies into litecoin,\” he said in a phone interview, adding that he doesn\’t keep his funds on the exchange.raspberry pi bitcoin projectRead: To secure your bitcoins, print them out \”If we don\’t know their identities, we can\’t really know anything else about the exchange,\” he said in a phone interview.bitcoin sgd chart

One of his biggest concerns is BTC-e\’s unknown location.bitcoin stl\”Some people think it\’s in Bulgaria.There\’s a good chance it\’s in Russia,\” he said.A location in Russia could be problematic because authorities there have come out against bitcoin, he added.Jeremy Liew, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners who has invested in the Chinese bitcoin exchange BTCChina, predicted a more dire outcome for those switching to BTC-e in a tweet.He testified at the virtual currency hearings in New York earlier this year.Collier said he hasn\’t had a problem with the BTC-e exchange so far.Still, he\’s worried about people placing \”undue\” trust in the exchange and assuming their money will be safe, he said.\”Kind of the same thing that happened with [Mt.] Gox; a lot of people who thought it would never go away,\” said Collier.Read more about bitcoin on MarketWatch: Bitcoin prices recover; Mt.Gox says leave us alone Who are the big investors in bitcoin ventures?

Why the digital currency bitcoin may be more secure in analog formCheck the RHB you tube channel Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part More » New kind of money!Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network.More » Learn about Alt-Coins networked peers persist in running a forked version of Bitcoin with alternative consensus rules, and—therefore—a new alternative blockchain, these peers will effectively be running a new cryptocurrency.This new blockchain will account for holdings of a new scarce token often called an “alt-coin.” Some notable examples of alt-coins forked from Bitcoin’s original code include Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Peercoin.More » EARN FREE BITCOIN EVERYDAY!Use the Ryan Hustle B Faucet and claim your free Bitcoins!Bitcoin is a crypto-currency that functions as a peer-to-peer digital currency without the intermediation of a central authority.

Lately, with the price surging, it has generated a great deal of interest with investors and parties interested to get in to the Bitcoin market.But Bitcoin is actually not the only option.If you know nothing about Bitcoin and digital currencies in the virtual world of crypto-currencies, here’s a short verdict: Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that uses cryptography to control transactions and subject entirely to the market forces of supply and demand.As long as there is demand, it will possess value.It establishes ownership through peer-to-peer network, and every transaction is permanently recorded in a public ledger known as Blockchain.We will highlight a list of the top alternatives and the biggest differences between the crypto-currencies.Litecoin was created in 2011 based on Bitcoin’s open source code.The currency caught on rapidly as it was easier to mine compared to Bitcoin – two and a half minutes rather than Bitcoin’s ten minutes to process a block.It uses the Scrypt hash algorithm for mining, so ASIC machines customised to solve SHA-256 hashes for Bitcoin does not exist for Litecoin.

Another reason for it’s popularity as an alternative to Bitcoin is that it is among the least difficult crypto-currency to mine at the moment.The Litecoin network will produce up to 84 million Litecoins, as much as four times as many currency units as will be issued by Bitcoin.Because the number of Litecoins will eventually exceed Bitcoin, speculators assume that it will eventually have 1/4th of the total value.So that if Bitcoin rises to $1000, Litecoin may rise to $250.Peercoin launched in 2012, is the first to implement crypto-currency based on a combined proof-of-stake / proof-of work for added security, which acts as an economic measure to deter malicious attack on the network by requiring a requester to show ownership of the currency during transactions.It is the third largest crypto-currency and unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, Peercoin does not have a limit on the number of possible coins.It is designed to eventually attain an annual inflation of 1 percent, which allow for greater long-term scalability.

Novacoin is the second known crypto-currency to be based on the implementation of proof-of-stake / proof-of-work hybrid system.Launched recently on 2013, Novacoin uses the Scrypt hash algorithm similar to Litecoin.It is performing pretty well, with a higher value than Litecoin and lower difficulty on the network.Feathercoin came in to the market quite recently, introduced in 2013.It produces 16 times as much coins as Bitcoin for each block solved.The Feathercoin network will cap at around 336 million coins.Compared to other crypto-currencies, it is relatively easier to solve blocks.Similar to Litecoin, Feathercoin uses the Scrypt hash algorithm for proof-of-work.Terracoin which was released in 2012 uses the SHA-256 hash algorithm similar to Bitcoin.So after some time of mining by application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines, it will have a very high difficulty level for solving blocks compared to those crypto-currencies using the Scrypt based algorithm.The limit on the number of Terracoins is 42 million.