Cryptocurrency round-up: NYSE launches bitcoin index and 21 Inc announces smartphone miners May 19, 2015 15:49 BST Dogecoin has experienced a price surge over the last 24 hours, rising by more than 3% to take its market cap up towards $12m.Most other major cryptocurrencies saw negative movement since yesterday, with bitcoin, litecoin and dash (formerly darkcoin) falling in price by between 0.5% and 2.5%.Bitcoin startup 21 Inc plans to transform smartphones into bitcoin miners21 Inc, the secretive startup that has raised around $116m in funding, has announced that it plans to create a line of embeddable chips that allow consumer devices to mine bitcoin.In a blogpost, 21 Inc CEO Balaji Srinivasan described how bitcoin could be used for device authentication, as well as generating a continuous stream of digital currency."Aftermuch hard work, we've created an embeddable mining chip which we call the BitShare that comes in a variety of form factors," Srinivasan said."The21 BitShare can be embedded into an internet-connected device as a standalone chip or integrated into an existing chipset as a block of IP to generate a continuous stream of digital currency for use in a wide variety of applications."At

21 we are less concerned with bitcoin as a financial instrument and more interested in bitcoin as a protocol — and particularly in the industrial uses of bitcoin enabled by embedded mining."NYSElaunches bitcoin price indexThe New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has announced the launch of the first ever exchange-calculated bitcoin index.tesla motors bitcoinThe NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) measures the price of bitcoin against the US dollar based on approved bitcoin exchange transactions."Bitcoinbitcoin mining equipment canadavalues are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class," said NYSE Group President Thomas Farley."Asbitcoin warren buffett

a global index leader and administrator of ICE LIBOR, ICE Futures U.S.Dollar Index and many other notable benchmarks, we are pleased to bring transparency to this market."Bycombining our technology infrastructure with our expertise in index calculation and data management, we will continue to launch complimentary products based on our rigorous standards and proprietary index methodology."php bitcoin nodeBitcoin, the world’s most famous cryptocurrency, is poised to reach a major milestone before the end of the year: 100 million transactions.bitcoin borsen deutschlandAs of the morning of December 23, it sits at 99.7 million, with the landmark due in the next two days, and for a virtual currency that has the support of no central bank or government, it’s a remarkable feat.wwdc bitcoin

“Without a doubt, bitcoin was the strongest and fastest-growing currency in 2015,” says Sebastián Serrano, CEO and co-founder of payments processor BitPagos, which has thousands of partners in Argentina, Latin America, and Europe.ethereum app walletSince its inception in January 2009, bitcoin’s growth has skyrocketed.bitcoin blockchain download 2015While the first 50 million transactions took place during the first six years, the rest took place in 2015 alone.paypal bitcoin donationThis year’s Black Friday eve saw the highest volume of bitcoins traded in as single day, 2.86 million.That is over US$1 billion, based on that day’s average exchange rate.For Nubis Bruno, entrepreneur and CPO at bitcoin trading-platform Bitex.la, bitcoin’s performance was to be expected: “It’s following the adoption curve of other disruptive technologies when it comes to promotion.” However, he warns that there is “a long transition phase for people who discover bitcoin before they learn how to use it and do so.” Also, “businesses offering bitcoin-related services have had enough time to mature, and regulatory agencies are gradually reducing uncertainty about how they will treat bitcoin.” In a clear demonstration of support, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) launched a bitcoin price index in May.

“We are now going to use our name, reputation, and stature as a global index provider to give bitcoin values that the rest of the market can look to,” announced NYSE’s President Tom Farley.Reputation is a crucial component of bitcoin, “because it’s a currency that does not depend on any bank or state entity, what gives the network its strength is users’ acceptance and trust.” It wasn’t only bitcoin transactions that increased in 2015.Investors injected more than US$1 billion into bitcoin start-ups, almost tripling last year’s funding.Some of the world’s largest finance players ventured into bitcoin: BBVA bank, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Master Card, and even semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm.In January, bitcoin exchange Coinbase alone managed to collect US$75 million, the biggest yet for a bitcoin firm.But it was quickly dethroned by 21 Inc., which obtained $116 million from angel investors.In September, the firm delivered: it launched the first computer specifically designed to interact with the bitcoin network.

The most discussed aspect of bitcoin in 2015, however, was neither the funding nor its price.Blockchain, the underlying ledger that keeps track of every bitcoin transaction, was the subject of much debate in the community.Developers, activists, and entrepreneurs alike pondered whether the network should limit the number of transactions to avoid scalability problems in the future.No one controls bitcoin, so reaching a consensus on changes is critical.But not only insiders debated the essential technology.The banking system showed interest in adopting the blockchain, not the currency, to handle their transactions more efficiently and cheaply.Giants like JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Scotland Royal Bank decided to invest heavily in creating a partnership to set up a “private blockchain.” British bank Barclays funded three blockchain start-ups, and a Deutsche Bank official said the blockchain could “revolutionize finance,” given that “the speed of execution is so much faster for securities settlement.