استلار چیست
استلار در سال ۲۰۱۴ و با ماهیتی تقریباً مشابه با ریپل متولد شد. جالب است بدانید که استلار را در واقع میتوان شاخه یا فورک ریپل دانست. جد مک کالب، بنیانگذار ارشد ریپل با چند نفر از توسعه دهندگان بر سر مسائلی اختلاف نظر داشت که باعث شد در نهایت جد مک کالب ریپل را رها و روی استلار کار کند. در حالی که ریپل به ارائه راه حل برای انتقال بین بانکهای سراسر جهان متمرکز است، استلار قصد تسهیل پرداختهای بین افراد را در سراسر جهان دارد. اما تقریباً شیوه کار هر دو یکی است. لومن (XLM)، واحد ارز استفاده شده در شبکه استلار است و ۱۰۰ میلیارد از آن ایجاد شدهاست که رفته رفته و به صورت خودکار به بازار عرضه میشود. هر تراکنش در شبکه استلار فقط ۰٫۰۰۰۱ کارمزد دارد و کمتر از ۶ ثانیه انجام میشود. در سایت رسمی، استلار خود را یک زیربنای پرداخت متن باز و توزیع شده معرفی میکند. پروتکل آنها با استفاده از پرداختهای برون مرزی، امکان تبادل با ارزهای سنتی و با تبدیل خودکار را بین مردم سراسر جهان فراهم میکند. شبکه استلار غیرمتمرکز است اما مانند ریپل و برخلاف بیت کوین روی بلاک چینفعالیت نمیکند. ارز شبکه استلار یا همان لومن قابل استخراج نیست و توسط شرکت مقدار مشخصی ایجاد شدهاست. به جز استفاده به عنوان ارز دیجیتال با کارمزد کم و سرعت بالا، استلار فراتر از یک ارز دیجیتال است. سازمانهایی مانند بانک و سیستمهای مالی که اصطلاحاً در شبکه به آن انچر (Anchors) گفته میشود در شبکه ارتباطات را بررسی میکنند. انچرها نهادهای قابل اعتمادی هستند که نقش پلهای ارتباطی را در شبکه استلار را ایفا میکند. مثلاً شما در آمریکا و دوست شما در فرانسه است و از شما درخواست پرداخت ۱۰۰ یورو میکند. شما میتوانید از شبکه استلار استفاده کنید و معادل دلاری را برای دوستتان بفرستید. این پول در بانک فرانسه کاملاً خودکار تبدیل به یورو خواهد شد و به دست دوستتان خواهد رسید. پس استلار میتواند مانند بقیه ارزهای دیجیتال در ولتها جابهجا شود یا از شبکه آن برای پرداختهای ارزی دیگر استفاده شود. بنیانگذار شبکه استلار بنیانگذار استلار فردی به نام مک کالب است که به دلیل مشکلاتی که با گروه ریپل پیدا کرده بود، آنجا را ترک کرد. با وجود تشابهات ساختاری استلار با ریپل تفاوتهایی میان این دو وجود دارد. برای نمونه، برخلاف ریپل شما برای عضویت در استلار نیازی به تأیید هویت ندارید و البته استلار بیشتر در میان افراد و عموم استفاده میشود. از طرفی استلار یک شرکت غیرانتفاعی و معاف از مالیات است. رمزارز استلار شبکه استلار ارزی بهنام لومن (XLM) دارد که برای پرداخت کارمزدها از آن استفاده میشود. پرداخت در استلار از کارمزد بسیار پایینی (XLM 0.00001) برخوردار است که در مقایسه با بیت کوین هزینهای ندارد. برطبق قانونی که در استلار وجود دارد هر کاربر باید حداقل یک لومن (XLM) در حساب خود داشته باشد تا بتواند از خدمات استفاده کند (بر خلاف ریپل که نیاز به 20 XRP میباشد). علاوه بر این، پلتفرم استلار از سطح امنیت بالایی نیز برخوردار است. سرعت تراکنش در شبکه استلار بین ۳ تا ۵ ثانیه میباشد و این شبکه توانایی پردازش ۱۰۰۰۰ تراکنش بر ثانیه را دارد. مزایای استلار یکی از فواید استلار را میتوان در کشورهای در حال توسعه دید. کشورهای در حال توسعه یا کشورهایی که با تحریم روبهرو هستند و برای انجام معاملات تجاری خود و دستیابی به سرویسهای مالی مشکل دارند، میتوانند از استلار استفاده کنند. از دیگر فواید استلار میتوان به تبدیل ارز دیجیتال به پول رایج کشوری اشاره کرد. بسیاری از افراد یا سرمایهگذاران ممکن است در ارتباطات خود به یک نوع ارز خاص نیاز داشته باشند و پلتفرم مالی استلار به دلیل ارتباط با بانکهای بزرگ دنیا و شراکت با کمپانی IBM توانسته در این زمینه پیشگام باشد. خرید استلار و فروش استلار برای خرید و فروش استلار لومن، صرافیهای رمزارزی وجود دارند که شما میتوانید با ارزهایی چون دلار، یورو یا حتی بیت کوین ارز خود را خریداری کنید. استلار از ارزش بازاری مناسبی برخوردار است و میتوان آن را در میان ده ارز دیجیتال برتر یافت. کراکن kraken یکی از صرافیهایی است که خریدوفروش استلار لومن انجام میدهد. این صرافی از امنیت خوبی برخوردار است و برای خرید از آن ابتدا باید با استفاده از پول رایج کشوری احراز هویت صورت گیرد. از دیگر امکانات این صرافی میتوان به اتصال حساب بانکی بینالمللی به حساب موجود در صرافی اشاره کرد. به دلیل جدید بودن استلار نمیتوان فرمول مخصوصی برای رشد ارزش آن در نظر گرفت. بااینحال استلار از سال ۲۰۱۷ همانند ارزهای دیگر، رشدی صعودی داشته و در زمانی مشابه با ارزهای دیگر دچار کاهش ارزش شدهاست. منابع: ویکیپدیا
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ترون چیست
ترون (Tron) نوعی سیستم سرگرمی غیرمتمرکز و پلتفرمی برای اشتراک گذاری محتوا است که با استفاده از تکنولوژی بلاک چین و شبکه همتا به همتا (Peer to Peer) کار میکند. این پروتکل به تمامی کاربران امکان انتشار، ذخیره سازی و مالکیت دیتا و محتوا را بصورت کاملاً رایگان، غیرمتمرکز و خودکار میدهد. میتوانید Tron را به عنوان نسل بعدی شبکه های اجتماعی در نظر بگیرید که با استفاده از آن میتوانید محتوا تولید کنید و آن را با دیگر افراد در هر نقطه از دنیا به اشتراک بگذارید. ترونیکس یا TRX واحد اصلی حساب ها در بلاک چین ترون است و در واقع پولی است که برای تولید محتوا به شما داده میشود. این ارز رمزنگاری شده با نماد TRX شناخته میشود. در این مقاله ما شما را با ارز دیجیتال ترون و ویژگی های مختلف آن آشنا خواهیم نمود. معرفی ارز دیجیتال ترونبرای درک بهتر ارز دیجیتال ترون بهتر است که از مبانی اولیه آن آغاز کنیم. پروتکل TRON در میان بزرگ ترین سیستم عامل های مبتنی بر بلاک چین دنیا قرار دارد. این شبکه بسیار مقیاس پذیر و دارای توان عملیاتی زیادی است. یکی از محتواهای تولیدی توسط ترون برنامه های غیرمتمرکز (DApps) است. ترون قادر به پشتیبانی طیف گستردهای از برنامه های غیرمتمرکز در شبکه خود میباشد. افرادی که طرفدار شبکههای اجتماعی، بازیها و دیگر سرگرمی های آنلاین هستند در آینده حتماً از کارایی شبکه ترون لذت خواهند برد. در حقیقت کاربران با استفاده از شبکه Tron میتوانند اپلیکیشن و برنامههای غیرمتمرکز برای این سرگرمی ها را بسازند. با استفاده از ارز دیجیتال Tron نه تنها شما میتوانید محتوای تولیدی خود را با دیگران به اشتراک بگذارید، بلکه به شما به عنوان تولید کننده محتوا و دیتا پاداش نیز داده خواهد شد. این مدل دقیقا نقطه مقابل عملکرد شبکه های اجتماعی سنتی همانند فیسبوک است که در آن از محتوای تولیدی کاربران برای بدست آوردن منافع خود شبکه استفاده میشود. اما وقتی شما از ارز رمز پایه ترون استفاده میکنید کنترل دیتای شما دست خودتان است و برای دیتا و محتوا تولیدی به شما پاداش داده خواهد شد. Tron اهداف بلند مدتی دارد که از 6 فاز تشکیل شده و گفته میشود که توسعه آن تا سال 2027 میلادی طول خواهد کشید. ترونیکس یا TRX چیست؟ترونیکس یا TRX ارز دیجیتال بومی بلاک چین ترون است. ترونیکس اولین بار در سپتامبر سال 2017 میلادی زمانی که ترون توانست توسط عرضه اولیه سکه (ICO) موفق خود بیش از 70 میلیون دلار سرمایه اولیه جمعآوری کند، ارائه شد. در آن زمان TRX توکنی بود که روی پروتکل ERC20 (بلاکچین اتریوم) اجرا میشد. کمتر از یکسال بعد از عرضه اولیه سکه ترون و با توسعه بلاک چین آن، این ارز دیجیتال شبکه اصلی خود را ساخت و توکن ترونیکس از بلاک چین اتریوم به بلاکچین انحصاری Tron منتقل شد. به همین دلیل نیز ترونیکس یک کوین محسوب می شود نه توکن ! Tron شبکه انحصاری خود را در 25 ژوئن سال 2018 میلادی ایجاد کرد که این روز به عنوان روز استقلال ترون شناخته میشود و ترون هر ساله قرار است آن را جشن بگیرد. در حال حاضر ترون هنوز در حال جمعآوری توکن های ERC20 خود و سوزاندن آنها است تا تنها کوین های موجود در شبکه اصلی ترون باقی بمانند. خرید ترون | فروش ترون منظور از توکن های TRC10 و TRC20 چیست؟براساس تعریفی که در وب سایت Tron آمده “TRC10” استانداردی فنی است که توسط بلاک چین ترون و بدون نیاز به ماشین مجازی ترون (TRON Virtual Machine) پشتیبانی میشود. اما “TRC20” استانداردی فنی است که برای قراردادهای هوشمند و بکارگیری ماشین مجازی ترون از آن استفاده میشود. امکان ساخت و عرضه توکنهای TRC10 دلخواه در شبکه TRON به قیمت 1024 TRX برای کاربران وجود دارد. در این حالت سازندگان توکن نیاز به هیچ گونه دانش برنامه نویسی برای ساخت توکن خود ندارند و فرآیند ساخت توکن بسیار ساده است. یکی از شناخته شده ترین توکن های TRC10 توکن بیت تورنت (BTT) است. در توکنهای TRC20 امکان استفاده از قراردادهای هوشمند با استفاده از ماشین مجازی TRON وجود دارد. توکن ها بطور کامل با توکن های ERC20 سازگار هستند و در نتیجه به توسعه دهندگان اجازه میدهد که قراردادهای اتریوم خود را به شبکه ترون منتقل کنند. قراردادهای هوشمند امکانات نامحدودی دارند و تخریدوکنهای TRC20 ویژگیهایی دارند که در توکنهای TRC10 وجود ندارد. با این حال پیاده سازی توکن های TRC20 بسیار پیچیدهتر از توکن های TRC10 است. یکی از شناخته شده ترین توکنهای TRC20 توکن ANTE است که در پلتفرم محبوب TRONbet استفاده میشود. منبع: ایسیگنال The Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) consortium, which is charged with helping develop the protocols for a privacy-focused European Union contact tracing system, has removed any mention of the decentralized protocol proposal Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP3T) from its website.
Contact tracing is the process by which health authorities track the spread of viruses, identifying who has been in contact with infected individuals and should therefore be quarantined. Countries are pursuing a variety of digital methods of doing so, ranging from location tracking of cell phones and facial recognition, to digital health passes that restrict movement and Bluetooth proximity tracing. Last weekend, Google and Apple announced a plan to update their mobile operating systems to allow Bluetooth tracing. Any E.U. contact tracing would have to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which ensures greater privacy and data protection for EU citizens than is currently enforced in the U.S. See also: Europe Debates COVID-19 Contact Tracing That Respects Privacy The DP3T team, which outlined its proposal to CoinDesk earlier this week, was not told the protocol was being removed from the site, and was not invited to attend a PEPP-PT call Friday with the consortium's various partners, according to three sources familiar with the matter. “We found this in the morning, so far with no comment from them,” said someone close to the DP3T negotiations. "There are also other changes that smell centralized, and we don't know what the German government means when they say they plan on implementing ‘PEPP-PT architecture’ as now there is nothing. This seems very worrisome, and that they may implement something that has not been publicly reviewed.” It’s now unclear what a PEPP-PT protocol might look like, as the consortium website, while listing general guidelines, does not offer concrete proposals, only general principles. A CENTRALIZED APPROACH HAS MORE PRIVACY RISKS, AS WELL AS THE POTENTIAL FOR THE RE-APPROPRIATION OF DATA FOR OTHER PURPOSES, LIKE STATE SURVEILLANCE. CoinDesk reached out to the PEPP-PT contact listed on the initial press release, who did not return a request for comment by the time of publication. The difference between decentralized and centralized systems are not benign in this context. As CoinDesk has written about previously, a centralized approach has more privacy risks, as well as the potential for the re-appropriation of data for other purposes, like state surveillance, the researchers say. Because of this, designers of the DP3T protocol say their design would encourage more trust in the apps built on the protocol, making them more likely to be downloaded and therefore more effective. In Germany, the government has said it will be rolling out an app in a matter of weeks, according to the Financial Times, but exactly what app that will be is unclear. The backers of Healthy Together, one of the German app options, have focused on the app’s data protection measures, based on the PEPP-PT framework. It does not involve geolocation data, but Bluetooth proximity tracking, that would be processed locally on users’ phones. But Linus Neumann of the Chaos Computer Club, the largest hacker network in Europe, told the Financial Times that the app’s anonymity could be compromised with minimal changes. See also: For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple Kenneth Paterson, who is a professor at the Applied Cryptography Group at the ETH Zurich Computer Science Department and is working on the DP3T proposal, said he can’t be sure what PEPP-PT is building now. “Their system is closed and not open to review by external experts. We can’t look at a specification,” said Paterson. “We can’t look at code. So the system could be full of bugs. It could have a backdoor for the security services. No one outside their closed project can tell.” “This opens the gates to privacy hell: It could give governments the ability to build the ‘social graph’ for everyone who downloads the app, i.e., they could trivially figure out who is in close proximity to whom. To be useful in tracking Covid-19, the apps would have to be taken up by at least 60 percent of the population, according to a paper published in Science. This all then becomes a wet dream for security services.” This story is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available. امنیت و ناشناس بودن در حوزه ارزهای دیجیتال از مواردی هستند که برای افراد فعال در این حوزه اهمیت زیادی دارند. معمولا به هنگام انتخاب کیف پول، یکی از اولین سوالهایی که مطرح میشود مربوط به امنیت کیف پول است و اینکه با انتخاب کردن کدام کیف پول میتوان از ایمن بودن داراییهای کریپتویی مطمئن بود. طرفداران واقعبین بیت کوین قبول دارند که پروتکل این ارز دیجیتال محبوب میتوانست میزان ناشناسی بیشتری فراهم کند و به همین دلیل، به دنبال کیف پولی هستند که بتواند این کاملا ناشناس نبودن تراکنشهای بیت کوین را جبران کند. یکی از کیف پولهایی که مدعی سطح بالایی است ناشناسی است، کیف پول Wasabi است. کیف پولی که در حال حاضر فقط نسخه دستکتاپ دارد و موفق باشه با ارائه امکاناتی که مورد علاقه کاربران است، توجه بسیاری از آنها را به خود جلب کند. در این مطلب قصد داریم شما را با کیف پول واسابی آشنا کنیم و نحوه نصب و کار با این کیف پول را باهم مرور کنیم. در ادامه با ما همراه باشید. کیف پول واسابی چطور ساخته شد؟ در اولین مرحله برای ساخت کیف پول واسابی باید یک اسم برای کیف پول خود انتخاب کنید و یک کلمه عبور تعیین کنید. سپس با رفتن به مرحله بعد، ۱۲ کلمه بازیابی برای شما به نمایش درمیآید که باید آنها را در جای مطمئنی یادداشت کنید. شما میتوانید کیف پول خود را روی هر سیستم دیگری به کمک این کلمات بازیابی و کلمه عبور خود، بازیابی کنید همانطور که در تصاویر مشاهده میکنید، در منوی سمت چپ گزینه Recovery Wallet وجود دارد که با استفاده از آن و داشتن عبارات بازیابی و کلمه عبور، میتوانید کیف پول خود را روی هر سیستمی بازیابی کنید.
گزینه بعدی Load Wallet است که با کلیک بر روی آن میتوانید لیست کیف پولهای خود را مشاهده کنید. گزینه بعدی Test Password است. با کلیک بر روی آن میتوانید امن بودن پسورد هر کدام از کیف پولهای خود را تست کنید. آخرین گزینه هم Hardware Wallet است. در این گزینه توضیح داده شده که در حال حاضر هیچکدام از کیف پولهای سختافزاری با قابلیت CoinJoin سازگاری ندارند. همچنین گفته شده که کیف پولهای سخت افزاری Coldcard, Ledger Nano S, Trezor One و Trezor T توسط کیف پول Wasabi پشتیبانی میشوند. جمع بندی نهایی شاید نکاتی که در مورد کیف پول Wasabi گفته شد، کمی برای افراد تازهکار پیچیده به نظر بیاید. شاید بهتر باشد بگوییم این کیف پول دقیقا همان کیف پولی است که بیتکوینرهای حرفهای از کار با آن و قابلیتهایش لذت میبرند. البته در نظر داشته باشید توضیحاتی که درباره ویژگیهای امنیتی کیف پول واسابی ارائه شد، هیچ تعارضی با ساده بودن کار کردن با این کیف پول ندارد. اگر تازه پا به حوزه ارزهای دیجیتال گذاشتهاید، قبل از انجام هر کار دیگری دانش و اطلاعات خود در این زمینه را بالا ببرید و سپس، کیف پولی را انتخاب کنید که بهترین تناسب با نیازهای شما را داشته باشد. فراموش نکنید نظرات خود درباره استفاده از کیف پول Wasabi را با ما درمیان بگذارید. منبع: میهن بلاکچین بیشتر بخوانید: پای نتورک (PI Network) ؛ آماده سازی بستر کلاهبرداری با قابلیت استخراج از طریق گوشی!سرمایهگذاری در طلا بدون نگهداری فیزیکی؛ معرفی ۳ ارز دیجیتال برتر با پشتوانه طلا آموزش کامل استخراج اتریوم + معرفی بهترین کارت گرافیکهای ماینینگ ارز دیجیتال ملی فرانسه Josh Lawler is a partner at Zuber Lawler, which focuses on mergers & acquisitions, securities law and technology transactions.
Everyone played the game of “Telephone” as a kid. The first kid says something in a whisper to the next kid who whispers to the next and so on until the last kid states what they heard whispered to them. Predictably, that last iteration is significantly different from the original message. Telephone is fun as a kid, but it doesn’t translate well to judicial interpretation. In ruling against Telegram and its plans to launch the gram cryptocurrency, the District Court of the Southern District of New York stitched together disparate securities law concepts to arrive at a scrambled, incorrect conclusion that could further dismantle development of blockchain projects in the United States. Telegram runs an extremely popular (300 million+ users) messaging application. In 2017, Telegram sought to build on the popularity of their messaging application by constructing the “Telegram Open Network” (“TON”), a blockchain-based platform to support a token (a “gram”) to facilitate commerce within the Telegram application. Telegram then conducted a typical 506(c) private placement to fund the TON project. Selling to 175 “Accredited Investors” (the “Initial Purchasers”) forward contracts for delivery of grams once the TON was sufficiently functional to support their use. That was an offering of securities. See also: Russian Oligarch, Ex-Cabinet Minister Invested in Telegram’s ICO, Court Filing Says More than a year later, Telegram sought to make good on its obligations by delivering the grams. The SEC then sought to enjoin distribution of the grams as an unregistered public offering of securities. Telegram disagreed. The court sided with the SEC. By implication, it also ruled against every blockchain project financed through forward contracts to deliver tokens (a substantial number). If it stands on appeal, the ruling obliterates the private sale of tokens as a method of financing a public blockchain project, further stymying innovation in the US in this critical space. A Tale of Two DoctrinesIn brief, the Securities Act of 1933 prohibits a security issuer from conducting an unregistered public sale of securities. Less well known in the crypto-sphere, the act also prohibits a person who purchases securities from an issuer with intent to resell them (an “underwriter”) from conducting an unregistered public sale. Finally, if an issuer sells securities to an underwriter, the issuer and the underwriter both violate the act when the underwriter publicly offers those securities to third-parties. BY IMPLICATION, IT ALSO RULED AGAINST EVERY BLOCKCHAIN PROJECT FINANCED THROUGH FORWARD CONTRACTS TO DELIVER TOKENS. Whether a gram is a security depends on whether it is an investment contract. Per the now infamous Howey Test, an “investment contract” is “a contract . . . whereby a person invests . . . in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits. . . from the efforts of . . . a third party.” The analysis turns on the “expectation” of the purchaser and is unique in securities regulation in being a subjective test. In this case, the court weighed carefully the subjective intent of the Initial Purchasers, but not of the third-parties to whom the Initial Purchasers would (if not enjoined) sell the grams following delivery by Telegram. To do so would be impossible; they do not yet exist. See also: Devs Plot Launch of Telegram’s Blockchain Without Company’s Involvement The grams have a use case (at least the Court’s ruling cites no evidence otherwise). The purchaser could use a gram for its intended purpose in a blockchain protocol that would launch prior to the distribution of grams. It is flat out wrong for the court to conduct the Howey analysis based only on the forward contract and then to extrapolate their result to the grams. In fact, guidance to this point focuses strongly on whether at the time of sale a digital asset can be used in a live protocol. That is why Telegram structured its sale of forward contracts and grams as it did. Barrier to Public BlockchainsThe ruling stymies blockchain functionality. Blockchain functionality rests on the efforts of a multitude of actors incentivized to be trustworthy. The incentive is typically tokens which have a value. The participants would not value those tokens unless they can (a) use them for their intended purpose, or (b) convert them into fiat currency. One cannot divorce the tokens from the characteristic of having value convertible to fiat currency. Moreover, the validity and usefulness of a decentralized protocol requires widespread token distribution. Accordingly, a developer of a blockchain system must distribute those tokens widely. If every token of value is a “security,” token distribution becomes extremely difficult. Up until the Telegram ruling, a project would initially sell their tokens in a securities law-compliant private or overseas offering. The purchasers then sit through the holding period mandated by the 1933 Act. Thereafter, those purchasers might resell the tokens, often through listing on an exchange. See also: Telegram Appeals Court Ruling Barring Gram Token Distribution In ruling that an Initial Purchaser in a private transaction will be an “underwriter,” irrespective of whether they hold the tokens for the previously sufficient holding period, the court precludes the last meaningful securities law compliant method to widely distribute tokens (that is, absent filing a registration statement or offering circular with the SEC, a very time-consuming and expensive process). It’s the Use Case, StupidThe gram is just software code. People buy and sell software in a multitude of contexts, few of which are sales of securities. The designation “software code” covers a wide range of items with a wide range of uses. Consider that much of the software industry operates through the sale of software to a value-added reseller (“VAR”). The VAR resells the software to an end-user for profit. Sound familiar? Is the software a security? The Howey test says yes. Is the VAR an underwriter? The ruling would find that it is. Howey Test aside, the conclusion is ridiculous. Cross your fingers that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recognizes the fallacy in the District Court Ruling. source: coindesk The Bitcoin halving will take place sometime in May 2020. What is the halving, how will it affect the price, and what does it mean for miners and the cryptocurrency's long-term prospects? Here's everything you need to know.
“The halvening" sounds like a horror movie about an ax murderer. But it's actually the nickname for one of the most hotly anticipated events in Bitcoin’s history. Sometime in May, the number of bitcoins (BTC) entering circulation every 10 minutes (known as block rewards) will drop by half, to 6.25 from 12.5. It's a milestone that's easy to see coming because it happens every four years and has happened twice before. The allure of possible riches is what's drawing so much attention to the upcoming event, which is more commonly referred to as the halving (some wags like to add the “en” to make it sound ominous). The amount of supply entering the system will suddenly shrink, but the demand will, in theory, stay the same, possibly driving up the cryptocurrency’s price. As such, the event has inspired passionate debate about bitcoin price predictions and how the market will respond. Explore these other stories on Bitcoin Halving 2020:
But the periodic decline in Bitcoin’s minting rate could have a deeper significance than any near-term price movements for the functioning of the currency. The block reward is an important component of Bitcoin, one that ensures the security of this leaderless system. As the rewards dwindle to zero in the decades ahead, it could potentially destabilize the economic incentives underlying bitcoin’s security. For those trying to make sense of this complex topic, CoinDesk offers the following explainer of Bitcoin’s third halving. What is the halving?New bitcoins enter circulation as block rewards, produced by “miners” who use expensive electronic equipment to earn or “mine" them. Every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years, the total number of bitcoin that miners can potentially win is halved. In 2009, the system started at 50 coins mined every 10 minutes. Two halvings later, 12.5 bitcoins are currently being dispensed every 10 minutes. This process will end with a total of 21 million coins, probably in the year 2140. Who chose the Bitcoin distribution schedule? Why?Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, who may have been an individual or a team, disappeared roughly a year after releasing the software into the world. So, he or she or they (we’ll just go with “they” from now on) are no longer around to explain why they chose this specific formula for adding new bitcoin into circulation. But early emails written by Nakamoto shed some light on the mysterious figure’s thinking. Shortly after releasing the Bitcoin white paper, Nakamoto summarized the various ways their chosen monetary policy (the schedule by which miners receive block rewards) could play out, pondering the circumstances under which it could lead to deflation (when a currency’s purchasing power decreases) or inflation (when the prices of goods and services purchasable with a currency increase). At the time, Nakamoto couldn’t have known how many people would use the new online money (if anyone). They elaborated very little on why they chose the particular formula they did: "Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula." In most state-issued currencies a central bank, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, has tools at its disposal that enable it to add or remove dollars from circulation. If the economy is floundering, for instance, the Fed can increase circulation and encourage lending by purchasing securities from banks. Alternately, if the Fed wants to remove dollars from the economy, it can sell securities from its account. At the time, Nakamoto couldn’t have known how many people would use the new online money (if anyone). For better or worse, bitcoin is a bit different. For one, the supply schedule is all but set in stone. Unlike the monetary policy of state-issued currencies, which unfold through political processes and human institutions, Bitcoin’s monetary policy is written into code shared across the network. Changing it would require an immense output of coordination and agreement across the community of Bitcoin users. "Unlike most national currencies we’re familiar with like dollars or euros, bitcoin was designed with a fixed supply and predictable inflation schedule. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. This predetermined number makes them scarce, and it’s this scarcity alongside their utility that largely influences their market value," crypto wallet company Blockchain.com wrote in a blog post ahead of the 2016 halving. Another unique aspect of Bitcoin is Nakamoto programmed the block reward to decrease over time. This is another way in which it differs from the norm for modern financial systems, where central banks control the money supply. In stark contrast to Bitcoin's halving block reward, the supply of the dollar has roughly tripled since 2000. Nakamoto left clues that they created Bitcoin for political reasons. The first Bitcoin block features the headline of a newspaper article: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.” Many have come to interpret it as a sign of Nakamoto’s political beliefs and goals. If widely adopted, Bitcoin could potentially reduce the power banks and governments have over monetary policy, including bailouts of struggling institutions. As shown with the block reward, no central entity can create bitcoin outside of the strict schedule. How does the halving influence bitcoin's price?The halving is grabbing so much attention mostly because many believe it will lead to a price increase. The truth is, no one knows what's going to happen. Bitcoin has seen two halvings so far, which we can look to as precedent. The 2012 halving provided the first demonstration of how markets would respond to Nakamoto’s unorthodox supply schedule. Until then, the Bitcoin community didn't know how a sudden decline in rewards would affect the network. As it turned out, the price began to rise shortly after the halving. The second halving in 2016 was highly anticipated, as is the one now approaching, with CoinDesk running a live blog of the event and Blockchain.com putting out a "countdown." Each halving has encouraged vigorous speculation about how the event would affect bitcoin's price. On July 16, 2016, the day of the second halving, the price dropped by 10 percent to $610, but then shot back up to where it was before. There was little evidence the sudden reduction in bitcoin’s minting rate had a long-term impact on the price. At the time, CoinDesk's Jacob Donnelly went so far as to call the event a "boring vindication." While the immediate impact on the price of bitcoin was small, the market did tally a gradual increase over the year following the second halving. Some argue this increase was a delayed result of the halving. The theory is that when the supply of bitcoin declines, the demand for bitcoin will stay the same, pushing the price up. If that theory is correct, then we could observe similar price increases after future halvings, including the one scheduled for this year. Others argue that given the predictability of bitcoin’s halving schedule, this change in the minting rate is unlikely to shift the price. Traders have long known the bitcoin block reward will decrease, giving them ample time to prepare. Read More: Why Bitcoin’s Next ‘Halving’ May Not Pump the Price Like Last Time It's possible that if enough people know about the halving in advance, they will buy bitcoin in anticipation, pushing the price up before the halving instead of after. This is what people mean when they argue the halving is "priced in." Why do miners get these rewards?Bitcoin wouldn't work at all without these block rewards. As pseudonymous independent researcher Hasu put it, there are two parts to making Bitcoin work. "Bitcoin’s ledger state should answer the question of 'who owns what, when?'" Hasu told CoinDesk. The first part, "who owns what?" is solved by cryptography. Only the owner of a private key (which is like a secret access code) can spend the bitcoin. The game theory that secures Bitcoin requires that a) miners have an incentive to mine honest blocks [and] b) miners have a cost ... to attempting dishonesty. "The second half ('when?') is the big challenge and was unsolved before Bitcoin," Hasu explained. Otherwise, it's easy for people to "double-spend" their coins, effectively creating money from thin air. Without the block rewards, the network would be in chaos. Hasu explains that if they have enough computing power, miners can attack the network in two ways: By double-spending coins or by stopping transactions from going through. But they are strongly incentivized not to try either, because then they would risk losing their block rewards. "The game theory that secures Bitcoin requires that a) miners have an incentive to mine honest blocks [and] b) miners have a cost ... to attempting dishonesty," Dubrovsky said. In other words, miners will lose money if they don't follow the rules. Read More: Bitcoin 101: How Bitcoin Mining Works The more computing power miners direct towards Bitcoin, the harder it is to attack because an attacker would need to have a significant portion of this processing power, known as the hashrate, to execute such an attack. The more money they can earn by way of block rewards, the more mining power goes to Bitcoin, and thus the more protected the network is. What happens when block rewards get very small or taper off entirely?That is why the periodic decrease in rewards might eventually become an issue. Miners need an incentive to do what they do. They need to get paid. They’re not running these expensive, electricity-guzzling computers for their health after all. But the consequence of this dropping block reward is that eventually, it will dwindle to nothing. Transaction fees, which users pay each time they send a transaction, are the other way miners earn money. (Theoretically, these fees are optional, although as a practical matter a transaction without one might have to wait a long time to be processed if the network is congested; the size of the fee is set by the user or their wallet software.) The fees are expected to become a more important source of remuneration for miners as the block reward falls. "In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes. I’m sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume," Nakamoto wrote. But for a long time, Bitcoin researchers have been considering the possibility transaction fees won't suffice. For one thing, it means transactions might need to grow more expensive over time to keep the network as secure. It’s impossible to predict what will happen, but if we want a system that could last 100 years, we should be ready for the worst case. "This cannot really work without very expensive transaction costs because Bitcoin cannot process huge quantities of transactions on-chain," Dubrovsky said. And, as discussed above, it is mining rewards that draw more computing power to Bitcoin, hardening it against attacks that try to circumvent the network’s rules. It’s unclear whether a future attenuated block reward will have the same allure for miners, even when supplemented with fees. "I don’t think this halving will make Bitcoin significantly less secure, but in eight to 12 years we could find ourselves in hot water," Hasu said. Part of the problem is that more than a decade after Bitcoin’s birth the market is still figuring out the true cost of protecting the network from attackers. "Nobody knows the correct level of security needed to keep Bitcoin safe. Currently, Bitcoin pays out something like $5 billion per year and there are no successful attacks; however, there has been no price discovery. Bitcoin may be overpaying. To really find out the minimum level of security needed to avoid attacks, the mining rewards would need to be dropped to the point where attacks start happening and then increased until the attacks stop," Dubrovsky argued. "Of course, this would be catastrophic for Bitcoin as it's designed now, but it could really come to some kind of scenario like this if rewards dwindle and the Bitcoin community doesn't do anything about it," he added. Hasu said he "hopes" transaction fees will be enough to incentivize the security of Bitcoin in the end, but he thinks it's worth anticipating the "worst case." "It should be clear that the incentive to attack Bitcoin today is larger than it was five years ago. We now have [U.S. President Donald] Trump, [China President Xi Jinping] and other world leaders talking critically about it. The more Bitcoin grows, the more they might see it as a threat and might eventually feel forced to react. That would be the worst case, anyway," Hasu said. This question is an interesting one to ponder when thinking about Bitcoin’s future prospects, though it might sound like a far-off matter in 2020. "It’s impossible to predict what will happen, but if we want a system that could last 100 years, we should be ready for the worst case,” Hasu said. "The worst case is demand for blockspace does not increase in the dramatic fashion that would be needed. As a result, block rewards would eventually trend toward zero.” Bitcoin Halving Research Report Want more depth and data on how to invest against the Bitcoin halving? CoinDesk Research is producing a research paper for investors, to be released later this month. Sign up for our weekly investor newsletter, Institutional Crypto, to get a free download link when it's available. source: coindesk |
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