Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of social media network Twitter and founder and CEO of financial services company Square, has confirmed he is planning to integrate Bitcoin’s Lightning Network sidechain with at least one of his businesses. On Friday, Dorsey responded to a question from Twitter user Deyonté, who had requested that Dorsey integrate the Lightning Network into Twitter or BlueSky — the decentralized social network Twitter has devoted manpower to developing since 2019. In response, Dorsey responded, “Only a matter of time.” Only a matter of time — jack (@jack) June 11, 2021 Dorsey’s comment appears intentionally vague, with …
Strategic investor Lyn Alden is convinced Bitcoin has still the potential to reach $100K in the current bull cycle — despite growing uncertainty and increasing volatility. “We are seeing a lot of froth throughout the industry”, she said, referring to the latest rally in a number of meme coins such as Doge. “Those are kind of warning signs for the cycle”, she added. Alden said that with the bull run slowing down and growing risks of a correction, it makes sense for some investors to take some money off the table and put it into some other assets. “For people …
While a vast majority of crypto enthusiasts around the globe seem to be gushing about Ether (ETH) at the moment and how its upcoming London hard fork stands to push the premier altcoin’s value even higher, reports have recently surfaced that suggest Bitcoin’s much-awaited Taproot upgrade will go live also sometime by the end of this year. In this regard, many Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools seem to already be signaling their support for the activation and as per data available on Taproot.watch, a website designed by core Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, Taproot signaling currently accounts for about 56% of BTC’s …
Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees measured in United States dollars are near 2017 levels amid a massive hash rate drop on the Bitcoin network. According to data from several Bitcoin monitoring resources, the average BTC transaction fee in U.S. dollars is near the all-time high recorded back in 2017. According to data from blockchain explorer Blockchair, the average cost of a Bitcoin transaction surged Tuesday to $58, approaching its all-time high of above $62 recorded in December 2017. Popular Bitcoin monitoring source BitInfoCharts suggests that current BTC fees have already broken the record of $54 in 2017 at $58 on Tuesday. …
As the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin’s (BTC) effectiveness as a medium of exchange is still a matter for debate. Unlike fiat money that is inherently infinite in supply and must be managed by a central bank, Bitcoin is akin to gold in that it is commodity money with a finite supply of 21 million. However, the supply cap is not the major stumbling block for BTC as a medium of exchange, but rather, the transaction throughput. While Satoshi Nakamoto envisioned Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system capable of facilitating online payments without a central counterparty, seven transactions …
The Lightning Network has grown 75% in size over the past year, hitting a record high 8,900 nodes for the first time on Feb. 8, according to LN monitors at Bitcoin Visuals. A significant proportion of the increase occurred more recently, suggesting that some Bitcoiners are gravitating toward the layer-two solution, potentially as a means of escaping ever-increasing transaction fees. The total BTC locked in LN channels has remained in the 1,000 to 1,100 range since Aug. 2020 — however the total dollar value has risen 250% in the intervening months, translating to a record $42.72 million currently locked on …
The number of transactions waiting to be confirmed in the Bitcoin mempool surged briefly above 125,000 today. This represents the equivalent of roughly 149 megabytes worth of data waiting to be added to the blockchain, which is enough to fill at least 107 upcoming blocks. Although smaller than the spike that saw a 143,000+ transaction backlog on Dec. 17, 2020, the increasingly cluttered mempool is emboldening Bitcoin’s critics while providing forks with talking points about the speed and cost of cryptocurrency transactions. Over past 3 months, the daily average Bitcoin transaction fee has varied between $2.18 and $17.20; makes buying …
Global cryptocurrency exchange OKEx is moving to cheaper and faster Bitcoin (BTC) transactions with its upcoming Lightning Network integration. According to a Tuesday announcement, OKEx’s Bitcoin Lightning Network will be integrated “in the coming quarter,” making OKEx a participant node in the Lightning Network. The integration will allow OKEx users to select the Lightning Network option when depositing and withdrawing BTC, intending to decrease transaction fees and times. The Lightning Network is a second-layer scaling solution and payment protocol based on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The protocol was suggested by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja in 2015 in an …
Would Bitcoin and its blockchain be able to handle mainstream adoption as a store of value without requiring second-layer solutions? Genesis Mining’s head of mining operations, Philip Salter, holds a mixed view. "I think Bitcoin is a good store of value regardless of transaction fees,” Salter told Cointelegraph. “The issue is — the higher the fees are the larger is also the minimum value that can be efficiently transferred.” Bitcoin (BTC) has stood the test of time up to this point, with BTC maintaining its place as the crypto industry’s highest market cap asset for the past 12 years. Bitcoin …
The number of Bitcoin nodes is at an all-time high, with 11,558 reachable nodes currently active, according to Bitnodes.io. Another Bitcoin network statistics tracker, coin.dance, calculates the total number of Bitcoin nodes at 11,613, which is just above the previous high of 11,250 set one year ago this month. The Bitcoin Core software update 0.21.0 was released for public download on Jan. 14 2021 and is currently the fourth most utilized version of the software among nodes There are currently 619 nodes running this version of the software, which represents about 5.5% of all nodes running some version of Bitcoin …
Blockstream has added six more members to the federation that governs Liquid, the firm's Bitcoin sidechain for inter-exchange settlement network. The six new Liquid Federation members include Bitcoin web wallet Coinos, crypto custodian Komainu, network privacy firm Nym, blockchain development company Vulpem Ventures, broker Watchdog Capital, and Liquid Network settlement platform Sideswap. The #LiquidNetwork Federation grows to a total of 59 with six new members announced today. The six new members are @coinoswallet, Komainu, @nymproject, @side_swap, @vulpemventures, and @WatchdogCapital. https://t.co/QkluG8ivIh pic.twitter.com/CudS30Xyjv — Liquid Network (@Liquid_BTC) January 11, 2021 Liquid was announced at the end of 2015 as a Bitcoin sidechain …
Zap, a Lightning Network payments startup backed by Visa through its Fintech Fast Track program, announced on Wednesday the rollout of Strike Global, a payments and remittances app using the Bitcoin layer-two technology. An announcement by CEO Jack Mallers goes in-depth into the differences between standard fiat transfer mechanisms and the Lightning-powered mechanism in Strike Global. Mallers focused on remittances, a multibillion-dollar business that is still largely passed through expensive middlemen. Strike Global is not too unlike traditional fintech apps, but it uses the Lightning Network for settlement. This means that payments can be essentially instantaneous and at a fraction …