The IRS is actively seeking out tax evaders using Bitcoin, employing tools like Chainalysis to unmask them. Many people believe that Bitcoin is anonymous, but it is in fact pseudonymous. All transactions linked to a particular address are visible on the Blockchain, which is public and transparent. However, it is not possible to link a particular wallet address to the real world identity of a person/company without any additional information. While good privacy practices can prevent leakage of information, there is always a point where Bitcoin transactions touch the traditional monetary system (when you use it in a store or …

In Q2 2017, the global average for remittance prices in the world was 7.32 percent. In Q1 this figure was 7.45 percent. This is according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report. Ironically, banks which have a wide network in the form of SWIFT remain the most expensive way of sending money around the world, with the cost averaging 10.99 percent. Surely there has to be a better way for both senders and receivers of money? Considering that a lot of beneficiaries of these remittances are family members in poor countries, the high percentage fee charged by money remittance …

The growing adoption of Blockchain technology has been disrupting a number of industries, including financial services, data management, healthcare, agriculture, supply chain, gambling, gaming, public services, music, airline ticketing and many more. Several companies are already piloting the technology to facilitate and improve the transparency of their transactions. One of these companies is the American retail giant Walmart, which recently launched a project to test the technology for supply chain management. The initiative aims to leverage distributed ledger technology to monitor and trace pork sourced from China and sold in the US. The use of Blockchain in the remittance industry …

SatoshiPay has announced that it will be phasing out Bitcoin, and thus Blockchain technology, as its preferred settlement network. Instead, they are partnering with the IOTA Foundation due to faster transactions with much lower fees. Bitcoin has been the original Blockchain technology on which a number of businesses have built their services on. SatoshiPay is just one of those companies to use Blockchain technology, but they are now looking beyond that to a microtransaction Blockchain-less crypto token called IOTA. SatoshiPay began using Bitcoin in 2015 as a system to settle these micropayments, and back then it was a viable option …

Some people blame Bitcoin for its use in criminal situations. In the past we have seen Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road creator’s case as well as Trendon Shavers’ case, who has plead guilty to running a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme starting back in 2011 until 2015. All these revelations were based in the Blockchain that Bitcoin transactions create. Academic researchers and Bitcoin experts helped law enforcement put an end in these cases. But are Bitcoin transactions traceable? Traceable unless designed not to be Derick Smith, Architect at Protocol in Blockchain Solutions, comments: “They are traceable unless they are expressly designed not to …

Recent innovative ideas and projects, such as micropayment channels and the lightning network, are creating trustless channels between people so they can transact with each other without touching the blockchain. This could not only save time and memory resources, but it could also help solve the block size problem. The blockchain requires massive memory, which will increase exponentially in the future and cause scalability issues. Developers have had many discussions and debates about increasing the block size from 1 MB to 20 MB. On the one hand, in order for bitcoin to go global, it needs a much bigger block …

According to the Payments Council, cash transactions in the UK fell to 48% of overall payments last year, down from 52% in 2013. This comes as no surprise, given the international rise of popular social payment services such as Snapcash, Squarecash and Venmo, as well as the already mainstream use of Paypal to shop online. These services, along with debit cards and digital currency trade, have collectively overtaken payments in physical bills and coins as of last year. Crunching the Numbers It is expected that in about a decade cashless payments will account for £28.8 billion, as opposed to £12.7 …

BitSIM is a small, dual-chip overlay that is physically placed atop a phone's regular SIM card. Once there, the BitSIM turns that phone – even if it's a “dumb” phone – into a Bitcoin wallet. It does so by submitting transactions to the Bitcoin network as encrypted text messages. The phone owner's private key – stored in the BitSIM overlay – is unlocked with a PIN. Founder Leon-Gerard Vandenberg says that BitSIM “interposes SIM commands between the original SIM and the phone. So the phone thinks there's a SIM there, and the original SIM thinks there's a phone there – …

DarkSend releases InstantX payments update. Allows for sub five second confirmation of transactions of DarkCoin. DarkCoin has released a new core update to its DarkSend system allowing for the implementation of their InstantX (IX) protocol for immediate payment confirmations. The new v0.11.1 release allows users to select the IX protocol for use in their transactions of the altcoin. The new system should mean that those receiving a transaction should get a confirmation within five seconds in most cases. Based on a trustless network of “Master Nodes,” the IX system seeks a consensus decision from a random selection of these nodes …

Recently BlockStream released a teaser about an innovative new technology called “pegged sidechains” that would allow public ledgers of various cryptocurrencies to transfer between multiple blockchains. The whitepaper describing this new technology has just been released by BlockStream today. The white paper describes the central idea, its implementation requirements and the things that need to be done to get the most benefit from fully implemented interconnected blockchains. “We propose a new technology, pegged sidechains,” reads the abstract, “which enables bitcoins and other ledger assets to be transferred between multiple blockchains.” It continues: “This gives users access to new and innovative …

During the first week new Bitcoin ATM in Vancouver got its impressive fast start and operated transactions that are worth over $100,000 (Canadian). Jordan Kelley, the CEO in Robocoin company belives that company and its new ATM generally increase bitcoin accessibility for customers. According to the data, most of the people who used ATM during the week were new bitcoin users, about 80% of people bought digital currency, the other 20% - were customers who wanted to sell their bitcoins for cash. The first bitcoin ARM is owned by Bitcoiniac startup. For now it bought four more bitcoin machines to …

Danish bitcoin broker Sirius Money is leading a bid to sponsor Faysal Hanneche two thousand euros to carry a bitcoin sticker on his sledges all the way to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Statin, and make first purchase from the heart of Antarctica using bitcoin virtual currency. Also, Headsman of Sirius Money – Thorkil Værge, has endowed 6,8 bitcoins, that equals to one thousand euro, to Hanneche to help him in his endeavor to visit both North and South poles in a single year by himself. Decade ago, Faysal Hanneche, originated from France, settled a challenge for himself to cross Antarctica …