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Showing posts with label : Bitcoin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label : Bitcoin. Show all posts

Monday, November 4, 2019

China gets into blockchain race with US












Blockchain is perhaps best known for underpinning the operation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which Beijing may seek to replicate.PHOTO: REUTERS
One example of the potential application of blockchain technology is a newly launched app by the Communist Party that asks members to explain why they joined and what party loyalty means to them. (Photo: AFP/Greg Baker)

BEIJING: China has launched an ambitious effort to challenge the US dominance in blockchain technology, which it could use for everything from issuing digital money, to streamlining a raft of government services and tracking Communist Party loyalty.

The technology received a crucial endorsement from President Xi Jinping last week, a signal that the government sees blockchain as an integral part of the country's plan to become a high-tech superpower.

Beijing is the latest in a handful of countries to have adopted a law strictly governing the encryption of data - particularly blockchain technology, which allows the storage and direct exchange of data without going through an intermediary.

Reputedly unfalsifiable, blockchain is a database shared across a network of computers. Once a record has been added to the chain it is almost impossible to change.

It is perhaps best known for underpinning the operation of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin - which Beijing may seek to replicate as it pushes ahead with its plans for a world-leading government-run digital currency.

https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12059024/16x9/670/377/9e6b6b9b2b6ec007ae2c9a3107f86991/tI/blockchain-technology-received-a-crucial-endorsement-from-president-xi-jinping-last-week-a-signal-that-the-government-sees-it-as-an-integral-part-of-the-country-s-plan-to-become-a-high-tech-superpower-1572750315390-2.jpg
Blockchain technology received a crucial endorsement from President Xi Jinping last week, a signal
Blockchain technology received a crucial endorsement from President Xi Jinping last week, a signalBlockchain technology received a crucial endorsement from President Xi Jinping last week, a signal that the government sees it as an integral part of the country's plan to become a high-tech superpower. (Photo: AFP/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Although the new law for blockchain "is still rather vague", the country is clearly one of the most active in terms of regulation, Stanislas Pogorzelski, editor of specialist site Cryptonaute.fr, told AFP.

"China has understood very well that to stay a superpower, you have to be at the forefront of new technologies," said Pogorzelski.

Blockchain is set to play a key role in many sectors in the future, including digital finance, internet of things, artificial intelligence and 5G.

LESS HUMAN INTERVENTION 

Bitcoin(FX:BTC/USD)Stock market insights from social media
Updated https://sentifi.com/currencies/bitcoin
It could also serve to make China's vast bureaucratic system more efficient.

The official Xinhua news agency said a blockchain-based system had been used for the first time to automatically generate and file an enforcement case in Chinese court against a party who failed to pay damages in a mediation agreement.

With less human intervention, such systems could make judicial enforcement in China "more intelligent and transparent," the agency said.

Chinese shares jumped this week as investors piled into stocks linked to blockchain, after Xi said China should step up research and development of the technology.

"Blockchain should play a bigger role in strengthening Chinese power in cyberspace, developing the digital economy and promoting socio-economic development," Xi said.

"The general sentiment of Xi's comments was simple," said Anthony Pompliano, who writes a daily cryptocurrency newsletter.

"Blockchain technology is really important for the future and China plans to be the global leader," Pompliano added.

LOYALTY TEST

According to analyst Kai von Carnap of the Mercator Institute for Chinese Studies, blockchain-backed tools have potential applications that go well beyond improving administrative efficiency in China.

"More interesting will be those targeting party discipline, internal stability and ideological loyalty," Von Carnap told AFP.
Chinese shares jumped this week as investors piled into stocks linked to blockchain, after Xi said
Chinese shares jumped this week as investors piled into stocks linked to blockchain, after Xi said
 https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12059022/16x9/670/377/4fa319d4c8e8c12060091d197dfd0249/sF/chinese-shares-jumped-this-week-as-investors-piled-into-stocks-linked-to-blockchain-after-xi-said-china-should-step-up-research-and-development-of-the-technology-1572750315390-3.jpg
Chinese shares jumped this week as investors piled into stocks linked to blockchain, after Xi said China should step up research and development of the technology. (Photo: AFP/Hector Retamal)

One example is a newly launched app by the Communist Party that asks members to explain why they joined and what party loyalty means to them.

Blockchain technology is then used to store their responses on a permanent, widely distributed ledger - recording their thoughts in cyberspace forever.

"NOT A FAN"

As China trumpets its push for more blockchain technology, it is hoping to outpace trade-war rival the United States, whose President Donald Trump tweeted his disdain for cryptocurrencies in July.

"I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," he wrote.

The contrast between the world's two biggest economies is "striking", according to Pompliano, who says "bitcoin, blockchain technology, and digital assets are not a priority for America".

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had to defend his plans to launch a digital coin called Libra to the US Congress in October, after it faced a torrent of criticism from all sides - including governments who see it as a threat to their monetary sovereignty.

"I don't think Libra will succeed," Huang Qifan, vice director of the CCIEE, an economic think-tank that advises Beijing, said this week in remarks widely reported by state media.

"It is better ... to have sovereign digital currencies issued by a government or a central bank," he said.

Last year China released a damning report on existing digital currencies, saying they were "increasingly used as a tool in criminal activities."

But while Beijing banned cryptocurrencies two years ago, it is fast-tracking preparations for its own state-run virtual currency, which is supposed to facilitate transactions and reduce costs.

The anonymity of cryptocurrencies allows users to buy and sell freely without leaving a digital trail - but China's mooted e-cash system will be tightly regulated, experts say, and run by the People's Bank of China.

Source: AFP/zl   Source link



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China's central bank speeds up digital currency drive

 Private-sector players likely to participate in project

Photo: VCG

With internet technologies advancing and cryptocurrencies flourishing amid a broad digital transformation, individual countries are starting to issue legal tender in digital form, and the People's Bank of China (PBC), the country's central bank, is also accelerating its pace in this area.

As of Sunday, the PBC had applied for 74 patents involved with digital currencies to the National Intellectual Property Administration, according to a report by the Economic Information Daily on Monday.

The PBC said it will speed up the development of legal digital currency on Friday.

Wang Xin, director of the PBC Research Bureau, said in July that the authority is organizing market-oriented institutions to jointly research and develop a central bank digital currency and the program has been approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet.

"China is beefing up efforts in digital currency innovation, a trend driven by emerging technologies that is spreading worldwide," said Huang Zhen, a professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Rather than letting cryptocurrencies challenge the position of sovereign currencies, it is wiser for countries to roll out their own digital currencies, Huang told the Global Times on Monday.

Chinese authorities ordered a ban on initial coin offerings in 2017 and stopped direct bitcoin-yuan trading as the rapidly expanding market spawned concerns over financial risks.

The PBC, one of the earliest central banks in the world to start the process of digital currency innovation, launched its program in 2014 during the tenure of former governor Zhou Xiaochuan. In 2017, the PBC established a research institution for the digital currency.

"China is among the leading countries in terms of its research into a government-backed currency," said Huang.

Favorable conditions

The basic conditions favorable for China's implementation of a digital currency include comprehensive and fast networks, broad digitalization in the financial sector, and advanced financial technologies - particularly blockchain, a digital, public ledger that records online transactions, according to Huang.

In recent years, Chinese internet companies have made huge achievements in the mobile payment and e-commerce sectors, helping create a digital economy of more than 30 trillion yuan ($4.36 trillion), according to media reports.

In June, US social media giant Facebook released an official white paper for its cryptocurrency project Libra, a blockchain-powered stablecoin expected to arrive in 2020.

The move stepped up the global race for digital currencies, with China's central bank paying close attention.

The central bank is closely working with market participants on creating a central bank digital currency, PBC official Wang said.

"China's private market players have accumulated some experience in the digital currency sector. Their participation in the government's work will effectively help promote the project," Cao Yin, an expert in the blockchain sector, told the Global Times on Monday.

It is likely that the sovereign digital currency will be issued within two or three years at the soonest, although the authority tends to take a prudent attitude, Cao said.

Once it is broadly implemented, the new currency will have a big impact on Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay, the two dominant mobile digital payment tools in China, as the PBC's digital currency is featured by decentralization, unlike the former two.

Challenges ahead

There are still some bumps on the road to promoting the digital currency.

"For this new kind of currency, its nature actually poses challenges to existing policies in such aspects as foreign exchange control, so it takes time to balance benefits with potential risks," said Cao.

A flexible and open mechanism is needed by the PBC to attract more talent, he added.

Digital currencies can help strengthen regulation as transaction data can be tracked and analyzed, including illegal money laundering, according to Huang. But laws and rules should be formulated in a timely fashion to protect individual information. "Safety is the biggest issue," he added.

"Use of the digital currency to better serve the real economy also requires policy guidance," said Huang. Newspaper headline: PBC accelerates digital currency drive.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2017

JPMorgan CEO warns he will fire any employee trading Bitcoin for being “stupid.”

 

 
Tough stand: Dimon has warned that he will fire JPMorgan traders who traded in bitcoin ‘in a second. For two reasons: It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.’ — AFP

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon said he will fire any employee trading bitcoin for being “stupid.”

The cryptocurrency “won’t end well,” he told an investor conference in New York on Tuesday, predicting it will eventually blow up. “It’s a fraud” and “worse than tulip bulbs.”

If a JPMorgan trader began trading in bitcoin, he said: “I’d fire them in a second. For two reasons: It’s against our rules, and they’re stupid. And both are dangerous.”

Bitcoin has soared in recent months, spurred by greater acceptance of the blockchain technology that underpins the exchange method and optimism that faster transaction times will encourage broader use of the cryptocurrency.

Prices have climbed more than four-fold this year – a run that has drawn debate over whether that’s a bubble.

Bitcoin initially slipped after Dimon’s remarks. It was down as much as 2.7% before recovering.

Last week, it slumped after reports that China plans to ban trading of virtual currencies on domestic exchanges, dealing another blow to the US$150bil cryptocurrency market.

Tulips are a reference to the mania that swept Holland in the 17th century, with speculators driving up prices of virtually worthless tulip bulbs to exorbitant levels.

That didn’t end well.

In bitcoin’s case, Dimon said he’s sceptical authorities will allow a currency to exist without state oversight, especially if something goes wrong.

“Someone’s going to get killed and then the government’s going to come down,” he said.

“You just saw in China, governments like to control their money supply.”

Dimon differentiated between the bitcoin currency and the underlying blockchain technology, which he said can be useful.

Still, he said banks’ application of blockchain “won’t be overnight.”

The bank chief said he wouldn’t short bitcoin because there’s no telling how high it will go before it collapses.

The best argument he’s heard, he said, is that it can be useful to people in places with no other options – so long as the supply of coins doesn’t surge.

“If you were in Venezuela or Ecuador or North Korea or a bunch of parts like that, or if you were a drug dealer, a murderer, stuff like that, you are better off doing it in bitcoin than US dollars,” he said.

“So there may be a market for that, but it’d be a limited market.”— Bloomberg


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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Who created Bitcoin? How? Why? The long search may not be over


SAN FRANCISCO  — Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? For many in the tech world, the identity of bitcoin's elusive creator has been a long-running parlor game. And the speculation might not be over.

Australian entrepreneur Craig Steven Wright, who announced Monday that he founded the digital currency , convinced at least one longtime bitcoin contributor that he's the real deal. He managed that feat via a technical demonstration involving Nakamoto's secret bitcoin keys. But Wright's public documentation, which he posted online Monday , underwhelmed others and left the question of Nakamoto's true identity far from settled.

"There's no way you can conclusively prove that you are the creator of bitcoin," said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, a Washington, D.C.-based crypto-currency think tank, who is skeptical of Wright's claims.

Tracking a pseudonymous cryptographic genius would be challenging under the best circumstances. And here we're talking someone who invented a way for people to send money around the world anonymously, without banks or national currencies. Someone who apparently disappeared five years ago for unknown reasons.

None of that has stopped people from trying. Journalists, researchers and amateur detectives have scoured Nakamoto's emails and online posts, plus the original bitcoin code, for unusual phrases, cultural references and other potential clues to their author.

One of the most celebrated candidates — to his own dismay — was an unassuming Japanese-American engineer who found himself in the cross-hairs of Newsweek magazine in 2014.

Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto was wrongly identified as the inventor of Bitcoin in 2014

A Newsweek cover story fingered Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto, a retired resident of suburban Los Angeles County, after citing circumstantial clues and a vague comment that Nakamoto made when confronted briefly on his front doorstep. The article sparked a media frenzy and a car chase with reporters that ended at the Los Angeles offices of The Associated Press — where Dorian Nakamoto emphatically denied any involvement with bitcoin.

An earlier contender named in a 2011 New Yorker magazine piece was Michael Clear, then a graduate student in cryptography at Trinity College in Dublin. The New Yorker cited some of Nakamoto's writings, which used British slang such as "maths" for mathematics and "flat" for an apartment. It also noted that Clear had worked on currency-trading software for an Irish bank and co-authored a paper on "peer-to-peer" technology similar to that used in bitcoin.

At first, according to the New Yorker, Clear was evasive when asked at a cryptography conference if he had created bitcoin. But he later denied it repeatedly. He also suggested another candidate to the New Yorker reporter, naming Finnish researcher Vili Lehdonvirta, who studied virtual currencies and created video games.

"I would love to say that I'm Satoshi, because bitcoin is very clever," Lehdonvirta told the New Yorker, after laughing for several seconds. "But it's not me."

Speculation has also focused on a Hungarian-American computer scientist named Nick Szabo, who was called a likely candidate by linguistic experts who conducted their own "reverse textual analysis" — essentially, looking for distinctive phrases or word patterns — on an early white paper by the bitcoin creator.

The only problem? Szabo, who has worked on other digital currencies, has repeatedly denied creating bitcoin.

Other scientists' names have surfaced over the years; some theories pose the notion of two or three working together. But denials have usually followed each new mention.

At one point, two Israeli mathematicians floated, and later retracted, the notion that bitcoin was created by the founder of Silk Road, an online bazaar known for trade in various illicit goods.

Conspiracy theorists have even speculated it could have been the work of some shadowy government agency — no one's saying which government — to undermine established currencies or somehow monitor online transactions. (That theory depends on the unproved notion that the creator retained the ability to decode bitcoin's encryption.)

Vice magazine once suggested Nakamoto might be Gavin Andresen, an American software expert and early bitcoin enthusiast who has helped push bitcoin forward in Nakamoto's absence. Andresen has denied it — and on Monday declared that he believes Wright is Nakamoto.

But other cryptocurrency enthusiasts aren't convinced it's Wright. The truth, they say, is still out there. - AP

http://blog.thomsonreuters.com/index.php/bitcoin-economy-graphic-day/


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Comments:

Indeed, the way Wright has stage-managed the latest revelations about himself seem inconsistent with what we know about Nakamoto. Wright chose to give his scoop to the BBC, the Economist, and GQ. These are all excellent publications, but none of them are known for their in-depth coverage of computer security. The real Satoshi Nakamoto should have anticipated that no one would give much weight to a GQ scoop about his identity.

Bitcoin was Nakamoto's attempt to create a financial system that didn't require trusting the fallible human beings that run the banking system. Yet when Wright decided to reveal his identity as Nakamoto, he chose to do it via face-to-face meetings with a handful of journalists and Bitcoin insiders instead of providing mathematically rigorous proof that anyone could verify. It's hard to believe that's what Nakamoto would have done.


http://www.vox.com/cards/bitcoin

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