After much anticipation and many speculations, the second Bitcoin Halving has finally come to pass. Block number 420,000 has been added to the Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Read this Term
If you are not familiar with the technical concept, all you need to understand is that the halving is a mechanism in the source code of Bitcoin designed to fight inflation by making mining less profitable as the network progresses. It has only occurred once before in the history of bitcoin and the next halving is expected in about four years from now when the blockchain hits block number 630,000.
One remarkable aspect of the second halving is just how unremarkable the Bitcoin price charts look today. The exchange rate is now hovering around the $645 or ￥4330 level, about 2.5% below its level the previous day. For a currency that just recently saw swings of $100 a day, and especially in a time of great volatility around the effects of the Brexit
Brexit
Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum.
In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.
The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019.
Active Prime Minister Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister the following month, who was well-known as a headstrong Brexit supporter.
While the United Kingdom was predicted to leave exit the EU by October 31st, 2019, the U.K. Parliament sought out a deadline extension that delayed voting on the new deal.
Following Boris Johnson’s reelection, Brexit occurred on January 31st, 2020 at 11 pm Greenwich Mean Time.
Brexit Creating Ongoing Issues in with Europe
While the United Kingdom is in a transition period following its departure from the EU, the U.K. is negotiating its complete trade relationship with the EU, which is the United Kingdom’s largest trade partner.
Terms of this trade agreement must be met by January 1st, 2021.
Should terms of this trade agreement take longer than the projected resolution date of January 1st, 2021 then the U.K. must acquire an extension no later than June 1st, 2020.
Failure to do so will result in the U.K. is subject to tariff and host rule changes exercised by the E.U.
This situation is referred to as the “no-deal” Brexit and should this occur the consequences could result in a significant fallout of the U.K. economy.
For the past few years, many banks and lenders operating previously in the UK had been given passporting rights to the European continent.
The lingering uncertainty caused by Brexit resulted in many of these lenders relocating their European headquarters within continental Europe.
Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum.
In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.
The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019.
Active Prime Minister Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister the following month, who was well-known as a headstrong Brexit supporter.
While the United Kingdom was predicted to leave exit the EU by October 31st, 2019, the U.K. Parliament sought out a deadline extension that delayed voting on the new deal.
Following Boris Johnson’s reelection, Brexit occurred on January 31st, 2020 at 11 pm Greenwich Mean Time.
Brexit Creating Ongoing Issues in with Europe
While the United Kingdom is in a transition period following its departure from the EU, the U.K. is negotiating its complete trade relationship with the EU, which is the United Kingdom’s largest trade partner.
Terms of this trade agreement must be met by January 1st, 2021.
Should terms of this trade agreement take longer than the projected resolution date of January 1st, 2021 then the U.K. must acquire an extension no later than June 1st, 2020.
Failure to do so will result in the U.K. is subject to tariff and host rule changes exercised by the E.U.
This situation is referred to as the “no-deal” Brexit and should this occur the consequences could result in a significant fallout of the U.K. economy.
For the past few years, many banks and lenders operating previously in the UK had been given passporting rights to the European continent.
The lingering uncertainty caused by Brexit resulted in many of these lenders relocating their European headquarters within continental Europe.
Read this Term
This minimal price movement suggests that miners, investors and traders consider the change to already be reflected in the current price levels - perhaps not surprisingly considering that it has quadrupled in value since a year ago. As Sam Lee, the CEO of BCG, explained, miners that were profitable at the much lower value levels in USD, AUD or Chinese yuan will remain profitable at the current price despite the lower returns per block in BTC .
Blockchain Bubble Sheffield Clark, the CEO of the American Bitcoin ATM network Coinsource, commented about the long term effects we might see from the halving: "One could argue that it may breed confidence among larger institutional investors uncomfortable with the arguably loose monetary policies of many central banks today, especially NIRP, and trigger capital inflows to bitcoin due to its track record of stellar year-over-year returns & long-term deflationary nature. Considering quantity of capital tied up in negatively yielding bonds is over $7 trillion, there could quite a bit of long-term upwards pressure to price subsequent to halving, should this confidence take hold."
As for what it will mean for startups in the industry, he added: "I believe it will lead to a bit of a pop in what many are labeling the blockchain bubble, and we will see VC attention circle back around to bitcoin. This will most likely manifest itself through a series of a few high profile & value investments or strings of multiple low-mid profile & value investments taking place across the industry. I expect it to be a bit of both."
After much anticipation and many speculations, the second Bitcoin Halving has finally come to pass. Block number 420,000 has been added to the Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned.) In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamper with. The Evolution of BlockchainBlockchain was originally invented by an individual or group of people under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The purpose of blockchain was originally to serve as the public transaction ledger of Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency.In particular, bundles of transaction data, called “blocks”, are added to the ledger in a chronological fashion, forming a “chain.” These blocks include things like date, time, dollar amount, and (in some cases) the public addresses of the sender and the receiver.The computers responsible for upholding a blockchain network are called “nodes.” These nodes carry out the duties necessary to confirm the transactions and add them to the ledger. In exchange for their work, the nodes receive rewards in the form of crypto tokens.By storing data via a peer-to-peer network (P2P), blockchain controls for a wide range of risks that are traditionally inherent with data being held centrally.Of note, P2P blockchain networks lack centralized points of vulnerability. Consequently, hackers cannot exploit these networks via normalized means nor does the network possess a central failure point.In order to hack or alter a blockchain’s ledger, more than half of the nodes must be compromised. Looking ahead, blockchain technology is an area of extensive research across multiple industries, including financial services and payments, among others.
Read this Term
If you are not familiar with the technical concept, all you need to understand is that the halving is a mechanism in the source code of Bitcoin designed to fight inflation by making mining less profitable as the network progresses. It has only occurred once before in the history of bitcoin and the next halving is expected in about four years from now when the blockchain hits block number 630,000.
One remarkable aspect of the second halving is just how unremarkable the Bitcoin price charts look today. The exchange rate is now hovering around the $645 or ￥4330 level, about 2.5% below its level the previous day. For a currency that just recently saw swings of $100 a day, and especially in a time of great volatility around the effects of the Brexit
Brexit
Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum.
In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.
The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019.
Active Prime Minister Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister the following month, who was well-known as a headstrong Brexit supporter.
While the United Kingdom was predicted to leave exit the EU by October 31st, 2019, the U.K. Parliament sought out a deadline extension that delayed voting on the new deal.
Following Boris Johnson’s reelection, Brexit occurred on January 31st, 2020 at 11 pm Greenwich Mean Time.
Brexit Creating Ongoing Issues in with Europe
While the United Kingdom is in a transition period following its departure from the EU, the U.K. is negotiating its complete trade relationship with the EU, which is the United Kingdom’s largest trade partner.
Terms of this trade agreement must be met by January 1st, 2021.
Should terms of this trade agreement take longer than the projected resolution date of January 1st, 2021 then the U.K. must acquire an extension no later than June 1st, 2020.
Failure to do so will result in the U.K. is subject to tariff and host rule changes exercised by the E.U.
This situation is referred to as the “no-deal” Brexit and should this occur the consequences could result in a significant fallout of the U.K. economy.
For the past few years, many banks and lenders operating previously in the UK had been given passporting rights to the European continent.
The lingering uncertainty caused by Brexit resulted in many of these lenders relocating their European headquarters within continental Europe.
Brexit stands for British Exit, or in reference to the United Kingdom’s decision to formally leave the European Union (EU) as declared in a June 23, 2016 referendum.
In a more immediate sense, a tight vote and unexpected result helped drive British pound (GBP) to lows that had not been seen in decades.
The day following the referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron resigned from office where he was replaced by Theresa May, who later resigned from office on June 7th, 2019.
Active Prime Minister Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister the following month, who was well-known as a headstrong Brexit supporter.
While the United Kingdom was predicted to leave exit the EU by October 31st, 2019, the U.K. Parliament sought out a deadline extension that delayed voting on the new deal.
Following Boris Johnson’s reelection, Brexit occurred on January 31st, 2020 at 11 pm Greenwich Mean Time.
Brexit Creating Ongoing Issues in with Europe
While the United Kingdom is in a transition period following its departure from the EU, the U.K. is negotiating its complete trade relationship with the EU, which is the United Kingdom’s largest trade partner.
Terms of this trade agreement must be met by January 1st, 2021.
Should terms of this trade agreement take longer than the projected resolution date of January 1st, 2021 then the U.K. must acquire an extension no later than June 1st, 2020.
Failure to do so will result in the U.K. is subject to tariff and host rule changes exercised by the E.U.
This situation is referred to as the “no-deal” Brexit and should this occur the consequences could result in a significant fallout of the U.K. economy.
For the past few years, many banks and lenders operating previously in the UK had been given passporting rights to the European continent.
The lingering uncertainty caused by Brexit resulted in many of these lenders relocating their European headquarters within continental Europe.
Read this Term
This minimal price movement suggests that miners, investors and traders consider the change to already be reflected in the current price levels - perhaps not surprisingly considering that it has quadrupled in value since a year ago. As Sam Lee, the CEO of BCG, explained, miners that were profitable at the much lower value levels in USD, AUD or Chinese yuan will remain profitable at the current price despite the lower returns per block in BTC .
Blockchain Bubble Sheffield Clark, the CEO of the American Bitcoin ATM network Coinsource, commented about the long term effects we might see from the halving: "One could argue that it may breed confidence among larger institutional investors uncomfortable with the arguably loose monetary policies of many central banks today, especially NIRP, and trigger capital inflows to bitcoin due to its track record of stellar year-over-year returns & long-term deflationary nature. Considering quantity of capital tied up in negatively yielding bonds is over $7 trillion, there could quite a bit of long-term upwards pressure to price subsequent to halving, should this confidence take hold."
As for what it will mean for startups in the industry, he added: "I believe it will lead to a bit of a pop in what many are labeling the blockchain bubble, and we will see VC attention circle back around to bitcoin. This will most likely manifest itself through a series of a few high profile & value investments or strings of multiple low-mid profile & value investments taking place across the industry. I expect it to be a bit of both."
