A New Bitcoin Improvement Proposal Aims to Compromise

A New Bitcoin Improvement Proposal Aims to Compromise

As the price of bitcoin settles down many bitcoiners are now concentrating on the scaling compromise proposed at the Consensus event held last week. Now a few bitcoin developers have decided to work on Segwit-2MB proposals that try to adhere to each side of the debate.

Also read: Japan’s Bitpoint to Add Bitcoin Payments to 100,000+ Stores

The Compatibility-Oriented Omnibus Proposal

It is still hard to envision that everyone in the bitcoin community will be pleased with a compromise. There are still some bitcoin proponents who vehemently oppose Segwit, and then there are those who fully disagree with a 2MB hardfork. On May 29 a developer named Calvin Rechner submitted a new bitcoin improvement proposal (BIP) that aims to cohere to the recent Barry Silbert scaling concept.

“This proposal is written under the assumption that the signatories to the Consensus 2017 Scaling Agreement are genuinely committed to the terms of the agreement, and intend to enact the updates described therein,” Rechner’s BIP details.

This document describes a virtuous combination of James Hilliard’s ‘Reduced signalling threshold activation of existing segwit deployment’, Shaolin Fry’s ‘Mandatory activation of segwit deployment’, Sergio Demian Lerner’s ‘Segwit2Mb’ proposal, Luke Jr’s ‘Post-segwit 2 MB block size hardfork’, and hard fork safety mechanisms from Johnson Lau’s ‘Spoonnet’ into a single omnibus proposal and patchset.

UASF and a 2MB Hard Fork Deployment in Six Months

Rechner explains that Shaolin Fry’s UASF is included so the existing Segwit deployment can be activated without creating a new release. Following the UASF implementation, the BIP explains that a 2MB hard fork deployment will occur six months after Segwit activation.

“The intent of this proposal is to maintain full legacy consensus compatibility for users up until the hard fork block height, after which backwards compatibility is waived as enforcement of the hard fork consensus ruleset begins,” details Rechner.

‘A Possible Win if the Community Will Accept It’

Following Rechner’s BIP submission, bitcoiners on social media and forums discussed the recent proposal. Throughout the conversations concerning the new BIP, a good portion of people seemed to like the idea. Some explained the reason they supported this proposal is because it includes UASF and the block size increase has safety nets in place to avoid divergent consensus.

“The Spoonnet-based improvements need clarification IMO, but otherwise it looks like a possible win if the community will accept it,” explains bitcoin developer Luke Jr. “Provided there is reasonable consensus from the community, a soft-hardfork (aka MMHF aka Spoonnet) can be theoretically made pretty safe. But I’m not sure it can really be ready within six months.”

Even though there still seems to be a lot of people hell bent towards not compromising at all, there are definitely signs of people looking to find the right compromise. It’s not certain this new BIP will be taken further, but it shows the growing trend to find consensus is important to most people from both sides of the debate.

What do you think about Calvin Rechner’s new proposal? Do you think the bitcoin community can find a compromise? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, and Pixabay.  

Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.

The post A New Bitcoin Improvement Proposal Aims to Compromise appeared first on Bitcoin News.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/a-new-bitcoin-improvement-proposal-aims-to-compromise/

India Local Politicians Criticize Government’s War On Cash, Bitcoin

India Local Politicians Criticize Government’s War On Cash, Bitcoin

Distrust of the Indian government’s war on cash has spread to political circles, along with continued worries over Bitcoin.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/india-local-politicians-criticize-governments-war-on-cash-bitcoin/

Bitcoin Exchange Woes See Almost $50 Mln Pass Through LocalBitcoins

Bitcoin Exchange Woes See Almost $50 Mln Pass Through LocalBitcoins

More money went through Localbitcoins than ever last week, multi-market highs taking volumes close to $50 million.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/bitcoin-exchange-woes-see-almost-50-mln-pass-through-localbitcoins/

We Plan To Open 5,000 Bitcoin ATMs in Europe in 2017: Bitlish

We Plan To Open 5,000 Bitcoin ATMs in Europe in 2017: Bitlish

UK-based Bitcoin ATM company Bitlish plans to instal 5000 machine in Europe alone before the end of 2017.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/we-plan-to-open-5000-bitcoin-atms-in-europe-in-2017-bitlish/

BITPoint Joins Race To Take Bitcoin To Japanese Retail

BITPoint Joins Race To Take Bitcoin To Japanese Retail

Japan’s retail sector is to be lobbied by another gateway provider for accepting Bitcoin en masse.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/bitpoint-joins-race-to-take-bitcoin-to-japanese-retail/

Japan’s Bitpoint to Add Bitcoin Payments to 100,000+ Stores

Japan’s Bitpoint to Add Bitcoin Payments to 100,000+ Stores

Bitpoint has recently partnered with Peach Aviation to provide bitcoin payment tech to the company, and now plans to do the same at “hundreds of thousands of Japanese retail outlets.”

Also read: Bitcoin to Be Accepted at 260,000 Stores in Japan by This Summer

From Peach Aviation to 100,000+ Stores

Peach Aviation Ltd announced last week that it will be the first Japanese airline to accept bitcoin for tickets. Peach is Japan’s first Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) and is majority owned by the country’s largest airline, All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd (ANA).

To accept bitcoin, the low-cost airline has partnered with Bitpoint Japan Co, a bitcoin exchange and payments startup founded on March 3, 2016. In addition to allowing Peach to accept bitcoin for flight tickets, the companies are working together to add bitcoin payment options to souvenir shops, restaurants, and hotels at travel destinations. Furthermore, “we will jointly install bitcoin ATMs where customers can withdraw cash from bitcoin,” their partnership agreement reveals.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Bitpoint is “planning to give hundreds of thousands of Japanese retail outlets the ability to accept the digital currency.” The company’s president, Genki Oda, said, “We’re holding discussions with a retail-related company,” adding that:

We’re also talking to a big convenience store operator about using it [bitcoin] … By going through a company providing payment terminal services to shops, we have the possibility of increasing its use at one stroke. It’s easier than talking to lots of individual retailers.

Bitpoint currently has ties with several retailers and plans to expand that number, Oda told the publication. The aim is to promote the use of bitcoin in retail stores instead of as a speculative investment, he detailed.

Oda also runs Bitpoint’s parent company, Remixpoint Inc., a publicly-traded conglomerate with a market value of about 21 billion yen ($189 million).

400,000+ Stores Could Accept Bitcoin

Since April 1, when the Japanese government started recognizing bitcoin as a legal method of payment, a slew of Japanese companies have started considering accepting bitcoin. The first major retailer to do so following the government’s move was Bic Camera, one of the country’s biggest electronics retailers. The company partnered with Japan’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, Bitflyer, to accept bitcoin.

Also in April, another bitcoin exchange, Coincheck, announced that it had been working with Recruit Lifestyle to bring bitcoin payments to over 260,000 stores by this summer. Claiming to hold 99% of the bitcoin payment market share, Coincheck said that about 5,000 stores already accept the digital currency using its payments system.

Then last week, Bitflyer CFO, Midori Kanemitsu, independently told Nikkei that the number of stores accepting bitcoin “is expected to rise to 300,000 or so in 2017.”

If Kanemitsu’s estimation is added to Monday’s announcement by Bitpoint, then the total number of stores that could start accepting bitcoin soon could rise to 400,000+.

Do you think Bitpoint will successfully add bitcoin payments to 100,000+ stores? Also, how many stores do you think will accept bitcoin in Japan this year? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bic Camera, Peach Aviation, Bitflyer, Bitpoint, and Remixpoint

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Japan’s Bitpoint to Add Bitcoin Payments to 100,000+ Stores appeared first on Bitcoin News.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/japans-bitpoint-to-add-bitcoin-payments-to-100000-stores/

Test Post from Cryptocurrencies Space

Test Post from Cryptocurrencies Space http://cryptocurrencies.space

Creating a cold wallet offline without a third-party wallet

Creating a cold wallet offline without a third-party wallet

There are several third-party (by which I mean, not written by Ripple Inc.) wallets out there, and they are probably trustworthy, but no one knows for sure. This is a short guide for those of us who are a bit paranoid. It follows on from this guide: But you don’t need to have a Raspberry Pi, just a Linux PC that you trust. I’m basing this on Ubuntu 16.04. You will need some basic knowledge of using Terminal in Linux. First, install Node and npm: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-node-js-on-ubuntu-16-04 Quote In order to get this version, we just have to use the apt package manager. We should refresh our local package index first, and then install from the repositories: $ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install nodejs If the package in the repositories suits your needs, this is all that you need to do to get set up with Node.js. In most cases, you’ll also want to also install npm, which is the Node.js package manager. You can do this by typing: $ sudo apt-get install npm This will allow you to easily install modules and packages to use with Node.js. Because of a conflict with another package, the executable from the Ubuntu repositories is called nodejs instead of node. Keep this in mind as you are running software. Then follow these instructions from @JoelKatz (thanks, JK!). I suggest you create the cold wallet directory inside an encrypted partition, if you have one. Once all packages are installed, I recommend you take the computer offline, for good. Then generate the keys. Remember, if using Ubuntu, at steps 4 & 5 you have to type nodejs in place of node. Once you are absolutely sure that it is valid and you have the secret key safely stored, you can fund the wallet using an online computer (at least 20 XRP). Then you can check it’s activated by looking at bithomp.com. (Aside: I also tried the method detailed here but couldn’t get it to work. If anyone can see an error in the method, please point it out.)

https://cryptocurrencies.space/creating-a-cold-wallet-offline-without-a-third-party-wallet/

Volume decreasing week after week

Volume decreasing week after week

Hi all, I’ve been watching the volumes for the last weeks on Coinmarketcap. I see a huge decline in millions of trades… XRP is the last 24 hours under 100millions. Last week and it was around 240million. I think when the volume goes down, so does demand, and there maybe a adjustment in price? What do you all think about the decreasing volumes?

https://cryptocurrencies.space/volume-decreasing-week-after-week/

Bitcoin SegWit Activation August 1: New Bitcoin Improvement Protocol

Bitcoin SegWit Activation August 1: New Bitcoin Improvement Protocol

A new Bitcoin roadmap outlining SegWit activation with a two-megabyte hard fork has been produced by Bitcoin Core.

https://cryptocurrencies.space/bitcoin-segwit-activation-august-1-new-bitcoin-improvement-protocol/