Features Archives – The Basics about Cryptocurrency

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll have heard about bitcoin, but how much do you really know about this form of cryptocurrency? Find out with our Bitcoin Basics Quiz. Quiz image via Shutterstock…

The question of how to best increase the transaction processing capacity of the blockchain may be bitcoin’s current crisis, but that isn’t stopping researchers from working to solve more forward-looking issues. Held last weekend in Montreal, the inaugural Scaling Bitcoin marked the first major conference for developers, and as such, it featured a broad sampling of technical experts working on solutions to problems that may come to light as knowledge of blockchain technology advances. One of the more novel proposals to debut at the event was developed by Cornell post-doc student Ittay Eyal, PhD student Adem Efe Gencer, computer science professor Emin Gün Sirer and research scientist Robbert Van Renesse. Called Bitcoin-NG (the “NG” is short…

Bitcoin in the Headlines is a weekly analysis of bitcoin media coverage and its impact. The bitcoin and blockchain industry have a new major newsmaker: distributed ledger startup R3CEV. Leaving behind a week filled with impressive funding rounds, the coverage over the last few days has been largely dominated by the company’s partnership with nine well-known banks including JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Journalists from across the world jumped at the chance to cover the news – perhaps still a sign that mainstream media will deem industry events newsworthy if traditional finance is involved. In stark contrast, more negative news events received less attention, and were far more focused on the other half the blockchain – bitcoin, the digital token for which the…

Consensus 2015, CoinDesk’s inaugural conference, was held in New York last week. The event featured a wide range of speakers, including prominent figures from the crypto space, traditional finance, law enforcement and aid sector who engaged in a wide range of discussion topics; including the potential use-cases for bitcoin and blockchain technology. Below is a round up of the best quotes from the day’s discussions, in case you missed the event. For a more detailed overview of the day’s proceedings check out our live blog or our summaries of the morning and afternoon sessions. Consensus 2015: The Best Quotes | Create infographics For a more detailed overview of the day’s proceedings check out our live blog or our summaries of the morning…

If the first day of Scaling Bitcoin focused on fostering constructive dialogue, day two moved the conversation toward defining how that dialogue would proceed following the event and how such discussion could coalesce into a clearer vision for the open-source technology’s future. Topics of discussion at the event still focused most directly on the larger question of how the bitcoin network could support increased transaction levels. However, these presentations were buoyed by musings on the trade-offs that will need to be weighed should the community want to honor the project’s original democratizing vision. For example, some of the day’s talks occasionally provided a broad, analytical look at current proposals, delving into the theoretical…

Last week, over 500 attendees and speakers gathered inside New York’s TimesCenter for CoinDesk’s inaugural conference, Consensus 2015. It was a jam-packed day which bought together industry figures from the banking world, law enforcement, Silicon Valley and beyond to discuss the future use cases of blockchain technology. Away from the stage, the event saw numerous events, including the diversity scholarships, knowledge bars and book signing sessions. Toggle using the arrows below for our highlights, or search using the hashtag #Consensus2015 on Twitter.  CoinDesk EventsConsensus…