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How to Monitor the BCH Stress Test and Get Involved https://ift.tt/2oo4Utb It’s getting close to the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network stress test and many BCH proponents are preparing for the occasion. BCH supporters hope to send out millions of transactions on September 1 in order to see how well miners can process all of the transactions in the mempool. Today we are going to explain a few ways for people to participate during the BCH network stress test day and how they can monitor the network action as well. Also read: Japan Roundup: Public Companies Unveil New Mining Plan, Exchange, Token Fund September 1st Marks the First Annual BCH Stress Test Day On September 1st many BCH fans plan to stress test the network by sending millions of transactions over the course of the day. People have been preparing for the Bitcoin Cash network ‘Stress Test Day’ for weeks now. On August 1st BCH stress testers surpassed 687,000 transactions in one day which shattered the Bitcoin Core (BTC) network’s record by more than 180,000 transactions (tx). On September 1 BCH supporters hope to break the 687K milestone by doing a lot of spending, fanning out hundreds of transactions with stress test tools, and utilizing services like Memo.cash and tipping bots like Tippr. How Can I Participate? There are a few ways and tools released so people can participate with tomorrow’s stress test. The most popular tool called Scale.cash was created by the Twitter handle @SpendBCH_io which allows anyone to fan out hundreds of transactions with one single command. The Scale.cash tool explains how to use the application tomorrow, and for more insight, the BCH developer and Bitbox creator Gabriel Cardona has written a guide on how to use the tool. Users who are fluent in programming can use other tools available like the Velocity protocol which can spend BCH inputs in chains to simulate cash velocity but the tool requires a full node. Another tool people can use is Memo.cash ‘Txblaster’ bot which can also fan out BCH tips sent through the platform. Scale.cash Users can also send traditional transactions too, using tip bots like Tippr and Chaintip on their favorite social media platforms like Reddit, Github, and Twitter. With network fees around $0.003 per tx sending lots of tips to people in BCH with these bots is a breeze. Txblaster bot for Memo.cash. Furthermore, BCH supporters can spend their bitcoin cash using a large assortment of merchants, and meeting friends at BCH meetups. A lot of BCH-centric meetups are taking place across the globe to celebrate the stress test occasion and people will be spending lots of BCH in order to participate tomorrow. For example, there’s a Stress Test Day event taking place in Tokyo where BCH fans are planning on commemorating the day and monitoring the network. So essentially there are plenty of methods and tools available allowing people to get involved with the momentous day. Many BCH fans will be celebrating the Stress Test Day at meetups. How can I watch? Many people are also going to want to watch the action taking place on the network and there are various data sites that provide unique visuals of transactions being processed in real-time. As far as the mempool (the queue of unconfirmed transactions) people can visualize the network’s unconfirmed transactions using Johoe’s Bitcoin Cash mempool statistics, which visually displays the number and size of the unconfirmed bitcoin transactions in real time. People can also monitor the BCH network tomorrow using data sites like Blockchair, Bitinfocharts, and Bitcoin.com’s daily transactions counter. Txhighway.com Then there are other bitcoin cash transaction monitoring websites that bring the action beyond simple line graphs and log charts. People can watch transactions via the 8-bit website Txhighway.com and watch the stress test transactions via small cars and trucks on a 32 lane highway. Then there’s Txstreet.com which shows BCH buses filling up alongside BTC buses filling up and people waiting a long time to board. Another site that follows along with the same style is Bitcoinsubway.cash which shows subway trains filling up with people (transactions) and the BTC side only has one car. The BCH side on Bitcoinsubway.cash has a very long train with lots of cars representing the fact that the Bitcoin Cash network processes much larger blocks. Bitcoinsubway.cash  BCH Proponents May See Very Large Blocks Processed September 1 should be a very eventful day for Bitcoin Cash proponents and many people hope to see millions of transactions processed and maybe some extremely large blocks. So far no BCH miner has exceeded block sizes above 8MB in size and that could change tomorrow if miners decide to process much larger blocks to clear all of the transactions. What do you think about the BCH network stress test planned for September 1? Do you plan on participating? Let us know what you think about this subject matter in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, Memo.cash, Scale.cash, Txhighway.com, Bitcoinsubway.cash, Meetups.com, and Pixabay. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.  The post How to Monitor the BCH Stress Test and Get Involved appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Square’s Big Week: Crypto Patent, Shares Leap, and Lightning Plug https://ift.tt/2MCO20q Smartphone app payments company Square has had a pretty big week. It was revealed the company is further dipping its toes in the cryptosphere through a granted payments patent, and it’s causing quite a stir. Wall Street analysts have deemed the company a golden goose, thereby helping its stock price jump by 6%, and it’s finally getting an Apple-ready Lightning plug to ease users’ and merchants’ worries about design changes. Also read: Venezuela Loves Dash: Altcoin Surges 30% on Adoption Push Square Granted Patent for Crypto Payment Network Merchants using the Square digital payments platform will soon be allowed to accept virtually any cryptocurrency, if the patent granted to the publicly traded company is to be believed. Ecosystem news outlet CCN appears first to have uploaded the 30-page approval document from the US Patent & Trademark Office. The company’s application was submitted Fall of last year, and the approval is dated from a few days ago.    Converting from fiat currencies into crypto is something that has been done for years within the ecosystem by platforms such as Bitpay. The difference with Square is that it hits the crypto world already well established among millions of merchants. One of the most difficult aspects of spreading adoption among businesses is convincing them to also come along on other aspects of the infrastructure, from wallets to specialized point of sale systems. Square skips all of that, and thus its power. One immediate worry for any mainstream payments company dabbling in crypto is a possible slowdown in confirmations, as in the case of bitcoin core (BTC) during late 2017, impacting transaction times. According to the patent, Square has its own private blockchain, which could theoretically allow the company to monitor balances before final wiring/broadcasting. Double-spending is still possible, though difficult, but Square has smartly taken that burden off merchants and placed it on its own shoulders. “The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a payment service capable of accepting a greater diversity of currencies,” the patent reads, “including virtual currencies including cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, etc.)…than a traditional payment system in a transaction between a customer and a merchant, and specifically for a payment service to solve or ameliorate problems germane to transactions with such currencies. Specifically, the payment service described herein can facilitate real-time (or substantially real-time) transactions, allowing a customer to pay in any currency of their choice, while the merchant can receive payment in a currency of their choice.” Square Lauded, Jumps 6% The most highly touted crypto patent by a publicly traded company has been Bank of America (BA) adding to its collection. To anyone’s knowledge, BA has yet to act on any of them. Some have suggested they were only used as ways to market the legacy bank more than anything else. Square might be different here, again, though it doesn’t have to be. Its CEO has more or less predicted bitcoin core (BTC) will be a world standard currency within the decade. Whatever the actual case, it has been a good week, news-wise, for Square. On top of making the ecosystem buzz with a crypto payments patent, its shares rose by 6% after Guggenheim showered it with praise as a “best idea” within the financial technology space. It went further, suggesting Square is its “highest conviction name” in the sector, and raised its price call from $75 to $100. In 2018 alone, the company’s stock price has boomed by more than 130%, and Guggenheim’s Jeff Cantwell noted, “We expect a strong rate of revenue growth for SQ which should drive further share price appreciation.” Much of that optimism is based around the company’s application, Cash App. It eerily apes what original cryptos like BTC were meant to do: borderless money transfers, be a staple of micro finance, and even act as way to get at the unbanked. Mr. Cantwell continued, “We think Cash App’s future revenue potential is underappreciated, we see it providing a key ‘services’ role for the underbanked.” In this year’s second quarter, Cash App users spent a quarter of a billion dollars with its linked debit card, Cash Card. Lightning If patents and stock prices booming were not enough, the iconic smartphone reader and payments platform has also finally received a Lightning plug to make up for Apple’s ditching of a listenable headphone jack. For Apple it was a matter of phone aesthetics and space. For Square users and merchants, it was a matter of financial life and death. Without the square reading block, usually white, the entire project goes out the window. Left is the old, clunky setup. Right, Lightning. Ultimately its users found workarounds and adapted. It was a stroke of genius to initially re-purpose the headphones’ auxiliary, but it also left them, at least momentarily, exposed should a design change happen. Square would give in and sell a clunky adapter, but that obviously lessened some of the get-it-and-go cache the product was built upon.    Returning to their initial business model, Square announced recently it will now offer an answer to Apple’s Lightning opening – that slim, rectangular entrance every Apple user is familiar when charging their phone. The plug will make the device compatible from 2012 products to the present day. The company can stay small, agile, and refrain from forcing its users into adapters.  Is Square becoming an important part of crypto? Let us know in the comments below.  Images via Pixabay. We’re celebrating Bitcoin Journalist Pioneer Jamie Redman’s work. Check out Jamie Redman’s author archives. It’s an encyclopedia, a living history of crypto.  The post Square’s Big Week: Crypto Patent, Shares Leap, and Lightning Plug appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services https://ift.tt/2NxJIMl On Wednesday, August 29 the Atlanta-based firm Bitpay announced that its merchants can now receive settlement in bitcoin cash (BCH). Not only can Bitpay merchants accept the decentralized digital currency and keep all the bitcoin cash, but they can also split their funds into a fraction of fiat and BCH as well. Also Read: Nchain Publishes Bitcoin SV Alpha Release Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services The cryptocurrency payment processor Bitpay has made a lot of changes since its inception in 2011, and just recently the firm added bitcoin cash support for merchant invoices and the company’s debit card loads. On the merchant side Bitpay has always allowed clients to settle in BTC, and now the firm has added support so merchants can settle in BCH. Bitpay merchants can settle for all of the funds in bitcoin cash or they can choose fiat settlement instead in their local currency in order to avoid price volatility. Merchants using Bitpay’s services can also get a fraction of BCH and a fraction of fiat as well. “Most businesses still do business in national currencies — But more are starting to hold and use digital currency, too, from making bill payments to managing their treasuries,” explains Bitpay during the announcement.   Now we’re excited to announce the second digital currency settlement option for Bitpay merchants: Bitcoin Cash. Users can get 100% BCH or 100% fiat. Or they can settle with their own desired ratio. Bitpay Wants to Make It Easier to Accept Blockchain Payments Since bitcoin core (BTC) had severe issues with scaling, which led to network fees rising above $50 per transaction this past December, a bunch of merchants and businesses who accepted BTC in the past have changed over to BCH. Bitcoin cash network fees have remained extremely affordable at $0.003 per transaction, giving many businesses a strong economic incentive to switch from BTC to BCH. This past Spring Bitpay gave people the option to choose either BCH or BTC during the payment invoice process. Adding a BCH address and selecting the settlement percentage. In order to use Bitpay’s merchant services and get a settlement in bitcoin cash, users must register with the firm and find their way to the Bitpay merchant services dashboard. From here a merchant simply selects ‘settings’ and then ‘settlement.’ Then, merchants add a BCH receiving address and choose how much bitcoin cash and/or fiat to receive after the sale, as it could be 100 percent or less.     Bitcoin cash fans were very pleased to hear the announcement across Reddit forums and social media platforms. The firm Bitpay emphasized it just wants to make accepting payments easier, noting:   We’re excited to continue our work to make the Bitpay platform the best way to accept blockchain payments – and to accept payments, period. What do you think about Bitpay now supporting bitcoin cash settlement? Let us know in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, and Bitpay. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH, and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com. The post Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Markets Update: BTC Consolidates Around $7K After Breaking Trendline https://ift.tt/2wpqzFI The cryptocurrency markets are consolidating today, following BTC’s recent break above the major descending trendline dating back to December’s all-time highs and subsequent rally to approximately $7,150 USD. Also Read: Reserve Bank of India Anticipates Shift to P2P Crypto Trading  BTC Consolidates Around $7,000 After Short Squeeze and Broken Trendline The BTC markets appear to be consolidating at approximately $7,000 today, after retracing roughly 2% from yesterday’s highs of roughly $7,150. The markets broke above a major descending trendline dating back to the all-time highs of December 2017 on the 27th of August, with BTC rallying by nearly 6% over the course of two days. BTC/USD – Bitfinex – 1D The bullish action was driven by a significant short squeeze, with Bitfinex posting a 28% retracement in selling pressure over the course of seven days as shorts fell from nearly 39,000 on the 24th of August to roughly 28,000 as of this writing. BTC/USD Shorts – Bitfinex – 1D BTC is currently trading for approximately $6,975, has a total market capitalization of $120.5 billion, and a market dominance of 53.3% BCH Consolidates at Roughly $540 The BCH markets also rallied on the 27th of August, gaining by nearly 10% by the close of the 28th. Since then, the markets have retraced by roughly 4% over two days, with BCH trading for approximately $540 as of this writing. BCH/USD – Bitfinex – 1D Looking at the BCH/BTC charts, Bitcoin Cash gained roughly 3% over Bitcoin Core to retest the preceding support area of 0.08 BTC during the 27th and 28th of August. The former support area appears to have been confirmed a resistance, with the BCH/BTC markets producing a full retrace back to approximately 0.0775 BTC since. BCH/BTC – Bitfinex – 1D As of this writing, Bitcoin Cash is the fourth largest crypto market by capitalization with a total market cap of $9.5 billion, and a market dominance of 4.2%. ETH Breaks New Lows Against BTC for 2018 Ethereum, the second largest market by capitalization, has produced very similar price action to BTC and BCH in recent days when measuring against BTC, with ETH rallying by 8.5% over the course of the 27th and 28th of October, before retracing by roughly 5.5% during the last two days. ETH is currently trading for $280. ETH/USD – Bitfinex – 1D Despite ETH having gained 12% from its 2018 low of $250 on the 14th of August, the ETH/BTC markets are breaking into new lows for 2018 today – currently trading for approximately 0.04 BTC. Ethereum has a market capitalization of nearly $28.8 billion. ETH/BTC – Bitfinex – 1D The third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, XRP, is currently trading for $0.33 after consolidating between $0.31 and $0.36 for over a week. XRP/USD – Bitfinex – 1D When measuring against BTC, XRP has lost 15.5% in the last 12 days to currently trade for 0.0000475 BTC. The total capitalization of XRP is $13.15 billion. XRP/BTC – Bitfinex – 1D Do you think we will continue to see bullish action in the cryptocurrency markets? Join the discussion in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trading View At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Markets Update: BTC Consolidates Around $7K After Breaking Trendline appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Korean Province to Replace Local Currencies With Crypto

How to Monitor the BCH Stress Test and Get Involved

Square’s Big Week: Crypto Patent, Shares Leap, and Lightning Plug

Payment Platform Bitpay Adds Bitcoin Cash Settlement Services

Markets Update: BTC Consolidates Around $7K After Breaking Trendline