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Ethereum Notches Two-Month High as Bitcoin Offspring Triggers Volatility

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Digital currency Ethereum climbed to a two-month high on Monday, taking some of the heat off Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, which have slumped since the weekend.

Ethereum Forges Higher Path

Concerns over Bitcoin created a favourable tailwind for Ethereum (ETH/USD), which is the world’s No. 2 digital currency by total assets. Ether’s price topped $340.00 on Monday and later settled at $323.54. That was the highest since June 20.

At its peak, ether was up 10% on the day and 70% for the month of August.

The ETH/USD was last down 2.2% at $315.02, according to Bitfinex. Prices are due for a brisk recovery, based on the daily momentum indicators.

Fractured Bitcoin Community

Bitcoin and its offshoot, Bitcoin Cash, retreated on Monday following a volatile weekend. The BTC/USD slumped at the start of the week and was down more than 3% on Tuesday, with prices falling below $3,900.00. Just last week, Bitcoin was trading at new records near $4,500.00.

Bitcoin Cash, which emerged after the Aug. 1 hard fork, climbed to new records on Saturday, but has been in free-fall ever since. The BTH was down another 20% on Tuesday to $594.49, according to CoinMarketCap. Its total market value has dropped by several billion over the past two days.

Analysts say that a “fractured” Bitcoin community has made Ethereum a more attractive bet this week. The ether token has shown remarkable poise over the past seven days, despite trading well shy of a new record.

Other drivers behind Ethereum’s advance are steady demand from South Korean investors and growing confidence in a smooth upgrade for the the ETH network. The upgrade, which has been dubbed “Metropolis,” is expected in the next several weeks. Its key benefits include tighter transaction privacy and greater efficiency.

Ethereum Prices Unaffected by ICO Heist

Fin-tech developer Enigma was on the receiving end of a cyber-heist on Monday after hackers took over the company’s website, mailing list and instant messaging platforms. The hack occurred three weeks before Enigma’s planned Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for September 11.

In addition to defacing the company’s website, the hackers pushed a special “pre-sale” ahead of the ICO. While many users realized it was a scam, 1,492 ether tokens – valued at $495,000 – were directed into the hackers’ cryptocurrency wallet by unsuspecting backers.

The irony in all this is that Engima is a cryptography company that prides itself on top-notch security protocols. The company issued a statement that its servers had not been compromised.

ETH/USD (Bitfinex)

Major Japanese Ticket Exchange Marketplace Now Accepts Bitcoin

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Major Japanese customer-to-customer ticket exchange marketplace, Ticket Camp, has announced that it is already accepting the digital currency Bitcoin as a form of payment.

The move is a major boost to the cryptocurrency as the exchange has about five million users across the country.

According to the company, the digital currency exchange Coincheck will handle all the transactions made in Bitcoin.

First in the industry

With its acceptance of Bitcoin, Ticket Camp became the first member of the ticket industry in Japan to adopt the virtual currency and use it in its transactions.

Because the digital currency was already approved by the Japanese government as a form of payment and Ticket Camp is a web-based oriented platform, this move could become very beneficial in the long-term.

Bitcoin, however, will not be used to replace the conventional payment methods currently being used at the ticket exchange marketplace.

Issues on the adoption of Bitcoin

Despite its great potentials, several possible problems could be experienced by the company in using Bitcoin as a form of payment.

One of the issues is how the company will collect its 13 percent fee for every sale transaction.

The fee is evenly split between the seller and the buyer, and it is still uncertain if the firm will keep their cut in Bitcoin or convert it to fiat currency immediately.

Another issue is whether the use of Bitcoin will effectively eliminate the sale of fake tickets.

This problem has already been plaguing the country’s ticket industry for a long time and stopping it has been proven to be very difficult, if not nearly impossible.

Although Ticket Camp utilizes an escrow system to hold payments until the tickets properly reach their buyers, this was not effective in dealing with fake tickets.

Swift’s Cross-Border Blockchain Trial Is Moving Into Its Next Phase

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Swift is one step closer to adopting blockchain.

After months of work, a team of developers at the inter-bank payments platform have completed a proof-of-concept built with the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain. Designed to test whether moving member bank accounts to a distributed ledger could help Swift reconcile in real time, the project is now ready for its next phase.

According to Damien Vanderveken, head of Swift’s distributed ledger technology R&D effort, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, RBC Royal Bank and Wells Fargo have now been given access to the platform for further testing.

If successful, Swift believes the tests could free up billions of dollars in dormant funds in banks’ nostro accounts, which are set up all over the world to hold various currencies just in case they’re needed for transactions. By moving the funds to a shared ledger, the test is seeking to confirm whether that practice can be eliminated, freeing up the capital to be invested in other ventures.

Going forward, the founding banks are expected to complete their work next month, at which time the results will be validated by an additional 22 banks, including ABN Amro, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Standard Chartered.

Skepticism remains

While a small update, news that the test is moving forward nonetheless has notable implications for both Swift and blockchain adoption in banking more broadly.

For one, even in spite of multiple blockchain efforts in various stages of development at Swift, the organization remains publicly skeptical of the technology.

This has been especially true as it relates to real-time payments, where Swift is expanding its services using traditional payment rails even while startup Ripple takes aim at financial incumbents with its distributed ledger model for instant payments.

Here, Vanderveken echoed Swift’s customarily incredulous tone, concluding that such developments aren’t necessarily prompting concern in the organization.

Vanderveken concluded:

“Blockchain is very hyped, that is for sure, and whether blockchain drives innovation, I think it only drives innovation in payments. But does it drive it for instant payments? I wouldn’t say so.”

Analyst: Bitcoin Cash Sell-Off Will Lead Investors to Litecoin

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Tuur Demeester, prominent bitcoin analyst and investor, recently stated that the next Bitcoin Cash (BCH) sell-off will likely lead to an increase in demand toward Litecoin. He emphasized that over the past two years, Litecoin (LTC) has evolved into a real bitcoin hedge due to its activation of the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix and scaling solution Segregated Witness (SegWit).

“If BCH pump fails, money could roll into LTC, it being a real Bitcoin (BTC) hedge. I just invested some BCH profits into LTC. With “real Bitcoin hedge” I mean [that] Litecoin has SegWit and it will likely merge other cutting edge tech ahead of BTC,” Demeester explained.

Since the completion of the August 1 hard fork execution, BCH has struggled to demonstrate an increase in value and demand from investors. For weeks, it remained behind Ripple in terms of market cap and trading volume. However, as the daily trading volume of BCH drastically increased in Bithumb, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange based in South Korea, the value of BCH surged. In a period of three days, the price of BCH rose from $300 to $996, coming close to breaching the $1,000 mark.

On August 19, when BCH reached its all-time high price of $996 and a market cap of $16.4 billion, Demeester noted that a sell-off is imminent, mostly due to the abrupt increase in the value of BCH. More importantly, because the trading volume of BCH is heavily concentrated in one market that is South Korea, with Bithumb and Korbit processing 50 percent of global trades, Demeester explained that the BCH exchange market was not at all stable.

As Demeester predicted, the market cap of BCH decreased substantially from August 19 to 21, dropping by over $7 billion within a mere two-day span. BCH has recovered slightly since dipping below the $10 billion region and has since stabilized at $10.5 billion.

Why is it Likely That BCH Volumes Could Flow to Litecoin?

Due to its similarities to bitcoin in terms of structure, monetary policy and philosophy, Litecoin has been considered as a hedge investment tool against bitcoin’s volatility for awhile. Although the entire cryptocurrency market does fluctuate around bitcoin in most circumstances, Litecoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that remain relatively stable amidst market volatility.

But, it is also important to note that the market for Litecoin is very similar to BCH. Like Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin’s trading volume is heavily centralized in Asia, especially in China. While the vast majority of BCH trading is facilitated through South Korea’s two largest bitcoin exchanges, a significant portion of its trading volume originates from China, simply because all of the Chinese bitcoin exchange market’s largest exchanges by volume have been supporting BCH trading.

Hence, if the market and investors feel less confident in the ability of BCH to rally past its early stages and increase in value over time, there exists a high probability that traders would simply switch over to Litecoin as hedge against bitcoin and BCH. In South Korea, it is also likely that investors would sell their BCH and move to Ethereum, as it also is the largest exchange market for Ether (ETH).

BCH has been incredibly volatile in terms of market cap and price due to controversy surrounding ViaBTC, Bitmain and the recent hard fork announcement of the SegWit2x consortium of companies and miners.

Reputation Pays: How Blockchain Is Monetizing Human Ability

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Generating value is the key concept sustaining the explosion of Blockchain offerings in 2017.

BMCHAIN, a platform aiming to monetize a user’s experience and skills, has launched sales of its integrated token to take paid crowd media beyond the likes of Steemit and Golos.

Businesses, investors, users and regulators are all acutely aware of the potential value hidden in a Blockchain product or service, and monetizing this value is creating a multi-billion-dollar industry overnight.

The channels to capital – a specific form of value that businesses and investors in today’s Blockchain environment are particularly keen on – are numerous.

Chief among them is the ICO or token sale. The presentation for sale of anywhere from hundreds of thousands to billions of tokens in exchange for cryptocurrency has already paid dividends for buyers and sellers dozens of times over.

Crowd-powered longevity needs more than tokens

After so many ICO schemes, however, the industry is becoming aware that not all tokens are created equal.

While technically anyone can buy into an ICO scheme (subject to legal approval), it is not always possible. Limited availability has resulted in huge shares of tokens being bought by a comparatively small number of investors, who then have overwhelming control of the market.

As such, for successful businesses looking for longevity, reputation is everything. As witnessed with ICOs from companies such as Civic, all-inclusiveness and distribution are essential to launching a well-balanced Blockchain business.

How else can a project last for years by leveraging community involvement? This question is leading to the rise of ambitious solutions looking to overtake even their non-Blockchain, non-revenue-sharing equivalents.

First to prove the model worked was Steemit, which since last year has paid users for submitting content based on its point-based ‘reputation.’

BMCHAIN seeks to ‘monetize any benefit’

As with everywhere in Blockchain, however, things are advancing fast. A new concept from a Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) conglomerate dubbed BMCHAIN, which already has over two million participants, is seeking to go beyond simple media sharing and monetize literally anything a human being is capable of doing.

“Unlike projects such as Golos and Steemit, we will offer users a wider range of tools for monetization, which can be used not only by writing articles or commenting but also by performing tasks, assisting and sharing experiences,” Roman Moiseyev, cofounder of BMCHAIN told Cointelegraph.

Generating value for almost anything is a daunting task, requiring the creation of an entire ecosystem including a bespoke token, reputation system for judging talent and multiple tools to attract users in the first place.

To that extent, the project has a head start, with developer Biznes Molodostalready enjoying an active 200,000-strong entrepreneurial community in Russia and CIS states.

The central concept is for users to turn their ‘reputation’ – which more than Steemit is calculated via a specific formula – into cash through the use of BMT tokens, the pre-ICO for which began Aug. 20.

“One of the unique options within the project will be the ability to evaluate transactions – the results of the evaluation will be used to calculate the reputation rate,” Moiseyev explains.

“The digital reputation of each participant will determine the number of bonus tokens charged by the system based on the results of their activity. Thus, users will be able to find proven contractors on the basis of a reliable verified reputation and engage their services using BMT tokens.”

Ultimately, BMCHAIN will be a hub for Biznes Molodost’s add-on projects, which will communicate with the platform via an API.

Companies will even be able to launch ICOs through the company’s Token API scheme.

“Using the planned capabilities of our solution, any user, even those unfamiliar with Blockchain technology, will be able to obtain a ready-made model specifically for their business: from issuing a token to attracting investment and debuting on exchanges,” Moiseyev adds.

The specter of security and integrity

The enthusiasm behind Blockchain means BMCHAIN is unlikely to fall short of interested customers. As with any grandiose launch, however, there are risks.

As Steemit proved soon after its launch, even the most watertight security can be picked apart, leading to loss of funds, private information and – essentially – reputation.

“The most important property of the Blockchain technology destined for use on the platform is the immutability of stored information, which allows for immediate and accurate assessment of risks associated with user transactions, as well as implementing effective automatic arbitration with minimal time and financial costs,” Moiseyev continues.

“Well-organized Blockchain architecture makes processing thousands of transactions per second almost free for users, while guaranteeing reliability and authenticity.”

The security plans do indeed need to be flawless, as in the long-term, the BMCHAIN roadmap includes the development of an international payment system built on the Blockchain.

“The project is due to be implemented in the business processes of thousands of entrepreneurs – at least 500,000 users connecting to the platform in the first year alone,” forecasts Moiseyev.

“The pre-ICO raised 1,506 ETH ($466,000 as of Aug. 16) during a dedicated presentation to the market, as well as about 245 ETH ($70,000 as of Aug. 21) on the first day of the pre-ICO itself.”

A Bitcoin Law for Every State? Interest and Animosity Greet Model US Regulation

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A two-year effort to unify cryptocurrency business regulations across the U.S. has concluded – now, the technology’s enthusiasts just have to convince legislators to enact it.

Established in 1982, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) is a non-profit association made up of 350 commissioners. All are lawyers by trade, and their goal is to draft legislation that brings clarity to areas where state law is creating instability.

Given the onerous regulatory regimes that have so far been enacted for cryptocurrencies, it may be no surprise that the ULC has taken an interest in the area. Since the group began its work in 2014, attempts by states to regulate the tech have attracted everything from public boycotts to criticism and petitions to ongoing lawsuits.

But with the ULC’s work now concluded, some industry observers are optimistic this narrative could see a much-needed reversal.

Stephen Middlebrook, an attorney with Womble Carlyle who served as the American Bar Association advisor to the ULC during its drafting process, expects several states to introduce its Uniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Act in upcoming legislative sessions around the country.

Middlebrook told CoinDesk:

“It’s my understanding that legislators in several states who were interested in legislating in this area held off waiting for the Uniform Act. So, I think there’s sort of a built up demand for it.”

Appeals for clarity

Others involved with the work agree.

Sarah Jane Hughes, who served as reporter for the ULC committee, said Texas and California – which were involved in the drafting process – would likely be early adopters.

“We believe that there are a number of states that have been holding back their own regulatory and legislative approaches in order to wait for this,” she said.

The Uniform Act seeks to spell out which virtual currency-related activities are – and are not – considered money transmission, and therefore require licensure. It further defines foundational concepts such as the “custody” of crypto assets.

One of the more innovative items the bill seeks to put into law is a three-tier licensing structure that offers full exemptions for individuals and small entities, creates a regulatory sandbox for startups and grants full licensure status for larger virtual currency businesses.

And legislators seem keen to continue engaging and working with the nascent industry.

Matt Dababneh, a member of the California state assembly who has introduced virtual currency legislation in the past, told CoinDesk he is considering the Uniform Act, explaining:

“I have been monitoring the growth and progression of virtual currency and how it impacts our economy. I am still reviewing all of the recommendations put forth in the [Uniform] Act. I will continue to be engaged in this issue as virtual currency becomes a more prominent payment option for businesses throughout the state.”

Industry threat?

With all this optimism, though, there’s still an uphill battle ahead.

According to Carol Van Cleef, a fintech attorney with BakerHostetler, getting the law passed in any single state, much less all 50, will be a challenge. And there’s history to prove it.

About 17 years ago, a uniform money transmitter statute was circulated, with the idea that money transmitters would only need to receive a license from one state, which could then be used as a passport to operate in other states, said Van Cleef.

“As of today, I think approximately 10 states have adopted that. So, we’re not going to see this as a real panacea, or think that we’re resolving the state money transmitter issue,” she said at a conference last month in Washington, D.C.

Complicating matters further, a segment of the virtual currency community remains stridently opposed to the Uniform Act on the grounds it too closely resembles New York’s “BitLicense” regulation, which they claim has chased fintech innovators out of the state.

The Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit of waning influence in the industry, has urged the National Council of State Legislatures (NCLS), a group that represents state legislators and staff, to direct its members to reject the bill.

Writing to the NCLS, the foundation’s executive director Llew Claasen warned:

“Adopting a model act with the characteristics of the New York regulation is sure to threaten the existence of the fintech industry nationwide.”

Seeking balance

And there might be merit in these ideas.

Given the fast-moving nature of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, laws like the BitLicense have shown a propensity to quickly become dated.

Since the law was drawn up in 2014, two separate movements have sprung out of the tech: bank-focused private blockchains and initial coin offerings – both of which haven’t been addressed on the state level.

Still, Middlebrook advocated for a balance here, as both regulators and innovators seek to find a middle ground that can perhaps only be found with time.

He concluded:

“The choice really is whether it’s going to be regulated using statutes and regulatory schemes that were designed for other things that don’t really mesh well with virtual currency, or whether a regulatory scheme is going to be something specifically designed for businesses operating in this area.”

Gibraltar Gets First Bitcoin ATM While Working on Cryptocurrency Regulation

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The first Bitcoin ATM in the British territory of Gibraltar has been installed. The European tax haven on the southern coast of Spain already has a few Bitcoin businesses and the government is currently working on a regulatory framework for digital currencies.

First Bitcoin ATM in Gibraltar

Gibraltar’s first Bitcoin ATM (BTM) was installed in the reception area of the World Trade Center Gibraltar, the center announced last week. The British Overseas Territory on Spain’s south coast has a population of about 34,408 as of 2016. The BTM accepts British pound sterling, Gibraltar pounds as well as Euro notes, the center stated:

People working and living in Gibraltar, as well as those visiting can now purchase the cryptocurrency using cash and mobile phone wallet apps. The BATM [Bitcoin ATM] accepts GBP, GIP and EUR notes, so a fraction of a bitcoin can be purchased for as little as £10 or €10.

Gibraltar Gets First Bitcoin ATM While Working on Cryptocurrency RegulationThe machine is privately owned by Bitcoin enthusiast Ludek Safranek, according to the Gibraltar Chronicle. “I contacted the World Trade Center and asked whether I could install the first ever Bitcoin ATM in Gibraltar,” he was quoted as saying. “A similar machine was installed a few weeks ago in Malta so I thought it was about time a bitcoin ATM was installed in Gibraltar. I think this is the perfect place to put the first Bitcoin ATM.”

Coinatmradar, a site which tracks the locations of BTMs, shows that this one-way BTM is the only one in Gibraltar. Its fee is 4.3% for purchasing bitcoin, the site detailed, noting that “altcoins to be added soon.”

Gibraltar Attracting Crypto Businesses

Gibraltar Gets First Bitcoin ATM While Working on Cryptocurrency Regulation
Supernatural, World Trade Center Gibraltar

One establishment in the World Trade Center Gibraltar already accepts bitcoin. The health food restaurant called Supernatural is owned by Dan Thompson. He said his establishment is the first retail business to accept bitcoin in the territory. “We hope it will raise awareness and encourage other retailers and customers to begin to use this type of currency as well,” he noted.

A growing number of cryptocurrency companies are moving to Gibraltar, reported the Street. This is due to attractive tax benefits and loose regulations, the publication detailed.

In July 2016, the Gibraltar Stock Exchange approved a Bitcoin Exchange Traded Instrument (ETI) to be listed on GSX. The asset-backed exchange-traded instrument, which invests exclusively in bitcoin, is also co-listed on Deutsche Börse.

Government Planning Crypto Regulations

Gibraltar’s government published a consultation paper in January 2016 on digital currency regulation. Since then, it has been discussing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency businesses.

In May, the government released a document which includes regulatory proposals for digital currency-related businesses. It was introduced at the Digital Currency Summit held at the University of Gibraltar for a full public consultation. “The proposals include for amendments to be made to regulations under the Financial Services (Investment and Fiduciary Services) Act 1989, with a proposed operative date no later than 1st January 2018,” the paper revealed, noting that “a few businesses, many involving virtual currencies, have started operations.”

Bitcoin Prices Reach New All-Time High of Over $4,500

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Following two days of near sideways trading, bitcoin prices have once again reached record levels.

Since setting its most recent all-time high of $4,483 on August 15, prices have fluctuated in the $4,000–$4,200 range until starting to rise once again Wednesday afternoon.

This morning, however, after a slight drop early on at 3 a.m. UTC, vigorous trading has seen the price of the crypto asset rapidly climb to a new high of $4,501 at around 11 a.m. UTC.

At press time, the price stood at $4,495 – a 1.58 percent gain for the day so far, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization now stands at over $73 billion, up from $68 billion two days ago.

Looking at wider market, the combined market cap for all cryptocurrencies has also reached a new all-time high of $144.7 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

The First 8MB Bitcoin Cash Block Was Just Mined

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Bitcoin cash was launched on August 1 as a protest to Bitcoin Core’s implementation of segregated witness (Segwit) as a scaling solution. Claiming to be the true fulfillment of Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for bitcoin as peer-to-peer electronic cash rather than a settlement layer, Bitcoin Cash instead chose to raise the block size from 1MB to 8MB, resulting in a hard fork that split the bitcoin blockchain into two different branches.

The hard fork was initiated with a 1.9MB block mined by ViaBTC, but for a while, most bitcoin cash blocks were smaller than those on the main bitcoin blockchain. Unsurprisingly, this gave opponents–who refer to it as Bcash to avoid associating it with bitcoin branding–plenty of comedic fodder.

Interesting, 91% of  blocks are *bigger* than  blocks. We want smaller blocks back!

BitClub Network Mines 8 MB Bitcoin Cash Block

However, that changed on August 16. Early that morning, the bitcoin cash network appeared to incur a spam attack, as the number of unconfirmed transactions soared from a few hundred to more than 80,000 within a matter of hours.

Within a short time, BitClub Network found an 8MB block that cleared 37,814 transactions. A few hours later, an unknown miner found a 4MB block. This was quickly followed by two more 4MB blocks and then one 4.8MB block.

Before long, miners had cleared the 80,000 transaction backlog and block sizes had returned to normal. For reference, the main bitcoin network currently has about 58,000 unconfirmed transactions.

Bitcoin Cash Network Stats

Bitcoin cash supporters were ecstatic that an 8MB block was successfully found, believing it justified their split from the main bitcoin blockchain. However, one factor that some community members find concerning is that 91% of all BCH blocks have been found by an unknown miner (or miners).

bitcoin cash

BCH Block Distribution | Chart from Coin Dance

Bitcoin blocks, on the other hand, are much more evenly distributed. In the past week, Antpool has found 18% of all blocks, the most of any mining pool.

Another current problem is that bitcoin cash remains much less profitable to mine than the main bitcoin blockchain. According to Coin Dance, BTC is about 81% more profitable to mine than BCH. However, this will change as the network difficulty continues to adjust downward. At present, its difficulty is 13% as great as the main chain’s.

Bank of Canada Consultant Proposes Bitcoin-based Financial System

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Bank of Canada research consultant Warren E. Weber proposes a financial system that uses the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as the standard currency instead of the fiat currencies.

In his 37-page long research report, Weber referred the digital currency as the “Bitcoin standard.”

Major points of the report

In his report, Weber examined the similarities between the gold standard and Bitcoin standard.

Among the most glaring alikeness between gold and Bitcoin is the absence of control of central banks or monetary authorities, as well as the limit of their supply.

Under Bitcoin’s algorithm, there are only 21 mln tokens that are allowed to be mined and circulated, while the amount of gold on earth can only be found in finite quantities.

The report also showed that like gold, there will also be three distinct media of exchanges under the Bitcoin standard.

Under the standard, Bitcoin will become the main currency, while there will be fiduciary currencies that will be issued by the central banks of different countries, as well as fiduciary currencies like banknotes or deposits that will be issued by commercial banks.

Expected benefits of the Bitcoin standard

Weber’s report also cited the possible economic benefits of adopting the Bitcoin standard. One major benefit is that the people will be able to forecast the price level of the digital currency more easily due to the “known, deterministic rate” at which the cryptocurrency is established.

Another key benefit is that the investment resources that are presently allocated to hedging against fluctuations in the currency exchange rates will be freed up and can be used more productively.

Weber, however, believes that the Bitcoin standard will not become a reality due to the expected heavy opposition that will be raised by central banks and governments around the world.

“If the Bitcoin standard becomes real, neither the governments nor the central banks will be able to implement interest rates to affect their economies, neither could they generate seigniorage revenues obtained from their ability to ‘almost costlessly create money.”