https://i.imgur.com/OnKOLKe.jpg
A lot has changed in the ten years since Bitcoin first came on the scene – but despite all the different opinions about how successful Bitcoin has been, whether or not it should be the only coin worth caring about, how best to move the project forward, and whether or not the blockchain is worth talking about for other uses besides currency, one thing is certain- the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper had a profound impact on the world. Before Bitcoin, the idea of a decentralized digital currency that could be sent from one side of the world to the other, with a permanent record of the transaction available, seemed like a science fiction fantasy. Now it happens every day, and we take it for granted. The Bitcoin and blockchain story has been a fascinating journey so far, and it will be even more fascinating to see where the next ten years take us.
# Could A Blockchain Improve Election Security?
https://i.imgur.com/6e07GfT.jpg
Securing the data collected during elections and making sure votes are accurately counted has been a big topic lately. The hanging chads of 2000 left many people feeling that a faster, more efficient and accurate method for counting votes was needed- and electronic voting machines started appearing more frequently at elections that followed. These have been the target of new criticisms though- Many people worried about the possibility of online attackers hacking into the machines, and some asked about the possibility of a company who makes them being compromised and favoring one candidate over another, or having a strong bias on a certain issue that was being voted on. The idea of sending the vote counts over the internet to be added up and stored in a database also made people nervous. How do you ensure that no one hacks into it and changes the numbers?
Concerns like these have received a lot more attention now after the 2016 election. Mounting evidence suggests that Russia took active measures to help Donald Trump win the election. And while their efforts were mainly focused on influencing opinion rather than hacking and changing vote totals, there is evidence that such attacks were attempted- and questions have been raised about whether the machines or voter rolls may have been compromised in a way that would let Russia execute an attack or falsify totals in the future.
https://i.imgur.com/iwLlr0r.jpg
Using blockchain tech to record election data is an idea that has been looked at and talked about quite a bit, and security concerns like the ones in 2000 and the recent 2016 election could be more good reasons to look at it more closely. One issue that would have to be overcome is making sure the voting records stay private- the identity of the people voting shouldn’t be stored on the same blockchain as the vote totals. But having the vote totals recorded on an open blockchain could make the election data far more secure than it is now.
One way this could be implemented is to have a system where every voting machine is a full node on a blockchain. After a voter verifies that their name is on the list of people for that polling place, they could be given a card, similar to a Bitcoin paper wallet, that they insert into a slot on the machine to be scanned. When they do that they are given a certain number of “vote tokens”- one for each candidate or issue on the ballot. Every time they vote on something, a token is sent to an address on the blockchain that corresponds to the choice that they made. Then when the voting is over and the polls close, there would be a permanent record of where all the votes went- and there would be no way for a hostile actor to hack in and change the totals, because to do that they would have to change every record on every machine.
A system like would probably have hurdles to be overcome before it can be implemented on a wide scale, but it definitely seems worth looking into further- especially considering what happened last year.
https://i.imgur.com/QcuIfAO.jpg
One year ago yesterday, on August 1st of 2017, after a years-long debate about how best to scale the Bitcoin blockchain to allow the network to process a greater number of transactions, a sizable group of users who were unhappy with the idea of using SegWit and the Lightning Network to create a “layer 2” scaling solution decided to take matters into their own hands- and the Bitcoin Cash hard fork was executed. This created a separate cryptocurrency which was essentially a new version of Bitcoin that could hold eight megabytes of transaction data in each block instead of one.
The faction that created Bitcoin Cash believed that an on-chain scaling method that increases the block size would be more in line with the original vision for Bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto had when it was first created. They cited the description of Bitcoin as a “peer to peer digital cash system” in the original white paper, and expressed unhappiness with the big focus on Bitcoin as an investment or commodity, and the “digital gold” analogy that is often used to describe it. They also expressed concerns that Blockstream had too much control over its development, and claimed that the block size was being intentionally limited to 1 megabyte so that fees would be kept high and layer 2 solutions that they created could be used.
Once the Bitcoin Cash hard fork had been executed, and the “big block” supporters had the higher-capacity upgrade of Bitcoin that they had been clamoring for, many supporters of the new coin began a very passionate campaign to sell Bitcoin Cash as “the real Bitcoin” – with some services going so far as to re-label it as such.
Now, a year after the fork, things have calmed down a bit and Bitcoin Cash has come into its own- and the community has been focusing on ways to differentiate the coin from the original Bitcoin. One way it has done this is by exploring use cases that take advantage of the extra space available in its blockchain by storing other data besides transaction records – for example, a social network site called memo.cash, which is meant to be like a decentralized Twitter, uses the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to send messages similar to tweets. There was also another hard fork done on the network recently, which increased the block size from 8 MB to 32, and there is discussion in the community about possibly adding smart contract and token functionality similar to Ethereum. This has been a bit controversial, however- which makes sense, since if it happens it could be argued that Bitcoin Cash is following the original vision of Vitalik rather than Satoshi.
https://i.imgur.com/QEkcoSw.png
Going forward, it will be interesting to see which direction Bitcoin Cash ends up going. Right now the low fees, fast transaction time and new possibilities created by a bigger block size seem impressive – but they might become unfeasible as time goes on, especially if the coin becomes very popular and transaction volume picks up a great deal. The main criticism of using a block size increase as the only scaling solution has been the increased centralization of the network that would result, due to the larger amount of space needed to run a full node. Right now the blockchain of the original Bitcoin, with its 1 MB block size, takes up over 170 GB altogether. If every block on the chain were over 8 MB, the whole thing would take up over a terabyte of space. This may seem far-fetched, but with messages and perhaps even images and other data being added to the chain alongside transactions, it’s not hard to imagine it happening at some point. But supporters of Bitcoin Cash have countered this argument by pointing out that data storage technology will be improving as time goes by.
https://i.imgur.com/GbdEVl5.jpg
One thing that’s definitely apparent looking at the big picture of everything that has happened, is the open-source nature of Bitcoin is a big positive – because the ability to fork the blockchain and create Bitcoin Cash has created an environment where ideas that could only be talked about in theoretical terms can now be tested in the real world. Especially now with the Lightning Network coming online and able to be tested and compared, this will be an interesting time…
# Cryptocurrencies stay mostly steady despite global stock market sell-off
Cryptocurrencies appeared to deviate from past behavior during Thursday's stock market sell-off.
In the afternoon of Asian trade, bitcoin, XRP and ethereum were all moderately lower, but experienced nothing like the massive declines they experienced during the last stock wipeout.
Back in mid-October, digital currencies bled out $18 billion of their market value.
https://i.imgur.com/1SPfSrH.png
Cryptocurrencies held up by and large on Thursday, despite a [rout in global stock markets](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/25/asia-markets-wall-street-sell-off-geopolitics-currencies-in-focus.html).
In the afternoon of Asia hours, [bitcoin](https://www.cnbc.com/id/105060078) had fallen by 0.23 percent to around $6,484, while [XRP](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=XRP.BS%3D) saw losses of 2.09 percent and [ethereum](https://www.cnbc.com/id/105077041) shed 1.38 percent, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. It's not unusual to see bitcoin lead other digital tokens lower.
The steady performance among cryptocurrencies contrasted sharply with the last time there was a [major market stock sell-off.](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/asia-markets-wall-street-sell-off-the-fed-currencies-in-focus.html)
On October 11, bitcoin fell more than 4 percent, while both XRP and ethereum plunged more than 11 percent during Asia trading hours alone, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.
[PLAY MP3](https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/episodes/cbdba449-eed5-4668-b3f3-8080cfd74e17/1f3f32fc7d1712fa35892f320d302a6c4b5a875dec3d59a9bb5291f6ea93d392dabb7d6b8ad711cc70104150648079753fe7631f344e8de262dda9c3b1d0e07e/Beyond%20the%20Valley%20-%20EP%2002%20-%20Bitcoin%20and%20crypto.mp3)
Back then, over the course of three days, cryptocurrencies as an asset class saw $18 billion of their value wiped out as global markets tumbled.
https://i.imgur.com/hTpXTeQ.png
Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds BitBull Capital, said then that the uncertainty around stocks bled into cryptocurrency markets.
https://i.imgur.com/ADaTFOs.jpg
"When we saw equity markets crumble, there was some fear in the cryptocurrency market as well," he said. "I think there was an initial jolt due to larger market activity and the sell off."
https://i.imgur.com/hAi4QL6.jpg
That move on October 11 also coincided with the release of a report by the International Monetary Fund, where it said "continued rapid growth of crypto assets could create new vulnerabilities in the international financial system."
https://i.imgur.com/Rf2jBN6.png
https://i.imgur.com/6lFy0RJ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/mrztdvg.png
https://i.imgur.com/Rf2jBN6.png
0.000 SRY