Archive for the ‘Crypto News’ Category

NiceHash and WestHash Now With Support for Lyra2RE

14, Dec 2014

nicehash-algorithm-profitability-chart

A good sign that there is a lot of user interest in the new Lyra2RE that VertCoin (VTC) has recently forked to is that services for renting and leasing hashrate are starting to add support for it. Today NiceHash has added support for the Lyra2RE algorithm and while it may not be the most profitable algorithm according the stats on profitability it is still very profitable (SHA256 is the most profitable at the moment for some reason, making it interesting to sell hashrate than to mine Bitcoins directly). So if you are mining VTC directly and then selling it for BTC, then you might want to make it easier by directly pointing your hashrate to NiceHash or WestHash. Interestingly enough now that VertCoin is no longer Scrypt-N the interest for hashrate at services that offer you to rent an lease has gone low as people are apparently moving to Lyra2RE. It will be interesting to see if the interest in Lyra2RE and VTC will continue to increase or it will just be a temporary thing. If the difficulty continues to rise and the exchange rate of VertCoin does not start rising the profitability of VTC will suffer and people will start moving to more profitable coins to mine. As a result of people mining and selling VTC for BTC we already saw a drop in the VertCoin exchange rate today when some people apparently dumped the coins mined immediately after the switch of the algorithms while the difficulty was low.

Microsoft Starting to Accept Bitcoin Payments

11, Dec 2014

microsoft-bitcoin-payment

Microsoft has announced officially that thanks to a partnership with the crypto currency payment processor BitPay they are now starting to accept Bitcoins as a form of payment from users. Starting today you can trade-in Bitcoin – at current market value – and add it to your Microsoft account and then the funds can be used to purchase content in the Windows Store, or in stores that house Xbox Games, Xbox Music or Xbox Video. While the virtual currency can be used to put funds into Microsoft accounts, it can’t be used to pay directly for other Microsoft products and services other than the content mentioned.

Starting today, Bitcoin should appear as an option for those wishing to add money to their Microsoft accounts. If you want to transfer your Bitcoins, you first need to select the amount of money to add to your Microsoft account. BitPay calculates the equivalent amount in Bitcoin and delivers that information, along with a BitPay Bitcoin address and payment instructions. You then pay the displayed amount of Bitcoin from your wallet to complete the transaction. There is a cap on how much you can exchange per day: $1000 USD (or its equivalent in your country or region’s currency) to your Microsoft account on any given day, and no more than $5000 USD to additional Microsoft accounts that are registered in your name or by you.

A WordPress Plugin Adding Easy Coinbase Tip Support

5, Dec 2014

coinbase-tip-wp-plugin

Coinbase tipping functionality has been available for a bit already and now there is a plugin that allows you to easily integrate the tip button on your WordPress blog. The Coinbase Tip plugin does require you to have an account in Coinbase to receive One-click tips that by default are set to 300 bits or currently around ~11 cents. The WordPress plugin allows you to quickly and easily integrate the tip button, but you can create it and copy the code manually from Conbase’s website and integrate it to just about any website easily. If you want to send a tip to a user you can do so by using either your Coinbase wallet or by directly sending coins to a BTC address from another wallet.

– To download the Coinbase Tip plugin for easy integration in WordPress blogs…


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