Archive for the ‘General Info’ Category

DarkCoin Price Rises As Bitcoin Regulation Pressure Continues

9, Nov 2014

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It seems that the continuing talk about regulating Bitcoin and more specifically the businesses operating with Bitcoins it fueling the interest in alternative crypto coins such as DarkCoin (DRK) that are focusing on their anonymity features. Regulating Bitcoin and the businesses operating with Bitcoins leads to all things that BTC and crypto currencies are against in their design, however it seems that the way to mainstream adoption needs regulation or so some countries say. The state wants to know how many crypto coins you have and how and where you are using them, even though they may say Bitcoin is not a currency. The reason that they state for that is of course “to protect” you from scams and “to protect” everyone else from the use of Bitcoins for illegal purposes. But are you ready to give away your privacy for the sake of being “protected”?

It is true that some users probably want to and use Bitcoin and crypto currencies for illegal things, but the same thing is true for the fiat – if you want to do something illegal and have the money you will find a way, regardless if the type of currency you use. The recent crackdown of the new Silk Road 2.0 and other illegal online markets may be used to give some bad PR for Bitcoin, however there are illegal online markets that do not work with crypto currencies, so what about these? But back to DarkCoin, anonymity has been one of the things that people using crypot currencies do want to have and there have been many altcoins appearing pushing some promising anonymity features. DarkCoin however remains one of the first and the most popular and widely used “anonymous” crypto coin, even though it had quite a few problems along the way, especially implementing new features, it has survived and will be here to stay. So long term investment in DarkCoin may not be a bad thing to consider, especially if you already have some DRK coins…

Nicehash Has Also Added Neoscrypt Algorithm Support

8, Nov 2014

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The NiceHash service for leasing and renting hashrate has added support for the Neoscrypt algorithm as well following the recent addition to Mining Rig Rentals. This comes to show that the user interest in GPU mining is far from gone and new algorithms such as Neoscrypot by crypto currencies such as FTC are attracting a lot of attention. The service operators at Nicehash do recommend however to use the latest sgminer 5.0 development version with support for Neoscrypt for selling your hashrate to the service as the official cgminer 3.7.8 with Neoscrypt support has the extranonce bug. Looking at the profitability of the available algorithms at the Nicehash service you can see that Neoscrypt is taking the top spot for the best paying algorithm from time to time already.

BTC Guild Could Be Shutting Down, Getting Sold or Not

3, Nov 2014

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After the closure of ScryptGuild Scrypt mining pool earlier this year, BTC Guild – one of the large Bitcoin mining pools was apparently facing the possibility of getting shut down. The creator and operator of the BTC Guild mining pool has announced that the two main reasons for deciding to close the pool are the increase of attempts to hack the service (though it never has been hacked) and the new regulations that the US government is pushing for the Bitcoin related businesses. To read the official announcement posted on Bitcointalk about the closure of the pool. Eleuthria, the owner and operator of the BTC Guild, has however since announced that there is significant interest from multiple parties to purchase the pool, so the ownership of the pool could change and it may continue to operate under different management. Today however some more good news were announced – apparently we are not going to be loosing the BTC Guild pool, a service many of us have been using for years mining Bitcoins, and it is most likely not going to be sold either, but will continue to operate. Here is the latest post regarding the situation from Eleuthria:

A brief update on the weekend’s events: BTC Guild is not closing down in the near future. BTC Guild is not being sold in the near future. I am beginning to go over options with some colleagues in other countries and lawyers to consider moving BTC Guild to another country. This may involve taking on a partner, but I would maintain the primary role in the management and operations of the pool itself. More on this will be made available as it develops.

That process will be the answer to the concern over regulation. The second part, the concern about the cost of a successful compromise of the pool, is something I am working on addressing. I have already made some changes to the pool hot wallet to significantly decrease the amount of funds kept online. It will mean failed withdrawals may happen more frequently (we haven’t had that happen in many months), though it is preferable to have a few withdrawals delayed for 12-24 hours than have the site shut down due to a compromise.

I am also exploring ways that the pool could make a transition to coinbase payments to further reduce the amount of funds at risk at any given time. This probably won’t happen for a few months, if it happens at all.


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