Bitcoin Magazine Week in Review

September 21, 2019

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Bitcoin Magazine’s Week in Review brings you the most critical, interesting and popular news stories affecting Bitcoin this week.

“Discovering Bitcoin”

Understanding Bitcoin is something that thousands (if not millions) of people try to do every year. With so many concepts and terminologies to keep track of, you could easily get spun around when trying to understand Bitcoin for what it is.

But a series on the societal impetus for Bitcoin from Giacamo Zucco, “Discovering Bitcoin: A Brief Overview From Cavemen to the Lightning Network,” serves as a multi-entry rundown of the original cryptocurrency and its place in history, explaining some of the most important concepts behind it.

Bitcoin Hashrate Set New Records

The bitcoin mining industry has been on a roll lately, posting numbers that continue to impress even the most devoted cryptocurrency followers.

This week, data from Blockchain revealed that the Bitcoin hashrate has continued to rise, reaching over 100 quintillion hashes per second. As the hashrate increases, the mining difficulty is following it closely. The rise in hashrate has led to surging demand in the market for high-end and energy efficient miners such as the Whatsminer M20S, Ebang Ebit E11 and Bitmain’s Antminer S17.

Zap Integrates Lightning Payment Feature Into Its Wallet

In the spirit of innovation, crypto wallet manufacturer Zap launched Olympus, a feature which will provide integration for fiat-to-Lightning transfers.

In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Zap founder Jack Mallers revealed that with Olympus, users will now be able to purchase bitcoin with their debit bank cards (or any other acceptable purchase means) and have it available on their Lightning wallet in “less than five seconds.”

U.S. Millennials and Gen Zers: The New-Age Crypto Pioneers

Paxful, the popular cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform, recently conducted a study that looked closely at the role Millennials and Gen Zers have in driving the cryptocurrency revolution.

The research focused on U.S. cryptocurrency holders between the ages of 18 and 42. It showed that 98.4 percent of respondents were aware of Bitcoin, 77.4 percent were familiar with Ethereum, 71.6 knew about Litecoin and 47.6 were familiar with XRP. The research likely spurred optimism for the cryptocurrency space, as these respondents represent the near future of society.

Every 7-Eleven in the Philippines Equipped With Bitcoin Payment Option

Another week, another bitcoin usability expansion. Cryptocurrency investment platform Abra announced that it had partnered with payment processor ECPay to provide crypto-to-fiat conversion services at over 6,000 retail locations across the Philippines.

The expansion is expected to cover all 7-Eleven outlets in the country, opening a new raft of flexible bitcoin purchasing options to Filipinos.

Iran Proposes Yearly Licenses for Bitcoin Miners

It’s been a year full of uncertainties for bitcoin miners in Iran, but clarity is finally on the horizon as Tehran is reportedly working on providing annual licensing requirements. The move may have primarily been driven by practical considerations. Iran has seen massive growth in its mining sector over the past few months, and with licensing, it would be able to curb illicit mining-related activities better and help the industry thrive in a way that makes the government comfortable.

U.S. Sues Snowden for Book Royalties

Former CIA employee Edward Snowden is being sued by Uncle Sam over the publication of his memoir.

The U.S. government suit contends that Snowden published his memoir without seeking permission or submitting the book for prepublication review. In his response, Snowden tweeted a link to his biography on Amazon, dubbing his publication “the book the government does not want you to read.”

Snowden worked with both the CIA and the NSA for about seven years, where he learned about the government’s global surveillance scheme. After sharing details with the public, he went into hiding, and has been living in Russia since then.

Francis Pouliot Chats With Bitcoin Magazine

Francis Pouliot, the chief executive of Bull Bitcoin, sat down with Bitcoin Magazine’s Vlad Costea to discuss a wide array of topics this week. The interview was held at the 2019 Baltic Honeybadger conference, a few hours after Pouliot’s company announced that it would be joining the Liquid sidechain federation from Blockstream.

Joining the Liquid federation has its perks. For one, Bull Bitcoin will finally be able to peg out and peg in L-BTC when it so desires without waiting for outside help. It can also leverage Blockstream’s sidechain developer network to upgrade Cyphernode.

“We don’t know where Bitcoin is heading, right? We don’t know if the solution for scaling is going to be the Lightning Network, the Liquid Network, or something else. And I’m pretty curious to find out. I want to know what the market wants,” Pouliot explained.

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