Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/bitcoin-surges-above-5000/

 

Been kissing my Trezors all day long! [smile]

 

A Different Type of Security:

"This Secret Swiss Bitcoin 'Cold Storage' Facility Looks Like A Bond Villain's Lair

Somewhere in the mountains near Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne lies a hidden underground vault containing a vast fortune.

It’s no ordinary vault, according to Quartz. Built inside a decommissioned Swiss military bunker dug into a granite mountain, it’s precise location is a closely guarded secret, and access is limited by myriad security precautions.

But instead of gold bars, the bunker contains hard drives on which customers’ bitcoins are being kept in what’s call “cold storage” – i.e. the owners’ private keys are protected by an air-gapped hard drive. The vault is one of many operated by Xapo, an early bitcoin company known for its cold storage wallet products and a debit card that pays for transactions in digital currencies...

...[T]he bitcoin vault doesn’t store actual bitcoin units. Instead, what’s being stored are the owners’ private cryptographic keys that allow the owner to access and transfer his or her bitcoins by matching the key with a public key that’s used to identify the coin on the blockchain. Gaining unauthorized access to someone’s private keys is akin to making off with a gold bar..."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-18/bitcoin-cold-storage-facility-looks-bond-villains-lair

 

Yep, if you have any Private keys that match to ANY Bitcoin address you have complete and absolute control over that BTC address. All Bitcoins exist on the public blockchain, which is circulated and mined by thousands of computers around the world. Once you examine and understand the mathematics behind the technology you quickly realize that your coins are extremely safe as long as you protect the private key. Its just like PGP/GPG. There is a public key which anyone can use but ONLY the private side of the key can open stuff encrypted to the key pair itself. BTC has a public and private key as well.

Call my silly but I would never trust my private keys (many wallets on my end) to another human being under any circumstance that I can imagine. I have labored to have a three step process in place for the day when I am no longer "here" in order to protect my heirs. None of those three steps is aware of the other and so nobody but my heirs will ever acquire my private keys, and that is only after they re-construct them using the 3 steps they will be privi to at that time.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2017/10/30/5-questions-bitcoin-traders-cant-answer

 

"...CBOE [Chicago Board of Options Exchange] announces plans to launch futures and options trading for Bitcoin...

The CBOE is moving to offer futures and options trading for Bitcoin. This is a move to take advantage of a nearly $1.6 billion potential revenue opportunity for the CBOE (NASDAQ: CBOE). CBOE is one of the largest options and futures exchanges worldwide. This lends a huge amount of validity to the crypto-currency and is a game changer for Bitcoin. With increased access to mainstream Wall Street investors and the legitimacy of a major exchange trading the crypto-currency, far greater demand will continue to push Bitcoin higher.

The news on this sent Bitcoin upwards about 10%..."

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4118265-bitcoin-cboe-trade-options-futures-push-bitcoin-higher

 

If you are connected you can trade out for > $12K in Zimbabwe. I know a few that are doing it, not personally, but via monikers I do know. This rise is scary for those of us that have been in for the long haul.

At this exact instant even in the USA localbitcoins are moving BTC in vast numbers for > $6900.00 each. All day long.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/outofasia/2017/11/02/japan-a-forward-thinking-bitcoin-nation

 

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-keep-bitcoin-safe-and-secure/

 

That is a decent read, BUT they are wrong about using a Trezor indicating its "inconvenient" (whatever word they used to mean the same thing). It assumes the hardware wallet must be in a stable location, but Trezors work slick and fast with some Android wallets. Easiest mobile (on the go) design by far. Safe always because the private keys are never facing the Android so crappy malware is useless against it. Just setting the read and the record straight!

 

"Bitcoin Soars To New Record High [$7590] - Mysterious Creator Satoshi Now Worth Over $7 Billion

Another crisis in another nation and Bitcoin prices surge to another new high. Overnight chaos in Saudi Arabia have prompted Bitcoin to jump to $7590 - a new record high... With a market cap over $125 billion, the cryptocurrency's mysterious creator is now worth over $7 billion."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...ious-creator-satoshi-now-worth-over-7-billion

 

https://www.cyberscoop.com/bitcoin-tracking-zcash-monero-cryptocurrency/

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2017/11/15/will-bitcoin-trigger-stock-market-bust

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemmagreen/2017/11/14/in-blockchain-we-trust

 

"There's Some Intense Web Scans Going on for Bitcoin and Ethereum Wallets

With both Bitcoin and Ethereum price hitting all-time highs in the past seven days, cyber-criminals have stepped up efforts to search and steal funds stored in these two cryptocurrencies.

These mass Internet scanning campaigns have been recently picked up by various honeypots installed by security researchers across the Internet..."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...ns-going-on-for-bitcoin-and-ethereum-wallets/

 

I cannot stress loud enough; remove all seed bearing wallets from any online computer. One full coin is now 8500ish dollars and a super secure hardware wallet runs about 100 bucks. First and above all, don't store anything long term on an online exchange.

 

"Bitcoin Soars Above $9,000, Hits New All Time High On Burst Of Asian Buying..."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...000-hits-new-all-time-high-burst-asian-buying

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