Bitcoin Magazine’s Week in Review brings you the most critical, interesting and popular news stories affecting Bitcoin this week.
BTC Bullion: Three Interpretations of Bitcoin as “Digital Gold”
For much of its existence, bitcoin has been compared with gold. Several people have touted the two assets as the most effective investment vehicles for hedging against the global economy, though the two have many differences.
Rather than focus solely on the differences between bitcoin and gold, this article also takes a look at the similarities between the assets and how some blockchain implementations allow them to coexist.
Was a Lone Whale Really Behind Bitcoin’s 2017 Bull Run? Don’t Bet on It
This week witnessed some controversy over a newly released research paper tracing bitcoin’s bullish price run of 2017 to a single “whale” investor who inflated the price through Tether tokens.
Bitcoin Magazine dissects this report, including its hypothesis, evidence and commentary.
Op Ed: In China, It’s Blockchain and Tyranny vs Bitcoin and Freedom
China has been in the cryptocurrency news cycle since President Xi Jinping gave a rousing speech in support of blockchain technology. And now the Chinese government has started to make plans toward launching a digital currency of its own.
In this piece, we examine how the Chinese digital yuan could end up becoming China’s most effective tool for government control and oversight.
Beyond China and North America: The Decentralization of Bitcoin Mining
When most people think about bitcoin mining, they think about China and North America. In this article, we take a wider look at the world of bitcoin mining and how more countries are becoming hubs for the practice.
With reports of developments from countries such as Venezuela, Norway and Paraguay, we take you beyond the mining frontier that many people have been limited to.
The Coldcard Mk3 bitcoin hardware wallet, the latest in the line of wallet devices from Coinkite, is entering a market that is mostly dominated by companies such as Trezor and Ledger.
Bitcoin Magazine conducts a full video review of the device, evaluating some of its features, such as appearance, security, feel and usage.
The advent of quantum computing has raised a lot of concerns about the future of cryptography (and, by extension, cryptocurrencies). Several notable individuals have sounded off on the prospect of quantum computers rendering cryptocurrencies essentially worthless as quantum computers could be capable of breaking Bitcoin’s security.
Of course, these concerns are unlikely to become realities, as research suggests that it will take a couple of lifetimes for quantum computers to reach the processing power and scalability levels required to disrupt Bitcoin. To help clarify things, we explain the concept of quantum computing, as well as how this technology could affect the cryptocurrency space.
Avid fans of bitcoin are eagerly awaiting the 2020 halvening, expected to happen sometime in May, which will lead to the value of block rewards given to miners being cut in half.
Historically, halvenings have been followed by a drastic rise in the price of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin. If you are interested in this monumental event and what it could mean for bitcoin, read our guide.