{"id":409701,"date":"2020-01-04T21:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T21:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/?p=409701"},"modified":"2020-01-04T20:23:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T20:23:10","slug":"crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Branded a Scam, Ethereum Upgrade Completed, Telegram&#8217;s ICO in Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another week, another round of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/?s=Crypto+Tidbits&amp;lang=en\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Crypto Tidbits<\/a>. The first week of January was a quiet one for the Bitcoin and broader digital asset market, with BTC gaining a mere 0.7% over the past seven days, according to Coin360.com. \u00a0Altcoins have posted similar slight gains, though assets like Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, and VeChain have managed to outperform, seeing approximately 7% gains on the week.<\/p>\n<p>While the market was quiet, the underlying industry was as busy as ever, with there being a number of stories published over the past seven days that could have a larger impact on the cryptocurrency space. They are as follows.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-408046 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C480\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=2560 2560w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=460 460w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=768 768w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=860 860w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=1536 1536w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=2048 2048w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=750 750w, https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1525119728-scaled.jpg?w=1140 1140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"><\/p>\n<h6 style=\"text-align: center\">Related Reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/2019\/12\/28\/crypto-tidbits-youtubes-bitcoin-ban-ethereum-co-founder-sells-stash-chinas-digital-currency-nears\/\">Crypto Tidbits: Youtube\u2019s Bitcoin Ban, Ethereum Co-Founder Sells Stash, China\u2019s Digital Currency Nears<\/a><\/h6>\n<h2>Bitcoin &amp; Crypto Tidbits<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ethereum Completes Muir Glacier Upgrade:\u00a0<\/strong>This week, a small Ethereum blockchain upgrade named Muir Glacier took place, resulting in a non-contentious hard fork <a href=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/2019\/12\/08\/ethereum-completes-istanbul-hard-fork-but-buyers-arent-too-excited\/\">less than a month after the Istanbul upgrade<\/a>.\u00a0This blockchain hard fork activated at block number 9,200,000 on January the 2nd, implementing a proposal that delays a so-called difficulty bomb, which is a protocol increasing mining difficulty on the network, thus slowing down ETH transactions. It appears that all Bitcoin and crypto exchanges and other industry service providers have successfully upgraded to Muir Glacier.<\/li>\n<li><strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/2020\/01\/02\/bitcoin-hash-rate-high-price-explosion-on-horizon\/\">Bitcoin Hash Rate Surges to Fresh High<\/a>: <\/strong><\/strong>As\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caprioleio\/status\/85113856\" target=\"_blank\" data-wpel-link=\"exclude\" rel=\"follow noopener noreferrer nofollow\">noted by digital asset manager Charles Edwards<\/a>, Blockchain.com, a crypto information and wallet service, found that Bitcoin\u2019s hash rate \u2014 the measure of computational power processing BTC transactions \u2014 hit a new all-time high on the 1st day of 2020. The all-time high, 119 exahashes per second, or 119 with 18 zeroes after it. This comes shortly after TradeBlock, a cryptocurrency research firm, <a href=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/2019\/12\/27\/bitcoin-networks-record-2019-bullish-price-market\/\">remarked<\/a> that Bitcoin has seen a record year in terms of transactions sent and transaction volume denominated in USD.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Bitcoin starting 2020 with a BANG.<\/p>\n<p>Hash Rate hit a new all time high on 1\/1\/2020:  119M TH\/s.<\/p>\n<p>Finally broke above the last ATH set more than 2 months ago in October.<\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin Network stronger than ever before \ud83d\udcaa<\/p>\n<p>Happy New Year! \ud83c\udf7e <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c0dfvewXfy\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/c0dfvewXfy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/caprioleio\/status\/85113856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">January 2, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Google Restores Ethereum Interface MetaMask&#8217;s App: <\/strong>Late last month, MetaMask, an Ethereum interface application for browsers and smartphones, revealed that its Android iteration was taken down by Google, which cited its financial services policy disallowing apps that facilitated crypto asset mining. The thing is, MetaMask doesn&#8217;t offer mining, so it shot back at Google, appealing the odd ban. Now, over a week after the debacle began, MetaMask has revealed that it&#8217;s app has been restored to Google&#8217;s Play Store, making the company purportedly &#8220;more resilient\u201d and \u201cstronger.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bitmain Ready to Purge More Staff:\u00a0<\/strong>According to a report from Chinese media company Wushuo Blockchain, Bitmain at the end of 2019 commenced a \u201cstaff optimization plan.\u201d This news, which came from \u201cseveral people familiar with the matter,\u201d said that the optimization will affect up to 50% of Bitmain\u2019s current staffers. It currently isn\u2019t clear how many staff Bitmain has, though the report suggested that the Bitcoin firm has \u201cmore than 1,000 people.\u201d As to why this is taking place, the Wushuo report cites the \u201cpressure of the Bitcoin halving,\u201d which will effectively halve the revenue of miners. This news event has been corroborated by Dovey Wan, a prominent cryptocurrency investor with much of her efforts in China.<\/li>\n<li><strong><strong>Bitcoin Branded A Scam For the Umpteenth Time: <\/strong><\/strong>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/economist-bitcoin-is-a-pyramid-scheme-204217615.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">recent report from Yahoo Finance<\/a>, \u00a0LendingTree\u00a0Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze told the outlet in an interview that he thinks Bitcoin is a \u201cpyramid scheme,\u201d citing his sentiment that you can \u201conly\u00a0make money [with BTC] based on people who enter after you.\u201d He added that Bitcoin \u201chas no real utility in the world. They\u2019ve been trying to create a utility for it for ten years now. It\u2019s a solution in search of a problem and it still hasn\u2019t found a problem to solve.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Telegram&#8217;s ICO Under Fire From SEC Again:\u00a0<\/strong>Popular messaging application Telegram held an initial coin offering called GRAM that raised $1.7 billion. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back against the project, recently asking the firm to share its banking and financial details. Telegram is pushing back, arguing that its tokens were sold solely to accredited investors, and therefore not required to share information with the regulatory agency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre>Featured Image from Shutterstock<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another week, another round of\u00a0Crypto Tidbits. The first week of January was a quiet one for the Bitcoin and broader digital asset market, with BTC gaining a mere 0.7% over the past seven days, according to Coin360.com. \u00a0Altcoins have posted similar slight gains, though assets like Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, and VeChain have managed to outperform, seeing approximately 7% gains on the week. While the market was quiet, the underlying industry was as busy as ever, with there being a number of stories published over the past seven days that could have a larger impact on the cryptocurrency space. They are as follows. Related Reading: Crypto Tidbits: Youtube\u2019s Bitcoin Ban, Ethereum Co-Founder Sells Stash, China\u2019s Digital Currency Nears Bitcoin &amp; Crypto Tidbits Ethereum Completes Muir Glacier Upgrade:\u00a0This week, a small Ethereum blockchain upgrade named Muir Glacier took place, resulting in a non-contentious hard fork less than a month after the Istanbul upgrade.\u00a0This blockchain hard fork activated at block number 9,200,000 on January the 2nd, implementing a proposal that delays a so-called difficulty bomb, which is a protocol increasing mining difficulty on the network, thus slowing down ETH transactions. It appears that all Bitcoin and crypto exchanges and other industry service providers have successfully upgraded to Muir Glacier. Bitcoin Hash Rate Surges to Fresh High: As\u00a0noted by digital asset manager Charles Edwards, Blockchain.com, a crypto information and wallet service, found that Bitcoin\u2019s hash rate \u2014 the measure of computational power processing BTC transactions \u2014 hit a new all-time high on the 1st day of 2020. The all-time high, 119 exahashes per second, or 119 with 18 zeroes after it. This comes shortly after TradeBlock, a cryptocurrency research firm, remarked that Bitcoin has seen a record year in terms of transactions sent and transaction volume denominated in USD. Bitcoin starting 2020 with a BANG. Hash Rate hit a new all time high on 1\/1\/2020: 119M TH\/s. Finally broke above the last ATH set more than 2 months ago in October. Bitcoin Network stronger than ever before \ud83d\udcaa Happy New Year! \ud83c\udf7e pic.twitter.com\/c0dfvewXfy &mdash; Charles Edwards (@caprioleio) January 2, 2020 Google Restores Ethereum Interface MetaMask&#8217;s App: Late last month, MetaMask, an Ethereum interface application for browsers and smartphones, revealed that its Android iteration was taken down by Google, which cited its financial services policy disallowing apps that facilitated crypto asset mining. The thing is, MetaMask doesn&#8217;t offer mining, so it shot back at Google, appealing the odd ban. Now, over a week after the debacle began, MetaMask has revealed that it&#8217;s app has been restored to Google&#8217;s Play Store, making the company purportedly &#8220;more resilient\u201d and \u201cstronger.\u201d Bitmain Ready to Purge More Staff:\u00a0According to a report from Chinese media company Wushuo Blockchain, Bitmain at the end of 2019 commenced a \u201cstaff optimization plan.\u201d This news, which came from \u201cseveral people familiar with the matter,\u201d said that the optimization will affect up to 50% of Bitmain\u2019s current staffers. It currently isn\u2019t clear how many staff Bitmain has, though the report suggested that the Bitcoin firm has \u201cmore than 1,000 people.\u201d As to why this is taking place, the Wushuo report cites the \u201cpressure of the Bitcoin halving,\u201d which will effectively halve the revenue of miners. This news event has been corroborated by Dovey Wan, a prominent cryptocurrency investor with much of her efforts in China. Bitcoin Branded A Scam For the Umpteenth Time: According to a recent report from Yahoo Finance, \u00a0LendingTree\u00a0Chief Economist Tendayi Kapfidze told the outlet in an interview that he thinks Bitcoin is a \u201cpyramid scheme,\u201d citing his sentiment that you can \u201conly\u00a0make money [with BTC] based on people who enter after you.\u201d He added that Bitcoin \u201chas no real utility in the world. They\u2019ve been trying to create a utility for it for ten years now. It\u2019s a solution in search of a problem and it still hasn\u2019t found a problem to solve.\u201d Telegram&#8217;s ICO Under Fire From SEC Again:\u00a0Popular messaging application Telegram held an initial coin offering called GRAM that raised $1.7 billion. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back against the project, recently asking the firm to share its banking and financial details. Telegram is pushing back, arguing that its tokens were sold solely to accredited investors, and therefore not required to share information with the regulatory agency. Featured Image from Shutterstock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":409199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5651,3],"tags":[428,1020,19067],"class_list":["post-409701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitcoin","category-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-blockchain","tag-crypto-tidbits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Branded a Scam, Ethereum Upgrade Completed, Telegram&#039;s ICO in Crisis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Another week, another round of\u00a0Crypto Tidbits. 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The first week of January was a quiet one for the Bitcoin and broader digital asset market, with BTC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NewsBTC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/newsbtc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-04T21:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-04T20:23:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1215211876-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1706\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Chong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsbtc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsbtc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Chong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Chong\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c1114650d72d49c455452d2ce5c981a\"},\"headline\":\"Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Branded a Scam, Ethereum Upgrade Completed, Telegram&#8217;s ICO in Crisis\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-04T21:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-04T20:23:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/\"},\"wordCount\":692,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1215211876-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706\",\"keywords\":[\"bitcoin\",\"blockchain\",\"Crypto Tidbits\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bitcoin\",\"Cryptocurrency Market News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/\",\"name\":\"Crypto Tidbits: Bitcoin Branded a Scam, Ethereum Upgrade Completed, Telegram's ICO in Crisis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/news\/crypto-tidbits-bitcoin-branded-a-scam-ethereum-upgrade-completed-telegrams-ico-in-crisis\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wncen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/shutterstock_1215211876-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-04T21:00:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-04T20:23:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"Another week, another round of\u00a0Crypto Tidbits. 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