Mt. Gox to Live Again, Bitcoin Is ‘Honestly Useless,’ and Jack Dorsey Likes Lightning Network: This Week in Crypto
It's been an eventful week in the cryptosphere - from upward price swings to the possible resurrection of defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox| Source: Shutterstock
Please comment at the end about your favorite stories of the week. While our coverage has expanded well beyond cryptocurrency news, we’d love to know which crypto subjects our readership prefers get the most attention.
Mt. Gox to Rise Again
CCN.com broke the news that Brock Pierce will be re-opening Mt. Gox after Japanese courts approve a civil rehabilitation plan to repay creditors in cryptocurrency. Public reception of the idea has so far been luke-warm at best. Pierce told CCN.com:
The only person who would have a reason to be against me is Mark Karpeles. I was just with him a few days ago. Mark seems to be on the same page as I am.
Pierce is arguably the only shareholder in the failed exchange. The news of Mt. Gox’s failure was many people’s first introduction to Bitcoin, and Pierce wants to write a happy ending to that dark chapter of the Bitcoin movement.
Bitcoin Bulls: ‘All Opposition Must Die ‘
The crypto markets finally had a wildly volatile week, the first one in quite awhile, although the massive gains didn’t begin until the end of the business of week. Late Thursday and all day Friday, Bitcoin shoved off its downward slide, crushing shorts and slaying bears along the way.
Our daily columns on the subject of the crypto markets were becoming repetitive, wondering when the legendary volatility would return. Joseph Young queried the cause of the boom and P. H. Madore speculated that low mortgages could drive an even bigger run in coming months.
Telegram’s Ethereum Alternative 90% Complete
The Telegram Open Network is reportedly a few “minor changes” from completion. Their testnet launch has been moved to March from January. Telegram, with its existing millions of users, could potentially be the largest blockchain platform in the world from the jump, catapulting it to the top of cryptocurrency market capitalizations. Whether Telegram actually stands a chance of supplanting Ethereum as the world’s computer is for the experts to argue about.
Vitalik Buterin Trashes Alternatives
A video finally bubbled to the surface this week of Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin thrashing “centralized piles of trash” that over-promise transactions per second. Buterin questioned the soundness of alternative models to Ethereum and poked fun at the relatively small amount of decentralization in some.
Twitter CEO Plays the #LNTorch Game
Lightning Network advocates celebrated a major win when they got Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to play the “pass the torch game” on Twitter, catching a Lightning Transaction and forwarding it on.
The purpose of the experiment is to demonstrate the ability of Lightning Network to conduct microtransactions. Microtransactions are one of the main arguments for alternative Bitcoin implementations such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. Dorsey previously touted Bitcoin on the Joe Rogan show.
William Shatner also commented on the charade.
Bitcoin Both ‘Honestly Useless’ and Not A ‘Top Blockchain Platform’
Cryptographer and skein algorithm creator Bruce Schneier went on a rampage against cryptocurrency. Around the same time, we learned from some magazine that while CCN.com is the most-read crypto news outlet, Bitcoin doesn’t even rate on the list of top blockchain platforms. Erstwhile, a federal regulator assures us all that a Bitcoin ETF is inevitable.
Binance CEO: Bear Markets Don’t Scare Us and Amazon Will Have to Create a Crypto Eventually
Chengpeng Zhao said this week that Binance will survive any bear market.
“Binance is ready to survive any number of years, no matter if it’s bear or bull. We basically don’t really look at the market too much ― not as much as people actually think we do. We just keep our heads down and build features.”
Zhao also commented on the situation of Amazon and cryptocurrency, saying that it’s an inevitability that Amazon will issue its own coin.
