14 Headlines That Rocked Bitcoin and the Blockchain in 2015
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But the story so far may seem incredibly… well… cryptic. Meanwhile, however, much of the early Bitcoin community is still using Mt. Gox shuts down and files for bankruptcy, reporting the loss ofbitcoin, or about 7 percent of all extant at the time. It is soon apparent that Newsweek is flagrantly, painfully, stupidly wrong. Basically all of The Bitcoin world is riven by a bitter, personal and vicious debate over an arcane but important technical issue that hamstrings the network to no more than seven transactions per second, and will require a hard fork — and, arguably, greater network centralization — to completely fix.
Its developer community fragments into two chief camps: Sharks and Jetslater renamed Core and Classic. This division makes it impossible to ignore the fact that the supposedly permissionless and decentralized cryptocurrency is de facto controlled by a handful of mining pools and a tiny coterie of developers.
Gox co-founder Jed McCaleb, who, to his credit, left Mt. August Ethereum, a new cryptocurrency basically founded on the precept that Bitcoin has been timid and unambitious, or at least insufficiently brash, weird and disruptive, launches its first phase into the world. To analogize, Bitcoin offers its developers a knife with which to stab themselves; Ethereum offers them the entire arsenal of the United States military with which to destroy everything that they have ever loved, but makes them pay by the bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 to use it.
Like Bitcoin, Ethereum is both technically fascinating and generally awesome. And, again like Bitcoin, it promptly attracts a coterie of dollar-sign-eyed enthusiasts who are … shall we say … somewhat less awesome. January Mike Hearn, a senior Bitcoin developer, announced that Bitcoin has failed, and loudly and publicly quits the community with a Medium postof bitcoin news review 2 june 2016.
January Blocksize debate correctly resolved, Bitcoin embarks on a long bull run and continues to gain in value, without ever really resolving the dark fundamental self-contradiction at its heart. Their announcement refers, in a soon-to-be-ironic self-congratulatory manner, to. May Craig Wright, the aforementioned Australian sure-looks-like-a-con-man, outs himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, and even manages to convince Gavin Andresen, a major Bitcoin figure and developer.
Con men can be very convincing in person. June A potential flaw in Ethereum smart-contract scripts is identified in the DAO and, everyone is assured, quickly fixed. To their credit, they seem fairly embarrassed about this. Compared to much of what follows, this all seems pretty reasonable and plausible. May The first real-world Bitcoin purchase occurs: Early Spring The rest of the bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 including me discovers Bitcoin. Spring Bitcoin is widely castigated for being primarily used to purchase drugs on darknet sites such as Silk Road.
The traditional reaction to moral censure ensues: Gox, a Bitcoin exchange originally set up to trade Magic: Bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 Gathering cards, is hacked. June People keep using Mt. Gox, because, you know, what the heck, why not? What could possibly go wrong? In actual fact, there has never been a Bitcoin hard fork. They found out about Bitcoin at a party on Ibiza. I am bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 making this up.
Their announcement refers, in a soon-to-be-ironic self-congratulatory manner, to irrefutable computer code … reviewed by the best security audit company in the world … self-governing and not influenced by bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 forces: Sarah Jeong hilariously eviscerates it with one of the most caustic tweetstorms I have ever encountered.
The soft fork is called off … for now. Press time A rumor sweeps through the Bitcoin community that a supermajority of Chinese miners — which is to say, a majority of all miners — has suddenly decided to reject Bitcoin Core in favor of previously spurned Bitcoin Classic. Bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 rumor is, to understate, thus far unsubstantiated. July Will the DAO attacker yet abscond with their bitcoin news review 2 june 2016 ether? Will it be worth anything by then? Will Ethereum recover from this wound — and will they aggravate it themselves, by intervening too much — or will it cripple the credibility of their smart contracts forever?
Will Ripple and Stellar ever find wide success? Will the reign of Bitcoin Core be overturned in favor of the higher-bandwidth — and more centralized — hard fork of Bitcoin Classic, or will sidechains and the Lightning Network usher in a second era of cryptocurrency? Your guess is as good as mine! The first real-world Bitcoin purchase occurs: The rest of the world including me discovers Bitcoin. Bitcoin is widely castigated for being primarily used to purchase drugs on darknet sites such as Silk Road.
People keep using Mt. The infamous Winklevii twins launch the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust exchange-traded fund. The Bitcoin world is riven by a bitter, personal and vicious debate over an arcane but important technical issue that hamstrings the network to no more than seven transactions per second, and will require a hard fork — and, arguably, greater network centralization — to completely fix.
Ethereum, a new cryptocurrency basically founded on the precept that Bitcoin has been timid and unambitious, or at least insufficiently brash, weird and disruptive, launches its first phase into the world.
Mike Hearn, a senior Bitcoin developer, announced that Bitcoin has failed, and loudly and publicly quits the community with a Medium postof course. Blocksize debate correctly resolved, Bitcoin embarks on a long bull run and continues to gain in value, without ever really resolving the dark fundamental self-contradiction at its heart.
Craig Wright, the aforementioned Australian sure-looks-like-a-con-man, outs himself as Satoshi Nakamoto, and even manages to convince Gavin Andresen, a major Bitcoin figure and developer. A potential flaw in Ethereum smart-contract scripts is identified in the DAO bitcoin news review 2 june 2016, everyone is assured, quickly fixed. A rumor sweeps through the Bitcoin community that a supermajority of Chinese miners — which is to say, a majority of all miners — has suddenly decided to reject Bitcoin Core in favor of previously spurned Bitcoin Classic.
Will the DAO attacker yet abscond with their hacked ether?
