A Finnish author who has been writing about cryptocurrencies for over eight years.
The price of bitcoin has once again soared to new highs, setting a new record of over 7 000 dollars. The new high was achieved after a week of rapid growth which saw price increases of over 10% per day. This new high also means that the combined market cap of Cryptocurrencies is now over 200 billion dollars.
As always, there are no single driving factors behind this bullish run, but there are certain effects that play their part in this growth. As we’re going further with November, the possible hard fork of Bitcoin blockchain looms nearer. If this hard fork happens, it will more than likely result in the creation of a new altcoin token. Those who hold Bitcoin before the hard fork happens, will get the same amount of the new SegWit2X coins.
At the same time the usage and adoption of Bitcoin is growing fast. There are about 30 000 new Bitcoin wallets created every day, which indicates that the price of bitcoin might be able to break to price ranges close to 10 000 dollars in the near future. The demand for bitcoin is growing fast and this will surely reflect on the price as well.
Breaking the all time high has become somewhat a habit for Bitcoin in the year 2017.
SegWit2X Hard Fork is Almost Certain
There is a lots of talk about the SegWit2X hard fork. It’s support is still relativelylow. For SegWit2X to become the “official” version of Bitcoin, it would require a support of at least 51% of miners. Since it seems unlikely that SegWit2X will attract this kind of support, the result of hard fork will likely be the creation of a new cryptocurrency that uses a copy of Bitcoin’s blockchain.
The main reason behind this hard fork is the issue of Bitcoin’s scalability. According to proponents of SegWit2X, the hard fork is necessary for Bitcoin to be able to scale for more people. On the other hand the opponents of the hard fork see that the hard fork is pointless, since Segregated Witness has already been implemented on the Bitcoin protocol and it seems to be able to solve the scalability issues without a need to raise the maximum block size of Bitcoin. SegWit2X seems to solve a problem that isn’t there using the radical hard fork.
Even if SegWit2X could somehow attract the needed support, it wouldn’t mean that SegWit2X were to become the official version of Bitcoin. In the Bitcoin world the users have a last say in how the cryptocurrency is handled. If users won’t move to SegWit2X en masse, the amount of miner support is meaningless. Miners could mine the new blockchain, but if users won’t adopt it, the mining operations will become pointless.
SegWit2X will probably become the third time Bitcoin’s blockchain has been “forked” to create a new cryptocurrency.
Amazon Registers Cryptocurrency Domains
The online-retail giant Amazon.com has registered three new domains concerning cryptocurrencies. According to WhoIs Lookout Amazon has registered the domains amazonethereum.com, amazoncryptocurrency.com and amazoncryptocurrencies.com. Amazon has previously registered the domain amazonbitcoin.com.
Though the news have sparked a new wave of rumours concerning Amazon’s cryptocoin policy, it seems unlikely that Amazon will start accepting Bitcoin or Ethereum payments in the near future. It’s likely that domains are registered only for defensive purposes. According to Amazon Pay’s vice president Patrick Gauthier Amazon does not have plans of adopting Bitcoin payments, because the demand for such a service is still relatively low.
Nonetheless it’s more than likely that Amazon will jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon sooner or later.
Contrary to rumours it’s unlikely that Amazon will start accepting cryptocoin payments in the near future. (PIC: KCBI)
Bitcoin Jobs Booming
According to the international employment marketplace Freelancer, job opportunities relating to Bitcoin are highest growers on employment sector. The amount of Bitcoin-related work opportunities has grown over 82% on the third quarter alone. On the same quarter the field of cryptography has seen a growth of over 58% in job opportunities.
Firms are especially searching for people who have the skills to create and manage new blockchain-based ICO tokens. Initial coin offerings have proven to be a lucrative way to get money and investments for startups and other innovators and this is reflected on the job markets as well. Firms are also looking for people to write new ideas and proposals for new applications of blockchain.
It seems that Bitcoin adoption is on full swing and becoming a part of mainstream life.
If you are looking for new jobs, you should check out what Bitcoin sector has to offer. (PHOTO: Shutterstock)
