Lightning Network Development Is Now Centralized and for Profit after Lightning Labs Raises $10 Million and Launches First Commercial Service

Bitcoin (BTC) technology and infrastructure development has taken a centralized turn after the announcement that Lightning Labs, which is a primary developer for Lightning Network technology, raised $10 million in a Series A funding round.  It was led by Craft Ventures, with several firms and venture capitalists from the traditional financial sector pitching in. Logically,… Read more

Lightning Network Adoption Is Stagnating, Perhaps the Best Way Forward Is to Integrate the Lightning Network Directly Into Bitcoin’s Code

The Lightning Network is critically important for the future adoption and scalability of Bitcoin (BTC). However, Lightning Network growth is stagnating, casting doubt on whether the Lightning Network will ever be used by enough people to take Bitcoin (BTC) adoption to the next level. In this article, we take on a potential solution — that… Read more

CFTC Chairman Thinks Ethereum Futures Are Likely in the Future

The Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Heath Tarbert, acknowledges that Ethereum futures are likely in the future. “We are doing a lot in the digital asset space,” Tarbert said. “We are seeing exchanges started to list; certainly, we have seen Bitcoin futures, both cash-settled as well as physically-delivered. My guess is we… Read more

Mining Taxes Can Ultimately Centralize Power Into the Hands of a Small Group of Devs, While Causing Community Splits and Price Devaluation Along the Way

The newest disturbing trend in the crypto space is mining taxes, which are essentially a percentage tax levied on mining revenue in order to support a development fund. The major cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Zcash (ZEC), which have market caps of $6.85 billion and $540 million respectively, both proposed mining taxes this week. The… Read more

A Mere 0.08% of Crypto Transactions Are Associated with Illegal Activity, and Fiat Currency Is Used for Crime 1,000-2,500 Times More Than Crypto

Over the years Bitcoin (BTC) has often been the target of scrutiny from politicians, regulators, Wall Street, and the mainstream media, with the common theme of attacks being that Bitcoin (BTC) is mostly used for drugs, crime, and terrorism. However, new data from Chainalysis shows that only 0.08% of crypto transactions are connected with illegal… Read more

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) 51% Attacked Again, $70,000 Doublespent

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a fork of Bitcoin (BTC), with the difference being that Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is meant to only be mined with graphics processing units (GPUs) rather than application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). However, Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has been 51% attacked again, and is clearly inherently flawed. On Jan. 23, an attacker removed 14… Read more

Binance CEO Says Exchanges Are a Safer Place to Hold Crypto Than a Wallet, Which Is Incorrect

Peter Schiff created a flurry of controversy on Twitter when he lost access to his Bitcoin (BTC) wallet, apparently due to the wallet becoming corrupted, and his password supposedly no longer being valid, which does not make that much sense. In any case, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao responded that most people do not have the… Read more

The 2020 North American Bitcoin Conference: In-Depth Report

This is a first-person accountfrom our on-the-ground reporter at the 2020 North American Bitcoin Conference at the James L. Knight Center in Downtown Miami. The idea is to give those who did not attend and glimpse of the inner workings of a major crypto conference as well as some insights into the current state of the… Read more

Bitcoin Is Fundamentally Better Than Gold As Both a Currency and a Financial Safe Haven

For perhaps the entire history of human civilization gold has been used as a form of currency, and in more recent times gold is considered one of the top financial safe-haven assets during times of economic crisis. As this article will explain, however, Bitcoin (BTC) is fundamentally better than gold as both a currency and… Read more

Bitcoin Will Rally If the Strait of Hormuz Gets Blocked or Disrupted Due to a War with Iran

A recent Crypto.IQ article predicted that if the conflict between Iran and the United States escalated any further, Bitcoin (BTC) and precious metals would rally while stocks would simultaneously weaken. That’s exactly what happened after the United States assassinated the top Iranian General, Qassam Suleimani, on Jan. 2. Bitcoin (BTC) has risen from $6,900 to… Read more