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The bitcoin hype seems to be over and yet the digital currency hit the headlines when Australian programmer Craig Wright announced himself as the illustrious creator of the bitcoin protocol. But it is messing around in the bitcoin community. According to some, the technical bankruptcy of the currency is imminent. “I don’t think the coin can be saved.” Read more about Bitcoin on this website: Mr Bitcoin Exchange Divorce in Bitcoin Country While everyone happily continued to pay with bitcoin, developers have been dormant about the future of the digital currency for about two years. This led to a breakdown of bitcoin in early August 2017. It now has a little brother: bitcoin cash. The brand new currency, with about 250 euros per bitcoin cash, has about a tenth of the value of the old bitcoin. The latter will continue to exist after it has even experienced a quite spectacular increase in value in recent months. The split has to do with the capacity of bitcoin. While a group of developers likes to increase the capacity (around seven transactions per second) to give the currency better growth opportunities, the other camp fears that a larger payment volume (which leads to larger blocks, see box Puzzling with payments below) that fewer people are able to control transactions. The success of the new currency will depend on the number of users who manage to attract it. A number of online trading places have already said that they will not cooperate with the Bitcoin divestment. This article is part of a diptych. Also read about the dark web and money laundering with bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto is downright brilliant, according to many. In 2008 he published an article on an internet forum in which he describes the principle of a new digital currency: bitcoin. To this day, the protocol persists, and the technical heart is a digital currency that may be used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide (estimates vary widely). Only, still no one knows who Nakamoto is. The name is almost certainly a pseudonym for one or more people. Last week, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright claimed he is Nakamoto and provided evidence in the form of some kind of digital signature that only Nakamoto could make. A major bitcoin developer confirmed Wright’s message, many others question it. In any case, the technical heart of bitcoin is still beating, but it is now clear that it is a patient with various ailments. Looking nice, such physical bitcoins. However, they are worthless; a real Bitcoin is nothing more than a few bits on your computer, which in turn can generate thousands of euros. The organization is fragmented into different camps that “fight” each other. While one camp would like to increase the capacity of the slowly filling Bitcoin network, the rest likes to stick to the old one. “And if you wish, this is also very difficult to scale,” says Jaap-Henk Hoepman, associate professor at the Digital Security department at Radboud University. “I actually think bitcoin will end in this form.” |
