bitcoin
Cryptocurrency

BitTorrent’s inventor has created a new, greener cryptocurrency, Chia, that could push up the cost of hard drives

- May 5, 2021 3 MIN READ

It has been a big year for cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is worth six times what it was 12 months ago, and the joke currency Dogecoin has seen a hundredfold increase in price. A boom in “non-fungible tokens”, or NFTs – tradable tokens based on the same technology as cryptocurrency – is transforming the art market. With… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Reinventure’s bet on Coinbase returns $546 million, boosting Westpac’s bottom line by $288m

- April 28, 2021 2 MIN READ

January 2015 was an interesting time for bitcoin and Westpac’s fintech venture capital fund, Reinventure. Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, co-founded the VC with Westpac the year before. Bitcoin kicked off the year at around US$300, before crashing to $170 within a fortnight. The cryptocurrency would climb to $465 before the year was out and… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Dogecoin explodes!

- April 16, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Meme joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin more than doubled in price in the last 24 hours, briefly hitting a high of US28c today, and currently sits around 80% up for the day Elon Musk’s favourite Twitter shout out has climbed nearly 300% for the week, putting it into the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation for the… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

How a simple Apple App Store scam stole $1.3 million worth of bitcoin from one cryptocurrency investor

- April 7, 2021 2 MIN READ

A man lost 17.1 bitcoin – worth $1.3 million today – in an Apple app store scam that serves as a warning to people wanting to track their cryptocurrency on smart phones. Over the course of a few years, Phillipe Christodoulou banked up the bitcoin, watching as its value started to climb last year, according the Washington Post.… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

The rise Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that began as a joke, reveals how memes can move markets

- February 4, 2021 4 MIN READ

One of the most difficult problems in finance right now is figuring out the fundamental economic value of cryptocurrencies. And the past week has complicated this further. For many cryptocurrency investors, the value of Bitcoin is based on the fact it is artificially scarce. A hard cap on “minting” new coins means there will only… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Iran had a massive crackdown on Bitcoin mining, seizing 45,000 machines, after the country was hit by blackouts

- January 19, 2021 < 1 MIN READ

Iranian police confiscated more 45,000 bitcoin mining machines, chewing up around 95 megawatts per hour (MWh) of electricity, because the miners were using cheaper, subsidised power illegally, according to local media agency Tasnim News. To put that in perspective, that’s around half the capacity of South Australia’s Tesla “big battery” plant (aka Hornsdale). Iranian authorities… Read more »

Cryptocurrency

Yes, a guy has nearly lost $340 million worth of Bitcoin after forgetting his password, but he’s a small part of a $200 billion problem

- January 15, 2021 2 MIN READ

If you’re feeling a bit sad about your fortunes at the moment, spare a thought for San Francisco-based computer programmer Stefan Thomas, who, around a decade ago, made this video and took 7,002 Bitcoins as payment for the job. The New York Times has the sad tale of German-born Thomas – a former CTO at blockchain… Read more »