During the last couple of months, South Korea’s attitude on bitcoin and other digital currencies has begun to change, and recent reports now indicate that the country is considering new regulation. Before anything else, it is important to point out the fact that following China’s ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges, numerous companies affected moved abroad to countries such as South Korea and Japan, where regulation was more lenient.

However, according to recent reports, there have been several proposals in South Korea, meant to prevent those who are underage from opening accounts on digital currency exchanges, while also taxing capital gains made from trading.

The last few months have been truly kind to the world of digital currencies, considering the fact that all major cryptocurrencies have reached unbelievable new all-time highs, thanks to increasing investor interest, bitcoin futures, and new blockchain and crypto-based platforms revolutionizing our current financial system from the ground up.

With this in mind, Ethereum, which is the world’s second biggest digital currency in terms of market capitalization has reached a new all-time high on Thursday, the 14th of December, with values first breaking the $600 threshold, and then surging even higher to $750. At the time of writing, the value of Ether, has decreased a bit, as it is currently trading at approximately $670.

According to recent reports, the UK Government alongside with the governments of a few European Union countries are planning to further regulate digital currencies, in order to make sure that they’re not being used for illegal purposes, such as money laundering or illegal/terrorism financing.

The statement was first made by a spokesperson from the UK Treasury, who mentioned that bitcoin and other digital currencies should be regulated, and brought in line with the country’s current legislation on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing policies. According to the spokesperson, ‘We have clear tax rules for people who use cryptocurrencies, and like all tax rules, these are kept under review. We also intend to update regulation to bring virtual currency exchange platforms into anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulation.’

For many years, China was an extremely important member of the digital currency market, with over 90% of the global trading volume being conducted in the region. However, back in September, the Central Bank of China decided to crackdown on cryptocurrencies and hence ban Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and stopping exchanges from serving customers in China.

Following the crackdown, there have been many rumours that China was planning to resume trading, yet a recent statement from a deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China dismisses these rumours.

While the popularity of bitcoin has increased considerably over the last few years, the electricity usage for transactions and mining are coming under scrutiny. Recent studies showcase that the amount of energy being used by computers which mine the digital currency this year, is much greater when compared to the annual usage of around 160 countries.

For those who do not know, mining is the process through which transactions are verified by the network, through the solving of complex cryptographic problems. To make sure that transactions aren’t falsified, and that records of ownership remain unchanged on the blockchain network, transactions must be signed off into blocks, which are then verified by the miners. Once a block is solved, a 12.5 BTC reward is given to the miner, or mining pool responsible. This amount serves as the main incentive for miners, but is also the way that new bitcoin is added to the market.

It has often been said that bitcoin may reach the $10,000 milestone by the end of the year. While many speculated that this isn’t possible, the digital currency has recently hit the $9,000 milestone, and set a new all-time high.

The year of 2017 has been incredibly positive for bitcoin, considering the fact that its value multiplied 9 times, from $800-$1,000, to over $9,000.

Mt Gox, the now-defunct bitcoin exchange, has been out of the media headlines for a few years now, given the fact that it entered bankruptcy following the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars-wroth of bitcoin.

However, recent reports now indicate that the Mark Karpeles, the CEO of the digital currency exchange is considering the idea of launching an Initial Coin Offering, in order to revive the exchange. As controversial as this may sound, Mark Karpeles wrote a blog post detailing the possible implications of an Mt Gox ICO.

The month of November has been fairly shaky for digital currencies, hence bringing in high volatility for Bitcoin and other coins. Following the decrease in value to roughly $5,500, bitcoin has quickly managed to regain its value, and even hit a new all-time high, hence surpassing the $8,000 threshold for the first time ever. At the moment of writing, the digital currency is trading at approximately $8,200.

On the 12th of November, the bitcoin price fell to around $5,500 after the SegWit2X hard fork plans were cancelled. The reasons behind this include general lack of consensus, supporters backing out, and bugs in the code. Following the failure of implementing SegWit2x, and splitting the bitcoin network into two separate coins, many of the SegWit believers decided to invest their money into Bitcoin Cash, thus causing a massive value spike for it.

At this moment in time, internet users throughout the world do not have full control over the data that they share across all websites. Instead, all of the data shared goes through a middleman that processes it and then sends it to the next interested party.

Decentralized Apps (dapps), built with the help of the Ethereum network are bound to change this in the future. Their sole purpose is to connect providers and the afferent users directly. Another main characteristic associated with dapps is the fact that they often have an open-source API, provide immutability thanks to the blockchain and most do not have a point of failure.

During the last couple of months, Bitcoin has gone through a two different hard forks, and the creation of two additional and separate digital currencies – bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold. Now, the deadline is quickly approaching for another hard fork, and this will likely have larger implications for the network.

The plan to introduce SegWit2x has been around since May, and has quickly gained favour with numerous mining pools and bitcoin start-ups. While the number of those supporting the hard fork has changed over the last few months, we’ll attempt to explain what this protocol change wishes to achieve, and the means of doing so.