Since its birth, the bitcoin ecosystem has seen numerous debates on the right protocol changes required to continue its success. A couple of months ago, we were all witness to one of the first hard forks, which created an entirely separate digital currency known as Bitcoin Cash (BCC), following a new protocol.

This has happened yet again, as on October 25th 2017, Bitcoin Gold seceded from the bitcoin blockchain, into a new digital currency. The main difference about it is its new proof-of-work algorithm.

We have often talked about the huge potential of the blockchain network, and how companies and institutions throughout the world are actively researching blockchain technology. Now, it seems like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commonly known as MIT, which has issued diplomas to over 200,000 students since its creation, has just started issuing graduate diplomas via a special, blockchain-based app.

The Blockcerts Wallet App, which is the hero of the story, uses blockchain technology in order to grant students access to easily-verifiable, tamper-proof versions of their diplomas, which can be shared with potential employers throughout the world with ease. In a recent press statement, the CEO of Learning Machine, a company involved with the creation of the Blockcerts Wallet app mentioned that: “MIT has issued official records in a format that can exist even if the institution goes away, even if we go away as a vendor (…) People can own and use their official records, which is a fundamental shift.”

In the past, raising money as a start-up required small companies to convince banks, investors and financial institutions to take big risks, by investing large amounts of money into unproven technology and ideals. However, this has changed with the appearance of Initial Coin Offerings, also known as ICOs.

For those who do not know, an ICO represents a crowdfunding event that start-ups and other companies use in order to raise money for their business venture. It is a form of symbiosis between the well-known Kickstarter projects and Initial Public Offerings. Therefore, upon making an investment, people receive tokens that will then increase in value when the company reaches success- therefore, companies are making their shares available to the investing public without having to get listed onto the stock market. However, it is important to point out that these tokens aren’t exactly shares of the company, yet as the start-up in question becomes more profitable, so will these tokens which can be traded on exchanges for real money.

Not long ago, Willy Woo, an important bitcoin researcher made a statement where he revealed that the number of bitcoin users throughout the world doubles approximately every year. Additionally, Dutch Bank ING released a paper where they state that bitcoin transactions use so much energy that potentially, the amount of electricity needed to verify a single transaction would be enough to power a house for an entire month.

To put things better into perspective, bitcoin transactions need to use so much energy in order to make verifying trades expensive for those who do it. Because of this aspect, fraudulent transactions that would be confirmed on the blockchain network are much harder to attain, as those who wish to do so, would need to make a large investment in both computing equipment and electricity to be capable of misusing the currency.

With time, consumer demands and expectations across all industries tend to change, therefore encouraging disruption through new technologies that could better fill the needs of both consumers and companies throughout the world.

As you may have probably heard, blockchain technology has the potential to change the future for numerous industries, with better services being provided. For those who do not know, a blockchain is more or less a continuously increasing list of records known as blocks, which are then secured and linked using cryptographic protocols. While the blockchain technology is still fairly new to the market, experts are now finally understanding the fact that its potential doesn’t only reside in the financial and banking sectors. In this article, we will outline a few important industries which could be significantly changed after the introduction of blockchain technologies.

Digital currency regulation represents an issue that numerous governments throughout the world are dealing with, as the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to evolve. In the case of Malaysia for instance, there are more and more talks about how and if bitcoin should be regulated, alongside with whether it should be banned entirely.

To put things better into perspective, reports suggest that the Central Bank is now taking a couple of cues from China, following a couple of statements that haven’t been positive towards digital currencies and possible regulation in the future. It is interesting to see how things changed, judging by the fact that in 2014, the BNM stated that: “The Bitcoin is not recognised as legal tender in Malaysia. The Central Bank does not regulate the operations of Bitcoin. The public is therefore advised to be cautious of the risks associated with the usage of such digital currency.”

The last couple of weeks have once again proven that bitcoin remains a strong, yet volatile digital currency, due to the numerous changes in value. To put things better into perspective, bitcoin finally ended up staging another rally over the end of the week, thus hitting a one-month high.

This was quite surprising judging by the fact that economic analysts have been warning against another negative volatility event. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $4,625, which is the highest level that it has reached since the 8th of October. This is significantly better when compared to the value that it has a couple of weeks ago, when the digital currency ended up declining a bit below the $3,000 mark.

In a short period of time, Ethereum has managed to gain a lot of popularity on the digital currency market, with millions of dollars-worth of investments being poured into the new, trustless, smart contracts technology, which has a huge potential to further revolutionize the way we transmit data of all kinds, and the security behind it.

The last couple of months have brought forward a couple of growths and decreases in value, so this article will focus on some of today’s main factors that will further encourage Ethereum development, adoption and popularity. Additionally, Vitalik Buterin, has recently mentioned that: “I would say that Ethereum’s main benefits are in its generality and in its utility to many kinds of industries. There are applications in finance, identity, supply chain tracking, health care, energy and many other areas. This is a result of Ethereum deliberately being designed as a general-purpose programming platform.”

During the last couple of months, we have often heard economic analysts state that bitcoin is likely a bubble, about to burst, thus bringing forward a huge price decrease. Yet, this never actually happened, regardless of having the digital currency express its volatility during the last few weeks, with trading volumes going below the $3,999 threshold, and then rising back again to newer all-time highs.

However, it isn’t that hard to understand why numerous investors, bankers, finance enthusiasts, and of course market analysts tend to believe bitcoin is a bubble- because they’ve never seen anything like it. Since 2009, Bitcoin has managed to become the world’s most valuable currency, with no medium of exchange worth more than bitcoin is at this moment in time. When compared to traditional, fiat-based currencies, which have only gradually modified their value with time, it is understandable why bitcoin really took the world by storm.

At this moment in time, the growing popularity of bitcoin has encouraged over 100,000 merchants from all around the world to take bitcoin and other digital currencies as a form of payment for both products and services.

Recent reports now indicate that South Africa’s second biggest supermarket chain store, known by the name of Pick n Pay, has started accepting bitcoin in one of its stores, as reported by Electrum, a payment software development firm. The goal of this move is to test how the Pick n Pay customers react to the introduction of bitcoin-based payments, and see whether this represents a viable solution for all of their stores in South Africa.