Bitcoin getting ready for a swing?
As the turmoil around cryptocurrency in the news continues, Bitcoin is always at the forefront. News sites have been abuzz that Bitcoin will soon become more volatile, but the sites are divided between those who think it’ll cause Bitcoin to soar and those who think it will plummet. However, what has Bitcoin been doing lately that might have produced some of this commotion?
Sidechain potential?
Bitcoin made big news, as on September 24th it was posted on Drivechain that Bitcoin would have their first Drivechain release. They are currently testing this new update but imply that a multi-network sidechain could be the result of this test code. The statement comes from Paul Sztorc, the director of research at Tierion. If this test does create a side chain, it would be close to Etheriums setup in that the branches would be able to be custom programmed. Paul said that if this update works “Bitcoin would be able to copy, without controversy, any technology, including: larger blocks, Turing-completeness, and ring signatures.” If you want to read the full release you can find it here http://www.drivechain.info/blog/first-release/ Although it is hard to say if this news could cause a down, or upturn it is exciting to know that Bitcoin is trying to grow.
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash
Bitcoin’s vulnerability
This news comes a week after Bitcoin announced that they had found, and created a fix for, a vulnerability that is a denial-of-service bug. The vulnerability, if exploited, could have crashed nodes or take out a large portion of the network. https://www.ethnews.com/ posted an article yesterday that states that a majority of the network could still be running the vulnerable software even with Bitcoin urging users to update. The most vulnerable users are those using the Lightning network, so if you are one of those users make sure you update if you haven’t already. Dashjr commented on the slow rate that people are updating, telling Ethnews
"The current upgrade trend looks more or less like what one would normally expect to see when there is a new release (although bit faster). In ordinary circumstances, this would be reasonably healthy, but since there is a serious publicly disclosed vulnerability, it leaves the network open to attack in this case."
It is hard to say if the combined news of growth and a found bug is putting some fuel to the fire of Bitcoin’s potential swinging price, but if it does end up swinging, I’m sure we’re all hoping it goes up. As always, we have to watch the market and make our decisions accordingly.
-Written by James Hepburn