Return to the Green Zone
Earlier this week, the crypto-currency market in general and bitcoin in particular demonstrated an impulsive recovery against the backdrop of positive news from representatives of the G20.
So, if at the beginning of the week the first crypto currency was traded around the six-week low, at $ 7400-7500, then on Wednesday the bulls managed to overcome the $ 9000 mark, after which it retreated to levels of $ 8500-8600, where the price holds at the moment. Thus, the growth of the average weighted rate of bitcoin on the weekly segment was 15% as of 16:00 UTC, March 25.
The total capitalization of the market for the week also increased by 20% to $ 330 billion, while the bitcoin dominance index is 44.1%.
It is worth noting that the statement of the head of the Bank of England and the Council for Financial Stability (SPS) Mark Kerny was the catalyst for growth at the beginning of the week.
However, in the general draft of the regulatory document, central banks and finance ministers of G20 member countries emphasized that crypto-currencies "have no signs of sovereign currencies" and should be regarded as an asset.
Of the negative news that affected the market this week, one can note the ban on ICO advertising by media giant Snap Inc. and the issuance of an official warning to the Binance Exchange by the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), which refers to the need to obtain a license to continue working in the country. Founder Binance Changpeng Jao called the community to calm.
It is noteworthy that the average block size in the bitcoin network this week fell to a two-year low, which, according to community representatives, is due to technical improvements in the protocol, namely the use of batching by a number of large crypto-currency companies, progress in the adoption of Segregated Witness and off-transaction. So, the average block size was only 515 KB.
At the same time, the number of payment channels Lightning Network also increased in the main bitcoin network. At the time of publication, the number of active Lightning channels was 2902, for which the crypto currency is transferred for a total of 6.571 BTC.
To the active promotion of Lightning technology, the developers of block-company Blockstream also joined the initiative, within the framework of which seven different plug-ins and applications based on the Lightning Network (LApp's) technology for the bitcoin network are planned to be presented within seven days.
It should be added that the research department of the Bitmex exchange has discovered that the volume of SegWit transactions in the bitcoin network exceeds the aggregate number of transactions in the Bitcoin Cash network by 20.1%.
Bitcoin in the center of the scandal around child porn
On Wednesday, March 21, the Internet was flooded with news that bitcoin could be "outlawed" because of the links to child porn found in his detective.
After studying 1600 files in bitcoin, the researchers of the Rhine-Westphalian Technical University of Aachen found eight files of a sexual nature, and one of them was attended by a minor. Also researchers found 274 references to content related to violence against children.
ForkLog figured out whether ownership of a full node could become illegal due to the unchanged data in the bitcoin blockade. In short, the answer is negative. A detailed review and comments of experts can be found on the link.
Another high-profile case: the media reported on Russia's involvement in the creation of El Petro
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump signed a decree banning US citizens from any operations with the oil-reinforced Venezuelan national crypto currency El Petro.
Two days later, the US weekly magazine TIME published an exclusive investigation alleging that Kremlin-related Russian billionaires advised Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and were responsible for developing El Petro.
TIME names the names of at least two of these people: Denis Druzhkov and Fedor Bogorodsky. They were allegedly behind the development of El Petro, a joint venture set up by officials and businessmen of Venezuela and Russia to circumvent the sanctions that were imposed on the two countries.
Stellar will introduce Lightning technology before the end of 2018
The developers of the project Stellar intend to implement the technology Lightning in the source code of the blocker Stellar. Stellar plans to launch its own test version of Lightning in the test network before April 1, and the client for the main network - in the fall.
A source: forklog.com