Kodak Getting Into Bitcoin Mining
Kodak, a legacy photography company synonymous with the last century, is to launch its own cryptocurrency, Kodakcoin. Not content with holding an ICO, the company has also decided to get into cryptocurrency mining in what’s been interpreted as a desperate bid to stay relevant. The news, unveiled at CES 2018 on Wednesday, goes down as one of the strangest stories yet in a month that’s been filled with crypto oddities.
Also read: JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon Regrets his ”Bitcoin is a Fraud” Statement
Kodak Enjoys Its Kodak Moment
In a week in which an altcoin for the dental industry neared a $2 billion market cap and messaging app Telegram unveiled a 132-page white paper, the notion of Kodak launching its own ICO doesn’t seem that outlandish. Reinventing itself as a cryptocurrency mining firm into the bargain though is a curveball that no one saw coming.
CES is the technology world’s largest and glitziest event of the year, hosted in Las Vegas and boasting cutting-edge new kit from industry leaders such as Samsung and Sony. And then there’s Kodak, a company that by anyone’s reckoning was last relevant around the time that Instamatic cameras were the latest tech. But to the chagrin of the other exhibitors at CES on Wednesday, Kodak stole the show.
Kodak, Meet Crypto
The news that the Eastman Kodak Company, founded in 1888, was jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon should have come as a total shock. It says something about the current news cycle that the story, accompanied by news of Kodak’s inevitable share price leap, was greeted by little more than a shrug. The tokenized project the company are launching, for what it’s worth, sounds like a Shutterstock copy, with added permissions. And a blockchain of course, because 2018.
But what to make of the company’s foray into cryptocurrency mining? As if trying to tick off every cliche in the crypto handbook, Kodak has declared that it is going to start renting out bitcoin miners to the public. The miners it demoed appear to be Bitmain mining rigs with a Kodak sticker appended, suggesting that the whole scheme may have been hastily cobbled together. This theory was bolstered by the revelation that the Kodacoin website was only registered on January 2.
Mining for Headlines
To show its support for its new mining operation, Kodak announced plans to install a rig in its New York headquarters. Presumably not in its office, for cryptocurrency mining is a hot and noisy racket best confined to a darkened room. The Kodak branded miners will be leased to customers, who will be expected to pay upfront for the mining capacity. As one commenter scathingly put it:
This morning $KODK was a dead company walking destroying value and cash at a fairly rapid pace and headed for another bankruptcy, now after laying some empty words on a piece of paper it’s all good.
“This is getting ridiculous,” Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading LLC, told Reuters. “From a fundamental point of view, none of this makes sense.” There’s a desperation about the reinvention of Kodak, like an embarrassing uncle trying to prove they’re still down with the kids. It will be the big boys investing in Kodak’s token sale though, which is open to SEC registered investors only.
It doesn’t matter whether the world needs another image licensing platform, or indeed whether the world needs Kodak. All that matters to the institutional investors is whether they can turn a profit by snapping up KODK tokens in their millions. In the current climate, that looks like a dead certainty.
Do you think Kodak’s entry into the cryptocurrency market is insanity or inspired? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Kodak.
Need to know the price of bitcoin? Check this chart.
The post Kodak Getting Into Bitcoin Mining appeared first on Bitcoin News.
New Monero Mining Malware Sends Proceeds to Kim Il Sung University, North Korea
The code for a new Monero mining bot has been found to direct its ill-gotten gains to a computer server located at the first academic institute ever built in North Korea, Kim Il-sung University.
Also Read: US Blames Bitcoin Ransomware Attack Wannacry on North Korea
Malware University, North Korea
The report says that: “Cryptocurrencies could provide a financial lifeline to a country hit hard by sanctions. Therefore it’s not surprising that universities in North Korea have shown a clear interest in cryptocurrencies. Recently the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology invited foreign experts to lecture on cryptocurrencies. The Installer we’ve analyzed above may be the most recent product of their endeavors.”
The Usual Suspects
While both counts are likely to true, skeptics may wonder whether the demonization of North Korea is all part of a psy-op to gain public approval for some sort of strike (cyber, financial or otherwise) against the isolated country. Even the Alienvault team admit in their report that just because the code points to Kim Il-sung University doesn’t prove that it is the source of the software, recognizing the option that the “usage of a North Korean server is a prank to trick security researchers.”
Do you think bitcoin ransomware is keeping North Korea’s economy above water? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.
The post New Monero Mining Malware Sends Proceeds to Kim Il Sung University, North Korea appeared first on Bitcoin News.
5000 MW to Spare – CEO of Hydro-QuéBec Wants to Attract Cryptocurrency Miners
Just recently in an interview with Québec’s local publication, Le Journal, the CEO of the public utility company Hydro-Québec wants to attract cryptocurrency miners to the region to help bolster economic prosperity.
Also Read: Chinese Bitcoin Miners Explore Relocating Abroad Amid Fears of Crackdown
Hydro-Québec Needs a Solution to Avoid Energy Tariffs
Bitcoin Miners Can Purchase Over 5000MW of Excess Power from Québec
Martel reveals Hydro-Québec will try to get energy-consuming businesses like giant website operations and server companies to utilize Québec’s resources. Hydro-Québec already supplies 450 MWh to various server centers. Martel is also looking to attract bitcoin miners to the region as Hydro-Québec hopes to distribute 6 TWh to those in need of an excess supply of cheaper energy. The CEO estimates cryptocurrency miners could use 5000MW of that energy.
When chatting with the Le Journal, Martel explains that he believes cryptocurrency miners and data stations appreciate the cold winters in Québec stating;
I tell them in the winter, you just have to open the garage door and windows to cool things down.
Chinese Miners Look to Canada
Hydroelectric power stations are becoming popular within the digital currency mining space as this type of energy producing technology is used by miners in various countries. However, the low-cost power in Winnipeg, Québec, and Canada, in general, is starting to attract bitcoin miners. Just recently one of the largest Chinese mining pools BTC.top announced it was building a mining farm in the country.
“We chose Canada because of the relatively cheap electricity cost and the stability of the country and policies,” the BTC.top founder, Jiang Zhuoer explains in a recent interview.
This past November news.Bitcoin.com reported on a bitcoin entrepreneur, Mr. Bertrand, telling the local media that Canada was attracting cryptocurrency miners because of the abundance of hydropower in the province. Mr. Bertrand also uses the region to mine bitcoin as he owns 50 ASICs in a warehouse that he estimates far less expensive than the U.S. and other areas.
Further, Hydro-Québec’s vice president, Eric Filion, has revealed on the broadcast Radio Canada that bitcoin miners from Asia have already been in touch with them. “These are really big players who contact us,” Filion notes on the radio show. It seems that’s just what the company wants to help cure its economic situation, offering bitcoin miners cheap hydropower before Québec residents see higher energy taxes.
What do you think about the CEO of Hydro-Québec looking for cryptocurrency miners to inhabit the region? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images via Pixabay, the International Hydropower Association, and the Hydro-Québec logo.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
The post 5000 MW to Spare – CEO of Hydro-QuéBec Wants to Attract Cryptocurrency Miners appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Bitcoin Developers Must Do What Investors Want, Long-Term or Short
There are snotty people who claim to be long-term thinkers and want me to treat their plans seriously. The problem with long-term thinkers is that there is an ambiguity between them and people who are living in a fantasy. For you cannot plan beyond your ability to survive, and no one really knows how long their current investment strategy will keep them alive. If you are planning beyond your ability to survive, then you are not a long-term thinker. You are a person in a fantasy world.
Also read: Your Stupidity, Your Responsibility
Long-Term Fantasy
The first step to convincing me that you are a long-term thinker is to convince me that you can survive long enough for your plan to be realized. Furthermore, you must learn to survive for five minutes before you can learn to survive for ten years, so I will first look at your short-term thinking before I would even bother to listen to your long-term plans. Long-term thinking is built on top of short-term thinking, so short-term thinking is more fundamental.
That’s not to say short-term thinking is inherently better than long-term, but if you cannot handle short-term plans, you might as well not bother with long-term plans. If I could only take one person with me on an adventure, I would choose a person who knows how to survive for the next five minutes over one who has long-term plans but does not know how to survive. I would need to have room for two companions if I wanted to bring the long-term thinker.
In order to convince me that you are a survivor, you must prove to me that you have a good investment strategy. People who think strategically think of the future as something chaotic that could throw anything at them. They have made abstract decisions about their behavior so as to promote their own safety under a wide variety possible futures. When they predict the future, they do not choose lightly.
Order Out of Chaos
Survival is a matter of creating order out of chaos. Thus, when I am looking for long-term thinkers, I begin with those who can maintain homeostasis in the short-term. Not all of these people will be long-term thinkers, but they are the only ones who can plan ahead without living in a fantasy. Everyone else is a mayfly.
The second step to convincing me that you are a long-term thinker is to show me that your plan is actually good. Of course, we cannot really know the future without waiting to see what happens, but there is something that you can do today, and that is to put your head on the chopping block! You make a bet and you say, “I think the future will look like my plan and I lose bitcoins if it does not.”
Now you are committed! Maybe you are still in a fantasy, but if you are then at least I won’t have to deal with you anymore once your plans fail. If you are willing to put your survival on the line for your plan, then you are either someone good enough at surviving you can afford to take the risk, or someone who will not make bets in the future.
My assessment of you as a long-term thinker has nothing to do with your skills as a programmer or cryptographer. It has everything to do with your skills as an investor. Someone who thinks that Bitcoin developers don’t have to do what the investors want is someone who does not know that survivors must come first in order for any plan to be enacted reliably.
But anybody can make bets. So if you want to be a long-term thinker, you can compete with everyone else willing to make bets. If you do not want to do this, then I don’t believe you are a long-term thinker. If you don’t want to, then I think you look like a mayfly to me. You look like someone who is distracting yourself with a fantasy instead of learning how to survive.
What are your thoughts about long-term thinking? Tell us in the comments!
Images courtesy of Pixabay.
We are building this online universe revolving around anything and everything Bitcoin. We have a store. And a forum. And a casino, a pool and real-time price statistics.
This is an Op-ed article. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support views, opinions or conclusions drawn in this post. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the content. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any information in this Op-ed article.
The post Bitcoin Developers Must Do What Investors Want, Long-Term or Short appeared first on Bitcoin News.
JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon Regrets his ”Bitcoin is a Fraud” Statement
Jamie Dimon, chair of JP Morgan Chase, was once again asked about his thoughts on bitcoin. In a wide-ranging interview on FOX Business, Mr. Dimon was given a few of his notable quotes back to him, and asked to assess his present feelings. It appears he’s softened a little on the the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, after once referring to it as “a fraud.”
Also read: Celebrating Bitcoin’s 9th Birthday!
Jamie Dimon Warms to Bitcoin
Chairman of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, sat down for a televised interview with FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo for a segment of her eponymous Mornings with Maria. The two discussed recent overhaul of the US tax structure and its corporate rate, the economy, and health care.
They were gathered at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco for the 36th Annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, which runs through Thursday and included a keynote by Bill Gates.
Ms. Bartiromo, 50, asked also about Mr. Dimon’s comments concerning Mr. Trump being a one term president. The banker, who turns 62 in March, acknowledged it wasn’t his place to have made that statement, and wished to instead focus on policy. Playfully, Ms. Bartiromo queried the famous executive about speculation Oprah Winfrey could run for the American presidency, and he politely declined comment.
Dressed down in sports coat, no tie, Mr. Dimon seemed poised to have fun a little. Continuing her line of questioning on his past statements, she turned to bitcoin.
Regret
Ms. Bartiromo, who carries the distinction of having a Joey Ramone song written in her honor, began, “Let me ask you about bitcoin, because that was another famous statement you made, that it’s a fraud,….”
Mr. Dimon perked up, interrupting, “… which I regret making,” he smiled. Punctuating with his left hand, he insisted, “The blockchain is real. You can have crypto dollars and yen and stuff like that. ICOs you have to look at every one individually. The bitcoin was always to me, was what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big? I just have a different opinion from other people. I am just not that interested that much in the subject at all,” he waved away with his right hand, “so I’ll leave that to everybody else to figure out what they really want to do with that.”
The FOX Business host then prompted the banker, “I think it’s funny that I just saw a study that 30 percent of millennials say they’d rather invest in bitcoin than bonds and stocks,” she laughed and smiled, “…I don’t know,” she giggled.
Mr. Dimon grinned and looked over his right shoulder, incredulously, and then laughed, holding up his left hand as a peace sign, “I have a daughter who bought two bitcoins,” he said. Ms. Bartiromo agreed, “Yeah, that’s what I am saying: young people are into bitcoin, so … “
“And [my daughter] now thinks she’s a genius because it went way up,” Mr. Dimon smiled.
What do you think of Jamie Dimon’s reversal? Tell us in the comment section below!
Images via Pixabay.
xpress yourself freely at Bitcoin.com’s user forums. We don’t censor on political grounds. Check forum.Bitcoin.com.
The post JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon Regrets his ”Bitcoin is a Fraud” Statement appeared first on Bitcoin News.
GDAX on Bitcoin Cash Launch; “Heavy Buy Demand Led to Insufficient Liquidity”
On January 9, Adam White, the general manager of the GDAX exchange, a subsidiary of Coinbase, gave his “retrospective” on the recent and controversial bitcoin cash (BCH) launch on the platform. White details that despite the company’s best efforts things didn’t go as planned, and the executive gives a transparent timeline of events.
Also read: Investors Call Foul Play as Coinbase Parries Insider Trading Accusations
When GDAX Opened its Order Books, in Three Minutes Demand for BCH Sucked Up Liquidity
“At 5:23 pm PST, we paused trading on the BCH-USD book due to significant volatility caused by heavy market buy demand that resulted in insufficient liquidity,” explains White’s retrospective.
$15.5Mn in USD Trade Volume Occurred Which Led to the 70 Percent Bitcoin Cash Price Increase
The GDAX general manager says that in the “2 minute and 40-second” period 4,443 orders were placed, 3,461 matches occurred, and 2,202 market orders got executed. The demand was significantly larger than usual, because within that short period of time “$15.5 million USD of trading volume occurred,” notes White. The GDAX executive states:
During this period, nearly 90% of all market orders were buy orders — This resulted in a thinning of liquidity and a rapid increase in price on the BCH-USD book.
Coinbase Denies Insider Trading Accusations
During this time many traders accused GDAX and its parent company Coinbase of insider trading. White responds to these accusations in his retrospective timeline, stating that employees were notified of the BCH listing on November 13th, 2017. All employees working for both Coinbase and GDAX were “explicitly prohibited from buying and selling bitcoin cash,” White emphasizes.
“All employees were also barred from sharing this information with anyone outside of Coinbase — This approach is modeled after best practices at other financial institutions and captured in our employee trading policy,” explains the GDAX general manager.
BCH Liquidity Issues Continued to Plague GDAX Order Books for a Few Days
On December 20, GDAX announced its intentions to open BCH books and trading pairs again in a ‘post-only’ mode. The team also adjusted liquidity minimums to match the previous day’s market behavior, White details. That day BCH market prices were 70 percent higher than the day before the Coinbase launch. White says the BCH-USD order books worked fine since the first adjustment, but later that day at 7:41 pm PST both BCH-EUR and BCH-BTC books failed to achieve liquidity minimums needed for trading. So the company moved the books to ‘cancel mode’ and tried again the next day, but liquidity still did not meet the requirements. Those books were put on hold until after the holidays.
White says both GDAX and Coinbase take the process of “supporting a new asset seriously,” especially when that asset was created by forking a token already supported by the company. Because of this, White says that in order to minimize problems, the way they released access to the fork asset was a good decision.
“This belief drove our decision to announce our support for BCH trading only once all customers had access to their BCH,” White concludes.
What do you think about the day GDAX and Coinbase launched BCH and the price shot up 200%? Let us know what you think about this event in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, GDAX, Bitcoin Cash, Youtube.
Keep track of the bitcoin exchange rate in real-time.
The post GDAX on Bitcoin Cash Launch; “Heavy Buy Demand Led to Insufficient Liquidity” appeared first on Bitcoin News.
Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/