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Bitmain Hit $1.1 Billion in Profits in Q1 2018, Ethereum Is Testing Code for Its Next Hard Fork, and Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Bill Miller is Bullish on Bitcoin
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Dear Readers,
Hope you had a good weekend. Sorry for late arrival off to a late start this morning. On to the daily update.
Bitmain Hit $1.1 Billion in Profits in Q1 2018
What’s the Story? Bitmain, the largest cryptocurrency mining company, reported a net profit of $1.1B in Q1 ’18 compared to a $1.2B net profit for all of 2017.
Why It’s Important? Bitmain has been one of the most successful pick and shovel plays in the cryptocurrency space. The company controls a significant amount of the hash rate of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash while also selling mining machines to others interested in mining. Some believe that proof of work will eventually be taken over by a new validation method such as proof of stake, but right now Bitmain is showing that proof of work is a very profitable revenue source.
Ethereum Is Testing Code for Its Next Hard Fork
What’s the Story? Ethereum developers have begun coding for Constantinople, the Ethereum Network’s next hard fork.
Why It’s Important? Constantinople is set to be activated sometime before October’s Ethereum conference (Devcon4). This hard fork seeks to make the main net less expensive and more efficient. Some updates in Constantinople include block hash reorganization and increases in the speed of the Ethereum virtual machine (EVM). This update will be massive for the future of Ethereum’s adoption. It has been made very clear by the Crypto and Blockchain community that they see a use for Ethereum’s ecosystem and smart contract protocol. Currently, over 500 ERC20 tokens (crypto projects built in the Ethereum ecosystem) exist and Financial institutions are rapidly exploring the use of smart contracts. However, current state Ethereum has considerable problems with transaction speed and cost. Current transaction speed is maxed out at around 15 transactions per second. In comparison, Visa is capable of handling nearly 24,000 transactions per second (although they never need to handle that many, they currently handle around 1700 per second). Each Ethereum transaction costs nearly 25 cents, making microtransactions unrealistic. Improving transaction speed and lowering cost is a clear path to increased adoption of the Ethereum ecosystem.
Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Bill Miller is Bullish on Bitcoin
What’s the Story? Traditional hedge fund manager, Bill Miller, believes Bitcoin isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Why It’s Important?
Bill Miller is one of the few traditional hedge fund managers that own Bitcoin in their fund. He believes that every day it doesn’t blow, the higher the chance it survives (this is known as the Lindy effect). Bill Miller owning and promoting Bitcoin is a great boon to the industry because it shows people in traditional finance take it serious enough to have it in their portfolio. Institutional investors listen to successful fund managers like Bill Miller for ideas. If he thinks Bitcoin is here for the long-term, maybe he’ll convince some other investors too!
What We Read This Morning
- Visions of Bitcoin: Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures writes about the changing narrative of Bitcoin.
- Drinking from the Crypto Firehose: Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures blogs about the overflow of information in the cryptocurrency industry.
- Minimal Viable Economy: Nick Grossman of Union Square Ventures writes about the concept of “minimal viable economy”
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Originally published at pop.substack.com.
Bitmain Hit $1.1 was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.