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Segwit

Little Brother: Out of the shadow and into the LiteFull disclosure, our first foray into Cryptocurrency was Litecoin back in 2015. It was the first coin we experimented mining with because it was cheap enough and could be mined with a GPU. It seemed like a good choice, because LTC was the underdog and mining had not become centralised and monopolised at is it had already become by then with Bitcoin. So we have a soft spot for it, but to be honest, not until recently did we start building our holdings. Unless you've been under a rock, you've heard of the BTC scaling debate. Bitcoin is considered the older brother, always casting a shadow on all other Altcoins. So in his shadow, Litecoin has been able to learn from Bitcoin’s mistakes and so it has come to be seen as the coin that can implement what Bitcoin can’t for a lot of reasons. BTC's problems like stagnancy, divided and toxic leadership, inability to upgrade for the better. These things are both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. But many investors are realising how it shines, and how it doesn’t. As time goes on, it has become clear that Bitcoin’s usage excels as a safe keep, like gold, but for every day usage, it’s not the fastest, or the most economical crypto by far. Countless coins have risen up with faster tech, but BTC holds it’s position, because it holds #1 in the market. The battle is definitely on for a new contender for micro payments. We all want a safe coin we can hold our assets in like Bitcoin, but for everyday usage Bitcoin is failing, and failing fast. It’s heavy, slow and expensive once purchases go below a certain $ threshold. Like gold, it’s great to keep in the safe but lugging it around for every day usage makes little sense. A solution was gradually voted for called Segwit which would enable Bitcoin to use the Lightning Network for greater efficiency, but even though presented to voted on by the Bitcoin community since last year, there has been no progress or resolution and voting to activate is stuck at ~30% of the 95% majority needed. Needless to say, the arguments continue and the king is losing followers. There are many recent contenders for the #2 spot to do what Bitcoin can’t: Dash, Monero and although not designed for some believe Ethereum. Each however has a lot of big trust issues and the sentiment is not great. Whether it’s pre-mining or a resentment of the helm, the crowd is not cheering unanimously for any of them. Enter Litecoin. Litecoin has an established brand already, positioned for years as the silver to bitcoin’s gold, and the sentiment toward it is overly steady and positive. Created in 2011 by Charlie Lee, also known as Satoshilite is a serious and likeable character who has been able to unify the LTC mining community in adopting Segwit at a speed that is admirable. At the time of writing this, Charlie has garnered the support of 69% of the 75% votes needed to activate Segwit. You can read about his vision for Litecoin and Segwit here (segwit.org). All of this exuberance has driven up the LTC price several fold already in the last weeks and shows no real signs of slowing down. What’s more, is that despite several years of attempts to climb up and move out of the shadow of BTC, Litecoin’s community hasn’t given up. It’s that keep going and striving spirit, to put aside the ego and hold let’s do this attitude which Bitcoin has lost. It’s a spirit that many regular people relate to and it's something an army of investors are beginning to rally behind.
LLong
by hanzeholdinworth
1
BITCOIN POTENTIAL SHORT: BEAR FUNDAMENTALSThis is a sad moment for Bitcoin. And probably for whole crypto-market. We've seen bullish exhuberance on altcoin markets , where major alts (DASH, ETH, XMR) gained an 100% in average last 7 days. And they gained much more at their peaks. These are the actual numbers against BTC since bitcoin ETF rejection: XMR +155% ETH +295% DASH +265% And other minor alts also grew A LOT against btc. We've seen this before. Prior the great bear market in BTC at the end of 2013 begining of 2014. This could be bitcoin whales manipulating the small altcoins markets to squeeze as much bitcoin as possible prior the bitcoin bear market. Or in the best case scenario (unlikely in my opinion) a migration from BTC to other solutions . And we have some important bear fundamentals : Bitcoin ETF was rejected . Basically the SEC told us that bitcoin markets are not regulated, and so, easily manipulated and not elegible for american regular investor. Source . A potential non-friendly hardfork is more real than ever . The relations between Bitcoin Core and its community and Bitcoin Unlimited and its community are more tense than ever ( source ). Recently BU nodes were attacked ( see sharp nodes drop ), and the whole BU team made fun off ( source ). Even after those problems, currently BU scalability solution (hard fork to bigger blocks) is signaled by +32% of the hashrate, while Bitcoin Core scalability solution (SegWit) is signaled by +27% of the hashrate ( Source ). Bitcoin Core community won't ever accept Unlimited solution, and viceversa. And what is worse, important people in the bitcoin world are already considering/planing how to list/treat two potential bitcoins. ( source ) PBOC preparing highly STRICT regulations . There is a draft, not approved yet, suggesting mandatory in person verification prior first deposit/cashout. (Sources: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) Bitfinex hacked coins apparently on the move . ( Source ) I have my opinions about this Bitcoin Core/Bitcoin Unlimited war, but i think they are irrelevant. What is relevant is that something MUST be done . And splitting bitcoin in two different chains IS NOT AN OPTION . The bigger bitcoin is, the most difficult finding a solution will be. This has been delayed too much. And it has a huge negative effect: people could start thinking that a decentralized governance IS NOT POSSIBLE. As bitcoin is proving unable to reach consensus for years, and what is worse, this consensus seems more difficult each day. And this seems to be simplified to a big disconformity about what is bitcoin. ¿Is bitcoin a currency/payment method or is bitcoin a store of value? If even early adopters and leaders of the community can't agree on this, then bitcoin's future is doomed. All this makes me feel quite unconfident of bitcoin ability to hold it's current market cap. I personally sold 40% of my cold storage (~$300 avg buy price) into fiat at 1200. And now i am opening a short. I am laddering my short entry, 1130-1150-1170-1215-1250. I will stop this short once i see the scaling debate/potential hardfork finding a friendly solution.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDShort
by bagofXMR
59
Bitcoin Bull Trend Continuation vs. Additional RetracementThis FOMO Bounce was successfully predicted by @IamSatoshi (Twitter: @CarpeNoctom) at @690. Bitcoin continues to be bullish over the long term although there is a possibility for a retrace on the daily timeframes to the $600 per BTC area. I'd give it a 25% chance of this retrace occurring. 1. Bounce on the retrace was successful, bids were executed on Bitstamp BTC/EUR pair at 628 through to 610 which was the absolute local bottom in EUR. 2. There was a great retrace to 50% Fib of this move, which is also the Kijoun (Base) line of the Ichimoku Cloud on the 1hr. 3. There is an ascending triangle forming on the 1hr which could go either way. 4. If there is a break upward expect a rise to pre-drop level of 735-745USD and could fomo past that. 5. If there is a break downward we could go as far as 600USD, but I would expect some more pitstops at previous consolidation areas 635USD and the monthly pivot at 630USD. Very much bullish on this one although I only trade in spot so my risk is limited and my stops are more flexible. I'm bullish because of SegWit implementation and am confident most nodes will update to the newest version. I'll explain my stance in detail later on.
BITSTAMP:BTCUSDLong
by GrowthHackAnything