Aaron van Wirdum

Bitcoin’s ongoing scaling debate continues to highlight that protocol governance is one of the biggest challenges for this technology.One of the many solutions that have been proposed to break through the scaling impasse is coin-voting...

“7… 00… 9… 0… 183.” I type in the secret code as printed on the flyer that I found at the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference in Saint Petersburg the day prior. But to no avail. The steel gate to the inner-city courtyard won’t open, and the...

Bitcoin’s very public scaling debate is entering a crucial phase. Two of the most popular scaling proposals available today — BIP148 and SegWit2x — both intend to trigger Segregated Witness (“SegWit”) activation within a month, which...

A mixed crowd of denim jeans and custom-tailored suits, typical for crypto-events, is standing across the vertical aisle of the the main conference area at the Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference in Saint Petersburg, blocking the line of...

As of today, over 80 percent of miners (by hash power) are including the letters “NYA” in the blocks they mine. This follows the publication of letters (translation) in which a group of Chinese Bitcoin companies — notably including most...

Bitcoin’s long-lasting scaling debate appeared to be heading toward a climax lately, with two proposals gaining significant traction. At one end of the fence there is Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 148 (BIP148), a user activated soft fork...

A segment of the Bitcoin community is preparing a user activated soft fork (UASF), using Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 148 (BIP148). If they go through with it, there could be two types of “Bitcoin” on and after August 1st, which this...

Major Bitcoin mining hardware producer Bitmain today announced that it may launch a “hard fork” in August. Labeled a “contingency plan,” the announcement is a response to the upcoming user activated soft fork (UASF), as defined by...

OpenTimestamps, a project led by Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd, just made sure the Internet Archive cannot be forged.Well, sort of. In a blog post published last week, the developer and consultant explained how he used his...

This is a re-write of A Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide to Surviving a Coin-Split, specifically addressing issues associated with the upcoming BIP 148 UASF. (Update: And the BCC launch.)July 26th update: With BIP91 activated, it seems...

Update, May 30th: While the use and circulation of virtual currencies is banned in Bolivia, it is now unclear whether that's what the suspects are really charged with. Reports as well as local sources suggest that they may instead be...

Qtum is an up-and-coming smart contract platform set to launch in September of this year. Sometimes ambitiously referring to itself as “China’s Ethereum,” the project recently raised $15 million in three days through a successful...

Spearheaded by Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group (DCG), this week over 50 companies signed and published a “Bitcoin Scaling Agreement” on Medium. The agreement intends to put an end to Bitcoin’s long-lasting scaling debate. Whether...

Segregated Witness (SegWit), the Bitcoin protocol upgrade proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team, was originally designed to activate via the Bitcoin Improvement Protocol 9 (BIP 9) standard, a hash-power signalling mechanism....

The AsicBoost controversy has added another chapter to its book.Yesterday, law firm Getech Law published an open letter, which was subsequently confirmed to be legitimate by Timo Hanke, the initial submitter of the AsicBoost patent...

Bitcoin got caught in another media storm this week, though only in a supporting role this time around. The ongoing ransomware attack by the name of “WannaCry,” sometimes also referred to as “WannaCrypt0r,” “Wcry,” “WanaCry,”...

It’s official. Litecoin, one of the oldest and biggest altcoins by market cap, deployed Segregated Witness (SegWit) today. The protocol upgrade that was originally developed for Bitcoin and proposed by the Bitcoin Core development team...

Major Bitcoin mining hardware producer Bitmain can remotely shut down almost all active Antminer machines. Dubbed the “Antbleed” backdoor, abuse of the vulnerability could probably knock half of all hash power on the Bitcoin network...

The Bitcoin Core project, launched by Satoshi Nakamoto eight years ago and today led by Wladimir van der Laan, aims to release a new major release of the software about once every six months. Such a release (0.12.0, 0.13.0, 0.14.0…)...

Through a splash in the media, Purse and its in-house-built alternative Bitcoin implementation Bcoin recently presented their scaling proposal, dubbed “To the Moon.” Where Bitcoin XT, Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Unlimited all attempt to...

As first revealed by Bitcoin Core developer and Blockstream Co-Founder and CTO Gregory Maxwell, and subsequently confirmed by Bitmain through a press release, the major Chinese mining hardware manufacturer has included the AsicBoost...