SelfSell(SSC)

Blockchain protocol Algorand (ALGO) has expanded its footprint in India by securing new partnerships with NASSCOM, India's trade body and chamber of commerce for the tech industry, T-Hub, a prominent innovation hub, and the Mann Deshi Foundation which supports India's first rural bank for women.

The malware payload “LightlessCan" — used in fake job scams — is far more challenging to detect than its predecessor, warns cybersecurity researchers at ESET.

San Francisco, USA, August 16th, 2023, ChainwireLinera reaches a total of $12M in seed funding. The new round of funding was led by Borderless Capital with contributions from a16z crypto, Laser Digital Ventures, Matrixport, Flow Traders, GSR Markets, and moreLinera, the first blockchain network scalable via microchains, has successfully closed an additional $6M round, led by Borderless Capital. Founded by Mathieu Baudet, former Meta researcher on the Novi digital payments wallet and a cryptographic protocols specialist, Linera's pioneering technology aims to bring web2 scalability to web3 applications by introducing an unlimited number of user chains powered by an elastically scalable network.Linera has now secured a total of $12M in seed funding, with the most recent $6 million follow-on investment round led by Borderless Capital. Notable participants include Laser Digital Ventures, DFG, Cadenza, Block1, Eterna Capital, MH Ventures, Matrixport, L2IV, ArkStream, Flow Traders, GSR Markets, and Open Web Collective (OWC), alongside continued support from a16z crypto, Tribe Capital, and Cygni Capital, who participated in the initial seed round.“Among new web3 architectures emerging like the move away from a single monolithic blockchain, Linera’s microchains are a completely new and necessary evolution. Further, Linera’s capacity for linear scaling is designed to support millions and conceivably billions of simultaneous transactions. And, while unprecedented, this kind of performance and reliability is essential for web3 to actually scale applications like payments, messaging, trading, AI, and more to billions of users around the world," said Alpen Sheth, Senior Partner at Borderless Capital. "Linera has made significant progress since we led their initial seed round last year, and we're excited to expand our support for the project. Mathieu and the Linera team have designed a truly innovative multi-chain architecture that unlocks a broader design space for developers and their end users. We can't wait to see how the ecosystem takes shape and the utilities it enables as Linera advances into the devnet and testnet phases," said Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto.Linera recently made its initial software development kit (SDK) available for testing, targeting Rust developers. Thanks to the new funding, Linera will be expanding the team, launching a devnet and a testnet for the protocol and fostering a strategic presence in the APAC region while continuing to grow their developer academy.From microchains to mass-scalable applicationsThe competition for blockspace in traditional Layer 1 blockchains, coupled with limited production rates and block sizes, creates a bottleneck during traffic peaks, leaving users outpriced or delayed, rendering the infrastructure effectively unavailable.“We’ve taken a step back to completely redesign a blockchain infrastructure that scales from the start,” said Mathieu Baudet, founder and CEO of Linera. “Linera’s unique multi-chain architecture ensures predictable performance, responsiveness, and robust security at Internet scale."Linera empowers developers to create high-speed web3 applications used by a large number of active users in parallel, revolutionizing decentralized infrastructure for a variety of use cases, including retail payments, gaming micro-payments, messaging, proprietary trading, and blockchain bridges.The Linera system scales by adding chains, not by increasing the size or the production rate of blocks. Its groundbreaking microchain model grants each individual user their own lightweight chains, which integrate into browser extensions or mobile devices for streamlined web3 app interactions within their wallets. During times of high demand, Linera's validators expand dynamically like elastic web services.Linera's innovative design is rooted in the expertise that Mathieu Baudet acquired at Meta while contributing to the Libra (now Diem) blockchain and co-authoring the academic paper "FastPay", which laid the foundations for the Linera protocol. Bernadette Cay, Linera's COO, brings extensive experience in launching products from Google and MoPub, the mobile ad exchange acquired by Twitter.About LineraLinera is the first low-latency blockchain designed to scale elastically like web2 applications. Founded by Mathieu Baudet, a former Meta Novi engineer and researcher, with a PhD in cryptographic protocols, Linera revolutionizes blockchain scalability by introducing microchains, removing mempools, and minimizing validator interactions. Linera optimizes performance for web3 applications used by a large number of active users in parallel, enabling unprecedented horizontal scalability for use cases such as retail payments, gaming micro-payments, messaging, proprietary trading, and blockchain bridges.Join us in creating the next generation of high-performance decentralized applications. Learn more at linera.ioAbout BorderlessBorderless is a leading investment management firm focused on Web3 technology, dedicated to supporting the next generation of innovators who are driving the development of groundbreaking technologies that will enable the creation of value without borders. Borderless comprises a team of builders, partners, and investors who adopt a long-term perspective and strive to unleash the full potential of open, community-driven networks. Since 2018, Borderless has made 200+ investments across infrastructure, business applications, and nascent cryptographic protocols, and has played an integral role in the development of some of the most significant and innovative Web3 communities.For more information, please visit their website at borderlesscapital.ioContactPR DirectorKarla VilhelemMarket [email protected]

San Francisco, USA, August 16th, 2023, ChainwireLinera reaches a total of $12M in seed funding. The new round of funding was led by Borderless Capital with contributions from a16z crypto, Laser Digital Ventures, Matrixport, Flow Traders, GSR Markets, and moreLinera, the first blockchain network scalable via microchains, has successfully closed an additional $6M round, led by Borderless Capital. Founded by Mathieu Baudet, former Meta researcher on the Novi digital payments wallet and a cryptographic protocols specialist, Linera's pioneering technology aims to bring web2 scalability to web3 applications by introducing an unlimited number of user chains powered by an elastically scalable network.Linera has now secured a total of $12M in seed funding, with the most recent $6 million follow-on investment round led by Borderless Capital. Notable participants include Laser Digital Ventures, DFG, Cadenza, Block1, Eterna Capital, MH Ventures, Matrixport, L2IV, ArkStream, Flow Traders, GSR Markets, and Open Web Collective (OWC), alongside continued support from a16z crypto, Tribe Capital, and Cygni Capital, who participated in the initial seed round.“Among new web3 architectures emerging like the move away from a single monolithic blockchain, Linera’s microchains are a completely new and necessary evolution. Further, Linera’s capacity for linear scaling is designed to support millions and conceivably billions of simultaneous transactions. And, while unprecedented, this kind of performance and reliability is essential for web3 to actually scale applications like payments, messaging, trading, AI, and more to billions of users around the world," said Alpen Sheth, Senior Partner at Borderless Capital. "Linera has made significant progress since we led their initial seed round last year, and we're excited to expand our support for the project. Mathieu and the Linera team have designed a truly innovative multi-chain architecture that unlocks a broader design space for developers and their end users. We can't wait to see how the ecosystem takes shape and the utilities it enables as Linera advances into the devnet and testnet phases," said Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto.Linera recently made its initial software development kit (SDK) available for testing, targeting Rust developers. Thanks to the new funding, Linera will be expanding the team, launching a devnet and a testnet for the protocol and fostering a strategic presence in the APAC region while continuing to grow their developer academy.From microchains to mass-scalable applicationsThe competition for blockspace in traditional Layer 1 blockchains, coupled with limited production rates and block sizes, creates a bottleneck during traffic peaks, leaving users outpriced or delayed, rendering the infrastructure effectively unavailable.“We’ve taken a step back to completely redesign a blockchain infrastructure that scales from the start,” said Mathieu Baudet, founder and CEO of Linera. “Linera’s unique multi-chain architecture ensures predictable performance, responsiveness, and robust security at Internet scale."Linera empowers developers to create high-speed web3 applications used by a large number of active users in parallel, revolutionizing decentralized infrastructure for a variety of use cases, including retail payments, gaming micro-payments, messaging, proprietary trading, and blockchain bridges.The Linera system scales by adding chains, not by increasing the size or the production rate of blocks. Its groundbreaking microchain model grants each individual user their own lightweight chains, which integrate into browser extensions or mobile devices for streamlined web3 app interactions within their wallets. During times of high demand, Linera's validators expand dynamically like elastic web services.Linera's innovative design is rooted in the expertise that Mathieu Baudet acquired at Meta while contributing to the Libra (now Diem) blockchain and co-authoring the academic paper "FastPay", which laid the foundations for the Linera protocol. Bernadette Cay, Linera's COO, brings extensive experience in launching products from Google and MoPub, the mobile ad exchange acquired by Twitter.About LineraLinera is the first low-latency blockchain designed to scale elastically like web2 applications. Founded by Mathieu Baudet, a former Meta Novi engineer and researcher, with a PhD in cryptographic protocols, Linera revolutionizes blockchain scalability by introducing microchains, removing mempools, and minimizing validator interactions. Linera optimizes performance for web3 applications used by a large number of active users in parallel, enabling unprecedented horizontal scalability for use cases such as retail payments, gaming micro-payments, messaging, proprietary trading, and blockchain bridges.Join us in creating the next generation of high-performance decentralized applications. Learn more at linera.ioAbout BorderlessBorderless is a leading investment management firm focused on Web3 technology, dedicated to supporting the next generation of innovators who are driving the development of groundbreaking technologies that will enable the creation of value without borders. Borderless comprises a team of builders, partners, and investors who adopt a long-term perspective and strive to unleash the full potential of open, community-driven networks. Since 2018, Borderless has made 200+ investments across infrastructure, business applications, and nascent cryptographic protocols, and has played an integral role in the development of some of the most significant and innovative Web3 communities.For more information, please visit their website at borderlesscapital.ioContactPR DirectorKarla VilhelemMarket [email protected]

As cybercrimes rise in the country, Canada challenges local developers to create a secure repository for seized cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Challenge for Creating a Digital Asset Repository Due to a reported rise in crypto-related illegal activities across the country, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) are pursuing a solution that can facilitate the seizure and storage of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on various blockchains, according to the statement of August 10, 2023. “The RCMP requires the ability to safely and securely store digital assets that have been seized and retained, until their eventual disposition at the conclusion of any legal proceedings. The development of a centralized repository solution would allow police officers to seize these assets in a user friendly manner, while also offering significant security to prevent the theft of said assets during their storage,” reads the statement. The authorities dare the Canadian innovative developers to come up with a safe digital asset repository that would help the police seize and safeguard stolen assets, in an effort to decrease cryptocurrency frauds. The RCMP outlines fourteen mandatory and three desirable features a proposed solution should have. The primary considerations require the repository to be able to accept and process transactions on the top 20 cryptocurrency networks by market capitalization, as well as onboard and support new blockchains in the future. Other demands on the list include a native Android application; secure processes to protect assets and dispose of them if needed; daily automated verification and notifications on asset transfers; clear instructions on seizing assets for officers; and more. The RCMP also listed three NFT blockchains that must be supported by the system at this stage – Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. Participants of the challenge can submit their idea until September 21, 2023. Up to four contracts for Phase 1 could result from the challenge. Then, only two eligible businesses will be invited to submit a proposal for Phase 2. Combatting Cryptocurrency-Related Crimes The main reason behind the development of the digital asset repository is the surge of crypto-related activities in Canada: “With the rise of new and innovative methods to store and transfer assets, Canadian Law enforcement needs a safe and secure method to identify and seize said assets. As cryptocurrency continues to gain popularity as a transaction method and store of value in the general population, it continues to be used as a payment method for criminal activities. With ransomware/malware attacks and online scams making up the majority of these transactions. This challenge aims to leverage the private sectors innovation to develop a system used by the police to seize and store the ill-gotten gains from these criminal activities.” It’s important to note that Canada is not the only country that experiences a rise in crimes linked to digital assets. For example, the FBI in the US has also recently reported numerous scams related to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, with one of the recent cases resulting in the loss of staggering $9million. Besides, other countries are also looking for effective ways to deal with crypto crimes. One of the latest examples is a multi-agency investigation unit established by South Korea. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

As cybercrimes rise in the country, Canada challenges local developers to create a secure repository for seized cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Challenge for Creating a Digital Asset Repository Due to a reported rise in crypto-related illegal activities across the country, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Shared Services Canada (SSC) are pursuing a solution that can facilitate the seizure and storage of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on various blockchains, according to the statement of August 10, 2023. “The RCMP requires the ability to safely and securely store digital assets that have been seized and retained, until their eventual disposition at the conclusion of any legal proceedings. The development of a centralized repository solution would allow police officers to seize these assets in a user friendly manner, while also offering significant security to prevent the theft of said assets during their storage,” reads the statement. The authorities dare the Canadian innovative developers to come up with a safe digital asset repository that would help the police seize and safeguard stolen assets, in an effort to decrease cryptocurrency frauds. The RCMP outlines fourteen mandatory and three desirable features a proposed solution should have. The primary considerations require the repository to be able to accept and process transactions on the top 20 cryptocurrency networks by market capitalization, as well as onboard and support new blockchains in the future. Other demands on the list include a native Android application; secure processes to protect assets and dispose of them if needed; daily automated verification and notifications on asset transfers; clear instructions on seizing assets for officers; and more. The RCMP also listed three NFT blockchains that must be supported by the system at this stage – Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. Participants of the challenge can submit their idea until September 21, 2023. Up to four contracts for Phase 1 could result from the challenge. Then, only two eligible businesses will be invited to submit a proposal for Phase 2. Combatting Cryptocurrency-Related Crimes The main reason behind the development of the digital asset repository is the surge of crypto-related activities in Canada: “With the rise of new and innovative methods to store and transfer assets, Canadian Law enforcement needs a safe and secure method to identify and seize said assets. As cryptocurrency continues to gain popularity as a transaction method and store of value in the general population, it continues to be used as a payment method for criminal activities. With ransomware/malware attacks and online scams making up the majority of these transactions. This challenge aims to leverage the private sectors innovation to develop a system used by the police to seize and store the ill-gotten gains from these criminal activities.” It’s important to note that Canada is not the only country that experiences a rise in crimes linked to digital assets. For example, the FBI in the US has also recently reported numerous scams related to cryptocurrencies and NFTs, with one of the recent cases resulting in the loss of staggering $9million. Besides, other countries are also looking for effective ways to deal with crypto crimes. One of the latest examples is a multi-agency investigation unit established by South Korea. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Palo Alto, California, USA, July 25th, 2023, ChainwireGEODNET’s growing Global Network of 3000+ web3 GNSS Base-stations is recognized by industry as a leading commercial solution for Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) applicationsThe GEODNET Foundation (GeoDAO PTE, LTD) announced the completion of a private $1.5M token sale at EthCC (The Ethereum Community Conference). The round was led by Borderless Capital’s EdgeFi Fund, the first web3 investment fund exclusively focused on Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN). The investment round includes additional participation from IoTeX, a web3 technology provider and blockchain for Internet of Things, as well as angel investors.Introduced at the Institute of Navigation 2021 GNSS+ Conference, the Global Earth Observation Decentralized Network, GEODNET, received the Institute of Navigation’s best presentation award and has rapidly grown since the official launch in early 2022.With over 3000 reference stations online in every major continent, the real-time GEODNET network is the world’s largest decentralized Geo-Spatial Reference Network.The GEODNET location service offers reliable centimeter location accuracy for applications such as drones, robotic vehicles, augmented reality, and IoT/mobile devices.GEODNET station data is actively being utilized by leaders in high-precision applications including Hemisphere GNSS, Quectel Wireless Solutions, and Rock Robotic.GEODNET station owners set up their own Satellite Miner and are rewarded with $GEOD, the project’s native Polygon token.“We led this investment because the GEODNET community is proving that thoughtfully deployed DePIN networks offer high-value, revenue-generating solutions to real-world problems”, said Álvaro Gracia, Partner at Borderless Capital.The GEODNET Foundation manages the open network protocol and promotes service usage within the traditional GNSS and IoT industry. GEODNET will utilize the investment proceeds to strengthen the project overall, and emphasize on growing the reliable Global Coverage, and introducing a Mobile operating-system Software Development Kit.“GEODNET’s unique combination of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and Blockchain is a game changer for numerous mobile applications.This investment will help pave the way to a broader developer ecosystem in both Enterprise and Consumer applications”, said Mike Horton, Project Creator of GEODNET.About GEODNETGEODNET is a decentralized network of high-precision multi-band GNSS base stations for AIoT, Geo-Scientific, and Metaverse applications.GEODNET stations #MineTheSky for real-time satellite data, and GEODNET is the basis of a new class of distributed cryptographic sensor networks powered by blockchain.https://geodnet.comAbout BorderlessBorderless is a leading investment manager specialized in Web3 technology. Our mission is to support the next wave of creators who are driving the development of innovative technologies that will enable borderless value creation. We are committed to empowering our founders to reach their maximum potential and create a positive change in the world.https://borderlesscapital.ioAbout IoTeXIoTeX is a modular Web3 platform connecting smart devices to blockchains for Web3 integration in real world applications. IoTeX is a leading technology provider of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN).IoTeX combines blockchain, middleware, and open hardware to connect billions of devices and dApps with privacy and trust.https://iotex.ioContactCEO/FounderMike [email protected]

Well-established crypto projects have become sluggish in terms of growth. Therefore, investors are looking for young projects, like Tradecurve, which are setting new records. Although Polygon (MATIC) and Chainlink (LINK) have worked on improving their ecosystem, their value has been in the red zone. Therefore, holders of MATIC and LINK have started to shed their tokens to add TCRV to their investment portfolio. >>Register For The Tradecurve Presale<< Polygon (MATIC) Joins Hands With De.Fi To protect its ecosystems from issues like smart contract vulnerabilities, phishing, blind signing, and others, Polygon (MATIC) has collaborated with De.Fi. Under this partnership, Polygon (MATIC) will integrate De.Fi&rsquo;s antivirus into its ecosystem. The antivirus will include tools like De.Fi Shield, which will scan smart contract approvals, and downloaded files in the Polygon (MATIC) ecosystem. It will also enable Polygon (MATIC) users to assess the security of non-fungible tokens, or staking vaults. The price of Polygon (MATIC) has responded positively to the news. Polygon (MATIC) has risen by more than 1% on the weekly price chart. Currently, Polygon (MATIC) is available to trade at $0.86. Coinbase Cloud Joins Chainlink (LINK) Chainlink&rsquo;s (LINK) ecosystem has been expanding, and Coinbase Cloud is a new player to join it. Chainlink (LINK) has been working on improving its network efficiency to attract more users. This is necessary as Chainlink (LINK) has been plummeting on the price charts for quite some time. The market value of Chainlink has dropped by 11% in the past month, and LINK is currently trading at $6.30. According to the recent announcement by Chainlink (LINK), Coinbase Cloud will become a node operator on its system. Under this collaboration, Coinbase Cloud will use its infrastructure to strengthen the security of Chainlink&rsquo;s (LINK) oracle network. Chainlink (LINK) has big names on its roster of node operators, including Associated Press, Deutsche Telekom, and Swisscom. Tradecurve Wins Market Trust With Its Growth Potential Currently, there are about 600 crypto exchanges, and the number of users is expected to increase from 420 million (2022) to more than 994 million by 2027. Thus, crypto exchanges can witness a surge in their adoption over the coming years. But one platform that is set to attract the most number of traders is the newly launched Tradecurve. Earlier, traders had to create multiple accounts on different platforms to trade derivatives. However, on Tradecurve, users can trade cryptocurrencies, indices, Forex, CFDs, Options, and other derivatives with a single account. Therefore, it is destined to become one of the top three global trading exchanges. Besides, existing trading exchanges, such as Binance and Bittrex have been caught up in intense legal scrutiny. Hence, traders are opting for Tradecurve for a safe and stable trading experience. TCRV will power the ecosystem, and its holders will get bonuses, discounts, and exclusive rewards. They can also earn rewards by staking their tokens to the platform&rsquo;s liquidity pool, which will be locked for two years. The platform is moving towards raising $20 million during the presale phase, which is significantly higher than the ICO of Binance. A TCRV token is currently available for $0.015, and is expected to soar by 50x during the presale. For more information about TCRV presale tokens: Click Here For Website Click Here To Buy TCRV Presale Tokens Follow Us Twitter Join Our Community on Telegram Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release and is for informational purposes only. It does not reflect the views of Crypto Daily, nor is it intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, or financial advice.

Telecoms giants Swisscom, Deutsche Telekom and news provider Associated Press are also Chainlink node operators.

A major highlight of the recent Baltic Honeybadger 2017 conference in Riga, Latvia was the final panel at the end of the second day of events, which consisted of a number of well-known developers in the Bitcoin ecosystem. During the panel discussion, the developers shared their thoughts on the current state of privacy in Bitcoin. Various participants on the panel pointed out the close relationship between privacy and scalability, the privacy issues with light wallets, and how the ecosystem is now on the cusp of a number of different privacy enhancements. Bitcoin Privacy Improves as the Technology Scales by Default The first panelist to comment on the topic of privacy in Bitcoin was applied cryptography consultant and sometimes Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd. For Todd, the main point he wanted to get across was that improved privacy is something that is inherently associated with better scalability of the system. &ldquo;The whole reason why Bitcoin has such terrible privacy is everyone has everyone else&rsquo;s transactions, and any scalability measure that makes Bitcoin scale better inevitably is going to make fewer people have fewer people&rsquo;s data,&rdquo; said Todd. Todd noted that people who use centralized off-chain services like Coinbase may have better privacy than those who are transacting on the public blockchain, depending on their threat model. For example, Coinbase knows everything that Coinbase users are doing, but North Korea knows nothing about these transactions because they&rsquo;re processed on Coinbase&rsquo;s internal servers. &ldquo;As we go scale this tech up, if we do so successfully, we will get improved privacy no matter what we do,&rdquo; added Todd, who pointed to the Lightning Network as a perfect example of this concept in practice. In terms of privacy-focused altcoins, such as Monero and Zcash, Todd claimed the scalability situation is actually worse. &ldquo;Zcash and Monero both essentially have accumulators that mean that nodes need more data to go and process transactions,&rdquo; explained Todd. &ldquo;There are tradeoffs around this . . . but a lot of this tech isn&rsquo;t there yet and it just makes things more complex.&rdquo; Better Privacy Needs to Be Balanced with Usability When SatoshiLabs CTO Pavol Rusnak commented on Bitcoin privacy, he brought up the issue of usability in terms of future privacy improvements. In his view, there is a triangle of tradeoffs between privacy, security, and usability that must be understood. As a specific example, Rusnak pointed to MimbleWimble, which is a proposal for a much more private and scalable blockchain. Rusnak noted that while the proposal may improve the privacy situation, it also degrades usability by removing the ability to view one&rsquo;s transaction history on the blockchain. &ldquo;The question is: If there is a coin that has security and privacy but it loses usability because of its transaction history, will people be interested in using it?&rdquo; asked Rusnak. &ldquo;I think yes. But it&rsquo;s still &mdash; we have a lot of people who are Trezor users and they really tend to look into their transaction history. They put labels everywhere.&rdquo; Rusnak went on to add that there is no &ldquo;silver bullet&rdquo; that can be applied to every use case out there. The Privacy Problem for SPV Wallets As the microphone was handed over to Libbitcoin lead maintainer Eric Voskuil, he brought up the issue of wallets based on simplified payment verification (SPV). &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to get client-server scenarios out of the P2P protocol,&rdquo; said Voskuil. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s creeping in a bad direction.&rdquo; In Voskuil&rsquo;s view, shortcuts have been taken in order to implement more user-friendly bitcoin wallets. Some of these shortcuts have created new problems, and Voskuil specifically pointed to the issue of bloom filters, which are used in SPV wallets. &ldquo;You can think of it as a DoS attack against nodes, it gives up privacy, there&rsquo;s just nothing good about it,&rdquo; said Voskuil. As Voskuil explained, those who use these bloom filters are giving some anonymous node on the network &mdash; which may actually be a node operated by a blockchain analytics company &mdash; an IP address to attach to a transaction. In Voskuil&rsquo;s view, it would be better to simply connect to a server via the Tor network and publish a transaction there. That way, no one would know where it came from. Ciphrex CEO and Bitcoin Core contributor Eric Lombrozo agreed with Voskuil&rsquo;s comments on bloom filters, and he indicated that the sync time associated with operating a full node is what pushes users to these less-secure, less-private wallets in the first place. &ldquo;Right now, verification is not that cheap, and that&rsquo;s a problem because then you basically end up outsourcing this to third parties, and that changes the entire security model of Bitcoin,&rdquo; said Lombrozo. Lombrozo went on to refer to bloom filters as &ldquo;a hack&rdquo; that was never really fleshed out or well designed at all. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have to download entire blocks, but you do give up tremendous amounts of privacy,&rdquo; Lombrozo added. In the past, Chaincode Labs&rsquo;s Matt Corallo, who was a co-author of the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) related to bloom filters, has said he regrets ever writing up the idea. Lombrozo also pointed to Lightning Network developers Olaoluwa Osuntokun and Alex Akselrod&rsquo;s proposal for client-side filtering in light clients, which would improve the privacy issues related to the use of SPV. &ldquo;It gives you better privacy,&rdquo; explained Lombrozo. &ldquo;You can actually download a filter associated with a block and on your node you can actually check whether that block might contain transactions you&rsquo;re interested in before you download the entire block.&rdquo; Lombrozo also brought up BIP 151, which was authored by Bitcoin Core contributor Jonas Schnelli. The point of this proposal is to encrypt the data being sent over the P2P protocol, which could offer an obvious privacy improvement for light clients in terms of making their network communications less public. Blockstream CEO Adam Back also agreed with the idea that bloom filters are not very good for user privacy. However, Back also clarified that most of the light wallets available today, even the ones on smartphones, are not pure SPV wallets. Instead, the user usually connects to a server provided by the wallet developer or points the wallet at the user&rsquo;s own full node running at home (or some combination of the two). For this reason, Back wondered whether there is much of a need for SPV wallets in Bitcoin. &ldquo;If you already have two crosschecks &mdash; a semi-trusted node and an option of your own node &mdash; then do we really need the SPV protocol?&rdquo; asked Back. &ldquo;Because you&rsquo;re allowing yourself to be surrounded by people who are trying to spy on your privacy &mdash; the people doing the kind of Chainanalysis kinds of things are running lots of crawlers on the network and being SPV providers to many wallets.&rdquo; On the Cusp of Improvements in Bitcoin Privacy The most privacy-focused individual on the panel may have been JoinMarket developer Adam Gibson. JoinMarket is the most widely-used implementation of CoinJoin, which is a way for users to mix their bitcoins with each other and obscure their transaction history. Gibson continued Todd&rsquo;s point on the relationship between privacy and scalability by specifically talking about Blockstream Mathematician Andrew Poelstra&rsquo;s concept of scriptless scripts. &ldquo;The way I&rsquo;d put it is it&rsquo;s like taking the semantics of the transaction off chain, so you may still have a transaction but the meaning of it is obscured [and] it becomes a lot more private,&rdquo; explained Gibson. &ldquo;For example, you might do a coin swap where you and I swap the history of our coins, but we do it in such a way that it just looks like a totally ordinary transaction. In fact, it&rsquo;s impossible to distinguish from an ordinary transaction.&rdquo; According to Gibson, there are many other examples of ways in which data can be taken off of the base Bitcoin blockchain layer to improve privacy. Like Todd, Gibson pointed to the Lightning Network as another obvious example. Gibson also pointed out that he&rsquo;s now more excited by the concept of Confidential Transactions due to a recent paper that describes a way to massively improve the efficiency of these types of transactions, which are meant to mask the amounts associated with transactions. The JoinMarket developer went on to describe a world where Confidential Transactions are combined with CoinJoin to mask the most important attributes of Bitcoin transactions. In fact, Gibson indicated that this sort of combination can be done in a manner that makes privacy-conscious transactions cheaper than traditional Bitcoin transactions. Gibson also pointed to Schnorr signatures and MAST as two other upcoming improvements that could have implications for user privacy, but he also indicated that there is not much users can do to improve their own privacy today &mdash; outside of using JoinMarket or practicing good Bitcoin privacy hygiene such as avoiding address reuse. This is all in addition to the previous privacy improvements for light clients described by Lombrozo. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of very close things at this point, which makes me a bit more positive than I might have been before,&rdquo; concluded Gibson.

A major highlight of the recent Baltic Honeybadger 2017 conference in Riga, Latvia was the final panel at the end of the second day of events, which consisted of a number of well-known developers in the Bitcoin ecosystem. During the panel discussion, the developers shared their thoughts on the current state of privacy in Bitcoin. Various participants on the panel pointed out the close relationship between privacy and scalability, the privacy issues with light wallets, and how the ecosystem is now on the cusp of a number of different privacy enhancements. Bitcoin Privacy Improves as the Technology Scales by Default The first panelist to comment on the topic of privacy in Bitcoin was applied cryptography consultant and sometimes Bitcoin Core contributor Peter Todd. For Todd, the main point he wanted to get across was that improved privacy is something that is inherently associated with better scalability of the system. &ldquo;The whole reason why Bitcoin has such terrible privacy is everyone has everyone else&rsquo;s transactions, and any scalability measure that makes Bitcoin scale better inevitably is going to make fewer people have fewer people&rsquo;s data,&rdquo; said Todd. Todd noted that people who use centralized off-chain services like Coinbase may have better privacy than those who are transacting on the public blockchain, depending on their threat model. For example, Coinbase knows everything that Coinbase users are doing, but North Korea knows nothing about these transactions because they&rsquo;re processed on Coinbase&rsquo;s internal servers. &ldquo;As we go scale this tech up, if we do so successfully, we will get improved privacy no matter what we do,&rdquo; added Todd, who pointed to the Lightning Network as a perfect example of this concept in practice. In terms of privacy-focused altcoins, such as Monero and Zcash, Todd claimed the scalability situation is actually worse. &ldquo;Zcash and Monero both essentially have accumulators that mean that nodes need more data to go and process transactions,&rdquo; explained Todd. &ldquo;There are tradeoffs around this . . . but a lot of this tech isn&rsquo;t there yet and it just makes things more complex.&rdquo; Better Privacy Needs to Be Balanced with Usability When SatoshiLabs CTO Pavol Rusnak commented on Bitcoin privacy, he brought up the issue of usability in terms of future privacy improvements. In his view, there is a triangle of tradeoffs between privacy, security, and usability that must be understood. As a specific example, Rusnak pointed to MimbleWimble, which is a proposal for a much more private and scalable blockchain. Rusnak noted that while the proposal may improve the privacy situation, it also degrades usability by removing the ability to view one&rsquo;s transaction history on the blockchain. &ldquo;The question is: If there is a coin that has security and privacy but it loses usability because of its transaction history, will people be interested in using it?&rdquo; asked Rusnak. &ldquo;I think yes. But it&rsquo;s still &mdash; we have a lot of people who are Trezor users and they really tend to look into their transaction history. They put labels everywhere.&rdquo; Rusnak went on to add that there is no &ldquo;silver bullet&rdquo; that can be applied to every use case out there. The Privacy Problem for SPV Wallets As the microphone was handed over to Libbitcoin lead maintainer Eric Voskuil, he brought up the issue of wallets based on simplified payment verification (SPV). &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to get client-server scenarios out of the P2P protocol,&rdquo; said Voskuil. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s creeping in a bad direction.&rdquo; In Voskuil&rsquo;s view, shortcuts have been taken in order to implement more user-friendly bitcoin wallets. Some of these shortcuts have created new problems, and Voskuil specifically pointed to the issue of bloom filters, which are used in SPV wallets. &ldquo;You can think of it as a DoS attack against nodes, it gives up privacy, there&rsquo;s just nothing good about it,&rdquo; said Voskuil. As Voskuil explained, those who use these bloom filters are giving some anonymous node on the network &mdash; which may actually be a node operated by a blockchain analytics company &mdash; an IP address to attach to a transaction. In Voskuil&rsquo;s view, it would be better to simply connect to a server via the Tor network and publish a transaction there. That way, no one would know where it came from. Ciphrex CEO and Bitcoin Core contributor Eric Lombrozo agreed with Voskuil&rsquo;s comments on bloom filters, and he indicated that the sync time associated with operating a full node is what pushes users to these less-secure, less-private wallets in the first place. &ldquo;Right now, verification is not that cheap, and that&rsquo;s a problem because then you basically end up outsourcing this to third parties, and that changes the entire security model of Bitcoin,&rdquo; said Lombrozo. Lombrozo went on to refer to bloom filters as &ldquo;a hack&rdquo; that was never really fleshed out or well designed at all. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t have to download entire blocks, but you do give up tremendous amounts of privacy,&rdquo; Lombrozo added. In the past, Chaincode Labs&rsquo;s Matt Corallo, who was a co-author of the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) related to bloom filters, has said he regrets ever writing up the idea. Lombrozo also pointed to Lightning Network developers Olaoluwa Osuntokun and Alex Akselrod&rsquo;s proposal for client-side filtering in light clients, which would improve the privacy issues related to the use of SPV. &ldquo;It gives you better privacy,&rdquo; explained Lombrozo. &ldquo;You can actually download a filter associated with a block and on your node you can actually check whether that block might contain transactions you&rsquo;re interested in before you download the entire block.&rdquo; Lombrozo also brought up BIP 151, which was authored by Bitcoin Core contributor Jonas Schnelli. The point of this proposal is to encrypt the data being sent over the P2P protocol, which could offer an obvious privacy improvement for light clients in terms of making their network communications less public. Blockstream CEO Adam Back also agreed with the idea that bloom filters are not very good for user privacy. However, Back also clarified that most of the light wallets available today, even the ones on smartphones, are not pure SPV wallets. Instead, the user usually connects to a server provided by the wallet developer or points the wallet at the user&rsquo;s own full node running at home (or some combination of the two). For this reason, Back wondered whether there is much of a need for SPV wallets in Bitcoin. &ldquo;If you already have two crosschecks &mdash; a semi-trusted node and an option of your own node &mdash; then do we really need the SPV protocol?&rdquo; asked Back. &ldquo;Because you&rsquo;re allowing yourself to be surrounded by people who are trying to spy on your privacy &mdash; the people doing the kind of Chainanalysis kinds of things are running lots of crawlers on the network and being SPV providers to many wallets.&rdquo; On the Cusp of Improvements in Bitcoin Privacy The most privacy-focused individual on the panel may have been JoinMarket developer Adam Gibson. JoinMarket is the most widely-used implementation of CoinJoin, which is a way for users to mix their bitcoins with each other and obscure their transaction history. Gibson continued Todd&rsquo;s point on the relationship between privacy and scalability by specifically talking about Blockstream Mathematician Andrew Poelstra&rsquo;s concept of scriptless scripts. &ldquo;The way I&rsquo;d put it is it&rsquo;s like taking the semantics of the transaction off chain, so you may still have a transaction but the meaning of it is obscured [and] it becomes a lot more private,&rdquo; explained Gibson. &ldquo;For example, you might do a coin swap where you and I swap the history of our coins, but we do it in such a way that it just looks like a totally ordinary transaction. In fact, it&rsquo;s impossible to distinguish from an ordinary transaction.&rdquo; According to Gibson, there are many other examples of ways in which data can be taken off of the base Bitcoin blockchain layer to improve privacy. Like Todd, Gibson pointed to the Lightning Network as another obvious example. Gibson also pointed out that he&rsquo;s now more excited by the concept of Confidential Transactions due to a recent paper that describes a way to massively improve the efficiency of these types of transactions, which are meant to mask the amounts associated with transactions. The JoinMarket developer went on to describe a world where Confidential Transactions are combined with CoinJoin to mask the most important attributes of Bitcoin transactions. In fact, Gibson indicated that this sort of combination can be done in a manner that makes privacy-conscious transactions cheaper than traditional Bitcoin transactions. Gibson also pointed to Schnorr signatures and MAST as two other upcoming improvements that could have implications for user privacy, but he also indicated that there is not much users can do to improve their own privacy today &mdash; outside of using JoinMarket or practicing good Bitcoin privacy hygiene such as avoiding address reuse. This is all in addition to the previous privacy improvements for light clients described by Lombrozo. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot of very close things at this point, which makes me a bit more positive than I might have been before,&rdquo; concluded Gibson.

Now that you understand the basics of Bitcoin, the next logical step is to actually get some. But how? This brief guide will teach you all you need to know. At present, Bitcoins are either bought directly from other people through marketplaces, or purchased at a Bitcoin exchange. They can be paid for in a number of ways, from cold, hard cash, to debit and credit cards, to a wire money transfer, and even using other cryptocurrencies. It largely depends on where you live and from whom you&rsquo;re buying your Bitcoins. How can I buy Bitcoins? Despite the popularity of Bitcoin as the world&rsquo;s leading cryptocurrency, and the serious discussion of it at many financial centres around the globe, it remains surprisingly difficult to use PayPal or your credit card to purchase Bitcoins, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live. Of course, the reason has less to do with Bitcoin, and more to do with the transaction methods themselves. These sorts of purchases can be easily reversed with nothing more than a telephone call to the card company, or by raising a report with PayPal. When you&rsquo;re talking about the transfer of Bitcoins, it is difficult to prove that any goods have actually changed hands. This is the reason most private sellers, and almost all Bitcoin exchanges, do not accept credit cards or PayPal for such transfers. That said, the options have recently grown for consumers in certain countries. Where do I keep my Bitcoins? Before you think about buying Bitcoins, you&rsquo;re going to need to get a Bitcoin wallet. Though &lsquo;wallet&rsquo; is the accepted terminology, you&rsquo;re better off thinking of it as a sort of bank account, specifically for your Bitcoins. As with any such set-up, there are different wallets you can choose from depending on the level of security you require for your funds, with some of the higher-specification wallets attracting a higher fee to initialise and run. Some wallets act like a regular spending or current account, and can be reasonably compared to a regular leather wallet. Other accounts include the sort of encryption and security that would not seem out of place in a major financial centre, or even in the military. There are four main types of Bitcoin wallet: &bull; A software wallet, which remains stored on your computer&rsquo;s hard drive &bull; A web-based, online wallet &bull; A vault wallet, which protects your Bitcoins by keeping the wallet offline &bull; A multisig (that is, a multiple-signature) wallet, which requires the use of a number of keys in order to protect the account. It is important to note that none of these options is entirely invulnerable to hacking or other forms of online theft, and each has its own downsides as far as security is concerned. How can I buy Bitcoins with a credit or debit card? If you&rsquo;re based in the United Kingdom, there are three main providers who offer the opportunity to make a Bitcoin purchase with your credit or debit card &ndash; Coinbase, CoinCorner and Bittylicious. All three accept 3D secure-enabled debit and credit cards, so long as they are on the MasterCard or Visa networks. How can I buy Bitcoins with cash? This is where face-to-face (FTF) or over-the-counter (OTC) transactions come into play. The easiest way to acquire Bitcoins, provided you live somewhere that allows you do so, is to make a FTF trade with a local Bitcoin seller. It allows you to avoid any potential hassle with the banks and offers a certain amount of anonymity to you as a buyer. It should be stated up-front that you will still need a Bitcoin wallet, and that you should be very wary of a local seller who advises otherwise, or who says that they will set one up for you. Just as you would not trust another person with your bank account details, nor trust them to set one up in your name, you should make sure that the only person with the details of your Bitcoin wallet is you. There are online services, such as LocalBitcoins, where you can arrange your transaction and agree a price before meeting up with the seller. The purpose of this is to ensure that a cost of the trade can be set prior to making the payment. LocalBitcoins also operates an escrow facility (in which the funds are deposited with them to be paid out to the seller, and vice versa &ndash; the site essentially acting as a middleman for the trade). This adds a further layer of protection to the trade. Face-to-face is a slight misnomer. It is entirely possible never to meet the seller. If an amount is agreed, you can make a cash transfer from your account into theirs, or you can go to their local bank and make a cash deposit into theirs, and then provide them with a receipt. Once they have this, the seller should deposit the Bitcoins with you, for storage in your Bitcoin wallet. However, genuine face-to-face trades, where you meet the individual concerned, can and do take place, every day. As with any cash transaction involving a person you don&rsquo;t know, you should have consideration of your own personal security, particularly if you are looking to trade a sizeable amount. First of all, you should always arrange to meet in a busy public place. The flip-side of this, but worth repeating, is that you should never arrange to meet in a private home, no matter how good a deal you&rsquo;re getting. If the seller tries to give you some reason as to why this has to happen (that his Bitcoin wallet security is set-up in a way that it has to be operated from his home machine, for instance), then politely walk away and find another seller. The potential gains for your Bitcoin portfolio are not worth the attendant risks. In short, you should take all the precautions you would normally expect to take when walking around with a large amount of cash. Now, it&rsquo;s possible that the seller will not need an actual cash transaction. An online bank transfer might be entirely acceptable to them, but they want you do do it there and then, so they can see the money going over, before they reciprocate with sending you the Bitcoins. Some sellers might even allow you to make a payment via your PayPal account, though most would be understandably reluctant to do so, preferring a non-reversible method of payment, for all the reasons mentioned earlier in this piece. If you hope to pay by PayPal, ensure that you confirm that this is OK with the seller before meeting up, to avoid embarrassment and wasting one another&rsquo;s time. Depending on the person you are trading with, they might impose a premium of between 5% and 10% on top of the current Bitcoin exchange price, to allow for the convenience and privacy of a face-to-face trade (and to compensate for their time in meeting you to conduct the transfer). Any reputable trader should be willing to set the price before you meet, but many will institute a window of opportunity for whatever deal you strike, not wanting to wait for too long, just in case the value of Bitcoin takes a sudden and dramatic shift. It should go without saying that, if you're meeting someone for a face-to-face Bitcoin sale, you will need some way of accessing your Bitcoin wallet. If this involves bringing along your tablet, smartphone, or laptop, then so be it, but don&rsquo;t forget the other essential component: a live and active internet connection to be able to confirm the transfer. A word of caution When considering a face-to-face purchase of Bitcoins, you would be well-advised to check that such a trade is legal in your area, before agreeing to meet. There is little reason why it shouldn&rsquo;t be but, since the laws for such transactions differ from one jurisdiction to the next, it is best to be sure ahead of time. Also, there is a risk you might excite the interest of local law enforcement if you&rsquo;re exchanging large sums of cash with another person in a public place. While unlikely, and easily explained, there is always the chance that a passing police officer might suspect you of trading in something a bit more illicit that cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Meet-ups Of course, one-to-one trades might not be your cup of tea, and that&rsquo;s understandable. A popular form of direct trading in Bitcoins is the meet-up group. You can use a website like meetup.com and see if there is such a thing in your local area. The principle is the same as a face-to-face exchange, but in a group setting that allows for a greater feeling of safety among the individual attendees, and also allows you to learn more about the Bitcoin market from other members of the group. Bitcoin ATMs This is a relatively new concept, but Bitcoin ATMs are increasing in both number and availability across the UK. Several vendors have either released, or are experimenting with these machines: BitAccess, Genesis Coin, CoinOutlet, Robocoin and Lamassu to name but a few. The principle is simple &ndash; a Bitcoin ATM serves the same function as a face-to-face transaction, only with a machine instead of another human being. You insert your cash into the ATM and then (depending on the vendor) you either receive a paper receipt containing the relevant codes you&rsquo;ll need to load your new Bitcoins into your wallet, or you receive a QR code that you will be able to scan with your mobile phone. The rate of exchange has been seen to vary wildly with these machines, and many of them add a fee for the convenience of the service, which can be as high as 8% of the transaction cost. Other ways to purchase Bitcoins Consumers in the States who are classed as underbanked (that is, they don&rsquo;t have sufficient access to the sorts of mainstream products and financial services usually offered by retail banks), can use expresscoin, who have recently emerged to cater to this very market, accepting wire transfers, personal cheques, and money orders to pay for Bitcoins. No such service exists in the UK at this moment in time. What countries can I buy Bitcoins from? Bitcoin is expanding rapidly into many different markets, and it is not only possible, but expected, that a Bitcoin trader will want to buy in one market and sell in another, as the different exchanges offer different rates. With third-party organisations like CoinBase available to assist the transactions, buying Bitcoins from a different country is now easier than ever. While the spread of Bitcoin is hardly universal at this stage, every major financial centre currently operates at least one Bitcoin exchange, and analysts predict that this growth will continue into developing markets. At present, the following countries all have a trade in Bitcoins: Asia: Singapore Australasia: Australia Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom North America: Canada, United States of America As with any international financial transaction, it is important to make yourself aware of the various laws and conditions that might impact on your transfer, be it your payment to the seller, or your receipt of Bitcoins from them. If in doubt, it may be worth your time speaking to, or hiring, a dedicated Bitcoin broker to make the exchange on your behalf, for a fee. In conclusion Buying Bitcoins is certainly not as easy as many newcomers suspect, although the ways and means by which to do so are increasing and developing all the time. As Bitcoin continues to make its presence felt in the global marketplace, the process of making Bitcoin transactions will become ever more simple, as a way of enticing developing markets, new investors, and new consumers to the currency.

Now that you understand the basics of Bitcoin, the next logical step is to actually get some. But how? This brief guide will teach you all you need to know. At present, Bitcoins are either bought directly from other people through marketplaces, or purchased at a Bitcoin exchange. They can be paid for in a number of ways, from cold, hard cash, to debit and credit cards, to a wire money transfer, and even using other cryptocurrencies. It largely depends on where you live and from whom you&rsquo;re buying your Bitcoins. How can I buy Bitcoins? Despite the popularity of Bitcoin as the world&rsquo;s leading cryptocurrency, and the serious discussion of it at many financial centres around the globe, it remains surprisingly difficult to use PayPal or your credit card to purchase Bitcoins, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live. Of course, the reason has less to do with Bitcoin, and more to do with the transaction methods themselves. These sorts of purchases can be easily reversed with nothing more than a telephone call to the card company, or by raising a report with PayPal. When you&rsquo;re talking about the transfer of Bitcoins, it is difficult to prove that any goods have actually changed hands. This is the reason most private sellers, and almost all Bitcoin exchanges, do not accept credit cards or PayPal for such transfers. That said, the options have recently grown for consumers in certain countries. Where do I keep my Bitcoins? Before you think about buying Bitcoins, you&rsquo;re going to need to get a Bitcoin wallet. Though &lsquo;wallet&rsquo; is the accepted terminology, you&rsquo;re better off thinking of it as a sort of bank account, specifically for your Bitcoins. As with any such set-up, there are different wallets you can choose from depending on the level of security you require for your funds, with some of the higher-specification wallets attracting a higher fee to initialise and run. Some wallets act like a regular spending or current account, and can be reasonably compared to a regular leather wallet. Other accounts include the sort of encryption and security that would not seem out of place in a major financial centre, or even in the military. There are four main types of Bitcoin wallet: &bull; A software wallet, which remains stored on your computer&rsquo;s hard drive &bull; A web-based, online wallet &bull; A vault wallet, which protects your Bitcoins by keeping the wallet offline &bull; A multisig (that is, a multiple-signature) wallet, which requires the use of a number of keys in order to protect the account. It is important to note that none of these options is entirely invulnerable to hacking or other forms of online theft, and each has its own downsides as far as security is concerned. How can I buy Bitcoins with a credit or debit card? If you&rsquo;re based in the United Kingdom, there are three main providers who offer the opportunity to make a Bitcoin purchase with your credit or debit card &ndash; Coinbase, CoinCorner and Bittylicious. All three accept 3D secure-enabled debit and credit cards, so long as they are on the MasterCard or Visa networks. How can I buy Bitcoins with cash? This is where face-to-face (FTF) or over-the-counter (OTC) transactions come into play. The easiest way to acquire Bitcoins, provided you live somewhere that allows you do so, is to make a FTF trade with a local Bitcoin seller. It allows you to avoid any potential hassle with the banks and offers a certain amount of anonymity to you as a buyer. It should be stated up-front that you will still need a Bitcoin wallet, and that you should be very wary of a local seller who advises otherwise, or who says that they will set one up for you. Just as you would not trust another person with your bank account details, nor trust them to set one up in your name, you should make sure that the only person with the details of your Bitcoin wallet is you. There are online services, such as LocalBitcoins, where you can arrange your transaction and agree a price before meeting up with the seller. The purpose of this is to ensure that a cost of the trade can be set prior to making the payment. LocalBitcoins also operates an escrow facility (in which the funds are deposited with them to be paid out to the seller, and vice versa &ndash; the site essentially acting as a middleman for the trade). This adds a further layer of protection to the trade. Face-to-face is a slight misnomer. It is entirely possible never to meet the seller. If an amount is agreed, you can make a cash transfer from your account into theirs, or you can go to their local bank and make a cash deposit into theirs, and then provide them with a receipt. Once they have this, the seller should deposit the Bitcoins with you, for storage in your Bitcoin wallet. However, genuine face-to-face trades, where you meet the individual concerned, can and do take place, every day. As with any cash transaction involving a person you don&rsquo;t know, you should have consideration of your own personal security, particularly if you are looking to trade a sizeable amount. First of all, you should always arrange to meet in a busy public place. The flip-side of this, but worth repeating, is that you should never arrange to meet in a private home, no matter how good a deal you&rsquo;re getting. If the seller tries to give you some reason as to why this has to happen (that his Bitcoin wallet security is set-up in a way that it has to be operated from his home machine, for instance), then politely walk away and find another seller. The potential gains for your Bitcoin portfolio are not worth the attendant risks. In short, you should take all the precautions you would normally expect to take when walking around with a large amount of cash. Now, it&rsquo;s possible that the seller will not need an actual cash transaction. An online bank transfer might be entirely acceptable to them, but they want you do do it there and then, so they can see the money going over, before they reciprocate with sending you the Bitcoins. Some sellers might even allow you to make a payment via your PayPal account, though most would be understandably reluctant to do so, preferring a non-reversible method of payment, for all the reasons mentioned earlier in this piece. If you hope to pay by PayPal, ensure that you confirm that this is OK with the seller before meeting up, to avoid embarrassment and wasting one another&rsquo;s time. Depending on the person you are trading with, they might impose a premium of between 5% and 10% on top of the current Bitcoin exchange price, to allow for the convenience and privacy of a face-to-face trade (and to compensate for their time in meeting you to conduct the transfer). Any reputable trader should be willing to set the price before you meet, but many will institute a window of opportunity for whatever deal you strike, not wanting to wait for too long, just in case the value of Bitcoin takes a sudden and dramatic shift. It should go without saying that, if you're meeting someone for a face-to-face Bitcoin sale, you will need some way of accessing your Bitcoin wallet. If this involves bringing along your tablet, smartphone, or laptop, then so be it, but don&rsquo;t forget the other essential component: a live and active internet connection to be able to confirm the transfer. A word of caution When considering a face-to-face purchase of Bitcoins, you would be well-advised to check that such a trade is legal in your area, before agreeing to meet. There is little reason why it shouldn&rsquo;t be but, since the laws for such transactions differ from one jurisdiction to the next, it is best to be sure ahead of time. Also, there is a risk you might excite the interest of local law enforcement if you&rsquo;re exchanging large sums of cash with another person in a public place. While unlikely, and easily explained, there is always the chance that a passing police officer might suspect you of trading in something a bit more illicit that cryptocurrency. Bitcoin Meet-ups Of course, one-to-one trades might not be your cup of tea, and that&rsquo;s understandable. A popular form of direct trading in Bitcoins is the meet-up group. You can use a website like meetup.com and see if there is such a thing in your local area. The principle is the same as a face-to-face exchange, but in a group setting that allows for a greater feeling of safety among the individual attendees, and also allows you to learn more about the Bitcoin market from other members of the group. Bitcoin ATMs This is a relatively new concept, but Bitcoin ATMs are increasing in both number and availability across the UK. Several vendors have either released, or are experimenting with these machines: BitAccess, Genesis Coin, CoinOutlet, Robocoin and Lamassu to name but a few. The principle is simple &ndash; a Bitcoin ATM serves the same function as a face-to-face transaction, only with a machine instead of another human being. You insert your cash into the ATM and then (depending on the vendor) you either receive a paper receipt containing the relevant codes you&rsquo;ll need to load your new Bitcoins into your wallet, or you receive a QR code that you will be able to scan with your mobile phone. The rate of exchange has been seen to vary wildly with these machines, and many of them add a fee for the convenience of the service, which can be as high as 8% of the transaction cost. Other ways to purchase Bitcoins Consumers in the States who are classed as underbanked (that is, they don&rsquo;t have sufficient access to the sorts of mainstream products and financial services usually offered by retail banks), can use expresscoin, who have recently emerged to cater to this very market, accepting wire transfers, personal cheques, and money orders to pay for Bitcoins. No such service exists in the UK at this moment in time. What countries can I buy Bitcoins from? Bitcoin is expanding rapidly into many different markets, and it is not only possible, but expected, that a Bitcoin trader will want to buy in one market and sell in another, as the different exchanges offer different rates. With third-party organisations like CoinBase available to assist the transactions, buying Bitcoins from a different country is now easier than ever. While the spread of Bitcoin is hardly universal at this stage, every major financial centre currently operates at least one Bitcoin exchange, and analysts predict that this growth will continue into developing markets. At present, the following countries all have a trade in Bitcoins: Asia: Singapore Australasia: Australia Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom North America: Canada, United States of America As with any international financial transaction, it is important to make yourself aware of the various laws and conditions that might impact on your transfer, be it your payment to the seller, or your receipt of Bitcoins from them. If in doubt, it may be worth your time speaking to, or hiring, a dedicated Bitcoin broker to make the exchange on your behalf, for a fee. In conclusion Buying Bitcoins is certainly not as easy as many newcomers suspect, although the ways and means by which to do so are increasing and developing all the time. As Bitcoin continues to make its presence felt in the global marketplace, the process of making Bitcoin transactions will become ever more simple, as a way of enticing developing markets, new investors, and new consumers to the currency.