Syndicate(SYNX)

DEGEN, the memecoin associated with the Base ecosystem, has experienced a notable uptick, gaining 11% in the past 24 hours after enduring a price drop of over 15% in the preceding week. This surge coincides with the announcement of the “Deploy on Degen Week” initiative, spearheaded by Degen and Syndicate. […]

Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen $225 million worth of stolen USDT following a collaboration with the United States Department of Justice and crypto exchange OKX. The USDT was linked to a human trafficking syndicate operating in Southeast Asia and was frozen following an investigation by the Department of Justice.

The stablecoin issuer reported the illicit funds had been used by a Southeast Asia-based crime syndicate responsible for a “pig butchering” romance scam.

Stablecoin issuer Tether has frozen $225 million worth of its stablecoin following an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into an international human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia.

AFP uncovered Long River syndicate, laundering $229 million through 12 establishments in Australia. 7 arrests were made in Melbourne.

Despite the report pegging the holdings of Lazarus Group at $47 million, pundits say the North Korean hacking syndicate holds assets running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

From solving Mt. Gox to tracing crypto used by child abuse syndicates in Korea, Chainalysis has a long but sometimes controversial history.

Crypto media outlet CoinDesk has cut its editorial staff by 45% as its parent company DCG prepares to introduce strategic investors. Rumours that DCG is negotiating a sale of its crypto media outlet CoinDesk have been circulating for a while. Reports by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claim that the crypto conglomerate was reportedly finalizing a $125 million deal to sell a portion of the company. DCG would reportedly retain a stake in the company. CoinDesk Announced Staff Cuts Reports by crypto news outlet The Block claim that CoinDesk let go of 45% of its editorial staff as its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), prepares for a partial sale of the company. DCG purchased CoinDesk in 2016 for $500,000. The company was established in 2013. In an internal memo viewed by The Block, the firm was soon to have an “all-hands” meeting to discuss the layoffs. In an email, Kevin Worth, CoinDesk CEO, told staff: “The purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone that today several roles, predominantly in our media team, were impacted by a reduction in force.” Adding, “This is an incredibly difficult message to send to everyone over email and yet I also wanted everyone at CoinDesk to know as soon as possible what is happening today. This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk Inc.” According to The Block’s report, which cites someone familiar with the matter, CoinDesk would let go of 45% of its editorial team or 20 people. DCG Will Retain a Stake in CoinDesk CoinDesk recently appointed financial advisers to “help bring on new institutional and strategic investors” alongside its parent company. DCG has faced severe pressure from crypto exchange Gemini over a dispute involving the “Earn” program. In July, Gemini announced that it had filed a lawsuit against DCG. The reports from the WSJ indicated CoinDesk was in the final stages of a partial sale of the company to a crypto syndicate led by crypto investor Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital. As part of the $125 million deal, DCG would retain a share of CoinDesk. 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.

Crypto media outlet CoinDesk has cut its editorial staff by 45% as its parent company DCG prepares to introduce strategic investors. Rumours that DCG is negotiating a sale of its crypto media outlet CoinDesk have been circulating for a while. Reports by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claim that the crypto conglomerate was reportedly finalizing a $125 million deal to sell a portion of the company. DCG would reportedly retain a stake in the company. CoinDesk Announced Staff Cuts Reports by crypto news outlet The Block claim that CoinDesk let go of 45% of its editorial staff as its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), prepares for a partial sale of the company. DCG purchased CoinDesk in 2016 for $500,000. The company was established in 2013. In an internal memo viewed by The Block, the firm was soon to have an “all-hands” meeting to discuss the layoffs. In an email, Kevin Worth, CoinDesk CEO, told staff: “The purpose of the meeting is to inform everyone that today several roles, predominantly in our media team, were impacted by a reduction in force.” Adding, “This is an incredibly difficult message to send to everyone over email and yet I also wanted everyone at CoinDesk to know as soon as possible what is happening today. This was a required step to ensure a financially sound business moving forward and to set us on the path to close the deal to sell CoinDesk Inc.” According to The Block’s report, which cites someone familiar with the matter, CoinDesk would let go of 45% of its editorial team or 20 people. DCG Will Retain a Stake in CoinDesk CoinDesk recently appointed financial advisers to “help bring on new institutional and strategic investors” alongside its parent company. DCG has faced severe pressure from crypto exchange Gemini over a dispute involving the “Earn” program. In July, Gemini announced that it had filed a lawsuit against DCG. The reports from the WSJ indicated CoinDesk was in the final stages of a partial sale of the company to a crypto syndicate led by crypto investor Matthew Roszak of Tally Capital. As part of the $125 million deal, DCG would retain a share of CoinDesk. 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.

Eden Island, Republic of Seychelles, June 27th, 2023, ChainwireA new PEPE memecoin is launching, following hot on the heels of its Ethereum namesake. Issued as a BEP20 on BNB Chain, PEPE is a novel memecoin with a number of unique mechanisms programmed into its tokenomics.Like the original PEPE token, which has proven a runaway success in 2023, the BEP20 PEPE draws its cues from the mischievous frog of the same name, whose design was derived from the webcomic "Boy's Club."The market capitalization of the original PEPE token, which debuted on Ethereum in April, exceeded $1 billion on May 5th, prompting a new wave of memecoins, including a number of frog-themed efforts. Unlike subsequent memecoins, the PEPE (BEP20) has several unusual features programmed in including a syndication system designed to support price stabilization.The team behind the BNB Chain PEPE aren’t settling for just one memecoin either: they plan to launch multiple PEPE projects, all based on the loveable frog. 13 such launches have been cued up for 2023 alone.Although each PEPE project will operate independently, the introduction of a "Burn & Drop" system will govern the consortium. Burn & Drop is a first-of-its-kind system in which burning one token leads to the airdrop of another.To initiate a Burn & Drop, two types of tokens are required. For example, this could involve a scenario in which Token A is priced at $1 and PEPE (BEP20) is also priced at $1. However, if the price of Token A were to drop to $0.8, Token A holders would have the option to burn their tokens on the Burn & Drop platform, automatically receiving PEPE (BEP20) through an airdrop, and with Token A having been burned, its total supply would decrease.By initiating the Burn & Drop process between tokens, excess volatility can be reduced while possibly providing trading opportunities for arbitrage and intra-token trading. This logic is a fundamental component of PEPE (BEP20), and one which users can engage with directly within the platform.In addition, PEPE (BEP20) has plans to introduce numerous services that will further extend the token’s utility. To further increase interest in the project, PEPE (BEP20) is currently running an airdrop campaign on Twitter that’s open to everyone.About PEPEBEP20PEPE is a project launched on the Binance Smart Chain, taking the form of a BEP20 token. The Pepe Syndicate and the unique "Burn&Drop" mechanism of Pepe are designed to manage the token's price volatility. This is not a guarantee of price stability, but a mechanism to potentially mitigate price fluctuations. Furthermore, various projects that participate in the "Burn&Drop" system collaborate with each other, fostering a robust Pepe Syndicate network.For more information regarding the campaign, please visit PEPE BEP20's Twitter (@pepecoinbep20) or Join PEPE BEP20's Telegramhttps://pepe.markets/ PEPEBEP20 is the source of this content. This Press Release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.ContactPEPE BEP 20 [email protected]

London-based Arch Insurance International, a syndicate member of Lloyd's of London, has authorized Evertas to increase its coverage limit for a single policy for crypto custodians and exchanges.

The crypto conglomerate also paid off a $350 million senior secured term loan, which was issued by a lender syndicate led by Eldridge.

So far in this series, we've already talked about what Bitcoin is, about how you can buy it, and how you can spend it, but how is it actually made? Bitcoin vs. Gold The short answer is that new Bitcoins are mined. However, since that is just giving a label, rather than a definition, you’re probably going to want to know a bit more than that. It’s perhaps easiest to compare Bitcoin to its nearest physical equivalent: gold. Just as existent banking systems are (or at least were) based on the quantity and value of gold in a given country’s banks, the security and validity of Bitcoin based on the quantity of Bitcoins currently available in the network. Likewise, the production of new amounts of both gold and Bitcoin meet the same paradox. As mining equipment becomes more and more powerful, so the amount of material to be mined becomes less and less, meaning that more effort is being pumped in to get the same net returns. However, this leads to a predictable and sustainable growth of the amount of either resource in the real world. Of course, in the case of gold, this is just how it worked out. Gold is an element, and therefore cannot be produced or created out of something else, no matter what any budding alchemist might tell you. Recent estimates hold the total amount of mined gold in the world to be somewhere in the region of 187,000 tonnes, with a further 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes being produced as a result of mining every year. As it becomes ever more scarce, new mining techniques and equipment must be discovered and invented in order to maintain that level of production. Bitcoin follows the same pattern, and deliberately so. Being a cryptocurrency, creating new Bitcoins could have been as easy as pressing the hash key on your laptop, but that would have been pointless: a free, abundant, and infinite supply of any commodity leads to devaluation and hyperinflation, and your billions and billions of Bitcoins would be worth less than the laptop that allowed you to make them. As with gold, scarcity and reliability are the cornerstones of Bitcoin. In a white paper that he published in 2008, Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto stated that the availability of Bitcoins would be capped at 21 million. By best estimates, almost 17 million of those Bitcoins have been created (or mined) as of 2017. But what of the mining itself? We can picture the notion of mining for gold – massive drills and diggers clawing out a mountainside to release the gold ore within, and so on – but what are we actually mining for when it comes to a pseudo-currency? To understand that, we need to talk about transactions, blocks, and blockchains. Transactions A transaction is any activity involving Bitcoins. If you buy a Bitcoin from a vendor, then that is a transaction. If you sell a Bitcoin to a buyer, then that is a transaction. If you purchase goods or services with a Bitcoin, then that is also a transaction. Think of each of them as being a line in a physical ledger, denoting money in and money out. Blocks If a transaction is a line in a ledger book, then a block is a page in the same book, essentially a collection of transactions. In real terms, a block is 1 megabyte (Mb) worth of transactions on the Bitcoin network. As each block (or page) is completed, the next transaction to be undertaken will fall into the next available block. A block is a permanent record of transactions on the Bitcoin network, and one that cannot be erased, removed or amended. Blockchain Again, if a transaction is a line in the ledger and if a block is a page in a ledger, then the blockchain is the ledger itself. Every ‘page’ filled in is a new block, or a new link on the chain. This blockchain stretches all the way back to the beginning of the Bitcoin revolution and the Genesis block that Satoshi Nakamoto released in 2008. If you purchase a Bitcoin from a vendor, then it is entirely possible, given enough time and patience, to trace the life of that Bitcoin all the way back along the blockchain, working your way through blocks (or pages, to return to our ledger analogy), all the way to the point where your Bitcoin was first created, or mined. Which leads us back to our original question: how is a Bitcoin made, and what is Bitcoin mining? Mining First of all, it’s important to realise that mining is just a piece of Bitcoin terminology. What Bitcoin miners are actually doing is auditing and verifying transactions on the network, specifically preventing a thing called double-spending, whereby someone could create an electronic copy of a Bitcoin, and spend it twice. Because every single Bitcoin transaction is held somewhere along the blockchain, the blockchain itself becomes the verification of legitimacy. If a transaction has made it into a block, and that block has made it on to the chain, then the sale or purchase in question was, by definition, a legitimate one. So, in order to maintain that legitimacy, every single transaction must be checked, in detail and in depth, to confirm the provenance of the bitcoins being used in the transaction, which is where the miners come in. The miners perform two tasks – the first is for the good of the network, and it is the verification of Bitcoin transactions. Once they have verified enough transactions to fill up a block (that is, 1Mb of transactions, you’ll remember, which could potentially equate to hundreds or even thousands of lines in our virtual ledger), they will be eligible to win a crop of newly-generated bitcoins. This, then, is the second task. The Bitcoins are generated by the networks own protocols, and are essentially up for grabs. At the moment, each new block allows the miner the opportunity to go for those bitcoins (currently 12.5 bitcoins are being generated, or mined, for each new block), and this is where the competition steps up. You see, verifying a block’s worth of transactions is pretty easy stuff. The next stage, to win the bitcoins themselves, only happens if you’re the first miner who happens to arrive at the correct answer to a specific numerical problem. In the Bitcoin network, this principle is referred to as proof of work. Proof of work You’ll be glad to know that there is no need to have experience with advanced computation skills or mathematics in order to provide your proof of work, as it is all done by your mining software. What that software is attempting to do is to generate what is known as a hash. A hash is a hexadecimal number that is 64-digits long, with each digit being one of sixteen designations (hence the word hexadecimal, from the Greek hexa meaning six, and “deca”, meaning ten: six plus ten). For Bitcoin purposes, the sixteen possible designations are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0, a, b , c, d, e, and f. Now, the Bitcoin network produces a target hash, completely at random, with no formula for calculation, and no way of predicting it based on previous hashes – rather like a National Lottery Draw, for instance. Every hash is unique, and prior hashes have no bearing on the future. When a miner manages to complete a box of transaction audits, then they are allowed to have a guess at the value of the target hash, by producing their own hash. If the miner’s hash is equal to or lower than the target hash, and that miner is the first one to do so, then 12.5 Bitcoins will be generated (or minted if you want to think in terms of regular currency) and added to the existing pool of Bitcoins available for all. More specifically, those 12.5 Bitcoins are awarded to the miner who guessed the hash correctly. Now, if that all sounds a bit too easy, it almost certainly is. The odds of a lone miner making any serious cash out of mining for Bitcoins are stratospheric. Indeed, the odds of anyone hash producing a result that is under the target hash is less than 1 in a trillion. What allows Bitcoins to continue to be generated, and at such a rate (the average clearance time for a block is 10 minutes, with 12.5 Bitcoins being generated each time to account for same) is that there are loads of Bitcoin miners out there, using very sophisticated equipment and, perhaps more importantly, thousands of linked computers to do the computational work for them. There is dedicated mining hardware and software out there, capable of producing billions of hashes per second, spread over thousands of computers and, even then, there is no guarantee of success. Your newly-generated hash, even if it does meet the criteria, simply might not get there in time. Some other miner, or mining syndicate might have snagged that same hash mere seconds before you but, in the world of Bitcoin mining, the winners get the spoils. Lottery As mentioned above, the odds of a single user just happening to come across the right hexadecimal code in time to cash in are pretty unlikely and yet, with all those Bitcoins being spawned at the rate of 75 bitcoins per hour, and up for grabs, someone has to win it, and it could be a solo user. Think of bitcoin mining as a lottery because, quite literally, that’s what it is. While Bitcoin as a currency is one of the strongest and the most stable, getting your hands on those newly-minted bitcoins is going to take more than a little luck. First, there is your work for the network – that is, your verification of previous transactions, or lines in the ledger, to return to a previous analogy. 1Mb of transactions means that you’ve filled a block and that is essentially your lottery ticket, your eligibility to partake in a spot of hashing. Each hash attempt is a line of numbers on your ticket, and each line has a chance of winning the jackpot, so long as the numbers fit into a certain hexadecimal pattern. The good news is that you can submit your hashes as many times as you like, thousands and millions, and billions of times per second, which sounds great, except you probably still won’t hit the magic number, as every single newly generated hash retains the same odds of over a trillion to one. Again, just like the lottery, many people think of joining a syndicate. The rationale here is the same. One person, even one person with a decent mining set-up stands an infinitesimal chance of matching a hash. Two people combining hashes stand a slightly better chance, a couple of dozen even better, and a few thousand? Well, you get the idea. More people combining their blocks results in more hash attempts made over a given period of time, and a greater chance of getting the desired result. Of course, whenever you do win, you’ll make less, having to share your Bitcoins, or the value thereof with all of your fellow syndicate makers. You may also owe an additional fee to the syndicate organiser, who will normally take a percentage or two of any earnings, on the grounds that he is ensuring the legality of the exchange, and corralling all of the mining efforts of any given syndicate. However, it is a path worth pursuing. With Bitcoin currently valued at around $5,000 per bitcoin, and 12.5 of them available (or $62,500) every 10 minutes a sufficiently large and well-equipped mining syndicate can see decent profits as more people jump on board, prompting more transactions, blocks filled up quicker, and a swifter generation of more Bitcoins into the cybereconomy.

So far in this series, we've already talked about what Bitcoin is, about how you can buy it, and how you can spend it, but how is it actually made? Bitcoin vs. Gold The short answer is that new Bitcoins are mined. However, since that is just giving a label, rather than a definition, you’re probably going to want to know a bit more than that. It’s perhaps easiest to compare Bitcoin to its nearest physical equivalent: gold. Just as existent banking systems are (or at least were) based on the quantity and value of gold in a given country’s banks, the security and validity of Bitcoin based on the quantity of Bitcoins currently available in the network. Likewise, the production of new amounts of both gold and Bitcoin meet the same paradox. As mining equipment becomes more and more powerful, so the amount of material to be mined becomes less and less, meaning that more effort is being pumped in to get the same net returns. However, this leads to a predictable and sustainable growth of the amount of either resource in the real world. Of course, in the case of gold, this is just how it worked out. Gold is an element, and therefore cannot be produced or created out of something else, no matter what any budding alchemist might tell you. Recent estimates hold the total amount of mined gold in the world to be somewhere in the region of 187,000 tonnes, with a further 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes being produced as a result of mining every year. As it becomes ever more scarce, new mining techniques and equipment must be discovered and invented in order to maintain that level of production. Bitcoin follows the same pattern, and deliberately so. Being a cryptocurrency, creating new Bitcoins could have been as easy as pressing the hash key on your laptop, but that would have been pointless: a free, abundant, and infinite supply of any commodity leads to devaluation and hyperinflation, and your billions and billions of Bitcoins would be worth less than the laptop that allowed you to make them. As with gold, scarcity and reliability are the cornerstones of Bitcoin. In a white paper that he published in 2008, Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto stated that the availability of Bitcoins would be capped at 21 million. By best estimates, almost 17 million of those Bitcoins have been created (or mined) as of 2017. But what of the mining itself? We can picture the notion of mining for gold – massive drills and diggers clawing out a mountainside to release the gold ore within, and so on – but what are we actually mining for when it comes to a pseudo-currency? To understand that, we need to talk about transactions, blocks, and blockchains. Transactions A transaction is any activity involving Bitcoins. If you buy a Bitcoin from a vendor, then that is a transaction. If you sell a Bitcoin to a buyer, then that is a transaction. If you purchase goods or services with a Bitcoin, then that is also a transaction. Think of each of them as being a line in a physical ledger, denoting money in and money out. Blocks If a transaction is a line in a ledger book, then a block is a page in the same book, essentially a collection of transactions. In real terms, a block is 1 megabyte (Mb) worth of transactions on the Bitcoin network. As each block (or page) is completed, the next transaction to be undertaken will fall into the next available block. A block is a permanent record of transactions on the Bitcoin network, and one that cannot be erased, removed or amended. Blockchain Again, if a transaction is a line in the ledger and if a block is a page in a ledger, then the blockchain is the ledger itself. Every ‘page’ filled in is a new block, or a new link on the chain. This blockchain stretches all the way back to the beginning of the Bitcoin revolution and the Genesis block that Satoshi Nakamoto released in 2008. If you purchase a Bitcoin from a vendor, then it is entirely possible, given enough time and patience, to trace the life of that Bitcoin all the way back along the blockchain, working your way through blocks (or pages, to return to our ledger analogy), all the way to the point where your Bitcoin was first created, or mined. Which leads us back to our original question: how is a Bitcoin made, and what is Bitcoin mining? Mining First of all, it’s important to realise that mining is just a piece of Bitcoin terminology. What Bitcoin miners are actually doing is auditing and verifying transactions on the network, specifically preventing a thing called double-spending, whereby someone could create an electronic copy of a Bitcoin, and spend it twice. Because every single Bitcoin transaction is held somewhere along the blockchain, the blockchain itself becomes the verification of legitimacy. If a transaction has made it into a block, and that block has made it on to the chain, then the sale or purchase in question was, by definition, a legitimate one. So, in order to maintain that legitimacy, every single transaction must be checked, in detail and in depth, to confirm the provenance of the bitcoins being used in the transaction, which is where the miners come in. The miners perform two tasks – the first is for the good of the network, and it is the verification of Bitcoin transactions. Once they have verified enough transactions to fill up a block (that is, 1Mb of transactions, you’ll remember, which could potentially equate to hundreds or even thousands of lines in our virtual ledger), they will be eligible to win a crop of newly-generated bitcoins. This, then, is the second task. The Bitcoins are generated by the networks own protocols, and are essentially up for grabs. At the moment, each new block allows the miner the opportunity to go for those bitcoins (currently 12.5 bitcoins are being generated, or mined, for each new block), and this is where the competition steps up. You see, verifying a block’s worth of transactions is pretty easy stuff. The next stage, to win the bitcoins themselves, only happens if you’re the first miner who happens to arrive at the correct answer to a specific numerical problem. In the Bitcoin network, this principle is referred to as proof of work. Proof of work You’ll be glad to know that there is no need to have experience with advanced computation skills or mathematics in order to provide your proof of work, as it is all done by your mining software. What that software is attempting to do is to generate what is known as a hash. A hash is a hexadecimal number that is 64-digits long, with each digit being one of sixteen designations (hence the word hexadecimal, from the Greek hexa meaning six, and “deca”, meaning ten: six plus ten). For Bitcoin purposes, the sixteen possible designations are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 0, a, b , c, d, e, and f. Now, the Bitcoin network produces a target hash, completely at random, with no formula for calculation, and no way of predicting it based on previous hashes – rather like a National Lottery Draw, for instance. Every hash is unique, and prior hashes have no bearing on the future. When a miner manages to complete a box of transaction audits, then they are allowed to have a guess at the value of the target hash, by producing their own hash. If the miner’s hash is equal to or lower than the target hash, and that miner is the first one to do so, then 12.5 Bitcoins will be generated (or minted if you want to think in terms of regular currency) and added to the existing pool of Bitcoins available for all. More specifically, those 12.5 Bitcoins are awarded to the miner who guessed the hash correctly. Now, if that all sounds a bit too easy, it almost certainly is. The odds of a lone miner making any serious cash out of mining for Bitcoins are stratospheric. Indeed, the odds of anyone hash producing a result that is under the target hash is less than 1 in a trillion. What allows Bitcoins to continue to be generated, and at such a rate (the average clearance time for a block is 10 minutes, with 12.5 Bitcoins being generated each time to account for same) is that there are loads of Bitcoin miners out there, using very sophisticated equipment and, perhaps more importantly, thousands of linked computers to do the computational work for them. There is dedicated mining hardware and software out there, capable of producing billions of hashes per second, spread over thousands of computers and, even then, there is no guarantee of success. Your newly-generated hash, even if it does meet the criteria, simply might not get there in time. Some other miner, or mining syndicate might have snagged that same hash mere seconds before you but, in the world of Bitcoin mining, the winners get the spoils. Lottery As mentioned above, the odds of a single user just happening to come across the right hexadecimal code in time to cash in are pretty unlikely and yet, with all those Bitcoins being spawned at the rate of 75 bitcoins per hour, and up for grabs, someone has to win it, and it could be a solo user. Think of bitcoin mining as a lottery because, quite literally, that’s what it is. While Bitcoin as a currency is one of the strongest and the most stable, getting your hands on those newly-minted bitcoins is going to take more than a little luck. First, there is your work for the network – that is, your verification of previous transactions, or lines in the ledger, to return to a previous analogy. 1Mb of transactions means that you’ve filled a block and that is essentially your lottery ticket, your eligibility to partake in a spot of hashing. Each hash attempt is a line of numbers on your ticket, and each line has a chance of winning the jackpot, so long as the numbers fit into a certain hexadecimal pattern. The good news is that you can submit your hashes as many times as you like, thousands and millions, and billions of times per second, which sounds great, except you probably still won’t hit the magic number, as every single newly generated hash retains the same odds of over a trillion to one. Again, just like the lottery, many people think of joining a syndicate. The rationale here is the same. One person, even one person with a decent mining set-up stands an infinitesimal chance of matching a hash. Two people combining hashes stand a slightly better chance, a couple of dozen even better, and a few thousand? Well, you get the idea. More people combining their blocks results in more hash attempts made over a given period of time, and a greater chance of getting the desired result. Of course, whenever you do win, you’ll make less, having to share your Bitcoins, or the value thereof with all of your fellow syndicate makers. You may also owe an additional fee to the syndicate organiser, who will normally take a percentage or two of any earnings, on the grounds that he is ensuring the legality of the exchange, and corralling all of the mining efforts of any given syndicate. However, it is a path worth pursuing. With Bitcoin currently valued at around $5,000 per bitcoin, and 12.5 of them available (or $62,500) every 10 minutes a sufficiently large and well-equipped mining syndicate can see decent profits as more people jump on board, prompting more transactions, blocks filled up quicker, and a swifter generation of more Bitcoins into the cybereconomy.

As confirmation came through that a contentious software proposal had been discarded, Bitcoin set an all-time high of $7,879, before dropping to $7,070. The general consensus among analysts is that this $800 high to low range was due to traders attempting to price in this intricate news. A syndicate of businesses and miners are no longer seeking to overhaul the blockchain mechanism or create a new cryptocurrency from its ashes. An unexpected shock was seen in the charts by market observers, showcasing something not seen since September as China's regulatory body moved to shutter its crypto exchanges and ban ICOs. The prospect of the software proposal named Segwit2x, which was to be introduced to the network in mid-November, saw many new buyers allocating capital to the cryptocurrency in the expectation of a split and the creation of new coins. However, as the possibility of a quick buck was no longer on the table, traders looked elsewhere in the market as a wave of rising assets was observed, according to cryptocurrency pricing service CoinMarketCap. BTC Vix, Bitcoin trading group Whale Club's organiser, said "Everyone was selling alts [alternative cryptocurrencies] and buying BTC. Now we are unwinding that". However, others in the industry, such as the CEO of the crypto exchange Bitstamp Nejc Kodric, stated his belief that the news may have resulted in discontent for traders looking to make a big profit with a fast purchase before a split: "I think 2x was a big cloud of uncertainty which now went away... some like it, some were just in it for the airdrop." Other analysts have suggested that it may be the case that new buyers might have been spooked due to any form of development in the market. It's still unclear as to what the future holds for Bitcoin's value, however, most Bitcoin enthusiasts will be thanking their lucky stars that the bogeyman of the 2x crisis is no more.

As confirmation came through that a contentious software proposal had been discarded, Bitcoin set an all-time high of $7,879, before dropping to $7,070. The general consensus among analysts is that this $800 high to low range was due to traders attempting to price in this intricate news. A syndicate of businesses and miners are no longer seeking to overhaul the blockchain mechanism or create a new cryptocurrency from its ashes. An unexpected shock was seen in the charts by market observers, showcasing something not seen since September as China's regulatory body moved to shutter its crypto exchanges and ban ICOs. The prospect of the software proposal named Segwit2x, which was to be introduced to the network in mid-November, saw many new buyers allocating capital to the cryptocurrency in the expectation of a split and the creation of new coins. However, as the possibility of a quick buck was no longer on the table, traders looked elsewhere in the market as a wave of rising assets was observed, according to cryptocurrency pricing service CoinMarketCap. BTC Vix, Bitcoin trading group Whale Club's organiser, said "Everyone was selling alts [alternative cryptocurrencies] and buying BTC. Now we are unwinding that". However, others in the industry, such as the CEO of the crypto exchange Bitstamp Nejc Kodric, stated his belief that the news may have resulted in discontent for traders looking to make a big profit with a fast purchase before a split: "I think 2x was a big cloud of uncertainty which now went away... some like it, some were just in it for the airdrop." Other analysts have suggested that it may be the case that new buyers might have been spooked due to any form of development in the market. It's still unclear as to what the future holds for Bitcoin's value, however, most Bitcoin enthusiasts will be thanking their lucky stars that the bogeyman of the 2x crisis is no more.

Of all the possible weaknesses and attacks, there's one that sits on the throne - the 51% attack. People have routinely speculated of the fear of an end-of-days situation for Bitcoin, but this time they could be right. Transactions could be stopped from confirming, and some transactions could even be reversed by attackers who hold over 50% of hashing power, potentially undermining the whole project. The economic incentives and design of Bitcoin were specifically structured to defend it from the potential of a destructive 51% attack. So far this has been successful. But until now, a 51% attack was merely a hypothetical scare story. Experts indicate that around November 16th a coordinated 51% attack will begin. A 51% attack is when a syndicate of bitcoin miners, who represent over 50% of the Bitcoin network's hashing power, and a group of allied blockchain startups look to increase block size. A hard fork is required in this situation, and, while contentious, this is a reasonable thing to desire. This is not an attack in itself. This consortium's effort, however, has developed past a straightforward fork. It intends to create a situation in which the outcome is to deliberately stop the continued existence of the chain in its current form. More accurately, the developers connected are declining to bring in replay protection. A situation will be created where a 2x fork, with transactions being carried out on 1x fork, maybe "replayed" via the secondary fork. This will cause Bitcoin users to possess funds on both blockchains. However, once a transaction is performed on one blockchain, it could lead to the subsequent blockchain losing the funds. Replay protection protects users from this risk, however, combine the 2x change with the deprivation of replay protection and what ensues is a massive disruption to the Bitcoin system. The consortium is implementing this strategy by design. The potential outcome of this attack still remains unclear. Bitcoin could prove resilient to the attack and come out on top. However, if it does not survive the attack, transactions will grind to a halt and faith in Bitcoin will be all but lost. Hold on to your seats, things could get messy!

Of all the possible weaknesses and attacks, there's one that sits on the throne - the 51% attack. People have routinely speculated of the fear of an end-of-days situation for Bitcoin, but this time they could be right. Transactions could be stopped from confirming, and some transactions could even be reversed by attackers who hold over 50% of hashing power, potentially undermining the whole project. The economic incentives and design of Bitcoin were specifically structured to defend it from the potential of a destructive 51% attack. So far this has been successful. But until now, a 51% attack was merely a hypothetical scare story. Experts indicate that around November 16th a coordinated 51% attack will begin. A 51% attack is when a syndicate of bitcoin miners, who represent over 50% of the Bitcoin network's hashing power, and a group of allied blockchain startups look to increase block size. A hard fork is required in this situation, and, while contentious, this is a reasonable thing to desire. This is not an attack in itself. This consortium's effort, however, has developed past a straightforward fork. It intends to create a situation in which the outcome is to deliberately stop the continued existence of the chain in its current form. More accurately, the developers connected are declining to bring in replay protection. A situation will be created where a 2x fork, with transactions being carried out on 1x fork, maybe "replayed" via the secondary fork. This will cause Bitcoin users to possess funds on both blockchains. However, once a transaction is performed on one blockchain, it could lead to the subsequent blockchain losing the funds. Replay protection protects users from this risk, however, combine the 2x change with the deprivation of replay protection and what ensues is a massive disruption to the Bitcoin system. The consortium is implementing this strategy by design. The potential outcome of this attack still remains unclear. Bitcoin could prove resilient to the attack and come out on top. However, if it does not survive the attack, transactions will grind to a halt and faith in Bitcoin will be all but lost. Hold on to your seats, things could get messy!