Coingather Exchange Has Been Offline for Days and No One Knows Why

Coingather, a tiny cryptocurrency exchange, has disappeared from the web, alarming customers who fear their funds are gone. The Coingather.com domain has been offline since Wednesday November 22, and with no word on Twitter from customer support, there are fears the site's operators have pulled an exit scam.

What's the Matter With Coingather?

Coingather Exchange Has Been Offline for Days and No One Knows WhyFew cryptocurrency traders will have heard of Coingather; it's an obscure exchange even by the standard of obscure exchanges. It's not so small as to be able to disappear from the web unnoticed however, and the site's disgruntled users have wasted no time in voicing their concerns. Coingather might be one of the world's smallest exchanges, but it's nevertheless listed on Coinmarketcap complete with 92 trading pairs that are matched with BTC, LTC, DOGE, and HTML5. The site's admin, who goes by the name of Rapta on the Bitcointalk forum, has been offline for a week.

Coingather Exchange Has Been Offline for Days and No One Knows Why

The last observed trading activity on Coingather.

Most of the coins the exchange features are what many traders would call shitcoins. Coinmarketcap lists Coingather's 24-hour trade volume as being just 11.32 BTC, or around $93,000 – but those figures were last updated days ago, before the site disappeared. The majority of the most recently traded coins on the site comprise Infinity Economics, HTLMCOIN, Ethereum, and LevoPlus. It is hard to assess the total amount of funds that were held on Coingather, but judging by the volume of complaints that have been tweeted over the last few days, the losses could be substantial.

"I️ will find you guys, that's a lot of people's money you ran off with you got 24 hours!" raged one customer.

Fear and Loathing

Coingather, which was founded in 2014, appears to have soldiered on, attracting little attention for the first couple of years of its existence. The only cause for complaint until recently was the site's exorbitant withdrawal fees, which were as much as 10x higher than other exchanges. In summer of this year however the first signs that something was amiss surfaced in posts on the Bitcointalk forum. One user wrote: "Just wanted to thank everybody for the heads up about Coingather. *sigh* and the search for an exchange that isn't being run by drug addicts or gangsters continues."

A month later, another forum user labeled the site a scam which permitted deposits but not withdrawals. Upon trying to retrieve their holdings, they'd been greeted by a "process error" message and found that their coins were gone.

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The intelligent investors guide to Particl (PART): Part 1 - What is Particl and what is the purpose of the PART token?

Particl is a PoS chain using the native PART token.

The purpose of a dedicated chain is for the privacy centric and optional anonymity aspects of it.

The PART token can either be transferred as a public token or as a private token via use of CT and RingCT to obscure sender and amount.

The PART token also confers voting rights proportional to stake of network owned for the onchain governance and voting mechanisms.

There is also a MAD escrow service they are building in; a trustless escrow system which requires no third party. Using only the native PART token simplifies this mechanic.

 

It is for these reasons and the simple economics of incentivisation that all currencies fed into particl will be converted to native PART token via integrated shapeshift function prior to use on the particl network.

Particl is a modular framework and yes smart contracts mechanisms are involved on the bitcoin core codebase it uses. Their use of ringCT and focus on truly trustless privacy and anonymity is partly why they avoided ETH but also wish to sidestep any possible scalability issues present in ETH currently or bloat issues of launching a highly focused but intensive product. I'm sure there's a bit of ego to prove their coding chops too.

 

The first major module they plan to launch in Q1 2018 is the decentralised marketplace and communications platform.

 This marketplace will allow for:

 Public and private listings of goods for sale (private listings only viewable if the key is known),

• RingCT to facilitate truly private transactions but also a public token to facilitate non-anonymous one's.

• Encrypted end to end messaging including group messaging.

• Filters and categorisation systems to help find goods.

• Automated shapeshift integration to automatically convert multiple the 67 and growing cryptocurrencies currently supported by shapeshift into PART for transacting on the Particl network.

• Modularity allowing for widgets and other tools to be built in and plugged into the particl network providing an interface to link other decentralized exchanges and tools to the main marketplace as well as the particl ecosystem.

• Atomic swaps (like LTC and DCR) to allow frictionless transfers and conversions of tokens.

 

On minimum viable product release (Q1 2018) the marketplace should be essentially complete in the sense of publicly usable minus the reputation systems they plan to implement after.

 

Further reading:

• The importance of decentralized marketplaces in cryptocurrency: An analysis of the value proposition, current problems and solutions.

• Particl.io – Easy, Secure and Private P2P Marketplace Introduction

• How 'Cryptocurrency Agnosticism' Could Impact the Industry

• In-Depth Presentation of the Particl Project

• Particl Project articles

 

I believe Particl if realised as designed will impact ecommerce massively on a paradigm shifting level. Simply put commerce without borders and a massive boon for sensitive transactions.

 

I am ignoring all price activity for now. The project will not use it's funds to needlessly hype and will likely deliver the marketplace minimum viable product in Q1 2018 to justify it and silence all critics.

 

This is because the team (which is now greatly expanded and actually funded) have been heavily criticised for not delivering in the past (as the much smaller, unfunded SDC prior to setting up their foundation) in spite of the history showing clear development (actually rapid for a project of this nature) and currently meeting all milestones given.

 

From a speculative point of view there are numerous reasons to preferentially invest in Particl:

 

• Holding tokens confers true stakeholder ownership of the network,

• Receipt of transaction fees proportional to stake and number of transactions on the network.

• Receipt of interest but with decreasing annual inflation rate (5% PA year one to flat 2% year 4 onwards) to facilitate early adoption.

• Limited token supply with significant lockup due to PoS. When marketplace is launched if used, the buy demand on PART will be massive relative to circulating supply even for small scale use of the marketplace which should drive up the price of PART massively.

In the following parts of this series I will demonstrate how if Particl is successful it is a literal juggernaut in the making as far as use cases, speculative returns and technology advances in crypto go.

By: Joskye

Bitcoin Cash Price Rally Continues as Value Soars Past $1,250

It would appear the Bitcoin Cash price rally is still in full effect as we speak. More specifically, we have seen a Bitcoin Cash price increase for two days in a  row now, which is pretty interesting, to say the least. Whether or not this will be another temporary trend or a sign of things to come in the future, remains to be seen, though. For now, the momentum clearly favors BCH, but that trend may change any given moment these days.

It is pretty impressive to see how the Bitcoin Cash price has evolved over the past two weeks. Although the initial spike to $2,500 and beyond has been considered to be a pump-and-dump, the value of BCH has not collapsed entirely just yet. In fact, the Bitcoin Cash price has successfully remained above $1,000 for quite some time now, despite the price dip to $885 not too long ago. This seems to indicate the BCH value will remain around this level for quite some to come, although nothing has been set in stone.

The past 24 hours have been pretty solid for the Bitcoin Cash price as well. Despite hovering near the $1,100 mark for some time, the price eventually started moving up again. After reaching $1,380 not too long ago, the price has slowly started to come down again. Right now, the goal is to find a decent level of support in the $1,250 range, although that will not be easy by any means. After all, the market is pretty volatile in

How the Bitcoin Cash price will evolve in the hours and days to come, remains anybody's guess right now. A lot of supporters would like to see the value per BCH go back towards $2,500 in the near future, but that may not be all that easy whatsoever. In fact, it may never happen again, for all we know, even though things are looking pretty solid as we speak.Then again, there is still a lot of work to be done before this altcoin can even be considered to be a mainstream trend, to say the least.

With over $3.34bn worth of trading volume, things are certainly looking good for the Bitcoin Cash price right now. This strong trading volume has been present for quite some time now, and it doesn't appear things will change in this regard over the next few days. If there wasn't such a demand for BCH, this volume would not reach such heights in the first place. It is evident people enjoy trading Bitcoin Cash right now, although it remains to be seen how much of it is based on speculation first and foremost.

As has been the case for nearly two full weeks now, the Bitcoin Cash trading volume is mainly dominated by Bithumb these days. Their volume still represents over 40% of all BCH trades so far, which is pretty interesting, to say the very least.So far, this doesn't appear to have any negative impact on the Bitcoin Cash price, although it remains to be seen how this situation evolves in the days to come. Coinone is in second place, although the gap with Bitfinex is pretty small. An interesting situation well worth keeping an eye on, that much is certain.

All of this goes to show the Bitcoin Cash price speculation is far from over right now. There is still a lot of momentum in place to keep pushing the value toward $1,500. At the same time, we may see the Bitcoin Cash price drop again in the coming hours. No one knows for sure how this situation will evolve, but things are looking pretty positive for now.

Bitcoin Cash Network Completes a Successful Hard Fork

At approximately 4 pm EDT at block height 504031, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network successfully hard forked. The fork is a change to the decentralized currency's consensus rules and aims to upgrade the network's Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA).

The Bitcoin Cash Network Has Successfully Hard Forked

Bitcoin Cash Network Completes a Successful Hard ForkNovember 13 is a memorable day for bitcoin cash supporters, as the network is forking in order to fix the BCH blockchain's DAA. The primary development teams who have been working on the bitcoin cash protocol consensus change include Bitcoin ABC, Unlimited, Nchain, and XT developers. The original DAA applied to the BCH network allowed the currency to thrive but also produced wild hashrate fluctuations. After several DAA proposals were researched and tested by the above-mentioned development teams, the community chose to implement a DAA proposal from Bitcoin ABC's lead developer Amaury Sechet.

Bitcoin Cash Network Completes a Successful Hard Fork

At approximately 4 pm EDT at block height 504031, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network had successfully hard forked.

The new BCH consensus change hopes to adjust the difficulty to hashrate to target a mean block interval of 600 seconds. Alongside this, the DAA aims to make sudden difficulty drops and spikes avoidable. For instance, the network will adjust difficulty rapidly when the hashrate changes exponentially, while also avoiding feedback oscillations. Sechet's DAA is based on a 144-period simple moving average according to the ABC team.

"The difficulty is adjusted each block, based on the amount of work done and the elapsed time of the previous 144 blocks," explains the Bitcoin ABC development team.

Since the DAA hard fork, block times have been smooth and consistent.

The Bitcoin Cash DAA Should Keep Block Times Consistent and the Mining Ecosystem Honest

Essentially the consensus change means the new DAA should keep block times stable and consistent at roughly 10 minutes per block. So far this goal of 10-minute block intervals has come to fruition. Now that the fork has happened BCH network participants will wait and see what happens with miners who have been hopping back and forth between two chains. Many BCH supporters believe this will level the playing field and from here on out, as the BTC and BCH competition should be fair without any miners gaming the system.

Bitcoin.org Owner Wants to Revise Satoshi’s White Paper

Following the Segwit2x working group's announcement to cancel the hard fork scheduled for next week, many shocked bitcoin proponents revealed their opinions on the web. Additionally, one of the administrators of Bitcoin.org, Theymos, wants the web portal's recommended businesses such as wallet services and exchanges to pledge that "Bitcoin is not ruled by miners" or otherwise be removed from the site's link page.

Bitcoin.org Wants Cryptocurrency Businesses to Make a Pledge or Take a "Bitcoin Basics" Course

Bitcoin.org Owner Wants to Revise Satoshi's White PaperThe Segwit2x hard fork has been canceled, but the drama is still not over. On November 8, the same day the Segwit2x working group made their announcement, Theymos, one of the administrators of Bitcoin.org declared a desire for bitcoin businesses to make a pledge. Theymos details that during the Segwit2x waiting period several companies declared that miners control bitcoin, and the Bitcoin.org administrator thinks this should be addressed.

"This belief is one of the most dangerous threats to bitcoin, since if most people think that, then bitcoin ends up controlled by only a handful of people — Although this issue is mentioned in a few places on Bitcoin.org, I've been thinking that Bitcoin.org should somehow act against this more than it is already," explains the Github issue written by Theymos.

For example, maybe Bitcoin.org should require that wallets and services sign a very simple pledge that acknowledges that bitcoin is not ruled by miners in order to be linked from Bitcoin.org. Or Bitcoin.org could offer a free "bitcoin basics" online course and certification which would have as one of its main goals getting this concept through to people

Cobra Bitcoin: "We Seriously Need to Rewrite the White Paper"

Bitcoin.org Owner Wants to Revise Satoshi's White PaperAfter the issue was brought up by Theymos, bitcoin developer Luke Jr said there's a different belief that developers control bitcoin. He thinks the primary focus should be that the "user or owner" of the coins should decide anything that could compromise their funds. Then the anonymous owner of Bitcoin.org, "Cobra Bitcoin," explains his opinion of the situation and declares that Satoshi's white paper needs to be revised.

"The white paper is to blame for all these dangerous beliefs — We seriously need to rewrite it, or produce a completely new white paper and call that the Bitcoin white paper," details Cobra.

The whitepaper is probably the only vaguely "technical" document that many people in positions of power and influence have read, it's what they base their understanding of Bitcoin on. And it's very easy to misunderstand in subtle ways. It's an extremely dangerous document for an ignorant person to read.

Bitcoin and Civic Duty

One particular quote from the white paper that Cobra disagrees with is this statement, published in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto:

"They vote with their CPU power, expressing their acceptance of valid blocks by working on extending them and rejecting invalid blocks by refusing to work on them. Any needed rules and incentives can be enforced with this consensus mechanism."

Cobra says that when people read that statement, Satoshi is obviously talking about those who run "full nodes." He believes that those who don't understand bitcoin will believe miners decide on what is valid or invalid within the network's consensus rules. Cobra goes on to detail that he's all about giving people lessons and telling them they should be careful when updating software stating:   

I like the idea of offering a free basic course. Maybe it could be something as simple as an animated interactive experience that aims to teach Bitcoin users their civic duty?

Bitcoin.org Owner Wants to Revise Satoshi's White Paper

Bitmain's Jihan Wu is curious about Theymos' thought process.

Not the First Time the Bitcoin.org Owner Proposed Changing Satoshi's White Paper

Of course, the statements were considered controversial across forums when Cobra discussed changing Satoshi's intro to bitcoin and the meaning of the paper's words. People take the issue seriously, because the website's version of the paper is the first to pop up on popular browsers like Google.

Furthermore, it's not the first time the owner of Bitcoin.org proposed revising Satoshi's white paper as Cobra has been pushing the idea on Github back since 2016. At the time, the idea wasn't favored as many Github developers expressed their dislike for the proposal that summer.  "Many dictatorships rewrite history to suit their political goals," writes one individual opposed to the idea. Quite a few others have expressed their thoughts on the Github issue called Amendments to the Bitcoin paper #1325 that year.

Blockchain: ‘Segwit2x Is a Capacity Upgrade’

One of the largest bitcoin wallet providers in the world, Blockchain, has announced its plans for the upcoming Segwit2x fork. After block 494784 takes place on the network, the firm has decided it will follow the chain with the most accumulated difficulty.

London Startup Blockchain Announces Service Plans for Segwit2xBlockchain is one of the oldest bitcoin wallet providers in the industry, servicing over 18 million issued wallets. This week the company has revealed its contingency plans for the Segwit2x block size increase. According to the wallet provider, Segwit2x is "essentially a software upgrade that will bring improved capacity to the Bitcoin protocol." Blockchain says the team is working 24-7 to make sure users' funds will be protected and safe throughout the fork. In order to ensure safety, the wallet service says specific features will be inoperable for a period of time.       

"To keep your funds safe while the network is in transition, we will temporarily suspend bitcoin send, request, buy, sell, and exchange functionality roughly 24 hours before the time of the fork until the network stabilizes," explains Blockchain.

Blockchain's Services Will Follow the Chain With the Most Accumulated Difficulty

The company explains there is no immediate action required by users but does advise them to make sure they have saved their passwords and seed phrases. Additionally Blockchain acknowledges the chance of a blockchain split resulting in two tokens and separate networks. The firm has decided on the token names and which chain it will support after the fork.

"There is a significant possibility that the planned hard fork will result in two bitcoin blockchains," Blockchain emphasizes. 

In this case, we will follow the chain with the most accumulated difficulty and refer to that chain as bitcoin. If the minority chain has significant value, we will make that value available for customers to hold or exchange for a period of time, as we have done with Bitcoin Cash. If the minority chain is the one with 1MB blocks, we plan to call it BT1. If the minority chain has 2MB blocks, we plan to call it BT2.

The Firm Will Temporarily Suspend Transactions

London Startup Blockchain Announces Service Plans for Segwit2xThe London-based company further explains users will be able to view their bitcoin holdings, but Blockchain will "temporarily suspend transactions for bitcoin." Moreover, even though the platform's buy and sell functionality will be suspended, the firm notes Blockchain wallet users can transact with ethereum during the fork. In addition to the Segwit2x contingency plan announcement, the company has created a "status page" called blockchain-status.com. A place where Blockchain wallet users can get regular updates concerning the pending fork alongside other announcements in the future.