Bitcoin Cash Innovation Accelerates With Cashscript High-Level Language

Software developers Rosco Kalis and Gabriel Cardona have been steadily working on Cashscript, a high-level programming language for Bitcoin Cash. When the language is tied to certain opcodes, specific schemes can be built that allow for autonomous and decision-based transactions. While testing Cashscript's capabilities, the two engineers recently deployed an oracle, forfeits, an onchain wager, and a recurring payments contract.

BCH Developers Are Innovating With Cashscript
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) development is in full swing and over the last six months the tempo has really started to pick up. Things like the Simple Ledger Protocol, Schnorr signatures, opcodes, Cashshuffle, the programming language Spedn, and token dividend payments have galvanized the network's versatility. Another project that's seeing steady development is Cashscript, a high-level language for BCH created by the software developer Rosco Kalis.

Since then, Kalis and other developers like Gabriel Cardona, the creator of Bitbox, have been eagerly showing the BCH community what Cashscript is capable of doing. "Cashscript is a paradigm shift in expressiveness for BCH contracts," Cardona explained this week while highlighting a bunch of experiments. For instance, Cardona showed the BCH community on Twitter how the Mecenas contract was replicated in Cashscript. Mecenas was a contract developed by Karol Trzeszczkowski that allows for recurring BCH payments. After redesigning the covenant-based smart contract solution in Cashscript, the developer asserted that "Large contracts like this is where Cashscript really shines." On August 24, Cardona also tweeted that last year in Milan at the Satoshi's Vision Conference, BCH engineer Awemany revealed a solution to the zero-confirmation problem by using a concept called "Zero-Confirmation Forfeits." So the developer decided to replicate the zero-confirmation forfeit idea using the Cashscript language.

'BCH Supports Hodling Better Than BTC'
While showing the ported Cashscript examples on Twitter, Cardona also tipped his hat to developers who helped initiate these ideas like Tendo Pein, Karol Trzeszczkowski, Rosco Kalis, Emil Oldenburg, Chris Pacia, and Tobias Ruck. The next day on August 25, Cardona showed the public a wager contract from Emil Oldenburgs's onchain bet example from "Taking OP_Checkdatasig out for a test drive." The new wager contract was written in Cashscript, which executes an onchain bet between two parties and can only be settled by block height and price signed by an oracle. "Noncustodial financial services are about to change everything," Cardona exclaimed. In another example, Kalis and Cardona produced an oracle using Cashscript and OP_Checkdatasig. The contract forces holding onto the asset until a certain price target has been reached. The "Hodl-Vault" contract specifications state:

A minimum block is provided to ensure that oracle price entries from before this block are disregarded: When the BCH price was $1,000 in the past, an oracle entry with the old block number and price can not be used. Instead, a message with a block number and price from after the minBlock needs to be passed. This contract serves as a simple example of OP_Checkdatasig-based contracts.

After the contract was created, Spedn creator Tendo Pein tweeted: "BCH supports hodling better than BTC." "Anything BTC can do, BCH can do better," Cardona replied. On the Reddit forum r/btc, BCH supporters welcomed the innovation stemming from the Cashscript language. Cashscript can allow for many types of autonomous and decision-based transactions like oracles, zero-conf forfeits, digital good purchases via PGP signature, Pay to ID, cold wallet timeout, enforced multi-signature signing order, stablecoins, covenants, secure multi-party computation, blind escrows and spending constraints. "[It's] going to be exciting to see what people can come up with using these new features," one BCH supporter said after reading about the innovations Cashscript could prime in the future.

Oracles and Decision-Based Transactions Without the Need for a Custodian's Decision
One of the biggest conversations stemming from the r/btc post about Cashscript was the use of oracles. Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and blockchain developers believe that the BCH blockchain could provide verifiable multi-sourced facts, so people can use a trustless oracle for better decisions. Oracles are neutral by design and can allow the BCH chain to verify enough valid data to prove something is true or false, which then would essentially trigger decision-based transactions based on the outcome.

Since ancient times, humans have used oracles to make hard decisions, execute bets and wagers, and provide validated reports. The opcode OP_Checkdatasig has brought the idea of blockchain oracle concepts using the BCH chain to the forefront. The opcode can check the validation of certain signatures, and return two different outcomes in an autonomous fashion. This means BCH-powered oracles can provide a definitive outcome for things like sporting events, election results, and prediction markets. But it would do so in a way that removes the need for a third party or custodian's decision.

Developers have already proven these types of decision-based transactions can work without changing the current BCH rule set. People have built onchain wagers, oracles, digital currency inheritance schemes and even a game of onchain chess. It's still very early, but Cashscript is maturing fast and BCH developers can utilize the language right now to execute these types of decision-based transactions into their workflow. As Cardona highlighted earlier this week, noncustodial financial services will decimate the current way we deal with money. Innovations like OP_Checkdatasig, Cashscript, Spedn, and Schnorr help to realize this goal.

Binance Reveals ‘Venus’ — Its Own Project to Rival Facebook’s Libra

Top cryptocurrency exchange Binance is launching an open blockchain project "Venus" focused on developing localized stablecoins worldwide.

In an announcement published today, Aug. 19, the exchange argues it is well-positioned to launch such a currency ecosystem in light of its existing public chain technology, Binance Chain, wide user base and already established global compliance measures.

Leveraging existing know-how
The exchange says it is seeking partnerships with governments, corporations, technology firms, and other cryptocurrency and blockchain projects in order to develop a new currency ecosystem that will empower both developed and developing countries

The exchange's vision for the project, per the announcement, is to "build a new open alliance and sustainable community" that enlists partners who wield influence on a global scale.

Binance Chain, as the announcement notes, has already been running several native asset-pegged stablecoins, including a Bitcoin (BTC)-pegged stablecoin (BTCB) and the Binance BGBP Stable Coin (BGBP) pegged to the British Pound.

Binance says it will leverage its existing infrastructure and experience with various regulatory regimes to consolidate a compliance risk control system and build a multi-dimensional cooperation network for the Venus project.

Vying with Libra
Binance's ambitious new venture appears to compete directly with plans from social media titan Facebook to launch a fiat-pegged stablecoin, Libra, that would power a global crypto payments network embedded into the company's three wholly-owned apps: WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram.

With its choice of name, "Venus," Binance is also stepping into the astrological waters of both Facebook's Libra project and the Winklevoss Twins' Gemini exchange and Gemini dollar.

Poloniex Will Reimburse $13.5 Million Loss From Clams Flash Crash

Cryptocurrency exchange, Poloniex, has announced a scheme to reimburse users affected by a flash crash in May, which led to total losses of around 1,800 Bitcoin (BTC). In an Aug. 13 blog post, the company pledged to repay daily trading fees (in BTC) to impacted lenders until their losses are fully recovered.

Payments will begin later in August and the first credit will include all trading fees incurred since the generalized losses were first recognized on June 6, 2019.

Margin trading multiplies effects of flash crash
Poloniex has a peer-to-peer margin trading system. Users can receive interest for sending their BTC to a lending pool, from which other users borrow to trade. Borrowers must maintain collateral.

In late May, a little-known token named Clams (CLAM) crashed almost 80% in less than an hour. The unprecedented speed of the crash caused safety measures to fail in the automated liquidation system, designed to protect lenders' capital.

The 1,800 BTC subsequently lost amounted to around $13.5 million at the time.

An ongoing commitment to reimbursement and winning back trust
This is the second step by Poloniex in its reimbursement of the lost funds. The first occurred shortly after the incident, on June 14, when around 10% of the losses (180.736 BTC) were distributed proportionally amongst impacted lenders.

In its blog post, Poloniex stresses that its work to "make customers whole" is not limited to these two steps. It is also actively pursuing other strategies, with more information to follow.

Twitter Crypto Scammers Continue to Fly Under the Company’s Radar

Over the last two years, cryptocurrency scamming on social media has been prevalent. In January 2019, it was reported that crypto impersonation scams on Twitter raked in millions in cryptocurrencies from people pretending to be well known blockchain personalities. Now a new form of deception can be seen on the platform, as scammers are using photoshopped pictures of tech personalities and businesses like Coinbase to further another crypto con game.

There's a New Crypto Scam on Twitter
There's a new swindle on crypto Twitter where scammers are sharing screenshots of well known cryptocurrency and tech luminaries promoting supposed BTC giveaways. Typically these fraudsters will use a very popular post with hundreds or thousands of likes and type the phrase "Great News." Underneath the user's text is a photoshopped picture of an announcement from Coinbase saying that it's offering a BTC giveaway. The tweets are a blatant scam in order to con a person into believing they can "double" their coins. For instance, on August 12, Morgan Creek cofounder Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano tweeted his usual weekly investors' letter where people can sign up and get regular emails from Pomp. Just below Pomp's tweet is a Twitter account called "Adam[BTC/HODL]" who states: "Thanks Coinbase I just received 1.90680 BTC — Anyone can join, not much left." Below that statement is a photoshopped picture of a faked Coinbase account stating:

To celebrate 50 million users, we decided to host a 5,000 BTC giveaway event — You can use any wallet or exchange to participate. Visit our promotion site — If you are late, your BTC will be sent back, thank you for your support, Coinbase team.

Below the tweet, another scam Twitter account adds to the con game by saying they got some coins from the giveaway. "OMG — Just got 2 BTC, thanks for sharing this," the user "Sierra" exclaims while 59 people have liked her tweet. Another fake account dubbed "Charrlees Hooskiinson" can be seen tweeting the same scam in a real Twitter thread started by Cardano's Charles Hoskinson. The picture shared, in this case, is a photo of a phony Elon Musk account which says: "Our marketing department here at Tesla HQ came up with an idea — to hold a special BTC and ETH giveaway event for all the crypto fans out there." Just like the bogus Coinbase account picture, the fake Musk account shows a website to visit where people can allegedly double their coins.

Impersonating Prominent Crypto and Tech Influencers and a Phony Block Explorer
While investigating the first fraudulent website tied to these scams, visitors can see a Coinbase logo and a message geared toward new guests. The site says that if a person sends 0.1 to 10 BTC to the address they will receive a whopping 1-100 BTC in return. Below that is a BTC address the person can send funds to, which has also changed regularly since news.Bitcoin.com started this investigation.

The current address displayed on the scam giveaway site today has zero BTC and no transactions tied to the address have ever been recorded. But the website's visitors get a different look as there's a dummy block explorer shown on the website aiming to bolster the claim that people are really doubling their money. Watching the fake explorer shows someone just deposited 8 BTC and got 88 BTC sent back to the original address, but on a real block explorer, these transactions don't exist.

The scam Twitter posts have a phony photo with a URL address that leads people to a fake Coinbase 'doubler' site.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is also targeted in the fraudulent Twitter act as photoshopped pictures show another BTC doubling scam. The con is done in the same way as the Coinbase example. Some random Twitter account shares a fake picture and underneath another phony account someone says they were just awarded a couple of BTC. The website in the photo leads to a fake Tesla page too that is almost exactly the same as the Coinbase version, but it's red with a Tesla logo. Just like the last one, there's another deceptive block explorer showing fictitious BTC transactions. There's also a progress bar showing how much BTC is left in the so-called doubling pot and the longer you stay on the website it makes it seem like you're missing out on a lot of BTC.

The fake block explorer shown on the web page.
Twitter Scammers Continue to Make Millions of Dollars From Crypto Newbs
It's uncertain whether Twitter is aware of the latest scam revolving around the crypto Twitter space. Last year, researchers uncovered empirical data which confirmed 15,000 cryptocurrency scam accounts were strewn across the Twittersphere. In February, social media cryptocurrency community member impersonators were making $5,000 a day in ethereum on Twitter. One particular person sent $18,000 to a fake Erik Voorhees account. In March 2018, the well known crypto influencer Emin Gun Sirer told Twitter owner Jack Dorsey that the scams were getting out of hand, adding that if he "can't detect this kind of brazen scam, what hope do you have of improving your platform?" Dorsey did respond to Sirer's post that day and said: "We are on it."

But the scam tweets have continued relentlessly and people are still complaining to Twitter every day about this obvious con. "People do not tweet out that they are giving away money for free — That is a complete scam — The old saying is true 'if it seems too good to be true it probably is.' There is a Bill Pulte investor in the cryptocurrency space that is promising to give away money — Twitter needs to investigate," one person wrote on Monday. Another person tweeted: "This person has been creating accounts all over Twitter, trying to scam people out of crypto. Accounts keep cropping up replying to tweets from prominent people in the community — It's a scam." By the look of some of crypto Twitter's most popular posts today, it seems the company still hasn't received the message.

How Governments Steal Your Money and Conceal It Through Inflation

Dozens of countries all over the world have used the same trick called redenomination to hide how they have stolen their own citizens' money through inflation or hyperinflation. The next nation to try this economic sleight of hand is the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran Cuts Four Zeros From Hyperinflated Rial
According to recent media reports from Iran, the government in Tehran last week approved a major change to the country's fiat currency presented by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) back in January. Four zeros will be cut from the Iranian rial and it will also be completely replaced, gradually and over a two-year period, by a new currency going by an ancient name, the toman.

"The council of ministers, at a meeting presided by President Hassan Rouhani this morning, approved the central bank's proposed bill to change the national currency from the rial to the toman and delete four zeros," the Fars news agency reported on Wednesday. This decision was made "to maintain the efficiency of the national currency and facilitate and restore the role of cash instruments in domestic monetary transactions," Fars added.

The Persian toman was used in the country until 1932 when it was replaced by the rial as the official currency. Out of habit, the people of Iran still use it as a monetary unit to this day to mean 10 rials, exactly at the rate it was replaced at almost 90 years ago. However, the new toman will be worth 100 rials, creating in effect another tenfold redenomination of the Iranian currency.

The real reason for the Iranian government's move is that the rial has been suffering from severe inflation in the last couple of years, dropping to exchange rates as low as 190,000 rials per US dollar last September. During 2018 alone it has lost about 60% of its purchasing power, wiping out most of the value of people's savings and earnings.

This process started in December 2017 when the Iranian government decided to cut interest rates on savings accounts in an effort to boost exports. It was kicked into high gear with the help of another round of U.S. financial sanctions over the country's nuclear program.

The Iranian government later tried to correct course but its actions have been mostly futile and some have even backfired. For example, setting the official exchange rate at about 45,000 rials to USD caused a new online black market to spring up where people now use instant messaging apps to trade at real prices outside the control of the government and its approved money changers.

A Long History of Hiding Failure
Iran did not invent the idea of cutting zeros off its currency to hide its diminishing worth, of course, and it is just the latest in a long line of countries that have done the same over the years. In fact, fiat redenominations have being going on for over a century now, with some countries doing it over and over again whenever inflation pops up such as Brazil and Argentina. Sometimes it has coincided with an improvement of the local economy but often it has merely hastened its approaching collapse. In recent years this has been most notable in the case of countries suffering from hyperinflation such as Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

In February 2009 the government of Zimbabwe decided to cut 12 zeros from its currency, after the Zimbabwe dollar set a new world record in hyperinflation estimated to be in the billions of percent. This meant that 1 trillion in old Zimbabwe dollars was at once made equivalent to just one new Zimbabwe dollar. The step was taken after the old currency became basically useless as money, with even the highest notes of 100 trillion dollars not worth enough to buy a single loaf of bread. Just the year before, Zimbabwe already cut 10 zeros off its currency.

In August 2018 the Venezuelan government removed five zeros off its fiat as President Nicolas Maduro decided that the new "sovereign bolivar" would officially be worth 100,000 times the older bolivar. Just 10 years prior, Venezuela cut three zeros off its currency. Maduro also claims that the sovereign bolivar is backed by the dubious petro cryptocurrency he created.

Why Redenomination Fails to Make an Impact
Governments and central banks present several reasons for making such drastic redenominations. Some are practical, such as saving people the trouble of having to use a wheelbarrow full of paper money just to get a loaf of bread to feed their family.

Others are purely psychological, such as restoring ordinary people's confidence in the national economy by making the currency look like it's worth more in international terms. These appear to be more honest, as the real purpose is after all to hide the fact that the people in power have wiped out national savings through disastrous policies such as endless money printing.

According to economic research, redenomination has a long term impact on an economy only when it is accompanied by strong anti-inflationary financial steps and the removal of the economic policies causing the problem to begin with. Otherwise, the practice can backfire as people will see that the government can just remove as many zeros as it wants but inflation will keep biting, causing the populace to lose confidence and flee to more stable monetary options, further depressing the value of the local currency.

In the long term, the only foreseeable solution to preventing hyperinflation is to take the power to print money away from the state by transitioning to an inflation-resistant cryptocurrency-based monetary system.