An infamous Bitcoin ‘whale’ has moved an enormous cryptocurrency fortune in a single transaction, and the network charged less than $4 in fees.
“Loaded” is an old-school investor famous for their posts on mainstay forum BitcoinTalk . They’ve held 40,000 BTC for years , and every so often, they move it around.
This time, the Bitcoin blockchain charged Loaded just 0.00074227 BTC ($3.93) to send $211.9 million worth of censorship-resistant digital money.
Loaded uses ‘SegWit’ Bitcoin address for cheap fees
Bitcoin’s price was still above $11,000 when Loaded moved 40,000 BTC ($435 million) in January 2018. Back then, they paid a slightly smaller fee of 0.0001 BTC ($1.09) for the transaction.
Seemingly, fees have increased since last year. In the case of Bitcoin, users decide their own network fees, unlike major payment networks like Visa and Mastercard that often charge set amounts to use their centralized systems.
Loaded’s Bitcoin address is actually a little bit special. It starts with “bc1,” which means it uses Segregated Witness (SegWit) technology.
SegWit stretches Bitcoin‘s ‘ block size limit ‘ from 1MB to around 4MB . This allows miners to fit more transactions into a single block, so more can be confirmed simultaneously.
For SegWit users, this makes for smaller fees, while Bitcoin‘s backlog of unconfirmed transactions shrinks as users (and wallets) adopt the scaling tech.
Still, this serves as a simple reminder: Bitcoin is truly a “peer-to-peer electronic cash system” that allows hundreds of millions of dollars to be transferred without permission from anyone, and for just a couple of bucks at a time.
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China takes top spot with 25% of world’s blockchain projects
China appears to be edging ahead as a world leader in blockchain technology.
As of November last year, the country was leading the world with 263 active blockchain projects, Chinaogn reports . Indeed, China accounts for about 25 percent of all blockchain projects, according to figures from Beijing-based data service provider Blockdata.
Beijing think tank, EO Intelligence, reported in December that there were 615 blockchain companies in China. Half of those are developing blockchain technologies for the financial industry.
Earlier this year, Hard Fork found that China is also leading the world with the number of patents on blockchain tech. Narrowly beating the US by 28 patents.
Indeed, it’s not entirely surprising that China is ploughing ahead with decentralized tech. Despite banning initial coin offerings , Chinese president Xi Jinping endorsed blockchain tech last year, echoing the popular “ blockchain, not Bitcoin ” argument .
The Chinese government has focused on nurturing blockchain tech. The country has seen an exponential rise in the number of blockchain companies, with at least 100 startups emerging just in 2017.
Despite this increase, China is not letting the industry run wild. Back in February it implemented new regulations that require blockchain service providers to be registered with the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC).
The first 197 companies to register and be regulated as “blockchain providers” were announced last week; among others, the list featured tech local tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.
Last August, a PwC report of 600 executives from 14 nations saw the US as world leaders when it came to blockchain tech. Although China came in second, the report said the country’s expected to take the lead by 2023. With today’s news, it seems China is running well ahead of schedule.
Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019 , our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out .
Bitfinex: NYAG cited no authority to demand Tether documents
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is dead set on holding on to its documents despite objections from the office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG).
Bitfinex, Tether and several other related companies said that a request made by the NYAG with regards to a $900 million inter-company loan should be dismissed, states a letter sent to the New York Supreme Court yesterday.
It comes after the NYAG’s office said last week that Bitfinex should be getting ready to provide necessary documentation once its court-granted reprieve ends.
Lawyers representing Bitfinex say the NYAG failed to cite any authority supporting its request. The lawyers also take issue with allegations that Bitfinex was stalling on its court -ordered document production requirements.
“OAG’s [Office of Attorney General] allegations concerning delay are in all events misleading, and unfairly attack the motives of the Respondents and their counsel,” the letter notes.
The cryptocurrency exchange has been battling legal action for the past six-months, after the NYAG’s office said in April that Bitfinex lost access to $850 million held by third-party payment processor Crypto Capital, and covered up the losses by borrowing from Tether ‘s reserves.
In response, Bitfinex raised $1 billion in 10 days by selling LEO tokens in an initial exchange offering (IEO) back in May. The exchange said it hoped the money would alleviate concerns of its financial stability and potentially cover the loss of assets frozen during investigations into Crypto Capital.
Just this weekend, a new class action lawsuit alleged Bitfinex and Tether caused the cryptocurrency market trillions of dollars worth of damage as a result of using Tether‘s stablecoin to manipulate the Bitcoin market — but it’s still unclear whether those claims hold any weight.
H/T CoinDesk
