Bitcoin’s Latest Record Is Thanks to a Big Speed Breakthrough - Bloomberg

Bitcoin’s Latest Record Is Thanks to a Big Speed Breakthrough

Bloomberg

Aug 14, 2017

Bitcoin soared past $4,000 for the first time on growing optimism faster transaction times will hasten the spread of the cryptocurrency.

The largest digital tender jumped to a peak of $4,187 Monday, a gain of nearly 17 percent since Friday, after a plan to quicken trade execution by moving some data off the main network was activated last week. The solution -- termed SegWit2x -- had been so contentious that a new version of the asset called Bitcoin Cash was spun off earlier this month in opposition.

The split grew out of the tension between growing demand for the virtual currency and some of the design features that had fueled that popularity -- the decentralized verification procedures that ensured against hacking and government oversight. While this month’s confrontation ended up as little more than a speed bump in bitcoin’s more than 300 percent rally in 2017, concerns remain around the capacity to increase transaction volumes.

“Up until now a lot of people didn’t really believe bitcoin could go any higher until the scaling issue is resolved,” said Arthur Hayes, Hong Kong-based founder of bitcoin exchange BitMEX. “With this actually being implemented on protocol, theoretically the amount of transactions that can be processed at a reasonable speed is going to be much higher, so a lot of people are very bullish about bitcoin now.”

Because of a cap on the amount of data processed by bitcoin’s blockchain, transactions started to slow as its popularity boomed. The community was then divided between the SegWit2x solution backed by a group of developers and another supported by miners that sought a larger increase in the block size. The latter then became Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin Cash, whose price has retreated since peaking right after its birth, has neither disrupted its progenitor’s operations nor undercut its appeal.

While SegWit2x has garnered enough support for activation, challenges remain. Its next stage involves doubling the block size to 2 megabytes some time in November, a possibility that’s still mired in debate. Reduced support could thwart this step, with some arguing that Bitcoin Cash -- with a block size of 8 megabytes -- has obviated the need for another “hard fork” to upgrade the bitcoin again, Hayes said.

The cryptocurrency’s staggering price surge has bolstered related businesses. Digital currency exchange Coinbase Inc. announced Thursday it’s received a $100 million investment. The supply of bitcoin is capped at 21 million, compared with 16.5 million that had been mined as of Saturday, according to blockchain.info.“People are starting to price in the consumer demand from Coinbase’s $100 million fund-raising round,” said Justin Short, London-based founder of trading platform Nous. “That’s a lot of advertising budget. Every $1 million of marketing brings new demand, which increases the price as the supply is limited by design.”

Assessing a new leader’s progress after 100 days is not an arbitrary exercise - Independent

Assessing a new leader’s progress after 100 days is not an arbitrary exercise. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously highlighted his achievements after this time period in a 1933 summer radio broadcast, saying it had been “devoted to the starting of the wheels of the New Deal”. Since then, ambitious commentators have often tried to gauge the effectiveness of an administration after just over three months.

In France, Emmanuel Macron reaches the 100th day anniversary of his astonishing presidential election win today. It is of course a cue for enemies to try to rip his reputation to shreds. Traditionalists from both left and right are naturally antipathetic towards a newcomer who in May humiliated both the governing Socialists and opposition Republicans. The former now portray Macron as an ex-banker turned amoral tool of big business, while the latter think he is a puny media creation who will fall apart when faced with his first real challenge.

The reality is that Macron fulfils none of these laboured caricatures. On the contrary, he has already shown he is ready to take on vested interests, and to transform society in a manner that none of his predecessors were able to do. Those sniping boorishly at the 39-year-old’s much older wife, Brigitte Macron, or his huge enthusiasm for the EU, might well have missed some key summer developments that will have a profound effect on the immediate future of France.

In August – the month when blubbery heads of state are normally photographed on Riviera beaches before appearing in Paris Match feature spreads – a parliament dominated by Macron’s REM! party (The Republic on the Move!) passed a law aimed at creating more jobs. The legislation will liberalise the labour market by giving employers more power to negotiate working conditions at a local level, rather than according to industry-wide agreements.

Just as crucially, the initiative guarantees that trade unions are involved, so introducing the consensus that is such an important part of Macron’s overall project. In a country where us-and-them apathy is blamed for leaving close to three-and-a-half million people out of work, the President has made a united effort to reduce unemployment his priority.

Long-overdue institutional changes have also included a bill to prevent politicians from hiring direct family members. “Penelopegate” – the scandal that saw conservative presidential hopeful François Fillon accused of channelling hundreds of thousands in taxpayers’ money to his British wife Penelope Fillon – was a prime example of how “serving one’s own” has perhaps been a prevalent maxim in French public life for far too long. This is one of the main reasons for France’s relative stagnation in recent decades, and it is high time somebody ended it, and the sleaze with which it is associated.

Emmanuel Macron is already unpopular after three months in office

Beyond proving himself a skilled technocrat – somebody who can turn ambitious domestic pledges into reality – Macron is also working hard to boost France’s standing overseas. He has just helped bring the 2024 Olympics to Paris following the humiliation of losing the 2012 bid to London, for example. Thus the indisputably clean-cut Macron is attempting to combine patriotic panache with a sense of morality. Unlike the last two presidents, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, he demonstrates no inclination towards dedicating large chunks of his time in office to a racy love life, or to pushing for personal gains in any way.

I had just interviewed Macron in Paris on the eve of his election victory, when news came in that Russian hackers had accessed thousands of emails and files related to his campaign. Much of this once confidential data has now been made public in a WikiLeaks dump, but reveals no controversy whatsoever.

In contrast, the resolutely vulgar Sarkozy is, like his former colleague Fillon, also charged with obtaining money illegally. Jacques Chirac, the Gaullist president before Sarkozy, was tried and convicted for embezzling state funds. Go back as far as François Mitterrand, the last Socialist chef d’état before Hollande, and you will find another thoroughly shady character who kept a mistress and child on the public purse.

Of course Macron is making mistakes. Many think he is too reactionary in terms of foreign policy, especially after his crass references to African women having too many babies, and indications that he could accept murderous dictator Bashar al-Assad’s continued rule if it meant bringing some kind of peace in Syria. This sense of pandering to callous zealots was furthered by his glad-handling of alt-right populist US President Donald Trump and far-right hawk Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is regularly accused of war crimes against the Palestinian people – during the two men’s respective visits to France in July.

Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a selfie video with Emmanuel Macron talking about a clean energy future

Some are also critical of the way in which Macron, the supreme head of all French military, forced the resignation of army chief Pierre de Villiers by disrespecting him in discussions over budget cuts. Macron was certainly brash and confrontational, although one would expect that de Villiers, a veteran of theatres of war including Afghanistan, should get over it.

No, Macron is not on the fast track to becoming a French Roosevelt. Yes, we are likely to see plenty of fierce street protests against his new policies by September at the latest, and his popularity ratings will continue to slide. Running France is a thankless task and Macron’s schoolboy looks and can-do demeanour are bound to fade.

However, the 25th President of France has immense respect for the institution of the presidency. He will still only be in his 40s if he completes two terms – a feat that the often comically inept “bling-bling” Sarko and “flanby” Hollande never got close to – and won’t just cruise towards a cushy retirement. If we have learned anything from his first 100 days, it is that Emmanuel Macron is a determined reformer who really does want to get the wheels of a new deal for his ailing country spinning as quickly as possible

Trump adviser emails show attempts to set up Russia meeting, report says - CBS News

Trump adviser emails show attempts to set up Russia meeting, report says

Three days after then-candidate Donald Trump appointed his foreign policy team in March 2016, adviser George Papadopoulos emailed seven campaign officials with the subject line "Meeting with Russian Leadership -- Including Putin," according to a report from The Washington Post.

Papadopoulos offered to facilitate "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump," according to internal campaign emails read to The Post. The emails also expressed that Papadopoulos' Russian contacts welcomed the potential meeting.

The conversations are recorded as part of the more than 20,000 pages of documents forfeited this month to congressional committees by the Trump campaign after they were reviewed by White House and defense lawyers. The selection pertaining to Papadopoulos' emails were read to The Post by a person with access to them, and portions of the text were confirmed by two additional sources who also had access to the exchanges.

Special Counsel is using grand jury in Russia probe

Papadopoulos' proposed meeting set off a chain of concerned reactions from Trump campaign officials. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis suggested discussing with NATO allies before making any plans to meet with the Russians and adviser Charles Kubic expressed a variety of legal concerns, citing the Logan act, which prohibits citizens from participating in unauthorized negotiations with foreign governments.

Then-campaign manager Paul Manafort rejected one of Papadopoulos' requests in May 2016 for Mr. Trump to participate in a Russian meeting. At the time, the Trump campaign was focused on securing Mr. Trump's position as the Republican Party's candidate.

Eschewing the concerns of more experienced campaign advisers, Papadopoulos persisted in suggesting the meeting. Between March and September, he sent at least six requests for Mr. Trump or his team members to meet with Russian officials.

It is unclear from Papadopoulos' emails what benefit the Trump campaign would reap from meeting with the Russian government.

Three months following Papadopoulos' proposed meeting, Mr. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Manafort met at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a Kremlin-connected lawyer after being promised potentially damaging information on former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Trump Jr. claimed that his father did not have knowledge of the meeting.

That meeting, in addition to several other Trump campaign communications, are now under the scrutiny of the Special Counsel led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller assigned to investigate potential Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In July 2016, then-senator and Trump foreign policy adviser Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak-- a meeting he has since disclosed in his recusal from any Russia-related investigation into the Trump campaign. In the same month, Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page spoke at an event at a university in Moscow, although he claims the speech was independent of the Trump campaign.

Following his previous efforts, Papadopoulos reached out to then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski to explain that he was receiving "a lot of calls over the past month" about arranging a meeting between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government.

"Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right," Papadopoulos wrote on April 27, according to The Post.

A week later, Papadopoulos forwarded a note from the leader of the government-funded Russian International Affairs Council on to Lewandowski and others.

In the forwarded message, a senior official to the Russian International Affairs Council Ivan Timofeev explained that Russian foreign ministry officials welcomed a visit from Mr. Trump to Moscow. Timofeev also requested that the Trump campaign coordinate with the Russians to outline a formal letter regarding the meeting.

Clovis responded that, "There are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen," and there is no apparent response from Lewandowski, according to The Post.

Papadopoulos later forwarded the same Timofeev message to Manafort.

"Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss," he told Manafort, The Post reports.

"We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips," Manafort responded while forwarding the email to his deputy Rick Gates, who agreed with Manafort on the subject.

Timofeev confirmed that his organization had discussed a potential meeting with the Trump campaign.

"We discussed the idea informally as one of the opportunities for . . . dialogue between Russia and the U.S.," Timofeev said to The Post in an email. "RIAC often hosts meetings with prominent political figures and experts from the US and many other countries.," he said, noting that his organization would have been open to meeting with other presidential candidates' campaigns.