Factom and Tether enter into a partnership to share each other’s Bitcoin 2.0 tech, Reddit announces that its merchandise store is now accepting bitcoin, and more top stories for March 10.

Factom and Tether Announce Partnership

Two of the leading Bitcoin 2.0 companies, Factom and Tether, have announced that they have entered into a partnership to share each other’s technologies. Factom has made headlines because it allows large sets of data to be stored in the blockchain, while Tether “pegs” bitcoin, the currency, to fiat through a token currency.

Reeve Collins, Co-Founder and CEO of Tether, said:

“With Factom integration, Tether.to wallet users can take comfort knowing that transactions will be forever etched into Bitcoin’s rock-solid blockchain for public inspection.”

Reddit Accepts Bitcoin for Merchandise

Reddit announced on Twitter that its merchandise store, RedditMarket, is now accepting bitcoin. The long-awaited decision was well received on both r/bitcoin and Twitter, as Reddit is not only a popular Bitcoin hub but was also one of the first big names to start accepting the cryptocurrency for Gold subscriptions back in 2012.

Threshold Signatures are a ‘Significant Milestone’ in Bitcoin Security

A group of six researchers from the City University of New York, Princeton University and Stanford University, released a paper on March 8, introducing the first threshold signature scheme compatible with Bitcoin's ECDSA signatures. Qualified as "stealth multi-signature," threshold signature is said to become a standard for Bitcoin wallet security and holds the promise of overcoming the limits of multi-signature wallets.

The paper reads:

"Instead [of using multi-signature] we observe that joint control can be accomplished using threshold signatures. In a threshold signature scheme, the ability to construct a signature is distributed among n participants, or players, each of whom receives a share of the private signing key."

Threshold Signatures are a ‘Significant Milestone’ in Bitcoin Security

Bitcoin as a Hedge against Economic Uncertainty (Op-Ed)

In an op-ed for Cointelegraph, Travis Patron argues that bitcoin is not only a very good store of wealth, but a required hedge against the current global monetary system.

Patron:

“As a store of wealth, bitcoin may currently be volatile, but in an age where we are ever-approaching the denationalization of money, I daresay it is not only an excellent store of wealth, but a necessary consideration. Bitcoin as a hedge against economic uncertainty can exist simultaneously as an uncertain store of wealth.”

Bitcoin as a Hedge against Economic Uncertainty (Op-Ed)

Heartland Payment Systems Collaborates with BitPay

BitPay announced the establishment of a new referral program with one of the largest payment processors in the United States: Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland offers point of sale, mobile commerce, e-Commerce, marketing, and payroll solutions to their network of over 300,000 businesses and educational locations. Heartland is now referring their customers to BitPay’s payment platform, while BitPay helps Heartland bring bitcoin payment technology to businesses and organizations that are interested in new payment methods.

Bitcoin trending on Wikipedia

Bitcoin had a big week on the free internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. With over two million views and a growth of 3643%, the Bitcoin wiki was among the wiki-pages with the fastest growing number of visitors, which in turn was the cause of some buzz over at r/bitcoin. It is unclear what exactly caused the uptrend, although it has been suggested that the news regarding the uTorrent malware has something to do with it.

Bitcoin Social Network ZapChain Launches Micropayments Tool

Bitcoin-centric social network ZapChain is once again enabling micropayments with the launch of a new in-house tipping mechanism. The announcement finds ZapChain furthering its attempts to experiment with content monetization, following Coinbase’s decision to end its tipping service in February.

ZapChain investor and Boost VC CEO Adam Draper said:

"Microtransactions might be a new way for web content creators to make money. It could be a game changer."

Dumb vs. Smart: Which Network is Better for Bitcoin

Communication mediums in a network are not generally “smart.” The network itself, like the internet, only sends packets from one end to the other without caring what these packets actually are. In a technical analysis for Cointelegraph, Alireza Beikverdi investigates whether a “dumb” or a smart network would be best for Bitcoin.

Beikverdi:

“Bitcoin is dumb and that’s precisely why people love it, because we are all offered the same chance and opportunity to build smart services on top of it without being hindered by the rigidness and inertia of centralized control.”

Dumb vs. Smart: Which Network is Better for Bitcoin

Cointelegraph UK Launched

And, last but not least, Cointelegraph UK has officially announced its partnership with the leading source of digital currency and crypto industry related news in the world: Cointelegraph!

In its launch article, Cointelegraph UK writes:

“Cointelegraph UK was created to fill an open a void regarding Bitcoin coverage in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The United Kingdom has a long history of leading the way in financial innovation including the creation of the first insurance market and the invention of joint stock companies’ centuries ago.

With its government’s commitment to cement Britain’s position as the center of global finance, the UK is aiming to and has the potential to become the global center of digital finance, with the highest number of global crypto related industries setting their base up here.”

Cointelegraph UK Launched

Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones: