The Bitcoin Core client version which provides “full support” to Segregated Witness (‘SegWit’) scaling technology finally received its official release Monday, Feb. 26. A circular to the Core mailing list confirms the raft of upgrades in addition to the historic SegWit move, the forthcoming release having been announced on Github earlier this month. “This is a new major version release, including new features, various bugfixes and performance improvements, as well as updated translations,” the circular reads echoing the Github announcement. Core Developer Peter Todd was among official sources confirming the release. ...and good timing, Bitcoin Core v0.16.0 has been officially …

Exchange and wallet service Coinbase and its professional trading platform Global Digital Asset Exchange GDAX both announced they had implemented Segregated Witness (SegWit) support for Bitcoin transactions in blog posts published Friday, Feb. 23. In their blog pos, GDAX characterizes SegWit technology as “a critical step forward in the development of Bitcoin” and promises support for SegWit transactions will be made available to 100% of their customers “over the coming days”. Coinbase also said they would be rolling out support for all customers over the next week. SegWit technology is designed to reduce transactions times and fees on the Bitcoin …

Jimmy Song, Bitcoin developer and venture partner at Blockchain Capital, has announced a new initiative called Platypus Labs, designed to educate and compensate Bitcoin (BTC) cryptocurrency developers. Platypus Labs will focus on training developers to specifically work with Bitcoin Core, but it could eventually expand to covering developing other altcoins. Blockchain Capital will be funding the education endeavor, as Song sees their position in the Blockchain “ecosystem” as “having a connection to a lot of different companies while maintaining independence.” As to where the inspiration came from for Platypus Labs, Song told Cointelegraph, “Part of my joining Blockchain Capital was …

Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen today proposed a hard fork change for Bitcoin XT in order to allow for an increased block size limit on the Bitcoin network. So far, however, it has failed to appease most critics of his previous proposals to increase the block size limit. Hard Fork It is widely agreed that at some point an increase of the block size limit will be needed to allow the Bitcoin network to handle more than seven transactions per second. The Bitcoin Core development team, however, has so far not been able to reach consensus on the correct timing …

Of all Bitcoin web-wallet providers as listed on bitcoin.org, Blockchain.info, Coinbase and Xapo are in favor of raising Bitcoin's block size limit from 1 to 20 megabytes as advised by Bitcoin Core developer Gavin Andresen, while Coinkite and GreenAddress have come out against the proposal. This means that Bitcoin's major wallet providers based on venture capital investments as well as the total amount of users – Blockchain.info, Coinbase and Xapo - all agree on Andresen's proposal to raise the maximum size of Bitcoin blocks to 20 megabytes. But with Coinkite and GreenAddress opposing the idea, an industry consensus remains out …

In an announcement made on the Bitcoin development mailing list, Bitcoin core developer and Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen suggested that, if the development community could reach no consensus on increasing the one-megabyte block size limit, he would shift his efforts from the main Bitcoin implementation (Bitcoin core) to the alternative Bitcoin-Xt implementation. Such a move could represent a watershed moment for Bitcoin as a whole, as it would mean that its former lead developer would effectively leave his own project to join a forked version. Bitcoin-Xt is a patch placed on top of Bitcoin core and developed by …

Peter Todd, a Bitcoin core developer has outlined his view that more regulation on all levels is on the way for the digital currency sector; Stellar adopts SCP protocol proposed by a Stanford professor; Gavin Andresen has called ex-Bitcoin Foundation board members Shrem and Karpeles a “black eye” for the organization, and other top stories for April 16. Peter Todd expects greater, and more in depth, government regulation of Bitcoin Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd warns that he expects increasing governmental regulation within the digital currency sector, not only at the level of exchanges and services, but possibly also within …

Nothing has changed since the funds in our possession have travelled from physical wallets made of leather and textile or porcelain piggybanks to online wallets created from intangible matters. The keeping principle is still the same – the secret and even intimate carrier has to be reliable, safe and private. No holes, especially cryptographic, can be tolerated. Types of Bitcoin Wallets Let us make the first stop at the types of wallets presented to the Bitcoin users. One of the widely used classifications divides all of them in three main groups: Desktop wallets. Mobile wallets. Internet wallets. Each has to …