{"id":4760,"date":"2018-02-05T22:50:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T22:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=4760"},"modified":"2018-02-05T22:52:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T22:52:24","slug":"news-china-blocks-cryptos-uk-banks-block-cryptos-nyt-on-frauds-lightning-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/02\/05\/news-china-blocks-cryptos-uk-banks-block-cryptos-nyt-on-frauds-lightning-network\/","title":{"rendered":"News: China blocks cryptos, UK banks block cryptos, NYT on frauds, Lightning Network"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>On this rollercoaster day for Bitcoin, which I have indeed spent <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/02\/03\/notes-from-the-crash-watching-the-bitcoin-pumps-and-dumps-live-on-gdax\/\">nailed to the GDAX Comedy Channel,<\/a> here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Main_Page\">front page of English Wikipedia,<\/a> today&#8217;s &#8220;On This Day&#8221; section:<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/02\/05\/news-china-blocks-cryptos-uk-banks-block-cryptos-nyt-on-frauds-lightning-network\/wikipedia-on-this-day-2018-02-05\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4770\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/wikipedia-on-this-day-2018-02-05.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"306\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/wikipedia-on-this-day-2018-02-05.png 499w, https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/wikipedia-on-this-day-2018-02-05-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>China is thoroughly sick of crypto trading &mdash; having shut down local exchanges, they will now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/business\/banking-finance\/article\/2132009\/china-stamp-out-cryptocurrency-trading-completely-ban\">block access to outside exchanges.<\/a> This comes after the PBOC ordered financial institutions to stop funding anything crypto-related. This also puts further pressure on the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/01\/06\/bitcoin-mining-being-pushed-out-of-china-whats-happening-and-how-the-shutdowns-being-managed\/\">remaining Chinese miners.<\/a><\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>UK banks start <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-42940728\">blocking credit card purchases of cryptocurrency<\/a> &mdash; Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA &mdash; in the wake of several American credit card providers <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2018\/02\/03\/news-nicehash-credit-cards-cut-off-cryptos-ethereum-predictable-random-numbers-deanonymising-tor-bail-bloc\/\">doing the same.<\/a> News broken by Simon Jones from the BBC <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SimonJonesNews\/status\/960294949773348864\">last night.<\/a> It turns out that people who buy Bitcoin at the peak on a 21% interest card aren&#8217;t such a good credit risk. Note that you can still use your <i>debit<\/i> card &mdash; because that&#8217;s your money, not the bank&#8217;s.<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Nathaniel Popper at the New York Times writes up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/05\/technology\/virtual-currency-regulation.html\">the ridiculous scamminess of the crypto market<\/a>, which I&#8217;m pretty sure he&#8217;s been wanting to write up for the past year, in the face of editors who are bored by anything more detailed than &#8220;number go up.&#8221; GOSH IT&#8217;S ALMOST AS IF I TOLD YOU SO, LOUDLY, CLEARLY AND REPEATEDLY. DID I OR DID I NOT TELL YOU SO? WHY I DO BELIEVE THAT <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\">INDEED I DID.<\/a><\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Ars Technica runs <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2018\/02\/bitcoins-lightning-network-a-deep-dive\/\">a comprehensive overview of the Lightning Network.<\/a> The author seems to think he&#8217;s being hugely positive, and actually ends up detailing everything wrong with it. The commenters are thoroughly unconvinced: &#8220;This looks to be an overly complicated solution that has to go through loops and hoops (and a lot of bandaids) to fix things.&#8221;<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>One Redditor has hit the darknet research chemicals a bit hard and penned what is truly <a href=\"https:\/\/np.reddit.com\/r\/Bitcoin\/comments\/7vczec\/2018_2030_the_grand_battle_between_bitcoin\/\">the &#8220;Kubla Khan&#8221; of our age.<\/a> Now, you might be wishing for an international fiat bankster from Porlock &#8230;<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Bryce Elder has written the very best <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BryceElder\/status\/959770192107601920\">Bitcoin explainer.<\/a> Guaranteed $100% accurate.<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"und\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qsTqINrjCf\">pic.twitter.com\/qsTqINrjCf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/960613748879843329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#39;ve seen things you HODLers wouldn&#39;t believe. Mining rigs on fire off the banks of the Yangtze. I&#39;ve watched sell walls vanish in the dark on the Bitfinex chart. All those moments will be lost in time, like your imaginary Lamborghini this afternoon. Time for popcorn.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Z80 Inside (@raynerlucas) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/raynerlucas\/status\/960601942325161986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 5, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a watershed day for Bitcoin, and &#8230; oh, that&#8217;s not water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[100,233,6,457],"class_list":["post-4760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-china","tag-lightning-network","tag-links","tag-united-kingdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4760"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4778,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4760\/revisions\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}