ethbox is the best security and privacy platform on the market for your transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. More people are using ETH these days to pay for services, purchase goods and more—but security is important.

While there are other privacy-based coins like Monero—hardly anyone uses these. They aren’t common coins for major transactions. ETH is fast becoming one of the most-used currencies on the planet, for all sorts of reasons but make sure your transactions are completely secure, at all times.

With ethbox, you’ve got all the protection you need to safely send and receive ETH affordably and securely.

ethbox uses a two-factor security protocol to keep transactions extra secure. All transactions use the ethbox smart contract to authenticate information about the transaction. For a small additional fee, ethbox also makes sure important information about the transaction isn’t made public on the internet (unlike many other solutions). The address of the sender and receiver of funds are obscured so that nobody else knows who they are. In any normal transaction, this sort of information is shown publicly, and it doesn’t create the safest way to send and receive ETH.

The use of a passphrase is crucial for providing the next level of security for ethbox users.

The passphrase can’t be stored in clear-text as this would not be secure, as the data in the smart contract can be viewed by anyone. To get around this, the smart contract stores the hash value of the passphrase.

Initial inputs that created the hash are impossible to retrieve and make the passphrases completely secure.

Passwords that are stored on databases without this kind of encryption can be hacked and retrieved. With ethbox, hacking is impossible and only the right people can access funds and complete transactions.

Using a Keccak-256 / SHA-3 hash value to encrypt passphrases, it’s impossible to reverse the process to unlock a passphrase.

These key features are actually underlying parts of Ethereum blockchain technology, so ethbox works perfectly in this setting—making passphrases unbreakable.

ethbox is able to validate any passphrase that it is told by a user without knowing the actual passphrase, an advantage over many other password protection protocols. This keeps it completely secure without the need for 3rd parties.

For users to retrieve funds, they’ll be required to enter the passphrase correctly. ethbox will compute this passphrase’s hash with the hash of the correct phrase it has stored in the smart contract, without the actual passphrase ever being known or made public.

ethbox offers the strongest protections in the world. Estimates show that while a brute-force attack might be theoretically possible, this would take around 10,000 years to actually work. That means breaking ethbox encryption is practically impossible.

On top of having the securest ETH transaction solution available, ethbox offers fees that are  affordable and even free for smaller transactions.

Ethereum is the biggest development platform in the crypto industry, but its inability to scale and meet demand is beginning to take its toll. Due to the growing fees, the TRON blockchain has become a much more popular network — useful not only for buying TRX, but also for small Tether (USDT) transactions.

According to recent data, the number of USDT transactions on TRON has surged recently. In fact, it has gone up enough to pass Ethereum’s count for as many as three consecutive weeks.

It is believed that the reason for this is Ethereum’s gas fees, which remain quite high. As such, they are only affordable and sensible for those who have larger transactions to process. There are still quite a few users willing to pay elevated prices of the Ethereum network. For the last month, ETH has had around 1.5 million weekly transactions.

However, users who wish to invest in cryptocurrency in smaller quantities have turned to TRON. This is quite clear from the project’s transaction count, which skyrocketed from 900,000 in mid-December, to almost 2 million per week in mid-January.

According to Coin Metrics, the reason for this is the high price of fees, which tend to go as high up as to reach prices above $19. Currently, the fees sit just below $8. However, while below the all-time high, that is still considered very high for the crypto industry, where millions of dollars can be processed for barely a few cents.

Another crypto data firm, Blockchair, noted that fees have surpassed 0.015 ETH several times in the last month. As it were, crypto users do not wish to spend their money on paying high fees, which is why they shift to a cheaper network — TRON’s.

Ethereum still processes a greater volume of USDT than TRON, meaning that only those who transact smaller amounts are migrating to the rivaling blockchain.

Tether’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino, said that it is logical for smaller transactors to use TRON, especially as the younger project saw good adoption on exchanges. TRON, of course, is not the only alternative, but it seems to offer the best conditions when it comes to network effects, usability, and low fees.

Ethereum’s title as the most active blockchain network is becoming increasingly reinforced as network activity on the chain is now fully ahead of Bitcoin. Stablecoin and decentralized finance (DeFi) transactions continue to catapult Ethereum’s economic activity count but often at the expense of high gas costs leading to renewed clamor for Layer-2 (L2) solutions that could offer significant savings on fees.

Tweeting on Tuesday (Jan. 19, 2021) Ryan Watkins, a researcher at Crypto research outfit Messari revealed that Ethereum’s daily transaction was in excess of $12 billion. This figure puts the second-ranked crypto by market capitalization at the pinnacle of blockchain activity, even exceeding Bitcoin’s commercial activity by more than $3 billion.

It now settles $12 billion in transactions daily – $3 billion more than Bitcoin.

Imagine not being bullish $ETH. pic.twitter.com/3NfOz1ruiM

— Ryan Watkins (@RyanWatkins_) January 19, 2021

Since late June 2020, Ethereum had flipped Bitcoin as the blockchain settling the most transactions. This period coincided with the Summer 2020 DeFi boom that began with liquidity mining on DeFi protocols leading to increased levels of activity.

Indeed, DeFi and the need for decentralized exchanges (DEX) handling more volume has expanded the utility for Ethereum and by extension, its native token ETH. DEX volumes were on a tear for most of Q3 2020 with automated market makers like Uniswap accounting for the bulk of the transaction fees earned in the entire cryptocurrency market.

DeFi did experience a noticeable cooling off period in Q4 2020. Incessant rug pulling and other DeFi scams seemed to temporarily dampen enthusiasm in the novel sector. However, the market appears to be surging again on the back of the bullish crypto environment in play since Nov. 2020.

Apart from DeFi, the sheer volume of stablecoin activity has also boosted network activity on Ethereum. On the whole, this upswing in trading volume has led to instances of massive gas fees on the chain causing significant disruptions across the blockchain.

To mitigate the problem of high gas fees during periods of high network activity, stakeholders are calling for greater adoption of L-2 protocols. Solutions like zero-knowlegde rollups (zkRollups) are thought to hold the key to greater transaction throughput which could enhance Ethereum’s scalability.

By now, any cryptocurrency enthusiast is well aware that DeFi will reshape the worldwide financial market by enabling trustless money markets with unparalleled revenue opportunities, flexibility, and security. 

Every day, the market sees the ideation and deployment of next-gen protocols aiming to empower financial freedom. One such example is Freeliquid, a DeFi lending protocol that funds stablecoin credits using liquidity pool collateral, with no interest fees, stability fees, or risk of liquidation.  

Understanding Decentralized Finance Loans

While DeFi has a long road ahead, it has shown impressive capabilities for enabling passive income via liquidity pool participation in automated market makers (AMMs). Moreover, DeFi is increasingly being used for lending purposes, oftentimes by cryptocurrency traders and investors looking to tap into emerging market opportunities. Unlike the traditional banking sector, DeFi loans are free from infamous bureaucratic processes like credit checks, income checks, or identity checks. Since smart contracts rule over DeFi protocols, trustless, secure, and non-custodial operations are facilitated. 

So what’s the deal with DeFi loans? 

Simply put, traders with limited capital looking to access new market opportunities have two choices, with their decision being influenced by opportunity costs: 

The key takeaway here is that missing out on potential gains is never desired by DeFi enthusiasts, more so when coins are already yielding a yearly profit through the means of AMM-based liquidity pools. 

With Freeliquid , liquidity providers can now fund loans by collateralizing their LP tokens. In other words, the original APY is kept, and in most cases, increased considerably. 

Here’s How Freeliquid Works

As a DeFi lending protocol, Freeliquid seamlessly and instantaneously funds stablecoin loans corresponding to 90% of users’ liquidity pool share. All loans are given out in USDFL , a stablecoin that keeps its value close to that of the US Dollar. Since Freeliquid only collateralized stablecoin pools for assets like USDT, USDC, and DAI, there’s no risk of liquidation in light of price movements. Furthermore, lending is free, with users only having to pay for the corresponding gas fee. As soon as the USDFL debt is repaid, access to the original LPs is regained. 

To put this simpy, DeFi traders can reinvest their loans in liquidity pools, further boosting their APYs. Of course, USDFL usage decisions belong to the user, so if another opportunity arises, so be it! 

At this point in time, Freeliquid’s lending product is available on the Ethereum network, where it collateralizes stablecoin pool tokens on Uniswap and Curve Finance. 

However, the Ethereum blockchain has become infamous due to high gas costs that make smaller transactions impractical. Thus, it’s become the land of the big fish, being less appropriate for smaller-scale traders who are just dipping their toes in the DeFi oceans. With this being said, a recent governance community vote by FL token holders has established plans for an expansion to the Binance Smart Chain. 

With billions of liquidity on popular AMMs like PancakeSwap, BSC provides most of the same benefits of the Ethereum blockchain at a fraction of the cost. Most transaction fees are as low as 10% when compared to those running on ETH, so it only makes sense for Freeliquid to enable friction-less loans for BSC users as well. 

The expansion is scheduled for Q2 2021, and will come along with an ETH-BSC bridge designed to facilitate token interoperability between the two varying token standards. 

To learn more, check out Freeliquid’s website , Medium , Twitter , and Telegram communities.

Ethereum price Today – Ethereum‘s Hashrate Reaches New ATH Fueling ETH price Recovery

According to on-chain data analytics provider, Glassnode, Ethereum’s Hash Rate just reached an all-time high (ATH) of 532,411,759,741,113. As a Proof-of-Work (PoW) network, the hashrate is a measure of the processing power of the Ethereum blockchain. The hashrate specifically helps determines the number of times the network can attempt to complete a difficult mathematical puzzle every second, in order to add blocks of verified transactions to the blockchain.

The increasing hashrate as seen helps measures the network’s health, as the higher this rate, the greater the number of miners that will be needed to launch a 51% attack on the system, a highly unlikely situation.

Amidst the growing clamor for alternatives to Ethereum’s skyrocketing transaction fees, the burgeoning hashrate is an anchor for the network’s core believers.

Implications of the Increasing Hashrate on ETH price

The global cryptocurrency industry has a lot of factors that affect its growth per time, and while Ethereum is just one of many, the hashrate growth adequately coincides with a rise in the price of the digital currency.

On average, Ethereum traded at around $1,650 in the past week, joining to fuel an aggressive dip in the global cryptocurrency market capitalization. After dropping to a weekly low of $1,560.37, the coin is now exchanging hands at $1,710.43, up 2.32% at the time of writing according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum’s recovery is a well-backed one, and though there is a bit of correlation with Bitcoin, Ethereum bulls are confident in the positioning of the network as one of the most secure in the world. While awaiting the implementation of the EIP 1559 upgrade as well as the full rollout of the Ethereum 2.0, the future Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, Ethereum bulls will continue to hang on positive on-chain metrics such as the hashrate growth amongst others to continually resist the bearish dump-off.

To keep track of DeFi updates in real time, check out our DeFi news feed Here.

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Ethereum price Today – Ethereum‘s Hashrate Reaches New ATH Fueling ETH price Recovery

Let’s look into some top Ethereum (ETH) news from last week.

According to CryptoQuant’s (an on-chain database) “ETH: All Exchanges Reserve” chart, there is roughly 19.6 million ETH in reserve. This means there are roughly 19.6 million ETH held in all the exchanges’ wallets. Also, looking at the chart, we can see that this has continuously been declining for the last six months. This comes as no surprise as we are in the midst of a massive bull run. Individuals/institutions are moving their ETH off exchanges and into some sort of cold storage wallet or maybe staking platform.

In conclusion, as you can see from the chart, a decline in ETH exchange reserves tends to usually coincide with an increase in the price of ETH (USD). This is bullish for the future ETH price as it seems that the overall sentiment towards ETH’s long-term price potential is looking bright. In other words, ETH holders are “optimistic,” and fewer holders are looking to sell their ETH.

According to Santiment (another on-chain database), Ethereum is now seeing its highest level of GitHub submission rate since the start of this year. Briefly, Github is a code hosting platform (usually for developers) where individuals can collaborate on projects together from anywhere in the world. All this means is that development activity is increasing again on the Ethereum blockchain.

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 28, 2021

Santiment finds that when projects have an increasing (or consistently high) development rate, there tends to be an increase in the long-term price of the underlying asset. Santiment sees this as a sign that those linked closest to the project believe in the project and are optimistic for its future.

Lastly, taking a look at the chart above, Ethereum development activity last floated around this current development rate back on January 20th. As a result, the price of ETH went on to surge roughly 45% and top out at around $2,040 exactly a month later on February 20th. If history is any indication, maybe we see something similar for ETH’s price in April.

Uniswap – a decentralized exchange (DEX) run on the Ethereum blockchain – announced that the highly anticipated v3 update is expected to launch on May 5th. The v3 update will focus on keeping the DEX the most flexible and efficient automated market maker (AMM) ever created.

Some features of the v3 update:

On March 26th, Optimism announced that it has officially delayed the launch of its mainnet Ethereum scaling solution to July. In their blog post, Optimism stated that they were “overeager” to give everyone the speed and cost savings that Synthetix users have been enjoying. As a result, the expedited timeline took many projects by surprise because they did not provide adequate notice for the community to prepare for the launch.

Optimism is a Layer 2 (L2) scaling solution that allows for the Ethereum mainnet to be relieved from a large number of transactions it has to process. Optimism uses optimistic rollups in order to achieve lower fees and latency.

Litentry (a cross-chain identity aggregation protocol) has partnered with Bondly Finance for verification mechanisms with Ethereum accounts and Twitter accounts. Litentry plans to launch a new crypto social network product that will allow users to connect their Ethereum accounts with Twitter to get verified. Thus, with this integration, owners of NFTs will be able to claim ownership over their NFTs on Twitter through the linking of their digital assets.

At the time of publication, ETH price is currently $1,825.87, with a market cap of $210,525,044,205 and a 24-hour trading volume of $32,567,252,351.

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For more cryptocurrency news, check out the Altcoin Buzz YouTube channel.

In its quest to build trust among users and ensure stability on its platform, leading supply chain and enterprise-focused blockchain project, VeChain has rolled out an update of its Thor blockchain.  According to  on Github today, the Thor blockchain has been updated to V1.3.3 to rollout API updates that would enable users to check pending transactions on the platform conveniently.  In addition, Thor V1.3.3, which is only a maintenance update, has been designed to provide a fix to all the flaws experienced in previous versions, especially for bugs encountered during block producing, Vechain noted. The newly updated VeChain Thor blockchain features changes on the network’s customnet, as the project stated that it had been redesigned to accept bigint in hexadecimal string. The Thor blockchain has also been updated to improve solo in on-demand mode, as well as provide a fix for a minor bug that helps the master node to ignore “better block,” when it coincidentally receives two or more transactions that have the same number. Notably, the current API version of the Thor blockchain has been further improved to V1.3.2, thus improving the application that accesses the data on the Thor operating system.  VeChain, since its launch, has made remarkable upgrades to the Thor blockchain. In February, VeChain  by unveiling Thor V1.3.0 (Entropy) – an upgrade considered to be the most significant since the launch of its mainnet. The project’s constant upgrade has led the firm’s tech to get the needed recognition it deserves from reputable firms globally.  As Coinfomania reported in January, a leading online luxury marketplace, Reebonz had adopted the Thor blockchain  that would build trust and provide ownership tools to its members, via the use of digital certificates.   Never miss out on our daily crypto news, stories, tips, and price analysis.  Join us on Twitter | Telegram | Facebook or subscribe to our weekly Newsletter. 

Knowing what you have to pay to access a service is critical to judging the usefulness of any system. Here’s how you can check the current average transaction fees when make payments using BTC and BCH. Also Read: How to Earn BCH as a Bitcoin Bounty HunterCoin Dance is a cryptocurrency data website offering statistics about the performance of digital assets. The platform features a live chart for following daily average transaction fees. It shows the difference between the often volatile fees on the BTC network and the much more stable and affordable BCH fees.As the chart clearly shows, BTC fees have recently spiked. High fees were a major point of contention among the cryptocurrency community during the latest great rally and with prices going up again across the board we can expect the issue to return to the forefront. Checking this chart on Coin Dance will allow you to stay informed and take part in the discussion using hard data.What do you think about the current average transaction fees for BTC and BCH? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.The post How to Check Current Transaction Fees for BTC and BCH appeared first on Bitcoin News.All Credit Goes To The Author Below And The Source Which Can Be Found By Clicking HERE Author: Avi Mizrahi

According to on-chain data analytics provider, Glassnode, Ethereum’s Hash Rate just reached an all-time high (ATH) of 532,411,759,741,113. As a Proof-of-Work (PoW) network, the hashrate is a measure of the processing power of the Ethereum blockchain. The hashrate specifically helps determines the number of times the network can attempt to complete a difficult mathematical puzzle every second, in order to add blocks of verified transactions to the blockchain.

The increasing hashrate as seen helps measures the network’s health, as the higher this rate, the greater the number of miners that will be needed to launch a 51% attack on the system, a highly unlikely situation.

Amidst the growing clamor for alternatives to Ethereum’s skyrocketing transaction fees, the burgeoning hashrate is an anchor for the network’s core believers.

Implications of the Increasing Hashrate on ETH Price

The global cryptocurrency industry has a lot of factors that affect its growth per time, and while Ethereum is just one of many, the hashrate growth adequately coincides with a rise in the price of the digital currency.

On average, Ethereum traded at around $1,650 in the past week, joining to fuel an aggressive dip in the global cryptocurrency market capitalization. After dropping to a weekly low of $1,560.37, the coin is now exchanging hands at $1,710.43, up 2.32% at the time of writing according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum’s recovery is a well-backed one, and though there is a bit of correlation with Bitcoin, Ethereum bulls are confident in the positioning of the network as one of the most secure in the world. While awaiting the implementation of the EIP 1559 upgrade as well as the full rollout of the Ethereum 2.0, the future Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network, Ethereum bulls will continue to hang on positive on-chain metrics such as the hashrate growth amongst others to continually resist the bearish dump-off.

To keep track of DeFi updates in real time, check out our DeFi news feed Here.

Bitcoin price – 638MB block advances Bitcoin SV’s journey to be world’s money—and everything else too

Big transaction blocks are how Bitcoin—in the form of BSV—demonstrates its utility over other blockchains for big data. This week, another record fell with a 638MB block processed on BSV’s mainnet, as a result of a test run and supported by BSV enthusiasts around the world. Block #678301 was processed by T(AAL) (CSE:T(AAL) | FWB:9SQ1 | OTC: T(AAL)F), who marked the occasion with a tweet:

“This record validates the T(AAL) market leadership position & further demonstrates our capacity to process large numbers of transactions.” – Stefan Matthews, T(AAL) CEO and Executive Chairmanhttps://t.co/4MjYcWKUUw pic.twitter.com/Lo6VMmGTmL

— TaalBlockchain (@TaalBlockchain) March 14, 2021

No other blockchain today is capable of processing transaction blocks that large, at a cost (in transaction fees) that makes it feasible for business and other large organizations’ use at scale. BTC developers have steadfastly resisted calls to increase that network’s capacity past a theoretical “block weight” (accounting for SegWit) of 4MB per block, resulting in BTC fees currently running over $16 per transaction. Due to the Ethereum network’s scaling challenges, ETH users are now enduring per-transaction “gas” fees of $20 or much more.

— notsofast (@notsofast) March 13, 2021

While this new 638MB block significantly increased the record for overall block size, it was comprised of a more modest number of larger-sized files—2,674. BSV has previously proven it can process blocks with a much larger number of transactions: the prior record 369MB block (May 16, 2020) contained over 1.3 million individual transactions, and block #634643 on May 12, 2020 contained over 1.1 million transactions in a  309MB block.

The latest record is another step towards BSV’s ultimate goal, which is to process regular transaction blocks of 1TB or more filled with large numbers of individual transactions. The “Teranode” implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, which developers anticipate testing this year on the BSV network, should see further and even bigger steps towards that goal.

BSV units will always function as electronic cash for those who wish to use it that way, especially for micropayments over the Internet, fulfilling Bitcoin’s original promise. But Bitcoin was always capable of much more, processing and securing data at a massive scale to work together with the Internet to power advanced blockchain data capabilities.

As both BTC and ETH unit price and trading demand have risen over the past months, their networks have become even more congested—mainly by traders sending BTC and ETH coins to and from exchanges. With their capacity limits, it’s virtually impossible to deploy any useful business application on BTC or ETH—without running into high fee problems. For all of their mass-media hype, BTC cannot actually function as the world’s electronic cash system for daily use, and ETH is too expensive/clogged to use for distributed apps (DApps), smart contracts and even tokens at any scale. That truth is (deliberately) lost in the noise, as bagholders point at their assets’ speculative market prices, leaving serious investors wondering where on earth that “value” could be coming from.

Stress test passed

This week’s record Bitcoin SV block was the result of a community-driven stress test, designed to further push the boundaries of much capacity the BSV main network could handle, and how well it could handle it. Various applications and services, with contributions from BSV supporters around the world, sent or contributed to 3.7GB worth transactions across the network over a short time. The BSV Infrastructure Team at nChain provided some technical support during the process.

— Big Block Testers (@BigBlockTesters) March 13, 2021

Wait… weren’t we talking last month about 1GB and 3.15GB blocks? Yes and no. Those larger blocks were on the Bitcoin Scaling Test Network (STN), where the goal is to push block sizes as far as possible. This week’s record happened on the Bitcoin mainnet, or, the same blockchain people use to pay for small purchases with mobile wallets, and use social networks like Twetch, Relica, Streamanity and PowPing.

The Scaling Test Network exists so developers can try new techniques, and push it to its limits without fear of breaking it for real-world users.

How Bitcoin came to be like this

Bitcoin SV, or BSV, represents the original Bitcoin protocol with a blockchain reaching all the way back to Satoshi Nakamoto‘s Genesis block in January 2009. Over the years, control over the protocol’s rules were slowly taken over by a centralized group of developers backed by private companies and corporate interests that didn’t necessarily align with Bitcoin’s vision of low-fee, fast transactions for everyone.

Those developers also altered several functions central to the protocol’s operations and economic incentives. Its transaction processors, or miners, need the BTC unit price to constantly rise in order to cover their costs—the BTC “block reward” for miners halves every four years (as it also does with BSV), and now stands at 6.25 coins per block. With a crippled 1-4MB maximum for every 10-minute block, they also must rely on large per-transaction fee increases. It’s not unusual to pay $10 or more to make a single BTC payment, making BTC unusable for “small casual transactions” as the original Bitcoin white paper referenced.

When BTC Core developers tried to hide this problem in 2017 by introducing external “payment layers” and the Segregated Witness (SegWit) transaction format change that altered the chain of digital signatures which is key to Bitcoin’s definition of a “coin”, supporters of the original protocol decided enough was enough.

The projects formally parted ways that year, and developers worked to restore the Bitcoin protocol to its original form, with the ability to process (and retain auditable proof of) transaction blocks of any size. There was another split of views in 2018 (between BCH and BSV), with BSV has continued and restored the original Bitcoin protocol.

Thanks to the work of BSV protocol and application developers, Bitcoin’s original promise still exists, and continues as BSV. BSV transactions cost a small fraction of a U.S. cent for everyone, and the network has plenty of capacity available for Big Data enterprise-tier use as well. Only now are people beginning to understand what Bitcoin can really be used for (that is, everything). The world’s new money was just the beginning.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeek’s Bitcoin for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoin—as originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto—and blockchain.

PayPal has announced that customers in the U.S. will now be able to make purchases using crypto at millions of businesses around the world.

The feature — known as Checkout with Crypto — is set to expand over the coming months.

It comes months after PayPal announced that it would allow American users to buy, sell and hold digital assets last October, with bold plans to expand this feature internationally.

Checkout with Crypto immediately converts digital assets into cash at the checkout — creating “certainty of value and no additional transaction fees.”

The option is set to flash up whenever customers have enough crypto in their account to make a purchase. PayPal’s president and CEO, Dan Schulman, said:

PayPal’s service currently supports Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, and the payments giant hasn’t ruled out the prospect that support for more coins will be rolled out in the future.

It could be good news for crypto enthusiasts who want to make the most of some of the gains they’ve enjoyed from BTC and ETH over recent months… that is, if they’re not interested in buying a Tesla.

But there is an additional hazard for consumers in the U.S. — the fact that, at the moment, the Internal Revenue Service regards Bitcoin as property rather than currency for taxation purchases.

This means that, if your crypto rises in value and you then buy something with it, this could still amount to a taxable event.

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As the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) increasingly cracks down on taxable cryptocurrency transactions, some may wonder if the agency would also take bitcoin to pay off their tax bill.

The short answer: No. The IRS doesn't accept bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), or any other virtual currency, according to an agency spokesperson.

It also doesn't accept payments in euros, pounds, or any other foreign currency. But the agency does accept credit cards, personal checks, and even straight cash to settle a tax liability.

Read more: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency tax 2021: Tips and guide

Here's how to pay what you owe to Uncle Sam.

From your bank account: Funds can be automatically transferred from your bank account to the IRS when you e-file your taxes through a tax prep software or tax professional. Choose the e-pay option. The IRS does not charge a fee for this transaction, but your bank might. Check before sending a payment.

The IRS also offers its "Direct Pay" service to pay directly from your checking or savings account at no cost. The agency can send email notifications to track your payment or you can use the IRS “Look Up a Payment” tool online by providing your confirmation number and Social Security number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

Read more: Taxes 2021: How to avoid scams this filing season

The payment will show up as "IRS USA Tax Payment," "IRS USA Tax Pymt," or something similar on your bank statement.

By debit or credit card: You can pay online, by phone, or by mobile device using one of three processors that work with the IRS: PayUSAtax, Pay 1040, or ACI Payments Inc. These processors charge a fee for the transaction, so it's smart to compare the three options.

Your payment will be listed as “United States Treasury Tax Payment” and your fee as “Tax Payment Convenience Fee” or something similar on your card statement.

By check, money order or cashier’s check: If you're mailing in your payment by check, money order, or cashier’s check, make it out to the "U.S. Treasury" and include the following information:

· Your name and address

· Daytime phone number

· Social Security number (or the first SSN to appear on a joint return) or employer identification number

· Related tax form or notice number

Mail your payment to the address on the notice or instructions, or use this IRS table to find the address. Don’t staple or paperclip your check to your tax return or voucher.

By cash: You can pay your tax bill at participating retail locations like 7-Eleven, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, Family Dollar, and Dollar General, among others. Depending on the method and retailer, there's either a $1.50 or a $3.99 fee per payment. It typically takes two business days for your payment to post, so give yourself enough time before the May 17 tax deadline this year.

Read more: Taxes: Here's how to know if you should itemize

To start the process, follow these four steps:

Step 1: Go to the ACI Payments website and follow the instructions for making a cash payment.

Step 2: ACI Payments will send an email that confirms your information. The IRS will then verify your information.

Step 3: After your information has been verified by the IRS, you will get an email from the Cash Processing Company with a link to your payment code and instructions. Print the payment code or send it to your smart phone.

Step 4: Visit the retail store listed in the Cash Processing Company's email. Have the clerk scan or enter your payment code. You will get a receipt from the store after you provide the cash. Keep the receipt as confirmation of your payment.

By wire transfer: Some banks allow same-day wire service for your tax payment. First you must fill in the Same-Day Taxpayer Worksheet. Ask your bank for cut-off times, fees, and other details. If making an international wire transfer, consult the Foreign Electronic Payments for more information.

Janna is an editor for Yahoo Money and Cashay. Follow her on Twitter @JannaHerron.

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Aventus Network notes in a blog post that blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) has the potential to “usher in a new era of transparency, creating a trustless world that rewards good behavior by leaving nothing hidden in the shadows.”

Aventus adds that transparency, “by a long way, is the best regulator of behavior.” According to the platform’s developers, transparency is made possible on blockchains or DLT networks with block explorer tools such as Etherscan for Ethereum and Aventus’s Block Explorer.

The Aventus team also mentions that in a blockchain-focused world with open access to many different block explorers, businesses will “compete on transparency.” Aventus claims that “the greater their transparency, the greater their appeal to investors and customers.” The developers also think that there will be “less need for costly, inefficient regulations that add the burden of manual processes.”

As noted in a blog by Aventus:

“In this new transparent world, there is greater access to reliable information, creating more efficient markets that better determine the market price and quality of goods and services. Business valuations can be accurately made taking into account a company’s capacity to manage its assets, debt, and equity, with investors having clear insight and oversight of everything from supply chain management to the management of assets.”

The Aventus Network developers pointed out that blockchain-based security tokens will be able to represent ownership of shares, artwork, and even real estate (like they already do). This will give owners and investors “immutable oversight of ownership and transaction history.” All registered or recorded on a blockchain, “all tokens and transactions, including the underlying assets they represent, are transparent and visible to anyone,” Aventus added.

They continued:

“Each activity on a blockchain is its own transaction. Transactions are combined into blocks in a chain and recorded on the digital ledger. A block explorer is a search function tool, like a blockchain search engine, that lets every participant on a blockchain search for transaction information on that chain.”

Aventus further noted that the recording of blocks (and transactions contained therein) are immutable (or cannot be changed or altered) and visible to everyone, which helps with “creating a transparent, trustless world.”

They also mentioned that a common or typical block explorer that many have now used is Etherscan — which is a widely-adopted Ethereum block explorer that allows everyone to explore the Ethereum blockchain for cryptocurrency (ETH) transactions, digital currency addresses, virtual tokens, and crypto prices.

As explained by Aventus, “when you make a transaction on Ethereum, you can immediately check its status and your ownership of assets is directly linked to your address, provable to anyone with a simple search.”

Aventus Network developers added:

“Similarly to Etherscan, the Aventus Network (AvN) has just introduced its own block explorer on its own network that lets businesses and decentralized platforms build on Ethereum without the typical limitations of scale, speed, and cost. The Aventus Network Block Explorer acts as a window into the AvN blockchain and allows users to see all historical transaction data and blocks as they are created and validated. It also allows Aventus Validators to see the transactions fees they are earning from staking the Aventus Token to AvN nodes.”

Alan Vey, an alumnus of Imperial College, London, is the Co-Founder and CEO at Aventus Network Services, which is a layer-two blockchain protocol that allows businesses and decentralized protocols to develop apps on Ethereum without the usual limitations of scale, speed, and cost.

Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD) is currently on bearish momentum. At 23:04 EST on Saturday, 20 March, Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD) is at $20.62 and down by 6.21% in the last 6 hours.

Over the last six hours, Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s higher value was $21.90 and the lower value was $20.62.

Over the last twelve hours, Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s higher value was $22.30 and the lower value was $20.62.

In relation to Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s daily highs, it’s 8.356% down from its trailing 24-hour high of $22.50

Concerning Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s yearly highs and lows, it’s 1008.602% up from its 52-week low and 21.953% down from its 52-week high.

Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s last day, last week, and last month’s current volatility was 6.36%, 4.63%, and 4.79%, respectively.

Cosmos USD (ATOM1-USD)’s current volatility rank, which measures how volatile a financial asset is (variation between the lowest and highest value in a period), was 19.09% (day), 12.29% (last week), and 13.18% (last month), respectively.

Bank of America analyst slams Bitcoin: buying 1 BTC is ‘like owning 60 cars’. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "While Bitcoiners often cite figures suggesting that between 39% and 76% of Bitcoin mining uses renewable energy, BoA’s report asserts that in fact three quarters of BTC mining occurs in China where more than half of electricity is produced by coal. ", "Leaving no criticism alone, Blanch also noted 181 companies faced risks linked to Bitcoin around "money laundering, corruption, bribery, fraud, and breaches of data privacy" and that Central Bank Digital Currencies also pose tremendous long term threats to Bitcoin."

'deflationary' eth2 could flip Bitcoin: messari analyst. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "He posted the question: "If Ethereum is more secure and it [has] a stronger monetary policy, well then what is the bull case for Bitcoin in this scenario?", "The index suggests Ethereum has already overtaken Bitcoin by node count, transaction count, and total transaction fees."

According to Business Insider on Thursday, 18 March, "Responding to the announcement, the Documenting Bitcoin team said: "You can now send and receive #bitcoin for free on Cash App as easily as you can send dollars! "

Bitcoin worth the risk for stimulus check recipients despite pressing needs: poll. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "Most Americans who expect to receive the next round of relief bill stimulus checks will use the money to buy necessities and pay off debts, but some are still willing to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), a new poll reveals.", "Of that group, around half invested in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) specifically."

SEC has 45 days to respond to vaneck Bitcoin ETF filing. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "The United States Securities and Exchange Commission now has 45 days to deliver an initial decision on the VanEck Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund filing having officially published the company’s submission on its website on March 15.", "With the change in leadership at the commission following Jay Clayton’s departure back in December 2020, firms in the U.S. are trying once again for a Bitcoin ETF. "

Bitcoin can be sent with a tweet as bottlepay twitter app goes live. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "Given the extent to which Bitcoin transaction fees exploded from 2020 into 2021, the coin’s suitability for use in a daily, social payments app could reasonably be brought into question. ", "Transactions between Twitter users can now apparently take place using the simple tweet template "@bottlepay send 1,000 sats to @twitteruser." The command can be executed from directly within the Twitter app, and the Bitcoin is transferred from one user to another automatically."

Bitcoin 'better than gold' if you study it, fund manager tells mainstream media. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "This week, Morgan Stanley became the first major bank to offer clients exposure to Bitcoin funds.", "The comments fly in the face of staunch gold bugs, notably Peter Schiff, who remains convinced that Bitcoin will fail, leaving gold as the sole choice to escape the perils of central bank economic policy."

Ethereum fails to break out vs. Bitcoin as treasury yields soar — will ETH relief rally?. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of Ethereum, has failed to break out once more against Bitcoin (BTC) with BTC/USDrallying by more than 8% on March 18.", "The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield’s momentum is likely the main catalyst behind Bitcoin and ETH’s weakening momentum in the past 12 hours, as the inverse correlation shows in the chart below.BTC/USD (blue) vs. ETH/USD (orange) vs. TY10 (light blue). "

Would a US wealth tax push millionaires to Bitcoin adoption?. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "It’s foolish to think that they (as well as anyone) will look to Bitcoin as a way to ‘hide’ their wealth given that bitcoin leaves a permanent digital footprint."Better ways", "Douglas Borthwick, chief marketing officer at digital asset firm INX, said that viewing digital assets and Bitcoin (BTC) as a place to hide wealth is "rather off-base." While U.S. tax residents can still buy Bitcoin on offshore platforms without rigorous Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering requirements in place, there are serious risks associated with delivery and custody. "

Stocks of Bitcoin: JPMorgan offers BTC exposure, an ETF in sheep’s clothing. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "This applies to all the exchanges trading Bitcoin products, to energy companies that are getting into Bitcoin mining, and even to payment platforms like PayPal that support Bitcoin.", "While most investors are going straight into buying the likes of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), a few skeptical investors want to invest in the cryptocurrency economy without exposure to tokens’ volatility directly."

Bitcoin bulls 'hold back’ as btc’s monthly futures expiry approaches. According to Coin Telegraph on Thursday, 18 March, "Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin began increasing in the late-night trading hours on March 17 and it briefly crossed above $60,150 before meeting overhead resistance. ", "For Lilly, this indicates that parties interested in buying Bitcoin have begun to "ramp-up" their activities as the market moves higher."

Fiat food? Bitcoin big mac index crashes below 10,000 satoshis for the first time ever. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "The Bitcoin equivalent is something of a tongue-in-cheek commentary on both fiat and food.", "As Saifedean Ammous argues in "The Bitcoin Standard," both the trillion-dollar forex market and the rise of the nutritionally controversial burger are the results of the abandonment of the gold standard and the embrace of money with no supply limit, and the resulting desire for instant gratification at the expense of long-term prosperity."

SBI crypto's Bitcoin mining pool goes public. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "It mines three assets, Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV), with a revenue measured in dollars per terahash per day of$0.3897,$0.3805and$0.3519respectively.", "SBI Holdings’ multiple cryptocurrency ventures via various subsidiaries to date have included theintroduction of a Bitcoin lending service through its crypto investment subsidiary SBI VC Tradeandacquisition of crypto exchange TaoTao via itsforeign exchange and derivatives arm."

Bitcoin is now ‘too important to ignore’, deutsche bank says. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "In the 18-page study, Deutsche Bank Research describes the basic characteristics of Bitcoin and analyzes the key drivers of its historical price growth to a $1 trillion asset.", "Bitcoin is expected to "remain ultravolatile" in the short term, Deutsche Bank analysts concluded, forecasting a turning point for Bitcoin in the next "two or three years" as a consensus about its future may emerge."

Supercycle May propel Bitcoin over $1 million, kraken’s dan held says. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "According to Dan Held, growth lead at Kraken, Bitcoin is currently experiencing a supercycle that could propel it all the way to $1 million.", "Held is also convinced that once Bitcoin will reach its full potential as digital gold, it will challenge governments’ monopoly over money."

Bitcoin price facing final resistance before $68k?. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "The bearish divergence becomes valid once previous resistance zones turn into resistances once again, but more importantly, once the price of Bitcoin starts to make lower lows."

Bitcoin miners back hash rate derivative defi project on BSC. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "Standard Hashrate is backed by a group of major Bitcoin miners, including Atlas Mining, Btc.", "The basic concept is similar to simple rebase coins, including the synthetic Bitcoin offered by Badger. "

Key Bitcoin price metric shows pro traders increased their BTC longs. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "After marking a $61,750 all-time high on March 13, Bitcoin has been trying to find new support levels. ", "This data corroborates with the exchanges’ long-to-short ratio and displays investors confidence in Bitcoin breaking to a new all-time high in the short-term."

According to Business Insider on Friday, 19 March, "The Purpose Bitcoin ETF was approved in Canada and launched by Purpose Investments in mid-February on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ", "That’s less than half the cost of the popular Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which charges an annual fee of 2.00% and is now the largest public holder of bitcoin."

Bullishness for Bitcoin continues despite its struggle to reclaim $60,000. According to Coin Telegraph on Friday, 19 March, "Chad Steinglass, head of trading at crypto capital markets firm CrossTower recently discussed the pressures Bitcoin faced at the $60,000 level and pointed out that the top cryptocurrency has faced "at least some resistance at every round number on the way up," and that once a resistance level is surpassed, it then becomes support.", "Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that after being rejected at the $60,000 level on March 18, the price of Bitcoin hit a low of $56,268 in the early hours on Friday before dip buyers returned to help lift the price back above $58,500. "