Not just your Dollars or Euros, but also crypto coins need to be safely stored. Many of the available apps and desktop wallets could be a practical option, but definitely not the safest one. If you are serious about your crypto investments, you should own a proper hardware wallet.

Mobile and desktop wallets are usually app installed on your personal device and connected to the internet. However, that way they are more likely to get hacked or accessed by a virus while on the other hand, hardware wallets are protected against them. A hardware wallet is an external device which stores crypto (keys) offline. This way your funds are safe from online threats.

The hardware wallet is protected by password and basically, in order to steal your crypto, not just the device would have to be taken, but also all the passwords. Even if your wallet would get stolen, there is no way to access your coins without knowing your passphrase. This makes hardware wallet the most secure place for your cryptocurrency.

Plus if you ever lose this wallet, you can always restore your coins, if you have the passwords with you.

Another security hack a hardware wallet has is their secure chip, which allows you to connect them to a computer and send coins without having to input private key on the computer itself.

Interesting fact:

Since blocks cannot actually be taken out of a blockchain and can't be "stored" anywhere, you are basically just storing your access to the blockchain which is a digital code = private key. That private key works as a proof of your ownership of a public digital code, known as a public key. The public key can be used to access your currency addresses. The currency wallet is then storing your access to your owned currencies.

History of a hardware wallet:

One of the first wallets was made when only Bitcoin and Litecoin were the crypto options, back in 2011. It was the time when many bitcoins were lost dues to destroyed harddisks and forgotten passwords. But the first hardware wallets were just too technical and not very user-friendly. First proper hardware wallet was made in 2014, called TREZOR. Even though competitors soon appeared, many of them did not make it further.

What is THE seed and BIP32

The seed phrase is a collection of generated 12 - 24 English words, which allows you to recover your wallet. Let's say you lose your wallet or it gets stolen. There come recovery seeds to get back to your crypto.
These words must be written and kept in a very safe place. Definitely not shared with anyone.

BIP32 then works as extended private key.
For example later mentioned TREZOR hardware wallet:
The private keys are generated by the device and never leave it so they cannot be accessed by a malware.

It uses a deterministic wallet structure which means it can hold an unlimited number of keys = BIP ( Bitcoin Improvement Proposals) BIP0032/BIP 0044. A recovery seed is generated when the device is initialized. In case Trezor gets lost or stolen, all its contents can be recovered using this seed (private keys, bitcoin balance and transaction history) into a new device or another BIP 0039/BIP 0044 compatible wallet.

The BIP 0032 standard for Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets is used by all good wallets as of 2019.
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (mentioned BIP) is a design document for introducing features or information to Bitcoin. This is the standard way of communicating ideas since Bitcoin has no formal structure. As described in BIP 0001 the workflow of a BIP is as follows:

Coingi exchange uses the incoming BIP32 generated addresses for higher security!

Most favourite hardware wallets by 2019:

TREZOR

TREZOR (trezor.io) was a first modern hardware wallet, brought into the world of crypto in 2014 by Czech guys from SatoshiLabs. It is a small device which connects to your computer with a USB cable. It stores your cryptocurrency private keys offline, therefore safely than app wallets, which are not protected against virtual theft.
TREZOR is an HD wallet where you control the private keys, so an entire wallet can be backed up with the 24 words generated on setup. The original 24-word seed is generated using RNG (RNG – Random Number Generator) from the device and the computer. The seed is generated offline and displayed on the TREZOR’s screen, which ensures that the seed is never on a connected computer.

Ledger

USB shaped wallet made from stainless steel by Ledger (ledger.com) company belongs among the most popular ones on the market. It was released the same year as TREZOR and sharing the same features such as digital display, USB cable to connect the wallet to the computer or 24-word seed function. Ledger wallet is a Paris based company and sold already over 1,3 million devices (2018).

Security of hardware wallets:

As we mentioned, the hardware wallet is much safer than web or mobile wallets. Till now there is no evidence of stolen crypto from a hardware wallet. Hardware wallet stores your private key leading to your bitcoins under 12-word password known as seed passwords.
It is randomly generated words from RNG (RNG – Random Number Generator) which you need to write down and store on a safe place. When you have these seeds remembered/noted, not only your crypto keys are protected, but if you ever lose your hardware wallet, you can access to your crypto by seeds passwords from the different device as well.
This is followed by choosing a PIN and passphrase ( passphrase - group of words, similar to a password but longer for added security) if you want to enhance your safety.

Finally got your first wallet? Let's look at how to start, using TREZOR wallet as an example:

First of all: make sure you are buying your hardware wallet from a reliable store. For example mentioned TREZOR wallet should have safety hologram seals on the box:

For the set up:

1. Connect your wallet to computer, using its USB cable.The device screen will light up.
2. Install TREZOR wallet (wallet.TREZOR.io) and give your device a name.
3. FSet up your password following steps provided by TREZOR. A PIN code is required on setup, and required for spending
4. Write down recovery words (seeds) displayed on wallet. You can add a passphrase to the 24-word seed for extra security, which acts as a 25th word
5. Access your TREZOR wallet on your browser, customize your homescreen, check PIN:
   
6. Remember: You must remember the passphrase because the seed without the passphrase is not enough to recover the wallet. A passphrase offers more security, but if forgotten the wallet cannot be recovered.
   Recovery can be done with another TREZOR or with other wallets, like Electrum or Mycelium

Process of setting up a hardware wallet is very similar no matter of a brand you buy.

Safety recommendations for hardware wallets:

Being your own “bank” comes with several responsibilities. Make sure that you:

• Never share information about what amount of crypto you own
• Do not share your recovery phrase with anyone
• Have your written down pin codes and recovery phrase on a very safe place and in a format which can not be easily destroyed
• Do not write your recovery phrase it into a phone or computer

General Bytes is currently the biggest producer of bitcoin ATMs. With over 2000 machines sold in 54 countries, these guys from the Czech Republic successfully manage to dominate this competitive market.

Anyone familiar with crypto knows these typically orange ATMs, which are making their way into daily use of cryptocurrencies. General Bytes ATM machines are able to distribute coins from wallet or crypto exchange. And Coingi was just added as a supported exchange to their system!

The Czech Republic overall is very strong in the crypto area. A first mining pool, Slushpool, was set up right in this country and still working. Every crypto hodler owns a wallet similar to Trezor, which also has its roots in Czech and then there are General Bytes. These guys are currently on the top in crypto ATMs sales and now holding over 30% of all installed machines all over the world:

This year is positive for bitcoin growth overll. So far bitcoin reached the price of $4,100 by March 2019, and despite all the ups and downs of the crypto market, the community is very stable by now, which makes it easier for crypto ATMs to gain popularity.

And since European banks are closing their ATMs, bitcoin withdraw machines doubled their amount twice last year (2018). They found their way into shopping centres, subway stations or grocery stores (https://coinatmradar.com):

First bitcoin machine ever, was installed in 2013 in coffee shop in Vancouver by Robocoin machine, and the same year later first ATM in Europe was installed in Bratislava. In 2014, General Bytes sold their first ATM. The same year a several new companies were launched like for example Genesis Coin or Lamassu, which remain in the business and now competing for the first place in crypto ATM machines sales.

Note:
Robocoin does not operate anymore, but General Bytes offers a Robocoin Hardware Kit, helping those who already owns the machine to move forward with new software (https://www.generalbytes.com/robocoin/)

Bitcoin ATM machines are meant to exchange cash for crypto and the other way. They are connected to the Internet, which allows putting in cash or credit card in exchange for cryptocurrencies for a small fee. There are already a regulations for a ATM machines owners to prevent money laundering, but vary from country to country!

By 2019, there are several big player on crypto ATM machines field:

Genesis Coin, total ATMs installed 1 459 (https://bitcoinatm.com/)
Founded by Evan Rose, this 6 year old US based company is one of the strongest competitor to Czech General Bytes.

Lamassu, total ATMs installed 448
Founded in 2013 by Zach and Josh Harvey, the company released a new ATM model last year and moved to Switzerland at the beginning of 2019.

BitAccess, ATMs installed 299
Canadian company has already installed their machines in more than 10 countries with 70 cryptocurrencies offered to buy or sell on their ATMs.

Coinsource, ATMs installed 196
Texas based company is focusing their production mainly on marketing in USA and is known for providing transaction for lowest fee.

And above all those all: General Bytes.

Their machines are all Android-based. One of the advantages of Android platform General Bytes team appreciate is the fact, that its built on Linux, which is open source. It has a developer community of millions providing thousands of software libraries which allow for rapid software development. Plus Android being based on ARM architecture allows to create custom cost-effective PCB hardware designs and providing users with the best touch-optimized interface.

"We are now able to develop new features a lot faster. Every few weeks we bring out a new software version." (https://www.generalbytes.com/)

General Bytes ATMs are able to identify the customer by:

• SMS Scan
• ID document
• Fingerprint scan
• Print out bitcoin paper wallet

A number of clients who wants to provide crypto payments to their customers increasing and huge ATM machines are not the only way to go, as you can see below a General Bytes device for small business (https://www.generalbytes.com/pos/).

This little machine can accept:

• Bitcoin payments
• Dash payments
• Litecoin payments

It can scan the QR code, paper wallet or Contactless payment via NFC wallet cards.

All machines require the owner to install their own software because, as the General Bytes team stated: ¨Everything about out machines must be decentralized¨. Having own system in machines is creating less dependency to a General Bytes company.
The software itself contains no wallets, no exchange software or anything. It’s the ATM server that will communicate to the client and their wallets. So, if the owner runs their version of Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet the software will be able to connect to it. It is the same thing with the exchange. General Bytes support many exchanges, but it is up to users which one they will prefer.

Features of General Bytes ATMs:

A useful feature for business owners is the plugin creating option. For example, an easy way to connect bookkeeping software: to set up automatic trigger an entry every time a transaction is posted online in ATM.

Added cameras on ATM can do a scan of the identity card and once they pass the identity check the machine gets unlocked for them. It can also be unlocked for the entire network, so if the operator has a hundred machines people only have to pass this AML KYC procedure once.

Those little things are what makes General Bytes one of the fastest-growing networks at this very moment.

Lightning Network payments

And a new feature is coming in. This year the first payment via ATM by Lightning Network was made in Hong Kong (https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-atm-lightning-network/). The crypto community welcomes Lightning Network because it offers much lower BTC’s transaction fees and General Bytes is going to offer this payment option soon.

Follow General Bytes:
https://www.facebook.com/generalbytes/
Find the nearest bitcoin ATM;
https://coinatmradar.com/bitcoin-atm-near-me/
Read more:
https://www.generalbytes.com/
https://coinatmradar.com/manufacturer/5/general-bytes-bitcoin-atm-producer/
https://coinatmradar.com/charts/manufacturer-growth/
https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-atm-lightning-network/
https://coinatmradar.com/blog/interview-with-martijn-wismeijer-from-general-bytes-bitcoin-atms/

With Bitcoin price falling down, miners were the ones affected most. Even though mining got difficult lately, there was still money to make as a solo miner. Not in 2019 though, unless you are living in a country with super cheap electricity. As in-home mining in Venezuela and Iran is at the rise, others started to gather into mining pools.

How mining pools work:

As a solo miner, you are covering all the expenses, but once Bitcoin is mined, the whole coin and fees are yours. Unfortunately, with current Bitcoin value together with the price for energy used while mining one coin, the final reward is not that interesting as it used to be.

However, if you join mining pool, energy expenses on mining are shared. Bitcoin and fees are then shared as well, but still, mining pools currently represent an easier and quite stable income from crypto mining.

Miners get a reward based on contributed processing power they 've put into crypto mining pool. Every pool is basically a node's network with admin or company in charge, which is trying to attempt as many hashes per second as possible. Miners themselves cant produce such a hashing power, together in pool they are increasing a possibility to unlock blocks.

What is cost you:

Most of the mining pools will charge you for a fee. It could be nothing but can go up to 4%. This is taken from your final reward, so nothing paid upfront.

Be careful about projects offering 0% of fees. Even this could be just a new company trying to attract early bird customers, it could be a scam as well

Be careful about projects offering 0% of fees. Even this could be just a new company trying to attract early bird customers, it could be a scam as well

Payout:

Another thing mining pools vary in is their payout rules. Whether you want regular daily payments or get paid whenever a block is solved by the pool, make sure to find out details before you join

Rewards for miners in mining pools:

There is around twenty different reward system used by mining pools in 2019. Each mining pool has different rules and system. These are some of the most common ones:

• Pay-per share (PPS):
  The most common way to pay miners. You get an average of the number of shares that you contributed to the pool when finding blocks. PPS is considered as one of the safest ways to get paid.
• Pay Per Last N Shares (PPLNS):
  Also a popular payment method. PPLNS offers payment to miners as a % of shares they contribute to the total shares.
• Proportional (PROP):
  Works as PPS, but additionally to the mined BTC, miners also get transaction fees in the reward

Not all mining pools are mining Bitcoin. Many of them will be mining the currency with higher value at that time, and pay out their miners in BTC.

Who mines the most:

Currently a leader in Mining pool is China and Czech Republic,then Island with Japan follows. Chinese F2P Pool and Antpool are taking the biggest part of a wheel, together with BTC.com owned by Bitmain. The oldest pool, created in 2010 by Czech Satoshi Labs has currently 10% of this market.

Actual data here: https://coin.dance

How to join mining pool in 2019:

Mining pools work for all crypto coins, not just for Bitcoin. You can also change mining pools whenever you want to, just by routing your hash power to another pool.

Each mining pools has its own registration process, usually, 2F registration is required. When choosing a mining pool to join, check not only fees but also localization and reputation. As everything in a crypto world, research reviews and ask for recommendations.

What you will need to connect:

1. Wallet address - to get your reward
2. Bitcoin mining hardware - to determine the size of your contribution to the pool’s hash rate (ASIC Bitcoin Miner)
3. Mining software - connects your hardware to the net - to the pool you prefer (EasyMiner, CGMiner .. )

Always check preferred tools for a pool you want to join. A whole list of mining pools is here: https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/#/pools

Crypto market never sleeps and never closes. So if you are serious about your investments and want to keep an eye on them, then you 've probably come across some bots already. There are the expensive ones, then the ''only for advanced'' ones, and then there is Gekko.
This bot is perfect for beginners, easy to use and constantly adding new features. Plus, here in Coingi, we do support Gekko bot!

Why is Gekko reliable and great for beginners

For all those who are just testing the waters of automated trading, a Gekko is an ideal bot to start with (https://github.com/askmike/gekko/pull/2018).
It is pretty straightforward an entry-level Bitcoin trading bot.
Written in javascript and runs on nodejs, works as an open source and more than 180 developers already contributed to it.
The bot is still evolving and soon going to launch a new version without the need to install on a computer.
Its creator, Mike Van Rossum, is an enthusiastic developer, keeping bot free to use and working on the project in his spare time. That's what makes this one so cool - no scammy tricks, no fees, possibility to add development suggestions…

Mike is very active on GitHub, where Gekko was released 5 years ago and gained over 7,400 stars (https://github.com/askmike/gekko). And you can also reach him on Gekko community forum ( gekko.wizb.it/).
That creates the possibility to ask questions the designer directly.
Another sign of a good project!

Yet, keep in mind that this is not a high-frequency tool and does not support arbitrage (making money between exchanges).

Gekko can be used for three different purposes:

Backtesting: Possibility to backtest any strategy that you have over a period of time in the past.
Paper Trader: You can test the strategy in real time with current data but only to make “phantom trades” with fake money.
Trade Bot: Here you can run the bot with real funds in an account with the strategies that you have developed.

How to install Gekko?

Since Gekko installation is a bit difficult, we've created a little installation sources guide. Installation differs from operating systems, but for all of them, you 'll need nodejs and git downloaded first plus some coding knowledge to continue, at least javascript basics.
Follow in the documentation links:
https://gekko.wizb.it/docs/installation/installing_gekko.html

Installing on Windows well explained in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R68IwVujju8

Installation for Mac is doable through Docker, follow instructions here:
https://gekko.wizb.it/docs/installation/installing_gekko.html

Installing Gekko bot using VPS:
https://www.coinbureau.com/education/gekko-trading-bot/

Once installed, recommendations are to run Backtesting first, since Gekko does support it with historical data. Coingi exchange does support import of historical data. More about simulations
here: https://gekko.wizb.it/docs/features/backtesting.html

News

New Gekko will not require installation!

With new projects entering the market routinely, it is important even for Gekko to keep adding new features. The best one for now will be GekkoPlus, version of Gekko bot which does not need any installation! (https://gekkoplus.com/) It is currently in a development process, but the page is updating frequently with new informations. Right now mainly about adding new strategies.

Strategies created for you on GekkoPlus

Sure you can create your own strategies, use some created already (https://gekko.wizb.it/docs/strategies/creating_a_strategy.html) or wait for new strategies currently in GekkoPlus contest: GekkoPlus web is running a strategy contest (https://app.gekkoplus.com/contest) right between 24 strategies who made it through submission. The contest is running till 10th December and you can watch the Leaderboard here: https://app.gekkoplus.com
Strategies will be available to use after the contest is over.
What it means for future usage of Gekko, we 'll be able to choose from different strategies, customize them and run them on backtest same as live trading later.

Follow here: https://app.gekkoplus.com/

Gekko sends notifications on Telegram and email

Once you start trading live, notifications about trades comes handy. Gekko sends signals on your Telegram and mail, once a move is made. When you have Gekko installed, you ll need to create bot on Telegram by Bot Father
(https://core.telegram.org/bots) and connect it with Gekko: https://steemit.com/gekko/@crypto49er/gekko-trading-bot-send-signals-to-telegram.
For setting up an email notification, go through documentation and find Plugins -> Mailer. Follow the whole process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcsKzyJaJkg

If you are looking for a simple Bitcoin trading tool, Gekko is a way to go. It is 5th most popular Bitcoin related project on Github. Try it with Coingi exchange!

What to read next:

Gekko info:
https://gekko.wizb.it/
https://github.com/askmike/gekko
http://gekkowarez.com/
Telegram:
https://t.me/gekko
Nice interview with Mike Rossum, creator of Gekko:
https://apiko.com/blog/interview-with-mike-van-rossum-the-author-of-gekko-trading-bot
All Mikes videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsJ9fM0MVuN43tlrqeF_tVQ
Bot vs Human:
https://cointelegraph.com/explained/trading-bots-vs-humans-explained
This guy is having many Gekko bot related videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFoFYv-pIHsuO4f-Kv_1XWA

Launched in February of 2017 Coingi is one of the most reliable crypto exchanges on market.
The idea behind creating a new exchange, in an already very competitive market, was a poor experience with exchanges we tried before.
Coingi team members are experienced developers with a background in creating high-traffic websites, yet it took 20 months to launch Coingi crypto exchange.
The reason, why we put this enormous effort into Coingi, is lack of proper security on exchanges we traded on in past, plus their incompetence to handle huge traffic during "panic sell and buy".
The goal was to build a decentralized, scalable, and of course, a stable exchange where everyone is able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies safely.

What makes Coingi the safe place to buy crypto?

Although on the outside Coingi does look like a regular exchange, the magic happens in the back and its focused on security, speed, and reliability.

1. Secure crypto trading is our priority.

We are putting a huge effort into security analysis, by developing tests - > hiring external security independent experts - > to verify the tests results.

2. The majority of virtual currencies on Coingi exchange are saved in offline mode.

That prevents online thefts. Online wallets use only a certain amount of money, that is necessary for the operation at the moment.
In case of large transactions, the funds are saved of withdrawn from offline wallets through a controlled process, that guarantees full protection.

3. Online wallets are fully protected and intelligent!

They work completely separately and operate by connecting to the platform by themselves, determine the requests for payment and then control if the requests correspond to reality. Wallets check the collected data about transactions by using checksums and procedures, so the number of Bitcoins at the website is the same as a number of Bitcoins recorded in the database.

4. The Coingi crypto exchange system runs on approximately 30 servers.

Those communicate together via an encrypted VPN network. All communication is signed in a way that these processes cannot be interrupted. Scalability enables us to keep increasing the number of servers, well, forever. We aren’t even limited by the location of the servers.

5. We check on our users too.

Every now and then there is a hacker trying on a mail and password combination from some stolen users database.That is another thing we are trying to protect our users from, by analyzing any suspicious logins. Yet we do suggest to have different mail and passwords for each exchange. And two-step verification is a must.

6. 100 000 complete transactions per second were the result of our last testing.

Coingi exchange system is able to process worldwide transactions of tens of thousands of users per second.

7. Another security detail we've added is during confirmation of your cashouts.

This confirmation request goes to email, you can not see in administration at that moment. So if anyone logs in with your official log in mail, they can't actually cash out money without access to the second mail we ask for.

Coingis speaks 10 languages, is easy and intuitive to use and works with fiat like USD and Euro

Currently supporting these coins:

• Bitcoin
• Litecoin
• Peercoin
• Vertcoin
• Dogecoin
• Namecoin
• Dash

There are over 160 places to pay with Bitcoin in Prague including cafes, restaurants, and shops. Prague is also one of the top crypto cities according to Forbes. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandratalty/2018/07/31/the-top-10-bitcoin-cities-in-the-world/#3b783cac4565)

No wonder, Czech Republic might seem like a tiny country in the middle of Europe, but the community around crypto is huge and active there.
Plus this country was one of the first countries in the world to take steps in regulating cryptocurrencies. And did you know that famous Trezor wallet comes from Czech?

We 've decided to take step towards our Czech users and from now on, you can deposit or cash out Bitcoin in Czech Koruna. Coingi now belong to a few exchanges which supports Czech Koruna.

Bitcoin has been dealing with its high fees and delays in transactions for quite a time now. In this article, we would like to introduce you Lightning network, as a new solution for those problems.

Here in Coingi, we welcome each new attempt to bring Bitcoin into everyday life. Since Lightning Network is getting more and more popular, we've decided to implement it into our exchange in future too.

Soon you 'll have the ability to deposit Bitcoin on Coingi exchange faster and cheaper.

Why the Lightning Network is needed?

Lightning network is basically a solution to Bitcoin’s inability to scale. Bitcoin was designed as a network which would work across countries without relying on traditional financial systems and has been around for 10 years already. Its first layer was developed in 2008.

But as its popularity grew, Bitcoin began to face some practical issues regarding payments.

To take an example: paying by card in a grocery store takes a few seconds. While with the Bitcoin it could take minutes, even hours, to finish the payment.

To have an even more accurate overview, Bitcoin is able to proceed around 7 payments per second and VISA is able to process up to 45,000 transactions per second. And then there is Lighting Network promising millions of transactions per second (https://lightning.network/).

That is why a few years ago a discussion began, on scaling Bitcoin for fast payments. News about Lightning Network may seem new, but implementing the fastest financial process in the world, has been under development for some time now.

Lightning Network is not a new coin or ICO! It is the second layer of Bitcoin, that helps with micropayments. Think of it more like a Bitcoin extension.

How does it work?

The Bitcoin payment process was meant to be slow due to security reasons. However, currents users who are going to use Bitcoin rather than just keep in wallet, are not very eager about this important feature. That is why plenty of alternative solutions started to pop up.

So far the best one seems to be Bitcoin's Lightning network.

When we pay with Bitcoin, every tiny payment is written into a blockchain and stored forever. That is causing a slow process.

THe idea of Lightning Network, on the other hand is, not write all the transaction into blockchain immediately, but rather do several of them ''off the chain'' and write on the blockchain only the final amount (settlement layer). So when two parties decide to transit money, they open payment channels between each other with deposit made upfront. As long as they are exchanging funds, the whole action happens off the chain.

Channel can be open through Lightning Network wallet with two signatures - ours and partners. Funds insert there can only be accessed and closed by both of those signatures. If one of the participants would try to close the transit alone, there is then a danger of money lost.

To simplify it, let's think of that as an agreement between two friends. Both bring the funds (Bitcoin) and store them at the bank. Then open a paper notebook together (Lightning Network channel) and start to write down all transactions made between each other. Without touching the real money stored in a bank. This paper would be the payment relationship between them and the bank (blockchain) is not present during those micro transits. Once transfers are done and both parties agreed what the payment balance is, the money from a bank is taken and use to finish that operation.

Blockchain does not need to know about 100 little payments, enough to put there the final one.

A different point of view brings Andreas Antonopoulos. His explanation of ‘’streaming money’’ worth listen:

Who is using it now? Almost ... everyone!

What is the situation right now? There is already a number of businesses, that accepts payments by Lighting. Currently, Lightning Network has already a total of $2 million worth of Bitcoin. And the whole network has increased by 167% in November 2018!

Every revolutionary tool we use nowadays, made it through history only thanks to adaptive companies and customers eager for change.

And it is the same case with Lightning Network now.

Because as you can see, it is not only ''geek'' companies anymore, who allowed their clients to pay by Lightning:

1) First of all, there is Bitcoin Lightning Wallet available on Google Play, with plenty of positive reviews already, making it easier for a broad audience to get along with Lightning payments.

2) Three months ago, a Lightning Network payment option was added for Woocommerce users. Those can now simply add a new payment gateway and accept Bitcoin through Lightning Network.

3) Another service provider, who decides that accepting Lightning payments would be a great idea is VPN company TorGUard.

4) One of the biggest players seems to be a company called Bitrefill. On their website are available prepaid vouchers of companies like Amazon, Hotels, Uber or Viber. Most welcomed by their current customers are prepaid phone vouchers:

''Bitrefill lets you refill your prepaid phone, pay bills, and buy vouchers with Bitcoin and Litecoin. We support prepaid SIM cards from over 600 operators in over 160 countries, and vouchers and bills across 30 services.''

What's so great about all that? Even though Amazon itself does not accept payments by Lightning, Bitrefill sells vouchers which can be used there.

This is a great opportunity not just for B2C customers, but for smaller business who wants to reach a new type of clients too!

5) If you ever research any pieces of information related to Lightning Network, then you have stumbled to all the ''coffee shops'' examples. Well, good news, there is actually a place similar to this popular example: Energy Kitchen, located in Bern, Switzerland decided to accept LN payments from now on.

Here is video guiding you through the process:

6) Currently, a plugin for Microsoft Excel is being developed, so we will be able to send payments from spreadsheet soon.

7) Few porn sites enabled a Lightning Network payments too...

8) And then here is this guy, who is using LN to pay for electricity of his e-bike...

9) Or this random store in Australia:

10) And soon on Coingi too

The whole list of places accepting lighting network is here: http://lightningnetworkstores.com/

At the beginning of the year 2018, no one would expect such a growth within several months, and here we are, almost ready to pay for our daily coffee with crypto.

How to start using Lightning Network

As you know, Lightning Network works by creating channels: two participants create a Lightning payment channel that contains a particular amount of Bitcoin which is locked up on the network. The only way to spend is to confirm it by your and second sides signature. What could sound complicated in theory is actually very simple to do in reality.

More technical tutorials are available online, but when using the app, the set up fits into two steps:

1) Download a and install wallet supporting the Lightning Network.

Try Lightning Wallet or Eclair wallet. Both mentioned apps are user friendly and pretty intuitive. Or give a chance to Spark wallet, find separate tutorial here: Spark wallet step by step.

2) Choose prefered action (screenshots taken from Bitcoin Lightning Wallet)

Recommendations:

Bitcoin Lightning wallet: Be sure to save a mnemonic phrase once a new wallet is created. Having a mnemonic phrase is the only way to recover your balance in case of any bugs or phone loss. You will be asked to do so, once the app is installed.

FAQ

Is Lightning Network growing anyhow?
Its popularity went up mainly during 2018. See this picture of Lightning Network in January 2018 vs October 2018:

What about the fees and speed of the payment?
Even though that fee is not required while sending a Bitcoin, it can definitely help to speed up the process. Sending payment this way could be costly then. On the other hand, Lighting has almost zero fees. What does that ''almost'' stand for?
Unfortunately, we do not have a proper answer in terms of % from a transaction yet. There is no withdrawing fee, but you are paying for a closing the channel. Not miner fee though.

Are my money locked at some point?
You can always access your money and move them wherever you need. So the answer is yes and no. Yes, you choose a particular amount of Bitcoin to ''put'' onto Lighting, this amount will just be there ready to spend. But once you decide to take it back, you just do by closing the channel. The Bitcoin used through Lighting is also not signed off the blockchain in any time during the process.

Is the Lightning Network open source?
Yes, it is.

Is there some protection about double spending?
The Lightning Network actually has a cheater protection built it. One of the biggest concern about safety is, that while you are broadcasting the money, you are still basically keeping them with you and actually send them once the channel gets closed. So why not to broadcast the money to more people and just take your bitcoin and back off? Well if you would try this little trick, the fraud protection in Lightning Network would send your money over to the party you were streaming to. Not just the amount you were about to pay, but the whole bulk of money you have put into Lightning Network. Sounds harsh but works as a good prevention.

Can I invest in it, or make money somehow?
Unfortunately not, maybe with a lots of effort, you would be able to earn few cents, but it's not worth the time.

Who are the creators?
Joseph Poon and Tadge Dryja created the idea in 2016. Currently developing with help of Lightning beta, Acinq, Lightning Labs and Blockstream and several independent developers.

Has a Lightning Network its own blockchain?
No, Lightning is dependent on the Bitcoin blockchain.

How is practical for exchanges?
Here in Coingi we are going to implement Lightning Network in order to provide our users faster and cheaper deposits of Bitcoin.

Is the Lightning Network only open to Bitcoin?
There are currently attempts of Litecoin, Monero or Vertcoin to participate on Lightning Network. Also Etherium designs its own off-chain solution called Plasma.

Threats

There are threats associated with every growth, and security is discussed while the popularity of Lightning payments grows. To protect users against potential double-spending or theft, fraud protection is built into the network already (see FAQ). But then it is the responsibility of users to protect their money.
Just as we take care of our passwords and data on our cards and bank apps, we should do the same for Lightning Network payments:

1) One of the recommended precautions is to always have Lightning Network on. If a user goes offline for a few days, there is a possibility that their funds could be stolen. This already happened to one unattentive user.

2) Another issue to be aware of is that uninstalling the app may also result in lost money, because an updated balance of funds history must be stored somewhere. Backup solutions are currently being developed, although none have been completed at the time of writing.

A different possible threat is to other coins. Those could lose their market share, because they might not be needed anymore. For example, Litecoin, which is designed for faster transactions, will not be needed much if Bitcoin can complete microtransactions faster ''itself''.

This will lead to a clearance of the crypto market as we know it, and increase the value of Bitcoin. FInally.

To sum it up

Lighting Network is going to bring faster and more effective use for Bitcoins micro payments. Future plans are, to add ability swap coins, once more cryptos than Bitcoin will get on. Lighting Network is already working and has growing user base so if you are up to try something new, enjoy.

There were several changes made in the background, for easier navigation on a site. Our main priority has been a better layout for a mobile version of Coingi website. That was achieved by implementing PWA technology, which basically makes the website behave like an app, when accessing through mobile devices

What does it mean to you?

• The web is now loading instantly on phones and never shows ''downasaur'', even in uncertain network conditions.
• The site is responding quicker to users.
• No more slow scrolling.
• Completely native app experience without the need of installing one.

Next thing on the background, is newly remade API connection with servers of Coingi.

The front end was updated with Javascript React for smoother handling all the website functions.

Plus, EUR payments are on again!

We present you with the affiliate system that rewards our customers for bringing their friends and new clients to our website. Thanks to this referral system you get 50% commision out of the fees paid by each new customer invited in this manner. Go to your administration page and look for Affiliate tab. There you can find your unique code with which you can invite new members to join our community. If the receiver of the code uses it to sign up to the page within 30 days from receiving it, you will be getting 50% commision out of the receiver's supplements.

For better individual tracking, we are taking advantage of Advanced tracking using tags. You can track the visits and signups that you are getting from multiple traffic sources by adding the tag parameter (&tag) to your referral URL.

For example, to track the visits and signups from Source 1, add &tag=source1 to your referral URL and then promote that URL (https://coingi.com/?r=XTPLJ7&tag=source1) and you will be able to see the signups and visits from that source.

You can create as many tags as you want on the fly and they can be a string of upto 150 characters comprising of small and large case letters and numbers.

You can track individual users' profits for the last 30 days or for the whole period.

We are delighted with the increasing rate of visits and trades. Of course, this influx results in additional strain on our servers, affecting performance.

However, thanks to the design of Coingi’s infrastructure and scaling, a new instance of Coingi could be established, decreasing the loading time of the website. In response to the requirement of increased performance, Coingi is simply going to start another instance of itself. In the event of an imminent system overload, main servers can alleviate some stress to this instance. An infinite number of these parallel instances are able to be created, thus, enabling system performance to accomodate the changing needs of the Exchange market.

We have another great news! On Coingi, we have started to support the USD and EUR fiat currency. We are glad to announce this brand new feature of our Cryptocurrency market which will allow you to trade crypto currencies for USD and EUR. Until now our customers have only been enabled to trade in different pairs of currencies. We are delighted to bring this feature to you as we now offer service comparable with other stock market competitors.

For deposits and withdrawals, we are first to support FIO banka, which is under jurisdiction of EU. That means you can take advantage of the service supported by this institution – namely SEPA payments – these allow you to send EUR within the boundaries of EU. Payment of this sort usually takes 1-3 workdays to proceed.

We also support international Wire transfer payment. With this method a client is able to pay in EUR as well as in USD and the process usually takes 2-4 workdays. In order to execute an international payment, however, it is obligatory to fulfill the following requirements: Minimum international deposit amount is 50 USD/EUR, International bank transfer deposits carry 0.05% deposit fee on our side (minimum fee = 7.5 USD/EUR).

We are aiming to expand our partnership among new institutions so we can ensure the steadily improving quality of our service – this way we can provide the best service to those who matter the most – our clients.

With the support of FIAT currencies, we are tied with several rules which we as a Cryptocurrency market, have to obey. Probably the most important one is the Verification of User which is required by AML/CFT policy – this policy is a countermeasure to money laundering and terrorism financing.

If you want to deposit or withdraw FIAT currency you need to verify your account first. After the verification, staff will ask you for an ID card and a document which proves the authenticity of the address that you gave to the company. At the same time, your photograph is required to verify that it is really you on the ID card which you will provide the staff with. More information about the Verification process is to be found after logging-in in the Verification tab.

By no means your photographs will be provided to third-party companies. This is a standard procedure when verifying your identification, which is used by most of the crypto-stock markets.

On August 1st, 2017 there is a proposal to make changes to the bitcoin software. This proposal, known as Bitcoin Cash, is likely to create a fork in the Bitcoin network. This means that after August 1st, 2017 there are likely to be two versions of the Bitcoin blockchain and two separate digital currencies.

In the event of two separate blockchains after August 1, 2017 we will only support one version. We have no plans to support the Bitcoin Cash fork.

This means if there are two separate digital currencies - bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) - customers with Bitcoin stored on Coingi will only have access to the current version of bitcoin we support (BTC). Customers will not have access to, or be able to withdraw, bitcoin cash (BCC).

Customers who wish to access both bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCC) need to withdraw bitcoin stored on Coingi before 11.59 pm PT July 31, 2017. If you do not wish to access bitcoin cash (BCC) then no action is required.

As always, the safety of your funds remains our number one priority. To this end, as a security precaution, we will be disabling bitcoin deposits and withdrawals on 31 July 2017 at 23:00 hrs UTC to ensure that all BTC funds stored at Coingi remain secure. Trading will remain unaffected throughout. Deposits and withdrawals will be resumed only when we deem it safe and prudent to do so.

We will keep you updated on this event through Twitter.

As a result of our continuous strive to improve our services, we’ve created a new, special API function for external websites. By doing so, we would like to meet the needs of those developers who try to make their own contribution to the bitcoin community - be it creating and improving applications or creating various graphs and price comparison websites. Thanks to these efforts the life within the bitcoin community becomes easier and also, at the same time, probably easier to grasp for those who are still bitcoin novices.

Our newly introduced API function will allow the developers to get all the necessary information they need in one simple call. We hope that you, developers, see this new function as an interesting opportunity, so we can therefore contribute together to the development of the bitcoin community, helping to raise awareness not just of bitcoin, but altcoins as well.

What information can be obtained using this application?

In one, single API call the developer can mainly obtain information on which currency pairs we’ve supported in the last 24 hours, their turnover and the turnover denominated in bitcoins.

We hope that his function finds its use especially on websites that compare particular currencies or exchanges against each other.

We’ve included all the necessary info in our API documentation which can be accessed here: http://docs.coingi.apiary.io

You are just looking at the result of 20 months’ constant hard work. At the beginning we set ourselves a daring goal: to build a decentralized, scalable, and of course stable exchange where everyone is able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies according to their own consideration.

We will not conceal the fact that we had to overcome a range of problems and ponder the tiniest details in order to succeed in our mission. The original launch plan had to be postponed by several months in order to accomplish more detailed tuning and testing. However, the exchange system now reflects all the invested effort and the delay has been worth it absolutely. The result of our hard work is a bullet-proof exchange with automated processes which can be envied by even the classic online exchanges.

In projects of this type and focus, one can’t afford to make even the tiniest mistake, that is why we have invested most of our time to testing against all security risks and to simulations of various attacks by hackers and other varieties of cybercrime. Thanks to that we have managed to build a robust information system which is not only safe, but also excellently scalable.

The Coingi cryptoexchange system runs on approximately 30 servers which communicate together via an encrypted VPN network. All communication is signed in a way that these processes cannot be interrupted in any way. The aforementioned scalability enables us to keep increasing the number of servers indefinitely. We aren’t even limited by the location of the servers, frankly we can be everywhere.

Only the best for our customers

Users have a very clearly organized and intuitive web interface which communicates with the system exclusively via API. It is for reasons of speed and the aforementioned scalability. Thanks to that we are able to provide a full API interface to everything we offer our users.

We are also preparing a wide localization for our program. Coingi has been translated into more than 10 languages and we would be very thankful if you helped us extend these translations much more. It is a smooth process thanks to a service called Crowdin. Please find more information on translations and how you can contribute in the footer of the website.

We would be delighted if you tried our system out and eventually even sent us your tips and notes on the site’s possible improvements regarding its functionality. We will definitely address them in detail, because Coingi is here primarily for You!

After several months of development we would like to announce the launch date of COINGI.

At the moment, we finished the process of development and we started testing the beta version of COINGI system. Which means that all parts of the system are programmed, API is ready, user interface is complete, data synchronization and data migration are set and servers of individual subsystems are connected. All operational processes are defined, so it is time to start testing in full operation.

The benefits of the testing operation

Speed and stability

We will work on every detail of the stability of trading before we launch the full operation. During the beta version testing, we will focus mainly on the ability to process a big amount of users‘ commands. The stability of the system will be guaranteed even during 100 000 transaction per second and even during the shutdown of some servers.

Security

We focus on a detailed examination of all potential threads that could compromise the security of the system. We want to guarantee 100% security of the service in full operation. That is why we devote enormous efforts to security testing and why the realization of these tests takes the majority of testing time. We employ security experts and we also hired an independent external audit to implement and verificate the results of the tests.

The majority of virtual currencies are saved in offline mode, which prevents online thefts. Online wallets use ony certain amount of money, that is sufficent for the operation of the platform at the moment. In case of large transactions, the funds are saved of withdrawn from offline wallets through controlled process, that guarantees full protection. The whole platform is protected by the system of internal control of account balances and currency movements.

Online wallets are fully protected! They work completely separately and they try to operate “intelligently“. It means that they connect to the platform by themselves, they determine the requests for payment and they control if the requests correspond to reality. They check the collected data about transactions by using checksums and procedures, so the number of bitcoins at the website corresponds to the number of bitcoins recorded in the database.

You can trade virtual currencies at many websites, but not every site can provide fast and secure transactions together with the advanced functions of the platform. This is the main reason why we created COINGI service!

The development of the main part of the system is complete, but we are still working on new improvements, that will be implemented step by step. We are working on new functions that will be interesting for the users. We are permanently developing the system, so COINGI can keep on top of virtual currency websites.

Segmentation in order to improve performance

The system was designed to be able to process worldwide transactions of tens of thousands of users per second quickly and seamlessly. That is why the system is divided into several parts, which communicate quickly with each other and which are able to duplicate themselves in order to increase their throughput. Each component of the system can work in parallel (even the kernel can) in an unlimited number of copies in order to increase the throughput and the security of the platform. During the last testing, we achieved the throughput of 100 000 complete transactions per second. It allows us to stop any server or to add any server at any time.

Coingi will run on servers on different continents simultaneously!

We solved the exchange of data among distant locations, so Coingi will run on several data centers on different continents simultaneously! The system will connect you automatically to the nearest location in order to achieve high speed. The unauthorised disconnections of any location will not threaten the system, the swich between servers will be made immediately. Therefore the system cannot be switched off – the speed and the instant availability is guaranteed worldwide.

Thanks to this extreme performance, COINGI is able to process a huge amount of users‘ commands at the same time, without any problems with completing the transactions. So you can always get real time information about trading and react immediately to supply and demand.

One step further thanks to API

We achieved all above-described advantages thanks to API, that helps the web interface to control the service. Everything is programmed so the website stays stably loaded in browser after the first user’s page view, the website communicates with the service only through API, so we achieve the high speed and minimal server load.

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Coingi Inc.

During the fall of 2016, we are planning to launch our new website COINGI, that allows our clients to trade virtual currencies. This service reacts to current needs of the bitcoin scene, our aim is to provide safe, independent and trustworthy virtual currency service, which will fully satisfy the needs of buyers and sellers worldwide.

This service is not an online currency exchange, it is a robust and sophisticated service, that allows its clients to buy and sell virtual currency for USD or EUR. Our intention was to create a fully stable and fast platform for virtual currency trading and first of all, to avoid jeopardizing the service by cyber thieves or hackers and to make the platform independent of national governments.

Modern service with solid foundations

We want the website COINGI to become a globally known synonym for virtual currency trade. During the creation of the service, we learned from the mistakes of other virtual currency platforms. At the beginning of our project, we defined a sophisticated model to eliminate technical, security and political influences and we worked on every detail of COINGI project based on this model.

All in one system

We will not hide the fact that we studied in detail the advantages of competing platforms. Especially some concrete functionalities and methods of maintaining the security of trading. We also added our ideas and specific improvements, that you cannot find on other platforms, to this knowledge. The result of our work is this highly stable and secure online service with a user friendly interface and other improvements, that will be appreciated by buyers and sellers. A lot of them are running in the background, but you can use for example API interface allowing almost 100% control without the use of the web.

The advantages of COINGI

COINGI has a unique security system preventing virtual currency thefts. All virtual currencies are saved in offline wallets, which eliminates the possibility of online theft! The offline wallet regularly releases only the required amount of money used for completing ongoing transactions. Everything is constantly controlled by security precautions, controlling account balances, that must correspond to the real state!

What currency does COINGI offer?

COINGI will mainly focus on bitcoin trading, but it does not neglect other currencies such as litecoin etc. The website will allow you to trade with these currencies very soon:

• Bitcoin
• Litecoin
• Peercoin
• Vertcoin
• Feathercoin
• Namecoin
• Dash

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