Bitcoin Weekly 2016 July 20: Bitcoin Halvening changes little, Ethereum successful hardfork, Bitcoiner travels around the world, Pokemon on the blockchain and Charlie Shrem released

The Bitcoin ‘halvening’ happened last week – an event within the Bitcoin protocol where a new Bitcoin mining era started with the mining reward dropping to 12.5 BTC from 25 BTC. Speculation before the event held that something might happen to the market, economy or community; but so far, very little has changed in reaction.
After the Ethereum DAO (Distributed Autonomous Organization) attack with millions of dollars’ worth of ETH stolen, the Ethereum community has successfully executed a hardfork to secure the stolen funds. Keep reading for resources and details about that hardfork and the events leading up to it.
Ever wondered if you can live on only bitcoins? Bitcoin programmer Felix Weis answered that question in part by roaming the world for 18 months using only bitcoins to pay his way. Netki CEO spoke up at a conference suggesting that pokmon could be added to the blockchain (not a new suggestion, but still worth mulling over). Bitcoin mining equipment maker Bitmain acquires blockchain data analysis company Blocktrail.
Finally, Charlie Shrem, CEO of now-defunct Bitcoin exchange BitInstant has been released from a two-year jail sentence he received after being charged with money laundering.
As for the market, Bitcoin value is currently at $667.59 (BitcoinAverage.com) after showing a two percent dip from $677 over the last four hours. As for a weekly review of the price, the current market value is very close to what it was seven days ago. The market rose up above $685 during July 17; but fell once again back down to its more familiar price.

This post was published at Silicon Angle on Jul 20, 2016.