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The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video

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The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video: Now’s the time to watch Jurassic World Dominion if you skipped it in theaters.

The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video


Amazon Prime Video
 drops a bunch of movies at the beginning of each month, though it doesn’t have a ton of new weekly releases after that.

Below, you’ll find this month’s highlights and CNET’s full list of best Prime Video original movies.

What’s coming up this month

Here are the highlights.

Jan. 1

  • Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): Adventure movie starring Harrison Ford. Prime Video also added Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Jan. 6

  • Jurassic World Dominion (2022): Action movie starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. It takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. Dinosaurs now live and hunt alongside humans all over the world.

Jan. 17

  • Vengeance (2022): Dark comedy directed by B.J. Novak. It’s about Ben Manalowitz (Novak), a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.

Jan. 27

  • Shotgun Wedding (2010): Action comedy starring Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel. Darcy (Lopez) and Tom (Duhamel) gather their families for the ultimate destination wedding. But when the entire party is taken hostage, “’til death do us part” takes on a whole new meaning.

Jan. 31

  • Nate Bargatze: Hello World (2022): Comedy special. It explores topics including growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, the hardest part of marriage, and saying dumb things.

Best Amazon Prime Video original films

At time of writing, these films all score around 70 or higher on Metacritic.

Comedy

Amazon Studios

Late Night (2019)

Written by and starring Mindy Kaling, Late Night follows an acclaimed news show host whose ratings are on the decline. She hires a female, Indian-American writer to shake up her white-male writer’s room. Never preachy, while making an argument for transforming Emma Thompson into a real-life talk show host, Late Night is lively comedy with hints of The Devil Wears Prada. That alone should be a solid reason to watch it.

Amazon

Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)

An enjoyable comedy, yes, but Brittany Runs a Marathon also hits close to home, focusing on the things we’re all obsessed with: food, body image and exercise. Brittany, played by the effortlessly relatable Jillian Bell, receives strong advice from her doctor to lose weight and cut the hard-partying lifestyle. She starts running, taking all the tough steps toward the life-changing finish line. Watch it from your couch, then be inspired to head outside for a jog. The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video

Amazon Studios

Get Duked! (2019)

A teen comedy-horror-thriller with a dash of social commentary. What a combo! Get Duked! follows three slacker students, one nerd and their mundane teacher as they head to the Scottish Highlands to attempt to win an award involving navigating the area using just a paper map. Everything becomes a little more thrilling when the four teens end up fending for themselves against murderous hunter the Duke, played by the brilliant Eddie Izzard. The whole young ensemble is fantastic, playing with a tight script crackling with banter. Boy Scouts meets Attack the Block, Get Duked! is chaos walking, cussing and eating questionable local flora.

Adventure

Amazon Studios

The Lost City of Z (2016)

Based on the life of British adventurer Percy Fawcett, The Lost City of Z drops you into the Amazon rainforest on the search for an ancient lost city. If that setup for adventure isn’t enticing enough, the movie stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland… with a mustache. A beautiful, grandiose film put together with great care, The Lost City of Z might move slower than you think, but that only enhances its fascinating psychological layers. The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video

Drama

Screenshot by CNET

Brad’s Status (2017)

Ben Stiller stars in this comedy-drama as Brad, a 47-year-old man who’s plagued by thoughts of comparison and self-doubt. He has a cozy life with a nonprofit job, a loving wife (Jenna Fischer) and a talented son who’s gearing up to attend college (Austin Abrams), but he still compares himself to old friends who wound up in glitzy and lucrative professions. This introspective film is deeply interesting, and Stiller perfectly embodies the unflattering, often cringey role of a protagonist obsessed with paths not taken.

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Amazon Studios

Cold War (2018)

Following lovers from different backgrounds and temperaments, Pawel Pawlikowski’s historical drama is set in a ravaged, post-World War II Poland. Zula is an ambitious young singer faking a peasant identity, while Wiktor is a jazz musician holding auditions for a state-sponsored folk music ensemble. The politics are handled elegantly and the black-and-white visuals are precise and beautiful. For an 88-minute treat of a sumptuous, passionate, almost impossible love story, look no further than Cold War.

Amazon Studios

King Lear (2018)

King Lear is, of course, an adaptation of the Shakespeare play, but two powerful forces help this one stand out: Anthony Hopkins and Black Widow scene stealer Florence Pugh. Not to mention Emma Thompson! This adaptation is set in an alternative universe during the 21st century, where London is under strict military control. Lear is ready to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, but not all of them are accepting. If you’re OK with the Shakespearean dialogue, then simply sit back and marvel at Hopkins and a stacked ensemble cast, including Emily Watson, Jim Broadbent and Andrew Scott. The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video.

Amazon Studios

Pass Over (2018)

Before we jump into this Spike Lee film, note that it’s technically a recorded stage play. And yet somehow it captures cinematic magic, thanks in large part to the engaging performances from Jon Michael Hill and Julian Parker. They play two young men dreaming of the promised land from their fixed spot on the sidewalk. Educational, moving, funny and surprising, Pass Over will keep you on your toes more than you think.

Amazon Studios

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

Prepare for Amazon’s first big, prestigious movie to wallop you in the chest. A broken man who’s experienced terrible losses becomes the guardian of his teenage nephew. Lee Chandler’s story will hit you with punch after emotional punch, as will the immense performances from the likes of Michelle Williams. Another accomplishment from Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea is full-bodied, unforgettable storytelling.

Screenshot by CNET

Wonderstruck (2017)

Adapted from a young adult novel by Brian Selznick (who also wrote The Invention of Hugo Cabret), this film shifts between bold color and black and white to tell a story about two children who are living in different time periods but going about similar journeys. One is newly orphaned Ben, who, after losing his mother (Michelle Williams), seeks out his missing father in 1977. The other is Rose, who’s tracking down a silent film star (Julianne Moore) 50 years earlier. Separated by time, their paths intersect in New York City. Coming from director Todd Haynes, this family-friendly film packs in adventure and childlike wonder.

Amazon Studios

Sound of Metal (2019)

Sound of Metal scored a bunch of Oscar nominations, including best picture and best actor for the outstanding Riz Ahmed. (It won in two categories: best sound and best film editing.) He plays Ruben, a punk-metal drummer who unfortunately starts to lose his hearing. As well as struggling with a drug addiction, Ruben is forced to settle into his new life in the deaf community and to learn American Sign Language. The film’s stunning sound design immerses you in Ruben’s suspenseful story and the experiences of those around him.

Amazon

Small Axe (2020)

A sublime anthology that doesn’t drop the ball across its five films. Small Axe is a collection of distinct stories about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the ’60s to the ’80s. They’re all directed by Steve McQueen, who’s working at his exquisite best (when doesn’t he?), crafting stories such as courtroom drama Mangrove, based on the 1971 trial of the Mangrove Nine and starring Black Panther’s Letitia Wright. Take a seat and devour this massive achievement. The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video.

Amazon Studios

Honey Boy (2019)

Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for this autobiographical movie about a child actor and his relationship with his father. We follow Otis, who’s traumatized after days on set accompanied by his father, a former rodeo clown. LaBeouf actually plays the character inspired by his father, giving Honey Boy even more psychological layers. This is fascinating, cinematic therapy from a singular perspective.

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Amazon Studios

One Night in Miami (2020)

If you still haven’t seen One Night in Miami, this is a sign to clear your schedule. The Oscar-nominated drama offers a fictionalized take on a real-life meeting that took place between Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown in 1964. Each of its four lead actors shine, and when they eventually convene for the film’s titular night, their imagined conversations and debate feel real. A lively and thought-provoking film that’s strengthened by scenes between Leslie Odom Jr. and Kingsley Ben-Adir. The 29 Absolute Best Movies to Watch on Prime Video

Amazon

Selah and the Spades (2019)

If you’re into the dark-things-happen-at-boarding-schools genre, then Selah and the Spades might be the subject to sign up for. A senior leads a faction called the Spades who sell drugs to other students. But Selah’s about to graduate, so must find the right candidate to carry on her legacy. Shot beautifully and guided by debut director Tayarisha Poe’s unique lens, this is a taste of even greater things to come.

Amazon Studios

Paterson (2016)

In trademark Jim Jarmusch style, this low-key indie narrows in on the finer details of regular life with a distinct sense of humor. Spanning one week, Paterson follows a bus driver and poet named Paterson who listens to passengers talking, takes his dog for walks and stops for beers at his local bar. Adam Driver alone makes all that endlessly watchable. Dotted with the idiosyncratic characters living in a New Jersey town, Paterson offers a wise take on life, delving into personal setbacks and the new paths weaved around them.

Romance

Amazon

Sylvie’s Love (2020)

While Sylvie’s Love is, at its core, an old-fashioned love story, its dewy romance is remarkably refreshing: a period drama centered on Black people that isn’t dominated by issues of race and bigotry. Set in an aesthetically enchanting ’60s New York City, it follows Sylvie and Robert, who have a chance to reconnect after a summer romance five years earlier. Both work in music, and the film’s soundtrack, featuring Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson and more, helps transport you to this glowing place.

Amazon

The Big Sick (2017)

The Big Sick introduced the world to Kumail Nanjiani, who co-wrote the movie based on his real-life romance with partner Emily V. Gordon. After the pair go on a few promising dates, Emily inexplicably falls ill and must be placed in an induced coma. While Kumail gets to know her worried parents at the hospital, his own Pakistani family keeps arranging dates for him with other women. Not only ripe for cultural comedy setups, The Big Sick is also a down-to-earth and heartfelt story of an interracial couple.

Documentary

Amazon Studios

One Child Nation (2019-)

One Child Nation is a fascinating and moving documentary about China’s decades-long one-child policy. It utilizes interviews to reveal the consequences of the policy, which ended in 2016. It won the grand jury prize in the US documentary category at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Video screenshot

Time (2020)

Mother, activist and entrepreneur Fox Rich is at the center of this Oscar-nominated documentary that explores the impact of incarceration on a family. Early in the film, we learn that Fox’s husband, Robert, has been in prison for 20 years for a robbery he and Fox committed in a moment of desperation in 1997. Home videos and present-day footage are weaved together to convey the passage of time over two decades. It’s a visually stunning film with powerful messages about the American criminal justice system. 

Prime Video

Lucy and Desi (2022)

Do you love Lucy? How about insightful, nostalgic documentaries? If so, you’ll need to engage with this Amy Poehler-directed examination into the lives of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The feel-good doc draws on home movies and audio provided by Ball and Arnaz’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz, and charts everything that led up to the pair’s iconic run in the ’50s sitcom I Love Lucy. When you’ve wrapped up, a fictional film about the stars, “Being the Ricardos,” is also on Prime Video.

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My Name Is Pauli Murray (2021)

This 90-minute documentary provides vital context into the life of Pauli Murray, a gender nonconforming lawyer, poet and civil rights activist who was ahead of her time yet remains overlooked by history. Murray advocated for race and gender equality, and her ideas would later influence Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall. Directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen (RGB, Julia), this thorough and thought-provoking film presents Murray’s many accomplishments and indelible impact.

Video screenshot/CNET

Gleason (2016)

In 2011, three years after he retired from the NFL, former New Orleans Saints player Steve Gleason was diagnosed with the nervous system disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. This emotional film documents Gleason’s battle with ALS. Told in large part through videos he recorded himself, Gleason’s story involves his loving wife, Michel, and his newborn son, Rivers. It’s an eye-opening look at how devastating ALS can be. If you have a Prime Video subscription, Gleason is a must-see. 

Sci-fi

Amazon Studios

The Vast of Night (2019)

The Vast of Night is a curious indie sci-fi flick from debut director Andrew Patterson that plays with narrative in clever ways. Long, sweeping shots carry us after two young radio workers who investigate an audio frequency they think could be traced to aliens. The distinctive 1950s New Mexico setting, and characters delivering monologues with the smooth intonations of those on radio, all build an eerie atmosphere with satisfying payoff.

Thriller

Prime Video

Emergency (2022)

At the start of this comedy-thriller, we learn that college seniors and best friends Kunle and Sean plan to become the first Black men to complete a “legendary tour,” a feat that involves fraternity party-hopping on an epic scale. But when the students find a young white woman passed out on the floor in their home, the night spirals into something else entirely. The film, which mixes comedy and social commentary, is at times tense and harrowing. A significant part is the bond between Kunle and Sean, played by an excellent RJ Cyler and Donald Elise Watkins.

Amazon Studios

Blow the Man Down (2019)

The Coen Brothers meet Wes Anderson in this black comedy thriller steered by two brilliant young female leads. Set in a snowy fishing town in Maine, Blow the Man Down follows sisters, played by Morgan Saylor and Sophie Lowe, who try to hide the body of a man after he attacked one of them and she fought back. While on their crime caper, they find themselves digging up the town matriarchs’ dark secrets, spinning this into a noir mystery. It’s as wonderful as it sounds.

Amazon Studios

You Were Never Really Here (2017)

A psychological thriller starring a pre-Joker Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah, more people need to watch You Were Never Really Here. Lynne Ramsay’s masterful take on a story about a hitman who’s hired to rescue a politician’s daughter from a human trafficking network, is stark, brutal and mercifully straight to the point, running at a taut 90 minutes. With Phoenix doing his brilliant committed actor thing, You Were Never Really Here is more than your average thriller.

Amazon Prime Video

The Mad Women’s Ball (2021)

Mélanie Laurent directs, co-writes and stars in this emotional French thriller set in the late 19th century. Laurent is Geneviève, a nurse who attempts to free Eugénie (Lou de Laâge), a woman committed to a mental asylum when her family learns she communicates with spirits. Carried by outstanding performances from its two leads, The Mad Women’s Ball poignantly sweeps the inequities of the era into its disturbing melodrama. An accomplished watch.

Amazon Studios

The Handmaiden (2016)

Even if you’ve heard good things about The Handmaiden, nothing can prepare you for the insane twists this exquisite South Korean movie takes. Classed as an erotic psychological thriller, The Handmaiden contains explicit scenes you should probably avoid watching with parents around. It all kicks off with a con man wooing a Japanese heiress with the intention of committing her to an asylum once they’re married. But his pickpocket partner who poses as her maid strays from the plan. If you’ve been getting into South Korean films thanks to Parasite, this is a must watch.

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Technologies

What Is Bitcoin ₿? Bitcoin Definition, And All You Need To Know About Bitcoin.

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Bitcoin () is a cryptocurrency. It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.

Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto and started in 2009 when its source code was released as open-source software. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. Research produced by University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin.

Bitcoin has been criticized for its use in illegal transactions, its high electricity consumption, price volatility, and thefts from exchanges. Some economists, including several Nobel laureates, have characterized it as a speculative bubble. Bitcoin has also been used as an investment, although several regulatory agencies have issued investor alerts about bitcoin.

Creation

The domain name “bitcoin.org” was registered on 18 August 2008. On 31 October 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open-source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto’s identity remains unknown.

On 3 January 2009, the bitcoin network was created when Nakamoto mined the first block of the chain, known as the genesis block. Embedded in the coinbase of this block was the text “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

This note references a headline published by The Times and has been interpreted as both a timestamp and a comment on the instability caused by fractional-reserve banking.

The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who had created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPoW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software on its release date, and on 12 January 2009 received ten bitcoins from Nakamoto.

Other early cypherpunk supporters were creators of bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bit gold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John’s pizzas for ₿10,000.

Understanding Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency. Balances of Bitcoin tokens are kept using public and private “keys,” which are long strings of numbers and letters linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm that was used to create them. The public key (comparable to a bank account number) serves as the address which is published to the world and to which others may send bitcoins. The private key (comparable to an ATM PIN) is meant to be a guarded secret and only used to authorize Bitcoin transmissions. Bitcoin keys should not be confused with a Bitcoin wallet, which is a physical or digital device which facilitates the trading of Bitcoin and allows users to track ownership of coins. The term “wallet” is a bit misleading, as Bitcoin’s decentralized nature means that it is never stored “in” a wallet, but rather decentrally on a blockchain.

Style notes: according to the official Bitcoin Foundation, the word “Bitcoin” is capitalized in the context of referring to the entity or concept, whereas “bitcoin” is written in the lower case when referring to a quantity of the currency (e.g. “I traded 20 bitcoin”) or the units themselves. The plural form can be either “bitcoin” or “bitcoins.” Bitcoin is also commonly abbreviated as “BTC.”

How Bitcoin Works

Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the Bitcoin network, also known as “miners,” are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the Bitcoin network. New bitcoin is being released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate, such that the total supply of bitcoins approaches 21 million. Currently, there are roughly 3 million bitcoins which have yet to be mined. In this way, Bitcoin (and any cryptocurrency generated through a similar process) operates differently from fiat currency; in centralized banking systems, currency is released at a rate matching the growth in goods in an attempt to maintain price stability, while a decentralized system like Bitcoin sets the release rate ahead of time and according to an algorithm.

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Bitcoin mining is the process by which bitcoins are released into circulation. Generally, mining requires the solving of computationally difficult puzzles in order to discover a new block, which is added to the blockchain. In contributing to the blockchain, mining adds and verifies transaction records across the network. For adding blocks to the blockchain, miners receive a reward in the form of a few bitcoins; the reward is halved every 210,000 blocks. The block reward was 50 new bitcoins in 2009 and is currently 12.5. As more and more bitcoins are created, the difficulty of the mining process – that is, the amount of computing power involved – increases. The mining difficulty began at 1.0 with Bitcoin’s debut back in 2009; at the end of the year, it was only 1.18. As of October 2019, the mining difficulty is over 12 trillion. Once, an ordinary desktop computer sufficed for the mining process; now, to combat the difficulty level, miners must use expensive, complex hardware like Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and more advanced processing units like Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). These elaborate mining processors are known as “mining rigs.”

One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionths of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi. If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, Bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places.

What’s a Bitcoin Worth?

In 2017 alone, the price of Bitcoin rose from a little under $1,000 at the beginning of the year to close to $19,000, ending the year more than 1,400% higher. More recently, the cryptocurrency has declined in value and more-or-less plateaued, save for a few periods of relatively lower price figures (the early portion of 2019, when prices hovered around $3500) and relatively higher ones (June and July of 2019, when prices briefly peaked at over $13,000). As of October 2019, Bitcoin seems to have found a new price point in the range of $8,000 to $9,000.

Bitcoin’s price is quite dependent on the size of its mining network, since the larger the network is, the more difficult – and thus more costly – it is to produce new bitcoins. As a result, the price of bitcoin has to increase as its cost of production also rises. The Bitcoin mining network’s aggregate processing power is known as the “hash rate,” referring to the number of times per second the network can attempt to complete a hashing puzzle necessary before a block can be added to the blockchain. As of October 23, 2019, the network reached a record high 114 quintillion hashes per second.

Decentralization

Bitcoin is decentralized:

  • Bitcoin does not have a central authority.
  • There is no central server; the bitcoin network is peer-to-peer.
  • There is no central storage; the bitcoin ledger is distributed.
  • The ledger is public; anybody can store it on their computer.
  • There is no single administrator; the ledger is maintained by a network of equally privileged miners.
  • Anybody can become a miner.
  • The additions to the ledger are maintained through competition. Until a new block is added to the ledger, it is not known which miner will create the block.
  • The issuance of bitcoins is decentralized. They are issued as a reward for the creation of a new block.
  • Anybody can create a new bitcoin address (a bitcoin counterpart of a bank account) without needing any approval.
  • Anybody can send a transaction to the network without needing any approval; the network merely confirms that the transaction is legitimate.

Trend towards centralization

Researchers have pointed out at a “trend towards centralization”. Although bitcoin can be sent directly from user to user, in practice intermediaries are widely used.

Bitcoin miners join large mining pools to minimize the variance of their income.

Because transactions on the network are confirmed by miners, decentralization of the network requires that no single miner or mining pool obtains 51% of the hashing power, which would allow them to double-spend coins, prevent certain transactions from being verified and prevent other miners from earning income. As of 2013 just six mining pools controlled 75% of overall bitcoin hashing power.

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In 2014 mining pool Ghash.io obtained 51% hashing power which raised significant controversies about the safety of the network. The pool has voluntarily capped their hashing power at 39.99% and requested other pools to act responsibly for the benefit of the whole network. 2017 over 70% of the hashing power and 90% of transactions were operating from China.

According to researchers, other parts of the ecosystem are also “controlled by a small set of entities”, notably the maintenance of the client software, online wallets and simplified payment verification (SPV) clients.

Privacy

Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that funds are not tied to real-world entities but rather bitcoin addresses. Owners of bitcoin addresses are not explicitly identified, but all transactions on the blockchain are public. In addition, transactions can be linked to individuals and companies through “idioms of use” (e.g., transactions that spend coins from multiple inputs indicate that the inputs may have a common owner) and corroborating public transaction data with known information on owners of certain addresses. Additionally, bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies, may be required by law to collect personal information. To heighten financial privacy, a new bitcoin address can be generated for each transaction.

Who Invented Bitcoin?

No one knows who invented Bitcoin, or at least not conclusively. Satoshi Nakamoto is the name associated with the person or group of people who released the original Bitcoin white paper in 2008 and worked on the original Bitcoin software that was released in 2009. The Bitcoin protocol requires users to enter a birthday upon signup, and we know that an individual named Satoshi Nakamoto registered and put down April 5 as a birth date. In the years since that time, many individuals have either claimed to be or have been suggested as the real-life people behind the pseudonym, but as of October 2019, the true identity (or identities) behind Satoshi remains obscured.

Before Satoshi

Though it is tempting to believe the media’s spin that Satoshi Nakamoto is a solitary, quixotic genius who created Bitcoin out of thin air, such innovations do not typically happen in a vacuum. All major scientific discoveries, no matter how original-seeming, were built on previously existing research. There are precursors to Bitcoin: Adam Back’s Hashcash, invented in 1997, and subsequently Wei Dai’s b-money, Nick Szabo’s bit gold and Hal Finney’s Reusable Proof of Work. The Bitcoin whitepaper itself cites Hashcash and b-money, as well as various other works spanning several research fields. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the individuals behind the other projects named above have been speculated to have also had a part in creating Bitcoin.

Why Is Satoshi Anonymous?

There are two primary motivations for keeping Bitcoin’s inventor keeping his or her or their identity secret. One is privacy. As Bitcoin has gained in popularity – becoming something of a worldwide phenomenon – Satoshi Nakamoto would likely garner a lot of attention from the media and from governments.

The other reason is safety. Looking at 2009 alone, 32,489 blocks were mined; at the then-reward rate of 50 BTC per block, the total payout in 2009 was 1,624,500 BTC, which is worth $13.9 billion as of October 25, 2019. One may conclude that only Satoshi and perhaps a few other people were mining through 2009 and that they possess a majority of that stash of BTC. Someone in possession of that much Bitcoin could become a target of criminals, especially since bitcoins are less like stocks and more like cash, where the private keys needed to authorize spending could be printed out and literally kept under a mattress. While it’s likely the inventor of Bitcoin would take precautions to make any extortion-induced transfers traceable, remaining anonymous is a good way for Satoshi to limit exposure.

The Suspects

Major media outlets, cryptocurrency experts and other enthusiasts have ventured guesses as to the individual or group behind the persona of Satoshi Nakamoto. On Oct. 10, 2011, The New Yorker published an article speculating that Nakamoto might be Irish cryptography student Michael Clear or economic sociologist Vili Lehdonvirta. A day later, Fast Company suggested that Nakamoto could be a group of three people – Neal King, Vladimir Oksman and Charles Bry – who together appear on a patent related to secure communications that were filed two months before bitcoin.org was registered. A Vice article published in May 2013 added more suspects to the list, including Gavin Andresen, the Bitcoin project’s lead developer; Jed McCaleb, co-founder of now-defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox; and famed Japanese mathematician Shinichi Mochizuki. 

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In December 2013, Techcrunch published an interview with researcher Skye Grey who claimed textual analysis of published writings shows a link between Satoshi and bit-gold creator Nick Szabo. And perhaps most famously, in March 2014, Newsweek ran a cover article claiming that Satoshi is actually an individual named Satoshi Nakamoto – a 64-year-old Japanese-American engineer living in California. More recently, Australian computer scientist and cryptocurrency proponent Craig Wright has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto – although Wright also has claimed that Nakamoto plagiarized his 2008 thesis on the topic of crypocurrencies.

After a decade of Bitcoin, the world still does not know who is behind the world’s top digital currency, and it’s possible that the mystery will never be solved.

Can Satoshi’s Identity Be Proven?

It would seem even early collaborators on the project don’t have verifiable proof of Satoshi’s identity. To reveal conclusively who Satoshi Nakamoto is, a definitive link would need to be made between his/her activity with Bitcoin and his/her identity. That could come in the form of linking the party behind the domain registration of bitcoin.org, email and forum accounts used by Satoshi Nakamoto, or ownership of some portion of the earliest mined bitcoins. Even though the bitcoins Satoshi likely possesses are traceable on the blockchain, it seems he/she has yet to cash them out in a way that reveals his/her identity. If Satoshi were to move his/her bitcoins to an exchange today, this might attract attention, but it seems unlikely that a well-funded and successful exchange would betray a customer’s privacy.

Receiving Bitcoins As Payment

Bitcoins can be accepted as a means of payment for products sold or services provided. If you have a brick and mortar store, just display a sign saying “Bitcoin Accepted Here” and many of your customers may well take you up on it; the transactions can be handled with the requisite hardware terminal or wallet address through QR codes and touch screen apps. An online business can easily accept bitcoins by just adding this payment option to the others it offers, like credit cards, PayPal, etc. Online payments will require a Bitcoin merchant tool (an external processor like Coinbase or BitPay). 

Working For Bitcoins

Those who are self-employed can get paid for a job in bitcoins. There are several websites/job boards which are dedicated to the digital currency:

  • Cryptogrind brings together work seekers and prospective employers through its website
  • Coinality features jobs – freelance, part-time and full-time – that offer payment in bitcoins, as well as other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Litecoin
  • Jobs4Bitcoins, part of reddit.com
  • BitGigs

Investing in Bitcoins

There are many Bitcoin supporters who believe that digital currency is the future. Many of those who endorse Bitcoin believe that it facilitates a much faster, no-fee payment system for transactions across the globe. Although it is not backed by any government or central bank, bitcoin can be exchanged for traditional currencies; in fact, its exchange rate against the dollar attracts potential investors and traders interested in currency plays. Indeed, one of the primary reasons for the growth of digital currencies like Bitcoin is that they can act as an alternative to national fiat money and traditional commodities like gold.

In March 2014, the IRS stated that all virtual currencies, including bitcoins, would be taxed as property rather than currency. Gains or losses from bitcoins held as capital will be realized as capital gains or losses, while bitcoins held as inventory will incur ordinary gains or losses. The sale of bitcoins that you mined or purchased from another party, or the use of bitcoins to pay for goods or services are examples of transactions which can be taxed.

Like any other asset, the principle of buying low and selling high applies to bitcoins. The most popular way of amassing the currency is through buying on a Bitcoin exchange, but there are many other ways to earn and own bitcoins.

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Technologies

Microsoft (MSFT) Corporation Net Worth And History

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Microsoft Net Worth: Microsoft is an American Multinational and giant tech company that has an estimted net worth of $1.7 Trillion Dollar. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services.

Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Microsoft hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers.

Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue; it was the world’s largest software maker by revenue as of 2016 and is considered one of the domestic Big Five technology companies. [Wikipedia]

Microsoft Corporation Net Worth

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. It operates through the following business segments:

  • Productivity and Business Processes
  • Intelligent Cloud and
  • More Personal Computing.

The Productivity and Business Processes segment comprises products and services in the portfolio of productivity, communication, and information services of the company spanning a variety of devices and platform.

The Intelligent Cloud segment refers to the public, private, and hybrid serve products and cloud services of the company which can power modern business.

The More Personal Computing segment encompasses products and services geared towards the interests of end users, developers, and IT professionals across all devices.

The firm also offers operating systems; cross-device productivity applications; server applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games; personal computers, tablets; gaming and entertainment consoles; other intelligent devices; and related accessories. The company was founded by Paul Gardner Allen and William Henry Gates III in 1975 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

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Microsoft Corporation Net Worth

Microsoft Corporation is currently one of the richest and the most influential tech companies in the world, with an estimated forbes net worth of $1.7 Trillion Dollar as of the time of this post.

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Technologies

Elon Musk offers $100million for best carbon capture technology

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Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took to Twitter to promise a $100 million prize for development of the “best” technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions.

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