Alyssa Hertig

A contributing tech reporter at CoinDesk, Alyssa Hertig is a programmer and journalist specializing in Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Over the years, her work has also appeared in VICE, Mic and Reason. She's currently writing a book exploring the ins and outs of Bitcoin governance. Alyssa owns some BTC.

Latest from Alyssa Hertig

Markets

'History Has Repeated': F2Pool Explains Message in Last Block Before Bitcoin Halving

F2Pool co-founder Wang Chun tells Consensus: Distributed why he chose a $2.3T NY Times headline for Bitcoin's last block before the halving.

May 13, 2020

Tech

BitMEX Is Making Bitcoin Network More Expensive for Everyone, Researcher Finds

Average fees paid by bitcoin users spike at a certain time every day due to the actions of one firm, derivatives exchange BitMEX, a researcher found.

May 5, 2020

BOTTLENECK: If too many bitcoin transactions are sent at one time, miners prioritize ushering through those with higher fees. Those with smaller fees must wait. (Credit: Shuttertsock)

Tech

Bitcoin Wallets Are Adopting This Tech to Simplify Lightning Payments

Bitcoin’s Lightning network has a long way to go in terms of user experience. To tackle this problem, a standard known as lnurl is quietly gaining ground.

Apr 29, 2020

Tech

BTCPay Looks to Anonymize Bitcoin Transactions With PayJoin Integration

PayJoin is a relatively new way to send private transactions in bitcoin and may offer better privacy than current popular alternatives.

Apr 16, 2020

Enhancing the privacy of merchant and other bitcoin transactions is BTCPay's goal for PayJoin. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Tech

Bitcoin Cash Approaches Milestone With First Halving Expected Wednesday

The event is a foreshadowing of the same process happening on a larger scale on the BTC blockchain next month.

Apr 7, 2020

Tech

New Software Fix Offers Bitcoin Miners Increased Security

Startup Braiins has released the first functioning code for a new protocol designed to fix longstanding security problems with bitcoin mining pools.

Apr 6, 2020

Tech

GitHub Is Burying Bitcoin Code Inside an Arctic Mountain to Ride Out the Next 1,000 Years

Deep inside a forsaken coal mine on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the Bitcoin Core code repository will be kept on film reels and stored for centuries.

Apr 1, 2020

COLD STORAGE: A polar bear on the archipelago of Svalbard, where the Bitcoin Core code repository will be kept in an abandoned mineshaft. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Tech

Thousands of These Computers Were Mining Cryptocurrency. Now They're Working on Coronavirus Research

The largest U.S. Ethereum miner is redirecting the processing power of 6,000 specialized computer chips toward research to find a drug for the coronavirus.

Mar 19, 2020

ALL TOGETHER NOW: Like a blockchain network, Folding@home marshals thousands of computers from around the world to form a distributed supercomputer for disease research. (Protein image: Shutterstock)

Markets

Bitcoiners Are Biohacking a DIY Coronavirus Vaccine

Anonymous bitcoiners are taking the search for a coronavirus vaccine into their own hands, bypassing academia, pharmaceutical firms and U.S. regulators.

Mar 12, 2020

WORTH A SHOT: "Any vaccine like this only has a small chance of working," says the biohacker group known as CoroHope. “When doing the cost-benefit analysis, even a tiny chance of it working will be worth the investment.” (Credit: Shutterstock)

Tech

How to Protect Bitcoin for Your Heirs With the Push of a 'Dead Man's Button'

What happens to your bitcoin after you die? Lightning developers think a "dead man's button" could be a new tool to passing your crypto to your heirs.

Feb 24, 2020

If a "dead man's button" isn't pressed one week, it is assumed the user is dead and the service automatically dispenses a "secret," which heirs can use to retrieve the crypto.

(Image via Library of Congress.)

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