Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks

guest · Oct 24, 2020

Kik settles SEC lawsuit for $5M over its 2017 ‘initial coin offering’
October 22, 2020
https://siliconangle.com/2020/10/22/kik-settles-sec-lawsuit-5m-2017-initial-coin-offering/

Kik Interactive Inc. has finally settled the lawsuit filed against it by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its 2017 Kin initial coin offering as a court signed off on a deal.

Under the settlement announced Wednesday, approved by Judge Alvin Kellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Kik is “permanently restrained and enjoined” from violating Section 5 of the Securities Act.
Under the terms, Kik is to pay a penalty of $5 million to the SEC within 30 days of the final judgment along with agreeing to give the SEC 45 days notice before it sells or issues any cryptocurrency, digital tokens or any assets issued using distributed ledger technology over the next three years.
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guest · Oct 29, 2020

Hacker steals $24 million from cryptocurrency service 'Harvest Finance'
October 26, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/hacker-steals-24-million-from-cryptocurrency-service-harvest-finance/

A hacker has stolen roughly $24 million worth of cryptocurrency assets from decentralized finance (DeFi) service Harvest Finance, a web portal that lets users invest cryptocurrencies and then farm the price variations for small profit yields.

In total, the hacker stole $13 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) and $11 million worth of Tether (USDT), according to a transaction ID singled out by Harvest Finance administrators in a subsequent post-mortem investigation.
COMPANY CLAIMS TO HAVE IDENTIFIED THE ATTACKER
In a message posted on its Discord channel, Harvest Finance claimed the attack left "a significant amount of personally identifiable information on the attacker" and described them as "well-known in the crypto community."
"We made an engineering mistake, we own up to it," the company said.
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The company is now offering a $400,000 bounty to anyone who finds a way to return the stolen funds. After the first 36 hours, the bounty will be lowered to $100,000.
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guest · Nov 1, 2020

Bitcoin hits $14,000 for the first time since early 2018
October 31, 2020
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/bitcoin-hits-14000-for-the-first-time-since-early-2018/

The price of one bitcoin rose above $14,000 on Saturday morning. It was the first time the virtual currency reached that level since January 2018. As I write this, the currency is trading for around $13,800.
Bitcoin fans are hoping for another boom that pushes the currency past the highs of 2017, but that's far from a sure thing.
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Palancar · Nov 1, 2020

mood said: ↑

Bitcoin hits $14,000 for the first time since early 2018
October 31, 2020
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/bitcoin-hits-14000-for-the-first-time-since-early-2018/
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guest · Nov 3, 2020

PayPal details its crypto plans
November 2, 2020
https://thepaypers.com/cryptocurrencies/paypal-details-its-crypto-plans--1245485

PayPal’s CEO has provided more details about the company's recent embrace of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, discussing potential partnerships with central banks.

In one of the company’s recent earnings calls, Dan Schulman, the CEO, said that starting in 2021 PayPal will let users withdraw funds from cryptocurrency accounts to pay for goods and services at merchants that use the company's platform. The arrangement, he says, will not result in any incremental fees for either consumers or merchants.
The expansion will also enable customers to use Venmo, its peer-to-peer payment service, to buy and shop with cryptocurrencies. He added that PayPal is in close talks with central banks and regulators to explore new uses for the digital crypto wallets.

As CoinDesk also noted, PayPal’s cryptocurrency service is going to expand in 2021.
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guest · Nov 3, 2020

$1B of Bitcoin from Silk Road wallet moves for first time since 2015
November 3, 2020
https://cointelegraph.com/news/1b-of-bitcoin-from-silk-road-wallet-moves-for-first-time-since-2015

An anonymous crypto user has just moved 69,370 Bitcoin from an address associated with the Silk Road darknet market, that more recently has become a popular hacking target.

According to a Nov. 3 report from crypto intelligence firm CipherTrace, the recent movement involving two transactions adding up to 69,370 Bitcoin (BTC) — or more than $960 million at the time of publication — originated from an address connected with the Silk Road marketplace, which was shut down in 2013. The crypto user first sent 1 BTC — likely as a test transaction — before moving the bulk of the coins.
Ciphertrace speculated the anonymous user made the transactions “to stay up to date with the Bitcoin network” by switching between address formats.
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However, the firm didn’t rule out hacking as a possibility:

“These movements could possibly mean that the wallet owner is moving funds to new addresses to prevent hackers from accessing the wallet.dat file or that hackers have already cracked the file.”
The Silk Road funds were contained in a wallet that has been circulating among hackers for more than two years. I
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guest · Nov 4, 2020

Big-tech’s stablecoins may hurt privacy and innovation: ECB
November 4, 2020
https://www.metro.us/big-techs-stablecoins-may-hurt/

A stablecoin managed by a big tech company, like Facebook’s <FB.O> proposed libra, would raise concerns about data protection and even choke financial innovation, European Central Bank board member Fabio Panetta said on Wednesday.
“The issues at stake range from data security and compliance with EU data protection law to cutting off the lifeblood of European financial innovation,” Panetta said.
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ECB: The two sides of the (stable)coin

Speech by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at Il Salone dei Pagamenti 2020
The flip side of stablecoins is the host of risks they can pose to our social and economic life.

For example, data-driven models could pose a risk of misuse of personal information for commercial or other purposes, which could jeopardise privacy and competition and harm vulnerable groups. Another concern is that wide acceptance of stablecoins offered by foreign companies would make European payments dependent on technologies designed and governed elsewhere. [...]
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guest · Nov 5, 2020

mood said: ↑

$1B of Bitcoin from Silk Road wallet moves for first time since 2015
November 3, 2020
https://cointelegraph.com/news/1b-of-bitcoin-from-silk-road-wallet-moves-for-first-time-since-2015
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US govt behind $1 billion Bitcoin transfer of Silk Road funds
November 5, 2020
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-billion-bitcoin-transfer-of-silk-road-funds/

More details have emerged on the password-protected Bitcoin wallet emptied out the night of the 2020 US Presidential Election.

The Bitcoin wallet had links to hacker groups and had seen its balance drop from almost $1 billion in cryptocurrency to nothing overnight.
Bitcoin address linked to Silk Road
The funds in Bitcoin wallet 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx have been found to be associated with Silk Road.

“The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go? Today’s forfeiture complaint answers this open question at least in part. $1 billion of these criminal proceeds are now in the United States’ possession,” said U.S. Attorney David Anderson today in a press release.
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The allegations made by the government bodies are yet to be ruled on in a court.
For the seizure to be finalized, onus is on the United States to present evidence that proves the forfeiture of Bitcoins is justified. It is only then that the federal government gets to keep the newly discovered treasure.
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guest · Nov 5, 2020

mood said: ↑

Bitcoin hits $14,000 for the first time since early 2018 October 31, 2020
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Bitcoin surges past $15,000, hitting its highest level since January 2018
November 5, 2020
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/05/bitcoin-price-hits-highest-level-since-january-2018.html

Bitcoin’s price climbed above $15,000 on Thursday, hitting a level not seen since January 2018 [...]

The world’s best-known cryptocurrency was last trading almost 9% higher at a price of $15,233, according to data from industry website CoinDesk.

“Bitcoin’s creation was in part due to fears that increased fiscal stimulus is devaluing currencies globally,” said Simon Peters, a cryptoasset analyst at investment platform eToro.
“As a result, when central banks announce extensive plans to pump money into economies, many investors in the crypto community take this as a major bitcoin buy signal.”
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Meanwhile, analysts have cheered moves from the likes of PayPal and Facebook in the cryptocurrency space lately.

PayPal said it would let its customers buy and sell digital assets like bitcoin and ether through its digital wallet and eventually use them for shopping, while Facebook is developing its libra digital currency with a Switzerland-based consortium called the Libra Association.
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guest · Nov 6, 2020

Ledger Users Lost 1.1 Million XRP to Scammer
November 6, 2020
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/ledger-users-lost-1-1-million-xrp-to-scammer/

Hardware crypto wallet, Ledger users are becoming the victims of constant cyberattacks, and one of such scams stolen more than 1,150,000 XRP.

The fraudsters used the widely used phishing tactic to siphon the funds from Ledger users. The phishing email sent to many cryptocurrency users was directing them to a fake ledger website. The fake domain was very hard to point out as it cleverly substituted on a homoglyph in the domain name.
The proceeds collected from the fraudulent activities were sent to crypto exchange Bittrex, the community ran xrplorer highlights. The exchange, however, could not recover the ill-gotten funds.

“Ledger encourages customers to exercise caution as phishing attacks become more sophisticated and to alert Ledger’s customer support team and consult Ledger.com for more information on the detection of scams.”
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This phishing scam (notice the fake domain lẹdger.com), has already stolen more than 1,150,000 XRP from @Ledger users. Please watch out!
We will follow the money. pic.twitter.com/Q8XD2awdo7
— XRP Forensics (@xrpforensics) November 2, 2020
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guest · Nov 8, 2020

FTC Sends Refunds to Victims of Deceptive Money-Making Schemes Involving Cryptocurrencies
November 4, 2020
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...efunds-victims-deceptive-money-making-schemes

The Federal Trade Commission is sending PayPal payments totaling more than $470,000 to people who lost money to deceptive chain referral schemes involving cryptocurrencies.

According to the FTC, the defendants promoted Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network, which falsely promised that participants could earn large amounts of money by paying cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Litecoin to enroll in the schemes.
However, Bitcoin Funding Team and My7Network were chain referral schemes that depended on the recruitment of new people to make money. In fact, most participants failed to recoup their initial investments.
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guest · Nov 9, 2020

mood said: ↑

Microsoft Engineer Pleads Guilty to $10m Fraud Scheme
February 27, 2020
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/microsoft-engineer-pleads-guilty/
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Ex-Microsoft Engineer Gets Prison Sentenced For Bitcoin Tax Fraud
November 9, 2020
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shehan...-gets-prison-sentenced-for-bitcoin-tax-fraud/

A former Microsoft MSFT -2.4% engineer, Volodymyr Kvashuk, was sentenced today for nine years for defrauding Microsoft for more than $10 million, using a bitcoin mixer to hide taxable income and filing fraudulent tax returns. This is the nation’s first Bitcoin case that has a tax component to it according to the IRS.

Kvashuk is a skilled developer who worked at Microsoft from August 2016 to June 2018. During this period, he abused his testing access to Microsoft’s Online retail sales platform to steal digital gift cards. Kvashuk massively profited by selling these stolen gift cards on the internet. He used these profits to purchase a $1.6 million lake front home and a $160,000 Tesla TSLA -2%.
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As the US department of Justice reports, Kvashuk was ordered to pay $8,344,586 in restitution. He may be deported following his prison term.
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guest · Nov 11, 2020

Cuba’s exploding crypto interest comes amid an absence of regulation
Monetary reforms and a lack of regulation mean crypto is booming in Cuba
November 11, 2020
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cuba-s-exploding-crypto-interest-comes-amid-an-absence-of-regulation

Cuba is seeing an influx of cryptocurrency activity amid an apparent absence of related regulation in the country, according to senior executives at local crypto firms.

In early November, Cuba recorded a major spike in Bitcoin (BTC)-related Google queries, indicating an increase in crypto activity in the country. Founders of major local crypto exchanges Qbita and Bitremesas told Cointelegraph that their platforms have seen increased activity in recent months.
Erich Garcia, the creator of Bitremesas, told Cointelegraph that the platform has been steadily growing this year, seeing a notable influx in user activity.

“By now, the use of the service is increasing at 200% every month,” Garcia said.
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Qbita’s Mazzola said that cryptocurrency in Cuba is “totally deregulated,” while at the same time, the local government has endorsed crypto as a means to circumvent sanctions.

As there is still no concrete legal status for crypto in Cuba, the operation of local crypto exchanges could raise regulatory questions, but Qbita’s founder is confident that local crypto businesses are not in danger because there is also no law explicitly prohibiting them from operating.
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guest · Nov 12, 2020

What is a hard fork and what does it mean for your cryptocurrency holdings?
November 11, 2020
https://betanews.com/2020/11/11/what-is-a-cryptocurrency-hard-fork/

The technology that underpins cryptocurrencies is not understood by a lot of people, but you don't really need to fully grasp the idea of mining or know what a blockchain is in order to use them.

Whether you are a seasoned user of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, you may be aware of an impending hard fork for Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The date for your diary is November 15, but just what is a hard fork, and what are the implications?
The important difference between a hard fork and a normal one (or a soft fork) is the backward compatibility implications.

If a node does not support the forked blockchain, it means it is not able to process blocks. There are two ultimate outcomes here. It could be that the original protocol ends up being dropped, or it could be that the two forks end up running in parallel. [...]
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guest · Nov 12, 2020

PayPal now lets all US users buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency
The company plans to bring cryptocurrency into Venmo next year
November 12, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/paypal-opens-cryptocurrency-all-us-accounts-210541778.html

PayPal is bringing its newly-announced support for cryptocurrency to all US accounts. It first announced plans to open cryptocurrency trading to US-based users in October, but until now it was only available to a small subset of PayPal account holders. That’s now changing, though, as PayPal says all eligible users can start buying, selling and holding bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum and bitcoin cash.
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guest · Nov 14, 2020

Watch out: Fake celebrity endorsements advertising Bitcoin scam
November 12, 2020
https://www.hackread.com/fake-celebrity-endorsements-bitcoin-scam/

Bitcoin is on the rise once again, and investors are anxious to see just how high it will go. The rush to invest in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency derivatives has opened the door to online scammers, eager to get their “piece of the pie.”

The quickest way to bring in new clients is to establish credibility, which these scammers attempt to do by putting fake celebrity endorsements in their advertisements or use verified social media accounts to memic celebrities especially Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
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Avoiding Bitcoin Scams Online
Anyone eager to invest in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies online should be doing so with a broker registered to offer financial services within their country. Unregistered brokers aren’t under the jurisdiction of financial regulators and don’t have to meet their strict standards.

A registered broker provides certain investor protections that protect traders from broker malpractice.
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guest · Nov 14, 2020

Developers Debate Disclosure Protocols After ‘Accidental’ Ethereum Hard Fork
November 13, 2020
https://www.coindesk.com/developers-debate-disclosure-protocols-accidental-ethereum-hard-fork

According to a technical write-up published by Geth – the largest Ethereum client written in the Go language – a denial-of-service (DoS) attack vector was intentionally triggered by a downstream user as a test, resulting in a 30-block sidechain.

Geth had fixed the bug in early October following a disclosure, but it still existed in prior versions of Geth. The bug temporarily caused nodes that had not updated to the correct version of Geth to go down a different path than other clients.
Now, developers are reordering the disclosure process for security vulnerabilities in the aftermath of what some developers have called the biggest threat against Ethereum since 2016’s attack on The DAO.
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For example, disclosing the bug early to service provider Infura – which most of decentralized finance (DeFi) uses to connect to the Ethereum blockchain – would be an unfair advantage against its competitors. Moreover, the consequences for the larger ecosystem could be severe if privileged information from the list leaked to adversarial parties.
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guest · Nov 14, 2020

Ethereum smart contract vulnerabilities can lead to millions in losses
November 12, 2020
https://cybernews.com/security/ethereum-smart-contract-vulnerabilities/

The CyberNews.com Investigation team’s analysis of Ethereum smart contracts – essentially code that helps online services send and receive payments – from shows that nearly 3,800 smart contracts have severe weaknesses that can allow cybercriminals to quickly steal 1 million dollars.

One of the most famous Ethereum smart contract vulnerabilities is what’s known as a reentrancy attack, which in 2016 allowed a cybercriminal to steal $50 million.
These vulnerabilities, while specific and technical in nature, basically allow attackers to fiddle with the code and steal as much money as possible in a very short amount of time.
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These types of vulnerability can certainly impact many users, depending on whether they’ve stored Ethereum-based cryptocurrency or tokens on an online platform that holds money.
These include crypto gambling sites, loan services, Ethereum banks, and other online services where users are likely to hold their coins or tokens. If the attacker creates a malicious smart contract and attacks those sites, users can stand to lose their money.

In any case, whenever money is stolen from any platform, the user will end up paying in one form or another.
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guest · Nov 16, 2020

Canadian tax agency demands crypto exchange to hand over customer data
November 16, 2020
https://thepaypers.com/cryptocurren...-exchange-to-hand-over-customer-data--1245722

The Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has asked the federal court to force crypto exchange Coinsquare to hand over customer information, as part of its efforts to fight tax fraud.

The Canadian tax agency wants to get more information on data about the crypto firm’s customers since the beginning of 2013. The CRA explained in a September 2020 filing that it would use the requested information to makes sure that Coinsquare clients have complied with their duties and obligations under Canadian tax law.
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It is the first time that CRA actively sought out such an extensive amount of data from a crypto trading platform, according to Token Post.
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guest · Nov 18, 2020

Bitcoin breaks $18,000 with all-time high in sight
November 18, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...owers-on-all-time-high-in-sight-idUSKBN27Y10A

Bitcoin BTC=BTSP broke through $18,000 on Wednesday to hit its highest since December 2017 extending its blistering 2020 rally driven by demand for its perceived quality as an inflation hedge and expectations of mainstream acceptance.

The original and biggest cryptocurrency jumped as high as $18,483 and was last up 2%. It has soared about 160% this year and has jumped 17% in the last three days alone.
Bitcoin is now close to its all-time high of just under $20,000, which it touched at the peak of its retail investor-fuelled 2017 bubble.

“It is not out of the question for the crypto to hit its all-time high of $20,000 this side of Christmas,” said Simon Peters, analyst at investment platform eToro.
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guest · Nov 25, 2020

US intelligence is looking at Chinese CBDC as a national security threat
November 25, 2020
https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-i...at-chinese-cbdc-as-a-national-security-threat

The U.S. national security apparatus is warning other agencies about China's coming digital currency.

On Wednesday, news outlet the Washington Examiner reported on a letter that National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe had send Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton earlier in the month.
According to the report, Ratcliffe offered to have staff brief Clayton on the security issues that derive from China's dominance in crypto mining as well as the country's progress in digitizing the yuan. Ratcliffe's letter also apparently pushed Clayton to ensure that U.S. crypto firms remain competitive.
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guest · Nov 25, 2020

PayPal suspends user for crypto trading using PayPal’s own service
November 25, 2020
https://cointelegraph.com/news/paypal-suspends-user-for-crypto-trading-using-paypal-s-own-service

A PayPal user reports their account has been restricted after they traded crypto too frequently using the platform.

According to U.S.-based Reddit user TheCoolDoc, PayPal sent them a message stating that it had permanently limited their account “due to potential risk.” The user said they had made at least 10 crypto transactions within a week, purchasing during dips and selling when the price was high, and PayPal had asked for an explanation for each transaction.

“The system flagged my account thinking I was selling items worth $10,000 in one week when I hadn't done so in the last 6 years I've held a PayPal account,” the user said. “I submitted the stuff for review with my photo ID and wrote ‘PayPal Crypto’ for each crypto transaction because what else could I say?”
In a matter of hours, PayPal reportedly sent a message stating that the user would “not be able to conduct any further business” using the platform.
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“If you go and trade constantly they lose a ton of money covering those fees since they’re not charging any fees right now. Their service is supposed to be more like a Bitcoin bank account, not a trading account.”
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hawki · Nov 26, 2020

mood said: ↑

Bitcoin breaks $18,000 with all-time high in sight
November 18, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...owers-on-all-time-high-in-sight-idUSKBN27Y10A
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Quite a correction in bitcoin today:

After passing the $19,000 level earlier in the week.

$16,474
-2,372 -12.58%

guest · Nov 26, 2020

Reasons for the price drop:

3 Reasons Bitcoin Crashed by $3,000 – And Why It’s Still Bullish
November 26, 2020
https://www.coindesk.com/3-reasons-bitcoin-crashed-by-3000-and-why-its-still-bullish

The top cryptocurrency by market value fell from over $19,300 to $16,327 during the early European trading hours and was last seen trading near $17,200, representing a 10% drop on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The sudden fall caught many traders off-guard, given the cryptocurrency was trading just 2% short of its record high of $19,783 on Wednesday.

So, what’s behind the $3,000 decline? Here are three of the primary factors responsible for the price drop:
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Minimalist · Nov 27, 2020

Facebook’s Libra To Launch In January – Report

Libra to launch as early as January, but the Facebook backed cryptocurrency will be scaled back even further after regulatory and political concerns
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https://www.silicon.co.uk/e-enterprise/financial-market/facebooks-libra-launch-january-349180

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