roadrunner

The UK’s top financial regulator has conducted a survey and found a “significant increase” in the number of crypto owners and awareness of cryptocurrencies. The regulator estimates that 2.6 million people in the country have bought cryptocurrencies, most of which were from non-UK cryptocurrency exchanges. UK Regulator’s Crypto Survey The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates the financial services industry in the U.K., published a report entitled “Cryptoasset consumer research 2020” on Tuesday. This quantitative research follows the FCA report on cryptocurrency published in March last year but involves a longer survey and a larger sample of crypto owners. “We estimate 3.86% of the general population currently own cryptocurrencies. This amounts to approximately 1.9 million adults with the UK population (over 18) taken to be approximately 50 million,” the report authors wrote, elaborating: The research findings highlight a statistically significant increase … in those who hold or held cryptocurrencies … from approximately 1.5 million people to 2.6 million people. The study estimates that “5.35% of the general population hold or held cryptocurrencies,” an increase of 2.35 percentage points from 3% in the previous survey which was conducted face to face with a smaller sample. Meanwhile, the number of people who had never heard of cryptocurrencies dropped to 27% from 58%. “This represents a statistically significant increase in the percentage of those being aware of cryptocurrencies from 42% to 73% of adults,” the report reads. The regulator also found that “75% of consumers who own cryptocurrencies hold under £1,000 [$1,250].” The FCA study shows that the most recognized cryptocurrencies are bitcoin, libra, bitcoin cash, ether, bitcoin sv, and litecoin. Source: FCA The most recognized cryptocurrency is bitcoin, according to survey participants, followed by libra, the cryptocurrency proposed by social media giant Facebook, then bitcoin cash, ethereum, bitcoin sv, and litecoin. Among crypto owners, 77% recognized three or more cryptocurrencies, and “92% could identify the correct definition.” As for where respondents bought their cryptocurrencies, 77% said they bought through an online exchange. 5% only used UK-based exchanges, 12% used both U.K. and non-U.K. exchanges, while 83% only used non-U.K. exchanges. The top five cryptocurrency exchanges were Coinbase (63%), Binance (15%), Kraken (10%), Bittrex (8%), and Bitfinex (7%). The FCA’s quantitative research fieldwork took place from Dec. 13-21 when 3,085 respondents were asked whether they had heard of cryptocurrencies. 73% or 2,258 people who said yes continued to complete an online questionnaire while the rest were screened out. In addition, 493 current or previous crypto owners were shown a longer survey. In the 2020 budget, the U.K. government announced that it plans to “consult on bringing certain cryptoassets into scope of the financial promotions regulation.” It also “intends to consult on the broader regulatory approach to cryptoassets,” including stablecoins. The full FCA report can be found here. What do you think about the FCA survey? Let us know in the comments section below. The post A ‘Significant Increase’: UK Regulator Says 2.6 Million Residents Have Bought Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The founder of Freedomain, philosopher and alt-right activist, Stefan Molyneux, received more than $100,000 in cryptocurrency donations after he was banned from Youtube on June 29, 2020. Stefan Molyneux is well known for his Youtube videos, podcasts, and books. His early Youtube videos describing the benefits of bitcoin have been lauded. While getting over $100k in bitcoin, dash, bitcoin cash, and ethereum donations this week, the alt-right activist has also joined the Lbry platform. On June 29, Molyneux was banned from Youtube. Molyneux joins a number of popular alt-right activists, libertarians, and cryptocurrency advocates who have been banned from the platform. Just recently, Bitcoin.com’s official Youtube channel was banned but luckily it was reinstated. Many cryptocurrency advocates abhor censorship and when Molyneux was banned the cryptocurrency community added $100k to his donation chest of coins. At the website Freedomain.com, crypto supporters can find the coin addresses of all the crypto assets Molyneux website accepts. This includes bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), dash (DASH), ethereum (ETH), and a few others. A great majority of the funds donated to Molyneux stemmed from bitcoin cash (BCH) donations. There is approximately 444 BCH ($99,500) in Molyneux’s bitcoin cash address, and 3.82 BTC ($35,000) in the Freedomain bitcoin (BTC) wallet. Looking at the block explorers of all six coins Molyneux accepts minus monero (XMR), people can see a flurry of small donations were sent after Molyneux was banned. After the Youtube ban, Molyneux did join Lbry.tv and he has 6,819 followers to-date. The Freedomain podcaster also asked for crypto donations last January and a number of crypto enthusiasts asked him to support more coins. “I have been demonetized on YouTube, but you can support me here, much appreciated my friend,” Molyneux wrote at the time. Molyneux was also a big influence on the voluntaryist and libertarian communities early in his career. During the latter half of his career, many libertarians lost interest in Molyneux for his pro-Trump and alt-right activism. Molyneux has written 10 books that have gathered 600 million downloads, and he has also hosted 4,500 podcasts as well. What do you think about Stefan Molyneux being banned on Youtube and raising $100,000 in crypto donations? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Alt-Right Activist Stefan Molyneux Banned from Youtube, Raises $100K in Crypto Donations appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The most popular stablecoin, Tether, has propelled its way into the third-largest position by cryptocurrency market capitalization. At the time of publication, a number of market valuation aggregators show that Tether’s market cap is between $9.1 to $10.1 billion. Tether (USDT) is a well known stablecoin token issued by the company Tether Limited. The company claims each token is backed by a single U.S. dollar, but during the last few years, the firm admitted the backing included loans as well. USDT has always been controversial, but even with the contention, tether is the most popular stablecoin by far. This week cryptocurrency proponents have been discussing how tether’s market cap has grown massively since the beginning of 2020. Since January, USDT’s market valuation spiked by 144%. Today the market data and analysis web portal, Messari, tether (USDT) has a $10.2 billion market valuation and $1.4 million in 24-hour global trade volume. Statistics on Coinmarketcap.com indicates that the market cap for tether (USDT) is $9.1 billion and a whopping $20 billion in 24-hour trades. A number of other market aggregators show tether’s market valuation is just above the $9.1 billion mark. There also a number of other stablecoins that are doing well growth-wise, but not nearly as exponential as USDT. The second-largest stablecoin by market valuation is USDC, a stablecoin token created by Circle. USDC is close to reaching a $1 billion market cap with $927,077,875 worth of USDC coins in circulation. The stablecoin BUSD launched by the crypto exchange Binance has a $165,876,444 market valuation at the time of publication. Paxos Standard, otherwise known as PAX, has a $244,966,858 market cap, which is well above BUSD. This is followed by trueusd (TUSD $144M) and gemini dollar (GUSD $9.8M). Gemini’s stablecoin is barely a blip on the radar when it comes to the rest of the stablecoin competition. In addition to tether’s (USDT) rise to a $10 billion dollar market, the coin has moved a massive amount of USDT value from the Omni Layer network over to the Ethereum network. In fact, 60% of tethers have been issued as ERC20 tokens to-date. At press time, there are 6,037,847,550 USDT tokens that leverage the ERC20 standard. The Ethereum blockchain holds a large majority of stablecoins as well (that are mentioned above) and the network’s value transfer is dominated by stablecoins. What do you think about tether’s (USDT) whopping $10 billion dollar market cap? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Tether’s Market Valuation Grows 144% in 2020, USDT Market Cap Worth $10 Billion appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The second quarter of 2020 was very profitable for bitcoin investors, according to data analytics firm Skew. During the period, the top cryptocurrency climbed 42%, its fourth-best quarterly close since 2014. For the March quarter, the digital asset fell 10.6%, dragged by the massive Black Thursday crash. As a matter of fact, bitcoin declined in three successive quarters before Q2 2020. In terms of price, bitcoin (BTC) soared from around $6,420 at the beginning of April to more than $9,140 at the end of June, Skew figures show. The coin has, however, struggled to break the psychological $10,000 level in a quarter in which Bitcoin underwent its scheduled supply cut. Despite the sharp rise, this is not bitcoin’s biggest Q2 gain in the past seven years. Investors pocketed profits of 158% and 125% for the second quarters of 2019 and 2017, respectively. In 2016, Q2 gains came in at 62%. According to Skew, third quarters have been historically more challenging for bitcoin. With the exception of “2017 vintage” when the BTC price surged 80%, thanks to that year’s phenomenal rally, and another 2.9% gain in 2018, Q3 performances have remained in the red for the last seven years. While poor performance may not be valid for Q3 in all years, pundits expect 2020 to show little difference. That’s largely because BTC transaction volumes have not increased in recent days while it’s 60-day moving average has not improved. There’s still optimism in some quarters, however, that Bitcoin’s third halving will lead to an increase in the price of the benchmark cryptocurrency in this quarter and beyond. A number of analysts’ predictions put BTC at a price of $20,000 by year-end. At the time of writing, each BTC is trading at $9,191, down 0.16% over the last 24 hours, according to data from markets.bitcoin.com. What do you think about bitcoin’s quarterly performance? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Investors Pocketed 42% in Gains During the Second Quarter of 2020 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On July 1, 2020, the popular eatery and bar in Japan, Brewdog Tokyo, started accepting bitcoin cash payments for products and services. The establishment is the third Brewdog bar to accept bitcoin cash, as the cryptocurrency is accepted at the London and Budapest locations as well. In order to celebrate Brewdog Tokyo supporting bitcoin cash, a number of Tokyo-based BCH Meetup members gathered at the bar on Wednesday to socialize and purchase refreshments. The Roppongi location is officially the third Brewdog establishment that accepts bitcoin cash (BCH) for goods and services. The firm’s state-of-the-art breweries are located all around the world, and the eateries and bars are some of the most popular places to acquire craft brews. There are Brewdog locations in Roppongi, Aberdeenshire, Brisbane, London, Budapest, Ohio, and more. The Brewdog Tokyo location follows the acceptance from locations in Budapest and London. On Wednesday, July 1, the Tokyo Bitcoin Cash Meetup decided to host a meetup at the Brewdog Tokyo location. Around 20-25 people attended (less attendance due to Covid-19) and the members will start to have meetups weekly again. According to an attendee, Brewdog Tokyo, located in Roppongi accepts bitcoin cash (BCH) via the Bitcoin.com Register application. Funds are then sent directly to a single address using a Bitcoin.com Wallet and owned by Brewdog. Discussing the subject with Tokyo Bitcoin Cash Meetup co-organizer, Akane Yokoo, she explained that the group was thrilled with Brewdog Tokyo supporting BCH. “I am really glad that Brewdog Roppongi is open-minded and they decided to accept bitcoin cash (BCH) and host our meetups,” Yokoo told our newsdesk. Yokoo also highlighted that a number of new BCH meetups are being launched in July, “which shows us that the BCH community is growing fast.” The new BCH Meetup regions will include the South Coast, U.K., Gold Coast Australia, Luxemburg, and another location in Texas as there is another meetup location in Houston, Texas. Moreover, Yokoo explained that the other BCH Meetup community leaders are going to approach Brewdog in their own cities, in order to promote more BCH acceptance. “These use cases are great because the community can use them as an example when they approach new merchants for BCH payment adoption,” Yokoo concluded. What do you think about Brewdog Tokyo accepting bitcoin cash for products and services? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Brewdog Tokyo Accepts Bitcoin Cash Payments: Local BCH Meetup Gathers to Celebrate appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The crypto industry in India is experiencing massive growth, according to a new survey of crypto banks and exchanges. Despite the country’s deepening coronavirus crisis, crypto exchanges say trading volumes and the number of signups continue to grow substantially. India’s Cryptocurrency Trading 2020 Indian media agency Bit2buzz has conducted a survey of local crypto banks and exchanges on the demographics and trading behaviors of India’s crypto industry. The survey aims to understand “trading behaviors of Indians, women representations, and participation, the effect of covid-19 on Indian crypto blockchain entities, and how these crypto and blockchain companies are making waves in India,” the media outlet described. Participating crypto exchanges included Wazirx, Unocoin, Coindcx, Pocketbits, and Bitbns. Cashaa, Bank of Hodlers, and Oropocket were also surveyed. Most of the respondents “reported major youth [ages 18-35] population using their platforms,” Bit2buzz wrote, adding that Unocoin and Bank of Hodlers “witnessed heavy traffic from the middle-aged group [ages 35 – 50].” The survey also focuses on women trading and holding cryptocurrency in India. Coinmarketcap recently published a report stating that the number of women in the crypto industry rose by 43.24% in the first quarter. Bit2buzz has gathered India-specific data of female crypto traders. The portion of women crypto investors in India at various crypto exchanges. Source: Bit2buzz Unocoin revealed to the media outlet that almost 15% of its users are female while Bitbns said 11% and Pocketbits said nearly 2%. The percentages of female users at surveyed crypto banks are significantly higher than at exchanges. Oropocket claims to have over 39% female users, Cashaa 30%, and Bank of Hodlers 5%. Data from Wazirx and Coindcx were not included, the publication noted. Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic has greatly affected the Indian economy. However, while most industries suffer, crypto “companies have seen a massive surge,” the survey shows, reiterating that crypto banks and exchanges “Saw massive growth in trading patterns due to covid-19 pandemic.” Coindcx CEO Sumit Gupta shared that the daily trading volume on his exchange was around $15 million, adding that growth has continued on his exchange. He pointed out that Indians are highly active during the lockdown as they have a “chance to learn more about the benefits they could accrue with crypto, as well as to learn how to engage in the trading of crypto,” elaborating: The lockdown due to the covid-19 pandemic meant that Indians spent more time at home, sustaining the national interest and curiosity in cryptocurrencies that was already high due to the favorable supreme court verdict. Pocketbits CEO Sohail Merchant is seeing the same trend, confirming that both the volumes and overall interest on his exchange have risen due to users having more free time to research and trade. Wazirx CEO Nischal Shetty said trading volume has increased 470% on his exchange and he is seeing a tremendous increase in user signups. Cashaa told the media outlet that it is opening more bank accounts, noting a volume increase of more than 800%. Meanwhile, Unocoin, Bitbns, and Bank of Hodlers claim no major impacts on their platforms resulting from the covid-19 pandemic. Recently, a rumor about the Indian government reconsidering banning cryptocurrency has swept across the country, but five exchange executives have told news.Bitcoin.com that a ban is unlikely. India is set to significantly increase its crypto market share globally this year. While the government is discussing crypto regulation, the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has confirmed that cryptocurrency is not banned in India. What do you think about this survey? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Indian Crypto Banks and Exchanges See Massive Growth Amid Rising Covid-19 Crisis: Survey appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A new, comprehensive analysis has predicted the price of bitcoin to reach almost $20K this year and will keep rising to almost $400K by 2030. The researchers have also predicted the future prices of several other major cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin cash, ethereum, and litecoin. New Bitcoin Price Forecast The June edition of the Crypto Research Report (CRR) reveals price predictions for several cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and stellar. This is the 10th publication of the CRR report and it covers a popular valuation method used to forecast bitcoin’s future price called the “equation of exchange” model. “The equation of exchange model is an absolute approach to valuing crypto assets,” the report begins. “This means that the model gives a target price that crypto assets should be priced at based on assumptions regarding changes in supply and demand.” Noting that “The absolute valuation approach is inspired by Mill’s equation of exchange, later formulated by Irving Fisher,” the CRR team detailed: In this model, the percentage of the total addressable market (TAM) can be used to estimate a crypto asset’s implied future price. After examining “all the variables and addressable markets,” the CRR researchers arrived at future price estimates for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, and XLM. They expect the price of bitcoin to rise to $19,044 in 2020, $341,000 in 2025, and $397,727 in 2030. Ethereum’s price is expected to reach $331, $3,549, and $3,644 respectively while bitcoin cash’s price should climb to $414, $6,690, and $13,016 during the same time periods. The price predictions for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and stellar by the Crypto Research Report team. Source: Crypto Research Report, June edition. The target addressable market for all cryptocurrencies today is approximately $212 trillion, the report notes. It includes unit of account and medium of exchange, consumer loans, offshore accounts, reserve currency, store of value, online transactions, remittance, micropayments, unbanked, gaming, crypto trading, ICO funding, and STO funding. The largest use case for cryptocurrencies is as a medium of exchange, the CRR research team found, elaborating: We believe that bitcoin is still at the very start of its adoption curve. The price of $7,200 at the end of 2019 suggests that bitcoin has penetrated less than 0.44% of its total addressable markets. If this penetration manages to reach 10%, its non-discounted utility price should reach nearly $400,000. The CRR analysis estimates that there are more than 40 million cryptocurrency users globally, and the number of crypto users in a country is positively correlated to the country’s GDP per capita. High GDP means more cryptocurrency adoption in the country. Furthermore, “On-chain velocity for most coins is decreasing, while off-chain velocity is increasing, currently at an all-time high,” the report highlights, discussing in-depth how speculation and savings outpace all other uses of cryptocurrencies. They provided “evidence that growth in speculative transactions on exchanges is faster than the growth in using cryptocurrencies to buy goods and services.” The full Crypto Research Report can be found here. What do you think about this price prediction? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Comprehensive Analysis Predicts Bitcoin Price Near $20K This Year, $398K by 2030 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

U.S. contract mining firm Core Scientific has agreed on a deal to buy 17,600 mining rigs from Chinese bitcoin hardware maker Bitmain Technologies Inc. The company is buying Bitmain’s next-generation bitcoin (BTC) miner, the Antminer S19, it said in a statement on June 29. The miners will be fully installed at data centers operated by Core Scientific in the U.S. over the next four months, it added. Washington-based Core Scientific did not provide details about cost, but the deal might come to a total of between $30 million and $42 million. Each S19 machine is currently selling at $1,785 while the newer S19 Pro is going for $2,407, according to the Bitmain shop. Core Scientific said that the purchase is on behalf of its institutional customers and for its own use. It also claims the deal to be the largest acquisition of S19 BTC miners by a single blockchain hosting company. Company president and chief executive officer Kevin Turner commented: Core Scientific has received and begun testing the first of Bitmain’s newest ASIC miners, and has seen material success in increasing existing hashrate to achieve a 110 TH/s ± 3%. Bitmain confirmed the deal in a blog post. The Antminer 19 series uses the latest generation of SHA256 Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) from Bitmain, making it more energy-efficient compared to previous models from the Beijing-based entity. According to F2pool, a large global bitcoin mining network, the Antminer S19 model generates up to $3.03 of profit each day. The Antminer S19 Pro, Bitmain’s latest offering, makes a profit of $4.12 per day. The figures are based on an average electricity cost of $0.05 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The Antminer S19 has a computing power or hashrate of 95 terahash per second (TH/s) and power efficiency of 37.5 joules per terahash (J/TH). The Pro version comes with 110 TH/s and a power efficiency of 29.5 J/TH. Bitcoin miners have been forced to look for more efficient mining equipment since the supply cut event of May 11, which slashed miner revenue by 50% from 12.5 to 6.25 BTC per block. The United States appears to be upping its game on this front. What do you think about Core Scientific’s ambitions? Let us know in the comments section below. The post US Contract Miner Core Scientific Buys 17,600 Bitcoin Miners From Bitmain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This month Bitcoin.com launched two services that help facilitate bitcoin cash adoption and crypto remittance via email. In a recent video on June 5, Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver showcased gifts.bitcoin.com, a new feature that allows individuals to send BCH gift cards via email. Additionally, Bitcoin.com also launched send.bitcoin.com, a tool that provides users with the ability to send money in a number of local currencies by leveraging bitcoin cash. Bitcoin.com is excited to launch two new features this month that provide more cryptocurrency accessibility on a global scale. Both new features work with email and they both make sending gifts and remittances easy by using the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network. On June 5, 2020, Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver introduced gifts.bitcoin.com which gives any individual the ability to send BCH to anyone, anywhere in the world via email. The basics of using gifts.bitcoin.com are relatively intuitive and you simply press the “go” tab to create some new gifts. After that, you just need to confirm the recovery seed and begin to build the gift. Essentially this entails setting the amount, the currency, and the email address where you would like to send your gifts. From here you will be given an invoice so you can pay using your bitcoin cash wallet and the receiver simply needs to check their inbox to claim their gifts. The four-minute Youtube video with Ver offers a visual step-by-step on how to use gifts.bitcoin.com. The website also shows there have been 2,010 BCH gifts claimed, 386 expired, and 240 unclaimed out of 83.6 BCH spent at the time of publication. Not too long after the release of the gifts.bitcoin.com service, Bitcoin.com also launched send.bitcoin.com. The service provides users with the ability to quickly send BCH payments to any email address. The tool is lightning fast and Ver recently explained in an interview that anyone in any country can leverage the service. “It doesn’t matter what nationality they are, what country they reside in, or anything else,” Ver explained three days ago. “If they can access email, they can access their Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin.com never keeps a copy of the private key.” Ver also explained that if the transaction is not claimed the sender will get the funds back. “We keep a signed transaction to refund the BCH back to the sender after the specified number of days have elapsed. That way, if the recipient never claims their bitcoin cash, the sender will automatically get it back,” he added. Similarly to the gifting service, send.bitcoin.com is very easy to use. All you have to do is fill in the destination email address and senders name, add a memo, select the amount to send, select a local currency from a myriad of options, and add your email address to receive notifications (optional). Lastly, you need to fill out the refund address and choose an expiration date. Simply pay the given amount after all the fields are complete and again the receiver simply needs to check their inbox to claim their bitcoin cash (BCH). At Bitcoin.com we’re excited to offer world-class cryptocurrency tools that provide people with ways to promote economic freedom. Bitcoin.com, one of the world’s oldest and most established cryptocurrency innovators with millions of wallet holders worldwide. Our hope is that tools like gifts.bitcoin.com and send.bitcoin.com will continue to bolster and accelerate bitcoin cash adoption. What do you think about Bitcoin.com’s new services? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Gifts and Remittances: Bitcoin.com’s New Tools Allow People to Send BCH via Email appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On June 24, the block explorer and blockchain data platform, Blockchair, announced the launch of a new privacy tool called the “Privacy-o-meter.” According to Blockchair, the new service combats blockchain surveillance companies by highlighting privacy issues for crypto transactions. This week the blockchain explorer and crypto analytics firm, Blockchair, revealed a new tool that aims to show people some of the privacy issues involved with crypto transactions they send. The team has explained that in the future there will be other features coming like address clustering/tagging and other insights that companies like Chainaylsis offer. Blockchair’s Privacy-o-Meter Blockchair was founded in 2016 and has been a popular service that offers data insights to over 15 different blockchains. Some of the supported coins Blockchair’s service tracks include ethereum (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin (BTC), cardano (ADA), and others. The explorer lets people check hashes, addresses, blocks, and embedded text data. There are other types of unique blockchain data and halving counters as well. Last Wednesday, the official Blockchair Twitter account tweeted about the latest service saying: Today we release Privacy-o-meter — a tool for Bitcoin users and developers to assess the privacy level of their transactions. Many of you have heard about blockchain surveillance companies. Privacy-o-meter is the first step to defend yourself against heuristics they use. Blockchair also says that the Privacy-o-meter will “warn you if you’re doing things like reusing addresses or sending round amounts that lead to deteriorating your privacy.” Blockchair’s Privacy-o-Meter The user simply searchers for a transaction hash and they will be able to visualize the privacy score. For now, the block explorer company is offering Privacy-o-meter services for bitcoin (BTC) with “other cryptos are coming soon.” Bitcoin Cash (BCH) supporters were pleased with the announcement and one individual wrote: “You rock, keep up the great work my friends.” Blockchair CEO, Nikita Zhavoronkov explained that the team would “launch [bitcoin cash] (BCH) support as soon as we’ve implemented Cashshuffle and Cashfusion detection.” What do you think about Blockchair’s Privacy-o-meter service? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Visualize Crypto Transaction Privacy Scores With Blockchair’s ‘Privacy-o-Meter’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Decentralized finance (Defi) protocol ​Balancer was on Sunday hacked for more than $450,000 worth of cryptocurrency. In two separate transactions, an attacker targeted two pools containing Ethereum-based tokens with transfer fees – or so-called deflationary tokens. Pools with Sta and Stonk tokens were affected by this exploit, Balancer, an automated market marker protocol, said on June 29. The hacker made off with around 601 ether, 11 wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), 22,600 chainlink (LINK), and 61,000 synthetix (SNX) – altogether totaling more than $451,000. According to an analysis by Dex aggregator 1inch.exchange, the attacker used a smart contract to automate multiple actions in a single transaction. First, the hacker obtained a flash loan of $23 million worth of ethereum from the crypto-lending platform Dydx. The money was used to swap Weth to Statera (Sta), a so-called deflationary token, back and forth 24 times until the Sta balance was totally drained. With Sta, at least one percent of the token is programmed to burn with every transaction. However, the Balancer pool apparently failed to account for this mechanism. So, the Sta balance declined by one percent every time the attacker made their 24 swaps. After this, the hacker exchanged 1 weiSta, or the equivalent of a billionth of a token, to Weth several times. Due to Sta token transfer fee implementation, the pool never received statera, but still proceeded to release the wrapped ether regardless, said 1inch. The same step was repeated to drain WBTC, SNX, and link token balances from the pool, it added. Finally, the attacker repaid the $23 million Dydx loan. Later, they converted the Sta tokens to Balancer pool tokens and eventually into ethereum via Uniswap, which was then cashed out. 1inch noted that the attack was carried out by a “sophisticated smart contract engineer” who is deeply knowledgeable about decentralized finance and its protocols. Balancer claimed that “we were not aware this specific type of attack was possible, [but] we have consistently…warned about the unintended effects ERC20s with transfer fees could have in the protocol.” To prevent future attacks, the platform said that it will start to add ‘transfer fee tokens to the UI blacklist similarly to what we have done for no bool transfer tokens.” “We will be adding more documentation around the risks of how these pools work and how broken or maliciously designed tokens can potentially drain assets from a pool,” it added. A number of Defi platforms have been hacked this year.​ In February, Bzx protocol was attacked twice while Maker lost around $8.3 million in March. Uniswap and Dforce were drained of $300,000 and $25 million, respectively, although this later amount was returned by the hacker in April. What do you think about the Balancer pool hack? Let us know in the comments section below. The post ‘Sophisticated’ Hacker Plunders $450,000 From Defi Protocol Balancer appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The infamous and controversial owner of the website bitcoin.org, Cobra, is under fire recently and a number of community members have asked to see the website removed from his possession. The initial argument was sparked by the website’s maintainer, Will Binns, who told the public that bitcoin.org was in “danger of being compromised.” Since then, Cobra has decided to fire Binns and the crypto community has been very focused on watching this quarrel unfold. During the last few years, news.Bitcoin.com has reported on the curious case of Cobra, the peculiar anon with a lot of power. Just recently, bitcoiners have been arguing about Cobra’s ownership of bitcoin.org. Cobra has always been controversial and he’s asked the community to change the Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus algorithm. Cobra also asked the community and fellow bitcoin.org maintainers to change certain statements Satoshi Nakamoto made in the Bitcoin white paper. Five days ago, bitcoin.org maintainer Will Binns told the community via Github, that he believes Cobra is participating in compromising the website where the “latest version of Bitcoin Core software” stems from. “Bitcoin.org, where many people also download the latest version of Bitcoin Core software, is now in danger of becoming compromised, if it hasn’t just happened,” Binns said. “Cobra-Bitcoin has removed my access and seized control of the site and accompanying code repositories. I do not believe Cobra is the sole and lawful owner, nor does he have any right to do these things without just cause. Cobra has referenced recent messages I sent in regular conversation regarding my work and the management of bitcoin.org as reasons for my departure. This has been taken out of context in an attempt to manipulate public opinion and infringe upon my rights, along with the rights of others,” Binns added. The bitcoin.org software maintainer further stated: I believe he is looking to illegally transfer ownership of the site without due process, and this may only be the beginning. I’m writing this message to request assistance setting up a legal fund and the help of experts, to help stop this. In the interim, the website’s treasury will be placed under the control of a trusted third party. The funds are safe, the site is not. Cobra explained that he had “removed Will Binns as the site’s maintainer,” in another Github post called “Regarding Will Binns #3397.” “During a conversation on Twitter, he had claimed that his work contributing to bitcoin.org conferred on him more authority than what I had agreed with him. I won’t engage with him beyond attempting to retrieve the community’s donations from wallets he has control over,” Cobra told the community members on Github. The website’s owner continued by stating: This may seem harsh, but any further communication with him risks putting this project in an unfortunate situation. So I had to be brisk and terminate his relationship with us. I’ll be taking over the day-to-day activities on the site more actively from now on; if any contributors or translators are in any group chats with him, please make alternative groups so you can continue work on the site. Interestingly the former Blockstream employee and Bitcoin Core developer, Gregory Maxwell, seemed to agree with Cobra’s stance. “Your position appears to be a misplaced and inappropriate response to Cobra suggesting that he was considering not handing you unilateral control of Bitcoin.org. I hope you reconsider your approach,” Maxwell explained in the post reply toward Binns. Another software developer wrote: “From my experience, even though I’ve not always agreed with [Cobra] on certain things, I think he’s shown good character, and as others have stated, he has acted as a trustworthy steward over the years.” Bitcoin Core developer, David Harding, stood up for Binns when Cobra called Binns a scammer. “I’ve been interacting with Will Binns for over six years now, first on Bitcoin.org and later as coworkers,” Harding wrote. “We haven’t always gotten along, but I’ve never seen him try to scam anyone. Quite the reverse — I’ve seen him selflessly contribute to this project and others for no tangible return. I don’t know what’s happening in that conversation and I understand the need to be clear about who has what rights, but I don’t think a single confused conversation warrants the character assassination of a long-time contributor to multiple open-source documentation projects.” Whatever the case may be, Binns has lost his position and there is literally ‘trouble in paradise’ when it comes to the web portal bitcoin.org. Cobra has always been a controversial figure and no one knows who he or Theymos is. His sidekick Theymos is also an anon who once in a while participates in the bitcoin.org operations and discussions. Theymos also has complete control over r/bitcoin, the unofficial bitcoin wiki, and bitcointalk.org too. Both Cobra and Theymos, however, have been around since the early days. They both are mysterious and have maintained a lot of power, as far as bitcoin domain real estate is concerned ever since Satoshi left. What do you think about the quarrel over bitcoin.org’s ownership? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin.org Maintainer Calls for the Removal of Cobra, Website Owner Then Fires Him appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The financial crisis in Lebanon has seen its currency, the Lebanese pound, fall 80%. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that the country’s central bank has accumulated losses as much as 170 trillion pounds. The disagreement between the Lebanese government and the central bank has stalled bailout discussions. The economic and financial crisis in Lebanon has deepened as the local currency has been in a free-fall. The Lebanese pound sold at a rate of 8,000 to the U.S. dollar on Sunday at local exchanges, losing about 80% of its value over the past 10 months. The IMF has warned Lebanon that its central bank, Banque du Liban, has accumulated losses of up to 170 trillion pounds, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The publication explained that the central bank has used “a series of sovereign debt and currency swaps with local lenders … to shore up the banking sector, attract foreign currency and stabilize the Lebanese pound.” Citing people familiar with the matter, the publication reported that the IMF told the Lebanese finance minister and central bank governor: That activity, combined with the impact of Lebanon’s default in March on the bank’s sovereign bond holdings and a collapse in the value of the currency, has resulted in accumulated losses of about L£170tn. The losses equate to 91% of Lebanon’s total economic output in 2019 and are almost equal to the total value of the deposits held by the central bank from the country’s commercial banks, the news outlet conveyed. The pound had been pegged at 1,507.5 to the U.S. dollar since 1997. An IMF spokesperson said last week, “Our estimates are broadly consistent with those in the government’s plan.” The central bank and some members of parliament, however, argued that the losses are substantially lower. The disagreement between the Lebanese government and the central bank has put the prospect of obtaining much-needed emergency financing from the IMF at risk. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Friday that she did not “expect progress in the negotiations with the Lebanese officials.” Georgieva added: “IMF officials are still working with Lebanon, but it is not clear whether it is possible for the country’s leaders, active parties, and society to agree on implementing the reforms needed to stabilize the economy and boost economic growth.” However, “Not accepting the diagnostic simply means that the IMF [will] walk away,” commented Henri Chaoul, a banker and former advisor to the government in the IMF talks. He resigned from his advisory role at the Ministry of Finance on June 17. Lebanon’s fiscal and monetary policy has come undone over the past six months, following weeks of anti-government protests. What do you think about the crisis in Lebanon? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Lebanon’s Financial Meltdown: Currency Plunges 80%, Huge Losses at Central Bank, IMF Bailout Stalled appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

With the fourth of July approaching, many Americans will have to contemplate whether or not the holiday is an empty affair. After the last thirteen weeks of Covid-19 lockdowns, business shutdowns, and police brutality, the lack of liberty and freedoms in the U.S. has never been more apparent. With ideas like bitcoin and concepts that bolster secession, the day is coming when money is completely removed from the state, just as the state was separated from the church centuries ago. Roughly six days prior to the empty holiday, as I read the letters of Independence pronouncement adopted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776, I say to myself “Americans are not free.” The majority in the United States have surrendered their freedoms and civil liberties to the collective mob. Many individualists are quite certain that most Americans don’t believe in those declarations of independence, and the 27 grievances against tyranny written hundreds of years ago. One reason that validates this opinion as truth, is because the U.S. government has transgressed upon the citizenry. They have quite literally violated every one of the 27 grievances. Yet the majority of U.S. citizens are too comfortable and too lost in the sea of distraction to even notice. One thing I will be promoting on July 4, 2020, is real independence and the use of counter-economics, in order to separate finance from the state. The separation of money and state is the ideal solution for striking the root. The New Ideal author, Onkar Ghate, describes it very well in an April 2019 essay. The essay explains how Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, and James Madison all vowed to separate the church from state, as this was a fundamental right of sovereign individuals. However, the philosophy can easily be applied to finance too, as Ghate and many others have argued for economic freedom for many decades. “The arguments for intellectual freedom and economic freedom share the same root: the requirements of the rational mind to guide the individual,” Ghate’s essay details. Ghate’s explains how the well known novelist, Ayn Rand, took the individualist ideas from Jefferson, Madison, and Locke and extended it to all human actions like “education, scientific research, the arts,” and especially finance. Rand argued “that governmental schools, governmental funding of scientific research, and governmental funding of the arts violate the individual’s right to intellectual freedom,” Ghate’s essay highlights. The author also adds: Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. Bitcoin and the 5,000+ digital assets are tools that can help bolster the separation of money and state. The founder of Shapeshift, Erik Voorhees, said in March 2015 at the Texas Bitcoin Conference, the reason he has bolstered the idea of bitcoin is because he wants to separate finance from the state. “It is that narrative of human development under which I believe that we now have other fights to fight, and I would say in the realm of bitcoin it is mainly the separation of money and state,” Voorhees explained on stage. The Shapeshift CEO added: Money is absolutely as fundamental to our lives as religion, and for many people it is far more fundamental to their lives as religion. It affects how your life unfolds. The choices that you make about money dictate the ramifications of your life and those around you. And so, to have an institution like money so controlled by a central entity — by a monopoly — is absurd. It is immoral. We should get rid of it. Similarly, the American populace has the right to separate themselves, and “dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” This is clearly stated on the Declaration of Independence parchment. Essentially, the letters of Independence highlight that Americans, but more importantly all sovereign earthlings, should simply declare the separation. “A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation,” the transcription of the stone engraving of the parchment Declaration of Independence stresses. All sovereign individuals have a right to separate their finances from the state, just as they have the right to separate religious beliefs from government affairs. By leveraging precious metals, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), dash (DASH), litecoin (LTC), monero (XMR) ethereum (ETH) and many others, while also practicing barter and trade techniques, it will help strengthen the counter-economy. The counter-economy, at some point, will grow so large that it eclipses the fraudulent and manipulated economy created by the oligarchs and status quo. Without funding, the state will not be able to continue the endless wars. Without the participation of people using the oligarchs’ promissory notes, taxation will take place less and less. Even Edward Snowden, the famous U.S. whistleblower explained in an interview published by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2018, that bitcoin would help cushion financial liberties. Snowden also once said on Twitter that “new technologies raise the possibility of unstoppable tax protests.” “I like Bitcoin transactions in that they are impartial — They can’t really be stopped or reversed, without the explicit, voluntary participation by the people involved,” Snowden said during the interview. “Let’s say Bank of America doesn’t want to process a payment for someone like me. In the old financial system, they’ve got an enormous amount of clout, as do their peers, and can make that happen. If a teenager in Venezuela wants to get paid in hard currency for a web development gig they did for someone in Paris, something prohibited by local currency controls, cryptocurrencies can make it possible.” Snowden continued by adding: Bitcoin may not yet really be private money, but it is the first ‘free’ money. On July 4, 2020, and just like every Independence Day I’ve celebrated in the past decade, I will let people know that the freedom they honor every year is lacking. In fact, freedom, at least going by the American writings written in the 1700s, is barely existent. The only way to separate ourselves from the beast of government is to separate money from it immediately. Essentially, the state won’t have a choice and even right now, government fiat must compete with a $250 billion dollar free market filled with over 5,000 cryptocurrencies. During the 2015 Texas Bitcoin Conference, Vorhees further explained that people leveraging bitcoin will help bolster the need for change. “It seems crazy to say this, but perhaps we should permit competition in money, permit competition in financial structures, just as we permit competition in religion,” Vorhees concluded. “We allow multiple churches to exist. Why do we do that? And why don’t we do that with money? I think it’s a hypocrisy that our children will someday look back on and realize, ‘Wow, that was really obvious.’ And Bitcoin is what will bring that change about.” If Americans truly believe in the letters of independence, then they should separate themselves from the very government that transgresses against them. Right now, believers of the non-aggression axiom have lots of choices to make and many forms of human action can help fulfill decentralized goals. There is no doubt, cryptocurrency and Satoshi’s vision was founded with the ideals of separation of state and money. Instead of focusing on red white and blue paper plates and patriotic t-shirts from Walmart, maybe Americans should invoke the revolutionary spirit they once held, and actually do something about this tyrannical beast who has devoured their freedoms. If you are interested in learning about the many methods of crypto anarchy and the myriad of ways to opt-out and vacate the state – Check out these essays below. No Treason by Lysander Spooner The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose The John Galt Speech by Ayn Rand Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto An Agorist Primer by Samuel Edward Konkin III The many writings hosted at Zerogov.com Vices Are Not Crimes by Lysander Spooner Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Man Economy and State by Murray Rothbard Universally Preferable Behavior – A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics by Stefan Molyneux The Fundamentals of Voluntaryism Everything Voluntary The Jones Plantation by Larken Rose The Free Market: What it is – What it Implies by Tom Rose The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto by Tim May What do you think about separating money from state? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Bolstering Separation of Money and State Following the 244th Independence Day appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto market skeptics and speculators are concerned about 789,000 ETH that started moving four days ago last Wednesday. The transaction was recorded by Whale Alert, and the $187 million worth of ether stems from the Plustoken scammers. On Wednesday, June 24, 2020, at approximately 9:46 a.m. (ET) the Plustoken scammers who have yet to be arrested, moved 789,534 ETH worth $187,847,550 USD at today’s exchange rates. Cryptocurrency traders are concerned that this stash of ETH will be dumped on numerous digital currency spot markets. Additionally, the Plustoken scammers moved $67 million worth of EOS tokens two days before the 789,000 ETH transaction. A number of crypto traders and organizations like Chainalysis and Cyphertrace have reported on the Plustoken scammers’ transactions. Speculators have assumed that Plustoken coins that were dumped on spot markets caused the price of BTC to slide at the end of 2019. Plustoken scammers have been accused of fueling the March 12, 2020 dump often referred to as ‘Black Thursday.’ On March 9, 2020, crypto market observers witnessed 13,000 BTC sent to bitcoin mixers and crypto speculators assume the scammers are selling. Chainalysis said after March 12, that the organization didn’t believe the sell-off stemmed from Plustoken coins sold. “In this case, we don’t believe Plustoken liquidations are responsible for bitcoin’s price drop. While Bitcoin did move from Plustoken addresses over the weekend, very little has gone to exchanges,” Chainalysis wrote. The recent 789,000 ETH transaction may have been shuffled or obfuscated through a number of hops. The $187 million was split into 50 different addresses on the Ethereum network. Findings stemming from Cyphertrace and Chainalysis have noted that the Plustoken scammers still own large amounts of ETH, BTC, EOS, and a few other types of digital assets. To this day, the scammers who are still at large, hold large swathes of these coins and no one is sure how they will be sold, but many suspect over-the-counter (OTC) operations. The ETH address where the $187 million in ether was stored, still has $139.70 worth of ETH in the wallet today. 192 days ago, the wallet started with 10 ETH deposited, but 789,524.6 ETH was deposited immediately after. What do you think about the Plustoken ether on the move? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Skeptics Concerned Plustoken Scammers Plan to Dump $187M Worth of Ethereum appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Liquid, the sidechain network developed by the company Blockstream, saw 870 bitcoins ($8 million) frozen in moderation queue due to a seizure from a number of the network’s functionaries. The founder of the Summa project, James Prestwich, explained on Twitter that the emergency 2-of-3 controlled 870 bitcoin “violates Liquid’s security model.” During the last year, the crypto firm Blockstream has been promoting its Liquid sidechain as “trustless,” even though many cryptocurrency proponents have criticized the federation of exchanges who call the network’s shots. For instance, the infamous Cobra, owner of bitcoin.org tweeted back in February: “Blockstream is busy pumping “trustless” centralized Liquid because ‘Lightning doesn’t scale;’ who even takes these ‘influencers’ seriously anymore?” “Liquid is a sidechain, it’s just not a trustless (or, more precisely, trust-minimized) sidechain,” another critic tweeted in January. Taking it further, a number of individuals have said that Liquid is no different than the likes of Paypal or Ripple. The original ‘Sidechains’ paper sold the idea of a ‘trustless 2-way peg,’” software developer Rhett Creighton explained. “The [Liquid] paper was used to raise $21M for Blockstream never delivered on the ‘trustless 2-way peg’ (maybe it’s impossible). So we get Liquid which is based on a federated model, which is basically Paypal,” the developer added. Liquid’s so-called trustless model was exposed in real-time just recently, according to a tweet published by the Summa project cofounder James Prestwich. “Looks like the liquid emergency 2-of-3 operators can steal 870 Bitcoin because this TXO has aged 2015 blocks?” Prestwich asked the Twitter account @notgrubles, and associate that works with Blockstream. “For just under an hour, the emergency 2-of-3 controlled 870 Bitcoin. This violates liquid’s security model [and] we know about this because Liquid holds bitcoin.” Prestwich also exposed that the Liquid Federation is a closed business model. Prestwich stated: We don’t know what caused it because liquid federation behavior is trusted and closed. Prestwich further explained that when he pinged a Blockstream employee, they didn’t even verify his findings before arguing with him first. “I felt comfortable disclosing publicly because no one but the trusted operators could exploit the issue, and the issue would not interfere with normal operation. When pinged, a Blockstream employee didn’t bother to check before mistakenly trying to correct me. It’s very hard to operate systems with mandatory rotation. This problem is conceptually similar to forgetting to mail your rent. OP_CTV aims to address rotation requirements directly, and would be a great addition to Liquid’s Federation script,” Prestwich wrote. The CEO of Blockstream did defend Liquid in Prestwich’s Twitter thread, and blamed fixing the issue on Covid-19. “This is a known issue,” Back tweeted. “The coins are auto-swept forward as part of the HSM peg process. funds are safe as keys are offline and geo-distributed. we were planning to address via HSM upgrade, which is a manual hands-on process for security, but [Covid-19] lock-downs made that difficult.” The discussion about Liquid’s trust model continues to rage on Twitter, ever since Prestwich disclosed the security vulnerability. Prestwich is also collaborating on a synthetic bitcoin project called tBTC, a project invoked by software developer Matt Luongo. The project Prestwich is involved in that leverages tBTC and it is called “Keep.” “A keep is an off-chain container for private data. Keeps help contracts harness the full power of the public blockchain — enabling deep interactivity with private data,” explains the website keep.network. Prestwich also detailed that no one knows if the Liquid BTC (LBTC) seizure has happened before. It’s likely, however, many crypto advocates will be watching for vulnerabilities in the Liquid network, especially with 2,160 BTC or $19.7M sitting in Blockstream’s Liquid TVL (total value locked). Nevertheless and despite the haters and ongoing trust model debates, Ethereum is BTC’s default sidechain by order of TVL and value moved. What do you think about the 870 bitcoins ($8 million) frozen in Liquid’s moderation queue? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Federated Sidechains: $8M in BTC Stuck in Limbo, Analyst Says Action ‘Violates Liquid’s Security Model’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Max Keiser believes that bitcoin naysayers like Jim Rogers, Mark Cuban, and Peter Schiff will go all-in and invest big in bitcoin when they understand it. He guarantees this to be the case, having predicted that the price of bitcoin will reach $400,000. Max Keiser and the Bitcoin Naysayers Popular television personality Max Keiser firmly believes that bitcoin skeptics will go all in big on bitcoin when they finally understand it. The host of Keiser Report, a financial program broadcast on the media channel RT, recently singled out three bitcoin naysayers in particular. He tweeted Friday: Peter Schiff, Jim Rogers, Mark Cuban, and other pre-coiners represent huge pent-up bitcoin buying demand. When they finally understand it, they’ll go all-in with huge buys. I 100% guarantee this to be the case. Keiser talked about Jim Rogers because the famed investor said last week that he thinks the value of bitcoin will fall to zero because governments will not let cryptocurrency flourish. “Jim Rogers, like Peter Schiff, I told to buy bitcoin at $1 $10 $100, but the ‘legendary investor’ never looked into it as evidenced by this silly, uninformed comment he just made,” Keiser tweeted in response to Rogers’ BTC price prediction and the future of bitcoin. Keiser’s comment troubled gold bug Peter Schiff, as the pair often get into a heated debate about bitcoin. Schiff openly states that “Bitcoin is fiat as its value also comes from faith,” unlike his beloved gold, which he said, “has real value.” Max Keiser’s poll about when Peter Schiff will panic-buy bitcoin (left) and Peter Schiff’s poll about when Keiser will give up and sell his BTC. “The longer Peter Schiff waits to buy bitcoin, the bigger the panic-buy. My guess, $50,000 triggers him,” Keiser wrote. He then proceeded to put up a poll, asking his 229.1K followers, “What price do you think triggers Schiff to panic-buy bitcoin?” The options were $25K, $50K, $100K, and $200K. Most voters believe that when the price of bitcoin is $25,000, Peter Schiff will panic buy. Peter Schiff responded to Keiser: “This poll is a fraud, as none of the choices are correct. There is no price high enough that would cause me to panic-buy bitcoin. Also, it’s unlikely that bitcoin will ever actually trade at any of the price points in the poll.” He proceeded to put up a poll of his own, asking his 245.6K followers: “How low would the price of bitcoin have to fall for Max Keiser to throw in the towel and sell?” At press time, 71.8% of voters believe that Keiser will “ride it down to 0.” Keiser has predicted that the price of BTC will reach $400,000. Another billionaire investor, Mark Cuban, the owner of the National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, has come around slightly in his view of bitcoin. In October last year, Cuban said he would rather have bananas than bitcoin, believing that cryptocurrency has no intrinsic value. However, he told Morgan Creek Digital cofounder Anthony Pompliano during a podcast in April that he would support bitcoin if it were easier to use and could be spent without needing to be converted into fiat currency. Meanwhile, a growing number of institutional investors have been getting into bitcoin. In a recent survey, Fidelity Digital Assets found that the majority of U.S. and European institutional investors feel that cryptocurrencies have a place in their portfolio. Moreover, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones recently revealed that he has 2% of his assets in bitcoin. Do you think these bitcoin skeptics will come around and invest in bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Jim Rogers, Mark Cuban, Peter Schiff Will ‘Go All-In’ on Bitcoin, Says Max Keiser appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The popular bitcoin analyst Willy Woo told his 132,000 Twitter followers that he’s working on a new pricing model that suggests a bull run is imminent. In fact, Woo says the model suggests bitcoin is close to “another bullish run” with “maybe another month to go.” The price of bitcoin (BTC) has been declining during the last seven days, as BTC has lost 2% overall this past week. The value has been bouncing back and forth between $8,800 to a touch over $10k per BTC. At the time of writing on Sunday, June 27, 2020, the price has been fluctuating between $9,010 to $9,150 during the last 24 hours. The $165 billion market valuation, still makes up 63% of the entire market valuation of all 5,000+ crypto assets. Despite the downturn, a number of analysts expect a bullish run to come to fruition in the near future. On Sunday, Willy Woo (@woonomic), the well known bitcoin chart analyst and the cofounder of Hypersheet tweeted that he’s been developing a new pricing model for BTC. “This is a new model I’m working on, it picks the start of exponential bull runs,” Woo tweeted. “Bitcoin was setting up for a bullish run until the COVID white swan killed the party. This model suggests we are close to another bullish run. Maybe another month to go,” he added. The first chart Woo published on Twitter. Showing another chart, Woo said that the second graph “very clearly shows how [Covid-19] was a model breaking outlier.” And another chart Woo published indicates that “the longer this bull market takes to wind up, the higher the peak price (Top Cap model). A long sideways accumulation band is ultimately a good thing,” Woo further stressed. Essentially what the Hypersheet cofounder told his 132,000 Twitter followers is that his new model shows that BTC is “maybe” about a month away from lift-off. If it wasn’t for Covid-19, then Woo believes the bull market would have already started. The second chart Woo published on Twitter. Of course, not everyone agreed with Woo’s prediction and the evidence stemming from his new model. “Technical analysis doesn’t work with BTC,” Adam Bornstein replied to Woo. “There are too many exchanges with too thin volume, too many [arbitrage] opportunities, and too much noise built into every move,” Bornstein added. The third chart Woo published on Twitter. Although Woo stood up for his position and the analyst responded to Bornstein’s criticism. “I’d agree with you for intra-week moves, but this chart is 8 [years] of macro, where organic investment takes precedence,” Woo replied. Despite, Woo’s defense some still called the prediction “hopium.” Other Bitcoin evangelists disagree with Woo’s prediction as well, as Tone Vays told the International Business Times (Ibtimes) there’s a chance “bitcoin’s price won’t exceed $10,000 until 2021.” “Like I’ve been saying for months now, I have no reason to walk away from my prediction early in the year that Bitcoin is going to get stuck between $6,000 and $10,000 for the majority of this year,” Vays told the news outlet. Of course, Ibtimes also mentioned that Vays predicted a dive to $2,800 before the reward halving took place, but the analyst’s forecast never happened. What do you think about the model Willy Woo created that says a bull run might be one month away? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Popular Analyst Reveals New Bitcoin Pricing Model: Prediction Suggests ‘Bullish Run a Month Away’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist behind one of the biggest Washington lobbying scandals as portrayed in the feature film Casino Jack, has been charged in connection with AML bitcoin cryptocurrency. He faces returning to jail after previously serving three and a half years in prison. Jack Abramoff Charged in Cryptocurrency Fraud Case The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rowland Marcus Andrade have been “charged with fraud in connection with $5 million initial coin offering of cryptocurrency AML bitcoin.” It has been more than 14 years since Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty in one of the biggest Washington lobbying scandals in U.S. history. Now the 62-year-old has reportedly agreed to enter guilty pleas on charges in two separate schemes, one of which involves a cryptocurrency project called “AML bitcoin,” with which he allegedly helped Andrade defraud investors. The DOJ alleges: Andrade and Abramoff conspired to make false and misleading statements to potential purchasers of a proposed new cryptocurrency called AML bitcoin. The charging document states that “Andrade claimed to be the creator of AML bitcoin and inventor of its technology that purportedly would prevent money laundering and anonymous use through ‘biometric technologies.'” He further “claimed this technology would allow the AML bitcoin cryptocurrency to comply with anti-money laundering and know-your-customer laws and regulations.” Andrade and his company NAC Foundation sold AML bitcoin to investors in the U.S. and globally through at least December 2018, raising more than $5 million, the DOJ noted. “Andrade defrauded investors by misusing funds that were raised and laundered funds that were illegally obtained.” Well-known lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rowland Marcus Andrade have been charged with fraud in connection with AML bitcoin cryptocurrency, the U.S. DOJ has announced. Andrade has been charged in the indictment with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. If convicted, he “faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution if appropriate, for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $500,000 for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(1),” the DOJ explained. Abramoff has been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of violating the provisions of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. In 2017, he was allegedly “retained by a client in the marijuana industry, and that the engagement in part involved efforts to advocate for changes in federal law and policy,” the DOJ added. However, “The information filed against Abramoff also alleges that he knowingly and corruptly failed to register as a lobbyist, as required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act.” The Justice Department continued: This is the first ever known prosecution of a lobbyist for a criminal violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act. Washington DC lobbyist could be heading back to jail after he has agreed to plead guilty to charges in two cases, one of which involves the AML bitcoin cryptocurrency scheme. “Abramoff faces a maximum sentence of 5 years, and a fine of $250,000 for violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371, and a maximum sentence of 5 years and a fine of $250,000, for violation of 2 U.S.C. § 1606(b),” the DOJ wrote. In addition to criminal charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has separately filed civil charges against both Abramoff and Andrade over the AML bitcoin cryptocurrency scheme for “alleging securities fraud and acting as unregistered brokers of securities, among other charges,” the Justice Department described. Jack Abramoff has spent time in federal prison before. After a guilty plea in a lobbying scandal and his dealings with Suncruz Casinos in January 2006, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison for mail fraud, conspiracy to bribe public officials, and tax evasion. He served 43 months and was released on December 3, 2010. He then authored the autobiographical book called “Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist.” Abramoff’s stories have been made into two films: the documentary “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” and the feature film “Casino Jack,” starring Kevin Spacey as Abramoff. According to U.S. Attorney David Anderson, Abramoff has agreed to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy charges and a criminal violation of the Lobbying Disclosure Act in the AML bitcoin case and could face up to five years in prison. Do you think Jack Abramoff should go to prison for his role in the AML bitcoin fraud case? Let us know in the comments section below. The post ‘Casino Jack’ Abramoff Charged in AML Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Fraud Case, Could Return to Prison appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. economy continues to look bleak as the American citizens and small businesses nationwide struggle to keep up with the government’s rules toward Covid-19 guidelines. In just 13 weeks, over 45 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits and many citizens cannot pay their mortgages. Numbers stemming from last month’s property data indicates that about 4.3 million Americans didn’t pay their mortgage notes. While precious metals like gold and silver have done well, and crypto assets have held decently, real estate and property statistics have tumbled. The government in America has continued to ravage the U.S. economy by inducing a number of lockdown rules and shutting down businesses of all shapes and sizes. The unemployment rate is practically parallel with the numbers from the Great Depression as 45.7 million are out of work. And that number only accounts for Americans who can file as members of the gig economy and other types of workers cannot collect. Additionally, the extra $600 extra from the CARES Act unemployment benefits will end soon. “The (Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation) $600 can be paid for weeks ending no later than the week ending prior to Friday, July 31, 2020,” the U.S. Department of Labor told the public. “For all states except (New York), that is Saturday, July 25th. New York’s end date is Sunday, July 26th.” With all the lockdown orders and business shutdowns, it’s put the U.S. real estate industry in jeopardy as home sales and commercial property values have plummeted. This week it was reported that 4.3 million U.S. citizens didn’t pay their mortgages in May and it’s a huge spike. The number is up over 2 million since the end of March and the delinquency rate is reaching a point not seen since the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. Average citizens can’t pay their notes and apartment rentals in all major cities are not being contracted for the fall months. “Another 723,000 homeowners became past due on their mortgages in May, pushing the national delinquency rate to its highest level in 8.5 years,” says Black Knight data. “There are now 4.3 million homeowners past due on their mortgages or in active foreclosure – including those in forbearance who have missed scheduled payments as part of their plans – up from 2 million at the end of March. Serious delinquencies are on the rise as well, increasing by more than 50% over the past two months.” Reports also show that the Covid-19 induced lockdown economy is like a wrecking ball smashing the $17 trillion U.S. commercial real estate market. The fact of the matter is real estate is not selling at all like it was 13 weeks prior to the virus outbreak. Even office rentals are feeling the heat as a recent Morgan Stanley report disclosed dire pricing power losses for landlords. Morgan Stanley also expects the vacancy rate to rise all the way until 2024. Barry Sternlicht from Starwood Capital detailed that he predicts office buildings to lose 40% of value, rents dropping extremely low, and a third of hotels going bankrupt in New York City. The National Association of Realtors explained on Monday that “existing-home sales occurred at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 3.91 million,” which is the lowest in over a decade. Sales that stem from pre-owned houses dipped by 9.7% in May. Many economists are fixated on the real estate market because they believe it could explode like it did after Lehman went bankrupt. Amid the telltale signs of a worsening U.S. real estate market, American first time home buyers (FTHBs) have been focused in on the real estate dips too. As any American can see by scrolling through Zillow or any property listing platform that prices are being slashed left and right. Genworth Mortgage Insurance has published a report that shows FTHBs are taking advantage of the lows. The report shows that FTHBs didn’t do well in April but in May numbers were impressive. Despite the gloom and doom from headlines that indicate 4.3 million Americans haven’t paid their mortgages, some realtors are still very optimistic. “Home sales will surely rise in the upcoming months with the economy reopening, and could even surpass one-year-ago figures in the second half of the year,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in the organization’s report published on Monday. Another thing analysts are watching is pending home sales as there have been a number of homes sitting in limbo. It’s quite possible that due to the lockdown and business shutdown guidelines that many people who were about to purchase a home 13 weeks ago cannot now. Analysis shows that a number of transaction closings, settlement, and pending sales nationwide continue to remain frozen as well. What do you think about the U.S. real estate market? Let us know in the comments below. The post US Real Estate Market Crisis: 4.3 Million Mortgage Delinquencies, Commercial Properties Sink in Value appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Here are a few points about why “cyberspace,” or a computer-mediated network, is more hospitable than physical locations for the kind of “crypto-anarchy” libertarian system I’ve been describing. Several folks have commented recently about ocean-going libertarian havens, supertankers used as data havens, and so forth. In the 1970s, especially, there were several unsuccessful attempts to acquire islands in the Pacific for the site of what some called “Libertaria.” (Some keywords: Vanuatu, Minerva, Mike Oliver, Tonga) **The following essay was written by Timothy C. May in 1988. The essay “Libertaria in Cyberspace” can be found on an archived version of artofnotbeinggoverned.com, and is reprinted here on Bitcoin.com for historical preservation. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any opinions, content, accuracy or quality within the Op-ed article.** Libertaria in Cyberspace or, Cyberspace More Hospitable to Ideas of Liberty and Crypto Anarchy Obtaining an entire island is problematic. Getting the consent of the residents is one issue (familiar to those on the this list who weathered the Hurricane Andrew diversion debate). Being allowed to operate by the leading world powers is another… the U.S. has enforced trade embargoes and blockades against many nations in the past several decades, including Cuba, North Korea, Libya, Iran, Iraq, and others. Further, the U.S. has invaded some countries— Panama- is a good example— whose government it disliked. How long would a supertanker “data haven” or libertarian regime last in such an environment? (Stephenson’s fascinating Snow Crash didn’t address the issue of why the “Raft” wasn’t simply sunk by the remaining military forces.) I should note that the recent splintering of countries may provide opportunities for libertarian (or PPL, if you prefer to think of it in this way) regions. Some have speculated that Russia itself is a candidate, given that it has little vested in the previous system and may be willing to abandon statism. If several dozen new countries are formed, some opportunities exist. The basic problem is that physical space is too small, too exposed to the view of others. “Libertaria” in the form of, say, an island, is too exposed to the retaliation of world powers. (I won’t go into the “private nukes” strategy, which I need to think about further.) A floating private nation (or whatever it’s called) is too vulnerable to a single well-placed torpedo. Even if it serves as a kind of Swiss-bank, and thus gets some of the same protection Switzerland got (to wit, many leaders kept their loot there), it is too vulnerable to a single attacker or invader. Piracy will be just one of the problems. Finally, how many of us want to move to a South Pacific island? Or a North Sea oil rig? Or even to Russia? Also read Timothy C. May’s 1988 essay “The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto” and also check out the news.Bitcoin.com article called “Demand for Charter Cities During Covid-19 Pandemic Grows Exponential – People Desire Semi-Autonomous Zones.“ Cyberspace looks more promising. There is more “space” in cyberspace, thus allowing more security and more colonizable space. And this space is coterminous with our physical space, accessible with proper terminals from any place in the world (though there may be attempts in physical space to block access, to restrict access to necessary cryptographic methods, etc.). I won’t go into the various cryptographic methods here (see my earlier posting on the “Dining Cryptographers” protocol and various other postings on public-key systems, digital mixes, electronic cash, etc.). Interested readers have many sources. (I have just read a superb survey of these new techniques, the 1992 Ph.D. thesis of Jurgen Bos, “Practical Privacy,” which deals with these various protocols in a nice little book.) Alice and Bob, our favorite cryptographic stand-ins, can communicate and transact business without ever meeting or even knowing who the other is. This can be extended to create virtual communities subject only to rules they themselves reach agreement on, much like this very Extropians list. Private law is the only law, as there is no appeal to some higher authority like the Pope or police. (This is why I said in several of my postings on the Hurricane Andrew debate that I am sympathetic to the PPL view.) And this is the most compelling advantage of “Crypto Libertaria”: an arbitrarily large number of separate “nations” can simultaneously exist. This allows for rapid experimentation, self-selection, and evolution. If folks get tired of some virtual community, they can leave. The cryptographic aspects mean their membership in some community is unknown to others (vis-a-vis the physical or outside world, i.e., their “true names”) and physical coercion is reduced. Communalists are free to create a communal environment, Creative Anachronists are free to create their own idea of a space, and so on. I’m not even getting into the virtual reality-photorealistic images-Jaron Lanier sort of thing, as even current text-based systems are demonstrably enough to allow the kind of virtual communities I’m describing here (and described in Vinge’s “True Names,” in Gibson’s Neuromancer, in Sterling’s Islands in the Net, and in Stephenson’s Snow Crash…though all of them missed out on some of the most exciting aspects…perhaps my novel will hit the mark?). But will the government allow these sorts of things? Won’t they just torpedo it, just as they’d torpedo an offshore oilrig-like data haven? The key is that distributed systems have no nexus which can be knocked out. Neither Usenet nor Fidonet can be disabled by any single government, as they are worldwide. Shutting them down would mean banning computer-to-computer communication. And despite the talk of mandatory “trap doors” in encryption systems, encryption is fundamentally easy to do and hard to detect. (For those who doubt this, let me describe a simple system I posted to sci.crypt several years ago. An ordinary digital audio tape (DAT) carries more than a gigabyte of data. This means that the least significant bit (LSB) of an audio DAT recording carries about 8megabytes of data! So Alice is stopped by the Data Police. They ask if she’s carrying illegal data. She smiles innocently and says “No. I know you’ll search me.” They find her Sony Datman and ask about her collection of tapes and live recordings. Alice is carrying 80 MB of data—about 3 entire days worth of Usenet feeds!—on each and every tape. The data are stored in the LSBs, completely indistinguishable from microphone and quantization noise…unless you know the key. Similar methods allow data to be undetectably packed into LSBs of the PICT and GIF pictures now flooding the Net, into sampled sounds, and even into messages like this…the “whitespace” on the right margin of this message carries a hidden message readable only to a few chosen Extropians.) I’ve already described using religions and role-playing games as a kind of legal cover for the development and deployment of these techniques. If a church decides to offer “digital confessionals” for its far-flung members, by what argument will the U.S. government justify insisting that encryption not be used? (I should note that psychiatrists and similar professionals have a responsibility to their clients and to their licensing agencies to ensure the privacy of patient records. Friends of mine are using encryption to protect patient records. This is just one little example of how encryption is getting woven into the fabric of our electronic society. There are many other examples.) In future discussions, I hope we can hit on some of the many approaches to deploying these methods. I’ve spent several years thinking about this, but I’ve surely missed some good ideas. The “crypto-anarchy game” being planned is an attempt to get some of the best hackers in the Bay Area thinking along these lines and thinking of new wrinkles. Several have already offered to help further. Some have commented that this list is not an appropriate place to discuss these ideas. I think it is. We are not discussing anything that is actually illegal, even under the broad powers of RICO (Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, used to go after “conspiracies” of porn dealers and gun dealers, amongst others). What we are discussing are long-range implications of these ideas. In conclusion, it will be easier to form certain types of libertarian societies in cyberspace than in the real world of nations and physical locations. The electronic world is by no means complete, as we will still live much of our lives in the physical world. But economic activity is sharply increasing in the Net domain and these “crypto-anarchy” ideas will further erode the power of physical states to tax and coerce residents. If you are interested in learning about the many methods of crypto anarchy and the myriad of ways to opt-out and vacate the state – Check out these essays below. No Treason by Lysander Spooner The Most Dangerous Superstition by Larken Rose The John Galt Speech by Ayn Rand Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto An Agorist Primer by Samuel Edward Konkin III The many writings hosted at Zerogov.com Vices Are Not Crimes by Lysander Spooner Economics In One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Man Economy and State by Murray Rothbard Universally Preferable Behavior – A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics by Stefan Molyneux The Fundamentals of Voluntaryism Everything Voluntary The Jones Plantation by Larken Rose The Free Market: What it is – What it Implies by Tom Rose The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto by Tim May What do you think about Timothy May’s Libertaria in Cyberspace essay? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Timothy C. May: Libertaria in Cyberspace appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Friday suspended the license of Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS), a unit of troubled Wirecard AG, which is responsible for issuing Visa cryptocurrency debit cards. It means some users of cards such as Crypto.com’s Mco visa debit card and Tenx’s visa debit card may not be able to access their funds for a time. Both the crypto-enabled cards are issued by the Newcastle-based WCS. FCA said Wirecard Card Solutions “is no longer permitted to conduct any regulated activities” and “must not dispose of any assets or funds.” The regulator indicated that the decision was taken “in order to further protect customer money”. “There are ongoing events in Germany concerning companies closely linked to Wirecard. Wirecard’s parent company, Wirecard AG based in Germany is currently the subject of law enforcement interest and insolvency proceedings,” said the FCA. Cryptocurrency card operators Crypto.com and Tenx told customers that their funds were safe. Kris Marszalek, chief executive officer of Crypto.com, stated that the FCA had “effectively shut down Wirecard UK” and that European card users will no longer be able to use their cards. “Our EU/UK cards will stop working today. All customers will receive 100% credit back to their crypto wallets within 48 hours,” Marszalek said. “Separately, we’re working on transferring the card program to a new provider, so that we can resume the issuing of cards in the UK and Europe and allow existing and new customers to benefit from our card program again,” he added. Tenx tweeted that ” [we] would like to make clear that all of our customer’s crypto and fiat balances are maintained by Tenx and not Wirecard…this issue has no impact on our operation.” Wirecard Card Solutions said on its website that it “has temporarily suspended its electronic money issuing, card issuing and acquiring a business with immediate effect and until further notice.” The company added that it is working to have the license restored by the FCA. Wirecard AG has faced a tumultuous week since it reported missing $2 billion from its accounts on June 18 and later admitting the cash did not exist at all. Now, the German payments processor has filed for insolvency in the face of debts totaling nearly $4 billion. Its long-time CEO Markus Braun quit on June 19 before he was arrested only three days later on allegations of manipulating financial records. He’s out on $5.6 million bail. Shares of Wirecard have since been suspended from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange after losing more than 90% in a matter of days. What do you think about the impact of Wirecard’s collapse on the issuance of crypto debit cards? The post Wirecard: Crypto Card Users’ Funds Locked as UK Regulator Suspends Subsidiary appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Decentralized finance (defi) applications on the Ethereum chain have been growing wildly during the last two years. Now a number of synthetic versions of bitcoin, that leverage the Ethereum chain, has outpaced offchain solutions like Blockstream’s Liquid and the Lightning Network. Just recently, the platform Synthetix revealed a partnership with Bitgo and the Ren Project in order to create incentivized bitcoin liquidity. Now with a massive yield farming pool, tokens like sBTC, renBTC, and WBTC could easily eclipse the alternative offchain competitors. At the end of May, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the fact that despite a number of ‘trust model’ debates on Twitter, Ethereum is the Bitcoin (BTC) network’s largest sidechain by total value locked (TVL) by a long shot. Stats stemming from the Lightning Network (LN) shows that the LN TVL on June 26, 2020, is $8.9 million. The data from Liquid.net indicates that there is 2,160 BTC or $19.7M for Blockstream’s Liquid TVL. Now stats from the Ethereum chain blows those two statistics away, as there is over 28,000 BTC locked into the Synthetix. There is a total of $263 million TVL locked into Synthetix at press time. Additionally, data from Curve.fi shows that renBTC has been picking up significant trade volume since it’s inception. The project WBTC, backed by Bitgo has a massive $66.9 million TVL, with 7,600 BTC locked into the defi project’s contract. Statistics from sBTC markets also show exponential growth over time. Then on June 18, 2020, the Ren Project’s Taiyang Zhang announced the yield farming pool partnership. “This pool consists of three BTC ERC20 variants; renBTC, WBTC, sBTC. Our goal is to create the most liquid Ethereum based BTC pool available to offer traders access to the lowest slippage for trades between sBTC, renBTC, and WBTC,” Zhang wrote. The Ren Project representative also stated: In addition to the normal yield produced by Curve Pool’s trading fees, this pool includes an attractive basket of tokens for liquidity providers: SNX, REN, CRV, and BAL. To capture all of the incentives available, liquidity providers will need to contribute sBTC, renBTC, and/or WBTC to the BTC Curve liquidity pool. Zhang also said that behind the scenes, “Synthetix and Ren have created a Balancer pool for SNX and REN where LP Rewards are distributed in the form of BPT (wrapped SNX and REN).” The Ren Project rep said that the team is “thrilled” with the latest partnership and the team “looks forward to partaking in the early stages of defi yield farming with Curve and Synthetix.” The yield farming pool. Despite the massive shift to the Ethereum chain with three very popular synthetic BTC tokens, both networks have been suffering from higher network fees. Not only are defi projects that offer synthetic BTC tokens being used far more often, but stablecoins on Ethereum are getting a large share of use as well. News.Bitcoin.com just reported on Ehereum fees rising above BTC fees for a short period and with the combined recent use of defi and stablecoin tokens, ETH fees have surged to a two-year high. According to Billfodl fee stats, the BTC “fee to have your transaction mined on the next block (10 minutes)” is $0.78 at press time. Data from Bitinfocharts.com indicates that ETH fees on June 25, 2020, were $0.66 per transaction. If the yield farming pool offering from Synthetix, Bitgo, and the Ren Project grows popular it will affect network fees going forward. But also pose a threat to BTC offchain competitors. What do you think about the pool being offered by Synthetix, Bitgo, and the Ren Project? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Yield Farming Pool Concept May Solidify Ethereum’s Role as BTC’s Main Sidechain appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The dispute between Telegram and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is coming to a close as the final judgment has been filed. Telegram has been ordered to pay back $1.2 billion. The company must also pay the SEC a fine of $18.5 million. Final Judgment in Case of SEC vs. Telegram The final judgment in the case of the U.S. SEC vs. Telegram Group Inc. and TON Issuer Inc. was filed with the District Court of Southern District of New York on Thursday. District Judge P. Kevin Castel has ordered Telegram Group Inc. to pay a civil penalty of $18,500,000 to the SEC within 30 days. Telegram must also return 70% of the $1.7 billion raised, specifically the unspent portion of the funds obtained from investors less any money already refunded or that investors have offered to loan the company. The court document states: Defendants are jointly and severally liable for disgorgement of $1,224,000,000. “Today’s proposed settlement reconfirms our commitment to repay the remaining funds to purchasers under the purchase agreements,” Telegram founder Pavel Durov was quoted by Siliconangle as saying. “We’ve already repaid more than $1.2 billion to the purchasers either directly or in the form of loans.” Furthermore, the court order details that for the next three years, the defendants and all persons involved who received the final judgment are required to give 45 days’ notice to the SEC before participating “in an issuance of ‘cryptocurrencies,’ ‘digital coins,’ ‘digital tokens,’ or any similar digital asset issued or transferred using distributed ledger technology.” The SEC vs. Telegram case began when the commission obtained a temporary restraining order on Telegram’s token sale in October last year for allegedly offering unregistered securities. The TON crypto project raised about $1.7 billion from investors in 2018. Telegram fought the SEC in court until a U.S. judge sided with the commission in March and ruled that the gram cryptocurrency could not be distributed both in the U.S. and globally. Telegram subsequently dropped the TON project and its appeal against the ruling. The company offered to pay investors back in two ways but U.S. investors only have the option of taking 72% refunds. This proposed settlement is awaiting court approval. It is supported by both Telegram and the SEC. The court document can be found here. What do you think about Telegram’s settlement? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Final Judgment: Telegram to Pay Crypto Investors Back $1.2 Billion, US Court Orders appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the last week, a number of bitcoiners have been discussing Venezuela’s Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreigners, also known as SAIME accepting bitcoin payments for passport applications and renewals. A number of crypto journalists couldn’t confirm whether or not it is true, but evidence shows that SAIME was and still might be accepting bitcoin for passport services. The authority in charge of issuing Venezuela’s passports shows that it was accepting bitcoin (BTC) for applications and renewals at some point last week. The rumors started when Ronny Martínez and a few others started tweeting screenshots of the payment service. “The payment platform SAIME enabled payments with bitcoin (BTC) while the option of payments with credit/debit cards [are] coming soon,” he said. Martínez also tweeted a photo from SAIME’s Instagram account which shows the organization will accept petro for passports as well. The SAIME notice published on Instagram reads: “Dear user, you selected payment with cryptocurrencies. Please keep in mind that you will only have eight minutes to complete the transaction, so we recommend that you have your payment method on hand and facilitate the process without problems. Thanks for your understanding.” In addition to the Instagram photo, and tweets from Martínez, Bitcoin Core developer Jimmy Song tweeted about the situation and confirmed that SAIME enabled payments with the platform Btcpay. “[The] Venezuelan government is using Btcpay server to accept bitcoin for passport application payments. The same software is being used by [the Human Rights Foundation] to accept donations to subvert governments like Venezuela. If this doesn’t show that bitcoin is the money of enemies, I don’t know what does,” Song wrote. A number of other members of the crypto community discussed how SAIME was accepting BTC for payments, but the service is alleged: “temporarily out of order.” A number of skeptics called it “fake news,” but Venezuela’s Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreigners secure “securepay.saime.app” URL leads directly to the page where BTC payments are accepted. Anyone can verify the SAIME payment gateway and see the BTC payment option for themselves. Additionally, SAIME’s invoice says that Visa and Mastercard payments will be available soon. In addition to the “securepay.saime.app” URL that leads to the payment application providing invoices for SAIME services, the organization is also mentioned on the Btcpay server list. On the Btcpay web portal where it hosts a list of “Merchants, projects, and organizations using Btcpay Server” it shows that SAIME is listed. “SAIME is the official Venezuelan website for passport issuance and renewal,” explains the Btcpay server website. According to Cointelegraph’s Spain office, the publication reached out to SAIME officials, but has yet to get any confirmation on BTC payment acceptance. SAIME did tweet about accepting petro for passport payments as well, sharing the same picture Ronny Martínez shared days earlier. “SAIME reminds you that our web page is enabled for Venezuelans who are abroad, a loosely translated tweet notes. “The payment alternatives are those offered by the page and for those who are in the country, and the cost of the procedures is anchored to the petro.” What do you think about the Data that points to Venezuela accepting bitcoin for passports? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Online Data Analysis Points to Venezuela Accepting BTC for Passports appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article