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Showing posts from August, 2020

Suspected North Korean Hackers Move Bitcoin Worth $140K From Forfeited Account

Suspected North Korean hackers on Monday moved 12 bitcoin, worth about $140,000, from one of 280 accounts the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has targeted for seizure. The funds have been wired into an anonymous wallet, according to Whale Alert, a bot that tracks notable crypto transactions. “One of the inputs of this transaction has been listed by the U.S. government as forfeited. It is unclear who made the transaction,” Whale Alert tweeted, attaching a DoJ civil forfeiture complaint of August 27. In the complaint , the DoJ alleges that the accounts were used by the North Korean government to launder almost $3 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen in two separate hacks in 2019. The U.S government alleges that such funds are used to help Pyongyang undermine sanctions and sponsor its development of weapons of mass destruction. “The forfeited address is possibly a Huobi deposit address that received 2.97069728 BTC a few days ago. The address was swept today [Aug. 31] together w...
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Tesla Foils Ransomware Attack After Employee Rejects Bitcoin Bribe Worth $1 Million

Tesla’s Elon Musk has said the company recently foiled attempts to infect its computer network with malicious software, after an employee cooperated with the FBI in an investigation. The malicious software would create an opportunity for criminals to extort money from Tesla. Musk’s revelation comes after the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) had brought charges against a Russian national, Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27. Although the U.S. government is not naming the targeted corporation in the sealed court documents, Musk in a tweet , confirms that Tesla was the intended victim of the botched attack. According to court records, an investigation into the alleged conspiracy started after an unnamed Tesla employee informed the company of an approach by Kriuchkov. The accused reportedly asked the employee to participate in a “special project,” and in exchange, the employee would get $1 million worth of bitcoins as payment. In return, the “executed malware would provide criminals...
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Chainlink Doomsday Predictions: Zeus Capital Warns Investors Not To ‘Get Fooled’

Zeus Capital has doubled down on its doomsday predictions on Chainlink (Link). It is now warning investors: “don’t get fooled… exit your positions before its too late.” The asset management firm’s involved assessment follows a sharp decline in the price of Link in the last couple of weeks. By August 28, the asset had tanked more than 20% from its all-time high of nearly $20 reached twelve days earlier. Chainlink sprinted to its record high within a matter of weeks, as the community hyped the project. Since January, the crypto is up more than 860% – a drive that landed it position number five on the list of the world’s most valuable virtual assets. However, the altcoin’s bull run had been driven in part by a campaign to liquidate Zeus Capital, which took a short position on the coin, the company alleges. In an August 28 report published on its website, Zeus Capital accuses Chainlink of orchestrating “the most spectacular pump in crypto history.” It charged: Without material techn...
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Total Value Locked in Defi Jumped 85% in August, $8 Billion in Assets Held

A lot has changed during the last month, as the popular decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem has swelled considerably in value. Since the first week of August, the total value locked in defi jumped over 85% in 27 days from $4.2 billion to $7.88 billion on August 30. The total value locked (TVL) in the decentralized finance (defi) economy is nearing $8 billion in value, as crypto funds have poured into the surrounding infrastructure. Statistics from the website defipulse.com show that the current TVL on Sunday, August 30, 2020, is $7.8 billion. The defi lending platform Aave makes up 21.86% of that value. Aave just recently jumped to the number one position as far as dominance is concerned. When news.Bitcoin.com reported on the defi economy crossing $4 billion, Maker captured 31.9% of the dominance on August 3. Another defi project that has been making waves is the Yearn Finance protocol and the native token YFI. Yearn Finance essentially lets users leverage a variety of def...
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Nigerian Crypto Startup Yellow Card Raises $1.5 Million For Expansion in Africa

Yellow Card has raised $1.5 million in a seed round. The Nigerian crypto startup said it will use the money to expand its operations in Africa while making it easier for people on the continent to buy and sell digital assets. Investors in the new round include Polychain, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Celo, through the Celo Ecosystem Fund. In a statement , Yellow Card said it intends to “become the dominant exchange across the continent.” The company recently expanded into South Africa and Botswana and added 30,000 new vendors. “Along with the fundraise, Yellow Card is announcing that it will be launching its services in Kenya and Cameroon starting September 1,” said the firm. Kenya is already big on crypto traffic, ranking third, behind South Africa, in peer-to-peer bitcoin ( BTC ) transactions. Nigeria’s trade volume of $34.4 million in the second quarter of 2020 makes it Africa’s most active country in the digital asset space. Founded in 2016 by Chris Maurice an...
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Bitcoin Will Break Out This Year, Says Devere CEO

The CEO of financial advisory firm Devere Group believes that 2020 will be a breakout year for bitcoin, fueled by the U.S. presidential election and the weak dollar. Amid political uncertainty and the Fed’s new inflation policy, investors will pile into safe-haven assets not tied to any specific country, such as bitcoin. 2020: Breakout Year for Bitcoin Devere Group CEO Nigel Green predicted last week that the U.S. presidential election and a weak dollar will drive the price of bitcoin for the rest of 2020. Following the Federal Reserve’s policy shift on inflation , he also warned about investing in the stock market. Devere Group, established by Green in 2002, describes itself as one of the world’s leading independent financial advisory organizations with more than $10 billion under advice from 80,000 clients in 100 countries. Noting that “Bitcoin is already one of the best-performing assets of the year, up around 70% year-to-date,” Green asserted, “We can expect the world’s largest...
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Russia Blocks Cryptocurrency Websites Ahead of Regulation

Russian authorities have blocked a number of websites related to cryptocurrency ahead of the country’s crypto regulation taking effect. A popular exchange aggregator website has already been blocked twice and has now received a third notice. Russia Determined to Block Crypto Sites Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has blocked popular Russian cryptocurrency exchange monitoring website Bestchange.ru for the third time. The platform informed its users via Facebook on Wednesday: Dear subscribers, our Bestchange.ru domain has again been blocked in the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, regional prosecutors continue to sue to block Bestchange and other sites for mentioning the bitcoin cryptocurrency. Bestchange.ru further explained that it had been investigating how to unblock its domain but testing may take some time. The free website helps users find the best offers online, including the best rates for cr...
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Ethereum Classic Suffers 51% Attack Again: Delisting Risk Amplified

Beleaguered Ethereum Classic ( ETC ) blockchain suffered yet another 51% attack on August 29. The latest attack caused the reorganization of over 7,000 blocks and this corresponds to approximately two days of mining. At the time of reporting, it was not clear if there had been any double-spending as was the case in the last attack. In that attack, it was reported that the Okex exchange suffered a loss of $5.6 million directly as a result. A statement revealing the attack adds that “all lost blocks will be removed from the immature balance and we will check all payouts for dropped transactions.” Meanwhile, in their initial comments on the latest attack, developers working on ETC are attributing ongoing attacks to the network’s known vulnerabilities. “ ETC is ~3% of the overall ETH network hash rate. We are well aware of potential repeated attacks while solutions such as “reorg caps” and the subsequent ECIPs are being tested and evaluated. If you haven’t already please increase (...
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Polkadot Top 10 Redenomination Shot: Is the Token Now Bigger Than Chainlink?

The Polkadot token, which recently underwent a redenomination, has seen its value more than double in less than seven days. Now with a reported (but unverified) circulating supply of 897,657,920 tokens, the Dot token claims its place as the fifth-ranked token. At the time of writing, the token traded at $6.23, which translates to a market capitalisation of $5.63 billion. This market capitalisation is just about enough for Dot to displace the Link token from its current position. Coinmarketcap officially ranks the token at number 2172. The market capitalisation of a token or coin is determined by multiplying the price of a token with the circulating supply. Information on the Coinmarketcap website suggests “the organisation has not sufficiently verified the circulating supply and resulting market cap yet.” Still, there is another metric which seemingly supports Dot’s status as a top tier token–the traded volumes. According to Coinmarketcap data, the Dot token’s traded volumes on Au...
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Lysander Spooner: Natural Law – The Science of Justice

The science of mine and thine – the science of justice – is the science of all human rights; of all a man’s rights of person and property; of all his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The essay “Natural Law- The Science of Justice” or a “Treatise on Natural Law, Natural Justice, Natural Rights, Natural Liberty, and Natural Society; Showing That All Legislation Whatsoever Is an Absurdity, a Usurpation, and a Crime” was published in 1882. It has been published on various venues 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 historical editorial. Section I. It is the science which alone can tell any man what he can, and cannot, do; what he can, and cannot, have; what he can, and cannot, say, without infringing the rights of any other person. It is the science of peace; and the only...
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Defi Project Yearn Finance Smashes Records as Native Token Surpasses $30K

The decentralized finance (defi) crypto asset tied to the Yearn Finance project has smashed records this week, as the coin touched a high of $30,324 on Saturday evening. Yearn’s token YFI has been recently added to the Aave platform and the project’s founder, Andre Cronje, is currently talking about collaborating with the exchange FTX. Yearn Finance and the project’s native token YFI has jumped significantly in value since news.Bitcoin.com last reported on the project. Last week, YFI made headlines for outpacing bitcoin ( BTC ) by price per coin, as the YFI token value spiked to $16k on August 20. On Friday, YFI was averaging around $17-18k per coin, and the value leaped even higher during Saturday afternoon’s (ET) trading sessions. According to market data, YFI touched an all-time high of over $30,324 on August 29 at 8:15 p.m. ET. Presently, the value is hovering around $30,007 at the time of publication. This week, an individual on Twitter, asked the Yearn Finance founder w...
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Major Chinese Bank Launches Central Bank Digital Currency Wallet Briefly

One of China’s biggest banks recently opened up registration for wallets using the country’s central bank-backed digital currency. There are f our levels of the wallet, according to reports. However, the bank took the offer down a few hours later. China’s Digital Currency Wallet Launch China Construction Bank (CCB), one of the country’s largest state-owned banks, reportedly launched a digital renminbi wallet in its official app Saturday, Sina reported citing a 21st Century Business Herald reporter. Users in the areas where the digital yuan is being tested, such as those in Shenzhen, reportedly could register for the wallet. The bank’s user agreement explains that the services provided by the digital renminbi wallet include payment, redemption, transfer, and credit card recharge, the publication detailed, adding that there are four levels of the digital renminbi wallet with varying balance and payment limits. Screenshots of the CCB’s digital renminbi wallet, courtesy of 21st Centu...
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After Empire’s Exit Scam, Darknet Market Patrons Scramble to Find Alternatives

Ever since the darknet market (DNM) Empire went under, DNM patrons have been scrambling to find reliable marketplaces on the deep web. On forums, individuals are discussing which markets are safe, the logistics of how to use different DNMs, and how much they lost from Empire Market’s exit scam aftermath. Years ago, after the infamous DNMs Alphabay and Hansa went under, Dream was the top dog for a while but it eventually bit the dust . In the fall of 2019, deep web visitors leveraged DNMs like Tochka, Apollon, Cannazon, Cryptonia, Grey Market, and Empire Market. While Empire grew massively, six months ago Apollon shuddered during the second week of February 2020. Since Apollon’s exit scam, the king of darknet markets in 2020, except for Russia’s Hydra marketplace, was Empire Market as it was considered very trustworthy. That was up until August 22, 2020, when Empire Market went offline and many individuals cast blame at a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. Two days ago, ...
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