Great point. it is odd to see a hacker return a stolen funds coin/token.
I think you are right it must be the fear of 20 years in jail, if not the electric chair in China.

Well, it is going to be a WW3 for Mr. Wright so soon. I hope he is ready because these guys are very serious about their own share of BTC. With the exponential growth of bitcoin value last year I don't think they're playing. I think they'll come hard on him with everything they got because BTC is no longer a joke. Mr. Fake Satoshi is finally going down at last for this one.

$10 Billion: Dave Kleinman’s Estate Files Mammoth Suit Against ‘Bitcoin Creator’ Craig Wright



LOL Guys, Craig Wright is in serious trouble... hahaha


The estate of early Bitcoin adopter Dave Kleinman has sued self-declared Bitcoin creator Craig Wright for more than $10 billion for allegedly stealing more than 1 million BTC from the forensic computer investigator following his death in 2013.

The complaint, which was dated Feb. 14 and filed by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP on behalf of Kleinman’s brother Ira, alleges that Kleinman and Wright were both involved with Bitcoin development from the project’s inception.

The document avoided stating outright that either or both of them were Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, as Wright has claimed in the past.

However, the complaint claimed that the two men mined more than 1.1 million BTC through W&K Info Defense Research LLC, a company formed by Kleinman and either owned wholly by him or held in partnership with Wright.

Kleinman provided his family with few details about his involvement in Bitcoin, and — upon his death in April 2013 following a long battle with MRSA — Wright allegedly forged and backdated a series of contracts that transferred Kleinman’s cryptocurrency assets to Wright or his associated companies.

Wright later told Ira Kleinman that his brother had signed away these property rights for shares — allegedly worth “millions” — in one of Wright’s companies, but this company went bankrupt soon after, leaving Kleinman’s estate with nothing, even as Wright continued to live a lavish lifestyle bankrolled by his supposedly ill-gotten BTC.

Based on these and other claims, the plaintiff asked the court to force Wright to return the stolen funds — which amount to between 550,055.5 and 1,100,111 BTC depending on the ownership structure of W&K — to Kleinman’s estate.

At the time of filing, these funds were worth more than $10.2 billion, while the value of the two largest Bitcoin-derived forks — Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Gold (BTG) — adds another $1.5 billion.

Boies Schiller Flexner LLP did not immediately respond to an inquiry regarding the document’s authenticity, but documents filed with the court indicate that the firm has levied a case against Wright and that he has already been issued a summons, to which he must respond within 21 days of receipt.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/10-billion-dave-kleinmans-estate-files-mammoth-suit-bitcoin-creator-craig-wright/

Breaking: Mobile Payments App Circle Acquires Crypto Exchange Poloniex For $400 Mln




Multi-currency money-sending app Circle has announced today, Feb. 26, that they have acquired major US-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex for $400 mln, Fortune reports.

Earlier this month, Cointelegraph had covered previously unconfirmed rumors that this acquisition was set to soon take place.

Goldman Sachs-funded Circle is made up of three parts: Circle Pay for fiat transfers, Circle Trade as a liquidity provider of cryptocurrencies, and the upcoming Circle Invest, an app that will allow retail customers to invest in crypto markets.

The Poloniex exchange offers trades in 68 different coins, and is currently the 14th largest crypto exchange by 24-hour volume on CoinMarketCap, trading a total of almost $140 million today to press time.

In today’s announcement on the Circle blog, Circle co-founders Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire wrote that the first step for Circle is to address customer support and the technical side needed to support the Poloniex platform. Secondly,

   “We also look forward to scaling Poloniex up and out through market expansion and localization, increasing token listings where possible and appropriate, and exploring the fiat USD, EUR, and GBP connectivity that Circle already brings to its compliant Pay, Trade, and Invest products.”

In the future, Neville and Allaire write that they plan on growing the Poloniex platform into more than a crypto-only exchange, writing that they envision a

   “Robust multi-sided distributed marketplace that can host tokens which represent everything of value: physical goods, fundraising and equity, real estate, creative productions such as works of art, music and literature, service leases and time-based rentals, credit, futures, and more.”

Poloniex’s press release echoed Circle’s sentiments, writing that they are looking forward

    “To bringing Circle's experience to increase the scalability and reliability of our platform and operations. User experience is paramount. If we aspire to build a token marketplace that will change the fundamentals of global value exchange, we cannot settle for anything less than excellence in our product.”


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/breaking-mobile-payments-app-circle-acquires-crypto-exchange-poloniex-for-400-mln

Hacker Returns $26 Million in Ether Months After ICO Theft



A hacker who stole more than 43,000 ether tokens from would-be investors in CoinDash has returned a majority of the funds to the startup.

The company reported that the thief returned 30,000 tokens over two different transactions, the first in September 2017 and the second last Friday, to CoinDash's wallet. At press time, the tokens were worth a little more than $26 million.

The thief still has some 13,400 tokens ($11.6 million) after the second transaction.

The hack was first reported in mid-July 2017, when the hacker managed to compromise CoinDash's fundraising site, swapping its ethereum address with another one. Users believed they were purchasing tokens and supporting the project, but more than 2,000 of them actually funded the hacker, as previously reported by CoinDesk.

At the time, the stolen ether tokens were worth roughly $10.3 million.

Investors who unwittingly donated to the hacker still received CoinDash's CDT token, though anyone who donated after the project's website was shut down did not. At least one user reportedly sent 50 ethers to the compromised address after it was shut down.

Despite the theft of its funds last year, CoinDash intends to launch its first product on Feb. 27, according to its website. This product will be a social trading platform, which CoinDash states will be integrated with several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Poloniex, Bittrex and Binance.


Source: https://www.coindesk.com/hacker-returns-26-million-ether-months-ico-theft/

Venezuela Launches Free Cryptocurrency Training Course For Citizens




The Venezuelan government has launched a free cryptocurrency training course to teach its citizens how to buy, sell and mine digital currencies, particularly the oil-backed Petro that has been recently issued by the state, local news outlet Telesur TV reported on Saturday, Feb. 24.

The opening of the “Granja Laboratorio Petro” in Caracas takes place days after the launch of the oil-backed national cryptocurrency of Venezuela Petro (PTR) on Feb. 20.

Carmen Salvador, a teacher of cryptocurrency trading at the newly established training course, comments that the school offers “a completely free training,” noting that “in any international market a trading course cost more than $500 to $800.”

“Many of our young people here find it impossible to have this amount of resources, [but] the Venezuelan state is guaranteeing that all can participate through these plans," Salvador said.

Venezuela launched its own oil-backed cryptocurrency in order to attract foreign investors, bypassing the economic sanctions that are enforced against the country by the United States and the European Union.

Since the beginning of the pre-sale (ICO) of Petro on Feb. 20, at least $735 mln worth of investments have allegedly been secured, according to a tweet posted by president Nicolás Maduro. Another report by the Venezuelan news outlet Actualidad claims that a total of $1 bln has been raised in the first two days of the Petro sale.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-launches-free-cryptocurrency-training-course-for-citizens

A hacker who stole more than 43,000 ether tokens from would-be investors in CoinDash has returned a majority of the funds to the startup.

The company reported that the thief returned 30,000 tokens over two different transactions, the first in September 2017 and the second last Friday, to CoinDash's wallet. At press time, the tokens were worth a little more than $26 million.

The thief still has some 13,400 tokens ($11.6 million) after the second transaction.

The hack was first reported in mid-July 2017, when the hacker managed to compromise CoinDash's fundraising site, swapping its ethereum address with another one. Users believed they were purchasing tokens and supporting the project, but more than 2,000 of them actually funded the hacker, as previously reported by CoinDesk.

At the time, the stolen ether tokens were worth roughly $10.3 million.

Investors who unwittingly donated to the hacker still received CoinDash's CDT token, though anyone who donated after the project's website was shut down did not. At least one user reportedly sent 50 ethers to the compromised address after it was shut down.

Despite the theft of its funds last year, CoinDash intends to launch its first product on Feb. 27, according to its website. This product will be a social trading platform, which CoinDash states will be integrated with several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Poloniex, Bittrex and Binance.


Coindesk: https://www.coindesk.com/hacker-returns-26-million-ether-months-ico-theft/

2010’s 10,000 Bitcoins Pizza Guy Repeats Feat With Historic Lightning Network Transaction




The “Bitcoin pizza guy” is at it again.

Laszlo Hanyecz, best known for making the first documented transaction in which Bitcoin was used to purchase a physical item, recently christened the Lightning Network (LN) with the help of a sympathetic pizza delivery driver and a jerry-rigged atomic swap.

Hanyecz ensconced his place in Bitcoin lore on May 22, 2010, when he paid another early adopter 10,000 BTC to order him two pizzas. This transaction — believed to be the first in which a seller accepted a Bitcoin payment for a physical item — spawned both Bitcoin Pizza Day and the “Bitcoin Pizza Index,” which calculates the present value of coins used in that historic transaction.

On Feb. 25, Hanyecz revealed on the Lightning Network development mailing list that he had made a similar purchase using the nascent LN mainnet (though not the first to use it to pay for a physical item).

He explained:

    “In short, I paid bitcoin using the lightning network and he arranged for pizza to be delivered to me. In this trade my friend is just a middle man that is taking the risk on accepting lightning payments, but it demonstrates the basic premise of how this works for everyday transactions. It could just as well be the pizza shop accepting the payment directly with their own lightning node.”

This time, though, the transaction set him back just 649000 satoshis (0.00649 BTC), which works out to about $63 at the present exchange rate.


Source: Laszlo Hanyecz

To make the purchase as “trustless” as possible, the two parties opened a payment channel, which Hanyecz funded to prove that he had the BTC. When the delivery driver arrived at his house, Hanyecz showed him a portion of the payment hash preimage, which matched what the driver had been given by the seller and proved that the buyer had paid the invoice.

Revealing part of one’s hash preimage, Hanyecz stressed, is generally not advisable, but he did so in this instance in order to further enhance the trustless nature of the experiment.

Reflecting on the transaction, Hanyecz said that — at present — there was really nothing gained by completing the purchase off-chain over the Lightning Network as opposed to a conventional on-chain payment. However, he forecast that this may not always be so.

“So is there any point to doing this instead of an on chain transaction? For what I described here, probably not. The goal was just to play around with c-lightning and do something more than shuffling a few satoshi back and forth. Maybe eventually pizza shops will have their own lightning nodes and I can open channels to them directly,” he concluded.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-pizza-guy-lightning-network/

Vladimir Putin Says Russia Needs Blockchain, Cannot be Late in the Race




Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that the country needs blockchain technology and emphasized that it is important that Russia does not fall behind in the development and adoption of the revolutionary technology.

Russia Insight, which provides unique insights into the Russian market, released a video featuring a discussion between Putin and the country’s largest bank Sberbank president Herman Gref, during which Putin noted the necessity of the country, its regulators, and local banks of adopting blockchain technology.

    “We need [blockchain technology]. … Stone Age has not ended due to lack of stones, but because new technologies appeared. Those late in this race will instantly, VERY FAST, be under full dependence from leaders of these processes,” wrote bitcoin investor and expert Trace Mayer, translating the words of Putin.

Gref, who oversees the most influential financial institution in Russia, has long been an optimistic cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast. In November 2017, Gref stated that cryptocurrencies are a fact of our life, noting that cryptocurrencies will become an indispensable part of the global financial system.

“Virtual currencies are a natural outcome of blockchain technology. We may ban them, we may welcome them. It is trendy to urge people not to play with them. But they are a fact of our life,” said Gref, at a meeting of the Russian entrepreneurs association.

In late January, Sberbank went as far to say that the bank will likely launch a cryptocurrency trading platform in the future, to address the rapidly growing demand for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the market from local investors.

Sberbank’s Head of Global Markets Andrey Shemetov said that the bank aims to provide strategic access to all kinds of products and services investors may need to invest in the cryptocurrency market.

In the same month, President Putin told TASS, a Russian news agency, that regulations will be implemented to protect investors and facilitate the growth of businesses. He further noted that cryptocurrencies can operate as a medium of exchange and a settlement network, but expressed his concerns over the store of value aspect of it.

Similar to the viewpoint of the vast majority of bankers and government officials, Putin stated that since cryptocurrencies are not backed by anything, their value cannot be warranted.

However, the lack of intrinsic value is apparent in all currencies, stocks, bonds, assets, and commodities. The value of any asset solely depends on its supply and demand, and the market is responsible for its value. Thus, the lack of intrinsic value in cryptocurrencies is a non-issue, as the market decides, in real time, the value of cryptocurrencies in the market.


Another World Leader Joins the Call

Last week, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a similar sentiment as President Putin, as he wrote, “disruptive technologies such as Block-chain and the Internet of Things, will have a profound impact in the way we live and work. They will require rapid adaptation in our workplaces.”

Many cryptocurrency traders, investors, users, and members of the global community expressed their optimism towards the approach of Prime Minister Modi in adopting and regulating blockchain and cryptocurrency markets.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/vladimir-putin-says-russia-needs-blockchain-cannot-late-race/

Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 With ‘Full Support’ For SegWit Gets Official Release




The Bitcoin Core client version which provides “full support” to Segregated Witness (‘SegWit’) scaling technology finally received its official release Monday, Feb. 26.

A circular to the Core mailing list confirms the raft of upgrades in addition to the historic SegWit move, the forthcoming release having been announced on Github earlier this month.

“This is a new major version release, including new features, various bugfixes, and performance improvements, as well as updated translations,” the circular reads echoing the Github announcement.

Core Developer Peter Todd was among official sources confirming the release.

"Full-RBF for Bitcoin Core v0.16.0 https://github.com/petertodd/bitcoin/tree/replace-by-fee-v0.16.0 …

Note that v0.16.0 isn't officially released yet; this patch has been applied to the v0.16.0 on GitHub. I'll update it in the (very!) unlikely event that tag gets changed."

"...and good timing, Bitcoin Core v0.16.0 has been officially released: https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/bitcoin-core-dev/2018-February/000052.html …"

 - @peterktodd | https://twitter.com/peterktodd/status/968081855701508101


As Cointelegraph reported last week, Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 marks a key milestone in the history of Bitcoin.

SegWit, which promises reduced transaction fees and processing times, has been a major request on Bitcoin users’ wish lists since its release in August 2017.

A number of major companies and wallet providers in the industry have been slow to implement it, however, leading to pressure from the customers frustrated by high fees and slow transactions.

The technology further provides the foundation for more revolutionary upgrades to Bitcoin, including the so-called “second layer” solutions such as the Lightning Network which could see both fees and confirmation times reduced to near zero.

Lightning’s mainnet release has made rapid progress with adoption since the start of the year despite the only limited support for SegWit.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-core-0160-with-full-support-for-segwit-gets-official-release

Canadian Diamond Mining Company Hires New CEO, Turns To Blockchain




Canadian diamond exploration and mining company Lucara Diamond has appointed a new chief executive in a move towards modernizing the diamond industry with Blockchain technologies, the Financial Times reported today, Feb. 26.

The new CEO, Eira Thomas, will lead the company after its recent purchase of Clara Diamond Solutions for $29 mln, or 13.1 mln shares. Clara is a digital platform that utilizes both cloud and Blockchain technologies to “[ensure] diamond provenance from mine to finger,” according to the Nasdaq press release.

Lukas Lundin, chairman of Lucara, said,

   “We believe that Clara will not only modernise the entire diamond sales process but unlock additional value for all participants across the diamond market.”

Blockchain systems are seeing increased use in supply chain management as they can streamline the process by permanently recording each transaction on the Blockchain, significantly increasing transparency.

Lucara’s turn to Blockchain comes a month after De Beers, one of the world’s largest diamond producers, launched a pilot Blockchain initiative also for tracking a diamond’s supply chain to ensure each diamond is conflict-free.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/canadian-diamond-mining-company-hires-new-ceo-turns-to-blockchain

Swiss Stock Exchange Chairman Sees ‘Upsides’ To Launch Of Crypto Franc




The chairman of Switzerland’s stock exchange SIX Romeo Lacher thinks there are “a lot of upsides” to releasing a crypto version of the Swiss franc.

Speaking to the Financial Times Sunday, Feb. 25, Lacher said the organization would be “very supportive” of such an initiative, adding that he “doesn’t like cash.”

“An e-franc under the control of the central bank would create a lot of synergies - so it would be good for the economy,” he said.

Switzerland has adopted an increasingly positive narrative in cryptocurrency and Blockchain integration at the national level, despite the reluctance of its banking sphere to endorse Bitcoin itself.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) continued this tone, saying there was “no need” for a so-called “e-franc” at present, following Lacher’s comments.

During January’s World Economic Forum in Davos, SNB chairman Thomas Jordan argued that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should be regulated similarly to legacy assets and subject to strict controls.

“You can’t, on the one hand, heavily restrict cash and on the other hand permit fully anonymous instruments that to a great extent can be used for all manner of transactions,” he decided.

Lacher meanwhile shares caution around the future of ICOs in particular.

“My worry is that until recently, the value of cryptocurrencies has only been in one direction: up,” he continued. “After the first ICO to collapse, there will be burnt fingers.”

Switzerland nonetheless continues to be the prime incubator for ICO funds, contributing the largest amount of cash relative to the number of ICOs launched of any country in the world, new data reports.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/swiss-stock-exchange-chairman-sees-upsides-to-launch-of-crypto-franc

Cryptocurrency Scammers Hijack Verified Twitter Accounts to Trick Users




Cryptocurrency scammers are currently using Twitter to take advantage of naïve investors looking to make some easy money. Often, the scammers pose as influential community members and promise those that send them a specific cryptocurrency a reward a number of times greater than the initial donation. Now, they even started hijacking verified accounts to look more credible.

To legitimize the move, these scammers then add fake replies to the tweet asking for donations. These replies usually claim they’ve received the funds and thank the person. These scammers are usually easy to spot, as they use recently created accounts, with usernames with extra letters, and without a blue checkmark, only Twitter can give its users.

"The amount of people falling for these scams is insane. The address the scammer is using currently has $20,000 worth of $ETH in it. #Twitter should do something, and please always look for the little blue badge #Ethereum @VitalikButerin"

 - @FranciscoMemor | https://twitter.com/FranciscoMemor/status/964947280951472136


According to Buzzfeed News, scammers recently managed to create a fake, verified Twitter account for Tron Foundation, the organization behind TRON (TRX). To do this, they seemingly hijacked the account of Literacy Bridge, a nonprofit based in Seattle that’s focused on “improving the health, income & quality of life for the world’s most underserved communities.”

After taking over Literacy Bridge’s verified account, the scammers changed its profile picture, pinned a tweet just like the one the real Tron Foundation has pinned, and changed the handle to “tronfoundationl” – notice the extra “l”.

Using the fake account, the scammers then replied to a tweet posted by Justin Sun, Tron’s founder, asking for donations. The tweet, according to Buzzfeed, received over 200 likes and retweets, presumably thanks to the blue checkmark.

Some Twitter users noticed the change and quickly spread the word.

"Apparently somehow this fake acct got verified by @Twitter @TwitterSupport Seems like Twitter doesn’t care except the amount of growing fake users. @justinsuntron @Tronfoundation #trx #tron $trx #scam #fraud #FakeAccount @SupraMan1989 @Dr_strange1 @DigitalLawrence @Brad2pointO"

 -@CrYp7RoN_KnYghT | https://twitter.com/CrYp7RoN_KnYghT/status/967130755737374720


Geoff Goldberg, a Twitter user who frequently calls out spam accounts, spotted the fake Tron Foundation. Speaking to Buzzfeed News, he stated:

    “I saw it was a verified account so immediately was intrigued. To me, it was clear it was a scam, given that I have been encountering these for quite some time. But to others, given the verified account, I could totally see people falling for it.”

After BuzzFeed and the Tron Foundation reported the fake account, it got taken down. This, however, wasn’t an isolated incident. Hackers seemingly managed to hijack another verified Twitter account belonging to a luxury menswear design team in London, going by “adaxnik.” After hijacking his account, the hackers then spoofed Justin Sun’s account.

"Some individuals and groups have counterfeited TRON official account and published untrue information lately. Please identify our official accounts carefully based on the following picture, thank you for your cooperation and strong support. @Tronfoundation @justinsuntron"

 - @Tronfoundation | https://twitter.com/Tronfoundation/status/966597806138957824


At press time, Tron’s founder seemingly has two verified accounts on Twitter. One of them is trying to help users stay safe and expand Tron’s reach. The other one claims there’s a Tron airdrop on the way, and is sending users a link to a fake website I wouldn’t dare click on.

Twitter may have a share of the blame as well, as it’s supposed to remove verified accounts once their username changes. At the end of the day, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who recently got his Twitter account verified, makes things clear:

"DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER.
DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER.
DON'T TRUST ANYONE ASKING FOR OR OFFERING MONEY ON TWITTER."

 - @CZ_Binance | https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/965188831807913984


Source: https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrency-scammers-hijack-verified-twitter-accounts-trick-users/

Cryptocurrency Market Struggles at $500 Billion, But Fundamentals are Strong




Major cryptocurrencies have struggled to sustain their upward momentum secured earlier this week, on February 23. Bitcoin has fallen below the $10,000 mark again, while Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency Ether has struggled to spike above $900.


Bitcoin

Earlier this year, the dominance index of bitcoin reached an all-time low at around 32 percent. Throughout the recovery period in February, the dominance index of bitcoin, which measures its dominance over the global cryptocurrency market, rose significantly, to around 39 percent, as most cryptocurrencies in the market followed the price trend of bitcoin.

While bitcoin has performed better than Ethereum, tokens, and other major cryptocurrencies in the market in the past month given that it has increased by nearly two-fold since dipping to $6,100, it has been extremely volatile.





After the initial bear cycle and slump in January, analysts expected the price of bitcoin to start recovering to its previous levels by late February. But, bitcoin has continued to move in between the $9,500 and $11,000 range, without major buy volumes or rallies to push its price to $12,00 and potentially to early January levels in the $14,000 to $15,000 range.

Many traders have expressed their concerns over the short-term performance of bitcoin, primarily because of its low volume and the sudden spike in the daily trading volume of Tether, a US dollar-backed cryptocurrency, which traders on major cryptocurrency trading platforms like Binance use to hedge the value of major cryptocurrencies.

Adam Back, a bitcoin expert and the CEO at blockchain development company Blockstream, noted that while technical analysis may demonstrate a highly volatile future for bitcoin, technical developments and fundamentals point toward an optimistic future for bitcoin.

    “Sounds like chartism/tea-leaves over fundamentals: tech investment, scaling progress, infrastructure development pace & ecosystem collaboration, institutional financial products, retail investment products, all at all-time high. I take opposing view: fundamentals are strong, long bitcoin,” said Back.

This week, the largest bitcoin wallet platform and cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase announced the integration of Segregated Witness, a transaction malleability and scaling solution, along with transaction batching, following the implementation of SegWit by another leading cryptocurrency exchange in Bitfinex.

On February 23, the Coinbase team stated that SegWit has already been rolled out to 25 percent of customers, which exceeds more than 3 million users.

Emphasizing the potential of second-layer scaling solutions like the Lightning Network, Coinbase wrote, “new technologies which require SegWit, like the Lightning Network, have the potential to significantly increase the usefulness of Bitcoin as a payment network and benefit customers. We currently have a dedicated full-time software engineer working on open source contributions to the Lightning Network.”


Major Improvements

By fundamentals and technical developments, Back likely referred to SegWit, Lightning, and other potential privacy solutions like Bulletproofs, which are being actively developed by bitcoin developers in its open source community.

Hence, while the entire cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile both in its upside and downside, its price trend does not accurately portray the magnitude of developments and increase in user activity of major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrency-market-struggles-500-billion-fundamentals-strong/

Northern Ireland Property Developer To Accept Bitcoin As Payment Option




Hagan Homes, one of Northern Ireland’s biggest residential property developers, will now be accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment method, the Belfast Telegraph reported Feb. 22.

Jamesy Hagan, the managing director of Hagan Homes, said there is both an increasing international interest in working, living, and investing in Northern Ireland, as well as a “significant growth in the use of Bitcoin worldwide:”

    “Our acceptance of this new channel reflects our willingness to respond to the market.”

The Belfast Telegraph writes that Hagan Homes is reportedly the first house-building firm in the Republic of Ireland to accept BTC payments.

Hagan did recognize the challenges in accepting Bitcoin as payment. He noted the current volatility in the crypto markets, with BTC’s price going from $20,000 to $7000 in the span of just a few months:

    “Of course, there are some risks to using Bitcoin for payment due to the cryptocurrency’s volatility, but buyers and sellers are finding creative ways to deal with these challenges [...] By incorporating the learning from our peers into our approach we can embrace this innovation.”

Bitcoin payments for properties have already taken place in cities across the US, as well as in the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. Blockchain technologies have seen a rising use in real estate as well, with the city of South Burlington, Vermont implementing a pilot Blockchain program in Jan. 2018 to record real estate transaction.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/northern-ireland-property-developer-to-accept-bitcoin-as-payment-option

Culprits Apprehended In Alleged Icelandic Bitcoin Miner Theft




Icelandic information technology service Advania has confirmed with their security footage that the police have apprehended the right two men for the three burglaries at data centers in Iceland last December and January, local news outlet Visir reported Feb. 21.

Visir had earlier reported that there were three burglaries in total, from a period of Dec. 5, 2017 to Jan. 16., 2018, and that 600 graphics cards, 100 power supplies, 100 motherboards, 100 memory discs, and 100 CPU processors had been taken from a house in the municipality of Reykjanesbær.

The burglars also broke into data centers in the municipality of Borgarbyggð, with a total of 600 PCs stolen from both places.

Advania announced that the thieves had broken into a new building under construction in Reykjanesbær in mid-January, but that the building had fortunately been well-covered with security cameras.

Advania told Visir that what was stolen was “not a device that stores data and there was only a financial loss,” but that they cannot specify what kind of equipment was stolen due to the ongoing investigation.

Several of Advania’s data centers are designed specifically for Bitcoin (BTC) mining, and Iceland as a country has become a hotspot for crypto miners drawn to the naturally cold climate and access to renewable sources of energy.

According to local news outlet Ruv, police have been monitoring energy consumption for abnormal increases after the theft, for the stolen computer equipment reportedly can be used to mine BTC, an energy-heavy process. It is not yet known if the equipment still remains in Iceland; Ruv reports that the two men currently in custody have not been cooperative with the police.

The total amount stolen from all three burglaries is estimated at 200 million krónur, or $1,990,000.

Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO of Advania Data Centers, said that either a quarter or a fifth of that total value had been stolen from Advania.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/culprits-apprehended-in-alleged-icelandic-bitcoin-miner-theft

Overstock CEO Puts ‘Millions Of Dollars’ Into Unknown Coin, Compares To Bitcoin




Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock, which was the first major retailer to accept Bitcoin (BTC) back in 2014, has said that he is “not really interested in cryptocurrencies per se,” but revealed a little-known Blockchain project his company has invested “millions of dollars” into in an interview with Business Insider Friday, Feb. 23.

When asked if he’s interested in “everything cryptocurrency” or “really interested in the Blockchain [sic]”, Byrne prefaced his answer by saying he is “really letting something big out of the bag”,  going on to reveal both Overstock’s and his personal interest in a virtually unknown Blockchain project called Ravencoin, which launched very quietly on Jan. 3, 2018.

The Ravencoin project’s single blog post, published Nov. 1, 2017, opens with a sentence designed to peak the interest of a Game of Thrones-loving crypto investor:

   “In the fictional world of Westeros, ravens are used as messengers who carry statements of truth.”

The post goes on to describe Ravencoin as “a use case specific Blockchain, designed to efficiently handle one specific function: the transfer of assets from one party to another.”

Ravencoin was first mentioned on Bitcointalk.org on Jan. 14, 2018 in a post that described its Jan. 3 launch as containing “very little info regarding the future of the project,” but that “since then, several community members have learned that there is an active development team on this coin.”

Byrne told Business Insider that Overstock has put “millions of dollars into teams” for Ravencoin, stating confidently, “[w]e think this coin actually has quite a future.” Byrne then compared Ravencoin to leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin, saying:

    “It's Bitcoin, but a thousand times more energy efficient.”

In his interview with Business Insider, Byrne follows the project’s 4-page whitepaper in identifying the problem of the rising expenses of BTC mining and its centralization around ASIC production and cheap electricity. Byrnes claims that Ravencoin solves said problems by being “ASIC resistant” and “redemocratiz[ing] mining,” going on to describe the current concentration of industrial-level mining in China:

   “Anyone can download this software, and you don't have an advantage by having this big mining warehouse in China.”
 
A four day old post on the /r/cryptocurrency sub-Reddit titled “What are your thoughts on Ravencoin?” further highlights the relatively unknown status of the project:

    “This coin is very new and also implements a brand new algorithm, X16R. Surprised that there's not a single mention of it in this subreddit, even though thousands of miners are already mining this coin. Is it being kept secret to keep mining difficulty down?”

Only one person has responded so far, the day it was posted, saying: “Never heard of it until now.”

Byrne also told Business Insider that because Overstock was the first major corporation to accept BTC as far back as 2014, the company deserves credit for keeping Bitcoin relevant: “I like to think that we saved that community [Bitcoin] about five years in their adoption cycle.”

In early January of this year, a glitch with Overstock’s payment system inadvertently allowed customers to pay with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) interchangeably for a three-week window before the mistake was caught, charging customers in BTC or BCH at a 1:1 ratio and thus giving BCH holders a massive, unintentional discount.

 
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/overstock-ceo-puts-millions-of-dollars-into-unknown-coin-compares-to-bitcoin

Coinbase Informs 13K Affected Customers Of Imminent Data Handover To IRS




US-based cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase sent an official notice Friday, Feb. 23 to approximately 13,000 of its customers whose information it is legally required to turn over to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The IRS had initially asked Coinbase in July 2017 to hand over even more detailed information on every one of its then over 500,000 users in an attempt catch those cheating on their taxes. However, another court order in Nov. 2017 reduced this number to around 14,000 “high-transacting” users, which the platform now reports as 13,000, in what Coinbase calls a “partial, but still significant, a victory for Coinbase and its customers.”

On Friday, Coinbase told the around 13,000 affected customers that the company would be providing their taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records from 2013-2015 to the IRS within 21 days.

Coinbase’s letter to these customers encourages them “to seek legal advice from an attorney promptly” if they have any questions. Their website also states that concerns may also be addressed in Coinbase’s Taxes FAQ.

The ongoing legal battle between Coinbase and the US government dates back to November 2016, when the IRS filed a “John Doe summons” in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

On Feb. 13, personal finance service Credit Karma released data showing that only 0.04 percent of their customers had reported cryptocurrencies on their federal tax returns so far this tax season.


Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-informs-13k-affected-customers-of-imminent-data-handover-to-irs

Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase Launches SegWit Compatability




Coinbase has announced that the site will now be implementing SegWit on Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals.

The transition is being implemented over the coming week and should improve transaction speeds and lower fees. SegWit was introduced August of last year through BIP 141 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal), however, Coinbase was slow to adopt the technology. The lack of implementation of the technology was increasingly frustrating for Coinbase users, who launched a petition calling for the exchange platform to prioritize SegWit implementation over other upgrades. The petition noted that the Bitcoin community is “overwhelmingly in support” of SegWit, and was signed over twelve-thousand times.

Segregated Witness or SegWit was a major improvement to the Bitcoin protocol. By redefining the structure of blocks, (with one block changing from 1MB to become four million units) it became possible to greatly reduce the space taken on the blockchain by transaction and witness data. The change allowed more transactions to be stored in each block, making the blockchain more efficient and cheaper to use.

Coinbase is not alone in recently adopting the technology. Last week the Bitcoin Core wallet upgraded to allow SegWit Transactions, which was followed by an announcement from Bitfinex that they too were now utilizing SegWit on Bitcoin transactions. Bitfinex were clear of the advantages of the protocol upgrade, stating in their blog post:

    “We are delighted that through this implementation we can provide our customers with bitcoin withdrawal fees that are up to 20 percent lower, as well as faster-than-ever transaction speeds.”

Coinbase was not so jubilant regarding the upgrade, but they did offer a clear warning to users not to confuse Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash deposit addresses. This is because following the change to SegWit the exchange is no longer able to retrieve funds.

    “While SegWit should help reduce fees, once we begin rolling out this change, if you incorrectly send Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to a Bitcoin (BTC) address, your funds will not be recoverable. Sending the incorrect digital assets to a deposit address will result in permanent loss. “

With Coinbase adopting SegWit it is expected there will be a significant increase in the speed of the Bitcoin network, as the exchange represents a huge proportion of transactions. Sergej Kotliar, CEO of mobile top-up service Bitrefill, noted that the number of unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions plummeted at the same time that Coinbase was experiencing an outage, which suggests that Coinbase transactions were a heavy load on the network. The veracity of this claim has not been confirmed, but many are welcoming Coinbase’s adoption of SegWit regardless, hoping for both a faster and cheaper service.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-exchange-coinbase-launches-segwit-compatability/

Elon Musk Reveals Personal Crypto Holdings



The billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla told Twitter followers that he, in fact, has never purchased cryptocurrency, and only holds a small amount of Bitcoin gifted by a friend.

The tweet was made in response to scam posts on Twitter claiming to be Mr. Musk requesting Ethereum. It’s an issue that has plagued the Twitter network, with scammers impersonating blockchain figures such as Vitalik Buterin in attempts to steal users cryptocurrency. Twitter users are warned to never send cryptocurrency to anyone claiming to be hosting a giveaway or event.

Whilst the businessman may not own cryptocurrency, it was reported in 2016 that he was not against the technology. When appointed to Trump’s team of advisers he declared that Bitcoin was, in fact, a “good thing”, although he did not elaborate in great detail.

Last year Musk was center of attention in the cryptocurrency space. In November there was heavy speculation that he was, in fact, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin. Believers of the theory cited his mastery of C++ (coding language used by both SpaceX and Bitcoin), his passion for solving global problems, and his silence on the issue as evidence. It was also hypothesized that as Satoshi’s original Bitcoin (worth $8b in November) have not been touched, Musk, valued at $19b being the creator made sense – he didn’t need the money. The theory didn’t hold up for long, however, with Musk again taking to Twitter to claim no involvement with cryptocurrencies. The real identity of the creator of Bitcoin will likely remain unknown unless Satoshi wishes to reveal their true identity. It’s a scenario that becomes more unlikely with every passing year.

Elon Musk’s lack of involvement with cryptocurrency is interesting, as decentralized technology firmly aligns with his professed aspirations for a better human society. Whether his involvement will change as blockchain technology develops remains to be seen.


Source: https://www.ccn.com/elon-musk-reveals-personal-crypto-holdings/