This was a coordinated attack on blockchain leaders. I am also a strong proponent of the agile methodology who strives to be "less wrong" versus "right" (read: close-minded), and believe that failure is something to be socialized and a learning experience for as many as possible. The real question is what you do from failure? I'm starting here hoping that others learn and are better protected, but also am using my position to work on better tech to solve this. That's the long tail though. This is the start.

If leaders don't use their position to help others, are they really a leader?

One month ago, I was part of a coordinated attack on blockchain executives. (I am one of the co-founders of https://provide.services). It was shockingly easy for them to take over my accounts, despite being security conscious. They attacked dozens of others around the same time across T-Mobile, AT&T and likely others.

I hope this story and the lessons learned helps you protect your crypto!

https://hackernoon.com/my-sim-swap-attack-how-i-almost-lost-dollar71k-and-how-to-prevent-it-tj39q3aju

My company Provide recently did a study with Emory University and Aprio to understand the patterns of blockchain adoption in business. 60% said the value of blockchain was in its security, yet the second largest barrier to entry was internal skills.

Our mission is to help developers become more productive. We built the Provide Platform to be a DevOps style platform to help, but there is still a lot of education needed. So, we partnered with Blockchain Ecosystem Advisors (BEA) to create a 101 style webinar series to review the principals, design patterns and tools to help deploy blockchain applications securely.

Smart Contract Best Practices—February 21, 12 PM EST
3% of smart contracts are not secure. This webinar will cover the top do’s and don’ts of building secure smart contracts on Ethereum and techniques to test security. Register now.

Access Sensitive Data via Blockchain Networks—March 7, 12 PM EST
Data privacy on blockchain flips the paradigm of data ownership where individuals permission their data to blockchain networks. This webinar explores how to build applications that consume external data and how to interact with sensitive data. Register now.

Smart Contract Design Patterns—March 21, 12 PM EST
Design patterns are generic, useful templates that are solutions to commonly occurring requirements. This webinar spotlights on some useful design patterns for smart contracts including contract self-destruction, factory contracts used to deploy child contracts, and name registry. Register now.

There is a blog post as well with some additional DevOps videos and explaining more about Provide and BEA.

If people get into the webinars, we will extend it with additional topics, and maybe even go up to a 201 level. So let's get the conversation going. What are some of your biggest security questions for developing your dApps?

We are embarking on a data-driven deep dive to better qualify the progress of blockchain in the enterprise. Open to enterprise organizations of all sizes to participate, the study starts with a survey that only takes about 10 minutes to complete.

In an effort to increase discussion and clarity for the survey, early trends will be shared before the study closes on December 31, and all participants will be notified of the results. For specific feedback or questions you would like to see answered, please email us at hello _at_ provide.services, and we'll be happy to talk.

The survey is sponsored by Aprio, Emory University and Provide Technologies.

http://survey.provide.services/zs/AwBUKY

I realize this site's intention was to discuss bitcoin blockchain technology, mining and crypto trading. However, as it carries the banner of the central location to discuss all alt-coin trading, it would seem logical to open up a similar parallel forum to discuss other DLT technologies. It would be great to have an independent location to discuss the pros and cons and confusion among new entrants into this space.

Note: I am intentionally describing the channel as DLT and not alt-blockchains, as there are several technologies, some of which support alt-coins, that I would not characterize as blockchain, but still qualify as DLT (I'm looking at you LTC and Hashgraph).

Free meetup! Last time there were over 500 people there!

Come Early to network 6:00 PM
Event Location: Atlanta Tech Village, 3423 Piedmont Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30305

Hashgraph has made claims to being the future. In this meetup we will evalute those claims and see also explore these "4 generations" of blockchains they have defined.
Bitcoin = 1.0 app
Ethereum = 2.0 smart contracts
Cardano = 3.0 market places
Hashgraph = 4.0 the future

After Party at Twin Peaks 2nd floor. Starting around 8:15 PM.

Parking:
There is a parking deck attached to ATV you can access it from the back near the Buckhead Church (Recommended if coming from Lenox Road) or off in front off Piedmont Road. We will be on the main floor of ATV.

https://www.meetup.com/The-Atlanta-Blockchain/events/247197208/

I just had a friend pay for flights and a week stay in Jamaica with BTC. Its starting...

They aren't banning it. You can still talk about it. You can't ADVERTISE unless you are a registered trader. This is a necessary step to thwart scammers.

Sorta how this forum had to implement merit if you think about it. Forums like Bitcointalk, Twitter and Facebook need to figure out ways to control the scammers and confusion.

You are playing into the soundbites of the entrenched and afraid. If you look at facts, you see you fell into propaganda.


Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/cryptocurrency-harder-launder-fiat-currency/

It's important to have coverage on many channels. I'd suggest one post here on bitcointalk, and actively keep up with comments and community questions/concerns.

Also make sure your website, whitepaper and any other materials are up to par. Video is huge, so having some regular communication via YouTube is great for search and community recruitment. All the other channels mentioned here (Twitter, LinkedIn, Steemit, Medium, Reddit, etc) need coverage, though you'll do yourself well to join the communities authentically first and understand their rules and culture. Just posting once is not going to get you anywhere, especially if you are a n00b. Spend time in them, and find out whose who. If you can create relationships with real influencers, their support in the various forums will provide invaluable feedback and could help you get the attention you need.

Earned media is another route - which will take creating relationships with media sites (anything from CNBC to Coindesk) and if you have an interesting story, they may cover you. This is great for your website and additional ways to get noticed.

Also, having influencers as part of your project is key. You may do well to find some, and give them some equity to help you promote your project and guide it to success.

Good luck!

Thanks. I guess this applies:

This may be contained to the one example, but pushing this forum as a way to make money does a disservice to the site and the real contributors here. Merit was introduced to deter the kind of spammy behavior this cartoon is selling. And no one wants a cartoon to sell something anyway. Cartoons should entertain.

Also, that is clearly copyright infringement on Dilbert.

I recommend you don't share if this is what you are looking to show. You're hitting all the wrong marks and could just end up getting yourself in trouble.

Looks like the forum software didn't update to daylight savings with the time change last week... thought someone would want to know!

Currently tokens (vs security regulated coins) are considered property and taxed as such. It's weird for sure, but that is how the government is approaching it. So, if you raised $5M in an ICO, you would get a property tax bill on that. It's prohibitory for some companies, so there is lots of effort around treating tokens as "gift cards" for deferred income but still they are usually taxed under property schedules.

Wyoming (also on this list) just passed some really good legislation to allow companies operating with tokens to proceed without an unnecessary tax burden. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/wyoming-blockchain-bill-rockets-ahead-signing/

The pros for this is it is a logical next step for a maturing market. Until now, everyone could trade, now higher end traders have futures and a single index to lure their large volumes of cash into this market. It has a minimum of $10K per investment and needs to be used by only accredited investors who have over $1M in assets or $200K in income every year. It is a smart tool to recruit large sums and keep them in rotation as index folks are "set it and forget it" type folks normally. Moves are done usually once a quarter.

The cons for this is it's not really something most mere mortals will use. Also, it is using only the 4 large coins that Coinbase supports, which already generally trend together. Its super top heavy on BTC (a whopping 62 percent, followed by 27 percent ether, 7 percent bitcoin cash, and 4 percent litecoin), which given the price for BTC will make it hard to appreciate. That obviously can change though.

IMHO, it's something to watch. If it gets used a lot, that shows this market is maturing much faster, and that is a good thing for us mere mortals who've been here a while. 

He said he "forgot" about accepting bitcoins for an album and it was now worth $8M. Given that he just did bankruptcy, the government came after him and suddenly he is saying those were sold immediately! He doesn't have any. He just didn't correct because the press was positive... smh.

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2018/2/26/17054746/50-cent-bankruptcy-no-bitcoin

Taking a look at the internet usage according to Internet World Stats, and comparing them to the number of $BTC wallets we see a huge gap. This puts it into perspective where this market is, why its susceptible to volatility and fraud, and how much potential it has to grow. It is still early days.

Note: BTC wallets was used as it is the largest number of wallets. There are many abandoned wallets, and overlap of people that do not have BTC but other wallets. Yet, given the small overall number, and the very large size for BTC, this is accepted as a general indicator of the number of wallets in existence.

Full tweet: https://twitter.com/Obj_Cloud_Labs/status/971127092720078849

Airdrops are not a new tactic. Since the 90s some companies have used the tactic to provide stock as rewards for marketing or other efforts. The SEC cracked down on those where the security did not follow the rules.

See the press release from 1999 where they cracked down on 4 cases where the stocks did not follow the rules: https://www.sec.gov/news/headlines/webstock.htm

The bottom line is that it is imperative that you follow the rules, with respect to investor rights and ensure your coin truly is a token. If you do that, airdrops will be protected. If you don't, you provide reasons for the SEC and the CFTC to come after you.

That said, airdrops should be an area of caution. Just last month, Rise and Bittrex had to unwind airdrops because the way it was handled violated SEC regulations, and they had to halt their airdrop to stay listed. https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@fruitdaddy/is-this-the-end-of-air-drops

Using airdrops or even the sale of a token before you have actual utility of that token is a red flag, and will likely get you one of those new subpoenas the SEC seems to be handing out. I suggest you talk to your lawyer before you do an airdrop, and review the marketing materials and promotions to make sure you are covered.

Will bitcoin die is a different question than will bitcoin stay on top. Certainly, it has the strongest current community and the "its theirs to lose" ground in the market. But, it needs to keep up with innovation and demands. Being lazy, or too rigid in their design to innovate is the biggest danger. Just think about these few examples for precedence:

• Myspace had the same ground before Facebook stole it.
• Blockbuster video had the same spot before Netflix innovated themselves ahead of them.
• Barnes & Noble sat on top before Amazon blew past them.

BTC needs to continue to innovate and show trusted leader advantage. Otherwise there is plenty of room for something like Cardano or Litecoin (and many others) to come in and show their on top. Also, if a big country like China comes out with a currency that is backed by banks and fiat, its game over for any of these options as the free flow for money and spending will trump technological advantages.

There were a few headlines: https://www.coindesk.com/us-judge-rules-cryptocurrencies-are-commodities-in-cftc-case/

It looks like the SEC is drawing its fences around ICOs and ensuring they are not fraudulently securities, and the CFTC is gearing up to treat all coins as commodities. Seems like a logical separation that enforces the objective of utility tokens. I view this as a good thing.