Tagged: bitcoin

March 29, 2019 @ 3:32 am By Cali Haan  |  

Operations at the American chemical firms Hexion and Momentive were disrupted March 12th when company computer systems were locked up by LockerGoga ransomware, Motherboard reports. LockerGoga is the same ransomware experts believe was used to cripple operations at American and European aluminum smelters run by… Read More

March 28, 2019 @ 2:06 am By Cali Haan  |  

The disastrous demise of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has been well covered to date, including: the mysterious, sudden death of founder Gerald Cotten in India in early December 2018. the criminal past of Quadriga co-founder Michael Patryn. the alleged $190 million USD “loss” of client funds… Read More

March 27, 2019 @ 4:06 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cryptocurrency market data aggregator CoinMarketCap.com, a reported “top 500″ cryptocurrency website, has admitted that concerns about the accuracy of data on its site recently expressed in an ETF affiliated document at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC )”are valid,” Bloomberg reports. In order to reduce… Read More

March 25, 2019 @ 6:30 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California-Berkeley, called Bitcoin ‘bovine excrement’ during a recent episode of Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast. This is not the first time Weaver has panned Bitcoin and “blockchain,” distributed ledger technology that undergirds bitcoin… Read More

March 23, 2019 @ 12:30 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Alexander Vinnik, a 39-year-old Russian national accused by three countries of crimes involving bitcoins, including money-laundering and fraud, has filed an appeal with a court in Piraeus, Greece, asking that he be released from prison on humanitarian grounds and returned to Russia, Ekathimerini reports. Vinnik… Read More

March 22, 2019 @ 11:27 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bakkt, a cryptocurrency futures trading and custody platform being built by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in New York, has raised $740 million USD from Series A investors to date, The Block reports. The project raised $182.5 million last year, and new funds may have come… Read More

March 22, 2019 @ 3:43 am By Cali Haan  |  

One of the world’s largest cryptomining companies, Bitmain, has announced the release of a new crypto mining machine it claims is three times faster than its previous model. The new “Antminer Z11” is designed for the dedicated mining of cryptocurrencies that use the Equihash algorithm… Read More

March 19, 2019 @ 10:37 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Town councilors in Missoula, Montana, have voted to draw up interim zoning rules to govern cryptocurrency mining in the region as well as limit the environmental impact of the sector, The Missoula Current reports. The rules could come into place as soon as April 4th… Read More

March 19, 2019 @ 9:36 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Officials in Jackson County, Georgia, have relented and paid a $400 000 ransom in bitcoins to restore county IT systems disabled by Ryuk ransomware since March 1st, Bank Info Security reports. The FBI and local law enforcement are now investigating the attack. Jackson County now… Read More

March 18, 2019 @ 5:43 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (Cboe) has announced that it will not be adding new Bitcoin futures contracts this month or next. According to a release from the Chicago Futures Exchange (CFE), a division of the Cboe: “CFE is assessing its approach with respect… Read More

March 17, 2019 @ 2:25 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Alex de Vries, Digiconomist.net founder and a blockchain specialist at PwC’s Experience Centre since 2015, has produced an important report on the Bitcoin network’s extreme energy consumption and waste production, which far exceed that generated by regular banking. De Vries conclusion that Bitcoin should “follow… Read More

March 16, 2019 @ 9:31 am By Cali Haan  |  

An 18-year-old young man in Japan has been turned over to prosecutors to face allegations he hacked 15 million yen ($134 ooo USD) worth of Mona cryptocurrency from a “digital currency storage website,” Japan Today reports. Police claim this is the first time charges have… Read More

March 15, 2019 @ 9:52 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

The Universal Protocol Alliance, a group of leading blockchain companies including Bittrex International, Brave, Blockchain at Berkeley, Uphold, Cred and CertiK, announced earlier this week the launch of its Universal Bitcoin (UPBTC), which is described as an Ethereum-compatible Bitcoin that earns an annual ten percent… Read More

March 14, 2019 @ 7:41 am By Cali Haan  |  

2018 was an eventful year for ransomware attacks on North American soil and elsewhere. In November, the American Justice Department indicted two Iranians for alleged ransomware attacks on 200 government, institutional and private targets in the US, including an attack on the Port of San… Read More

March 13, 2019 @ 9:21 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police in the Canadian prairie city of Calgary are seeking information leading to the arrest of 4 men believed to have stolen $200 000 CAD from a Canadian Bitcoin ATM company, CBC reports. The four men allegedly executed 112 fraudulent “double spend” attacks on “bitcoin… Read More

March 12, 2019 @ 9:21 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Aave, a UK-based tech company which specializes in the development of decentralized and hybrid blockchain applications, announced last week it has launched Bitcoin on its cryptocurrency lending marketplace ETHLend. According to Aave, the release introduces the capability for the ETHLend users to use their Bitcoin holdings as… Read More

March 12, 2019 @ 7:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

A hacker has attempted to sell hacked elite college admissions files to teenaged hopefuls waiting to find out if they have made it into their colleges of choice, Consumer Affairs reports. The hacker originally offered to sell files for 1 Bitcoin ($3800 USD)  in a… Read More

March 11, 2019 @ 11:32 am By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has hit Marshall Islands-registered 1pool Ltd and its CEO and owner Patrick Brunner with a $990,000 penalty for illegally offering retail commodity transactions that were margined in Bitcoin. Additionally, the CFTC sited the failure of the company to register… Read More

March 10, 2019 @ 12:20 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The phenomenon of “rubber hose decryption” robbery took a harrowing turn recently when criminals disguised as police entered the home of a Dutch Bitcoin trader and allegedly tortured him in front of his 4-year-old daughter, The Independent reports. The attack reportedly took place in the… Read More

March 8, 2019 @ 7:08 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The town council of Plattsburgh, New York, has voted 5-1 to lift a year-old moratorium prohibiting any new cryptomining operations from setting up within town limits, Midday Magazine reports. The moratorium was established in March of last year after cold temperatures and crypto-mining consumption exhausted… Read More