Mastodon

THE BOTTOM LINE: Warning shots for stocks and a look at bitcoin after the split – Business Insider


Business Insider

THE BOTTOM LINE: Warning shots for stocks and a look at bitcoin after the split
Business Insider
Bitcoin also hit new highs this week, and has been called the “perfect asset for a speculative bubble.” It could go to $1 million, or $1 — no one really knows at this point. The cryptocurrency recently “forked,” which resulted in every coin being

and more »


Business Insider

THE BOTTOM LINE: Warning shots for stocks and a look at bitcoin after the split
Business Insider
Bitcoin also hit new highs this week, and has been called the "perfect asset for a speculative bubble." It could go to $1 million, or $1 — no one really knows at this point. The cryptocurrency recently "forked," which resulted in every coin being ...

and more »

Bitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coins – Business Insider

Business InsiderBitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coinsBusiness InsiderAaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, one of the largest bitcoin wallet companies, told Business Insider that the bitcoin cash price plunge Th…


Business Insider

Bitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coins
Business Insider
Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer of Breadwallet, one of the largest bitcoin wallet companies, told Business Insider that the bitcoin cash price plunge Thursday is likely linked to selling pressure from folks who can now transfer their coins ...

and more »

Who Created Ethereum?

Who Created Ethereum?

While working on a number of Bitcoin projects, a 19-year-old programmer from Toronto, Vitalik Buterin, conceived the idea for Ethereum. Ethereum was intended to be a robust platform that allows developers to build blockchain applications. Buterin was inspired by some of the shortcomings he faced when trying to build applications on the Bitcoin blockchain. He believed that the potential of blockchain technology was not limited to financial applications and quickly set out to create a blockchain that could support more common computations.

Vitalik Buterin was first introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2011. That same year he co-founded Bitcoin Magazine and wrote many articles explaining his views on the digital currency’s future. He later worked on Mastercoin and some alternate coins based on the Bitcoin codebase. This work led him to believe the Bitcoin blockchain was limited in scope.

The Ethereum white paper was released in 2013, and it documented a new open-source protocol for creating decentralized applications.   

Ethereum was officially announced on the Bitcointalk forum in 2014. In addition to Buterin, Ethereum was co-founded by Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio and Charles Hoskinson. Buterin also announced that he was working with developer Dr. Gavin Wood and Joseph Lubin. Wood soon released the Ethereum yellow paper, which covered the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the runtime environment that executes all of the smart contracts on the network. Lubin would go on to found ConsenSys, a venture studio focusing on decentralized applications.

The Ethereum Foundation held an ether crowdsale in July 2014 during which they sold 60 million tokens. 12 million ether (ETH) tokens were created so the Ethereum Foundation could expand its development and marketing efforts. The Frontier was the first release of the Ethereum network. It was released a year after the crowdsale and provided a bare-bones mechanism for developers to interact with and build apps on the network.  

Both the Ethereum network and community have grown substantially over the last year. The Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, an initiative working to connect the world’s largest companies to the Ethereum network, recently announced 86 new partners including Microsoft, Intel and BP. Similarly, a multitude of new blockchain projects leveraging the Ethereum blockchain have gained attention and capital.

Ethereum broke into the mainstream in early 2017 when the price of ETH increased by 1000 percent over the course of a couple months. This led to a similar rise in the price of alternative blockchain tokens, dubbed “altcoins.” A slew of new investors quickly entered the space as Ethereum was covered by large media outlets including CNBC, Reuters and Quartz. Investors and developers are awaiting the release of Metropolis, the next update to the Ethereum network promising to abstract a lot of functions and pave the way for user-friendly application designs.

The post Who Created Ethereum? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Who Created Ethereum?

While working on a number of Bitcoin projects, a 19-year-old programmer from Toronto, Vitalik Buterin, conceived the idea for Ethereum. Ethereum was intended to be a robust platform that allows developers to build blockchain applications. Buterin was inspired by some of the shortcomings he faced when trying to build applications on the Bitcoin blockchain. He believed that the potential of blockchain technology was not limited to financial applications and quickly set out to create a blockchain that could support more common computations.

Vitalik Buterin was first introduced to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in 2011. That same year he co-founded Bitcoin Magazine and wrote many articles explaining his views on the digital currency’s future. He later worked on Mastercoin and some alternate coins based on the Bitcoin codebase. This work led him to believe the Bitcoin blockchain was limited in scope.

The Ethereum white paper was released in 2013, and it documented a new open-source protocol for creating decentralized applications.   

Ethereum was officially announced on the Bitcointalk forum in 2014. In addition to Buterin, Ethereum was co-founded by Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio and Charles Hoskinson. Buterin also announced that he was working with developer Dr. Gavin Wood and Joseph Lubin. Wood soon released the Ethereum yellow paper, which covered the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the runtime environment that executes all of the smart contracts on the network. Lubin would go on to found ConsenSys, a venture studio focusing on decentralized applications.

The Ethereum Foundation held an ether crowdsale in July 2014 during which they sold 60 million tokens. 12 million ether (ETH) tokens were created so the Ethereum Foundation could expand its development and marketing efforts. The Frontier was the first release of the Ethereum network. It was released a year after the crowdsale and provided a bare-bones mechanism for developers to interact with and build apps on the network.  

Both the Ethereum network and community have grown substantially over the last year. The Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, an initiative working to connect the world’s largest companies to the Ethereum network, recently announced 86 new partners including Microsoft, Intel and BP. Similarly, a multitude of new blockchain projects leveraging the Ethereum blockchain have gained attention and capital.

Ethereum broke into the mainstream in early 2017 when the price of ETH increased by 1000 percent over the course of a couple months. This led to a similar rise in the price of alternative blockchain tokens, dubbed “altcoins.” A slew of new investors quickly entered the space as Ethereum was covered by large media outlets including CNBC, Reuters and Quartz. Investors and developers are awaiting the release of Metropolis, the next update to the Ethereum network promising to abstract a lot of functions and pave the way for user-friendly application designs.

The post Who Created Ethereum? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

What Is an ICO?

What Is an ICO?

An Initial Coin Offering, also commonly referred to as an ICO, is a fundraising mechanism in which new projects sell their underlying crypto tokens in exchange for bitcoin and ether. It’s somewhat similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in which investors purchase shares of a company.

ICOs are a relatively new phenomenon but have quickly become a dominant topic of discussion within the blockchain community. Many view ICO projects as unregulated securities that allow founders to raise an unjustified amount of capital, while others argue it is an innovation in the traditional venture-funding model. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently reached a decision regarding the status of tokens issued in the infamous DAO ICO which has forced many projects and investors to re-examine the funding models of many ICOs. The most important criteria to consider is whether or not the token passes the Howey test. If it does, it must be treated as a security and is subject to certain restrictions imposed by the SEC.

ICOs are easy to structure because of technologies like the ERC20 Token Standard, which abstracts a lot of the development process necessary to create a new cryptographic asset. Most ICOs work by having investors send funds (usually bitcoin or ether) to a smart contract that stores the funds and distributes an equivalent value in the new token at a later point in time.

There are few, if any, restrictions on who can participate in an ICO, assuming that the token is not, in fact, a security. And since you’re taking money from a global pool of investors, the sums raised in ICOs can be astronomical. A fundamental issue with ICOs is the fact that most of them raise money pre-product. This makes the investment extremely speculative and risky. The counter argument is that this fundraising style is particularly useful (even necessary) in order to incentivize protocol development.

Before we get into a discussion over the merits of ICOs, it is important to have some historical context for how the trend started.

History of ICOs

Several projects used a crowdsale model to try and fund their development work in 2013. Ripple pre-mined 1 billion XRP tokens and sold them to willing investors in exchange for fiat currencies or bitcoin. Ethereum raised a little over $18 million in early 2014 — the largest ICO ever completed at that time.

The DAO was the first attempt at fundraising for a new token on Ethereum. It promised to create a decentralized organization that would fund other blockchain projects, but it was unique in that governance decisions would be made by the token holders themselves. While the DAO was successful in terms of raising money — over $150 million — an unknown attacker was able to drain millions from the organization because of technical vulnerabilities. The Ethereum Foundation decided the best course of action was to move forward with a hard fork, allowing them to claw back the stolen funds.

Although the first attempt to fund a token safely on the Ethereum platform failed, blockchain developers realized that using Ethereum to launch a token was still much easier than pursuing seed rounds through the usual venture capital model. Specifically, the ERC20 standard makes it easy for developers to create their own cryptographic tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Some argue that crowdfunding projects might be Ethereum’s “killer application” given the sheer size and frequency of ICOs. Never before have pre-product startups been able to raise this much money and in this little time. Aragon raised around $25 million in just 15 minutes, Basic Attention Token raised $35 million in only 30 seconds, and Status.im raised $270 million in a few hours. With few regulations and such ease of use, this ICO climate has come under scrutiny from many in the community as well as various regulatory bodies around the world.

Are ICOs Legal?

The short answer is maybe. Legally, ICOs have existed in an extremely gray area because arguments can be made both for and against the fact that they’re just new, unregulated financial assets. The SEC’s recent decision, however, has since managed to clear up some of that gray area. In some cases, the token is simply a utility token, meaning it gives the owner access to a specific protocol or network; thus it may not be classified as a financial security. On the other hand, if the token is an equity token, meaning that it’s only purpose is to appreciate in value, then it looks a lot more like a security.

While many individuals purchase tokens to access the underlying platform at some future point in time, it’s difficult to refute the idea that most token purchases are for speculative investment purposes. This is easy to ascertain given the valuation figures for many projects that have yet to release a commercial product.

The SEC decision may have provided some clarity to the status of utility vs security tokens; however, there are still plenty of room for testing the boundaries of legalities. For now, and until further regulatory limits are imposed, entrepreneurs will continue to take advantage of this new phenomenon.

ICO Resources

Research:

Communities:

Calendars:

The post What Is an ICO? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

What Is an ICO?

An Initial Coin Offering, also commonly referred to as an ICO, is a fundraising mechanism in which new projects sell their underlying crypto tokens in exchange for bitcoin and ether. It’s somewhat similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in which investors purchase shares of a company.

ICOs are a relatively new phenomenon but have quickly become a dominant topic of discussion within the blockchain community. Many view ICO projects as unregulated securities that allow founders to raise an unjustified amount of capital, while others argue it is an innovation in the traditional venture-funding model. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently reached a decision regarding the status of tokens issued in the infamous DAO ICO which has forced many projects and investors to re-examine the funding models of many ICOs. The most important criteria to consider is whether or not the token passes the Howey test. If it does, it must be treated as a security and is subject to certain restrictions imposed by the SEC.

ICOs are easy to structure because of technologies like the ERC20 Token Standard, which abstracts a lot of the development process necessary to create a new cryptographic asset. Most ICOs work by having investors send funds (usually bitcoin or ether) to a smart contract that stores the funds and distributes an equivalent value in the new token at a later point in time.

There are few, if any, restrictions on who can participate in an ICO, assuming that the token is not, in fact, a security. And since you’re taking money from a global pool of investors, the sums raised in ICOs can be astronomical. A fundamental issue with ICOs is the fact that most of them raise money pre-product. This makes the investment extremely speculative and risky. The counter argument is that this fundraising style is particularly useful (even necessary) in order to incentivize protocol development.

Before we get into a discussion over the merits of ICOs, it is important to have some historical context for how the trend started.

History of ICOs

Several projects used a crowdsale model to try and fund their development work in 2013. Ripple pre-mined 1 billion XRP tokens and sold them to willing investors in exchange for fiat currencies or bitcoin. Ethereum raised a little over $18 million in early 2014 — the largest ICO ever completed at that time.

The DAO was the first attempt at fundraising for a new token on Ethereum. It promised to create a decentralized organization that would fund other blockchain projects, but it was unique in that governance decisions would be made by the token holders themselves. While the DAO was successful in terms of raising money — over $150 million — an unknown attacker was able to drain millions from the organization because of technical vulnerabilities. The Ethereum Foundation decided the best course of action was to move forward with a hard fork, allowing them to claw back the stolen funds.

Although the first attempt to fund a token safely on the Ethereum platform failed, blockchain developers realized that using Ethereum to launch a token was still much easier than pursuing seed rounds through the usual venture capital model. Specifically, the ERC20 standard makes it easy for developers to create their own cryptographic tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

Some argue that crowdfunding projects might be Ethereum’s “killer application” given the sheer size and frequency of ICOs. Never before have pre-product startups been able to raise this much money and in this little time. Aragon raised around $25 million in just 15 minutes, Basic Attention Token raised $35 million in only 30 seconds, and Status.im raised $270 million in a few hours. With few regulations and such ease of use, this ICO climate has come under scrutiny from many in the community as well as various regulatory bodies around the world.

Are ICOs Legal?

The short answer is maybe. Legally, ICOs have existed in an extremely gray area because arguments can be made both for and against the fact that they’re just new, unregulated financial assets. The SEC’s recent decision, however, has since managed to clear up some of that gray area. In some cases, the token is simply a utility token, meaning it gives the owner access to a specific protocol or network; thus it may not be classified as a financial security. On the other hand, if the token is an equity token, meaning that it’s only purpose is to appreciate in value, then it looks a lot more like a security.

While many individuals purchase tokens to access the underlying platform at some future point in time, it’s difficult to refute the idea that most token purchases are for speculative investment purposes. This is easy to ascertain given the valuation figures for many projects that have yet to release a commercial product.

The SEC decision may have provided some clarity to the status of utility vs security tokens; however, there are still plenty of room for testing the boundaries of legalities. For now, and until further regulatory limits are imposed, entrepreneurs will continue to take advantage of this new phenomenon.

ICO Resources

Research:

Communities:

Calendars:

The post What Is an ICO? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin and Taxes

Bitcoin taxes 101

Tax season can be confusing enough with complicated rules about what types of income are taxable and which are not; what can be written off and what can’t; and which assets need to be listed and which do not. Add to that the confusion around digital currency and its status in the eyes of governments, and there are bound to be questions about how Bitcoin relates to taxes.

In the United States, for example, “taxable income” encompasses anything received as payment for goods and services. There is no reason that this would exclude payment in bitcoin. Bitcoin received from another person in the exchange counts as gross income, which is subject to income tax. Bitcoin earned through trade or by running a bitcoin exchange could fall under the “capital gains” category, like gold, and will be taxed. Bitcoins that are mined are counted as income received from the act of mining and are taxable with the expenses accrued (such as computing power) being deductible. When miners sell their bitcoins, they are taxed on any increase to the value of the bitcoins between when they were mined and when they were sold.

The Internal Revenue Service of the U.S. drafted a 2014 notice on “virtual currency” providing some guidance on its views of bitcoin as capital assets that are subject to taxes. However, users will have to look into the tax requirements for whichever country they are paying taxes in and sort out how their home countries classify cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

To prepare for tax season, it’s important that bitcoin holders make a note of how much the digital asset is worth in relation to their local fiat currency. It is also advised to keep a detailed Bitcoin expense report and record the value of bitcoin when it was spent, in case any of these expenses can be written off.

Hiring an experienced accountant is a great way to ensure your Bitcoin-related tax filings are accurate. Several services exist to help users figure out how to pay their Bitcoin taxes, including CoinReporting and Bitcoin Taxes.

While nobody is promising that it will be fun, accurately recording and reporting Bitcoin income is a crucial aspect of the digital currency economy.

The post Bitcoin and Taxes appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin taxes 101

Tax season can be confusing enough with complicated rules about what types of income are taxable and which are not; what can be written off and what can’t; and which assets need to be listed and which do not. Add to that the confusion around digital currency and its status in the eyes of governments, and there are bound to be questions about how Bitcoin relates to taxes.

In the United States, for example, “taxable income” encompasses anything received as payment for goods and services. There is no reason that this would exclude payment in bitcoin. Bitcoin received from another person in the exchange counts as gross income, which is subject to income tax. Bitcoin earned through trade or by running a bitcoin exchange could fall under the “capital gains” category, like gold, and will be taxed. Bitcoins that are mined are counted as income received from the act of mining and are taxable with the expenses accrued (such as computing power) being deductible. When miners sell their bitcoins, they are taxed on any increase to the value of the bitcoins between when they were mined and when they were sold.

The Internal Revenue Service of the U.S. drafted a 2014 notice on “virtual currency” providing some guidance on its views of bitcoin as capital assets that are subject to taxes. However, users will have to look into the tax requirements for whichever country they are paying taxes in and sort out how their home countries classify cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

To prepare for tax season, it’s important that bitcoin holders make a note of how much the digital asset is worth in relation to their local fiat currency. It is also advised to keep a detailed Bitcoin expense report and record the value of bitcoin when it was spent, in case any of these expenses can be written off.

Hiring an experienced accountant is a great way to ensure your Bitcoin-related tax filings are accurate. Several services exist to help users figure out how to pay their Bitcoin taxes, including CoinReporting and Bitcoin Taxes.

While nobody is promising that it will be fun, accurately recording and reporting Bitcoin income is a crucial aspect of the digital currency economy.

The post Bitcoin and Taxes appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Konni Malware Targets North Korea

TheMerkle Konni Malware North KoreaIt does not happen all that often that we see an instance of malware targeting North Korea specifically. After all, very little information is known about North Korea and no one wants to touch that powder keg if they can avoid it. Konni is a new type of malware targeting this country specifically, and its Remote Access Trojan has been used for over three years to steal data and profile North Korean organizations. Who is behind this attack and why are they doing this? Konni Malware is Playing a Very Dangerous Game Anyone who has remotely been paying attention to the news in recent

TheMerkle Konni Malware North Korea

It does not happen all that often that we see an instance of malware targeting North Korea specifically. After all, very little information is known about North Korea and no one wants to touch that powder keg if they can avoid it. Konni is a new type of malware targeting this country specifically, and its Remote Access Trojan has been used for over three years to steal data and profile North Korean organizations. Who is behind this attack and why are they doing this?

Konni Malware is Playing a Very Dangerous Game

Anyone who has remotely been paying attention to the news in recent months knows North Korea is an unstable and nuclear power. No one knows for sure what the country’s objectives are or what type of harm they may possibly cause in the near future. The person responsible for deploying the Konni malware may know a lot more than the rest of the world. Deploying a remote access Trojan against such a dangerous nation could have all kinds of consequences.

Konni’s activity has transpired virtually unnoticed for nearly three years. It is possible Konni was deployed even earlier than that, since the investigation is still ongoing. This remote access Trojan is nothing sophisticated by any means, but it does its job fine and remained undiscovered until very recently. It is believed North Korean targets have suffered from attacks emanating from this malware at least three times in the year 2017 alone.

In fact, the most recent campaign involving Konni came on the heels of North Korea’s successful test of its missiles capable of reaching U.S. mainland targets. This does not necessarily mean the source of this malware is located in the United States, though. The malware has been on the radar of many different security research companies over the past few years. Such an illustrious project with no clear ties to any specific region understandably sparks a lot of speculation.

Konni may be linked to the DarkHotel campaign, which stole information from business travelers at luxury hotels back in 2014. Specific evidence indicates the authors of both types of malware may reside within either North or South Korea. Some experts believe Konni’s creator has ties to South Korea, although no tangible evidence has ever been provided to back up those claims.

The most disconcerting aspect of this RAT (remote access Trojan) is that it appears this malware is still evolving on a regular basis. Konni is a unique RAT in this regard, as it relies on evasive techniques, social engineering, and intelligence harvesting.  It is mainly distributed through phishing emails and even comes with a decoy file to remove suspicion. Once installed, the malware runs in the background yet leaves no visual cues to users as to what is going on.

Over the course of the past three years, Konni has proven capable of deleting files, exfiltrating data, creating screenshots, uploading images to a central command & control server, and executing remote commands. Stating that this is a major threat would be a vast understatement. Despite these features, reverse engineering the RAT is still a trivial matter, as there does not appear to be any obfuscation whatsoever. Targeting North Korea is a gutsy move, but Konni seems to do the job just fine.

$5000 Bitcoin? 3 Reasons to Buy—and to Stay Away – Fortune


Fortune

$5000 Bitcoin? 3 Reasons to Buy—and to Stay Away
Fortune
Bitcoin has gone on bull runs before but nothing like this: Prices this week shot through the $3,500 mark as the mainstream media hailed digital currency as a new asset class. Then it got another boost as the blue chip brokerage house, Fidelity
Buoyant bitcoin stirs crypto-bubble fearsCNBC
Liquidity and Stability – Bitcoin as Currency and AssetCoinTelegraph
Bitcoin resumes climb, extending 2017 rallyMarketWatch
Seeking Alpha –Yahoo Finance –Bitcoin Magazine
all 75 news articles »

Fortune

$5000 Bitcoin? 3 Reasons to Buy—and to Stay Away
Fortune
Bitcoin has gone on bull runs before but nothing like this: Prices this week shot through the $3,500 mark as the mainstream media hailed digital currency as a new asset class. Then it got another boost as the blue chip brokerage house, Fidelity ...
Buoyant bitcoin stirs crypto-bubble fearsCNBC
Liquidity and Stability - Bitcoin as Currency and AssetCoinTelegraph
Bitcoin resumes climb, extending 2017 rallyMarketWatch
Seeking Alpha -Yahoo Finance -Bitcoin Magazine
all 75 news articles »

Coinbase Raises $100M to “Help Accelerate Digital Currency Adoption”

Coinbase Raises $100M to Help Accelerate Digital Currency AdoptionOn August 10 the San Francisco-based company Coinbase announced it has raised US$100M in a Series D funding round. The company says the large capital injection will be used to help “create an open financial system for the world.” Also read: Breadwallet’s Bitcoin Cash Tool Arrives Next Week — Full Client Coming Soon This week the […]

The post Coinbase Raises $100M to “Help Accelerate Digital Currency Adoption” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Coinbase Raises $100M to Help Accelerate Digital Currency Adoption

On August 10 the San Francisco-based company Coinbase announced it has raised US$100M in a Series D funding round. The company says the large capital injection will be used to help “create an open financial system for the world.”

Also read: Breadwallet’s Bitcoin Cash Tool Arrives Next Week — Full Client Coming Soon

This week the bitcoin exchange and brokerage service, Coinbase, announced a successful Series D funding round raising $100M. The firm says it has experienced “unprecedented growth” this year and has exchanged over “$25 billion USD worth of digital currency.” Coinbase explains that it will use the new capital to further scale the company’s resources and services. The company outlines its plans with the money stating;

We will Increase the size of our engineering and customer support teams to improve the customer experience. Open a GDAX office in New York City, further investing in our ability to serve institutions and professional traders. And invest in Toshi, to help accelerate digital currency’s shift from speculative investment to global payment network.

The Series D funding round was led by venture capital firms such as IVP, Spark Capital, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Section 32 and Draper Associates. Coinbase says they are “fortunate” to be working with IVP who has invested in successful companies like Snap, Netflix, Twitter, Dropbox, and Slack. Toshi is a browser for the Ethereum network that aims to provide universal access to financial services. Coinbase says they are excited about the digital currency economy and the firm is entering into the next phase of their “secret master plan.”

Digital currencies are having their “Netscape” moment. The pace of innovation has been accelerating and we are now seeing exciting projects and companies being built on top of digital currencies.

Coinbase has done well since its inception in 2012 raising a total of $217M in funding rounds from over 29 investors. The company has also been very popular with over 30M wallets used by close to 10M customers in 2017.


Images via Shutterstock, and the Coinbase website. 


At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. 

The post Coinbase Raises $100M to “Help Accelerate Digital Currency Adoption” appeared first on Bitcoin News.

NASA Is Hiring Someone to Defend Our Planet From Aliens

bitcoin space shuttleEvery kid dreams of becoming an astronaut, but a much cooler position recently opened up at NASA. The agency is looking for a planetary protection officer (PPO), someone who will be in charge of defending the Earth from alien contamination, and who will prevent us from contaminating other worlds we explore. It Pays a Six-Figure Salary As if being able to tell people that you’re the person who defends the earth from aliens was not good enough, the title also comes with a six-figure salary that could go from US$124,406 to US$187,000 a year, plus benefits. The position is extremely rare as only two full-time planetary

bitcoin space shuttle

Every kid dreams of becoming an astronaut, but a much cooler position recently opened up at NASA. The agency is looking for a planetary protection officer (PPO), someone who will be in charge of defending the Earth from alien contamination, and who will prevent us from contaminating other worlds we explore.

It Pays a Six-Figure Salary

As if being able to tell people that you’re the person who defends the earth from aliens was not good enough, the title also comes with a six-figure salary that could go from US$124,406 to US$187,000 a year, plus benefits.

The position is extremely rare as only two full-time planetary protection officers exist in the world: one works at NASA, and one works at the European Space Agency. The gig involves advising Safety Mission Assurance officials and ensuring compliance in spaceflight missions.

Thinking of applying? You’d better have an outstanding resume to stand a chance. Qualified candidates will need an advanced degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics, have at least one year of experience as a top-level civilian government employee, a willingness to travel, and “demonstrated skills in diplomacy that resulted in win-win solutions during extremely difficult and complex multilateral discussions,” among other things.

According to Business Insider, the position was created after the U.S. ratified the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 in order to minimize the risk of future space missions contaminating alien worlds.

Catharine Conley, NASA’s planetary protection officer since 2014, told Scientific American that returning spacecraft are decontaminated and that humans should not disrupt the workings of outer space.

She further added that in the course of her work she has had to deal with some complex questions. She stated:

“Will the humans be alive by the time they get to Mars? If they die on Mars, are they then contaminating the surface?”

Even though this job sounds extremely cool, Conley has previously stated that it mostly involves establishing protocols and procedures to reduce contamination risks, and that a typical week involves a lot of emails as well as reading studies and proposals.

Those who believe they have what it takes to be Earth’s next planetary protection officer can apply until August 14. The position is held for at least three years, and can be extended to five.

A 9-Year-Old Applied, and NASA Replied

After news of the position started circulating the web, a brave 9-year-old boy named Jack decided to apply for the position. His heartwarming application states that his sister considers him to be an alien, and that since he is young he has time to learn to think like an alien. The fourth grader also boasted that he is great at video games.

Even though the 9-year-old boy does not yet have the required skills, NASA got back to him. Its director of planetary research called Jack to congratulate him on his interest in the position, and NASA’s planetary science director even wrote back, advising him to study hard and do well in school so that one day he would be working at NASA.

As previously covered here, NASA is preparing to test its planetary defense system on an oncoming asteroid.

Howard Marks, who’s called past market bubbles, says ‘I don’t understand what’s behind bitcoin’ – CNBC


CNBC

Howard Marks, who’s called past market bubbles, says ‘I don’t understand what’s behind bitcoin
CNBC
Bitcoin has gotten a lot of fanfare lately but not from Howard Marks, a legendary value investor on Wall Street. Marks told CNBC’s “Halftime Report” on Thursday that’s because he doesn’t understand what is the actual value of Bitcoin. “It’s not a
Bitcoin: Buy or Buyer Beware?Barron’s

all 4 news articles »


CNBC

Howard Marks, who's called past market bubbles, says 'I don't understand what's behind bitcoin'
CNBC
Bitcoin has gotten a lot of fanfare lately but not from Howard Marks, a legendary value investor on Wall Street. Marks told CNBC's "Halftime Report" on Thursday that's because he doesn't understand what is the actual value of Bitcoin. "It's not a ...
Bitcoin: Buy or Buyer Beware?Barron's

all 4 news articles »

Bitcoin resumes climb, extending 2017 rally – MarketWatch

MarketWatchBitcoin resumes climb, extending 2017 rallyMarketWatchThe price of bitcoin and other digital currencies rose on Thursday, with bitcoin hovering near record levels and extending a healthy year-to-date advance. The climb in the asset class cam…


MarketWatch

Bitcoin resumes climb, extending 2017 rally
MarketWatch
The price of bitcoin and other digital currencies rose on Thursday, with bitcoin hovering near record levels and extending a healthy year-to-date advance. The climb in the asset class came on one of the weakest days for U.S. stocks in recent trading ...

and more »

Bitcoin: Buy or Buyer Beware? – Barron’s


Barron’s

Bitcoin: Buy or Buyer Beware?
Barron’s
Bitcoin – the controversial newish digital currency that has been much in the news of late – had an eventful first day of August, when it was announced that henceforth there would be two versions of the cryptocurrency. How that will affect valuation
Howard Marks, who’s called past market bubbles, says ‘I don’t understand what’s behind bitcoinCNBC

all 2 news articles »


Barron's

Bitcoin: Buy or Buyer Beware?
Barron's
Bitcoin – the controversial newish digital currency that has been much in the news of late – had an eventful first day of August, when it was announced that henceforth there would be two versions of the cryptocurrency. How that will affect valuation ...
Howard Marks, who's called past market bubbles, says 'I don't understand what's behind bitcoin'CNBC

all 2 news articles »