Day: September 23, 2017

DOVU, the blockchain transport data initiative, will showcase its software at the forthcoming Jaguar Land Rover Developer Challenge, to be held in Slovakia at the end of the month. The hackathon will take place around the theme of ‘smart mobility’, and will feature two specific challenges for developers: a mobile app that will incentivise car … Continue reading DOVU to Participate in Jaguar Land Rover Hackathon

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It is rather evident that the concept of sex robots will not go away anytime soon. However, opposition to this industry is growing every single month. One new campaign aims to outlaw robot sex dolls which can be programmed to resist advances. We discussed a similar topic not long ago, and it seems there are more and more arguments being voiced against such devices. Whether or not the latest campaign will be successful remains to be seen.

Robot Sex Dolls Remain a Controversial Concept

Everyone will readily agree programming a sex doll to have a specific personality is both creepy but somewhat intriguing. Like it or not, the technology is here to let people program a robot to their liking, even if that means they will only use this “tool” for carnal pleasures. There is nothing preventing people from writing their own software to do exactly that. Making it a “mainstream” solution will keep it out of the underground markets and out of the hands of less mentally stable individuals. Or that is the idea, at least.

At the same time, we know of at least one manufacturer developing robot sex dolls capable of resisting advances. Many people feel such a development will only encourage rape, although the jury is still out on that one. It is certainly true making a sex robot play “hard to get” will have some consequences in one way or another.  It is unclear why anyone would purposefully build such software to begin with, as it just sets a wrong example regardless of how you want to look at things.

Katie Parker of the Schools Consent Project is a clear opponent of robot sex dolls. More specifically, she doesn’t like the Roxxxy sex doll one bit, due to its controversial software package. Considering how her organization is all about sexual consent, it is only to be expected that there would be a lot of opposition from that direction. Having a robot which can be programmed to cater to users’ darkest fantasies opens a proverbial Pandora’s Box.

According to Parker, it is not an offense to own one of these robot sex dolls in the United Kingdom. Whether or not that situation will change in the future remains to be seen. Rest assured the UK government – as well as politicians all over the world – are taking notice of these new robots and how they can influence our society as a whole. Moreover, she claims dolls like these “normalize sexual violence”. That train of thought is pretty easy to follow, as a sex robot can never give actual consent like a human would.

The main point of emphasis for Parker is how we are not dealing with a thinking and feeling human being here. Robots such as Roxxxy are very problematic, as the person “raping” the sex doll presumably wouldn’t feel remorse or be confronted with any repercussions whatsoever. Parker calls this type of robot a “distraction for criminal impulses which should probably be subject to psychiatric intervention.”

For the time being, True Companion maintains that its doll is not intended to be programmed to participate in a rape scenario. Moreover, the company feels the allegations made by Parker and others are “pure conjecture”. Then again, it is doubtful such a sex robot would be successful in warding off a sexual assault in the first place. As with all robots, we can only hope that such devices promote happiness and the greater good rather than bring out the worst in humanity.

Cybercriminals all over the world have taken a liking to Bitcoin over the past few years. Up to this point, it remains unclear as to why that is, considering Bitcoin has no privacy or anonymity features whatsoever. However, it seems the tide is slowly turning and Monero is quickly becoming the new go-to cryptocurrency in this regard. Especially when it comes to mining Monero, criminals are coming up with increasingly crafty solutions.

Malicious Cryptocurrency Mining Efforts Intensify

Given the recent surge in Monero mining-related scripts on websites, it is not entirely surprising to see criminals take a keen interest in this new “industry”. More specifically, they are trying to come up with new ways to mine Monero using other people’s computing resources. Embedding a mining script on webpages has proven to be quite successful in this regard, and it looks as if we will see even more efforts like these in the near future.

More specifically, a new report by IBM’s X-Force shows how the number of attacks related to delivering cryptocurrency mining tools on enterprise networks has increased. That is not a good sign by any means, as it shows criminals are looking for new ways to maliciously mine Monero. For now, the preferred attack vector involves infecting WordPress and Joomla servers with such mining scripts.

There are actually multiple ways to infect sites with malicious cryptocurrency mining “tools”. Embedding Javascript on a hacked site is just one of the many ways to successfully achieve such goals. It has proven to be pretty lucrative over these past few weeks, although this is likely only the beginning. CMS platforms such as Joomla, WordPress and even JBoss lend themselves perfectly to the installation of such scripts.

However, another method growing in popularity involves modifying image files. In some instances, the assailants will use steganography to embed cryptocurrency mining tools within image files. We have written about this concept in the past already and it appears this attack vector is only getting more popular. After all, no one would expect an image file to mine Monero on behalf of criminals, yet that is exactly what is happening these days.

What is even more worrisome is how such Monero mining attacks often target manufacturing and financial services websites right now. Arts and entertainment is another popular sector in this regard. Surprisingly enough, the retail sector doesn’t suffer from such hacking attempts all that much. Considering how many images they host for products and services, one would expect things to turn out very differently. This doesn’t mean that trend will not change, though.

Last but not least, the report shows how new versions of the Mirai botnet no longer support cryptocurrency mining features right now. That is one positive trend people need to pay a bit more attention to. This doesn’t mean Miria botnet software is no longer actively distributed, mind you. However, it shows things are changing in the world of cybercrime, and countering the new trends will not be easy.

To this day, there are still a lot of questions and uncertainties regarding the Bitcoin situation in China. While it is evident large exchanges will halt CNY trading, it remains to be seen if the mining sector will be affected as well. For now, it does not appear this will be the case, and Charlie Lee recently stated as much on Twitter. However, there is no official source either confirming or countering Lee’s tweet.

Mining Cryptocurrency in China is Still Fine

Given China’s stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency these days, it is not entirely surprising that there are a lot of questions remaining to be answered. More specifically, we know the exchanges in the country will effectively halt the trading of Bitcoin and other altcoins linked to the CNY market. That much is a given right now, although cryptocurrencies themselves can effectively be exchanged intermittently. The latter point confirms that China has no plans to outlaw Bitcoin by any means.

One thing that remains a big mystery is whether or not cryptocurrency mining operations in the country will be affected in any significant manner. More specifically, there has been no official statement regarding the ban of mining operations, but the PBoC and Chinese government have not officially stated they will allow it to continue either. This vague stance regarding mining is quite troublesome when looking at the bigger picture in China.

1/ I have a trusted source that says that there's no truth to China banning mining or network.

FYI, I haven't made any trades on this info.

— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) September 22, 2017

According to the above tweet by Charlie Lee, there currently are no plans to suspend cryptocurrency mining in the country. Although he claims to have a trusted source, it remains to be seen if this is actually the case. Most people are well aware that Chinese mining pools provide a lot of hashpower to the Bitcoin network right now. The same goes for Litecoin and a few other cryptocurrencies in existence today. If that support were to cease all of a sudden, things could get very dire for all affected currencies.

There are multiple reasons why China wouldn’t ban cryptocurrency mining, though. First of all, the government is not cracking down on cryptocurrencies themselves. It simply wants to get a much tighter grasp on capital outflows involving CNY. Up to this point, buying and selling cryptocurrency was one way to successfully circumvent most limits in this regard. It was only a matter of time before the government started paying closer attention to this.

Secondly, the Chinese government isn’t banning the exchange of cryptocurrencies either. Indeed, exchange users can still trade between different cryptocurrencies without any problem. This indicates there is plenty of reason to let people mine cryptocurrencies, although care must be taken to not attribute value to cryptos themselves. The latter are tradable only against other cryptocurrencies in China, but it is possible users would find ways to circumvent the “ban on fiat trading” using other methods.

Assuming the mining of cryptocurrency is not prohibited in China, things will get pretty interesting moving forward. This shows the country will remain a big player in the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Moreover, it goes to show any negative repercussions of decisions made by the PBoC should be behind us from now on. The central bank played its final card and will have no other means of affecting cryptocurrency markets whatsoever. An interesting future lies ahead for cryptocurrency, though; that much is certain.

Suspicions grow that Ethereum can be used for huge-scale money laundering

Recently, a friend of mine from the United States (the land of the free), wanted to participate in an ICO for a brand new coin.  He had done all the research on the team, read the white paper, and had his hard earned money ready to invest when the date rolled around. What he didn’t anticipate, upon logging into the site, was a message saying his IP had been blocked and that US investors were not allowed to participate. He was devastated.

Lucky for him I am not American and a few clicks later I purchased the ICO for him.  Problem solved, for him, but what about the millions of Americans that can’t participate so easily?

The SEC, a US regulatory body for securities, said in July, that some coins issued in ICOS are securities, and are subject to the agencies regulations. Companies, especially in the US, are not allowing US investors to participate in their token sale, due to possible legal backlash from the SEC.

In more recent news, it seems that the SEC is contacting blockchain start ups that are holding ICOS, and making them close their token sale immediately.  Protostar, a company creating a platform for rising internet stars, was contacted by the SEC, and forced to close their token sale, and refund all investors.  “After consultation with multiple lawyers, we have decided to cease further operations and refund Ethereum collected in our crowdsale that began on August 13, 2017”, Protostar stated in a press released.

The statement went on to say, “Like many of our supporters, we were excited to be an innovative force in the emerging space of content creation and its funding. Unfortunately, as a startup, we do not have the necessary resources to both develop our [decentralized application] and challenge the SEC’s investigation regarding our ICO and its interpretation under US securities law.”  

In the name of protecting consumers, the SEC is stifling innovation, as well as trampling on the rights of business owners, and common investors.  They would prefer a framework they can control, and that favors businesses and investors with a lot of money.  Milton Friedman once said “Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself”.  The free market can handle cryptocurrencies.  We don’t need regulators coming in and “protecting us”.

Long before Bitcoin was a buzz word, and ICOS were on the SEC radar, the Cyperpunks of the 80s and 90s created the foundations that led to the projects we have today.  The Cyperpunks were a group of political activists, that advocated for cryptography and digital privacy.  Members of the cypherpunks include John Gilmore, Julian Assange, Jacob Applebaum, Adam Back, Hal Finney, and more!  In 1993 Eric Hughes wrote the Cyperpunks manifesto.  In it, Eric wrote, “Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age”, and “we cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence”.

Nearly 25 years later those ideas couldn’t ring more true.  We’ve seen all throughout the 2000s governments trample on the rights of it’s citizens with wide scope surveillance.  One of the main goals of the Cypherpunks was making encryption widespread.  They said if secure communication can become the default for a large part of the internet, we will have struck a major blow.  Fast forward to 2017, what’s app and other messaging apps are encrypted by default.  This is a huge win for privacy but the fight is still on going.  Just like consumers have demanded that their communications be encrypted, we must also demand that blockchain technology companies be decentralized.  Corporate blockchains defeat the entire spirit of what the Cyperpunks wanted and fought for.

Corporations, such as JP Morgan, and governments all over the world are going to integrate blockchain technology very soon.  They’re going to do their best to ensure they keep a good control on it, and that they can get their taxes and profits.  They are going to say decentralization is bad, and can’t be trusted. They are going to point to dark markets integrating Monero as just another reason we need them involved, or why we need to ban coins like Monero all together.  As a community we must resist this.

Centralized exchanges, and places to buy Bitcoin are already transforming this industry in a negative way.  Recently during the Bitcoin fork, the community had to press hard to get them to give the customers Bitcoin Cash instead of just stealing it. They can block or take away your money if the coins are affiliated with gambling, dark market activity, or anything else they deem inappropriate.  We must actively make sure we don’t get too far away from the ideas and freedom that Crypto allowed in the first place, or there’s no point being involved at all.  Cryptocurrencies give the power back to the people. Let’s not give that power away.                        

The team at ICOMG believe in a world free from regulations and oversight.  Our site will allow anyone in any country to participate in ICOS 100% anonymously.  We have an open letter to the SEC coming out Monday.  For more information and to follow what we’re doing, please visit ICOMG.IO

Don’t forget the spirit of Crypto!  We want privacy, security, and decentralization.

#resistcorporateblockchains

Disclosure: This is a sponsored article

When it comes to gambling with cryptocurrency, the offerings are still somewhat limited in number. While there are a lot of companies that accept Bitcoin and a few other currencies, mainstream casinos are holding off for the time being. That is slowly starting to change, as Americas Cardroom will support several dozen cryptocurrencies moving forward. It’s an interesting change that will make the platform even more appealing to players.

Americas Cardroom Embraces Cryptocurrency

It is evident the online gambling industry is slowly changing for the better. More specifically, it is good to see these companies embrace new payment solutions these days. While it is true cryptocurrencies make a lot of sense for most casino operators, not everyone sees things that way just yet. Then again, Bitcoin and select altcoins can effectively remove the threat of fraud and reduce transaction fees. There is no reason not to give cryptocurrency a try as a gambling site operator.

Cryptocurrency acceptance opens up a lot of other opportunities as well. Attracting a global audience is perhaps the biggest selling point of dealing with currencies such as Bitcoin and altcoins. Plus, users can have their deposits created to their accounts immediately by using a payment processor handling zero-confirmation transfers. It also adds a bit more pseudonymity to the whole concept of gambling online, which is always appreciated.

When it comes to the top mainstream online casinos in the world, very few are openly experimenting with cryptocurrency payments right now. Americas Cardroom will set an intriguing precedent in this regard, to say the least. Not only will it accept Bitcoin, but several dozen other cryptocurrencies as well. For now, only deposits will be affected, although a cryptocurrency withdrawal option will be implemented in the near future as well.

Considering that ACR is available to players in over 165 different countries, the choice to accept cryptocurrency payments was pretty easy to make. There is no other global payment solution which provides so many benefits to the merchant; that much is evident. For the time being, it is unclear how the site accepts payments directly, as it has not announced which payment processor is being used. Given the vast number of supported currencies, it appears CoinPayments or a similar service provider would be the logical choice in this regard.

Some people may question the decision by Americas Cardroom to accept anything other than Bitcoin these days. While it is true Bitcoin is still the world’s leading cryptocurrency right now, it is not without its flaws whatsoever. More specifically, the higher network fees of late make it almost unprofitable to spend large amounts of cryptocurrencies. That doesn’t bode well for the future of this particular currency, although the network fees have come down quite a bit over the past few months.

This decision by the company may create an interesting example for other online gambling service providers to follow. After all, every online platform wants to stay one step ahead of the competition. To that end, this reaffirms that paying attention to the cryptocurrency ecosystem is something worth doing. Whether or not Americas Cardroom will benefit from this decision remains to be determined. It is evident cryptocurrency is making inroads in the online gambling world as we speak.

Finding secure wallet solutions for cryptocurrencies that aren’t Bitcoin is pretty difficult these days. Coinbase launched a Vault service for Bitcoin quite some time ago and made a big name for itself in the process. The service is now available for both Litecoin and Ethereum as well. This constitutes a major development in the world of cryptocurrency that could have major consequences for similar services in the future.

Coinbase Vault Supports More Currencies

In a way, it is good to see Coinbase trying to make a better name for itself in the cryptocurrency industry. It is evident there is a growing need for more secure solutions for storing cryptocurrencies right now. This doesn’t apply to just Bitcoin anymore, which isn’t exactly surprising. A lot of altcoins have gained in value and popularity this year, which means more people are holding them as a part of their portfolio.

Although each individual cryptocurrency has its own desktop client and paper wallet generator these days, there is always a demand for new solutions, to say the least. Moreover, a lot of cryptocurrency users store their money on cryptocurrency exchanges for extended periods of time. Coinbase has become pretty popular for Ethereum and Litecoin users these days as well. It only makes sense for the company to expand its Vault service to encompass these different currencies as well.

Customers who hold both Ethereum and Litecoin on Coinbase will be able to reap the rewards of the Vault service almost immediately. Having additional layers of withdrawal security for stored cryptocurrencies is never a bad thing .After all, the last thing anyone wants is to see their Litecoin or Ethereum balance stolen by an unknown assailant due to their own security-based shortcomings. Some of the new features introduce a 48-hour withdrawal delay and required email approvals.

Over the past few years, Coinbase’s Vault service has become a lot more popular among Bitcoin enthusiasts as well. Although we still advise people to use their own cold storage solution or a hardware wallet, it is understandable why so many users rely on the Vault. It eliminates the idea of Bitcoin owners having to choose between convenience and security when it comes to dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges.

That doesn’t mean the Coinbase Vault system is a perfect solution by any means. Users are still not fully in control of their money when using this service, and it will always be inferior to hardware wallets. However, it is a much cheaper and more convenient solution for holders of Ethereum and Litecoin. It will be interesting to see how many people use this service in the future.

In the end, it is good to see companies such as Coinbase expand their offerings in the area of cryptocurrency support. Expanding the Vault service to encompass additional currencies will be a big change, to say the least. The company recently introduced phone support as well, all of which shows how far Coinbase aims to evolve. We can only hope the Vault service will be appreciated in the long run, as it is a pretty compelling service.

Shanghai authorities don’t let top management of Bitcoin exchanges to leave the city, and it’s only the beginning