Day: December 16, 2017

As originally reported by local media outlets, the South Korean National Intelligence Service has traced previous hackings of domestic cryptocurrency exchanges back to the North. 

North vs. South

This Saturday, South Korean newspapers recapped reports by the NIS that claimed North Korean hackers were behind an attack on the Bithumb exchange. The hack, which began after an employee’s PC was compromised, leaked personal details of some 36,000 user accounts.  The attack supposedly occurred this past February, but Bithumb was not aware of the breach until June. According to reports, the hackers demanded 6 billion won (US$5.5 million) in exchange for deleting the stolen account information.

The NIS believes that North Korean hackers were also behind a series of attacks in April and September. In April, Youbit, formerly Yapizon, had its own exchange compromised, and Coinis suffered hacking attacks in September.

As a result of these attacks, hackers ran off with a cumulative 7.6 billion won (US$6.99 million) in cryptocurrencies. Today, these stolen funds are valued at 90 billion won (US$82.7 million). If you can believe it, though, things could have been worse, as the Korean Internet Security Agency thwarted an attempted hack on 10 South Korean exchanges in October.

Justifying its findings, the NIS said that the emails used in the hacks came from North Korean IP addresses. Additionally, the agency discovered that the hackers had used the same malware employed for their attacks on Sony Pictures in 2014 and on the Bangladeshi central bank in 2016.

Ramifications Going Forward

Conspirators, watchdogs, and analysts have long suspected that North Korean hackers have been lurking in cryptocurrency’s shadows.  Some analysts have argued that these attacks are a means for North Korea to circumvent financial sanctions brought on by its nuclear development.

Back in South Korea, exchanges have been feeling regulatory as well as financial repercussions in the wake of these attacks. According to Chosun Ilbo, the Korean Communications Commission came down on BTCKorea.com, the media company that owns Bithumb, with US$55,000 worth of fines. These fines were in direct response to the hackings earlier this year, according to the KCC, as Bithumb “failed to protect the information of users by not encrypting private data.”

The news of North Korea’s involvement in these attacks follows a month of legislative efforts by the South’s regulatory agencies to extend their reach into cryptocurrency markets. This development will no doubt hasten the passage of legislation regarding cryptocurrency exchanges and serve to strengthen what little regulatory frameworks are currently in place.

“We are seeing continued problems with cryptocurrency speculation and hacking attacks against online exchanges,” KCC Chairman Lee Hyo-seong said in a statement to Chosun Ilbo. “We will bolster regulations until separate laws for cryptocurrency exchanges are drafted.”

Cryptocurrency exchanges have seen major user growth in 2017. In some cases, this also means their services are subject to degraded performance. Bitstamp seems to be doing quite well in both aspects, though. Not only is their platform pretty solid, they also welcome around 100,000 new users every day. An astonishing number, to say the very least.

There are few exchanges out there which can handle an increased workload. Coinbase has struggled quite a bit throughout 2017 in this regard. Kraken has a bad infrastructure, but an upgrade is on the way. Even non-fiat currency exchanges struggle from time to time Poloniex has seen multiple outages this year alone. Not to mention the number of DDoS attacks performed against these platforms on a regular basis. Cryptocurrency is very hot right now and exchanges are struggling a bit. Bitstamp, on the other hand, seems to do relatively fine in most cases.

Bitstamp is Coping With Major Our Growth

More specifically, their platform seems to hold up quite well without issues. No major problems have been reported with performance, orders going awry, or anything like that. Getting your account verified, on the other hand, is a waiting game in its own regard. It is not uncommon for people to wait a week or longer to complete this process. It causes some friction, but there’s a good reason for these days. Around 100,000 new users register for Bitstamp every single day right now.

Please understand that we currently have over 100,000 new accounts opened daily. It is challenging to cope with such surge. We are expanding our capacity to on board clients faster but this takes a bit of time.

— Nejc Kodrič (@nejc_kodric) December 16, 2017

This is quite an interesting statement by the Bitstamp CEO. Most companies aren’t as transparent regarding such delays or new user signups. The demand for Bitcoin and various altcoins has been surging as of late. It is evident this demand will not slow down anytime soon either. Given the recent value increases of all major cryptocurrencies, people are going crazy for anything in this industry right now. For Bitstamp, this means a lot more users who have yet to sign up for this platform in the very near future.

At the same time, using a third-party service provider for user verification may be an option worth exploring. Veteran cryptocurrency users don’t want their information in the hands of too many entities right now These KYC and AML procedures are a necessary evil in the world of cryptocurrency exchanges. At the same, it may only be a matter of time until centralized platforms become obsolete. These are incredibly exciting times in the world of cryptocurrency, to say the very least.

Header image courtesy of Shutterstock

The post Bitstamp Currently Receives Over 100,000 new User Registrations per day appeared first on NEWSBTC.

There have been a few attempts to create so-called stablecoins, which are usually currencies pegged to either fiat currencies or other tangible assets. The ARC Reserve Currency is an asset-backed digital stablecoin. All proceeds from the issuance of these coins will be allocated to fixed income investments. A stable-priced cryptocurrency isn’t necessarily appealing to investors, but it may have some real-world use cases.

What is the Purpose of ARC Reserve Currency?

It is evident there may be a market for stablecoins, although it remains to be seen how they will be used exactly. The ARC Reserve Currency, for example, will certainly find its market, even though it remains to be seen how things will unfold. The concept itself is pretty interesting, even though it is yet another project associated with an ICO. More specifically, the currency is meant to raise money to issue such a token.

According to its website, the ARC Reserve Currency is both asset-backed and fully regulated. The latter point is rather interesting, especially considering there is no official ICO registered with the SEC as far as we know. It is unclear how the ARC Reserve Currency can be considered regulated if it isn’t adhering to the necessary guidelines in this regard. Then again, it seems the team has taken the necessary legal steps to avoid further scrutiny, which is always a good start.

The big question is why there is a need for stablecoins to begin with. After all, these currencies are not speculative in nature, as they are designed to have a stable value at all times. It is almost like Tether, but in a more legitimate and regulated form, by the look of things. Stable cryptocurrencies beat inflation and do not rely on untrusted counterparties. At the same time, they aren’t necessarily a great store of value, as that heavily depends on how useful such currencies turn out to be in the long run.

It is certainly true that most major cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. That is part of what makes them so attractive, since it allows people to effectively earn money by holding these coins if the value goes up. ARC Reserve Currency doesn’t have that benefit, as it will always have the same value. This raises the question as to why there is even a need to host an ICO for such a purpose, as most cryptocurrency-related stablecoin projects involving any major form of fundraising have proven rather unsuccessful.

The team claims the ARC Reserve Currency has intrinsic value. This will be achieved by taking proceeds from the ICO and subsequent coin issues and placing them into a ring-fenced SPV. The capital collected will then be allocated in cash and fixed income investments. It is a rather interesting mix of traditional finance and cryptocurrencies, although it remains to be seen what the future will hold for this particular currency. The proceeds will be used to control and stabilize the price, whereas original ICO investors may not necessarily see a return on their investment in terms of profits.

For the time being, it remains to be seen if this project has any merit whatsoever. There will always be an interest in stablecoins, even though they shouldn’t necessarily be considered investments. That might also explain why these digital tokens aren’t required to register with the SEC, as they don’t appear to be securities. An interesting future lies ahead for the ARC Reserve Currency, although no one knows for sure if this currency will make any significant impact.

Right before the CME launches Bitcoin futures trading, how’s the market reacting? #PRICE ANALYSIS

Every now and then, something unusual happens on the internet which no one can explain. Earlier this week, a lot of web traffic destined for major sites and platforms was routed through Russian servers for some unknown reason. This did not affect users directly, as they were still able to access the information requested. However, it seems something went wrong with the Border Gateway Protocol, and no one knows for sure exactly what went down.

An Intentional Border Gateway Protocol Error?

It is evident Russia doesn’t have the best of reputations when it comes to Internet activity right now. The country is often scrutinized for its involvement in spying on other nations, hacking efforts, and potentially even influencing elections. While most of this has yet to be proven, no one can deny something odd happened earlier this week. For some reason, a lot of web traffic was routed through Russia for no apparent reason.

More specifically, anyone trying to access Facebook, Apple, Google, or Microsoft’s sites was briefly routed through an unknown Russian internet provider, affecting both incoming and outgoing traffic. As most people know by now, internet traffic is often handed off from one ISP to another, which puts the information on the fastest path depending on the user’s location. Russia is not normally a “stop” on the way to any of the aforementioned destinations.

Given that all of this web traffic flowed through a previously unknown Russian ISP, there is reason for concern. Considering that no one was aware this entity existed, it shouldn’t even be part of the Border Gateway Protocol. The big question is whether or not any information was logged and stored for future reference. So far, there has not been any official comment from the Russian government on the matter.

Sadly, it is not the first time we’ve seen an incident occur on this scale. Around eight months ago, a large amount of network traffic belonging to financial services including MasterCard and Visa was routed through a Russian government-controlled telecom. The circumstances of that incident have not been clarified to this day, although it doesn’t appear as if anything negative has come from it. Taken together, both events raise a lot of questions, and no one has provided any real answers yet.

All of this makes the Border Gateway Protocol look bad, as there are more concerns over the validity, reliability, and trust associated with this communication protocol. Considering that sensitive internet traffic was routed through Russia twice in less than a year, something is not adding up. Whether any of this was done intentionally or through hacking methods remains unknown. For now, the incident has been labeled as “suspicious and intentional”, although the investigation is still ongoing.

It will be interesting to see if this development has any major impact on the net neutrality discussions. It is evident a lot of things are going on which can’t be readily explained. The BGP will have to undergo some serious scrutiny before we can even remotely grasp the full consequences of this situation. No information on the internet is safe from prying eyes, as this story confirms.

Seattle, Washington 12-05-2017 — düber technologies is proud to announce the launch of their Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for the dübercoin (DBR) token. This blockchain-secured digital currency will improve transparency, security and efficiency for the legal cannabis industry. The value network is built on top of an existing business that provides inventory management and sales support systems. This effort is being led by an experienced executive team, and a 16-person-strong developer group.

In order to incentivize value creation, anyone that participates in the düber ecosystem by making purchases or referrals, writing reviews or adding product info, and watching advertising will be equitably rewarded with a distribution of tokens from düber’s custom payment and rewards engine. Consumers can then use their tokens towards the purchase of goods at any participating retail location on the düber platform. düber believes that if you are creating value for others by putting energy into our ecosystem, then you should be fairly rewarded for your efforts. The DBR token also relieves dispensaries from the burden of operating in an all cash environment.

Finally, utilization of a blockchain-based data management system allows users unprecedented quality of lab-verified data of their products. The end benefit to consumers lies in their ability to be absolutely certain that they are receiving the licensed products they desire. Currently, there are over 700 unique strains of cannabis, each with their own effects and uses. This gets even more complicated by the fact that CBD/THC levels within each strain can vary from crop to crop. By complementing consumer reviews with lab-data and making these available to consumers and budtenders at point of sale, düber will provide the most transparent blockchain based cannabis supply chain in the world.

Whitepaper: https://dubercoin.com

About düber Technologies Inc.

Headquartered in Seattle, WA, düber Technologies Inc. is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider serving the cannabis industry. düber’s mission is to help small companies compete with large corporations through superior technology. The company currently provides customers with online ordering, self-serve systems, global product search, digital signage and advertising products and has plans to launch several more including retail point of sale and a home delivery engine for retailers. düber operates in state jurisdictions that have legalized both medical and recreational cannabis, and assists with compliance of the laws of these jurisdictions. To learn more about düber Technologies Inc., please visit www.duberpartners.com.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Litecoin has outperformed bitcoin in 2017, demonstrating a staggering 8,000 percent increase in price. While it still remains as the fifth largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin Cash and Ripple, it has solidified itself as a leading digital currency.

Since January 1, the price of Litecoin has surged from $3.63 to $302, as its market cap increased from below $177 million to $16.4 billion. The market valuation of Litecoin is currently larger than that of bitcoin in the beginning of 2017.

Potential Factors Behind Rally

Over the past 12 months, the bitcoin dominance index has decreased from above 80 percent to 56 percent. Several analysts have attributed the decrease in the bitcoin dominance index to the migration of users from bitcoin to alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) such as Litecoin and Ethereum that have significantly lower transaction fees than bitcoin.

At the time of reporting, the median transaction fee of Litecoin is around $0.065, while Ethereum’s remain above $0.5. Due the high transaction fees of bitcoin, many users have started to utilize Litecoin to process cheaper and small transactions.

Bitcoin Fees, a bitcoin transaction fee prediction platform developed by Earn.com (formerly 21 Inc) show that the fastest and cheapest transaction fee is 430 satoshis per byte, or 97,180 satoshis for median-size transaction. That is, a recommended fee of around $18.

When the size of the bitcoin mempool is below 50 million bytes or is relatively low, transactions can still be confirmed by miners with lower fees. But, when the size of the bitcoin mempool is larger than a hundred million bytes, without high fees, it is difficult to have transactions confirmed within 24 hours.

More users have begun to utilize Litecoin and other alternatives like Ethereum to process small transactions with cheaper fees, while relying on bitcoin as a robust store of value and safe haven asset.

Still, Litecoin creator and former Coinbase director of engineering Charlie Lee emphasized that it could take at least five years for general consumers to utilize bitcoin and litecoin in the real world.

“I think we’re still maybe five years away before people actually start using bitcoin and litecoin in real world use as a currency,” said Lee.

Where Does Litecoin Price Go in 2018

In consideration of the recent surge in the price of litecoin, Lee stated that he would be satisfied if the litecoin price stays in the $300 region by the end of 2018. That is a rather conservative prediction from Lee, as litecoin has increased by more than 83-fold year-to-date.

“I would be happy if litecoin stays at around $300 by the end of next year. It’s still very surprising how much it has grown this year. I never like to speculate on prices because I’m always wrong. If I tell you it’s going to go up and it doesn’t, you’ll be upset,” said Lee.

If more users continue to utilize litecoin for cheaper transactions and small payments, the user base and market valuation of litecoin will likely increase at a rapid rate throughout 2018.

The post Litecoin Has Outperformed Bitcoin in 2017, 8,000% Increase in Price appeared first on NEWSBTC.

We have seen quite a few complaints involving ICOs in the past few months. Especially in the US, there is genuine concern as to whether or not most of these tokens are securities. It appears someone has filed a complaint against the Centra ICO, which garnered a lot of attention thanks to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s involvement as a promoter. This development will certainly be interesting to keep an eye on.

Centra ICO is in Hot Water

It was only a matter of time until some of the more prominent ICOs faced legal scrutiny from the SEC. There have been a lot of successful projects which can clearly be considered securities offerings more than anything else. It is a worrisome development, but we’ve seen official complaints filed against these companies. Centra is the latest entity to deal with such a complaint, which shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will recall how Floyd Mayweather Jr. openly supported the Centra ICO on Instagram. It is evident the SEC doesn’t take too kindly to such things, which is why all American “idols” have been warned not to promote any of these projects in the future. While Mayweather’s endorsement may not have had much of an impact, the company went on to raise more than US$30 million during its initial coin offering.

The Centra ICO complaint touches upon a few different aspects of this crowdsale. For some reason, the team decided to label their ICO as a sale of utility-based tokens instead of the securities they truly are. In fact, the company specifically stated its tokens were not securities, shares, or investments. That was a clear lie, as these tokens were only sold under the premise that they would go up in value as time progressed. The endorsement by Mayweather Jr. has made that rather obvious.

Furthermore, it seems there is no Visa partnership, unlike what Centra had announced prior to and during its initial coin offering. A lot of debit card providers which held ICOs made such claims in the past, yet very few of them actually had any ties to Visa. There was also a lot of confusion regarding the Centra team members, as some of the people initially listed as employees are not even affiliated with the company. That’s a very disturbing development that may hurt the company’s chances of success in the long run.

To make matters worse, the bounty programs offered by Centra raise a lot of concerns as well. Paying bonuses to early token purchasers is also unacceptable, according to the complaint, and the paid endorsements by Mayweather Jr. were also problematic. All of those things clearly make Centra’s token a security rather than anything else. It is evident this may be a clear-cut securities violation in the eyes of the SEC.

The big question is how all of this will play out for the Centra team and their investors. We know the SEC does not look kindly on companies that violate securities laws, especially not if they used ICOs to do so. There are so many things about Centra which are in clear violation of the SEC’s rules, it’s almost impossible to point at one aspect in particular. We may very well see the SEC crack down on this project in a severe manner.

It will be possible to send and convert cryptocurrency in the interface of a familiar messenger.

In January 2018, a new payment service, TransCrypt, will enter the mobile app market, a service that will allow the sending, receiving and conversation of cryptocurrency using the Telegram interface. Transactions will occur in real time and with 0% commission.

Thanks to the use of the open-source code of Telegram, the list of contacts and message history will be saved in TransCrypt. Transferring cryptocurrency is as simple as selecting the required wallet in the chat window and entering the amount. Transaction security is assured by the use of the decentralized Blockchain data system and 3-factor MTPorto authorisation.

Nick Machulis, Chief Executive: “It is completely clear that cryptocurrency is not a short-term phenomenon, but a sought-after and progressive method of payment. Already, the turnover of bitcoin in dollar equivalent is higher than the turnover of the dollar on Visa cards*. We see ourselves in every client, and, therefore, seek to solve the problem of massive over-payments and transactions that take too long, with the maximum dedication. Our product is the only offer on the market that does not require any adaptation by the user. The user can send cryptocurrency in a familiar interface as easily as a message”.

Within the next six months, TransCrypt will allow transactions to be made with national currencies, including buying cryptocurrency directly from a bank card.

TransCrypt is being developed by an international company with its head office in Zug, Switzerland, and regional offices in five countries. The alpha version of this application will be released on 18th December 2017.

*Source – https://s1.q4cdn.com/050606653/files/doc_financials/annual/Visa-2016-Annual-Report.pdf

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

We have seen several central banks contemplate issuing their own digital currencies. So far, none of these projects have actually come to fruition. A new partnership between the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s central banks may change all that in the near future. Both entities are working on their own digital currency and blockchain-based system.

Another Bank-issued Digital Currency Project

Central banks have opposed Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for several years now. Given the uncontrollable and volatile nature of this new form of money, their opposition isn’t entirely surprising. However, these institutions have been taking a liking to the idea of creating their own digital currencies when the time is right, though when and if that time will come remains to be determined. Some institutions are currently working on doing exactly that.

More specifically, the central banks of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are collaborating on a blockchain-based system. The goal is to issue a cryptocurrency to ease cross-border transactions for these two countries specifically. It is an interesting concept, although everyone will immediately acknowledge the usability of the new currency will be somewhat restricted. If central banks issue dedicated digital currencies to conduct transactions with one or two other countries, things will start to look a bit bleak.

One has to acknowledge, though, that this collaboration between two monetary authorities from different countries is rather significant, especially when it comes to blockchain technology and new digital currencies. Most countries don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to developments like these, although things are certainly changing for the better. Whether or not this venture will be more successful than other attempts by central banks remains to be determined.

As one would expect, the project is still in the very early stages of planning right now. No code has been written, and it is unclear which blockchain provider will be used. There is no specific time frame for this project, but an open dialogue between the two monetary authorities is a good place to start. A thorough study will need to be conducted before these plans can move forward in an official capacity.

Considering that only the two participating central banks will be able to use this new digital currency, it remains to be seen how much more efficiency the currency will provide. It will never be made available to retail consumers, nor can anyone invest in this project. It is certainly true that central banks can benefit from more efficient and faster operations, but whether or not a new currency is necessary to facilitate this remains to be determined. It is good to see these entities explore all options at their disposal, though.

When this project was unveiled, both central banks confirmed that regulators will need to closely monitor the risks associated with advances in cryptocurrency and fintech. Every new form of innovation has both advantages and drawbacks. It is appropriate to address all of these factors before things get out of hand. This doesn’t mean Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will face additional regulatory scrutiny in either the UAE or Saudi Arabia, though.