Day: March 27, 2018

You can buy all sorts with Bitcoin these days: real estate, hotels, strippers, computer equipment, and a round of beers to name a few of the more widely reported examples. You can even buy solid gold casts of Nelson Mandela’s hands, apparently…

Mandela Artefacts Sold For Bitcoin

The buyer of the gold casts is Canadian cryptocurrency exchange platform Arbitrade. They’ve managed to secure what are thought to be the last remaining of such aftefacts for a whopping $10 million off Malcolm Duncan, a South African businessman. The payment will be made entirely in Bitcoin.

Duncan explained to Bloomberg the nature of the sale. He told them that he’d already received a $50,000 deposit in Bitcoin for the artefacts. The following payments will be sent in quarterly instalments. Duncan has no intention of holding onto the cryptocurrency though. In fact, he has stipulated that he will only relinquish possession of the casts when he has actual dollars in his bank account. He told the publication:

“They take possession when I have the dollar amount in the bank, At two-and-a-quarter million at a time, they take one hand at a time.”

Arbitrade plans to use the casts to launch a global tour to celebrate the life of the first black president of South Africa. Curiously, however, Mandela himself had ordered the destruction of the casts. This was part of an attempt by the legendary South African to control those attempting to profit from the sale of art relating to his own image and character. As such, the casts Duncan is selling are believed to be the last examples of such a piece.

As he has secured a buyer for $10 million, Duncan has turned a tidy profit on the pieces. He originally bought them from a gold mining firm known as Harmony Gold Mining Co. back in 2002. He paid around $31,000 for them. This was double the asking price as Duncan understood that half the money was to go to charity. However, it is unclear whether Harmony actually made the donation.

The casts themselves weigh 9kg each. They form part of a collection paying homage to the time Mandela spent imprisoned on Robben Island. They are immaculately detailed impressions of the famed leader’s hand, palm, and fist – even depicting a scar that Mandela picked up during his time in prison.

According to Bloomberg, the Ontario-based crypto exchange Arbitrade are weeks away from launching an ICO and are currently building a local digital currency mining facility. The company’s Chairman Len Schutzman says that his company are planning to back all their virtual coins with physical metal – including gold. It’s unlikely that the casts themselves will be used to back any of the firms crypto assets, however.

The post Buyer of Solid Gold Casts of Nelson Mandela’s Hands Pays $10 Million in BTC appeared first on NewsBTC.

The stars of Ireland’s Dragon’s Den — Gavin Duffy, Eleanor McEvoy, and Eamonn Quinn — have been dragged into a Bitcoin scam after photos and quotes falsely attributed to them were used in a fake online ad. The advertisement is for “BitCoin Trader,” a cryptocurrency trading site that appeared on the BBC and the Guardian websites before being taken down.

The online advertorial tells a detailed but fabricated story of how the Dragons apparently made millions by investing in BitCoin Trader, but it’s all a scam. It purports that two best friends appeared on Dragon’s Den and pitched their idea for a cryptocurrency trading website which sparked a bidding frenzy among the TV stars. The ad then encourages readers to invest money in the website themselves, with the minimum stake set at £250 ($350).

Upon discovery, the three Dragons appeared on RTE’s Joe Duffy to inform the public that they never invested in the fraud and were shocked that their faces and names were used being used without permission.

Dragons Speak Out

“They’ve lifted pictures, footage and our names from RTE’s Dragon’s Den and portrayed it as if it’s on the Australian Dragon’s Den where two guys came in to pitch a Bitcoin Trader website,” one of the stars, Gavin Duffy said.

“The whole story actually reads very well if it wasn’t completely fake. I know it’s not true but I’d imagine if you’re somebody in the UK you could easily be duped by this.”

“It is a total scam. I contacted the BBC but trying to get these things down off websites, because it’s a paid for ad by the people behind this scam to give a sort of official veneer, then overnight people were kind enough to give me a heads up that it’s on the Guardian website as well.”

Fellow Dragon Eleanor McEvoy, who also featured in the false article, said:

“It’s absolutely disgraceful that these things can happen… But what do you do when these things happen and god forbid anyone has invested any money in after seeing our names, god that would be terrible.”

Bitcoin Trader

Advertisements for BitCoin Trader describe the “platform” as follows: “Bitcoin Trader is designed to allow the average person to make millions in profits with bitcoin, even if they have no investment experience at all. All the user has to do is make an initial deposit, purchase a position in bitcoin, and wait for the automated trading algorithm to work its magic. Bitcoin trader operates using artificial intelligence, and keeps learning and learning after it is activated.”

It goes on to explain how the process is supposed to work: “The platform charges a commission of 2% on any profits the user generates. They also require you to make an initial deposit of 250 pounds, which the program uses to start trading. Bitcoin Trader makes money by purchasing when the prices go up and down. This is called “short selling” and the platform does it for you automatically.”

Unfortunately, these descriptions of BitCoin Trader may have lured some unsuspecting victims in, as the information presented on the site seems authentic and straightforward. At the moment, no further details have been released regarding the scam, and it’s not clear who created it or whether or not those people were successful in making any money.

The fraudulent move comes as cyber-criminals across the globe are finding increasingly novel ways to net illegal profits by taking advantage of the mainstream media attention cryptocurrencies have been receiving over the past year. 

The post Stars of Ireland’s Dragon’s Den Used for Bitcoin Scam Website Without Their Knowledge appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Lightning Network is of great interest to most Bitcoin users as of right now. It is evident this technology will introduce a lot of new opportunities, assuming it works properly. It has become evident that hackers are targeting Lightning Network nodes these days, but some users got their revenge in a sweet manner.

The Lightning Nodes Shall not be Hacked

Whenever new technology comes around, people with less than honest intentions will show an interest in these developments. Things are no different where the Lightning Network is concerned, by the look of things. A hacker – or hackers – attempted to breach one of the LN payment channels last week, but they were unsuccessful in doing so.

More specifically, it seems someone put together a piece of software to attack LND nodes on the network. This was to be expected, as payment channels opened between nodes can contain a significant amount of Bitcoin. If someone were able to hijack such payment channels, things would get very interesting for hackers and quite worrisome for Bitcoin users. Luckily, it seems hacking such payment channels isn’t necessarily a slam dunk.

Could you please explain what is happening here? Someone is punished by losing their BTC connected to the channel?

— BLOCKCHAINZ (@camerongrey) March 26, 2018

The Twitter exchange above explains how a remote peer breached the LN payment channel contract. That in itself is extremely worrisome, as it shows all payment channels may very well be subject to outside interference. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean people can steal money without a hitch. In this case, the assailant lost money in the process, which goes to show crime does not always pay.

Unlike what the attacker may have expected, he or she did not gain any money from breaching this LND payment channel. Although the breach itself was successful, the hacker lost 0.00299095 BTC, as it was swept from their wallet instead of the other way around. Although people may be concerned about this degree of “vindication”, it is only fair that people with dishonorable intentions should be punished for their efforts. Having them lose money is the only viable course of action, by the look of things.

The node that the hacker connected to swept and recovered all the funds in the channel. While the hacker seemingly attempted to broadcast an older commitment transaction, the LND node noticed that this attempt was sketchy and decided to take its own revenge. That’s quite an interesting way of turning things around, but it is evident that the Lightning Network should not be trifled with whatsoever.

All of this goes to show that people who try to trick LN nodes are disincentivized from doing so. While some attempts may be successful, hackers are forced to put up an equal amount of BTC to that which they are trying to steal. The prospect of losing a lot of money will make most people think twice before attacking these payment channels.

The Bank of England has launched a proof of concept that will explore DLT-compatibility with its real time gross settlement service.

In a promising move towards mainstream adoption, Coingate and Prestashop are teaming up to pave the way for 80,000 merchants in Europe to accept cryptocurrencies. The arrangement will permit consumers to pay for goods and services at any of the e-stores that use Prestashop’s e-commerce software solutions, using Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, as well as 50 other altcoins the payment provider accepts.

Coingate and Prestashop

Lithuania-based Coingate is a cryptocurrency payment gateway that allows various businesses to accept Bitcoin and altcoins for payment. Users of the service can buy cryptocurrencies from Coingate’s website using bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and even mobile phone credit. Users can also sell their coins to Coingate in exchange for Euros. On top of the big five, notable alternative currencies available on the platform include Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin Gold, Dogecoin, Reddcoin, and more.

Prestashop is an open-source e-commerce solution based in Paris that is currently utilized in 270,000 stores worldwide and available in 60 different languages. Of these 270,000 stores, 80,000 will be able to integrate Coingate solutions for cryptocurrency use.

Mainstream Adoption

The goal, according to Coingate CEO Dmitrijus Borisenka, is to encourage the adoption of cryptocurrencies amongst a more mainstream clientele. The hope is that once the partnership and services are up and running, the availability of the cryptocurrency payment option in the stores will encourage non-traditional users to get involved in the cryptosphere. Borisenka explains as follows:

“Encouraging adoption among people beyond the tech-savvy early-adopters is one of the biggest priorities for us. Prestashop has an ideal base of small to medium stores that may well utilize cryptocurrencies not only as an innovative and increasingly popular payment method, which is much cheaper than traditional card payments, but also the promotional benefits that the Bitcoin tag carries.”

“There is an entire new market of people who own all kinds of cryptocurrencies and are looking for ways to spend them,” Borisenka continued, “but the gap between customers and merchants in this sphere is still huge. It is therefore crucial to educate and encourage businesses to adopt a forward-thinking attitude and to overcome the prevailing misconceptions that surround cryptocurrencies.”

After setting up an account with Coingate, the team promise merchants a payment process capable of installation in “a few clicks.” An added feature is that in settlement, regardless of what coin the consumer pays in, payments come to merchants in a single currency of their choosing — fiat or otherwise. Settlements are made in Euros real-time the next day, which speaks to the issue of volatility inherent in dealing with cryptocurrencies at present.

“It is absolutely safe to accept cryptocurrencies as a way of payment. We protect our merchants from exchange rate volatility risk by locking the price of Bitcoin at the moment of the purchase. Merchants who opt to receive Euro payouts from us, essentially, do not have to touch cryptocurrencies at all – we handle every stage of the process,” Borisenka explains.

Both companies are experienced in both the global payment and cryptocurrency sectors. Coingate has 1,500 accounts around the globe, 50,000 users, and monthly revenue of more than $12 million; Prestashop has been around since 2007 and has evolved into an open-source platform used by more than 270,000 merchants in nearly 200 countries.

The post Partnership Between Coingate and Prestashop Gives 80,000 Merchants the Ability to Accept Cryptocurrencies appeared first on NewsBTC.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin is holding firm at $7,900. While this is a serious drop from its weekend mark of $8,600, there have been no significant changes since March 26, though it was trading for about $8,100 in the evening hours. A $200 rise and fall window is nothing to be terribly concerned about, though it does suggest the currency is experiencing a stronger point of resistance than in has in recent weeks.

Today, the ban of cryptocurrency and ICO-related ads takes full effect on social media giant Twitter. The company is following in the footsteps of Google and Facebook, and has become the third-largest company to take such action. Every time an enterprise of considerable size has made such a “bold” maneuver, bitcoin’s price has inherently dropped anywhere between seven to ten percent, and new levels of resistance are subsequently being developed.

Additionally, bitcoin incurs small, yet noticeable rises throughout the following weeks, but has yet to recover the stamina and growth it experienced last December, leading to a serious decline in general interest for cryptocurrency and concerns over whether the digital asset industry will be damaged permanently.

What is different, however, is that there has been no noticeable change from one day to the next. It is ironic that 24 hours would pass between Twitter’s initial announcement and the actual enforcement of its ban. Twitter first mentioned its plans on March 26; it was then that we noticed bitcoin’s first major drop in over a week to its present mark. Now that the ban is in place, bitcoin’s price isn’t moving much, which leaves room for argument that the currency’s strength is increasing gradually, and developing a thicker base for working against such blockades.

The news of Twitter’s stance is disheartening at first glance, but it may not mark the end of bitcoin or cryptocurrencies just yet. In Korea for example, where digital assets have retained their popularity despite strict regulation changes, the death of anonymous trading and exchange raids, popular trading platform Bithumb and mobile payment service provider Pay have joined hands to bring cryptocurrency payments to several thousand retail stores and locations throughout South Korea by the end of 2018.

The partnership would allow consumers to purchase virtually anything and everything with digital currency, granted its accepted at one of the several thousand participating stores. This is just one of many recent ventures designed to bring widespread cryptocurrency acceptance and adoption to South Korea. Others include Kakao Corp, the “internet giant” that’s working to integrate cryptocurrency payments for over 10,000 separate merchants.

As of late, South Korea accounts for over one-quarter of the world’s cryptocurrency trades, making it a strong player in the digital asset industry. Not only does the region warrant further attention, but it is likely regulation within Korea will have a bolder influence on the regulatory tactics of outside regions. We won’t know until further implementation, but the idea is growing that Asia has a powerful hand in the cryptocurrency arena, and things will likely remain that way for some time. Regions like the U.S. and Europe are going to have to work hard if they wish to keep up and remain current.

Because of the obvious bad press, LTC took the brunt of the markets in the last 24 hours losing 3.5% according to CoinMarketCap. Of course, that was inevitable and with LitePay closing down after using $50K of Litecoin Foundation’s money, Lee should make due diligence before shilling LTC and giving spineless guarantees to a tax evader.

Apart from that, the altcoins market is relatively calm with EOS back in the green and Lumens ranging in lower time frames. IOTA is not badly off and stable. However, odds of it trading at parity with the USD remain high.

Let’s have a look at these charts:

XLM/USD (Stellar Lumens)

Relative to yesterday’s prices, Stellar Lumens has zero net gains. It’s basically consolidating in lower time frames complete with a stochastic buy signal.

Overly, bears are in charge and like before, every high is another selling opportunity. We estimate sell potentials to be around the major resistance trend line at $0.30 especially if prices trend higher today.

Anyhow, apart from the stochastic buy signal turning from deep the overbought territory in the 4HR chart, there is another bull divergence relative to price action meaning chances of Lumens gaining is high.

Conversely, if sellers reject further XLM appreciation, our previous bear targets at $0.15 stays put.

IOT/USD (IOTA)

To get a clear picture of how higher time frame trend precedence, then current price action in IOTA provides a clear picture.

Of course, there are pockets of bullish pressure but every attempt of such is met by a deluge of sellers draining momentum lower.

Despite buy pressure, our projection is that IOTA shall most likely trade at parity with the USD in the coming days.

The general trend is bearish and assuming IOTA bulls pick up from current levels-there is a stochastic buy signal, $1.4 and $1.5 would be valid resistance zone where bears can wait for stochastic sell signal to print as they offload this coin.

EOS/USD (EOS)

Right from CoinBase declaring their support for ERC-20 tokens and even hinting listing some of these tokens in their exchanges to news that EOS is offloading 80K ETH, everybody can see that EOS spike.

OK, the crowd funding is still on and being the only gainer at 7% according to CoinMarketCap, sellers should keep off for the time being.

Regardless, $4 remains a feasible target but since prices don’t move in straight lines, waiting for a stochastic sell signal ideally at $7.5 would be perfect. Any close above $6.5 will encourage buyers to jump in creating demand for buyers.

LTC/USD (Litecoin)

Charlie Lee is turning out to be a spoiler. After all that LitePay hype, the curtains are coming down for a promising company whose owner is a known tax evader.

Besides being not paying taxes, Asare-the chap behind LitePay looks to be very good at embezzling funds. The closure means $50K of LTC Foundation is in ether.

Even if we cannot see adverse effect on LTC, this is negative for the coin and the bad vibe will further erode this coin’s value despite apologies from Lee. In my opinion, sellers should hold tight and aim for $100. After all, the weekly chart bear tide is so strong to counter.

NEO/USD (NEO)

Guys, any NEO appreciation is technically a perfect sell opportunity.

At the moment, NEO seems to be finding support at $50, yes, a round number and a level of significance in the recent past.

But, here the thing, even if bulls pick up from there, sellers should get ready to enter anywhere between $80 and $90 or there about.

All charts courtesy of Trading View

The post NEO, EOS, LTC, IOTA and Lumens: Altcoins Technical Analysis March 28, 2018 appeared first on NewsBTC.

Cryptocurrency exchanges have always been a prominent target for hackers and other types of cybercriminals. Those concerns will not be going away anytime soon, considering how successful phishing attempts can be. The latest campaign is targeting Binance users and makes mention of an “ERC20 import event”.

Binance Users Beware

It is evident the growing popularity of Binance as a cryptocurrency trading platform has not gone by unnoticed. A lot of people are showing an interest in what the platform has to offer, but not all of this attention is 100% legitimate. Indeed, we’ve seen a lot of phishing campaigns, which are often relatively successful in the world of cryptocurrency.

The latest phishing email to make the rounds is specifically targeted at Binance users. This particular email advises users that the exchange has seen some big improvements. While there is some truth to that claim, the rest of the email should be ignored. There is no ERC20 import event taking place on the exchange, nor will there ever be.

Even so, the phishing email attempts to trick users into importing their ERC20 tokens through their regular Ethereum wallets. This is a clear attempt to steal customer funds, as users are redirected to a completely different website in the process. It looks almost identical to the Binance website, but the website’s address is completely different.

Anyone who follows the guidelines outlined in this email will eventually lose their money. It is unclear if the scammers are mainly interested in the ERC20 tokens or the Ethereum wallet addresses themselves. Even so, any funds linked to one’s address will be pretty much gone in the blink of an eye. It’s not exactly the most sophisticated approach, but one has to acknowledge that these attempts will be successful in one way or another.

What is rather worrisome is that this email was not just sent out to Binance users. Rather, it was also sent to individuals who recently participated in ICOs and other crowdfunding projects. How these addresses were obtained is unclear at this point. It is evident that criminals will utilize any addresses they can get their hands on in the hopes of striking it rich at some point. That is much easier said than done, for obvious reasons.

Whether or not this means we will see another wave of cryptocurrency-oriented phishing attempts remains to be seen. This particular method of attack has proven to be extremely lucrative for criminals over the past few months, and the influx of new users will only make it easier to trick people into giving up their information. Only time will tell if this particular campaign was successful, but we can only hope no one fell for it.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) launched their first blockchain-based platform, dubbed the Blockchain Registry Open Platform (BROP). Its purpose: to cut through the extensive bureaucracy surrounding China’s banking system.

The platform was developed by the Zhongchao Blockchain Research Institute, that works as a subsidiary under the PBoC. The project was unveiled at the Global Financial Science and Technology Summit, as a platform for developing intellectual property rights through blockchain technology. It follows the steps of a number of platforms already developed for similar purposes. The service enables the creation of credible records of intellectual ownership. As well as this, the BROP can certify data and provide users with digital credentials. 

The principal goal of the platform is to simplify the process for maintaining intellectual property rights, currently a challenge for foreign and local businesses due to the extensive bureaucratic barriers in place. BROP can be used by multiple economic sectors, with intentions to employ the service to provide verifiable and supervised ownership registries and information on public services.

”Our key focus is the development of blockchain and other emerging financial technologies”

Speaking out on the project, Fan Guifu, chairman of Zhongchao Credit Card that supervises the Zhongchao Blockchain Research Institute, intimated this would not be the only blockchain development from the institute. Some outlets have reported that the institute has applied for 22 blockchain patents, signalling more projects in the future.

Zhongchao found its way to 18th pace in the 2017 Global Blockchain Enterprise Patent Rankings released by IPRdaily. Of the top 100 companies on the list, 49 were Chinese, while 23 were from the USA.

While the PBoC has proudly released their first blockchain development, the government’s attitude towards cryptocurrencies has not changed. Cryptocurrency companies operating in China face many restrictions, including the ban on initial coin offerings (ICOs) and domestic-fiat exchanges.

The development of the BROP began in 2015, with the Zhongchao Blockchain Research Institute created in 2017 to finalize the development. The platform went live on 26 March 2018.

The post Central Bank Of China Release ‘Blockchain Registry Open Platform’ appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The latest version of AMD’s Adrenalin Edition driver for its Radeon processors fixes an issue impacting blockchain processes.

People who have kept close tabs on the cryptocurrency industry may have come across the term “cryptojacking” before. This particular trend revolves around hackers controlling other people’s computers or smart devices to mine cryptocurrency. A new report shows cryptojacking has gained a lot of traction in Sweden as of late.

Sweden is Home to Many Cryptojackers

It is unfortunate to see how popular illicit trends associated with cryptocurrencies are becoming. The concept of cryptojacking is nothing new by any means, but it is evident things are slowly getting out of hand. More specifically, criminals continue to show interest in breaching other people’s computers to mine cryptocurrency, typically altcoins. For most users, this type of activity goes by unnoticed, which only creates more problems in the long run.

Cryptojacking is usually done in such a way that the victim won’t notice anything malicious is going on, although it remains to be seen how successful such efforts really are in the end. It takes a lot of computing power to mine cryptocurrencies, even if it’s altcoins we’re talking about rather than Bitcoin. Mining Bitcoin with a regular computer is virtually impossible these days.

In Sweden, there has been a strong uptick in cryptojacking activity. That is not a positive sign by any means, especially considering that it’s nearly the only country to show an increase on this scale. While we see security threats rise in number every year, it seems cryptojacking may eventually become more worrisome than ransomware, assuming this trend keeps up.

To put this into numbers, Sweden saw a 10,000% increase in cryptojacking during Q4 of 2017. While that may not say much without knowing the full story, it is a growth rate twice as high as the rest of the world. This seems to indicate there is a lot of criminal activity related to cryptocurrency going on in Sweden right now, although it remains unclear what makes this country so popular.

A lot of people are swayed by the potential to make a lot of money hijacking other people’s computers. How they do so exactly remains to be determined, but it seems the use of malware to infiltrate target computers is the most logical method. Once a hacker gains backdoor access, they can usually install any type of software without the device owner being any wiser. It creates a very troublesome scenario that needs to be dealt with accordingly.

The big question is whether or not the cryptojacking trend will continue to gain popularity in Sweden. As of right now, there is no reason to think that won’t be the case, but only time will tell what the future holds in this regard. There is also an uptick in the number of recent banking Trojan attacks in Sweden, which is another troublesome development, for obvious reasons.