Autor Cointelegraph By Arijit Sarkar

BlockFi confirms unauthorized access to client data hosted on Hubspot

New Jersey-based crypto financial institution BlockFi confirmed a data breach incident via one of its third-party vendors, Hubspot. BlockFi’s proactive warning about the breach aims to deter the intentions of bad actors in repurposing the user data for fraudulent activities.According to the announcement, the hackers gained access to BlockFi’s client data on Friday, Mar. 18, that were stored on Hubspot, a client relationship management platform:“Hubspot has confirmed that an unauthorized third-party gained access to certain BlockFi client data housed on their platform.”As a third-party vendor for BlockFi, Hubspot stored user data such as names, email addresses and phone numbers. Historically, bad actors have used such information for conducting phishing attacks and gaining access to accounts through user-provided passwords.Regarding recent third-party data incident: pic.twitter.com/50z7IrQ1za— BlockFi (@BlockFi) March 19, 2022At the time of writing, BlockFi is supporting Hubspot’s investigation to gain clarity on the overall impact of the data breach. While the exact details of the breached data are yet to be identified and revealed, BlockFi reassured users by highlighting that personal data — including passwords, government-issued IDs and social security numbers — “were never stored on Hubspot.”In addition, BlockFi has also confirmed that its internal system and client funds were not accessed and that the breach remains limited to the third-party vendor, Hubspot. The company further recommended four methods to help users protect their online presence from bad actors — good password hygiene, two-factor authentication (2FA), allowlisting trusted applications and vigilance against scammers.On an end note, BlockFi acknowledged that time is of the essence and are expediting their investigations to identify the extent of the breach:“Additional information will be emailed to all impacted clients in the coming days.”Investors are advised to be wary of all company communication, especially that demand urgency in requesting/changing personal details including passwords and wallet addresses.Related: Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTsOn Friday, Mar. 18, the recently launched nonfungible token (NFT) project Rare Bears was attacked, resulting in a theft of nearly $800,000 in NFTs. Warning @BearsRareDiscord has unfortunately been compromised. Please DO NOT click any links, connect your wallet and block all incoming DMs in our discord. Our team are working on the situation as we speak — Rare Bears (@BearsRare) March 17, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, the attacked was conducted by a hacker who posted a phishing link in the project‘s Discord channel, and eventually stole 179 NFTs.

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Crypto startup employee quits after realizing telltale signs of failure

The startup ecosystem has historically played a vital role in shaping the crypto community into an almost $2 trillion industry. However, numerous players bank on this notion to consistently overpromise and underdeliver the big WAGMI dream.Back in December 2021, Redditor busterrulezzz thought they landed their dream job after being hired by a crypto startup — only to realize that they were now a part of the problem and resigned from the position two months later.Redditor u/busterrulezzz: Source: RedditAs narrated by busterrulezzz:“First of all, the level of disorganization and chaos was absolute madness. Each morning we had a different objective, based on the most recent trend in the market.”The Redditor alleged that the crypto startup, which shall remain unnamed due to an active non-disclosure agreement, did everything that crypto investors are usually advised against. This included offering NFT services without proper infrastructure, purchasing cryptocurrencies at their all-time highs purely based on their popularity. Paraphrasing the company’s agenda, busterrulezzz stated:“One of our products doesn’t work anymore because we rushed a bug-fixing patch? Let’s pretend that never happened and let’s keep pushing rosy marketing articles!”Soon after joining the team, the Redditor realized that a business cannot be profitable or a productive member of the crypto ecosystem “if you can’t even define your objectives and stick to it.”The Redditor further alleged that the startup proactively misled and cheated investors by using bots to run official Telegram channels, faking community users on Discord and partnering with influencers to make their products seem popular, adding that:“This kind of stuff is what gives crypto its bad reputation to the outside world.”One of the biggest red flags the new employee noticed were the founders, who were allegedly only interested in making the most amount of money as soon as possible:“We were acting like an evil hedge fund, precisely the type of institution crypto is supposed to fight.”With this alleged realization, busterrulezzz now felt like a scammer and ended up quitting their job. Conveniently enough, the company did not pay salary for the last week for absconding. The Reddit community, however, wants them to lawyer up to get the NDA nullified and retrieve the pending payment. “Thanks for the advice, I will look into it,” they concluded.Despite the unpleasant experience, the Redditor advises the community to join well-known crypto enterprises and “not waste your time in little-known start-ups that have big dreams, but can’t deliver.”Readers are also advised to do their due diligence about the company founders and roadmap prior to accepting job invitations. While the story highlights the alleged inner workings of a fraudulent crypto startup, some of the biggest players in crypto come from humble backgrounds including Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume.Related: UK financial watchdog seeks crypto talent amid new crackdownOn the other end of the spectrum, government organizations have finally acknowledged the importance of hiring experts from within the crypto ecosystem. As Cointelegraph reported, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently posted job openings on LinkedIn seeking a head of the digital assets department and a director of the payments and digital assets department.FCA job postings. Source: LinkedinThe new role is part of FCA’s plan to establish a dedicated department for crypto, the announcement notes:“We are looking for a head of department to build and lead a new crypto department that will lead and coordinate the FCA’s regulatory activity in this emerging market. This is a critical leadership role within a proposed new directorate dealing with emerging business models […]”

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Bitcoin well positioned to help governments create cheaper CBDCs: Deloitte

A new study from financial services giant Deloitte highlighted the potential of Bitcoin (BTC) as a base to create a cheaper, faster and more secure ecosystem for electronic fiat currency or central bank digital currency (CBDC).Deloitte’s analysis, titled State-Sponsored Cryptocurrency, pointed out the need for a complete redesign of the traditional fiat ecosystem to overcome impending issues of being “slow, error-prone and expensive relative to performance in other high-tech industries.” However, the report pointed out five key areas where Bitcoin can help traditional fiat currency improve drastically — speed, security, efficiency, cross-border payments and collaboration with other payment participants:“With the potential to […] do it without the day-to-day operational need for a centralized organization, whether commercial or federal, the result could truly be transformational.”Similarities and differences between CBDCs and Bitcoin. Source: DeloitteWhile stating the various difference between BTC and state-issued CBDCs, Deloitte’s analysis reiterates one of the major inflationary traits of fiat currency, stating that CBDCs have no cap on money supply contained on the ledger and that centralized governments can define the value of the CBDC. According to the analysis, governments that are first to roll out a nationwide CBDC will have an early-bird advantage in influencing the use of their local currency in international markets and trades. In a CBDC environment, Deloitte envisions crypto exchanges to retain their current position as a facilitator that will be used to convert “users’ cryptocurrency to paper currency when transacting across different currencies, and charges an exchange fee in return.” In such a scenario, banks will act as custodians of the distributed ledger who will compete with other miners to process transactions and collect the reward.On an end note, the analysis states that while CBDCs will not serve as a one-to-one replacement for BTC and other cryptocurrencies, the mainstreaming of CBDCs will open up an additional option for users to choose the most appropriate medium of payment, concluding: “[Bitcoin] could ultimately spawn a series of new opportunities that would […] transform the current payments system into one that is faster, more secure, and less expensive to run.”Related: Jamaican central bank to airdrop Jam-Dex CBDC to early adoptersWhile many jurisdictions have joined race to implement in-house CBDCs, one the key factors for its successful implementation is widespread adoption. In this effort, Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness announced that the first 100,000 Jamaican citizens to use the country’s CBDC, Jam-Dex, will be given a free $16 payment in the hopes of promoting widespread adoption.Finance Minister @NigelClarkeJa demonstrates use of the CBDC to pay his barber Paul during the #BudgetDebate2022. @CentralBankJA #JamDEx pic.twitter.com/izfRqX58Cy— JLPJamaica (@jlpjamaica) March 8, 2022As Cointelegraph reported, approximately 17% of the Jamaican population remains unbanked, and with the launch of CBDC, the Jamaican government plans to encourage low and middle-income citizens to join the national banking system.

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Crypto vs. physical: Musk-Saylor inflation debate boils down to scarcity

As rising inflation threatens to eat up further the purchasing power of the global fiat ecosystem, finding the perfect hedge against a falling economy has become the need of the hour — especially for the general public across the world. Joining this discussion online, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked publicly about the probable inflation rate over the next few years to gauge the notion of global investors. Sharing his thoughts on the matter, American billionaire and MicroStrategy CEO Michael J. Saylor opined that with rising inflation, he expects the capital cash flow will move away from traditional fiat into scarce assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).USD consumer inflation will continue near all time highs, and asset inflation will run at double the rate of consumer inflation. Weaker currencies will collapse, and the flight of capital from cash, debt, & value stocks to scarce property like #bitcoin will intensify.— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) March 14, 2022In the last six months, major economies including the United Kingdom, Turkey, Russia and the United States have witnessed unprecedented inflationary pressure owing to global uncertainties and disruptions fueled by cross-border conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic. Complimenting Saylor’s general proposition for investing in scarce assets to counter the rising U.S. dollar inflation, Musk replied, “It is not entirely unpredictable that you would reach that conclusion.”While the general public joined in on the discussion, dismissing Saylor’s suggestion of using BTC as a hedge against inflation due to personal investments, Musk acknowledged that assets that are predominantly scarce — such as physical property and company stocks — help investors in maintaining their purchasing power against high inflations.As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high.I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022

As a part of the advice, Musk shared his intent to continue hodling BTC, Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE) amid rising inflation “for what it’s worth.”Tesla will make some merch buyable with Doge & see how it goes— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2021

Back in December 2021, Musk confirmed that EV giant Tesla will start accepting DOGE for merchandise, as a result, spiking the meme token’s price by 25%.DOGE/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bittrex) from December 2021. Source: TradingViewHowever, Musk’s latest tweet in support of cryptocurrencies is yet to have any positive impact on the dwindling prices. Related: Dogecoin Foundation registers name and logos as trademarked within in the EUIn an effort to improve the legitimacy of its thriving ecosystem, the Dogecoin Foundation registered “Doge,” “Dogecoin” and its associated logos as trademarks in the European Union.Given an increasing number of bad faith attempts to register trademarks for “Doge”, “Dogecoin” and even the logos created for Dogecoin by Christine Ricks by people and organisations, we had no option but to register them to protect all good shibes in the @Dogecoin community. 2/2— Dogecoin Foundation (@DogecoinFdn) March 2, 2022

As Cointelegraph reported, Dogecoin executive board member Jens Wiechers stated that the move was made in an attempt to weed out the attempts of unaffiliated people to register the names and use the trademarks as tools of extortion.

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23-year-old Australian buys $314k property via planned crypto investments

A young resident from Queensland, Australia played the long game of accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) over several years to eventually overcome the soaring real estate prices during the 2020 bull run and own his dream home.The 23-year-old Loi Nguyen started his journey as an investor back in 2017 by purchasing a few hundred dollars worth of BTC, ETH and traditional stocks. However, his interest in crypto reached new heights while pursuing an Economics degree:“Crypto came back into my life when I did a course at the uni on inflation. I learned that Bitcoin can be disinflationary.”Speaking to news.com.au, Nguyen revealed that the lower interest rates (less than 0.5%) offered by traditional banks could never help him break into the real estate market. By following a dollar-cost averaging (DCA) investment strategy, the young investor continued to diversify his portfolio into cryptocurrencies amid the temporary bear market of 2018:“I recognize I took on a lot of risks. I wanted to protect my purchasing power, protect my current savings, make sure my money didn’t dwindle away.”Loi Nguyen as a university student, making planned crypto investments. Source: news.com.auAs traditional markets collapsed during the start of the covid-19 pandemic, Nguyen’s crypto investments outgrew the value of his stock portfolio. This was when his investment focus moved away from traditional markets further into cryptocurrencies — eventually accumulating 1 BTC over several months. With the intent to purchase real estate, Nguyen cashed out his crypto investments during November-December 2021, a timeline when BTC reached an all-time high of $69,000. In total, the young Aussie sold less than half of his crypto portfolio, leaving him around $31,400 (43,000 Australian dollars) to show the bank as a part of the downpayment.Nguyen’s new one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane, Australia. Source: news.com.auNguyen purchased a one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane, which was priced at $314,000 ($430,000 Australian dollars) and required approximately $62,735 ($86,000 Australian dollars) as a downpayment. “About half of that was made up of crypto,” Nguyen added.After finishing high school, Nguyen worked full-time for a year as a bank teller but was on a low salary of roughly $20,400. “I’m doing a lot better now,” he concluded.Related: Aussie advisory committee lists key factors for easing crypto adoptionAustralian cybersecurity advisor, the Cyber Security Industry Advisory Committee, recently highlighted numerous crypto-specific opportunities. As Cointelegraph reported, the study titled Exploring Cryptocurrencies underpins the need for a regulatory setting for attaining greater clarity and confidence regarding cryptocurrencies for the Australian market.The federal advisory recommends the exploration of four key areas that can “help ensure the safe adoption of cryptocurrencies in Australia” — minimum cyber security standards, capability (awareness through specialized training), the follow-the-lead approach and operator transparency.

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