Značka: bitcoin wallet
Crypto user who lost $163M in Bitcoin wants to deploy robot search party: Report
James Howells, a British man who mistakenly discarded a hard drive containing roughly 7,500 Bitcoin in 2013 has reportedly started looking at having robots and humans work together to retrieve his crypto from a local landfill.According to a Sunday report from Business Insider, Howells has pitched an $11-million idea to locate and recover the lost hard drive, which may be surrounded by up to roughly 110,000 tons of garbage. The proposal, backed by a few venture capitalists, involved having people, robot dogs, and other machines pick up and sort through the landfill’s trash for up to three years until the lost Bitcoin (BTC) is found, while another version of Howells’ plan would cost $6 million and take 18 months.Many crypto users know Howells’ actions as a telltale story of the importance of keeping track of one’s coins, whether by securely storing private keys or a physical hardware wallet. The Brit threw away the hard drive containing the BTC in 2013 thinking it was blank, realizing months later that he had potentially lost millions of dollars’ worth of crypto.Newport City Council, the government body responsible for overseeing operations in the landfill supposedly containing the lost hard drive with BTC, reportedly has denied Howells’ previous attempts to retrieve the device. A report from January 2021 — when the BTC price was more than $30,000 — suggested he had offered the city up to 25% of the value of the lost BTC as a relief donation amid rising costs due to the pandemic, but was still not given the opportunity to search. “There is nothing that Mr. Howells could present to us [for approval],” reportedly said a council representative. “His proposals pose significant ecological risk, which we cannot accept and indeed are prevented from considering by the terms of our permit.”At the time of publication, 7,500 BTC was worth roughly $163 million amid volatility in the crypto market. Howells’ plan, if given approval and successfully executed, would reportedly allow him to keep roughly 30% of the Bitcoin, while the remainder would go to the recovery team, investors, and Newport’s 150,000 residents — roughly $60 each to the members of the last group.“If we’re successful in recovering the coins, then I made a pledge to the people of Newport to literally give people in Newport crypto directly,” said Howells in an interview with journalist Richard Hammond. “I could spend the rest of my life working a day job and never come close to anything of the value that’s on that hard drive.”James Howells presenting his plan to find his hard drive containing 7,500 BTC. Source: What Next?Howells planned to speak with the council in the coming weeks. Should the members reject the plan, the Bitcoiner reportedly said he could pursue a legal route to compel a search of the landfill by claiming the crypto on his hard drive was being illegally embargoed. Related: Lost Bitcoin may be a ‘donation,’ but is it hindering adoption?Some experts have made names for themselves in the crypto space by recovering lost or forgotten coins worth millions of dollars. In August 2021, wallet recovery service KeychainX reported it had accessed a six-year-old wallet containing 10 million Dogecoin (DOGE) — worth roughly $3 million at the time. Joe Grand, a computer engineer and hardware hacker, also recovered more than $2 million from a Trezor One hardware wallet in January.
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Hardware crypto wallet sales increase as centralized exchanges scramble
Blockchain analysis firm Glassnode recently characterized the 2022 bear market as the worst on record. This seems to be the case due to events such as the war in Ukraine and rising inflation, coupled with serious problems among centralized crypto exchanges. Yet, the bear market hasn’t negatively impacted all players in the crypto ecosystem. Hardware wallet providers seem to be benefiting from the massive amount of crypto withdrawals from centralized exchanges. Pascal Gauthier, CEO of hardware wallet crypto firm Ledger, told Cointelegraph that the company’s revenue dropped about 90% during the 2018 crypto winter, but this hasn’t been the case this year. He said:“Every quarter we are doing as much revenue as the whole of 2020, which was a very good year for Ledger. Right now year-on-year we are still up, which tells us that this bear market is different. It’s not a real bear market, but rather a bear market for centralized value propositions.”To put this in perspective, Gauthier shared that the company shipped the most units of Ledger hardware wallets to date following Coinbase’s declaration of losses, which further suggested that users are not protected in the case of bankruptcy. “We did $2 million a day in revenue following the release of this report, but it was just a peak because nothing bad actually happened to Coinbase. People just realized that their crypto wasn’t safe,” he said. Gauthier elaborated that once Celsius froze users’ funds and rumors began circulating that BlockFi may do the same, Ledger, yet again, saw a major boost in business. “People were rushing to our products to move funds to somewhere secure. We have now been seeing about six-times an increase in revenue week-on-week,” said Gauthier. Ariel Wengroff, head of global communications and marketing at Ledger, further told Cointelegraph that the company recently formed a partnership with Best Buy, allowing consumers to buy Ledger products directly in-store, which has also increased sales. “We are launching in 256 more stores this July,” she said. Ledger isn’t the only hardware wallet provider witnessing revenue gains in this bear market. Josef Tětek, Bitcoin (BTC) analyst at Trezor, told Cointelegraph that the firm has also seen a significant surge of interest in Trezor devices. “People are finding out that keeping their coins on exchanges and with custodians can be very risky, so they are naturally looking for self-custody options,” he said. Tětek added that Trezor believes the liquidation cascade centralized lenders and exchanges are undergoing hasn’t fully played out yet. In turn, he noted that Trezor is urging clients of exchanges and custodians to consider withdrawing their coins into their own wallets, at least for the time being. He added: “As Warren Buffett famously said, we don’t know who’s swimming naked until the tide goes out — and the outflow has only just begun.”Hardware wallet provider GridPlus has also seen an uptick in sales, which is mainly being generated by the nonfungible token (NFT) community. Justin Leroux, CEO of hardware wallet GridPlus, told Cointelegraph that the firm has struggled to meet consumer demand recently, noting that they are ramping up production. He explained:“The NFT community has been the largest sustained source of growth for us: New users drawn to crypto’s application layer need to immediately jump into self-custody to participate in NFT markets since centralized options are not readily available.” Risks to considerAccording to findings from the research firm Mordor Intelligence, the global hardware wallet market was valued at $202.40 million in 2020. This market is expected to be valued at $877.69 million by 2026, but today’s increasing demand for hardware wallets may influence this amount to equate to more. While it’s noteable to see the hardware wallet market thriving during a bear cycle, it’s also important to mention that these products are not foolproof. Alejandro Munoz-McDonald, a smart contract engineer at Immunefi — a bug bounty platform for Web3 products — told Cointelegraph that holding funds in a hardware wallet does not mean they are 100% safe. He said:“A user can still fall victim to a phishing attack. They sign some transaction thinking it will do something else and then they get their NFT or tokens stolen. Another attack vector could be through an infinite approval a user made to a contract that turns out to have a critical vulnerability. If a compromised contract has permission to transfer your funds, they’re as good as gone.” Munoz-McDonald pointed out that Ledger and Trezor do a relatively good job of preventing attacks on surfacing a user’s private key. However, he noted that hardware wallets are still vulnerable to physical attacks. “If an attacker gains physical access to your hardware wallet, it’s game over,” he said. Moreover, hardware wallets are also vulnerable to data breaches, allowing attackers to access user information. Ledger witnessed a data breach on June 17, 2020, which prompted competing popular hardware wallet provider Trezor to issue the coupon code for consumers looking to move funds from Ledger to Trezor.Munoz-McDonald still encourages users to self-custody their funds, noting that a hardware wallet is the best way to do so. “But, they also need to be educated on phishing schemes and have general online awareness,” he said. Gauthier added that users must understand how Web3 works in order to securely self-custody their crypto assets. “Web3 gives ownership to users, whereas Web2 doesn’t. Decentralization may seem harder, but there is a price to pay for self-sovereignty,” he said.Shedding light on this, Gauthier explained that while some crypto investors may find it easier to purchase and hold cryptocurrency through centralized exchanges, there could be fake underlying sentiments that are hard to initially catch. “No one reads the fine print associated with these exchanges, therefore no one understood the Celsius business model to begin with. Scams are generally easy to use, so users need to do more due diligence,” he said. Fortunately, as more crypto investors migrate to hardware wallets, a number of providers have started putting a large emphasis on user education. Adam Lowe, creator of Arculus — a cold storage wallet solution — told Cointelegraph that it’s become clear that there are strong tailwinds driving the need for hardware wallets. Given this, he believes that first-time crypto users should evaluate hardware wallets based on best-in-class security features and ease of use. “If it looks too complicated to use, you will either stop using it or worse, lose access to your crypto,” he said. In order to help users navigate this, Lowe mentioned that Arculus features an extensive FAQ page, along with how-to-videos to help users get started. Recent: Does the Metaverse need blockchain to ensure widespread adoption?Leroux also stated that the most important security tool is education. According to Leroux, common attack vectors for hardware wallet users are social engineering and phishing attempts rather than sophisticated technical approaches. “While we have seen browser extension scripts that hijack user wallets, it’s far more common to see users lose funds through fundamental missteps like improperly storing their seed phrase or being tricked into sharing it,” he said. While much of this may sound daunting, it’s important to point out that many providers offer 24/7 support centers in addition to educational content. It’s also noteworthy that both Ledger and Trezor wallets allow users to recover access to their wallets through a seed phrase by using another hardware wallet. This feature can be extremely helpful if a user loses or has their wallet stolen. If this were to happen, a user could recover their funds on another Ledger, Trezor or SafePal hardware wallet. Veronica Wong, CEO of SafePal, told Cointelegraph that the firm stresses the importance of keeping private keys safe and has seen an obvious growth curve in the last 30-days due to the troubles at the centralized crypto firm. She added:“As crypto penetration and user base continue to grow, decentralized wallets will become the most important blockchain entrance to new users. In the long run, wallets could even become an on-chain identity manager, protecting all your on-chain data and authorizations.” Accommodating new growth Risks aside, the phrase “Not your keys, not your coins” has become more apparent to the crypto community than ever before. “The current challenges of accessing crypto on exchanges highlight the need for secure ownership of your private keys,” Lowe emphasized. As a result, hardware wallet providers are preparing to accommodate a sudden surge in users. In order to do so, many are developing new products while ensuring that existing features meet market demands. For example, Lowe shared that Arculus recently announced NFT support and WalletConnect integration, allowing consumers the ability to browse NFTs and DApps all within the Arculus ecosystem. Gauthier also explained that Ledger has been focused on evolving its products for Web3, noting that the company just announced “clear signing” technology for NFTs. While the Ledger Nano S Plus was designed with NFT collectors in mind, Gauthier explained that the clear signing functionality was officially implemented during “Ledger Op3n,” an event that took place on June 22 this year in New York. “No one is doing clear signing for NFTs – everyone is just sending NFTs blindly left and right, which is a terrible thing to do,” he commented. Clear signing aims to provide all the details on a transaction. In turn, Gauthier added that hardware wallet providers must focus on certain features moving forward such as bigger screens, more memory, and additional connectivity. Recent: Liquid markets are healthy markets, says Kairon Labs co-founderWhile accommodating NFT growth is critical, Tětek mentioned that Trezor is exploring options to implement Lighting Network capabilities for its users, which will help make Bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper. According to a Trezor blog post, this will ultimately make Bitcoin more convenient to use as a means of payment. This all boils down to the urgency for crypto investors to take personal security more seriously. “Self-custody is a fundamental requirement for both financial self-sovereignty and using permissionless decentralized systems. If you’re using centralized exchanges exclusively, you’re not using crypto, you’re just spot trading IOUs on a company’s database,” Leroux remarked.
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80,000 Bitcoin millionaires wiped out in the great crypto crash of 2022
More than 80,000 Bitcoin (BTC) investors have had their millionaire status revoked due to the crypto market downturn, but lower prices mean the number of whole coiners is growing. Back on Nov. 12, just days after Bitcoin hit a new all-time high of around $69,000, a total of 108,886 BTC addresses reported a balance greater than $1 million, according to data from BitInfoCharts. Fast forward to the present day, with the price of Bitcoin struggling to hold above $20,000, a mere 26,284 addresses are reported to contain holdings valued at upward of $1 million, meaning that the number of paper millionaires has declined by more than 75% throughout the last nine months. The dramatic decline in the price of the flagship cryptocurrency has also impacted the number of whales — those who boast a Bitcoin wallet worth more than $10 million. While there were 10,587 addresses with a minimum cash value of $10 million in Nov. last year, just 4,342 hold the same status today, a decline of 58%. Despite the decline in the net worth of former BTC millionaires, the bear market has seen more than 13,000 new “wholecoiners” — a wallet that contains one or more BTC — added to the market, bringing the total number of wholecoiners to just over 860,000. This significant spike in the number of whole coiners would suggest that retail investors are accumulating large amounts of BTC while prices tank.Adding further credibility to the retail accumulation narrative, more than 250,000 addresses have added 0.1 BTC, or $2,000 at the time of writing, or more to their holdings over the past 20 days, according to data from Glassnode. Related: 71% of high net worth individuals have invested in digital assets: SurveyBitcoin and the rest of the digital asset market have been negatively impacted by a number of different issues, including increased regulatory scrutiny, sustained geopolitical unrest, rising inflation and interest rate hikes.Due to the increasing uncertainty around the stability of global markets, commentators seem to agree that the price of risk assets like Bitcoin could continue to suffer over a longer time frame. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands for $20,005, down 1.63% in the last 24 hours and 37% over the last 30 days, with a total market capitalization of $382 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
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HM Treasury changes course on collecting data around unhosted crypto wallets
The government of the United Kingdom said it intends to modify a proposal that would have required crypto firms to collect personal data from individuals holding unhosted wallets that were the recipients of digital asset transfers.In its Amendments to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds updated on Wene, HM Treasury said it will be scaling back its requirements for gathering data from both the senders and recipients of crypto sent to unhosted wallets, unless the transaction poses “an elevated risk of illicit finance.” The U.K. government added that unhosted wallets could be used for a variety of legitimate purposes, including asan additional layer of protection as is sometimes the case for cold wallets.“There is not good evidence that unhosted wallets present a disproportionate risk of being used in illicit finance,” said the HM Treasury report. “Nevertheless, the government is conscious that completely exempting unhosted wallets from the Travel Rule could create an incentive for criminals to use them to evade controls.”The U.K. government made the change in response to a consultation held between July and October 2021 with “[Anti-Money Laundering] (AML)/[Counter-Terrorism Financing] (CTF) supervisors, industry, civil society, academia and several government departments,” in which many expressed concerns about the “breadth of personal information collected” around transfers to unhosted wallets as well as the time required to enact such policy. According to the Treasury Department, the amendments will have a one-year grace period, taking effect in September 2023 if approved by Parliament. Related: Enforcement and adoption: What do UK’s recent regulatory aims for crypto mean?HM Treasury hinted it would implement the changes in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule, which sets out recommendations for regulators aimed at having cryptocurrency transactions comply with Combating the Financing of Terrorism and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. The FATF will release a report on how participating countries are implementing their travel rule at the end of June.
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Bitcoin miners' exchange flow reaches 7-month high as BTC price tanks below $21K
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price tanked to a 52-week low of $20,800 earlier on Wednesday, down by over 70% from its all-time high of $68,788. Although the price has since recovered above $21,000, key market indicators point toward bears having a significant hold on the current market.Bitcoin Miners to Exchange flow, a metric that indicates the volume of BTC sent by miners to crypto exchanges, rose to a seven-month high of 9,476. The rise in exchange flows indicates miners are currently selling their BTC in anticipation of the price going down.The actions of the BTC miners often reflect the larger market sentiment as they mostly sell BTC to ensure they don’t incur losses on their mining rewards. The rise in Bitcoin miners selling activity is backed by the significant decline in mining profitability. Related: Biggest Bitcoin exchange inflows since 2018 put potential $20K bottom at riskMining profitability has dropped over 75% from the top, and Bitcoin’s hash price currently sits at $0.0950/TH/day, which is the lowest point since October 2020.Bitcoin Hashprice Index one-year chart. Source: Hashrate IndexThe miner netflow to exchanges has also turned positive. When the miner netflow is positive, it signifies that more coins are being sent to exchanges than are being sent to personal wallets. Such behavior would indicate that miners are bearish on the price and are under pressure to sell.Many BTC mining rigs have turned unprofitable with the price dropping below $21,000 and risk being shut down if the price doesn’t recover. The rest of the crypto market followed BTC in its price action as the overall market cap dipped below $1 trillion.Over the course of the past decade, BTC has seen numerous bull cycles followed by an 80%-90% decline from the top, however, the BTC price has never fallen below the all-time-high of the previous cycle. Currently, BTC is trading very close to its 2017 high of $19,783, and any possible sell-off from here could push it to 2017 territory.
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Bitcoin, Bukele and a bevy of central bankers meet in El Salvador
This week, 44 central bankers from developing countries around the world are attending a conference in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, financing for small and medium-sized businesses and Bitcoin (BTC). Central bank delegates from Ghana to Burundi, Jordan to the Maldives and Pakistan to Costa Rica arrived in San Salvador for the conference upon El SalvadorPresident Nayib Bukele’s invitation. Delegates’ countries marked in orange. Source: TwitterOrganized by the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, a global policy leadership alliance, and in partnership with El Salvador’s central bank, the conference will run for three days. In a tweet, the head of El Salvador central bank, Douglas Rodríguez, shared:“El Salvador is proud to receive representatives from 44 central banks and financial authorities to learn about the implementation of Bitcoin and policies to promote Financial Inclusion.”Rodríguez’ superior, President Bukele, shared that he was “planting seeds” among the 44 delegates while tweeting a group photo of the leaders:Planting seeds in 44 countries.3 days to go…#Bitcoin is good for the world pic.twitter.com/eOwhJZQ4RX— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 16, 2022The team behind the Bitcoin Beach project was also in attendance, on-hand to educate the central bankers. Bitcoin Beach, El Zonte, was the birthplace of the Bitcoin Law, a grassroots movement that led the first nation to adopt Bitcoin. Nicolas Burtey, co-founder of Galoy Money — the company that built the Bitcoin Beach wallet — said, “After spending a day with those central bankers, I can say: still a lot of education to do.” Burtey continued:“[The] vast majority have no idea of the potential of bitcoin. But with El Salvador adopting Bitcoin, they now have a reason to dive into it.”Burtey and his team spent the day speaking with central bankers, showing them how to use Bitcoin Lightning wallets and send payments. Progress was fast — so fast, in fact, that Burtey tweeted: “We can’t onboard the central banks fast enough to #bitcoin with the BTCBeachWallet.”Photos of the event beggar belief, with central bankers studiously learning how to send payments and create wallets. Central bankers lining up to get help downloading and using Bitcoin Beach Lightning wallet pic.twitter.com/CWupR1Td4K— Bitcoin Beach (@Bitcoinbeach) May 16, 2022
At present, only two countries around the world have recognized Bitcoin as legal tender: El Salvador and recently the Central African Republic, which was subsequently scolded by African central banks for adopting cryptocurrencies. Related: El Salvador’s central bank accepts Qredo’s registration to provide crypto servicesFor some commentators, such as Dan Tapiero of investment fund 10T holdings, who memorably told Cointelegraph during an interview, “I don’t have cash,” El Salvador’s financial inclusion conference is momentous. He insinuates that the United States might need to catch up: #Bitcoin…The first truly global global macro investment of all time……with El Salvador leading?!!32 central banks, 44 countries flying to El S.Emg countries leading adoption.First time US not ahead in financial and technological innovation.https://t.co/XKOURSJ2SA pic.twitter.com/mF8GaBezDW— Dan Tapiero (@DTAPCAP) May 17, 2022
For hardcore Bitcoiners, nonetheless, the opportunity to make a joke about the event was just too great. Gigi, a Bitcoin writer and author of Bitcoin book 21 lessons, tweeted “If they keep using Bitcoin they wont be central bankers much longer!”
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MEP Stefan Berger: ‘Yes, we need regulations, but you still have to leave room to breathe’
The European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs recently approved a draft of its comprehensive Markets in Crypto Assets, or MiCA, crypto regulation package. The new framework covers a wide range of crypto-related subjects, such as the status of all major currencies and stablecoins and the regulation of crypto mining and exchange platforms.Stefan Berger, a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is the Parliament’s rapporteur for the upcoming MiCA regulation — the person appointed to report on proceedings related to the bill. In the associated negotiations, the German politician vehemently opposed, among other things, a ban on proof-of-work (PoW)-based assets such as Bitcoin (BTC). Cointelegraph auf Deutsch spoke with Berger about the controversies surrounding the MiCA framework and his opinion on the new Transfer of Funds Regulation, also known as TFR. “Critical examinations of one’s own assets are already taking place”The European Commission’s first proposal to introduce MiCA in September 2020 came at the right time, said Berger. “We are at the threshold of this technological development, and the regulation has taken up several points that urgently need to be regulated,” he said. MiCA was designed to be “a purely forward-looking financial market regulation” that was to “be kept technologically neutral.” There was initial agreement on MiCA’s key points in the Parliament, but shortly before the vote, the Left, Greens and Social Democrats suddenly took issue with the regulation on environmental grounds. The discussion revolved around sustainability, said Berger, and whether the European Union should ban consensus mechanisms such as PoW that apparently do not meet certain sustainability criteria.In the end, Berger introduced his own solution: linking crypto assets to the EU taxonomy, which is already used to assess financial investments and funds for their sustainability. “If we have equity funds evaluated by the commission, we can also evaluate crypto assets or stablecoins,” Berger said. “After that, everyone can decide for themselves whether to continue. The rethinking of the financial products in which one invests and the critical examination of one’s own assets are already taking place.”PoW ban is off the tableThe MiCA regulation is currently being considered in trilogue negotiations between the European Commission, Council of Ministers and European Parliament. The proof-of-work ban is off the table, and Berger hopes that the EU institutions will come up with a taxonomy solution “that will not be too complicated.” He said:“I think that in the end, we will come to a good result and that the discussion will not move in the direction of banning proof-of-work again, but exactly the opposite.”The MiCA regulation is expected to come into force between mid- and late 2023. The framework leaves relatively little wiggle room for financial supervisory authorities in the member states, as they must cooperate with European bodies such as the European Banking Authority and European Securities and Markets Authority. Overall, Berger observed, MiCA largely enjoys support from the European crypto community:“Many member states are interested in having such a regulation that allows growth and keeps developments open. We are the first continent to have such a regulation, so many are looking at it.”“Yes, we need regulations”Anti-Money Laundering regulation wasn’t included in the latest MiCA draft, but the European Commission has prepared a separate package, the Transfer of Funds Regulation, to address the issue. This framework lays down stricter disclosure rules for parties engaging in crypto-asset transactions. In principle, Berger welcomes this AML regulation; however, he does not support the part that deals with so-called “unhosted” wallets — crypto accounts that are not managed by a custodian or centralized exchange. Berger said:“If I pay with 100 euros in cash in a supermarket, I don’t have to show my ID card or identify myself. I simply pay with cash, and that’s it. And why should that be different in the crypto sector? I don’t understand that. We in Germany love cash, and we still accept an EU-wide cash payment cap of 10,000 euros. Why don’t we make the same rules of the game for crypto if we already have these rules of the game? Normal world, crypto world. Yes, we need regulations, but you still have to leave room to breathe.”“Cryptos are not always evil”The final decision on the TFR will depend on the results of other trilogue negotiations, and Berger isn’t the rapporteur in that process. The section dealing with “unhosted” wallets was proposed neither by the council nor the commission, Berger said. Similar to the addition of the proposed PoW ban into MiCA, the initiative originated from the side of the Left, the Social Democrats and the Greens.The negotiations, therefore, could still lead to the crypto-hostile TFR language getting dropped, according to Berger. He also hopes that German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, who belongs to the Liberal faction, will work to ensure that the current draft undergoes changes. That, however, can prove difficult: The majority in the council lean Socialist, and Lindner himself is in a coalition with Social Democrats and Greens in Germany. “Many who think in centrist terms don’t want decentralized systems anyway. Basically, we also have a bit of a right-left split in the European Parliament over this issue. But I am still optimistic that the commission and the Council of Ministers will see it a little differently.”Berger noted that it takes time to understand how Bitcoin, stablecoins and other digital assets work, and many politicians in the European Parliament are not quite there yet.Will their understanding improve? Yes, said Berger, as blockchain technology is becoming more and more important. Even the harshest critics should see that “cryptos are not always evil” — after all, more than $130 million in donations in the form of cryptocurrencies have gone to assist Ukrainians during the country’s conflict with Russia, for example. “And that’s why I’m also doing all this with MiCA, to lay the foundations for a somewhat-changed world.”This is a short version of the interview with Stefan Berger. You can find the full version here (in German).
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Trezor investigates potential data breach as users cite phishing attacks
Cryptocurrency hardware wallet provider Trezor has begun investigating a possible data breach that may have compromised users’ email addresses and other personal information. Earlier today, on Apr. 3, several users from the Crypto Twitter community warned about an ongoing email phishing campaign specifically targeting Trezor users via their registered email addresses.Hey trezor, are you aware of a phishing campaign going on? I just received this email with my actual email on it. It looked very legit. pic.twitter.com/GF0Od6llr2— josearkaos ⚡️ (@josearkanos) April 3, 2022In the ongoing attack, several Trezor users have been contacted by unauthorized actors posing as the company — with the ultimate intention to steal funds by misleading unwary investors. As part of the attack, users received an email about downloading an app from the ‘trezor.us’ domain, which is different from the official Trezor domain name, ‘trezor.io.’We are investigating a potential data breach of an opt-in newsletter hosted on MailChimp.A scam email warning of a data breach is circulating. Do not open any email originating from noreply@trezor.us, it is a phishing domain.— Trezor (@Trezor) April 3, 2022
Trezor initially suspected that the compromised email addresses belong to a list of users who opted-in for newsletters, which was hosted on an American email marketing service provider Mailchimp. Wow, @Trezor, this is the best phishing attempt I have seen in the last few years. I am really lucky I don’t have Trezor, because if I had, I would probably actually download that update. pic.twitter.com/DaBN2Oix11— Tomáš Kafka (@keff85) April 2, 2022
Through further investigation, Trezor announced:”MailChimp have confirmed that their service has been compromised by an insider targeting crypto companies.”While Trezor officially investigates to identify the total number of stolen email addresses, users are advised not to click on links coming from unofficial sources until further notice. Related: BlockFi confirms unauthorized access to client data hosted on HubspotOn Mar. 19, New Jersey-based crypto financial institution BlockFi proactively confirmed a data breach to warn investors about the possibility of phishing attacks.Regarding recent third-party data incident: pic.twitter.com/50z7IrQ1za— BlockFi (@BlockFi) March 19, 2022
As Cointelegraph reported, hackers gained access to BlockFi’s client data that was hosted on Hubspot, a client relationship management platform. According to BlockFi:“Hubspot has confirmed that an unauthorized third-party gained access to certain BlockFi client data housed on their platform.”While specifics on 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.”
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Mt. Gox wallet transfers 6,800 BTC as ex-CEO plans to redistribute $6B
A cold wallet belonging to the infamous Bitcoin (BTC) exchange Mt. Gox transferred 6,800 BTC to an unknown wallet just days after the former CEO Mark Karpeles revealed plans to redistribute BTC worth $6 billion to its creditors. Mt. Gox was a Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that shut down in Feb. 2014 after a hack that compromised 850,000 BTC. In a recent interview, Karpeles disclosed that the exchange had roughly 200,000 BTC in possession during the company’s closure, out of which the trustee sold roughly 50,000 BTC for $600 million in the past.According to Karpeles, the remaining 150,000 BTC currently held by Mt. Gox has grown in value over the years — and is worth over $6 billion. After this revelation, the former CEO confirmed plans to redistribute the money and settle scores with the creditors. 6,800 #BTC (318,980,017 USD) transferred from #MtGox Cold Wallet to unknown wallethttps://t.co/sYczH1c8ho— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 1, 2022Five days after Karpeles’ interview, Crypto Twitter’s @whale-alert highlighted that 6,800 BTC, worth nearly $319 million, were transferred to an unknown wallet from a cold wallet belonging to the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange.Details about the 6,800 BTC transfer between Mt. Gox and unknown wallet. Source: WhaleAlertDespite being non-operational for over 8 years, the Mt. Gox team has previously shared a rehabilitation plan to compensate creditors. However, the 6,800 BTC transfer signals a possible commencement of the plan.Related: Rare Bears Discord phishing attack nabs $800K in NFTsWhile crypto businesses continue to adopt various security measures to fend off attacks, bad actors have kept up with the change to lure in unwary investors. 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
On Mar. 18, the recently launched nonfungible token (NFT) project, Rare Bears, confirmed a successful phishing attack — resulting in a loss of nearly $800,000 in NFTs.As Cointelegraph reported, the hacker was able to compromise a moderator’s account on Discord and posted phishing links that ultimately drained user wallets. The Rare Bears team was eventually able to remove the compromised account and secure the server from further attacks.
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Seven common mistakes crypto investors and traders make
Investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets is now easier than ever before. Online brokers, centralized exchanges and even decentralized exchanges give investors the flexibility to buy and sell tokens without going through a traditional financial institution and the hefty fees and commissions that come along with them.Cryptocurrencies were designed to operate in a decentralized manner. This means that while they’re an innovative avenue for global peer-to-peer value transfers, there are no trusted authorities involved that can guarantee the security of your assets. Your losses are your responsibility once you take your digital assets into custody.Here we’ll explore some of the more common mistakes that cryptocurrency investors and traders make and how you can protect yourself from unnecessary losses.Losing your keysCryptocurrencies are built on blockchain technology, a form of distributed ledger technology that offers high levels of security for digital assets without the need for a centralized custodian. However, this puts the onus of protection on asset holders, and storing the cryptographic keys to your digital asset wallet safely is an integral part of this. On the blockchain, digital transactions are created and signed using private keys, which act as a unique identifier to prevent unauthorized access to your cryptocurrency wallet. Unlike a password or a PIN, you cannot reset or recover your keys if you lose them. This makes it extremely important to keep your keys safe and secure, as losing them would mean losing access to all digital assets stored in that wallet.Lost keys are among the most common mistakes that crypto investors make. According to a report from Chainalysis, of the 18.5 million Bitcoin (BTC) mined so far, over 20% has been lost to forgotten or misplaced keys.Storing coins in online walletsCentralized cryptocurrency exchanges are probably the easiest way for investors to get their hands on some cryptocurrencies. However, these exchanges do not give you access to the wallets holding the tokens, instead offering you a service similar to banks. While the user technically owns the coins stored on the platform, they are still held by the exchange, leaving them vulnerable to attacks on the platform and putting them at risk.There have been many documented attacks on high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges that have led to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from these platforms. The most secure option to protect your assets against such risk is to store your cryptocurrencies offline, withdrawing assets to either a software or hardware wallet after purchase.Not keeping a hard copy of your seed phraseTo generate a private key for your crypto wallet, you will be prompted to write down a seed phrase consisting of up to 24 randomly generated words in a specific order. If you ever lose access to your wallet, this seed phrase can be used to generate your private keys and access your cryptocurrencies. Keeping a hard copy record, such as a printed document or a piece of paper with the seed phrase written on it, can help prevent needless losses from damaged hardware wallets, faulty digital storage systems, and more. Just like losing your private keys, traders have lost many a coin to crashed computers and corrupted hard drives.Source: Sciencia58.Fat-finger errorA fat-finger error is when an investor accidentally enters a trade order that isn’t what they intended. One misplaced zero can lead to significant losses, and mistyping even a single decimal place can have considerable ramifications.One instance of this fat-finger error was when the DeversiFi platform erroneously paid out a $24-million fee. Another unforgettable tale was when a highly sought-after Bored Ape nonfungible token was accidentally sold for $3,000 instead of $300,000.Sending to the wrong addressInvestors should take extreme care while sending digital assets to another person or wallet, as there is no way to retrieve them if they are sent to the wrong address. This mistake often happens when the sender isn’t paying attention while entering the wallet address. Transactions on the blockchain are irreversible, and unlike a bank, there are no customer support lines to help with the situation.This kind of error can be fatal to an investment portfolio. Still, in a positive turn of events, Tether, the firm behind the world’s most popular stablecoin, recovered and returned $1 million worth of Tether (USDT) to a group of crypto traders who sent the funds to the wrong decentralized finance platform in 2020. However, this story is a drop in the ocean of examples where things don’t work out so well. Hodlers should be careful while dealing with digital asset transactions and take time to enter the details. Once you make a mistake, there’s no going back.Over diversificationDiversification is crucial to building a resilient cryptocurrency portfolio, especially with the high volatility levels in the space. However, with the sheer number of options out there and the predominant thirst for outsized gains, cryptocurrency investors often end up over-diversifying their portfolios, which can have immense consequences.Over-diversification can lead to an investor holding a large number of heavily underperforming assets, leading to significant losses. It’s vital to only diversify into cryptocurrencies where the fundamental value is clear and to have a strong understanding of the different types of assets and how they will likely perform in various market conditions.Not setting up a stop-loss arrangementA stop-loss is an order type that enables investors to sell a security only when the market reaches a specific price. Investors use this to prevent losing more money than they are willing to, ensuring they at least make back their initial investment. In several cases, investors have experienced huge losses because of incorrectly setting up their stop losses before asset prices dropped. However, it’s also important to remember that stop-loss orders aren’t perfect and can sometimes fail to trigger a sale in the event of a large, sudden crash.That being said, the importance of setting up stop losses to protect investments cannot be understated and can significantly help mitigate losses during a market downturn.Crypto investing and trading is a risky business with no guarantees of success. Like any other form of trading, patience, caution and understanding can go a long way. Blockchain places the responsibility on the investor, so it’s crucial to take the time to figure out the various aspects of the market and learn from past mistakes before putting your money at risk.
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Terra smash buys $139M Bitcoin, wallet reaches 31,000 BTC
Watch out Michael Saylor! Do Kwon, the CEO of Terraform Labs is hot on the Microstrategy CEO’s heels. The Terra wallet has now amassed almost $1.5 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) following another huge BTC purchase. The wallet address thought to belong to Terra (while not officially confirmed) received another 2943.00002511 Bitcoin ($139 million) on Wednesday. Wallet alert accounts on Twitter have been tracking the wallet.The wallet began amassing colossal amounts of Bitcoin on Jan. 21 and has not sold a single Satoshi.Terra Bitcoin wallet gradually then suddenly amassing billions in BTC. Source: bitinfochartsAccording to the chart, while the wallet first injected almost 10k Bitcoin on 21st Jan, the wallet began stacking sats in earnest on March 22nd. The timing coincides with announcements from the CEO, who stated that “$UST with $10B+ in $BTC reserves will open a new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard.”TerraUSD (UST), an algorithmic stablecoin, would be pegged to the value of the United States dollar, and the value of these ‘dollars’ will be backed by Bitcoin reserves. Terra’s token Terra (LUNA) will also play a role in the creation of the stablecoin.As a result, Do Kwon has been stacking sats harder and faster than even the biggest Bitcoin bulls. According to BitcoinTreasuries, Terraform Labs will soon sidestep Tesla as the second-largest holder of Bitcoin–with Microstrategy in its sights. Current state of publicly traded companies with Bitcoin treasuries. Terra will soon rival Tesla. Source: Bitcointreasuries.etRelated: MicroStrategy subsidiary will purchase Bitcoin after closing $205M crypto-collateralized loanUltimately, Do Kwon’s aim –as he says in the following video– is to ensure his Bitcoin coffers rival that of Satoshi Nakomoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Just getting started pic.twitter.com/dJrkf6YfrR— TerraLunaaaa (@TerraLunaaaa) March 30, 2022Meanwhile, with lackluster price action over the past 72 hours, it would appear that Terra’s buys are propping up the Bitcoin market, while LUNA is hitting new highs.
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Shitcoins are ‘garbage’: Bitcoin-only brokers on freedom and finance
In Europe, “Bitcoin only” is a growing trend, as more and more consumers and companies are hardening their resolve that Bitcoin (BTC) is the only digital asset worth holding. Bitcoin-only exchanges and brokers are places to stack sats, not “gamble” on Ether (ETH), or trade “garbage” that looks like “venture investments.” That’s according to the CEOs of major Bitcoin-only exchanges and brokers, including CoinCorner, FastBitcoins, Relai, Bittr, Pocket Bitcoin and Bitcoin-lyon. Cointelegraph spoke to the CEOs and founders of these European Bitcoin brokers to find out why they are Bitcoin only, and why you should build a company on this conviction.The separation of money from the stateFirstly, according to Danny Brewster, CEO of FastBitcoins, “Bitcoin is our only hope of separating money and state; it is the one opportunity that we will have to accomplish such a feat.” It’s a once-in-a-generation — perhaps, lifetime — opportunity to pry the money printer from the government’s hands. Bitcoin takes the belief in money out of the state’s hands, replacing it with math. Source: Bitcoin VisualsJulian Liniger, CEO of Relai in Switzerland, builds on the notion, adding that Bitcoin is incomparable: “It is the only asset that is truly decentralized — i.e., has no leader or leading team — and, therefore, truly uncensorable and unseizable.” Indeed, “digital scarcity can only be created once — i.e., the state of the world where no working cryptocurrency existed in 2008, can never be recreated, simply because Bitcoin exists today,” Ruben Waterman, CEO of Switzerland-based but Dutch-led Bittr, told Cointelegraph. Brewster explains that for every new digital coin post-Bitcoin that is created, there is an inherent risk of government intervention:“No government will ever let another network or technology gain as much traction as Bitcoin has accomplished ever again should Bitcoin fail.”Jimmy Chambrade, co-founder of Bitcoin-lyon — the only exchange in France where you can buy Bitcoin with paper money — highlighted that while separating the money from the state is key, Bitcoin is a “Résistance” money. Fundamentally, “censorship resistance is essential to the freedom of individuals.”He explained that France was founded on “liberté” or freedom, and the famous painting by Eugène Delacroix “Freedom Leading the People” is so well-loved that in an incongruous twist of fate, it featured on the 100 franc fiat banknote. On Bitcoin adoption, Chambrade added that “philosophically speaking, Bitcoin allows the citizen to regain financial control and gain freedom.”The “Freedom Leading the People” painting ironically features on the former French 100 franc banknote (center right). Source: NumisCollectionWhile the thread of freedom sews the Bitcoiner belief-system together, according to Matthias Koller, co-founder of Pocket Bitcoin, the underlying implications of separating the power of money creation from the government by using a “money that works the same and is equally accessible to everyone” are huge. It can “change the world,” said Danny Scott, CEO of CoinCorner. Bitcoin will be “for the greater good, for ourselves and others in the long term,” Scott continued, stating:“We’re here to change the world, not take money from gamblers.”Belief in Bitcoin > Taking profit from peopleInterestingly, the Bitcoin-only business model brandishes a concerted effort to avoid selling “garbage,” according to Brewster and Waterman, and what Scott calls “taking money from gamblers” for the purchase of altcoins or “shitcoins.” Every single Bitcoin-only exchange leader commented on the altcoin business model, lamenting the ease with which altcoin exchanges, such as Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini make “short term gains” by selling “as many shitcoins as possible.” Waterman continued, explaining that the more trading that goes on in an app, the more trading fees are earned, the more revenue goes up. He understands that “it [altcoin sales] makes sense from a business point of view.” Incidentally, Coinbase makes most of its revenue from trading fees —something Strike’s Jack Mallers (another Bitcoin-only believer) has taken aim at in the past. For the Bitcoin-only brokers, the belief in the long-term benefits of adopting Bitcoin far outweighs what Scott describes as “forfeiting short-term revenue by not adding the hundreds of altcoins.”Brewster agreed, wielding a hardline view: “We are also willing to forgo early and somewhat easy profits that we could make by providing customers with yet another altcoin/shitcoin casino, that distorts the public understanding of what Bitcoin is and why it even exists.”Scott, who is technically Brewster’s neighbor, as both CoinCorner and FastBitcoins operate from the Isle of Man (a budding Bitcoin hotspot), suggested that “‘crypto exchange’ business models seem to be focused mainly around price speculation on cryptocurrencies. They appear to have lost their way and are no longer helping the wider adoption of Bitcoin as a currency.Bitcoin adoption curve. Source: Bitcoin VisualsLiniger added that they “want to be a savings app, not a speculation app. That‘s why Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency we support” — everything else is “speculation.” Or in Brewster’s view, non-Bitcoin projects are “noise, a scam, a distraction or purely speculative,” a way for insiders of a project “to dump on retail at the earliest opportunity.”2021 was littered with examples of pump-and-dump schemes, cryptocurrencies that made up for poor utility with blockbuster marketing campaigns. The Squid Game Token went from $2,800 to effectively $0; memecoins flew before abrupt crash-landing; and spotting a “rug pull” has become a skill in its own right for traders. Ultimately, Waterman is “totally fine” with “playing the long-term game at the expense of missing out on some short-term gains.” Bitcoin is a savings technology Store of value, digital gold or simply a saving technology, at the heart of each Bitcoin-only business is to make it easy and convenient for customers to buy Bitcoin. Waterman explained that “it should be easy and accessible to anyone in Europe to preserve their wealth and become financially independent from the banking system.”Globally, Bitcoin has been gaining traction as what Michael Saylor calls a hedge against inflation, while Bitcoin’s deflationary monetary policy and its hard cap of 21 million are growing in appeal to Europeans due to the inflationary environment in the European Union and the United Kingdom. “We believe that Bitcoin is the best way to save money in the 21st century, and we want to give everybody access to the world’s best savings technology,” Liniger told Cointelegraph. Koller, a Swiss compatriot, chimed in, “We want to help and encourage our clients to use a secure and hard form of money for their savings. One that is built on sound technology and policy.”It’s that sound technology that separates Bitcoin from other crypto assets. Waterman explained how Bitcoin satisfies the blockchain scalability trilemma, an adequately cryptic phrase born out of the creation of Ethereum, but which Bitcoin seemingly satisfies. Bitcoin and the “scalability trilemma.” Source: Bitcoin Visuals“Bitcoin has gained the most adoption; it’s the most secure network to move value over the internet; and it’s the most decentralized (as everyone can still run a Bitcoin node. Nodes are widely distributed across the world and Bitcoin cannot easily be changed, which is a feature, not a bug).”Related: ‘How I met Satoshi’: The mission to teach 100M people about Bitcoin by 2030For the bevy of Bitcoiners with whom Cointelegraph communicated, there was agreement on many aspects of Bitcoin, such as Chambrade’s “technical, commercial and philosophical,” reasons. Plus, their conviction in Bitcoin guides their business principles.However, the tl;dr is that Bitcoin-only companies are laser(eye)-focused on selling Bitcoin to Europeans simply because it’s a better form of money. That’s why Brewster “point-blank refuse[s] to sell people garbage that is not going to enable Bitcoin to fulfill its potential.”Leaving altcoin abuse to one side, Koller concluded: “There is no other form of money that comes anywhere close to what Bitcoin has to offer.”
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