Bitcoin News

cryptocurrency theft

Just How Big a Problem Is Cryptocurrency Theft?

When famed bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” With a financial system that is increasingly electronic, the money is more and more often no longer stored in banks, instead it’s stored online. So it’s no surprise that criminals continue to go to where the money is, using a variety of techniques to try to steal online wealth from individuals and institutions. With the rise of cryptocurrency and its [...]

August 20, 2018 By
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bitcoin iran

Iran Going Forward With Plans to Issue National Cryptocurrency

Venezuela isn’t the only country that will be developing its own national cryptocurrency. Iran has once again proclaimed that it, too, intends to develop its own national cryptocurrency with the aim of evading US sanctions. How exactly the country intends to do that remains unclear. The timeline of the cryptocurrency’s development hasn’t been publicized either, so it’s unsure whether, like many projects Iran claims to develop, it will ever come to fruition. There are two things to keep in mind [...]

August 16, 2018 By
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bitcoin hacker

How to Keep Your Bitcoin Safe From Hackers

It probably shouldn’t be too surprising to most people that hackers are the number one threat in the cryptocurrency world. Hacking was a problem even when Bitcoin wasn’t terribly valuable, with Mt. Gox having been a victim from 2011, when Bitcoin peaked at over $30, to 2014, when the hack was finally brought to light at a time when Bitcoin was worth over $500. Now that Bitcoin is worth many times that, the incentive for hackers is greatly increased. There [...]

August 13, 2018 By
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bitcoin venezuela

Venezuela’s New National Currency to Be Backed by Cryptocurrency

In response to the hyperinflation and devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar, the Venezuelan government has announced that it is creating a new national currency, the bolivar soberano (sovereign bolivar), which will replace the existing bolivar fuerte (strong bolivar). The new national currency will be pegged to Venezuela’s oil-backed cryptocurrency, the petro. This is the first time that a national fiat currency has been pegged to a cryptocurrency. The new bolivar soberano will chop five zeros off the existing bolivar fuerte, [...]

August 9, 2018 By
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cftc chairman

CFTC Chairman Acknowledges Agency Is Behind the Curve on Cryptocurrencies

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Chris Giancarlo testified before the House Agriculture Committee last week. During the hearing he admitted that the agency has fallen behind on the issue of cryptocurrency regulation. In a field that develops as quickly as cryptocurrencies, by the time regulators are able to make a decision on something, developments on the ground have made that decision obsolete. One problem that Giancarlo pointed to is that the agency is hampered by government regulations that [...]

August 6, 2018 By
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bitcoin

How Many People Wish They Had Invested in Bitcoin Earlier?

History is full of examples of people who wished they had gotten in on a good investment before it hit the big time. From men who wished they had held on to their Mickey Mantle rookie cards rather than sticking them in the spokes of their bicycles, to those who wished they had invested in Microsoft, Apple, or Amazon when they were still unknown, the list goes on and on. Add to that now the number of people who [...]

August 2, 2018 By
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bitcoin canada

Majority of Canadian Bitcoin Owners Hold Bitcoin for Investment

A recent study published by the Bank of Canada indicates that the majority of Bitcoin owners hold Bitcoin for investment purposes rather than for transactional purposes. That response in the bank’s 2017 survey marks a shift from the 2016 survey, in which most Bitcoin owners held Bitcoin for transactional purposes. That’s an indicator that Bitcoin has transcended its initial purpose as a transactional cryptocurrency to become a popular investment asset. The survey was taken during December 2017, a time at [...]

July 30, 2018 By
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bitcoin

Stablecoin: Is It Such a Good Idea?

Another “stablecoin” has launched recently, with American multinational company IBM providing significant amounts of support. The idea behind a stablecoin is to produce a cryptocurrency that has a stable value. In this case the new cryptcurrency, USD Anchor, will have its units backed by US dollars. Those dollars will then be held in FDIC-insured accounts, so that users of the cryptocurrency have faith that the government will bail them out in the event that the financial institution holding those [...]

July 26, 2018 By
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mastercard

Mastercard Awarded Patent for Technology Linking Fiat Currency With Cryptocurrency

Payments processor Mastercard was recently awarded a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for technology that would link together financial accounts holding fiat currency with those holding cryptocurrency. While linking together fiat and cryptocurrency accounts could have many benefits both for investors in and users of cryptocurrency, Mastercard’s specific filing points to some potential drawbacks that could be worrisome to some cryptocurrency users. The major advantage to linking together fiat and cryptocurrency accounts would be ease of use [...]

July 23, 2018 By
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litecoin

Litecoin Moving Into the Banking Arena?

The Litecoin Foundation has recently taken a step into the financial services world by taking a 9.9 percent stake in a German bank. The acquisition of that stake in the bank was undertaken in cooperation with a crypto startup called TokenPay. TokenPay is a Swiss company that seeks to establish a cryptocurrency payment platform that would include banking services and debit cards. TokenPay has applied to German regulators for permission to purchase the additional shares of the German Bank, WEG [...]

July 19, 2018 By
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