SEC Shatters The Winklevoss Bitcoin Dream

Graham Trafford
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SEC Shatters The Winklevoss Bitcoin Dream

The dream of a Bitcoin exchange traded fund to revitalise calls for official recognition of cryptocurrencies has stalled again.

The infamous Winklevoss twins, who are cryptocurrency pioneers, had lobbied US regulator the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Chicago exchange Cboe Global Markets to list and trade shares in their cryptocurrency fund.

But the SEC argued that no convincing arguments were made in favour of listing the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust and refuted the claim Bitcoin markets were not open to manipulation.

“The arguments submitted in support of this claim are incomplete and inconsistent, and are unsupported or contradicted by data,” said the SEC’s 92-page order.

The decision was agreed by three commissioners, with one dissenting voice.

Market manipulation fears

Cboe is reviewing the decision to consider launching an appeal in a federal court.

The company’s president Chris Concannon said:            “We take concerns about the security and stability of markets and products very seriously.

“Given US investors are clearly already accessing these unregistered financial products, we also believe that investors are better served by products traded on a regulated securities market and protected by robust securities laws.”

The SEC has commented that the ruling does not mean cryptocurrency or blockchain technology has a ‘utility or value as an innovation or investment’.

But the ruling did reflect the number of hacks suffered by cryptocurrency exchanges and the suggestion last year’s phenomenal price hikes were forced by market manipulation.

Five-year fight for acceptance

“The public blockchain ledger, even in combination with the other monitoring abilities Cboe identifies, does not provide comprehensive customer trading or identity information,” said the SEC, voicing doubts that Cboe could avoid attempts at manipulation or fraud in the market.

The Winklevoss exchange traded product is not the first – one is already trading in Sweden, while at least three others are in the SEC pipeline in the US.

The twins have tried to push their fund over the line with the SEC since 2013. Their proposal was first rejected in 2017 because the SEC feared manipulation of an unregulated market.

The value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped significantly on the news. Bitcoin was trading at $8,286 prior to the ruling and has fallen to $7,593.

Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency To Ignite Venezuela

Anna Webb
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Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency To Ignite Venezuela

Venezuela is planning to launch a state-backed cryptocurrency to resolve economic problems that have seen inflation explode to more than 1,000% in a year.

Under President Nicolas Maduro, the country has plunged from economic success on the back of billions of barrels of oil reserves to one of the poorest nations.

Stories from the capital Caracas suggest shoppers must take wheelbarrow loads of cash to buy the cheapest staple foods and that prices have often gone up between the time they have left home and arrived at the shops.

The average monthly wage, according to the International Monetary Fund has fallen to as little as a single dollar.

Maduro and his predecessors have failed to address the country’s problems for years as the value of oil has tumbled from more than $100 a barrel down to $40.

Radical plan

Maduro’s current solution is to launch the petro pegged to the price of oil to encourage investors from abroad to pledge much-needed foreign currency in an initial coin offering (ICO).

With a plan that smacks of populist desperation, Maduro says that his proposal will “stabilise and change the monetary and financial life of the country in a radical manner.”

But the ICO seems doomed to fail as Americans are banned by their government from investing in the petro.

The petro has been around for a few weeks and allegedly raised $375 million on the first day of investment, although there is no independent evidence that any cash changed hands.

Vision for economy

Investors should also doubt the reliability of staking their cash on Maduro’s Venezuela.

His vice-president Tareck El Aissami is accused of drug trafficking and aiding terrorists. The country seems run by self-serving gangsters and the economy is in ruins.

But Maduro is determined to soldier on with his plan for a cryptocurrency.

“The economic reconversion will start on August 20 definitively with the circulation and issuance of the new Sovereign Bolivar, the new monetary coin that is going to have a new method of anchoring the petro. We have the correct vision of what the economic future in Venezuela should be, above all, we will achieve it,” he told the nation.

Google Outlaws Cryptocurrency Apps On Play

Graham Trafford
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0
Google Outlaws Cryptocurrency Apps On Play

Internet search giant Google has gone another step further in outlawing cryptocurrency apps.

Mining apps are already banned from the Chrome Store – which provides extensions for the Google Chrome browser.

This has prevented mining apps from reaching a sizeable portion of the browser markets as Chrome is reckoned to have a 60% share of all browsers across desktops and mobile phones.

Fears of cryptojacking have led Google to take further action.

Cryptojacking is when a remote computer takes control of someone else’s hardware and processing power to mine cryptocurrency for profit without their permission.

Google has now expanded the ban to stop cryptocurrency mining apps on the Google Playstore, which is the main global provider for apps running on the Android operating system, mainly for mobile phone and tablets.

Wallets still allowed

Google’s policy for developers is any apps that allow the mining of cryptocurrency are banned, but any app that allows the remote management of cryptocurrency holdings, ie electronic wallets, are fine.

The ban follows warnings from online security watchdogs, such as Kaspersky, that developers had infiltrated the store to offer what appeared to be harmless gaming and entertainment apps that were really sheltering mining apps like Coinhive.

One was Placar TV, which streamed football matches while mining Monero without permission.

Placar and other disguised mining apps were spotted after complaints that they drained batteries or slowed processors.

Apple has banned mining apps, while Google, Twitter and Facebook have strict advertising policies for cryptocurrency advertising aimed at clamping down on rogue traders running scam initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Lawful cryptomining

The Google Developer Policy Center has been updated to reflect the new code.

The page says: “Financial Instruments – We don’t allow apps that expose users to deceptive or harmful financial instruments.

“Binary Options – We do not allow apps that provide users with the ability to trade binary options.

“Cryptocurrencies – We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices. We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency.”

Not all cryptomining apps are hackers – the United Nations has asked computer users to donate spare processing time to allow the mining of cryptocurrency to raise funds for the charity UNICEF.

It’s unclear how cryptojacking bans affect lawful users.

1,000 Cryptocurrency Projects Are Dead Or Dying

Anna Webb
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1,000 Cryptocurrency Projects Are Dead Or Dying

At least a thousand cryptocurrency projects are dead or dying, according to digital currency tracking web sites.

The projects started as initial coin offerings (ICOs) that raised billions of dollars between them from investors hoping to back their business plans and make a profit.

Around 80% of the projects were scams, according to Aaron Brown, a cryptocurrency expert with Bloomberg.

“There has obviously been significant fraud and hype in the ICO market. I have seen 80% of ICOs that were frauds, and 10% lacked substance and failed shortly after raising money. Most of the remaining 10% will probably fail as well,” he said.

What is a dead currency?

A cryptocurrency is deemed ‘dead’ when a token or coin is abandoned, scammed, has no nodes, no wallets, no social media updates, no web site, a low trading volume or when the developers have walked away from the project.

Tracking web site Coinopsy says 60% of ICOs are dead before they reach 12 months old and before they are taken up by an exchange.

Another tracking site, Dead Coins, which partners with CoinJanitor in a campaign to clean up cryptocurrency sector, says more than 4,500 digital currencies are available, but only just over a third (1,400) are traded on exchanges and around 800 are dead.

Telegram ICO

“People who created, supported or were otherwise involved with cryptocurrency projects that are now functionally dead, have all the value they invested in them trapped. They cannot transact or trade these coins. This trapped value can serve as a source of growth for cryptocurrency markets if it is freed,” says CoinJanitor.

“It will also be beneficial for those who hold these failed coins because it will allow them to join a new community that can achieve the network effect that the coins they hold failed to achieve.”

Despite the number of dead coins and regulators around the world warning investors about the risks of staking cash in an ICO, developers are thought to have raised around $12 billion from more than 500 offerings in the first six months of 2018.

The current leading ICO is Telegram, an encrypted, ad-free messaging service which has raised investment of $1.7 billion with a third fund-raising round expected later this year.

Young Adults Would Prefer To Buy Bitcoin Than A Home

James Atkins
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Young Adults Would Prefer To Buy Bitcoin Than A Home

One in five young adults would rather invest in cryptocurrency than buy a home of their own.

More than 3,000 people aged between 21 and 35 years old were asked about their attitudes towards buying or renting a home by build to rent firm Get Living.

A fifth told researchers that they would rather put their money into cryptocurrencies – with Bitcoin the favourite.

Another 57% consider property was too risky as an investment over the next five years.

“The rollercoaster ride in value for Bitcoin has excited many Millennials, with one in five seeing it as an appealing investment proposition compared with relatively slow-moving property values,” says the report Millennial Living in 2018.

Property is too risky

Almost half – 45% – of Millennial first-time homeowners advised their contemporaries to stay renting for now as they considered moving to buy shifted them to less convenient locations and, in many cases, they had underestimated the cost of moving and setting up home.

This figure increased to almost two-thirds in London and the West Midlands.

They also viewed buying property during the next five years as a high-risk investment.

“Almost three in four of our survey respondents – 74% – believe there are better investments than property, and this increases to 83% for men,” said the report.

“For Millennials the soaring performance of Bitcoin – followed by an almost equally profound correction – holds more intrigue than the prospect of steady growth in house prices.

Flexible lifestyles matter more

“This translated to 27% of male Millennials polled believing Bitcoin represents a better investment than property.”

Get Living concluded that Millennials are not frustrated by failing to climb on to the housing ladder and many find renting a more convenient lifestyle than owning a home.

“Rising values are no longer a given and, with our poll showing that annual travel costs are 59% higher for home owners than for renters,” says the report.

“Lifestyles are more flexible and fluid and many are drawn towards a rental model that offers longer tenancy agreements and no upfront charges.”

Get Living builds homes to rent and owns too estates in London – East Village and The Elephant.

Download the full report

Crypto-Jacking Is The New Way To Raise Cash For Hackers

Graham Trafford
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Crypto-Jacking Is The New Way To Raise Cash For Hackers

Hackers are turning their attention to crypto-jacking as a profitable way to make money illegally, according to a new online security alert.

Crypto-jacking is taking over from ransomware as the hacker’s tool of choice, says Kaspersky Labs.

Crypto-jacking is when a hacker dumps malicious code on ‘zombie’ smartphones or computers belonging to unsuspecting users to access their machines to mine cryptocurrency without their knowledge.

The reward is miners can collect cryptocurrency worth thousands of pounds for unlocking new coins or tokens – worth around £22,000 for Bitcoin, for example.

Miners reported a 44.5% increase in crypto-jacking attacks in 2017.

Ransomware attacks

The number of targeted attacks on businesses, for installing miners, raises questions about whether mining might eventually follow in the footsteps of ransomware actors. Big money loves silence, and if miner actors attract as much attention to themselves as ransomware did, life will get complicated for them,” said the report.

Ransomware attacks plunged by 30% in 2017, even though the WannaCry attack on Britain’s national health service and other government organisations grabbed the headlines.

The hackers accessed networks through an exploit in Microsoft Windows and demanded Bitcoin ransoms to unlock hard drives.

But the number of attacks dropped from 2.6 million in 2016 to 1.8 million in 2017.

Cyber-jacking is less risky crime

“Ransomware is not an unfamiliar threat. For the last few years it has been affecting the world of cybersecurity, infecting and blocking access to various devices or files and requiring users to pay a ransom, usually in Bitcoins or another widely used e-currency, if they want to regain access to their files and devices,” says the Kaspersky report.

“Ransomware is rapidly vanishing, and that cryptocurrency mining is starting to take its place.”

McAfee, another online security firm, confirmed the Kaspersky findings, saying crypto-jacking reports had increased by 600% in the first quarter of 2018.

“The suggestion is that cybercriminals are warming to the prospect of monetizing infections of user systems without prompting victims to make payments, as is the case with popular ransomware schemes. Compared with well-established cybercrime activities such as data theft and ransomware, cryptojacking is simpler, more straightforward, and less risky,” said the McAfee report.

Ripple XRP Is Just A Drop In The Cryptocurrency Ocean

James Atkins
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Ripple XRP Is Just A Drop In The Cryptocurrency Ocean

Cryptocurrency start-up Ripple is trying to make a good fist of what some consider as disappointing second quarter results.

Ripple XRP has published a markets report for the second quarter of 2018, when the token accounted for 0.125% of global cryptocurrency volume.

The results show a sharp drop in the value and volume of XRP sold in the period – down 55% from $1667.7 million for the world’s third largest cryptocurrency in the first three months of 2018 to $73.5 million.

However, the company said the results were in line with the dip in price of other cryptocurrencies and the general market during in the same period, and were not unexpected.

“The total market capitalization of all digital assets started the year at $603.7 billion but by mid-year — despite the issuance of hundreds of new ICO “coins” — had declined to $254.7 billion,” said the report.

Ongoing regulatory concern

“During Q2, the XRP market also slowed considerably, compared to the prices and volumes we saw in Q4 2017 and Q1 2018.

“This slowing could be attributed to the ongoing concern around regulation, both in the U.S. and around the globe. Despite the SEC announcing in June that they don’t consider ether a security, there wasn’t a meaningful and sustained bump in volume or price of any digital asset, including XRP.”

The company is clear that executives still consider this the best quarter ever for the cryptocurrency.

“The decline in both volume and price was consistent across the majority of digital assets, as many moved with tight correlation,” said the report.

Market in infancy

“The tight correlation is indicative of a market that is still in its infancy. Traders have yet to distinguish among the intrinsic values of the best known digital assets. As the industry matures and decides what it deems most useful and valuable, we should expect to see more separation.”

The company also commented that the results ‘underscored success’ of XRP independently from Ripple.

Ripple is the name of the payment system promoted by the company using the token XRP, which ‘lives’ on the Ripple blockchain network.

Ripple XRP currently has a market capitalisation of $17.44 billion, while XRP is trading at $0.4553.

View the full market report

Strict Global Rules On The Way For Cryptocurrency Exchanges

James Atkins
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0
Strict Global Rules On The Way For Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Governments with the world’s largest economies want to make dealing in cryptocurrencies more difficult for consumers.

The G20 – which is made up of finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s 19 largest economies plus the European Union – wants to apply money laundering rules to cryptocurrency exchanges.

Although the ministers agree cryptocurrency is not an economic risk to the world economy, they want to exert more control over the sector.

Cryptocurrency started with Bitcoin with the idea that a virtual currency decentralised from the control of any government or central bank hosted on a peer-to-peer network would eventually take over as a global currency.

After a summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the group announced the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) would monitor cryptocurrencies to tackle problems of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Command and control

Instead of regulating digital currencies, the governments will control access to cryptocurrencies through exchanges.

Money laundering rules come with strict ‘know your customer’ rules that will demand exchanges identify their clients and their tax status, so their personal and financial information can be passed to their home tax authority.

At the summit, the G20 set October as a deadline for drafting a strategy to monitor cryptocurrencies.

“While crypto-assets do not at this point pose a global financial stability risk, we remain vigilant. … We reiterate our March commitments related to the implementation of the FATF standards and we ask the FATF to clarify in October 2018 how its standards apply to crypto-assets,” member countries said in a communique after the meeting.

Differing approaches

The G20 includes the USA, China, Russia, India, Brazil, Japan and South Korea and covers most of the world’s wealthiest investors who would want to participate in cryptocurrency investments.

Prior to the summit, the G20 had indicated that ‘specific recommendations’ to regulate cryptocurrencies would be delivered at the meeting, but they failed to materialise.

The message coming out of the meeting would suggest disagreement within the G20 about how handle cryptocurrency regulation – with some countries, like India and China banning all trading, and others, like the USA and UK supporting trading.

Meanwhile, Japan is developing rigid exchange rules in and showing a more receptive attitude to cryptocurrency trading than the rest of the G20.

Blockchain Investment Boxes To Tick

James Atkins
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Blockchain Investment Boxes To Tick

Investors and corporations are piling cash into blockchain development as hundreds of projects are put forward every week.

Few of the projects will become a financial success and some are just frauds dressed up as investment opportunities, but how do you sort the good from the bad?

There’s no definite way of doing so, but asking some stock questions will help rule out most of the scams.

Here are the five questions you should ask before investing:

Who’s gaining from the blockchain project?

Every trade has a winner and a loser. You want to be a winner, but at the same time make sure the deal is fair for everyone involved or the likelihood is it will fail.

Only a valid token will reward the people providing the computing power driving the blockchain.

Tip: Look at who is running the blockchain and how they make their money

Who makes the decisions?

This question has two angles – like who is gaining from the blockchain, someone makes the network decisions – and that’s probably a committee of some kind that needs to agree.

Outside the blockchain, the decision makers are the CEOs of companies taking up the technology.

Tip: You need to look at the track records of both to see how they will impact the progress of the project you are investing in.

How will your blockchain handle data?

How much space does legacy and new data need in the blockchain and is the infrastructure capable of handling it? Look at the block sizes, how to input the data and what type of system it will come from. You need a system that’s up to the job, which is why the Bitcoin blockchain is slow and creaking.

Tip: Investing in who moves the data rather than who controls it may be more profitable

The project doesn’t end with data

Information is the key to marketing. Information from data helps shape new products and opportunities.

Processing the data will uncover markets for new products and services.

Tip: Just storing data is no good, continual analysis and development is crucial

Look for speedy transactions

Everyone wants faster transactions and transaction per second are vital to developing DApps that business and consumers will take up. Multinational companies with millions of customers need fast, secure and accurate transactions, so the underlying blockchain must be sleek and efficient.

Tip: Blockchain infrastructure must support fast TPS and have room for improvement

Cryptocurrency Ads Creep Back On To Social Media

Anna Webb
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Cryptocurrency Ads Creep Back On To Social Media

Just what are tech giants hoping to do by allowing cryptocurrency advertising to creep back on to their social media networks.

The biggest social media firms all announced a ban on cryptocurrency advertising earlier in the year.

The included Facebook, Instagram, Google and Twitter.

The companies cited concerns about scams costing consumers millions of dollars run through initial coin offerings or ICOs as the main reason for the ban.

Cryptocurrency experts claim most ICOs were benign fronts for fraudsters and could prosper because the world online network of digital currencies has no regulator.

Many ICOs were advertised on social media, so the networks decided to protect their customers by closing them down.

Consumer protection

Fair enough. Consumer protection is a lofty ideal everyone should support and sometimes, knowing who to trust in the world of cryptocurrency is a challenge.

But now Google and Facebook are allowing cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to advertise within their networks, the question is what happens if the firm goes bust?

Not that there is any reason to believe the guys running Coinbase will fail or that the executives are anything other than decent, upright business people with their customer’s best interests at heart.

The issue is not with cryptocurrency firms advertising on social media, but the companies running the networks.

They took cryptocurrency advertising offline claiming rip-off companies were fleecing investors.

Does that now mean any cryptocurrency firm advertising on Facebook or Google has a seal of approval from the technology titans?

Blurred responsibilities

Of course not. No advertising media will take responsibility for the content of their advertising when a third party is involved.

But many less sophisticated investors might well risk their cash in a cryptocurrency venture believing if Facebook allows a corporation online, then the investment should be safe.

Google has blurred the lines with even more confusion. Search for ‘ICO offerings’ and 2.9 million results are returned, including adverts from companies running ‘trustworthy’ ICOs.

The problem is regulation. No official body has taken on the responsibility of policing cryptocurrency online, just the exchanges and traders within their legal jurisdictions.

That leaves corporations to supervise the space – and the risk is that money will win any conflict with best practise.

$100,000 For Breaking Into ‘Unhackable’ Wallet

Graham Trafford
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0
$100,000 For Breaking Into ‘Unhackable’ Wallet

Cryptocurrency guru John McAfee of computer security software fame is offering $100,000 to anyone who can hack a new wallet.

McAfee boasts the Bitfi wallet is ‘unhackable’.

Bitfi brags the wallet is a fortress for cryptocurrency traders and investors.

“By inventing the most sophisticated instrument in the world, we are constantly pursuing one clear target: universal adoption of the emerging decentralized digital asset economy in everyday life, for
everyone,” says the company.

“Never before has one hardware wallet so seamlessly combined such contradictory attributes as faultless, impenetrable security with incomparable ease of use and all without a trace of compromise. This is the definitive hardware wallet that vaults performance into previously uncharted territory.”

Bounty for breaching security

The company has put up the bounty and probably paid McAfee to spread the news – he has previously confessed he accepts cash to talk up cryptocurrency ventures.

Bitfi says the bountyfor any hacker successfully breaching their security is not to identify vulnerabilities because they believe there are none, but to support their advertising claims the wallet cannot be hacked.

“We strongly believe in the value of a bounty to resolve any possible concerns about the security of the Bitfi wallet. This bounty program is not intended to help Bitfi to identify security vulnerabilities since we already claim that our security is absolute and that the wallet cannot be hacked or penetrated by outside attacks,” says the company.

Dilemma for executives

“Rather this program is intended to demonstrate to anyone who claims or believes that nothing is unhackable or that they can hack into the Bitfi wallet, that such attempts are futile and that the advertised claims about the Bitfi wallet are accurate.”

The dilemma is no one claiming the bounty does not mean the wallet is unhackable, just that no one has reported the fact.

Secondly, the company executives will have red-faces when they must admit their claims are not true if a hacker wins the prize.

“For all you naysayers who claim that “nothing is unhackable” and who don’t believe that my Bitfi wallet is truly the world’s first unhackable device, a $100,000 bounty goes to anyone who can hack it,” McAfee has tweeted.

Stellar Is The First Shari’a Compliant Cryptocurrency

Anna Webb
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Stellar Is The First Shari’a Compliant Cryptocurrency

Stellar is the first cryptocurrency to get the Shari’a seal of approval.

According to the Stellar Development Foundation, the technology network has been designated as Shari’a compliant by the Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB).

In real terms, this means Muslims can use stellar for cryptocurrency transfers and exchanging real-world cash into the digital currency.

The certification also allows Islamic financial institutions to access the stellar network.

“In partnership with SRB, this certification will help grow the stellar ecosystem in regions where financial services require compliance with Islamic financing principles. For example, Islamic financial institutions in the Gulf, Indonesia and Malaysia can integrate stellar technology in their Sharia-compliant product and service offerings,” said an announcement from the foundation.

Testing time

Stellar had to pass several strict tests to gain the compliance certificate.

“Based on provided information, SRB conducted its review on the network’s guides, concepts and related material and did not find any provisions that are non-congruent to the principles of Shari’a. However, the users of the network seeking to attain Shari’a compliance should take note that merely following the attached guidelines does not automatically ensure compliance to Shari’a,” said the announcement.

Over the past 12 months, the foundation has explored partnerships with financial firms in the Gulf region and seeking Shari’a compliance certification helped the talks, said Lisa Nestor, director of partnership at Stellar.

“We have been looking to work with companies that facilitate remittances, including in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It’s a huge market,” she said.

Currency caution

“Stellar is the first distributed ledger protocol to receive Shari’a compliance certification in the money transfer and asset tokenization space. Additionally, the Shari’a compliance certification extends to applications and usages of lumens.”

Islamic clerics and bankers have discussed if cryptocurrency volatility is the same as lending money at unreasonable interest rates, which is forbidden under Shari’a law.

“For the blockchain technology there was no issue, the main thing we needed to consider was the use of the underlying cryptocurrency,” said Mansoor Ahmed, SRB’s assistant general manager.

The certification covers the stellar blockchain and native currency Lumens – the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. Stellar has a market cap of $5.56 billion and is trading at $0.29.

Stellar was created in 2014 by Jed McCabe, former chief of technology at rival cryptocurrency Ripple.

Bitcoin Blackmailers Cash In On Cheating Husbands

James Atkins
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0
Bitcoin Blackmailers Cash In On Cheating Husbands

Blackmailers are demanding Bitcoin ransoms from men randomly accused of cheating with their wives.

Crooks are sending notes through the post or by email.

They accuse the men of cheating or claim they have taken over their laptop webcams and recorded them accessing porn web sites.

After a list of sordid accusations, the blackmailer typically demands Bitcoin worth up to $2,000.

One letter says: “I’m going to cut to the chase. I know you cheated on your wife and I have evidence of your infidelity… its just your bad luck I stumbled across your misadventures.

“I am giving you two options. Either ignore this letter or pay me $2,000.

Ignore at your peril

“If you ignore this letter, I will send the evidence to your wife and as insurance against you intercepting it, I will send copies to her friends and family. Even if you come clean to your wife about your cheating, doing so won’t protect her from the humiliation she will feel when she finds out the sordid details from me.

“Option 2 is to pay the $2,000 and I will destroy the evidence and forget I ever heard of you.

“You may be thinking this is blackmail and yes, it is. I have taken steps to avoid this letter being traced back to me and going to the cops won’t stop the evidence being sent out and destroying your life.”

Variants on the scam claim to have webcam footage of potential victims accessing porn sites online and included old passwords grabbed from online security breaches from up to a decade ago.

No reports of scam succeeding

One of the letters went to university professor David Eargle in Colorado, USA.

Dozens of other victims have contacted him after posting details of experiences online.

“The password may be one that the recipient has used, but it’s very unlikely that the scammer has installed any malware on your computer,” says one online security consultant.

“While sextortion scams like this have been attempted for years, there are no reports of any scammers using this tactic and actually installing malware to film someone pleasuring themselves while watching porn. It’s much easier to just lie about it and convince people that this has happened.”

Tools For Cryptocurrency Traders

Anna Webb
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Tools For Cryptocurrency Traders

If you want to make a quick profit from cryptocurrency, then you need to apply a different strategy from investing.

Investing is about picking a coin or token and holding your stake in the technology for the long term.

Investing is about saving for retirement or a big ticket purchase some time in the future.

Traders must apply a different mid-set.

Trading is about nipping in and out of the market, almost betting against gains and losses.

Cryptocurrency is loved by traders because the peaks and troughs tend to be greater than those on the stock markets because coins are more volatile, meaning they have a chance to make bigger profits – and risk larger losses.

Experienced traders have an arsenal of tools at their fingertips to help them track their holdings and make sensible decisions.

Choosing an exchange

Exchanges are the interface between real money and virtual currency. They can be centralised or decentralised, which explains how they store cryptocurrency.

Centralised exchanges are more numerous and are prone to hacks, which is why many traders choose to keep their cryptocurrency in a wallet separate from an exchange.

Managing your assets

A portfolio manager tracks your cryptocurrency and how much your stake is worth. Some wallets come with these trackers. One of the most popular standalone trackers is LiveMarketCap

A tracker is vital if you have several different cryptocurrency holdings. A more sophisticated monitor is CoinTracking

Analysing your holding

Picking the tool that suits you is difficult. You need to know what you are analysing and why rather than losing yourself in streams of senseless data.

Analysis is not for starters in trading. It’s a mix of crunching numbers, watching trends and keeping an eye on what’s hot and what’s not on social media.

Hot to the market is Roninai– at a cost of $50 or $199 a month with a special early access offer.

Market monitor

As you are unlikely to sit in front of your laptop 24/7, you need to know when the market changes. Some analysis tools offer this service, but setting up your own notifications is better.

You can tap in to a news aggregator – and there are a lot to choose from. They come as market-specific like CoinBuzz or more general news sources, such as Google News or NewsNow.

Big Brands Boost Their Blockchain Technology Offerings

James Atkins
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Big Brands Boost Their Blockchain Technology Offerings

Mainstream companies are starting to take up blockchain technologies to power their products.

A leading web browser is testing a wallet to give ethereum investors and traders easy access to their cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, mobile phone brand HTC is ready to launch the first blockchain handset.

The top-of-the-range Exodus smartphone will cost around $1,000 and will have apps that offer a cold wallet for storing cryptocurrency offline and key recovery.

The android phone is likely to hit the streets in September, with a company web site already taking the details of interested buyers.

CryptoKitties partners with smartphone provider

“Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world’s first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality,” says the HTC web site.

HTC is also partnering with blockchain blockbuster CryptoKitties, a game centred around breeding, buying and selling collectibles cartoon cats for bitcoin or ethereum.

The hugely popular app raised more than $400,000 on the day of release and the cash is still rolling in.

CryptoKitties may come with the HTC Exodus, but a standalone device for playing the game is on the way as well.

Browser with built-in wallet for ether

Separately, Opera, the popular web browser, is in private beta on android with a wallet supporting ethereum that comes with a promise that other coins will follow soon.

Opera is ahead of other browsers in the cryptocurrency market as the wallet means users no longer need a third-party app to move their cryptocurrency or to interact with decentralised apps (Dapps). Secure cryptocurrency payments will be made with Coinbase Commerce.

The browser already has built-in anti-cryptojacking software and a Dapp explorer that leads to a curated range of apps.

Product manager Charles Hamel said Opera will support more cryptocurrencies and networks in the future.

“Although the current selection of merchants accepting cryptocurrencies is very limited, we think cryptocurrency payments will become more popular in the near future, as crypto wallets become easier to use and understand,” he said.

Opera has opened beta testing to approved users, who can apply through the company’s web site.

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