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Bitcoin halving

Hardware wallet

BitPay

BitPay is a bitcoin payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. BitPay provides Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payment processing services for merchants. == History == BitPay was founded in 2011 to provide mobile checkout services to companies that wanted to accept bitcoins. By October 2012, BitPay had grown to having 1,100 active merchants, including being WordPress's bitcoin merchant.BitPay announced in January 2013 that they would be relocating their headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia, from their previous location, Orlando, Florida. The move came following the announcement the company had secured $510,000 in seed funding. According to the company's co-founder, the city of Atlanta was chosen due to the number of fintech companies located in Georgia.In May 2013, BitPay announced that they had raised $2 million via Founders Fund.In September 2013, the company announced it had reached the milestone of 10,000 merchants. Gallippi stated that since the foundation of the company, they had processed over $34m, which was equivalent to 270,830 bitcoins at the time on the Bitcoin Price Index.In 2014, BitPay expanded its North American presence beyond its headquarters in Atlanta, opening offices in New York City, San Francisco and St. Petersburg, Florida. BitPay's European headquarters opened in Amsterdam and their South American Headquarters were opened in Argentina.In January at CES 2014, BitPay announced that 12,000 merchants had signed up to their service. The D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel and Casino both announced that BitPay would be used as their chosen merchant for Bitcoin in Las Vegas. They were two of the first casinos in Las Vegas to accept Bitcoin.Shortly after CES 2014, the NBA basketball team the Sacramento Kings announced they would become the first major sports franchise in North America to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment for tickets and merchandise and would be processed by BitPayWithin the same month, it was announced that Zynga would also begin to accept Bitcoin, with BitPay as its merchant.In 2014, BitPay merchant BitGive became the first bitcoin charity to be recognized as a charitable organization by the IRS and was granted 501(c)(3) status. The 2014 FEC ruling that bitcoin donations can be accepted by political campaigns and organizations led to BitPay partnering with CoinVox and other fundraising organizations. In June, BitPay became the first Bitcoin company to sponsor a North American sports event. They sponsored the St. Petersburg Bowl, a college bowl game. Following the announcement, over 100 companies in the St. Petersburg area took steps so that they could accept the digital currency before the first event.In September 2015, the company sued its insurance provider in regards to non-coverage of a 5000 BTC theft that occurred in December 2014.In May 2016, BitPay launched the BitPay Visa Prepaid Debit Card, the first prepaid Visa debit card available for bitcoin users in all 50 US states. The company also added new bitcoin-accepting firms, including gaming platform Steam. New collaborations and releases with Intel and Microsoft's Azure Cloud platform brought new features and capabilities to BitPay's Copay and Bitcore open source platforms. In 2017, BitPay launched another round B funding campaign. Later that year, they raised the minimum payment on the platform to US $100 from its previous US $5; the change was reversed only a few days later. In Dec 2017, Steam stopped accepting bitcoin payments from BitPay, citing transaction costs for small items were too high, along with volatility concerns.Bitcoin's prepaid WaveCrest Visa was discontinued in January 2018. BitPay received its virtual currency license from the New York Department of Financial Services in July 2018. == Funding == Initial funding came from a variety of sources including Shakil Khan, Barry Silbert, Jimmy Furland, Roger Ver and Trace Mayer.In January 2013, the company announced US $510,000 in angel investment, its first external capital after being internally bootstrapped. The investment coincided with the company relocating their headquarters to Atlanta, Georgia. It was stated at the time that the funding would be used to help advance Bitcoin processing.In June 2013, BitPay received an additional US $2 million venture capital investment led by the Founders Fund. A Tech Crunch article stated that the investment would likely be spent on staffing, with a number of coding specialists required around that time. The funding was seen as an attempted push to become more global and was seen by some as a larger VC land grab for Bitcoin companies.In December 2013, Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing invested through his Horizons Ventures firm about $2.7 million into BitPay.In May 2014, BitPay received $30 million in funding from investors including Index Ventures, RRE Ventures, Virgin Group's Richard Branson and Yahoo founder Jerry Yang. == See also == Coinbase Xapo Blockchain Circle (company) List of bitcoin companies == References == == External links == Official website

Bitcoin faucet

Bitcoin futures

Bitcoin Law

The Bitcoin Law (Spanish: Ley Bitcoin, pronounced [ˈlej biðˈkojn]) was passed by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on 8 June 2021, giving the cryptocurrency bitcoin the status of legal tender within El Salvador after 7 September 2021. It was proposed by President Nayib Bukele. The text of the law states that "the purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tender with liberating power, unlimited in any transaction, and to any title that public or private natural or legal persons require carrying out". == History == Bitcoin use as a currency in El Salvador had been experimented with since at least 2019, and current President Bukele expressed interest in bitcoin while he was mayor of San Salvador in 2017. Bloomberg News reported in June 2021 that Bukele and some members of the Nuevas Ideas party had owned Bitcoin for years.The coastal village of El Zonte has had an active experiment underway to use bitcoin in the local economy since 2019, where some workers have received their salary and can pay bills in bitcoin, and others use it to buy food and other goods from local shops.At a conference for bitcoin in Miami in June 2021, President Bukele announced that he would be looking to promulgate a law allowing bitcoin as legal tender, saying that it would "generate jobs and help provide financial inclusion to thousands outside the formal economy". According to Bukele, the law is aimed at the approximately 70% of Salvadorans without bank accounts, and will increase inclusion for them. Bukele argued that the bill would increase investment as well as reducing fees from current services for remittances. In pushing the bill, Bukele cooperated with Strike, a financial service firm which uses the Lightning Network for settlement, and Jack Mallers, its CEO.The law was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 9 June 2021, with a majority vote of 62 out of 84. Bitcoin became legal tender on 7 September 2021, 90 days after the publication of the law in the official gazette, which makes El Salvador the first country to have bitcoin as legal tender. Bitcoin joined the United States dollar as the second official currency of El Salvador. == Reception == The law was commented on as something of good "PR value" for Bukele, as a "young president trying to capitalise on a popular image". It was also criticized due to the volatility of bitcoin when used as an investment, and the high transaction fees when used as a method of payment.Siobhan Morden of Amherst Pierpont commented that the law could bring complications to Bukele's talks with the International Monetary Fund. She noted that the law would "likely only compound concerns about corruption, money laundering and the independence of regulatory agencies." Carlos de Sousa of Vontobel Asset Management expressed concerns that the decentralized system would lead to easier money laundering and tax avoidance. According to Ernst & Young, the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender by El Salvador could have consequences for US taxpayers holding the cryptocurrency, because "If more countries adopt bitcoin as legal tender, the US federal income tax treatment of bitcoin could change. Instead of being treated as an investment that is a capital asset, bitcoin could be treated as generating ordinary income under Section 988."In an August 2021 poll conducted by Salvadoran newspaper La Prensa Gráfica, a majority of people polled said they opposed the Bitcoin Law, and almost three quarters of respondents said they would not accept bitcoin as payment.According to a December 2021 survey done by the Central American University 100 days after the Bitcoin Law came into force: 34.8% of the population has no confidence in Bitcoin, 35.3% has little confidence, 13.2% has some confidence, and 14.1% has a lot of confidence. 56.6% of respondents have downloaded the government Bitcoin wallet; among them 62.9% has never used it or only once whereas 36.3% uses Bitcoin at least once a month. 48.5% of respondents think the Bitcoin Law should be abolished. == Implementation == The new law took effect on 7 September 2021. In the early hours after the law took effect and the official launch of new technologies to deal with a major change to the national currency infrastructure, the government had to take its bitcoin e-wallet, Chivo, offline due to excessive load. The Bukele government increased server capacity and brought the e-wallet back online by mid-day. 7 September 2021 also saw a crash in bitcoin to its lowest in almost a month, causing the country to experience a 3 million USD paper loss. The Salvadoran government tried to rectify this by buying bitcoin, allowing the price to rise above 52,000 USD. Due to concerns about bitcoin's volatility, as a result, over 1,000 protestors gathered outside the Supreme Court of El Salvador to protest the law. Chivo was initially rejected by many platforms early on the first day, but became increasingly accepted by them.A month after adoption of the Bitcoin Law, more El Salvadorans have Bitcoin wallets than traditional bank accounts. The most popular bitcoin wallet—the government's officially-sponsored Chivo wallet—had been downloaded by three million people, "amounting to 46 percent of the population. By contrast, as of 2017, only 29 percent of Salvadorans had bank accounts." The use of the Chivo wallet has been incentivized by the government with US$30 seed money deposited into every Salvadoran's account. Other Lightning-enabled bitcoin wallets may be used by Salvadorans in lieu of Chivo. In addition, many of the largest gas stations in the country are offering a 20 cents per gallon discount on gasoline for those who pay through the Chivo app. One month on, 12 percent of Salvadoran consumers have used the cryptocurrency, but 93 percent of companies surveyed reported receiving no payments in bitcoin during the first month. == See also == Legality of cryptocurrencies by country or territory Petro, state-issued cryptocurrency of Venezuela == References == == External links == Press release, on the official website of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador Opinion of the Financial Committee of the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador Full text of the law in English

2020 Twitter account hijacking

On July 15, 2020, between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC, 130 high-profile Twitter accounts were reportedly compromised by outside parties to promote a bitcoin scam. Twitter and other media sources confirmed that the perpetrators had gained access to Twitter's administrative tools so that they could alter the accounts themselves and post the tweets directly. They appeared to have used social engineering to gain access to the tools via Twitter employees. Three individuals were arrested by authorities on July 31, 2020, and charged with wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and unauthorized computer access related to the scam.The scam tweets asked individuals to send bitcoin currency to a specific cryptocurrency wallet, promising the Twitter user that money sent would be doubled and returned as a charitable gesture. Within minutes from the initial tweets, more than 320 transactions had already taken place on one of the wallet addresses, and bitcoins to a value of more than US$110,000 had been deposited in one account before the scam messages were removed by Twitter. In addition, full message history data from eight non-verified accounts were also acquired.Dmitri Alperovitch, the co-founder of cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, described the incident as "the worst hack of a major social media platform yet." Security researchers expressed concerns that the social engineering used to execute the hack could affect the use of social media in important online discussions, including the lead-up into the 2020 United States presidential election. On July 31, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against three individuals in connection with the incident. == Incident == Forensic analysis of the scam showed that the initial scam messages were first posted by accounts with short, one- or two-character distinctive names, such as "@6". This was followed by cryptocurrency Twitter accounts at around 20:00 UTC on July 15, 2020, including those of Coinbase, CoinDesk and Binance. The scam then moved to more high-profile accounts with the first such tweet sent from Elon Musk's Twitter account at 20:17 UTC. Other supposedly compromised accounts included those of well-known individuals such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, MrBeast, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West; and companies such as Apple, Uber, and Cash App. Twitter believed 130 accounts were affected, though only 45 were actually used to tweet the scam message; most of the accounts that were accessed in the scam had at least a million followers.The tweets involved in the scam hack claimed that the sender, in charity, would repay any user double the value of any bitcoin they sent to given wallets, often as part of a COVID-19 relief effort. The tweets followed the sharing of malicious links by a number of cryptocurrency companies; the website hosting the links was taken down shortly after the tweets were posted. While such "double your bitcoin" scams have been common on Twitter before, this was the first major instance of them being sent from breached high-profile accounts. Security experts believe that the perpetrators ran the scam as a "smash and grab" operation: Knowing that the intrusion into the accounts would be closed quickly, the perpetrators likely planned that only a small fraction of the millions that follow these accounts needed to fall for the scam in that short time to make quick money from it. Multiple bitcoin wallets had been listed at these websites; the first one observed had received 12 bitcoins from over 320 transactions, valued at more than US$118,000, and had about US$61,000 removed from it, while a second had amounts only in the thousands of dollars as Twitter took steps to halt the postings. It is unclear if these had been funds added by those led on by the scam, as bitcoin scammers are known to add funds to wallets prior to starting schemes to make the scam seem legitimate. Of the funds added, most had originated from wallets with Chinese ownerships, but about 25% came from United States wallets. After it was added, the cryptocurrency was then subsequently transferred through multiple accounts as a means to obscure their identity.Some of the compromised accounts posted scam messages repeatedly, even after having some of the messages deleted. The tweets were labelled as having been sent using the Twitter Web app. One of the phrases involved in the scam was tweeted more than 3,000 times in the space of four hours, with tweets being sent from IP addresses linked to many different countries. The reused phrasing allowed Twitter to remove the offending tweets easily as they took steps to stop the scam.By 21:45 UTC, Twitter released a statement saying they were "aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter" and that they were "taking steps to fix it". Shortly afterwards, it disabled the ability for some accounts to tweet, or to reset their password; Twitter had not confirmed which accounts were restricted, but many users with accounts Twitter had marked as "verified" confirmed that they were unable to tweet. Approximately three hours after the first scam tweets, Twitter reported they believed they had resolved all of the affected accounts to restore credentials to their rightful owners. Later that night, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said it was a "tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened. We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened." At least one cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, blacklisted the bitcoin addresses to prevent money from being sent. Coinbase said they stopped over 1,000 transactions totaling over US$280,000 from being sent.In addition to sending out tweets, the account data for eight compromised accounts was downloaded, including all created posts and direct messages, though none of these accounts belonged to verified users. Twitter also suspected that thirty-six other accounts had their direct messages accessed but not downloaded including Dutch Parliament Representative Geert Wilders, but believed no other current or former elected official had their messages accessed. === Method of attack === Bloomberg News, after investigation with former and current Twitter employees, reported that as many as 1500 Twitter employees and partners had access to the admin tools that would allow for the ability to reset accounts, as had been done during the incident. Former Twitter employees had told Bloomberg that even as late as 2017 and 2018, those with access would make a game of using these tools to track famous celebrities, though the amount of data visible through the tools alone was limited to elements like IP address and geolocation information. A Twitter spokesperson told Bloomberg that they do use "extensive security training and managerial oversight" to manage employees and partners with access to the tools, and that there was "no indication that the partners we work with on customer service and account management played a part here". Former members of Twitter's security departments stated that since 2015, the company was alerted to the potential of an inside attack and other cybersecurity measures, but these were put aside in favor of more revenue-generating initiatives.As Twitter was working to resolve the situation on July 15, Vice was contacted by at least four individuals claiming to be part of the scam and presented the website with screenshots showing that they had been able to gain access to a Twitter administrative tool, also known as an "agent tool", that allowed them to change various account-level settings of some of the compromised accounts, including confirmation emails for the account. This allowed them to set email addresses which any other user, with access to that email account, could initiate a password reset and post the tweets. These hackers told Vice that they had paid insiders at Twitter to get access to the administrative tool to be able to pull this off.Ars Technica obtained a more detailed report from a researcher who worked with FBI on the investigation. According to this report, attackers scraped LinkedIn in search of Twitter employees likely to have administrator privileges account-holder tools. Then attackers obtained these employees' cell phone numbers and other private contact information via paid tools LinkedIn makes available to job recruiters. After choosing victims for the next stage, attackers contacted Twitter employees, most who were remote working due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and, using the information from LinkedIn and other public sources, pretended to be Twitter personnel. Attackers directed victims to log into a fake internal Twitter VPN. To bypass two-factor authentication, attackers entered stolen credentials into the real Twitter VPN portal, and "within seconds of the employees entering their info into the fake one", asked victims for the two-factor authentication code.TechCrunch reported similarly, based on a source that stated some of the messages were from a member of the hacking forum OGUsers, who had claimed to have made over US$100,000 from it. According to TechCrunch's source, this member "Kirk" had reportedly gained access to the Twitter administrative tool likely through a compromised employee account, and after initially offering to take over any account on request, switched strategies to target cryptocurrency accounts, starting with Binance and then higher-profile ones. The source did not believe Kirk had paid a Twitter employee for access.The "@6" Twitter had belonged to Adrian Lamo, and the user maintaining the account on behalf of Lamo's family reported that the group that performed the hack were able to bypass numerous security factors they had set up on the account, including two-factor authentication, further indicating that the administrative tools had been used to bypass the account security. Spokespersons for the White House stated that President Donald Trump's account, which may have been a target, had extra security measures implemented at Twitter after an incident in 2017, and therefore was not affected by the scam.Vice's and TechCrunch's sources were corroborated by The New York Times, who spoke to similar persons involved with the events, and from other security researchers who had been given similar screens, and tweets of these screens had been made, but Twitter removed these since they revealed personal details of the compromised accounts. The New York Times further affirmed that the vector of the attack was related to most of the company's remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The OGUsers members were able to gain access to the Twitter employees' Slack communications channel where information and authorization processes on accessing the company's servers while remote working had been pinned.Twitter subsequently confirmed that the scam involved social engineering, stating "We detected what we believe to be a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools." In addition to taking further steps to lock down the verified accounts affected, Twitter said they have also begun an internal investigation and have limited employee access to their system administrative tools as they evaluate the situation, as well as if any additional data was compromised by the malicious users.By the end of July 17, 2020, Twitter affirmed what had been learned from these media sources, stating that "The attackers successfully manipulated a small number of employees and used their credentials to access Twitter's internal systems, including getting through our two-factor protections. As of now, we know that they accessed tools only available to our internal support teams." Twitter had been able to further confirm by July 30 that the method used was what they called a "phone spear phishing attack": they initially used social engineering to breach the credentials of lower-level Twitter employees who did not have access to the admin tools, and then using those employee accounts, engaged in additional social engineering attacks to get the credentials to the admin tools from employees who did have authorization for their use. === Perpetrators === The FBI announced on July 16 it was launching an investigation into the scam, as it was used to "perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud", a criminal offense. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence also planned to ask Twitter for additional information on the hack, as the committee's vice-chair Mark Warner stated "The ability of bad actors to take over prominent accounts, even fleetingly, signals a worrisome vulnerability in this media environment, exploitable not just for scams but for more impactful efforts to cause confusion, havoc and political mischief". The UK's National Cyber Security Centre said its officers had reached out to Twitter regarding the incident.Security researcher Brian Krebs corroborated with TechCrunch's source and with information obtained by Reuters, that the scam appeared to have originated in the "OGUsers" group. The OGUsers forum ("OG" standing for "original") was established for selling and buying social media accounts with short or "rare" names, and according to its owner, speaking to Reuters, the practice of trafficking in hacked credentials was prohibited. Screenshots from the forum, show various users on the forum offering to hack into Twitter accounts at US$2,000−3,000 each. Krebs stated one of the members might have been tied to the August 2019 takeover of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Twitter account. The OGUsers owner told Reuters that the accounts shown in the screenshots were since banned.The United States Department of Justice announced the arrest and charges of three individuals tied to the scam on July 31, 2020. A 19-year-old from the United Kingdom was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and the intentional access of a protected computer, and a 22-year-old from Florida was charged with aiding and abetting the international access. Both will be tried in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. A third individual, Graham Ivan Clark, 17 years old, of Hillsborough County, Florida, was also indicted; the charges were originally sealed in juvenile court, but he was eventually charged as an adult on 30 felony counts. The charges included organized fraud, communications fraud, identity theft, and hacking. Florida state law allows for trying minors as adults in financial fraud cases. Clark pleaded not guilty to the charges on August 4, 2020. He accepted a plea bargain in March 2021 and was sentenced to 3 years in prison followed by 3 years of probation; he was sentenced under Florida’s Youthful Offender Act, which limits the penalties on convicted felons under the age of 21. According to the Tampa Bay Times, he would be able to "to serve some of his time in a military-style boot camp".A fourth individual, a 16-year-old from Massachusetts, had been identified as a possible suspect in the scam by the FBI. Though federal agents had conducted a warranted search of his possessions in late August 2020, no indictments have been made yet.In April 2023, 23-year-old Joseph James O'Connor, a British citizen with the online handle PlugwalkJoe, was extradited from Spain to New York to face charges after being arrested in July 2020, and reported to have hacked over 100 Twitter accounts including the accounts of Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Elon Musk. O'Connor is also accused of extorting close to $800,000 in cryptocurrency. O'Connor entered a guilty plea, and on June 23 was sentenced to five years in federal prison in addition for forfeiting at least $794,000 to the victims of the hijacking. == Reaction and aftermath == As affected users could only retweet content, leading NBC News to set up a temporary non-verified account so that they could continue to tweet, retweeting "significant updates" on their main account. Some National Weather Service forecast offices were unable to tweet severe weather warnings, with the National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois initially unable to tweet a tornado warning. Joe Biden's campaign stated to CNN that they were "in touch with Twitter on the matter", and that his account had been "locked down". Google temporarily disabled its Twitter carousel in its search feature as a result of these security issues.During the incident, Twitter, Inc.'s stock price fell by 4% after the markets closed. By the end of the next day, Twitter, Inc.'s stock price ended at $36.40, down 38 cents, or 0.87%.Security experts expressed concern that while the scam may have been relatively small in terms of financial impact, the ability for social media to be taken over through social engineering involving employees of these companies poses a major threat in the use of social media particularly in the lead-up to the 2020 United States presidential election, and could potentially cause an international incident. Alex Stamos of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation said, "Twitter has become the most important platform when it comes to discussion among political elites, and it has real vulnerabilities."Twitter chose to delay the rolling out of its new API in the aftermath of the security issues. By September, Twitter stated they had put new protocols in place to prevent similar social engineering attacks, including heightening background checks for employees that would have access to the key user data, implementing day-to-day phishing-resistant security keys, and having all employees involved in customer support participate in training to be aware of future social engineering scams.Though not part of the Twitter incident, Steve Wozniak and seventeen others initiated a lawsuit against Google the following week, asserting that the company did not take sufficient steps to remove similar Bitcoin scam videos posted to YouTube that used his and the other plaintiffs' names, fraudulently claiming to back the scam. Wozniak's complaint identified that Twitter was able to act within the same day, while he and the other plaintiffs' requests to Google had never been acted upon.On September 29, 2020, Twitter hired Rinki Sethi as CISO and VP of the company after the breach.On November 20, 2020, Hulu aired the 5th episode of "The New York Times Presents" series entitled "The Teenager Who Hacked Twitter," which details the events of this incident. == References == == External links == Ongoing updates from Twitter on investigation into the intrusion on its systems, what had been accessed, and their steps to correct and prevent similar attacks. Overview of the bitcoin address' transactions Archived July 17, 2020, at the Wayback Machine

2018 Bitcoin bomb threats

On December 13, 2018, thousands of businesses, individuals, schools, news agencies, and other places throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia received emailed bomb threats, warning that a "mercenary" of the sender of the email had placed a bomb in the receiver's workplace and demanding that a ransom of $20,000 be sent to a Bitcoin address to prevent the bomb from being detonated. Six schools in Australia's capital city Canberra were evacuated after threats. The explosive stated to be used in the bomb, along with the Bitcoin address, varied between emails. Police departments in New York City, Oklahoma City, Massachusetts, and Calgary, among other areas of the United States and Canada, stated that the threats were likely not credible and that no explosive devices had been found in any of the threatened areas.On December 14, Jaeson Schultz of Cisco Talos wrote that the bitcoin addresses associated with the bomb threats received only two transactions, both of which were under $1. He also wrote that the same group was behind an earlier sextortion scheme which was more profitable, and that they started making new threats of throwing acid onto individual recipients.In January 2019, anti-spam researcher Ronald Guilmette found that a GoDaddy security weakness was exploited to help the spam campaign. == See also == 2017 Jewish Community Center bomb threats October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts == References ==

Cryptocurrency bubble

A cryptocurrency bubble is a phenomenon where the market increasingly considers the going price of cryptocurrency assets to be inflated against their hypothetical value. The history of cryptocurrency has been marked by several speculative bubbles.Some economists and prominent investors have expressed the view that the entire cryptocurrency market constitutes a speculative bubble. Adherents of this view include Berkshire Hathaway board member Warren Buffett and several laureates of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, central bankers, and investors. == History == === 2011 booms and crashes === In February 2011, the price of bitcoin rose to US$1.06, then fell to US$0.67 that April. This spike was encouraged by several Slashdot posts about it. In June 2011, bitcoin's price again rose, to US$29.58. This came after attention from a Gawker article about the dark web market Silk Road. The price then fell to US$2.14 that November. === 2013 boom and 2014–15 crash === In November 2013, Bitcoin's price rose to US$1,127.45. It then gradually declined, bottoming out at US$172.15 in January 2015. === 2017 boom and 2018 crash === The 2018 cryptocurrency crash (also known as the Bitcoin crash and the Great crypto crash) was the sell-off of most cryptocurrencies starting in January 2018. After an unprecedented boom in 2017, the price of Bitcoin fell by about 65% from 6 January to 6 February 2018. Subsequently, nearly all other cryptocurrencies followed Bitcoin's crash. By September 2018, cryptocurrencies collapsed 80% from their peak in January 2018, making the 2018 cryptocurrency crash worse than the dot-com bubble's 78% collapse. By 26 November, Bitcoin also fell by 80% from its peak, having lost almost one-third of its value in the previous week.A January 2018 article by CBS cautioned about possible fraud, citing the case of BitConnect, a British company which received a cease-and-desist order from the Texas State Securities Board. BitConnect had promised very high monthly returns but had not registered with state securities regulators or given their office address.In November 2018, the total market capitalization for Bitcoin fell below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017, and the price of Bitcoin fell below $4,000, representing an 80 percent decline from its peak the previous January. Bitcoin reached a low of around $3,100 in December 2018. ==== Timeline of the crash ==== 17 December 2017: Bitcoin's price briefly reaches a new all-time high of $19,783.06. 22 December 2017: Bitcoin falls below $11,000, a fall of 45% from its peak. 12 January 2018: Amidst rumors that South Korea could be preparing to ban trading in cryptocurrency, the price of Bitcoin depreciates by 12 percent. 26 January 2018: Coincheck, Japan's largest cryptocurrency OTC market, is hacked. US$530 million of the NEM are stolen by the hacker, causing Coincheck to indefinitely suspend trading. The loss is the largest ever so far by an incident of theft. 7 March 2018: Compromised Binance API keys are used to execute irregular trades. Late March 2018: Facebook, Google, and Twitter ban advertisements for initial coin offerings (ICO) and token sales. 15 November 2018: Bitcoin's market capitalization falls below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017 and the price of Bitcoin falls to $5,500. ==== Initial coin offerings ==== Wired noted in 2017 that the bubble in initial coin offerings (ICOs) was about to burst. Some investors bought ICOs in hopes of participating in the financial gains similar to those enjoyed by early Bitcoin or Ethereum speculators.Binance has been one of the biggest winners in this boom as it surged to become the largest cryptocurrency trading platform by volume. It lists hundreds of digital tokens on its exchange.In June 2018, Ella Zhang of Binance Labs, a division of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, stated that she was hoping to see the bubble in ICOs collapse. She promised to help "fight scams and shit coins". === 2020–2022 cryptocurrency bubble === ==== 2020–2021 bubbles ==== From 8 to 12 March 2020, the price of Bitcoin fell by 30 percent from $8,901 to $6,206. By October 2020, Bitcoin was worth approximately $13,200.In November 2020, Bitcoin again surpassed its previous all-time high of over $19,000. After another surge on 3 January 2021 with $34,792.47, Bitcoin crashed by 17 percent the next day. Bitcoin traded above $40,000 for the first time on 8 January 2021 and reached $50,000 on 16 February 2021. On Wednesday, 20 October 2021, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $66,974.In early 2021, Bitcoin's price witnessed another boom, rising over 700% since March 2020, and reaching above $40,000 for the first time on 7 January. On 11 January, the UK Financial Conduct Authority warned investors against lending or investments in cryptoassets, that they should be prepared "to lose all their money". On 16 February, Bitcoin reached $50,000 for the first time. On 13 March, Bitcoin surpassed $61,000 for the first time. Following a smaller correction in February, Bitcoin plunged from its peak above $64,000 on 14 April to below $49,000 on 23 April, representing a 23% mini-crash in less than 10 days, dipping below the March bottom trading range and wiping half a trillion dollars from the combined crypto market cap. On 14 April, Coinbase, a much hyped crypto exchange went public on the NASDAQ. Their shares grew by over 31% on their first day to $328.28, pushing their market cap to $85.8B.Other cryptocurrencies' prices also sharply rose, then followed by losses of value during this period. In May 2021, the value of Dogecoin, originally created as a joke, increased to 20,000% of value in one year. It then dropped 34% over the weekend. By 19 May, Bitcoin had dropped in value by 30% to $31,000, Ethereum by 40%, and Dogecoin by 45%. Nearly all cryptocurrencies were down by double-digit percentages. Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance went down amid a market-wide price crash and traders are now seeking justice for their losses. This was partly in response to Elon Musk's announcement that Tesla would suspend payments using the Bitcoin network due to environmental concerns, along with an announcement from the People's Bank of China reiterating that digital currencies cannot be used for payments.Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies experienced a solid recovery after Elon Musk met with leading Bitcoin mining companies to develop more sustainable and efficient Bitcoin mining. After bottoming out on 19 July, by early September Bitcoin had reached $52,633.54 while Ethereum grew by over 100% to $3,952.13. After a short but significant fall, both crypto's peaked on 7 November 2021 at $67,566.83 and $4,812.09, respectively. The NASDAQ would peak 12 days later on 19 November at 16,057.44. Since bottoming out after the covid crash in 2020, Bitcoin had grown over 1,200% in value while Ethereum had grown over 4,000% in value while the NASDAQ had only grown around 134%. In September, Bitcoin officially became a legal tender in El Salvador with many news sources wondering what countries would be next.As of October 2021, China has continued shutting down crypto trading and mining activities, and Tesla has not yet resumed payments with Bitcoin. ==== 2021–2023 crash ==== After their peak, the crypto market began to fall with the rest of the market. By the end of 2021, Bitcoin had fallen nearly 30% from its peak down to $47,686.81, and Ethereum had fallen about 23% to $3,769.70. In December 2022, The Washington Post reported "the sense that the crypto bubble has definitively popped, taking with it billions of dollars of investments made by regular people, pension funds, venture capitalists, and traditional companies". ===== Collapse of Terra-Luna ===== In May 2022, the stablecoin TerraUSD fell to US$0.10. This was supposed to be pegged to the US dollar via a complex algorithmic relationship with its support coin Luna. The loss of the peg resulted in Luna falling to almost zero, down from its high of $119.51. The collapse wiped out $45 billion of market capitalization in a week. On 25 May, a proposal was approved to reissue a new Luna cryptocurrency and to decouple from and abandon the devalued UST stablecoin. The new Luna coin lost value in the opening days of being listed on exchanges.In the wake of Terra-Luna's collapse, another algorithmic stablecoin, DEI, lost its peg to the dollar and started to collapse.Kwon Do-hyung, the founder of Terra-Luna, is wanted by South Korea and the US for his role as the creator of the cryptocurrency stablecoin which was guaranteed by an algorithm rather than with appropriate funds, after the loss of 40 billion dollars by investors. He has been arrested in Montenegro. ===== Private litigation in the United States ===== On 7 January 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed against EthereumMax alleging it to be a pump and dump scheme with media personality Kim Kardashian, former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., former NBA player Paul Pierce, and other celebrities also being named in the lawsuit for promoting the Ether cryptocurrency on their social media accounts.On 18 February, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to targeted solicitation using social media.On the same day, a class-action lawsuit was filed against SafeMoon alleging it to also be a pump and dump scheme with professional boxer Jake Paul, musician Nick Carter, rappers Soulja Boy and Lil Yachty, and social media personality Ben Phillips also being named in the lawsuit for promoting the SafeMoon cryptocurrency with misleading information on their social media accounts.On 1 April, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida against the LGBcoin cryptocurrency company, NASCAR, professional stock car racing driver Brandon Brown, and political commentator Candace Owens alleging that the defendants made false or misleading statements about the LGBcoin and that the founders of the company had engaged in a pump and dump scheme.On 13 April, Coinbase received a class-action securities fraud lawsuit from its shareholders for including false and misleading statements and omissions in the registration statement and prospectus of its initial public offering.On 13 June, Binance received a class-action lawsuit from more than 2,000 investors accusing the company of false advertising in promoting TerraUSD.On 17 June, TerraForm Labs received a class-action lawsuit in the United States alleging the company misled investors in violation of federal and California securities laws in marketing its cryptocurrencies in a manner that resembled securities.On 7 July, Celsius Network received a lawsuit from a former cryptocurrency investment manager alleging the company failed to implement adequate risk management strategies or accounting practices to hedge the firm against cryptocurrency price fluctuations and protect its ability to repay its depositors, and that the company was operating an effective Ponzi scheme.On 21 July, an ex-Coinbase employee and 2 other men were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This marked the first time charges were brought to people involving crypto assets. ===== Collapse of FTX ===== In early November, Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, announced it would be dissolving its holdings in FTX Token (FTT) with reports that most of FTX liquidity was based in this coin and was very unstable. This announcement came shortly after article surfaced stating that Alameda Research, a trading firm affiliated with FTX held a significant amount of FTT. This resulted in a run on FTX resulting in 90% of all FTT being withdrawn. The price of FTT fell from $22 on 7 November to under $5.00 on 8 November, an 80% drop. Abracadabra.com's stablecoin "magic internet money" (MIM) also briefly lost its peg to the US dollar for the first time since May 2022. This all resulted in a liquidity crisis with the company unable to pay off the withdrawals. On 8 November, rival Binance announced plans to buy the company to save it from collapse. This sent shockwaves through the crypto market and led to a 10% drop in Bitcoin price and a 15% drop in Ether price. The following day, however, Binance immediately withdrew its offer causing Bitcoin and Ether to plummet another 14% and 16%, respectively, to their lowest levels since November 2020. The same day, the SEC and Justice Department launched an investigation into the company. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on 11 November. == Characterization as 'bubble' == Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Krugman, Robert J. Shiller, Joseph Stiglitz, Richard Thaler, James Heckman, Thomas Sargent, Angus Deaton, and Oliver Hart; and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan, Agustín Carstens, Vítor Constâncio, and Nout Wellink.The investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a "mirage" and a "bubble", while the business executives Jack Ma and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "bubble" and a "fraud", respectively. However, Dimon said later he regrets calling Bitcoin a fraud.Other notable skeptics are Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist; Bruce Schneier, cryptographer, computer security expert, and public policy lecturer at Harvard University; and Molly White, author of the Web3 Is Going Just Great website. == See also == Blockchain § History, a broader overview of the history of blockchain technology Cryptocurrency § History Cryptocurrency and crime Crypto Ponzi scheme == References == == Further reading == "Bitcoin Bulls and Bears". Bloomberg. 8 June 2018.

BitGo

BitGo, Inc. is a digital asset trust company and security company, headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 2013 by Mike Belshe and Ben Davenport. Galaxy Digital announced its acquisition of BitGo in 2021 for $1.2 billion, although this acquisition was announced to have been canceled in 2022 after the crypto downturn, with BitGo continuing as an independent company.The company offers a multisignature bitcoin wallet service, where keys are divided among a number of owners to manage risk. Generally, BitGo wallets have three keys: one held by BitGo, and two held by the wallet's owner. Wallets can be configured in both hot and cold configurations, as well as non-custodial and custodial configurations. BitGo also serves as the sole custodian for bitcoin that people deposit to receive a tokenized form of that bitcoin known as Wrapped Bitcoin or WBTC that can be exchanged on the Ethereum blockchain. == History == In June 2014 the company received US$12 million in venture capital funding led by Redpoint Ventures.In January 2015 BitGo announced the general availability of their Platform API. The following month the company bought an insurance policy from XL Catlin against theft from its wallets.On August 2, 2016, Bitfinex, a digital currency exchange using BitGo software, announced it had suffered a security breach. BitGo was not itself hacked, but processed withdrawal requests from the hacker, who had obtained access to Bitfinex's keys.In September 2018, BitGo was approved by the South Dakota Division of Banking to act as a qualified custodian for digital assets and created BitGo Trust Company.In October 2018, the company raised US$15 million in venture capital funding from Goldman Sachs and Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital.In December 2020, the Office of Foreign Assets Control announced that BitGo has paid $98,830 to settle apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs.In March 2021, BitGo Receives NY Trust Charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services.In May 2021, Galaxy Digital announced its acquisition of BitGo for $1.2 billion in a cash and stock deal, marking the first $1 billion deal in the cryptocurrency industry. In August 2022, Galaxy's Board of Directors terminated the deal following BitGo's inability to provide certain financial statements needed by Galaxy for its SEC filing. BitGo claimed that it had provided its audited financials and honored its obligations, and that it would take legal action against Galaxy and seek a $100 million termination fee.In a Delaware Chancery Court complaint dated Sept. 15, 2022, BitGo asserted that while it had filed the required financial reports, Galaxy twice used last-minute criticisms of the accounting methods employed to first delay and then scuttle the acquisition. The suit sought at least $100 million under a termination agreement that was part of the takeover accord between the companies. Galaxy told Forbes that it “completely” disagreed with the allegations. In June 2023, the Delaware Chancery Court dismissed BitGo’s suit, saying Galaxy had a “valid basis” to terminate the deal. BitGo said it would appeal the ruling.In June 2023, BitGo announced that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire Prime Core Technologies, the Nevada-based parent company of digital asset custodian Prime Trust. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. BitGo terminated the acquisition two weeks later, with CEO Belshe saying Prime Trust was “not realistic about the state of their business two weeks ago.”On August 16, 2023, BitGo raised $100 million in Series C funding at a $1.75 billion valuation. Without naming names, BitGo said the funding participants were “new, outside strategic investors.” == References == == External links == Official website

Bitmain

Bitmain Technologies Ltd., is a privately owned company headquartered in Beijing, China, that designs application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining. == History == It was founded by Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu in 2013. Prior to founding Bitmain, Zhan was running DivaIP, a startup that allowed users to stream television to a computer screen via a set-top box, and Wu was a financial analyst and private equity fund manager.By 2018 it had become the world's largest designer of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining. The company also operates BTC.com and Antpool, historically two of the largest mining pools for bitcoin. In an effort to boost Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prices, Antpool "burned" 12% of the BCH they mined by sending them to irrecoverable addresses. Bitmain was reportedly profitable in early 2018, with a net profit of $742.7 million in the first half of 2018, and negative operating cash flow. TechCrunch reported that unsold inventory ballooned to one billion dollars in the second quarter of 2018. Bitmain's first product was the Antminer S1 which is an ASIC Bitcoin miner making 180 gigahashes per second (GH/s) while using 80–200 watts of power. Bitmain as of 2018 had 11 mining farms operating in China. Bitmain was involved in the 2018 Bitcoin Cash split, siding with Bitcoin Cash ABC alongside Roger Ver. In December 2018 the company laid off about half of its 3000 staff. The company has since closed its offices in Israel and the Netherlands, while significantly downsizing its Texas mining operation. In February 2019, Bitmain had lost "about $500 million" in the third quarter of 2018. Bitmain issued a statement saying "the rumors are not true and we will make announcements in due course."In June 2021, suspended spot delivery of sales of machines globally aiming to support local prices following Beijing's crackdown. == Bitmain's attempts at initial public offering == In June 2018, Wu told Bloomberg that Bitmain was considering an IPO, to give early investors a chance to cash out. The company completed its $1 billion pre-IPO registration with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in August, and filed for IPO in September.Bitmain Technologies filed for IPO on 26 September 2018 with the Hong Kong regulatory agency and released their first public financial statement at a time where Bitcoin prices had dropped 65% from December 2017. The price drop had hurt mining hardware sales that accounted for 96% of the company's revenue. Bitmain will use a dual class share structure. In Bitmain's case, this means the share held by company's founders would count as 10 votes.On 26 March 2019, Bitmain's application for a Hong Kong initial public offering lapsed, six months after it was filed, as investors were reportedly concerned about the fall in Bitcoin's value. The company issued a statement saying it would "restart the listing application work at an appropriate time in the future." Bitmain also announced that Haichao Wang would serve as its new CEO, while co-founders Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu will continue as directors.According to a Tencent News Report, after Bitmain's failed IPO attempt in Hong Kong, Bitmain filed an application in the United States seeking to go public again. == Controversies == In 2015, Bitmain was involved in Hong Kong's first cryptocurrency-related litigation in the High Court (High Court Action No. HCA 1980 of 2015) when Bitmain sued one of the world's leading bitcoin trading platform at the time. Bitmain accused the trading platform of "negligence and/or security issues". At the commencement of proceedings, Bitmain's claim amount was around RMB 700,000. Bitmain's claim was later contested after it was revealed during the course of the litigation that serious issues of cyber-security neglect may have occurred on Bitmain's side when the transaction had been undertaken by Bitmain's staff (e.g. leaving on the auto-fill function while inputting wallet addresses, use of unsecured private networks, use of PRC banned software while conducting the transaction in PRC). The mining giant's claim ultimately failed and was discontinued after Bitmain suffered a series of interlocutory defeats (where its earlier default judgment was overturned and was even ordered to pay security for costs). As part of the terms of discontinuance, Bitmain was ordered to pay the trading platform's legal fees. The total legal fees that Bitmain had to pay the trading platform totaled over HK$1.3 Million, nearly double that of the initial claim amount.In 2017, Bitmain sued Zuoxing Yang, a former Bitmain chip design director who left Bitmain to launch Bitewei over patent rights infringements. In 2018, Yang's legal team successfully appealed to a court in China to have the patent revoked, after which Bitmain's case was dismissed.In 2018, a class action lawsuit of US$5 million was commenced by Los Angeles County resident Gor Gevorkyan against Bitmain where it was alleged that Bitmain mined cryptocurrency for its own benefit on its customers’ devices. It was alleged by the Plaintiffs in this case that Bitmain is benefiting—without authorization—from the lengthy "initialization" period that its ASIC [Application-Specific Integrated Circuit] devices need for set up: "Until the complicated and time-consuming initialization procedures are completed, Bitmain's ASIC [Application-Specific Integrated Circuit] devices are preconfigured to use its customers’ electricity to generate cryptocurrency for the benefit of Bitmain rather than its customers."In 2018, Bitmain was involved in another legal dispute against a Labrador mining farm. Bitmain Technologies sued Great North Data alleging problems from the start of the agreement between the two companies. Bitmain develops and produces miners where it operates some of its hardware out of third-party "mining farms". Great North Data provides space to companies like Bitmain to install and run their bitcoin mining equipment.In or about November 2019, the ousted co-founder of Bitmain, Micree Zhan, filed multiple lawsuits in the Cayman Islands and China against various entities of Bitmain in a bid to regain control of Bitmain. The lawsuit in China was accompanied by an asset-protection petition during which the PRC Court sided with Zhan to freeze 36 percent of Fujian Zhanhua's 10 million yuan incorporated shares owned by Bitmain, worth 3.6 million yuan, or $500,000. This case highlighted what appears to be an ongoing power struggle between the two founders for control of Bitmain. == References ==

Canaan Creative

Canaan Creative, known simply as Canaan, is a China-based computer hardware manufacturer. Established in 2013 by N.G. Zhang, Canaan specializes in Blockchain servers and ASIC microprocessors for use in bitcoin mining. == History == In 2013, during studying for a doctor's degree, N.G. Zhang established Canaan Creative, where he served as the chairman and CEO.In 2016, Canaan attempted a reverse takeover for $466 Millions USD by Shandong Luyitong, a public company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.In January 2019, reports surfaced that Canaan is considering an IPO in the United States. Canaan raised $90 million in their November 2019 IPO.In 2019, Canaan was listed on Nasdaq. == References == == External links == Official website

CoinDesk

CoinDesk is a news site specializing in bitcoin and digital currencies. Founded by Shakil Khan, the firm also provides guides to bitcoin for those new to digital currencies.Seven years after being acquired by Digital Currency Group, it was purchased in November 2023 by Bullish. == History == CoinDesk was founded by entrepreneur Shakil Khan and began publishing in May 2013. Khan is also an investor in BitPay, a bitcoin payment processor. At the start of 2016, CoinDesk was acquired by Digital Currency Group for an estimated US$500,000–600,000. The next year, in 2017, the company acquired blockchain data and research platform Lawnmower. In 2021 the company acquired cryptocurrency data analytics firm TradeBlock.In December 2017, CoinDesk established CoinDesk Korea in collaboration with the 22nd Century Media Co., subsidiary of Hankyoreh Co., Ltd. to provide blockchain news service in South Korea.In November 2022, CoinDesk reported that FTX's partner firm Alameda Research held a significant portion of its assets in FTX's native token FTT. The news led to a bank run and liquidity crisis at FTX, culminating in FTX filing for bankruptcy protection.In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by Bullish Global, which operates a cryptocurrency exchange. == CoinDesk TV == CoinDesk TV is an online video channel which produce live news program everyday. The channel produces daily and weekly shows including "First Mover", "The Hash", "All About Bitcoin", "Word On The Block" and so on. == Consensus Event == Consensus is CoinDesk's annual crypto summit. It started in 2015. It has been held in New York City from 2017 to 2019, virtually in 2020 and 2021, and in Austin, Texas since 2022. == Bitcoin Price Index == The CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (CoinDesk BPI) was launched in September 2013. The Bitcoin Price Index is an average of bitcoin prices across bitcoin exchanges, and began by using price data from Bitstamp, BTC-e and CampBX. Although Mt. Gox data was not used initially, due to withdrawal concerns for US customers, in November 2013, Mt. Gox was added to the BPI due to "a reduction in the risk premium and the option of additional deposit/withdrawal methods". The Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange was eventually removed from the index in February 2014 after its "persistent failure to meet the index's standards for inclusion".The index was restored to an average of three exchanges in March 2014 with the inclusion of Bitfinex price data, according to CoinDesk: "Since the decline of Mt. Gox, we have observed that Bitfinex has been able to sustain a dramatic increase in its share of the total volume of U.S. dollar-denominated bitcoins traded".Publications which have referenced the Bitcoin Price Index data or price include the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The New York Times, CNBC, and Bloomberg News. == State of Bitcoin report == In February 2014, CoinDesk released its first 'State of Bitcoin' report. The aim of the report is: to provide an overview of key cryptocurrency trends, challenges, and opportunities, while also highlighting the most important developments over the last year. A follow-up report in Q2 2014 highlighted that venture capital investment in bitcoin companies was up 28 percent compared to the previous quarter, and that VC investment was pouring into European Bitcoin startups. == References == == External links == Official website

GHash.io

GHash.io was a bitcoin mining pool subsidiary of CEX.io that operated from 2013-2016. The pool gained notoriety for briefly controlling more than 51% of bitcoin's computing power in 2014 (notable in that bitcoin was supposedly outside any party's control). == History == GHash.io was founded and owned by CEX.io, a cryptocurrency exchange that continues to operate today. Apart from mining bitcoin, GHash.io hosted a multipool for mining altcoins, as well as separate pools for mining Litecoin, Dogecoin, Auroracoin, and Darkcoin. Altcoin mining options were available for independent miners, while bitcoin mining could also be done in the cloud by purchasing cloud-based mining power on CEX.io.Traders on CEX.io could buy shares of GHash.io mining hardware to operate on the GHash.io mining pool. After GHash.io closed in 2016, CEX.io continued operating as a bitcoin exchange. == 51% attack controversy == The possibility of a 51% attack was feared due to the popularity of GHash.io's mining pool. This kind of attack occurs when a single miner or mining pool is able to mine multiple bitcoin block rewards in a row. This would be a problem for the bitcoin network, because it hypothetically allows the mining pool to double-spend (counterfeit) bitcoins. In July 2014, the GHash.io mining pool briefly exceeded the 51% threshold, which forced the bitcoin community to discuss the possibility of finding a common solution to this threat. The pool developing the majority caused a prominent bitcoin developer Peter Todd to sell half of his holdings. The news reportedly caused bitcoin's price to drop from $633 to $600 at the time.Since no long-term solution to the 51% problem is known, the participants agreed to implement some temporary measures. GHash.io released a voluntary statement promising that it would not exceed 40% of the overall bitcoin hashrate. Moreover, GHash.io representatives asked other mining pools to follow their example for the sake of the entire bitcoin community. It also stated that a new committee should be created to act as a watchdog against the 51% problem. This committee would include representatives of the mining pools, bitcoin businesses and other specialists in the field. The 51% discussion received broad coverage in the media, beyond publications which commonly focus on cryptocurrency news ArsTechnica, Bloomberg View, Vice Motherboard, International Business Times.In March 2015, GHash.io was struck by a crippling DDOS attack, possibly in response to the group breaching 51%. By the end of 2015, GHash.io had stopped its mining activity in response to falling bitcoin prices. == References == == External links == Official website

Nuri (company)

Nuri (formerly known as Bitwala) is a blockchain banking service, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, that was founded by Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki, and Benjamin P. Jones in October 2015. Bitwala's concept first emerged in October 2015 when its founders Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki, and Benjamin P. Jones launched operations for a global blockchain-based payment service provider headquartered in Berlin, Germany. According to Wired, in contrast to other money transfer services like Western Union, Money Gram, and Transferwise, the German startup utilised digital currency to offer a much faster and cheaper solution.During Bitwala's formerly hosted a product with a global reach. Their services enabled SEPA and SWIFT money transfers by exchanging Bitcoin or Altcoins to over 20 fiat currencies to any bank account in over 200 countries worldwide.In January 2018, Bitwala stopped their services when their prepaid card provider, WaveCrest Holdings LTD, had its VISA license withdrawn due to compliance issues. The company was amongst many cryptocurrency service providers including CryptoPay, TenX and Wirex that could no longer sustain their full product offering.Bitwala joined European Fintech Alliance in August 2018. The company launched their new website in October 2018, which coincided with the announcement of their partnership with solarisBank, a Berlin-based white label bank.In September 2018, Bitwala raised 4 million Euro from venture capital investors Earlybird and Coparion, enabling them to proceed with their re-launch in November 2018. In December 2018 Bitwala launched Europe's first regulated blockchain banking solution that enables users to manage both their Bitcoin and Euro deposits in one place with the safety and convenience of a German bank account. The bank account is hosted by the Berlin-based Solarisbank.Bitwala rebranded in May 2021 and changed their name to Nuri.Nuri filed for insolvency on Tuesday, August 9, 2022. Their press-release states that users funds and investments are safe at their partner bank, Solarisbank.As of December 2023, Nuri is back active under the Bitwala name. == References ==

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin Magazine is one of the original news and print magazine publishers covering Bitcoin and digital currencies. Bitcoin Magazine began publishing in 2012. It was co-founded by Vitalik Buterin, Mihai Alisie, Matthew N. Wright, Vladimir Marchenko, and Vicente S. It is currently owned and operated by BTC Inc in Nashville, Tennessee. == History == Vitalik Buterin became interested in Bitcoin in 2011, and co-founded the periodical Bitcoin Magazine with Mihai Alisie, who asked him to join. Alisie was living in Romania at the time, and Buterin was writing for a blog. Buterin's writing captured the attention of Alisie, and they subsequently decided to start the magazine. Buterin took the role of head writer as a side project while attending university.In 2012, Bitcoin Magazine began publishing a print edition from its base in South Korea and has been referred to as the first serious publication dedicated to cryptocurrencies. Buterin noted he spent 10-20 hours per week writing for the publication.In early 2015, Bitcoin Magazine was sold to its current owners, BTC Inc.A physical copy of a 2014 edition of Bitcoin Magazine was displayed in the Smithsonian Museum as part of the Value of Money exhibit.In September 2021, Bitcoin Magazine announced the launch of their Eastern European bureau based in Kyiv.In December 2021, New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones partnered with Bitcoin Magazine to gift both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Magazine subscriptions to his offensive line. == The Bitcoin Conference == Bitcoin magazine hosts annual bitcoin conferences starting in 2019. In June 2021, Bitcoin Magazine hosted Bitcoin 2021 at the Mana Wynwood in Miami, Florida. There were approximately 12,000 attendees. In a prerecorded speech, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced his plans to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in the Central American nation. == References == == External links == Official Website

Gavin Andresen

Gavin Andresen (formerly Gavin Bell) is a software developer known for his involvement with bitcoin. He is based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Originally a developer of 3D graphics and virtual reality software, Andresen became involved in developing products for the bitcoin market in 2010 and was declared by himself as the lead developer of the reference implementation for bitcoin client software after Satoshi Nakamoto departed silently. In 2012, Andresen founded the Bitcoin Foundation to support and nurture the development of the bitcoin currency, and by 2014, left his software development role to concentrate on his work with the Foundation. == Career == Andresen (at the time Bell) graduated from Princeton University in 1988. He began his career working on 3D graphics software at Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. In 1996, he co-authored the VRML 2.0 specification, and later published a reference manual for VRML 2.0.Since leaving Silicon Valley in 1996, Andresen has tackled a wide variety of software-related ventures, including CTO of an early Voice over IP startup and co-founder of a company that made multiplayer online games for blind people and their sighted friends. === Bitcoin === Andresen was the lead developer for a part of the bitcoin digital currency project, working to create a secure, stable "cash for the Internet." Andresen discovered bitcoin in 2010, considering its design to be brilliant. Soon after he created a website named The Bitcoin Faucet which gave away bitcoin. In April 2011, Forbes quoted Andresen as saying, "Bitcoin is designed to bring us back to a decentralized currency of the people," and "this is like better gold than gold." After joining the developers contributing to Bitcoin along with Satoshi Nakamoto, he went on to become lead developer of the client software for the bitcoin network. In June 2011, he attended an "emerging technologies conference for the US intelligence community" held by In-Q-Tel to present on Bitcoin. He stepped back as lead maintainer in 2014.Andresen also created ClearCoin, an escrow-type of service, which was closed on about June 23, 2011. After several years working on the software, Andresen left the role of lead developer of bitcoin to work on the strategic development of its technology. He conceived of the Bitcoin Foundation which became reality in September 2012.In May 2016 Andresen stated that the Australian programmer and entrepreneur Craig Wright was Nakamoto, but later expressed regret getting involved in the "'who was Satoshi' game", and stated "it was a mistake to trust Craig Wright."Andresen has not contributed to Bitcoin since February 2016. He had become critical of the failure of bitcoin developers to increase network capacity, and helped put together Bitcoin XT as alternative software. His commit access to Bitcoin Core on GitHub was revoked in May 2016 after stating Wright was Satoshi Nakamoto. In November 2017, Andresen expressed support for rival currency Bitcoin Cash, stating "Bitcoin Cash is what I started working on in 2010". == References ==

Andreas Antonopoulos

Andreas M. Antonopoulos (born 1972 in London) is a British-Greek Bitcoin advocate, tech entrepreneur, and author. He is a host on the Speaking of Bitcoin podcast (formerly called Let's Talk Bitcoin!) and a teaching fellow for the M.Sc. Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia. == Early life and education == Antonopoulos was born in 1972 in London, UK, and moved to Athens, Greece during the Greek Junta. He spent his childhood there, and at the age of 17 returned to the UK. Antonopoulos obtained his degrees in Computer science and Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems from University College London. == Career == === Nemertes Research === He was Senior Vice President and a Founding Partner with Nemertes Research, from 2003 until 2011. While there, Antonopoulos researched computer security, stating that the greatest threat to computer security was not experienced hackers, but overly complex systems that resulted from rapid change in business. === Bitcoin involvement === In 2012, Antonopoulos became enamored with Bitcoin. He eventually abandoned his job as a freelance consultant and started speaking at conferences about bitcoin, consulting for startups, and writing articles free of charge.According to his podcast, Antonopoulos is a consultant on several bitcoin-related startups.In January 2014, Antonopoulos joined Blockchain.info as chief security officer. In September 2014, he left the CSO role. In April 2014, Antonopoulos organised a fundraising campaign for Dorian Nakamoto, who was identified in a Newsweek article as the creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. The reporting techniques used in the article were controversial among journalists and Bitcoin community members. The fundraiser, intended to assist Nakamoto after the attention he received as a result of the article, raised 50 bitcoins, worth US$23,000 at the time.On 8 October 2014, Antonopoulos spoke in front of the Banking, Trade and Commerce committee of the Senate of Canada to address the senators' questions on how to regulate bitcoin in Canada.In March 2016, the first edition of Mastering Bitcoin was released by Antonopoulos, in print and online, followed by a second edition in June 2017.In December 2017, unsolicited donations of over 100 bitcoins were sent to Antonopoulos by over a thousand followers of his work, after Roger Ver made a public post to Twitter on 5 December questioning Antonopoulos's investment choices given his "eloquent" public speaking about bitcoin since 2012. == Bibliography == === Books === Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Currencies (2014, O'Reilly) ISBN 978-1449374044 Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition: Programming the Open Blockchain (2017, O'Reilly) ISBN 978-1491954386 Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and dApps (2018, O'Reilly) ISBN 978-1491971949 The Internet of Money (Volume 1) (2016, O'Reilly) ISBN 978-1537000459 The Internet of Money (Volume 2) (2017, Merkle Bloom, self-published) ISBN 978-1947910065 The Internet of Money (Volume 3) (2019, Merkle Bloom, self-published) ISBN 978-1947910171 == References == == External links == Official website

Jeremy Allaire

Jeremy D. Allaire (born 13 May 1971) is an American technologist and Internet entrepreneur. He is CEO and founder of the digital currency company Circle and chairman of the board of Brightcove. With his brother JJ Allaire, he co-founded Allaire Corporation in 1995. Allaire Corp. had a successful IPO in January 1999 and was acquired by Macromedia in 2001. Allaire served as CTO of Macromedia after the acquisition and helped develop the Macromedia MX platform (a suite of software tools and servers aimed at enabling rich applications delivered using Flash Player). Allaire left Macromedia in February 2003 to join venture capital firm General Catalyst as a technologist and executive-in-residence. In 2004, Allaire founded Brightcove, an online video platform used by many media and marketing organizations worldwide. After a successful IPO in early 2012, Allaire stepped down as CEO in 2013 and now serves as chairman of the board. In October 2013, Allaire announced the launch of Circle, an Internet-based consumer finance company that aims to bring the power and benefits of digital money, such as Bitcoin, to mainstream consumers. == Early life and education == Allaire was educated in the Montessori tradition, which he says "built into me a belief in self-direction, in independent thought, in peer collaboration, in responsibility".In 1993, Allaire graduated from Macalester College with a degree in political science and philosophy, with a concentration in economics. At Macalester, his college roommate and high-school friend, who worked for the campus IT group, rigged a high-speed Internet connection to their dorm room, which allowed Allaire to access and experiment with the Internet in its early days.From 1990 until his graduation, Allaire became obsessed with the Internet and how it could be applied to transform systems of communications and media, as well as its impact on fundamental human rights, such as free speech. He was an early follower of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and later recruited EFF founder Mitch Kapor to the board of directors of Allaire Corporation. In 1992, Allaire authored a policy proposal for the creation of a National Information Network, based on the National Research & Education Network (NREN, the precursor to the commercial Internet), proposing methods to commercialize access to IP services. The paper was submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Technology, then chaired by Al Gore. In 1992 and 1993, with a college friend, Allaire developed an application called "World News Report" that aggregated news feeds and mailing list content from independent media sources on the Internet, and provided a full-text indexed browsable and searchable interface to access independent journalism on the Internet, using Apple Hypercard.Also while in college, Allaire created NativeNet, which created a decentralized communications and collaboration platform for Native American tribal schools in the Midwest, built on top of UUCP, an early internet protocol for distributed communications.At Macalester, Allaire became more politically active, finding a particular interest in U.S. foreign policy and global human rights issues, including the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of authoritarian capitalist regimes in the east, and the Balkan Wars.Upon graduating from Macalester, Allaire found that the Internet was “the central passion” in his life. In the fall of 1993, he launched an Internet-consulting firm, Global Internet Horizons, aimed at helping media publishers and marketers understand and build a presence on the nascent World Wide Web.In 1994-1996, Allaire collaborated with Noam Chomsky and his wife, Carol, to develop the first comprehensive online archive of Chomsky's political works. Chomsky’s libertarian socialist and globalist views resonated with Allaire. === Allaire Corporation === In early 1994, Allaire became convinced that the architecture of the Web could disrupt how software was built and distributed, transforming the browser from a document browsing system into a full online operating system for any kind of software application. In 1995, Jeremy and his brother J.J. Allaire, along with a group of close college friends, founded the Allaire Corporation, using $18,000 of J.J.’s savings. Allaire Corporation aimed to provide easy-to-use web development tools. The brothers invented ColdFusion, a rapid web application development platform designed to easily connect simple HTML pages to a database using its associated scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML). ColdFusion was widely used, and companies including Myspace, Target, and Toys R Us (along with millions of other websites) relied on the technology to develop their online properties. Allaire Corporation grew rapidly, from just over $1 million in revenue in 1996 to $120 million in revenue in 2000, growing to over 700 employees with offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. In addition to its flagship product ColdFusion, Allaire launched HomeSite, which became the world's most popular Windows HTML editor, and JRun, one of the first and most widely adopted Java app servers.Allaire also helped to pioneer foundational ideas in open distributed computing based on lightweight HTTP-based distributed objects. In particular, the company developed the Web Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX) in 1998, an open source format for using HTTP for simple remote procedure calls, a precursor to the adoption of REST and JSON for web software APIs. Allaire Corporation had its IPO in January 1999 and was acquired by Macromedia in March 2001 for $360 million in a deal that included cash and stock. As a result of this acquisition, Jeremy Allaire became CTO of Macromedia. === Macromedia === As CTO of Macromedia, Allaire helped to develop the Macromedia MX platform, a suite of software tools and servers for building and deploying content rich, interactive software applications on the Web. After the Allaire/Macromedia merger, Allaire helped to drive platform and product strategy for Macromedia, including adding capabilities into Flash Player (a more advanced language runtime, web services connectivity, a component model) that enabled it to become a widely used platform for interactive software on the Web. When Macromedia added video playback features into Flash Player in March 2002, Allaire became enthralled with the idea that the ubiquitous distribution of Flash Player on 98% of PCs in the world, combined with growth in broadband and WiFi adoption, would lead to a video publishing revolution on the Web. He started an internal product project at Macromedia code-named "Vista" that enabled easy browser-based capture, upload and publishing of video into any website, blog or instant message. When Macromedia decided not to pursue the project, Allaire left the company. === General Catalyst === In February 2003, Allaire became technologist and executive-in-residence at the venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners. At General Catalyst Partners, he focused on identifying investment opportunities in broadband media, mobile content, internet identity and security, and other Internet technologies. At General Catalyst, Allaire began to incubate Brightcove, which was originally operating under stealth as Video Marketplace, Inc., or Vidmark, and he left General Catalyst in 2004 to launch this new venture. === Brightcove === In 2004, Allaire founded Brightcove, an online video platform that distributes video content across devices.Brightcove filed for its initial IPO in 2012 with a valuation of around $290 million. Allaire stepped down as Brightcove’s CEO in the second quarter of 2013 to serve as chairman of the board. === Circle === In October 2013, Allaire launched Circle, a digital currency company that aims to bring digital money like Bitcoin to the mainstream, with $9 million in Series A funding from Jim Breyer, Accel Partners, and General Catalyst Partners.Circle closed an additional $17 million Series B in March 2014 in a round led by Breyer Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Oak Investment Partners. The company simultaneously announced the release of its product to a limited audience.Allaire has said of Circle and Bitcoin, "We want to make this as easy to use as Gmail, Skype, and other consumer services on the Internet today". The company has received over $135 million in venture capital from four rounds of investments from 2013 to 2016, including $50 million led by Goldman Sachs. In July 2021, Allaire announced that Circle would go public in a $4.5 billion SPAC merger. But Allaire and his planned SPAC partner, the CEO of Concord Acquisition Corp Bob Diamond, called off the merger for reasons concerning recent market conditions and current events and agreed to the termination of the July 2021 intended SPACoff. == References ==

Brian Behlendorf

Brian Behlendorf (born March 30, 1973) is an American technologist, executive, computer programmer and leading figure in the open-source software movement. He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software on the Internet, and a founding member of the Apache Group, which later became the Apache Software Foundation. Behlendorf served as president of the foundation for three years. He has served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation since 2003, Benetech since 2009, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013. Behlendorf served as the General Manager of the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) from 2021-2023 and is currently the Chief Technology Officer of the OpenSSF. == Career == Behlendorf, raised in Southern California, became interested in the development of the Internet while he was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, in the early 1990s. One of his first projects was an electronic mailing list and online music resource, SFRaves, which a friend persuaded him to start in 1992. This would soon develop into the Hyperreal.org website, an online resource devoted to electronic music and related subcultures.In 1993, Behlendorf, Jonathan Nelson, Matthew Nelson and Cliff Skolnick co-founded Organic, Inc., the first business dedicated to building commercial web sites. While developing the first online, for-profit, media project—the HotWired web site for Wired magazine—in 1994, they realized that the most commonly used web server software at the time (developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) could not handle the user registration system that the company required. So, Behlendorf patched the open-source code to support HotWired's requirements. It turned out that Behlendorf wasn't the only one busy patching the NCSA code at the time, so he and Skolnick put together an electronic mailing list to coordinate the work of the other programmers. By the end of February 1995, eight core contributors to the project started Apache as a fork of the NCSA codebase. Working loosely together, they eventually rewrote the entire original program as the Apache HTTP Server. In 1999, the project incorporated as the Apache Software Foundation. Behlendorf served as president of the Foundation for three years. Behlendorf was the CTO of the World Economic Forum. He is also a former director and CTO of CollabNet, a company he co-founded with O'Reilly & Associates (now O'Reilly Media) in 1999 to develop tools for enabling collaborative distributed software development. CollabNet used to be the primary corporate sponsor of the open source version control system Subversion, before it became a project of the Apache Software Foundation. He continues to be involved with electronic music community events such as Chillits, and speaks often at open-source conferences worldwide. In 2003, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.Behlendorf has served on the board of the Mozilla Foundation since 2003, Benetech since 2009 and the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2013. He was a managing director at Mithril Capital, a global technology investment firm based in San Francisco, from 2014 until he joined the Linux Foundation. In 2016, he was appointed executive director of the open source Hyperledger project at the Linux Foundation to advance blockchain technology.Behlendorf became the General Manager of the Open Source Security Foundation in October 2021. The appointment was shared publicly at KubeCon, along with the announcement of $10m in investments to secure open source supply chains. == References == == External links == Official website Organic Inc. website

Brendan Blumer

Brendan Blumer (born 1986) is an American-born Hong Kong-based entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the tech company Block.one, which developed the EOS.IO blockchain platform. == Early life == Blumer was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When he was 15 years old, he developed a website to sell virtual assets in the multiplayer online gaming space. His website, known as Gamecliff (stylized as GaMeCliff), displayed different characters, weapons, and houses for MMORPG games including EverQuest and World of Warcraft. == Career == In 2005, Blumer's Gamecliff was acquired by IGE and the company moved to its new headquarters in Hong Kong to head Gamecliff's operations. Blumer founded The Accounts Network in 2007, a company that sold in-game MMORPG avatars and reached $1 million in revenue figures.In 2010, Blumer launched Okay.com, an enterprise data sharing platform for real estate brokers in Asia. The company later merged with the real estate company Asia Pacific Properties. His next business project, ii5, also focused on real estate. Founded in 2013, the startup was dedicated to real estate listings in India.In 2016, Blumer formed Block.One, a blockchain company, based in part on funding from ii5, his Hong Kong real estate firm. Block.one is registered in the Cayman Islands. In May 2017, Blumer announced EOS.IO, a blockchain platform known for its record setting initial coin offering (ICO).In February 2018, he was listed by Forbes as one of the "richest people in cryptocurrency". == Personal life == In 2020, Bloomer renounced his US citizenship. == References == == External links == Brendan Blumer on Twitter

Adam Back

Adam Back (born July 1970) is a British cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is the CEO of Blockstream, which he co-founded in 2014. He invented Hashcash, which is used in the Bitcoin mining process. == Life == Back was born in London, England, in July 1970. His first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. He taught himself Basic, and spent his time reverse engineering video games, finding decryption keys in software packages. He completed his A levels in advanced mathematics, physics and economics. He has a computer science PhD in distributed systems from the University of Exeter. During his PhD, Back worked with compilers to make use of parallel computers in a semi automated way. He became interested in pgp encryption, electronic cash and remailers. He spent two thirds of his time working with encryption. After graduation, Adam spent his career as a consultant in start ups and larger companies in applied cryptography, writing cryptographic libraries, designing, reviewing and breaking other people's cryptographic protocols. == Cryptography software == Back is a pioneer of early digital asset research similarly as Wei Dai, David Chaum, and Hal Finney. In 1997, Back invented Hashcash. A similar system is used in bitcoin.He also implemented credlib, a library that implements the credential systems of Stefan Brands and David Chaum. He was the first to describe the "non-interactive forward secrecy" security property for email and to observe that any identity based encryption scheme can be used to provide non-interactive forward secrecy. He is also known for promoting the use of ultra-compact code with his 2-line and 3-line RSA in Perl signature file and non-exportable T-shirts to protest cryptography export regulations.Back was one of the first two people to receive an email from Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2016, the Financial Times cited Back as a potential Nakamoto candidate, along with Nick Szabo and Hal Finney. Craig Wright had sued Back for stating that Wright was not Nakamoto, with Wright subsequently dropping the suit.Back has promoted the use of satellites and mesh networks to broadcast and receive bitcoin transactions, as a backup for the traditional internet. == Business career == On 3 October 2016, Back was appointed as CEO of Blockstream. Since then he has introduced products such as the Liquid sidechain, Blockstream Mining Notes, mining colocation services, the Jade hardware wallet, and the Core Lightning implementation. == References == == External links == Official website

Wences Casares

Wenceslao Casares, also known as Wences Casares (born 26 February 1974) is an Argentinian entrepreneur and businessman in Silicon Valley-based fintech. He is the CEO of Xapo Bank, and founded Internet Argentina, Wanako Games, Patagon, Lemon Wallet, and Banco Lemon. Casares sits on the boards of PayPal, Diem, and Endeavor. == Early life == Casares is the eldest of four from a family of sheep ranchers in Patagonia, Argentina. In high school, Casares earned a Rotary Club scholarship as an exchange student in Washington, Pennsylvania. He returned to Buenos Aires to study business administration for three years at the University of San Andrés and dropped out to launch Argentina's first Internet Service Provider, Internet Argentina S.A. in 1994.He exited the company and then founded Argentine online brokerage, Patagon, in 1997. Patagon established itself as Latin America's leading comprehensive Internet financial services portal and expanded its online banking services to the United States, Spain, and Germany. Patagon was acquired by the Spanish bank, Banco Santander for $750 million and became Santander Online worldwide. Investors in Patagon included George Soros, Intel, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, and entrepreneur Fred Wilson. == Career == In 2002, Casares founded Wanako Games, (later Behaviour Santiago), a videogame developer headquartered in New York City. Wanako Games was best known for the blockbuster game Assault Heroes and was acquired by Activision in 2007. In 2002, Casares founded Banco Lemon, a bank based in Brazil, which was acquired by Banco do Brasil in 2009.Casares was the founder and CEO of Lemon Wallet, a digital wallet platform. In 2013 the American firm LifeLock bought Lemon for about $43 million (US). === Xapo === Casares is the CEO of Xapo, a bitcoin wallet startup based in Palo Alto, California. Xapo is said to be the largest custodian of bitcoin in the world and is believed to hold as much as $10 billion of the cryptocurrency in underground vaults on five continents, including in a former Swiss military bunker. Xapo has raised $40 million from leading Silicon Valley venture capital firms. Widely known as, "Patient Zero", Quartz reported that Casares was the entrepreneur to convince Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, and other tech veterans in Silicon Valley to invest in bitcoin. == Philanthropy == In 2011, Casares was on the jury of the Cartier Women’s Initiative awards. He is a member of the 2017 Class of Henry Crown Fellows in the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute. He is an elected member of the World Economic Forum's “Young Global Leaders” Class of 2011 and regularly attends the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization. In 2010 Casares partnered with Pablo Bosch to found Las Majadas de Pirque, a social capital and innovation facility owned by Casares in Santiago, Chile. He was formerly a board member at Kiva and Endeavor. == References == == External links == "Son of Sheep Ranchers, Lemon Wallet Co-Founder Wences Casares is a Serial Entrepreneur", by Melissa Aparicio "Fox News Latino" "The Difference between $1 Billion-Plus in Exits and 'Success'", by Sarah Lacy Techcrunch

David Chaum

David Lee Chaum (born 1955) is an American computer scientist, cryptographer, and inventor. He is known as a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and widely recognized as the inventor of digital cash. His 1982 dissertation "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups" is the first known proposal for a blockchain protocol. Complete with the code to implement the protocol, Chaum's dissertation proposed all but one element of the blockchain later detailed in the Bitcoin whitepaper. He has been referred to as "the father of online anonymity", and "the godfather of cryptocurrency".He is also known for developing ecash, an electronic cash application that aims to preserve a user's anonymity, and inventing many cryptographic protocols like the blind signature, mix networks and the Dining cryptographers protocol. In 1995 his company DigiCash created the first digital currency with eCash.: 65–70  His 1981 paper, "Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms", laid the groundwork for the field of anonymous communications research. == Life and career == Chaum is Jewish and was born to a Jewish family in Los Angeles. He gained a doctorate in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1982. Also that year, he founded the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), which currently organizes academic conferences in cryptography research.: 47  Subsequently, he taught at the New York University Graduate School of Business Administration and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He also formed a cryptography research group at CWI, the Dutch National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in Amsterdam. He founded DigiCash, an electronic cash company, in 1990.: 119 Chaum received the Information Technology European Award for 1995. In 2004, he was named an IACR Fellow. In 2010, at the RSA Conference, he was honored with the RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics. In 2019, he was awarded the honorary title of Dijkstra Fellow by CWI. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lugano in 2021.Chaum resides in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles. == Notable research contributions == === Vault systems === Recently credited by Alan Sherman's "On the Origins and Variations of Blockchain Technologies", Chaum's 1982 Berkeley dissertation proposed every element of the blockchain found in Bitcoin except proof of work. The proposed vault system lays out a plan for achieving consensus state between nodes, chaining the history of consensus in blocks, and immutably time-stamping the chained data. The paper also lays out the specific code to implement such a protocol. === Digital cash === Chaum is credited as the inventor of secure digital cash for his 1983 paper, which also introduced the cryptographic primitive of a blind signature. These ideas have been described as the technical roots of the vision of the Cypherpunk movement that began in the late 1980s. Chaum's proposal allowed users to obtain digital currency from a bank and spend it in a manner that is untraceable by the bank or any other party. In 1988, he extended this idea (with Amos Fiat and Moni Naor) to allow offline transactions that enable detection of double-spending.In 1990, he founded DigiCash, an electronic cash company, in Amsterdam to commercialize the ideas in his research.: 119  The first electronic payment was sent in 1994. In 1998, DigiCash filed for bankruptcy, and in 1999 Chaum sold off DigiCash and ended his involvement with the company. === New types of digital signatures === In the same 1982 paper that proposed digital cash, Chaum introduced blind signatures. This form of digital signature blinds the content of a message before it is signed, so that the signer cannot determine the content. The resulting blind signature can be publicly verified against the original, unblinded message in the manner of a regular digital signature.In 1989, he (with Hans van Antwerpen) introduced undeniable signatures. This form of digital signature uses a verification process that is interactive, so that the signatory can limit who can verify the signature. Since signers may refuse to participate in the verification process, signatures are considered valid unless a signer specifically uses a disavowal protocol to prove that a given signature was not authentic.In 1991, he (with Eugene van Heyst) introduced group signatures, which allow a member of a group to anonymously sign a message on behalf of the entire group. However an appointed group manager holds the power to revoke the anonymity of any signer in the case of disputes. === Anonymous communication === In 1981, Chaum proposed the idea of an anonymous communication network in a paper. His proposal, called mix networks, allows a group of senders to submit an encryption of a message and its recipient to a server. Once the server has a batch of messages, it will reorder and obfuscate the messages so that only this server knows which message came from which sender. The batch is then forwarded to another server who does the same process. Eventually, the messages reach the final server where they are fully decrypted and delivered to the recipient. A mechanism to allow return messages is also proposed. Mix networks are the basis of some remailers and are the conceptual ancestor to modern anonymous web browsing tools like Tor (based on onion routing). Chaum has advocated that every router be made, effectively, a Tor node.In 1988, Chaum introduced a different type of anonymous communication system called a DC-Net, which is a solution to his proposed Dining Cryptographers Problem. DC-Nets is the basis of the software tool Dissent.In 2017, Chaum published a description of a new variety of mix network. A real-world implementation of this network, called cMix, later became the data transmission layer for the instant messaging platform xx messenger. === Trustworthy voting systems === Chaum has made numerous contributions to secure voting systems, including the first proposal of a system that is end-to-end verifiable. This proposal, made in 1981, was given as an application of mix networks. In this system, the individual ballots of voters were kept private which anyone could verify that the tally was counted correctly. This, and other early cryptographic voting systems, assumed that voters could reliably compute values with their personal computers. In 1991, Chaum introduced SureVote which allowed voters to cast a ballot from an untrustworthy voting system, proposing a process now called "code voting" and used in remote voting systems like Remotegrity and DEMOS.In 1994, Chaum introduced the first in-person voting system in which voters cast ballots electronically at a polling station and cryptographically verify that the DRE did not modify their vote (or even learn what it was). In the following years, Chaum proposed (often with others) a series a cryptographically verifiable voting systems that use conventional paper ballots: Prêt à Voter, Punchscan, and Scantegrity. The city of Takoma Park, Maryland used Scantegrity for its November, 2009 election. This was the first time a public sector election was run using any cryptographically verifiable voting system.In 2011, Chaum proposed Random Sample Elections. This electoral system allows a verifiably random selection of voters, who can maintain their anonymity, to cast votes on behalf the entire electorate. === Other contributions === In 1979, Chaum proposed a mechanism for splitting a key into partial keys, a predecessor to secret sharing.In 1985, Chaum proposed the original anonymous credential system, which is sometimes also referred to as a pseudonym system. This stems from the fact that the credentials of such a system are obtained from and shown to organizations using different pseudonyms which cannot be linked. In 1988, Chaum with Gilles Brassard and Claude Crépeau published a paper that introduced zero-knowledge arguments, as well as a security model using information-theoretic private-channels, and also first formalized the concept of a commitment scheme. 1991, with Torben Pedersen, he demonstrated a well-cited zero-knowledge proof of a DDH tuple. This proof is particularly useful as it can prove proper reencryption of an ElGamal ciphertext. Chaum contributed to an important commitment scheme which is often attributed to Pedersen. In fact, Pedersen, in his 1991 paper, cites a rump session talk on an unpublished paper by Jurjen Bos and Chaum for the scheme. It appeared even earlier in a paper by Chaum, Damgard, and Jeroen van de Graaf.In 1993 with Stefan Brands, Chaum introduced the concept of a distance-bounding protocol.In 2019, he was one of the speakers at the fifth Ethereum developer conference, which was held in Japan. == Bibliography == Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms, 1981 Advances in Cryptology – Proceedings of Crypto 82, 1983 Advances in Cryptology – Proceedings of Crypto 83, 1984 David Chaum, Amos Fiat and Moni Naor, Untraceable Electronic Cash David Lee Chaum, Computer Systems Established, Maintained and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups, University of California, Berkeley, 1982 David Chaum, Towards Trustworthy Elections, Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K, 2010 How to issue a central bank digital currency (working paper), 2021 == References == == Further reading == Chaum, D. (1984). "A New Paradigm for Individuals in the Information Age". 1984 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (PDF). IEEE. p. 99. doi:10.1109/SP.1984.10025. ISBN 978-0-8186-0532-1. S2CID 1717835. Chaum, D. (1985). "Security without identification: Transaction systems to make big brother obsolete". Communications of the ACM. 28 (10): 1030–1044. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.319.3690. doi:10.1145/4372.4373. S2CID 15340054. Archived from the original on 2023-05-19. Retrieved 2023-05-20. Chaum, D. (1992). "Achieving Electronic Privacy," Scientific American, August 1992, p. 96-101. Chaum, D. (1997). "David Chaum on Electronic Commerce How much do you trust Big Brother?". IEEE Internet Computing. 1 (6): 8–16. doi:10.1109/MIC.1997.643931. S2CID 8072432. == External links == Home page David Chaum patents Punchscan Homepage David Chaum research papers

Wei Dai

Wei Dai (Chinese: 戴伟) is a computer engineer known for contributions to cryptography and cryptocurrencies. He developed the Crypto++ cryptographic library, created the b-money cryptocurrency system, and co-proposed the VMAC message authentication algorithm. == Education and career == Dai graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in computer science and is described as an "intensely private computer engineer". Wei Dai was member of the Cypherpunks, Extropians, and SL4 mailing lists in the 1990s. On SL4 he exchanged with people such as Eliezer Yudkowsky, Robin Hanson, Nick Bostrom, Aubrey de Grey, Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler, David Pearce, Hal Finney, and others in the nascent "rationalist" community. == Cryptography == Dai has made several contributions to the field of cryptography and has identified critical Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) vulnerabilities affecting SSH2 and the browser exploit against SSL/TLS known as BEAST (Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS). === Crypto++ === In June 2015 Dai stepped away from the Crypto++ project to work on other projects. Crypto++ is now maintained by the Crypto++ community. === VMAC === VMAC is a block cipher-based message authentication code (MAC) algorithm using a universal hash proposed by Ted Krovetz and Wei Dai in April 2007. The algorithm was designed for high performance backed by a formal analysis. === b-money === In 1998, Dai helped to spark interest in cryptocurrencies with the publication of "b-money, an anonymous, distributed electronic cash system". In the paper, Dai outlines the basic properties of all modern day cryptocurrency systems: "...a scheme for a group of untraceable digital pseudonyms to pay each other with money and to enforce contracts amongst themselves without outside help". == Influence on the development of Bitcoin == Described as "money which is impossible to regulate", Dai's b-money described the core concepts later implemented in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies: Requires a specified amount of computational work (aka Proof of work). The work done is verified by the community who update a collective ledger book. The worker is awarded funds for their effort. Exchange of funds is accomplished by collective bookkeeping and authenticated with cryptographic hashes. Contracts are enforced through the broadcast and signing of transactions with digital signatures (i.e., public key cryptography). === Relationship with Satoshi Nakamoto === Wei Dai and Adam Back were the first two people contacted by Satoshi Nakamoto as he was developing Bitcoin in 2008 and the b-money paper was referenced in the subsequent Bitcoin whitepaper. In a May 2011 article, noted cryptographer Nick Szabo stated:Myself, Wei Dai, and Hal Finney were the only people I know of who liked the idea (or in Dai's case his related idea) enough to pursue it to any significant extent until Nakamoto (assuming Nakamoto is not really Finney or Dai).However, Dai questions b-money's influence on Bitcoin:...my understanding is that the creator of Bitcoin, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, didn't even read my article before reinventing the idea himself. He learned about it afterward and credited me in his paper. So my connection with the project is quite limited. There has been much speculation as to the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, with suspects including Wei Dai himself, Nick Szabo, and Hal Finney, all of whom have denied the putative identification. == References == As of this edit, this article uses content from "Wei Dai at the Bitcoin wiki", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed. This article incorporates text by Taras and JonathanCross available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. == External links == Official Website LessWrong profile Effective Altruism Forum profile SourceForge profile Google Scholar profile

Hal Finney

Hal Finney may refer to: Hal Finney (baseball) (1905–1991), Major League Baseball catcher Hal Finney (computer scientist) (1956–2014), game developer and cryptographer

David Gerard

David Gerard may refer to: Dave Gerard (cartoonist) (1909–2003), American cartoonist Dave Gerard (baseball) (1936–2001), baseball player David Gérard (born 1977), French rugby union player David Gerard (author) (born 1966/67), Australian-British author == See also == Dave Gerrard (born 1945), New Zealand swimmer David Gerrard (priest) (born 1939), Anglican priest David Garrard (born 1978), American football quarterback David Garrard (property developer) (born 1939), British property developer Gerard David (c. 1460–1523), Dutch painter Gérard David (born 1944), Belgian cyclist

Tony Gallippi

Ruja Ignatova

Ruja Plamenova Ignatova (Bulgarian: Ружа Пламенова Игнатова, romanized: Ruža Plamenova Ignatova, occasionally transliterated as "Ruga Ignatova"; born 30 May 1980) is a Bulgarian former entrepreneur who in 2019 was convicted of fraud. She is best known as the founder of a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme known as OneCoin, which The Times has described as "one of the biggest scams in history". She is the subject of the 2019 BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen and the 2022 book of the same name.Since 2017, Ignatova has been on the run from various international law enforcement agencies. In early 2019, she was charged in absentia by U.S. authorities for wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. She was added to the FBI Ten Most Wanted in June 2022. Ignatova is the subject of an international Interpol warrant by German authorities. == Early life and education == Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, in 1980, to a Romani family. Ignatova emigrated to Germany with her family when she was ten years old, and spent part of her childhood in Schramberg in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Claims that she may have studied at University of Oxford in England give no details of college, course, or date of matriculation. In 2005, she earned a PhD in private international law from the University of Constance in Germany with the dissertation Art. 5 Nr. 1 EuGVO – Chancen und Perspektiven der Reform des Gerichtsstands am Erfüllungsort, which discusses lex causae in conflict of laws. She reportedly has also worked for McKinsey & Company. == Criminal activities == In 2012, she was convicted of fraud in Germany in connection with her father Plamen Ignatov's acquisition of a company that shortly afterwards was declared bankrupt in dubious circumstances; she was given a suspended sentence of 14 months' imprisonment.In 2013, she was involved with a multi-level marketing scam called BigCoin. In 2014, she founded a pyramid scheme called OneCoin. == Investigation and disappearance == On 25 October 2017 Ignatova disappeared after being tipped off about increasing police investigations about OneCoin. In 2019, her brother Konstantin Ignatov pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme.In 2022, prosecutors in Darmstadt, Germany confirmed an investigation of "a lawyer from Neu-Isenburg" for possible money laundering: the transfer of 7.69 million euros by Ignatova into one of her private accounts in 2016. In January 2022, police searched apartments and offices in Weilburg, Baden-Baden, Frankfurt am Main, Bad Homburg, Neu-Isenburg and Vaihingen.Afterwards, the North Rhine-Westphalia Police and German Federal Criminal Police Office announced that Ignatova is sought for fraud charges. The Federal Criminal Police Office announced a €5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. An Interpol Red Notice followed. This listing was reciprocated by Europol adding Ignatova to its 'most wanted' list; however, Deutsche Welle notes that the Europol listing was removed under unknown circumstances.The US Federal Bureau of Investigation added Ignatova to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and announced at a joint press conference with IRS Criminal Investigation and United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York. The FBI followed up with an episode of its podcast and YouTube series Inside the FBI devoted to Ignatova and the OneCoin case. There is currently a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to her arrest.According to a report published by Bulgarian investigative reporting site Bird, Ignatova was murdered in November 2018 on the orders of a Bulgarian drug lord, Hristoforos Amanatidis, also known as "Taki". The alleged murderer, Hristo Hristov, who is also Bulgarian, is currently serving a sentence in a Dutch prison for drug trafficking. According to the report, Ignatova was murdered aboard a yacht in the Ionian Sea, and her body was dismembered and thrown overboard. The alleged motive for the murder was to conceal the drug lord's involvement in the OneCoin scam. The narco-boss is said currently to reside in Dubai, having evaded Bulgarian authorities.However, a 2022 interview with FBI Special Agent Paul Roberts notes that the agency's investigation into Ignatova is "operating under the assumption that she is still alive", with “no information” to counter that belief.Ignatova was the subject of a book, The Missing Cryptoqueen, in 2022. == Personal life == Ignatova was married to the German lawyer Björn Strehl, with whom she had a daughter in 2016. == See also == List of fugitives from justice who disappeared == References == == External links == Media related to Ruja Ignatova at Wikimedia Commons The Missing Crypto Queen at BBC Sounds Barlett, Jamie. "How the Cryptoqueen Stole Billions". Vice News. Retrieved October 16, 2023.

Dave Kleiman

Dave Kleiman (22 January 1967 – 26 April 2013) was an American computer forensics expert, an author or co-author of multiple books and a frequent speaker at security related events.Craig Steven Wright claims Kleiman was involved in the invention of Bitcoin, and that Wright himself was Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin's main inventor. Wright's claims are currently subject to litigation in London. == Background == At the age of 21 in 1988, Kleiman was named United States Army Soldier of the Year. He received the Army Achievement Medal and a commendation signed by the Secretary of the Army. The commendation said in part, "Appearance, knowledge of general military subjects, current events and other subjects covered coupled with your strong dedication to duty, never failed to produce anything but outstanding results." After distinguished service in the Army, Kleiman returned to his hometown and became a sworn law enforcement officer for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO). In 1995, a motorcycle accident left him paralyzed, requiring the use of a wheelchair. After his recovery, he continued working at PBSO and attained the rank of detective. He also worked as a System Security Analyst in the Computer Crimes Division and helped configure the Computer Forensics Lab. Kleiman went on to work at a number of high tech companies before becoming a partner in a computer forensics business. Kleiman died in his home in late April 2013, seemingly of natural causes related to complications from a MRSA infection. == Computer security & cryptography == Some of Kleiman's most notable work took place at S-doc (Securit-e-doc, ) where his role was Chief Information Security Officer. While there he developed a Windows encryption tool that surpassed NSA, NIST, and Microsoft Common Criteria Guidelines. This technology was used at NASA, U.S. Dept. of Treasury, Office of the Inspector General, and the US Post Office. Cryptography was routinely used at S-doc to develop several products, broadly aimed at the reliable and verifiable transmission of data and messages, centered around the idea of an "unalterable, encrypted audit log system". Kleiman was also a regular contributor to cryptography and security mailing lists where discussions included technical aspects of cryptosystems and the politics of cryptography. Kleiman was a long-time member of the same Metzdowd Cryptography mailing list where Satoshi Nakamoto first announced Bitcoin on Oct. 31, 2008. Kleiman held the following certifications: Information Systems Security Management Professional (ISSMP), Information Systems Security Architecture Professional (ISSAP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Forensics Investigator (CIFI), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist (CAS), Certified Computer Examiner (CCE), a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). For multiple years, Kleiman was awarded Microsoft MVP for Windows – Security. == Alleged Bitcoin involvement == In December 2015 Gizmodo reported that Dave Kleiman may have been involved in the invention of the digital currency Bitcoin, based on documents sent to the press concerning Craig Steven Wright's claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin. Wright repeated the claim to The Economist in May 2016. Wright's claims are currently subject to litigation in London.In February 2018, Dave Kleiman's brother Ira, the executor of his estate, initiated a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on behalf of the Kleiman estate against Wright over the rights to between 550,000 and 1,100,000 bitcoins, claiming Wright defrauded the estate of bitcoins and intellectual property rights. The estate alleged that Kleiman was one of the early bitcoin pioneers and worked with Craig Steven Wright on its establishment as a cryptocurrency.Following a three-week trial in late 2021, a jury entered a verdict in favor of Kleiman's estate but awarded him only $100 million in damages, far less than the more than $25 billion that Kleiman's estate had sought at trial. == Publications == Co-author: Microsoft Log Parser Toolkit; Syngress Publishing; ISBN 1-932266-52-6 Co-author: Security Log Management: Identifying Patterns in the Chaos; Syngress Publishing; ISBN 1-59749-042-3 Technical editor: Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection and Authentication; Syngress Publishing; ISBN 1-59749-041-5 Technical editor: Winternals Defragmentation, Recovery, and Administration Field Guide; Syngress Publishing; ISBN 1-59749-079-2 CD and DVD Forensics: Technical Editor, ISBN 1-59749-128-4 How to Cheat at Windows System Administration: Contributing Author, ISBN 1-59749-105-5 Enemy at the Water Cooler: Real Life Stories of Insider Threats, Technical Reviewer, ISBN 1-59749-129-2 Rootkits for Dummies: Technical editor, ISBN 978-0-471-91710-6 Windows Forensic Analysis Including DVD Toolkit: Technical Editor, ISBN 1-59749-156-X The Official CHFI Study Guide (Exam 312-49): Main author, ISBN 1-59749-197-7 == References == == External links == - Dave Kleiman personal website CastleCops

Kofi Genfi

Kofi Genfi (born 1993 or 1994) is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and business executive. He is the co-founder of both Mazzuma and Utopia Technologies: two companies in the digital commerce space for emerging markets. He is the Director of Business Strategy for Mazzuma. == Early life and education == Genfi was born in Ghana and had his secondary education at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School, Legon. He further studied Business Administration at the Ashesi University. == Career == In 2013, Kofi Genfi co-founded CYST, a software innovation company specializing in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and mobile payment systems to improve financial inclusion in emerging markets through its flagship product called Mazzuma and processes transactional volumes.Genfi is an alumnus of the Thiel Fellowship Network established by the technology billionaire Peter Thiel and in 2015, he competed at the International Public Speaking Competition in London. He also provided consulting, engineering services, project management, and technical support for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the field of Effective Plastic Waste Management and is a stakeholder of the Global Plastic Action Partnership. == Recognition == Genfi was recognised in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Technology category. He was the winner for the 2019 Discovery of the Year category of the Exclusive Men of the Year Africa Awards (EMY Awards) in 2019 == References ==

Chris Larsen

Chris Larsen (born 1960) is an American business executive and angel investor best known for co-founding several Silicon Valley technology startups, including one based on peer to peer lending. In 1996, he co-founded the online mortgage lender E-Loan, and during his tenure as CEO E-Loan became the first company to freely provide consumers' FICO credit scores. By 2000, E-Loan's market value was estimated at $1 billion In 2005, Larsen left the company when it was sold to Banco Popular. In 2006, he co-founded Prosper Marketplace and he served as CEO until 2012. Later in 2012, he co-founded the company Ripple Labs, Inc., which developed Ripple, software that enables the instant and direct transfer of money between two parties.Self-described as "radically pro-consumer," Larsen has been a vocal advocate of financial privacy in California, and in 2001 he co-founded the coalition Californians for Privacy Now. He has appeared as a speaker at industry events such as Sibos, SWIFT's flagship conference, and written articles for publications such as American Banker. He is also a board-member or advisor for organizations such as Credit Karma, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Qifang, and Betable.On January 4, 2018, Forbes estimated Larsen's worth at $59 billion, briefly putting him ahead of Mark Zuckerberg and into fifth place in their list of world's richest people. In 2020, he ranked No. 319 in the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America.In 2020, Larsen and Ripple each donated US$1 million to five San Francisco food banks for COVID-19 relief efforts. == Early life and education == Chris Larsen was born in San Francisco, California, in 1960. His mother worked as a freelance illustrator, while his father worked as an aircraft mechanic for United Airlines at San Francisco International Airport. After high school, Larsen attended San Francisco State University, where he earned a B.S. in international business and accounting in 1984. He began working for Chevron after college, doing financial audits in Brazil, Ecuador, and Indonesia. He graduated with an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1991. == Business career == === Development of E-Loan (1992-1998) === In the early 1990s, Larsen began working at a mortgage lender in Palo Alto, California. Becoming friends with his colleague Janina Pawlowski, they quit their jobs together in 1992 to found a mortgage business, By 1996, they had switched their focus from loans to the development of a mortgage lending website. Both Larsen and Pawlowski had been frustrated with aspects of the mortgage lending industry, and saw the internet as a way to circumvent agent commissions and other fees. Initially raising $450,000 in funding from friends and family, Larsen and Pawlowski moved from their small Palo Alto office to a larger "low-rent site" in nearby Dublin to work on the project.The E-Loan website became accessible to the public in 1997, and having success as one of the first online mortgage lenders in the United States. The website allows borrowers to search and shop for loans directly, without the fees charged by brokers and sales agents. The website would later begin offering direct home equity and car loans as well. By 1998, E-Loan was running into difficulty funding their operations. Pawlowski had served as chief executive officer for the first two years, and in 1998 she offered to switch jobs with Larsen, taking Larsen's previous role of President. === E-Loan funding and public offering (1998-2000) === Pawlowski and Larsen were in talks with Intuit over a $130 million buyout in the fall of 1998. Forbes wrote that "Pawlowski and Larsen, who together held a 40% stake and had placed 20% more in an employee stock plan, would each walk away with $10 million in cash and $16 million in Intuit stock." Days before the deal closed in August, however, Yahoo CEO Timothy Koogle pitched a deal to buy a 23% stake of E-Loan's outstanding shares for $25 million. Both Larsen's and Pawlowski's payouts would be less, but they would retain control of the company and the E-Loan brand would survive. Choosing to work with Yahoo, E-Loan also raised venture capital from Softbank and Sequoia Capital. In 1998 E-Loan had total annual revenues of $6.8 million, and the following year Larsen offered the role of CEO back to Pawlowski, though she elected to remain President.In late March 1999, E-Loan filed for an initial public offering, and it went public in June 1999. The company processed $470 million of mortgage loans in the first quarter of 1999, and by the second financial quarter, revenues for the year had reached $4.6 million. E-Loan lost $13 million in the third quarter of 1999, though revenues overall had grown from the year before by 200%. As of October 1999 the company employed around 350 people. That year overall E-Loan processed 5000 loans, which at 25% of the online mortgage loan market was the highest percent of any online company. By February 2000, E-Loan's market value was estimated at around $1 billion, with Larsen serving as both CEO and chairman. During his tenure E-Loan became the first company to freely provide consumers' FICO credit scores. === Privacy activism and E-Loan sale (2001-2005) === Larsen has described himself as "radically pro-consumer," and in the early 2000s he became a vocal advocate of financial privacy in California. In 2001, a bill sponsored by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier proposed a requirement for consumers to opt in before financial services companies could share or sell personal information such as bank balances, phone numbers, and social security numbers. While the bill had public support, it was initially defeated by pro-business legislators. In response, Larsen co-founded the coalition Californians for Privacy Now, helping fund the project with $1 million of his own money. Larsen spearheaded the collection of 600,000 signatures in support of Speier's bill, which was almost double the required amount to issue a ballot to state voters. The signatures, combined with a lobbying campaign by Consumer Watchdog throughout 2002, led to major financial firms and legislators withdrawing their opposition, and the bill passed in August 2003. Speier acknowledged Larsen's influence on the ruling, stating "without Chris Larsen, California's financial privacy law, which sets the standard for the rest of the nation, would never have become a reality."As of May 2004, E-Loan had sold over $18.9 billion in consumer loans since its inception, and the company had remained profitable for eight quarters in a row. Larsen stepped down as CEO in early 2005 to start Prosper Marketplace and remained chairman until E-Loan was sold to Banco Popular in 2005. === Prosper Marketplace (2005-2011) === In 2005, Larsen and John Witchel co-founded Prosper Marketplace Larsen served as CEO. From 2006 to 2009, Prosper operated a variable rate model, acting as an eBay-style online auction marketplace with lenders and borrowers ultimately determining loan rates using a Dutch auction-like system. Through the website, borrowers can request personal loans, while Prosper handles the servicing of the loan and distributes borrower payments and interest back to the loan investors. Prosper also makes borrowers' "credit grades" public, and verifies identities and select personal data. Larsen himself had funded 450 loans through the website as of 2008, with borrowers as diverse as homeowners, college students, credit-card users, and entrepreneurs. By 2008, Prosper had facilitated the funding of over $120 million in loans, with an average loan amount of $7,000. In 2008 Fast Company named Prosper to its Fast 50 List of the "most innovative companies of the year." The company soon ran into regulatory opposition from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as current loan regulations were focused on traditional banks, not technology startups. In 2008, Prosper filed its first prospectus with the SEC, changing its business model to use pre-set rates based on a formula evaluating each prospective borrower's credit risk. In 2011, Larsen was outwardly supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement, raising money to help feed protesters at the nearby OWS encampment in San Francisco. By the end of the year, Prosper had facilitated $271 million in peer-to-peer loans, and the company had received a total of $74.5 million in funding from investors such as Jim Breyer, Tim Draper, Omidyar Network, Nigel Morris, and Court Coursey. On March 15, 2012, Larsen announced that he would be resigning from his role as CEO, though he remained chairman of the company. === OpenCoin and Ripple Labs (2012-2020) === In September 2012, Larsen co-founded the company OpenCoin, which began developing a new payment protocol called Ripple, based on a concept developed by Ryan Fugger. The Ripple protocol enables the instant and direct transfer of money between two parties. As such the protocol can circumnavigate the fees and wait times of the traditional correspondent banking system, and any type of currency can be exchanged including gold, airline miles, and rupees.To maintain security OpenCoin programmed Ripple to rely on a common ledger that is "managed by a network of independent validating servers that constantly compare their transaction records." Servers can belong to anyone including banks or market makers. The company also created its own form of digital currency in a manner similar to Bitcoin, using the currency to allow financial institutions to transfer money with negligible fees and wait-time. On May 14, 2013, OpenCoin announced that it had closed a second round of angel funding, and among their earliest investors were Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, and IDG Capital Partners.In September 2013, OpenCoin changed its name to Ripple Labs, Inc., with Larsen remaining CEO. Ripple Labs then announced that the source code for the peer-to-peer node behind the Ripple payment network was open source. Ripple Labs continued as the primary contributors of code to the consensus verification system behind Ripple, which it said could integrate with banks' IT systems. In 2014 Ripple was the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, after Bitcoin. Also that month, Ripple Labs was named one of the 50 Smartest Companies by MIT Technology Review. Ripple Labs was then ranked No. 4 on a list by Fast Company of the World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies Of 2015 In Money. == Media presence and memberships == Larsen has appeared as a speaker or panelist at number of industry events, including the IIF Annual Memberships Meeting in 2014. Larsen has also written articles on banking systems and other technical topics for publications such as American Banker.In the early 2000s, Larsen established the Chris Larsen Scholarship Fund at San Francisco State University, and the school named him Alum of the Year in 2004. As of 2014, he is a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and he serves as a board-member or adviser for organizations such as Credit Karma and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He served as an advisor to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation's policy committee against payday lending. He is also on the board of Oportun. == See also == Peer-to-peer lending List of San Francisco State University people == References == == External links == Chris Larsen at LinkedIn

Blythe Masters

Blythe Masters (born 22 March 1969) is a British Private Equity executive and former financial services and fintech executive. She is a former executive at JPMorgan Chase, where she was widely credited for developing the credit default swap as a financial instrument. She is founding partner of FinTech private equity firm, Motive Partners, CEO of Motive Capital Corp, an Advisory Board Member of the US Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Board Member of GCM Grosvenor, Forge Global, CAIS Group, and Credit Suisse Group. == Biography == === Education === Born in Oxford, Masters was raised in the south-east of England. She attended The King's School in Canterbury. She graduated in 1991 from Trinity College, Cambridge with a B.A. in economics. === Professional career === ==== JP Morgan Chase ==== Masters joined the bank JP Morgan Chase in 1991, after completing a number of internships there while still a student dating back to 1987. Responsible for credit derivative products at J.P. Morgan, Masters became a managing director at 28, the youngest woman to achieve that status in the firm's history. She is widely credited with creating the modern credit default swap, a derivative used to manage credit exposure to underlying reference entities. In 1994, J.P. Morgan had extended a $4.8 billion credit line to Exxon, which faced the threat of $5 billion in punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. A team of J.P. Morgan bankers led by Masters then purchased credit protection against the credit line to the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development to cut the capital which J.P. Morgan was required to hold against Exxon's default, thus reducing its own risk. J.P. Morgan later bundled together packages of such exposures and offered them to market as BISTRO, for Broad Index Secured Trust Offering, and these new financial instruments were quickly adopted by other banking institutions.When derivatives played a role in the 2008 financial crisis, having been applied by other firms to sub-prime mortgages, Gillian Tett's book, Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dreams of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe, documented how the original intent and features of credit derivatives had been distorted. Nonetheless, Masters was described by the UK newspaper The Guardian as "the woman who invented financial weapons of mass destruction". The paper later apologised for failing to give Masters an adequate opportunity to respond to their characterisation. She had told the newspaper: "I do believe CDS [credit default swaps] have been miscast, much as poor workmen tend to blame their tools." Masters explained to The Economist, "Tools that transfer risk can also increase systemic risk if major counterparties fail to manage their exposures properly." In April 2010 she told the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament that "there are definitely lessons that have to be learnt. I for one feel that I have learnt from that experience and there are things I may like to have seen done differently". She stated support for reforms which increase transparency and reduce the risk of contagion among financial firms.From 2001 to 2004, Masters served as the bank's head of Global Credit Portfolio and Credit Policy and Strategy. From 2004 to 2007, she was Chief Financial Officer of J.P. Morgan's Investment Bank. In 2007, she was named head of Global Commodities. By 2014, J.P. Morgan had the largest revenues of any investment bank in commodities, according to United Kingdom analytics firm Coalition. That same year, J.P. Morgan announced the sale of its physical commodities business for $3.5bn in the face of increased regulatory scrutiny brought on by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigation into the bank’s alleged manipulation of energy markets in California and Michigan. J.P. Morgan paid $410 million to settle the investigation without admitting wrongdoing. J.P. Morgan defended Masters, stating that "We strongly dispute that Blythe Masters or any employee lied or acted inappropriately in this matter". Masters left J.P. Morgan once she had completed the sale for the bank.Masters was the Chair of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association from 2008 to 2010 and also of the Global Financial Markets Association from 2012 to 2014, trade associations whose missions include promoting public trust and confidence in financial markets. She has frequently represented the industry in Washington, D.C., on matters including the design of carbon markets to contain global warming, curbs on large commodities trading positions and the financial regulatory overhaul. ==== 2015–2019 ==== Masters was named the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings in March 2015, a company that builds secure and distributed processing tools to speed up settlement, reduce costs and enhance security and transparency in regulated industries. The startup raised more than $100 million in multiple rounds of funding from fifteen technology and financial firms, such as Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Deutsche Boerse, DTCC, CME, IBM and Accenture. The company distributed ledger systems for the ASX, DTCC and others. In December 2017, ASX officially announced it would upgrade its post-trade settlement system to a blockchain platform designed by Digital Asset Holdings. In November 2022, ASX officially announced it would stop using the blockchain platform completely.In December 2018, Masters announced that she was stepping down as CEO, but would remain a board member, strategic advisor and a shareholder.In December 2015, it was posited in the media that the new Barclays CEO Jes Staley had approached Masters about running the bank’s investment banking division, however Masters indicated she was fully committed to her current role at Digital Asset Holdings. From 2015 to 2016 she was the Chair of the Board of Santander Consumer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC), a full-service, technology-driven consumer finance company. ==== Private Equity ==== In late 2019 Masters joined Motive Capital Partners, a private equity firm. In September, 2021 Motive announced that she was leading Motive's acquisition of Forge Global, a pre-IPO stock marketplace, in a SPAC transaction valued at approximately $2 billion. == Personal life == Masters is Co-Chair of the Board of the Global Fund for Women, a board member of both The Breast Cancer Research Foundation and ID2020, and the former Chair of the Board of the Greater NY Affiliate of the breast cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. She is an amateur equestrian. == References == == External links == Blythe Masters on LinkedIn Crains New York 40 Under 40 Profile The Daily Pennsylvanian

Nii Osae Osae Dade

Nii Osae Osae Dade (born December 29, 1993) is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and a computer scientist. He is the co-founder and director of both Mazzuma and Utopia Technologies: two companies in the digital commerce space for emerging markets. He is the Director of Software engineering for Mazzuma. == Early life and education == Nii Osae was born in Ghana and had his secondary education at the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School,Legon. He further studied BSc Computer Science at the University of Ghana == Career == Nii Osae is also the board chairman of the Artificial Intelligence Association Ghana and a member of the Astronomical Society of Ghana and he was a speaker at the Tech in Ghana Conference, NVIDIA GTC 21, Global Webinar Series on AI in Finance.In 2013, Nii Osae co-founded CYST, a software innovation company specializing in Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and mobile payment systems to improve financial inclusion in emerging markets through its flagship product called Mazzuma and processes transactional volumes. == Recognition == Nii Osae was recognized in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Technology category. He was part of the IBM/Airtel Mini Mobile Innovations Competition to develop smart innovations using telecommunications. == References ==

Jorge Stolfi

Jorge Stolfi (born 1950 in São Paulo) is a full professor of computer science at the State University of Campinas, working in computer vision, image processing, splines and other function approximation methods, graph theory, computational geometry and several other fields. According to the ISI Web Of Science, as of 2010 he was the most highly cited computer scientist in Brazil. Outside of academia, Stolfi has accrued an online following due to his skepticism and comments on Bitcoin. == Early life and career == Jorge Stolfi was born in Vila Carrão, a suburb of São Paulo. His parents had immigrated to Brazil from the Veneto region of Italy only two years earlier, and so he spoke Venetian as his first language. He obtained an engineering degree in electronics (1973) and M.Sc. in applied mathematics (1979) from the University of São Paulo. From 1979 to 1988 he was a student of Leo Guibas at Stanford University, where he got a Ph.D in computer science. He had a CNPq grant from 1979 to 1983, then a research internship at Xerox PARC until 1985, and also at the DEC Systems Research Center (SRC) until 1988. After obtaining his Ph.D. he became a research engineer at SRC. In 1992 he returned to Brazil to take a position at the Computer Science Department of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), which later became the university's Institute of Computing. He was the institute's chairman from 2004 to 2008. == Research == While at Stanford, Leo Guibas and Jorge worked on the then-new field of computational geometry. Among other results they developed the quad-edge data structure for two-dimensional maps, the kinetic framework for computational geometry. Jorge's Ph.D. dissertation on oriented projective geometry was later published as a book. He also drew dozens of cartoons for the DEC SRC technical reports.In 1992 Jorge collected and widely disseminated (through the historic DEC gatekeeper ftp archives and Prime Time Freeware) a set of wordlists that later formed the basis of the ispell resources (later myspell, currently part of OpenOffice.org and Mozilla as hunspell). After moving to UNICAMP, Jorge developed affine arithmetic, a model for self-validated computation (which he had conceived in 1991), in collaboration with Marcus Andrade, João Comba, and Luiz Figueiredo.At UNICAMP Jorge also worked with C. Lucchesi and T.Kowaltowski on finite state transducer technology for spell checking and other natural language processing tasks. With his student H. Leitão he developed an efficient algorithm for pottery fragment reassembly by multiscale outline matching, and analyzed the density of useful information contained in those outlines. He has also contributed to the study of the Voynich manuscript. Since 2001 Jorge has been involved in efforts to raise public and government awareness about the insecurity of Brazilian electronic voting machines, which are of the direct recording electronic (DRE) type and therefore vulnerable to massive and undetectable software-based vote-stealing. == Bitcoin skepticism == Starting late 2013, Jorge took an active interest in the economics of cryptocurrencies. He became skeptical about its underlying soundness and chances of success and has been advising the Brazilian public against investment in bitcoin. In 2016 he submitted a letter to the SEC outlining what he perceives as similarities between Bitcoin and penny stocks or Ponzi schemes. In response, another person by the name of Colin Baird wrote the SEC to cast doubt on Stolfi's letters, without addressing any of Stolfi's arguments.In 2021, Stolfi wrote a paper titled "Bitcoin is a Ponzi", in which he summarized the main characteristics of a Ponzi scheme, and its similarities with Bitcoin. The paper went viral after it was posted on HackerNews, a website frequented by computer programmers, where it received over 500 upvotes.In 2022, after posting to Twitter that "blockchain technology is a fraud", he inspired 1500 experts to write a letter to US Congress about the risks of cryptocurrencies. == References == == External links == Jorge Stolfi's personal webpage

Alex Tapscott

Alex Tapscott (born 1986) is a Canadian business author, and advisory board member. His work revolves around the applications of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.He was the CEO and founder of NextBlock Global, a cryptocurrency investment company, and is the co-founder, with his father Don Tapscott, of the Blockchain Research Institute. == Early life and education == Tapscott was born in Toronto and attended Upper Canada College. He holds a BA in Law, Jurisprudence and Social thought from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts where he graduated in 2008.Tapscott represented Canada as a member (and captain) of the Canadian Men's Rugby Under-21 Team in numerous tournaments in 2006 and 2007. == Career == Tapscott co-authored, with his father Don Tapscott, the 2016 book Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World. The book became a The Globe and Mail as well as Toronto Star bestseller. Financial Times reviewed the book and wrote "The Tapscotts provide a thorough, balanced and enlightening guide to the next big thing",.In October 2016, Tapscott gave his first TEDx Talk at TEDxSanFrancisco. He currently sits on the Advisory Board to Elections Canada, the independent, non-partisan agency responsible for conducting federal elections and referendums. He also serves as an advisory board member at early-stage start-ups, including Paycase and nuco.In the summer of 2016, Tapscott co-convened a meeting of blockchain stakeholders in Muskoka, Ontario to discuss governance of the whole blockchain ecosystem.On November 5, 2017, he announced that NextBlock was forced to scrap IPO plans due to being dropped by their underwriter, CIBC, after the company is reported to have made false and misleading statements in its marketing materials. == Bibliography == Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World, PenguinRandomHouse, 2016. ISBN 978-0670069972. To the Breaking Point: Law and Political Emergency, UD-ALO Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-0994042002 == References == == External links == Official website

Don Tapscott

Don Tapscott (born June 1, 1947) is a Canadian business executive, author, consultant and speaker, who specializes in business strategy, organizational transformation and the role of technology in business and society. He is the CEO of the Tapscott Group and the co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute. == Career == Tapscott has authored or co-authored sixteen books on the application of technology in business and society. His 2006 book, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (2006), co-authored by Anthony D. Williams, was an international bestseller, was number one on the 2007 management book charts and has been translated into 20 different languages. Tapscott lives in Toronto. He is the former Chancellor of his alma mater Trent University, and is currently an Adjunct Professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD. == Early life and education == Tapscott was born in Toronto and lived as a teen in Orillia, Ontario, where he was a part of the first graduating class of Park Street Collegiate Institute.Tapscott holds a B.Sc. in psychology and statistics and an M. Ed. specializing in research methodology. While earning this degree at the University of Alberta, he ran for mayor of Edmonton in the 1977 municipal election on behalf of the Revolutionary Workers' League. == Awards and recognition == Tapscott holds three honorary degrees—Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)—granted by the University of Alberta in 2001, Trent University in 2006, and McMaster University in 2010.He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015. == Bibliography == Don Tapscott, Del Henderson, Morley Greenberg, Planning for Integrated Office Systems: A Strategic Approach, Carswell Legal Pubns, 1984. ISBN 0-87094-653-6. Don Tapscott, Del Henderson, Morley Greenberg, Office Automation: A User-Driven Method, Springer, 1985. ISBN 0-306-41973-4. Don Tapscott, Art Caston, Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology, McGraw-Hill Companies, 1992. ISBN 0-07-062857-2. Don Tapscott, Ann Cavoukian, Who Knows: Safeguarding Your Privacy in a Networked World, McGraw-Hill, 1997. ISBN 0-07-063320-7. Don Tapscott, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril In The Age of Networked Intelligence, McGraw-Hill, 1997. ISBN 0-07-063342-8. Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation, McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 978-0-07-134798-3. Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy, Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business, McGraw-Hill, 1999. ISBN 0-07-135213-9. Don Tapscott, Creating Value in the Network Economy, Harvard Business Press, 1999. ISBN 0-87584-911-3. Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, Alex Lowy, Digital Capital: Harnessing the Power of Business Webs, Harvard Business Press, 2000. ISBN 978-1-57851-193-8. Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, Free Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-4650-0. Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio Trade, 2006. ISBN 1-59184-367-7. Don Tapscott, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, McGraw-Hill, 2008. ISBN 0-07-150863-5. Don Tapscott, The Net Generation Takes The Lead; in: Willms Buhse/Ulrike Reinhard: Wenn Anzugträger auf Kapuzenpullis treffen (When Suits meet Hoodies), whois-Verlag 2009. ISBN 978-3-934013-98-8. Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World, Portfolio Hardcover, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59184-356-6. Don Tapscott, The Digital Economy Anniversary Edition: Rethinking Promise and Peril In the Age of Networked Intelligence, McGraw-Hill, 2014. ISBN 0-07-183555-5. Don Tapscott, Alex Tapscott, The Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin is Changing Money, Business, and the World, Penguin Books, Released May 2016 ISBN 978-0670069972 == References == == External links == Official website Don Tapscott at IMDb Don Tapscott at TED

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (born Bryce Wilcox; 13 May 1974 in Phoenix, Arizona), is an American Colorado-based computer security specialist, self-proclaimed cypherpunk, and CEO of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), a for-profit company leading the development of Zcash. == Biography == He is known for the Tahoe Least-Authority File Store (or Tahoe-LAFS), a secure, decentralized, fault-tolerant filesystem released under GPL and the TGPPL licenses. He is the creator of the Transitive Grace Period Public Licence (TGPPL).Wilcox-O'Hearn is the designer of multiple network protocols that incorporate concepts such as self-contained economies and secure reputation systems. He is a member of the development team of ZRTP and the BLAKE2 cryptographic hash function.Zooko's triangle is named after Wilcox-O'Hearn, who described the schema that relates three desirable properties of identifiers in 2001.Wilcox-O'Hearn was founder and CEO of Least Authority Enterprises in Boulder, Colorado where he is now an advisor.Zooko was a developer of the MojoNation P2P system and lead developer of the follow-on Mnet network, and a developer at SimpleGeo.Wilcox-O'Hearn worked on the first cryptocurrency, DigiCash, with David Chaum in 1996. He is a member of the founding team of the anonymous cryptocurrency Zcash, which launched in 2016. He currently serves as the CEO of the affiliated Electric Coin Company. Wilcox later commissioned the Rand Corporation to study whether anonymous coins were disproportionately represented in criminal transactions; the study found they were not.Additionally Wilcox-O'Hearn was one of the co-creators of Blake3. == References ==

Jihan Wu

Jihan Wu (Chinese: 吳忌寒; born 1986) is a Chinese billionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur. Together with Micree Zhan, he co-founded Bitmain in 2013, which has become the world's largest computer chip company for bitcoin mining, with US$2.5 billion in revenue in 2017. He is a leading supporter of Bitcoin Cash, a hard fork of bitcoin created in 2017 with increased transaction capacity. He topped Forbes' 2020 World’s Billionaires List as one of the five youngest billionaires in Asia. == Early life and career == Wu was born in 1986 in Chongqing, China. After graduating from Chongqing Nankai Secondary School, he entered Peking University, where he earned dual degrees in economics and psychology in 2009.After graduating from university, Wu worked as a financial analyst for a private equity firm. In May 2011, he discovered Bitcoin and raised 100,000 yuan (US$15,373 as of 2011) from family and friends to purchase 900 bitcoins. He and fellow Bitcoin enthusiast Chang Jia (长铗) founded Babite (巴比特), China's first Bitcoin community site. In late 2011, he was the first to translate Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper into Chinese.In 2012, Wu invested in the bitcoin mining company ASICMINER, one of the first company produced ASIC that is used to mine Bitcoin worldwide which was co-founded by Friedcat (烤猫). Although initially successful with more than a thousand times of investment return given to its investors, Friedcat later ran into technical difficulties and exited the business. Wu also lost his investment purchasing hardware from another mining hardware company, Canaan Creative. == Bitmain, Bitdeer and Matrixport == Having realized the importance of technical expertise, in 2013 Wu reached out to the microelectronics engineer Micree Zhan, whom he had met a few years before, and convinced Zhan to co-found Bitmain with him. In November 2013, Zhan developed Antminer S1, the company's first mining rig. Sales soon took off, but hit a downturn in 2014 when fraud was discovered at the Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, leading to its collapse. In 2015, Bitmain developed Antminer S5, which became the best-selling mining equipment as bitcoin prices recovered. Bitmain grew into the world's largest computer chip company for bitcoin mining, reporting US$2.5 billion in revenue in 2017. In 2018, Wu owned 20% of Bitmain shares, and Zhan 36%.Wu has been a vocal proponent for increasing Bitcoin's transaction capacity, which is limited to only seven per second due to the 1-megabyte size limit of bitcoin blocks, but the proposal was opposed by traditionalists. After two years of debate between the two camps, a Shenzhen-based mining company called ViaBTC, which Bitmain had invested in, orchestrated a hard fork of bitcoin, creating Bitcoin Cash in August 2017. Wu's critics accuse him of being the mastermind behind the fork, calling him "Jihad", a play on his given name, but Wu denied that he or Bitmain had so much influence in the matter.In 2019, Wu stepped down as co-CEO of Bitmain and founded Matrixport, a financial services company for cryptocurrencies. To circumvent China's ban on cryptocurrency trading, the company is based in Singapore.In 2021, Wu officially left Bitmain saying the disagreement between himself and Micree Zhan has finally been settled amicably. As a result, the cryptocurrency mining pool BTC.com and mining cloud service Bitdeer have spun off from Bitmain and Wu will be the chairman. Later, BTC.com was sold to a public company BTCM. == Wealth == In Hurun Report's inaugural Blockchain Rich List 2018, Wu was named the second richest cryptocurrency entrepreneur in China, with an estimated net worth of 16.5 billion yuan (US$2.39 billion), behind only Micree Zhan. Hurun also ranked him as the 204th richest person in China. In the same year, he was ranked No. 3 in Fortune's The Ledger 40 under 40, for transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology. == Personal life == As of 2019, Wu is single and lives in Beijing. == References ==

Micree Zhan

Micree Zhan or Zhan Ketuan (Chinese: 詹克团; born 29 January 1979) is a Chinese electronics engineer and businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO (with Wu Jihan) of Bitmain, the world's largest computer chip company for cryptocurrency mining. In 2018, Hurun Report named him the richest cryptocurrency billionaire in the world. In 2019, Bloomberg ranked Zhan as the world's 9th richest self-made billionaire aged 40 or younger, with a net worth of US$5.2 billion. == Early life and education == Zhan Ketuan was born on 29 January 1979 in Minhou County, Fujian, China.After graduating from Minhou No. 1 High School, he entered Shandong University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering in 2001. He then earned his master's degree in microelectronics engineering from the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2004. == Career == After earning his master's degree, Zhan worked as an engineer at the Information Technology Research Institute at Tsinghua University. He later started his own business making set-top boxes for television.In 2013, Zhan met up with Wu Jihan, an enthusiast for cryptocurrency. After hours of discussion and research, Zhan agreed to start Bitmain with Wu. The company quickly grew into the world's largest computer chip company for bitcoin mining, reporting US$2.5 billion in revenue in 2017. As of 2018, Zhan owns 36% of Bitmain, and Wu 20%.In Hurun Report's inaugural Blockchain Rich List 2018, Zhan was named the richest cryptocurrency entrepreneur in the world, with an estimated net worth of 29.5 billion yuan (US$4.3 billion), while Wu was ranked second. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Zhan as the world's 9th richest self-made billionaire aged 40 or younger, with a net worth of US$5.2 billion. As of June 2019, he is listed as the world's 311th richest person in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with $5.42 billion. == Personal life == As of 2019, Zhan is single and has no children. He lives in Beijing. == References ==

Pineapple Fund

The Pineapple Fund was a philanthropic project by an anonymous individual which gave away 5,057 bitcoins to 60 charities. The amount was valued at $86 million in December 2017. Some of the themes supported were medical research, environmental conservation, human rights and psychedelic therapy. == History == The Pineapple Fund was announced with a post on Reddit on December 14, 2017. The individual used the pseudonym "Pine", and explained that "My aims, goals, and motivations in life have nothing to do with ... being the mega rich. So I'm doing something else: donating the majority of my bitcoins to charitable causes". The individual behind the fund has remained pseudonymous.An application form was made available on the website, open to all charities around the world. Speaking to the magazine Philanthropy, the founder said that more than 10,000 applications were received.After five months, a total of 5,104 bitcoins had been donated and liquidated for a value of $55 million after exchange rate volatility. == Donations == The fund's first donation was $1 million to Watsi, a charity for crowdfunding healthcare.The fund donated a total of $3 million to SENS Research Foundation and Methuselah Foundation for development of rejuvenation therapies based on periodic repair of the cell and tissue damage that causes aging.The fund made its three largest donations of $5 million each to GiveDirectly, The Open Medicine Foundation, and to MAPS.The fund donated $2 million to the Organ Preservation Alliance.The fund has also donated $1 million or more to organizations such as BitGive Foundation, Internet Archive, and the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. == See also == List of bitcoin organizations == References == == External links == Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2020-01-08)

BitGive Foundation

The BitGive Foundation is an American nonprofit organization that solicits bitcoin donations for use in charitable causes. == Background == BitGive was established by Connie Gallippi in 2013. The organization was the first Bitcoin and Blockchain technology nonprofit. The organization has received 501(c)(3) tax exempt status from the United States Internal Revenue Service.BitGive was founded with the goal of strengthening philanthropic impact globally by using cryptocurrency to make the process faster and more secure. On GiveTrack, nonprofits can post projects and donors can contribute funds. Contributions can be made in bitcoin or in dollars. The platform gives donors financial reporting and project results in real time.In 2017–2018, BitGive received $1 million from the Pineapple Fund, a philanthropic endeavor by an anonymous donor known as “Pine,” who sought to donate “the majority of [their] bitcoins to charitable causes.” == Partnerships == BitGive has worked with nonprofits globally, including Save the Children and The Water Project. == Leadership == Connie Gallippi is a founder in the cryptocurrency space. In recognition of her work, Gallippi has been recognized on lists of notable women in cryptocurrency from publications, including Glamour, HuffPost, and the FinTech Times, among others. She serves on the board of directors for the Sierra Business Council. Gallippi holds a BS in Natural Resource Management from Virginia Tech.BitGive's board of directors is composed of figures from the blockchain and cryptocurrency space: Rumi Morales (Board President), Sandra Ro (Board Treasurer), Matthew Roszak, Dawn Newton, Paul Lamb, and Justin Steffen. Emeritus board members include: Patrick Murck, Stephen Pair, and Alyse Killeen. == References == == External links == Official website

Bitcoin Unlimited

Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) is a full node implementation for the bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash networks. The Bitcoin Core client, from which Bitcoin Unlimited is forked, has a hard coded one megabyte block limit; Bitcoin Unlimited differs by allowing users to signal which block size limit they prefer, find the limit having a majority consensus and automatically track the largest proof-of-work, regardless of block size. However, if a block greater than one megabyte in size is accepted by Bitcoin Unlimited and rejected by nodes with a block size limit, a fork of the network will occur, resulting in two separate blockchains with Bitcoin Unlimited nodes following the chain with the largest proof-of-work.The release of Bitcoin Unlimited follows the release of Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Classic, alternative proposals which aimed to increase bitcoin's transaction capacity of around 2.5-3 transactions per second by increasing the hard-coded block size limit.As of version 1.1.0.0, Bitcoin Unlimited releases are compatible with Bitcoin Cash, a cryptocurrency that split from bitcoin and allows larger blocks. == Scalability == Bitcoin Unlimited is an attempt to upgrade Bitcoin Core into a client that processes bitcoin transactions into blocks with a potential maximum size greater than the Core's hard-coded limit of one megabyte. The one megabyte block size limit was added in 2010 by Satoshi Nakamoto as a temporary anti-DoS measure. This limited the maximum network capacity to about three transactions per second. Per the advocates of the change, a block size increase is needed in order to avoid a workflow bottleneck due to the number of transactions made as bitcoin adoption increases. With Bitcoin Unlimited, miners are independently able to configure the size of the blocks they will validate.Miners using Bitcoin Unlimited continue to process regular-sized blocks but as soon as a block larger than one megabyte is mined, they will follow the chain containing the most work.Per the Bitcoin Unlimited website, the scalability solution will be found at a focal point. === Support === Bitcoin Unlimited follows the release of Bitcoin XT and Bitcoin Classic, alternative proposals on how to increase bitcoin's transaction capacity. Mining pools including Antpool. === Opposition === Developers of Bitcoin Core have been reluctant to increase the block size limit. BU nodes were attacked after developers brought a bug to light on 14 March 2017. The numbers of nodes hosting Unlimited fell from 780 to about 370 following the attacks, the lowest level since October, and returned to about 780 within 24 hours according to website coin.dance which tracks network data.As of July 2022, there are only three BU nodes online according to Coin Dance data, a decrease from seven in May 2021. == See also == List of bitcoin forks == Notes == == References == == External links == Bitcoin Unlimited Bitcoin Transaction Accelerator

Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold (BTG) is a cryptocurrency. It is a hard fork of Bitcoin, the open source cryptocurrency. It is an open source, decentralized digital currency without a central bank or intermediary that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer Bitcoin Gold network. The stated purpose of the hard fork is to change the proof of work algorithm so that ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) which are used to mine Bitcoin cannot be used to mine the Bitcoin Gold blockchain in the hopes that enabling mining on commonly available graphics cards will democratize and decentralize the mining and distribution of the cryptocurrency. The project began as a community-driven effort with six co-founders, half of whom continue to serve on the project's Board (including Lead Developer, Hang Yin.) == History == Bitcoin Gold hard forked from the Bitcoin blockchain on October 24, 2017, at block height 491407.In July 2018, Bitcoin Gold implemented a new mining algorithm. The actual algorithm that was developed by Zcash (now, Electric Coin Company) was based on parameter set <200,9>. Bitcoin Gold has modified this algorithm and is now adopting parameter set <144,5>. This new algorithm is called Equihash-BTG. The new algorithm requires more memory than the one that was originally developed by Zcash. == Network attacks == Soon after the launch, the website came under a distributed denial of service attack, and received criticism from Coinbase and Bittrex for being hastily put together, as well as including a developer pre-mine.In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold was hit by a 51% hashing attack by an unknown actor. This type of attack makes it possible to manipulate the blockchain ledger on which transactions are recorded, and to spend the same digital coins more than once. During the attack, 388,000 BTG (worth approximately US$18 million) was stolen from several cryptocurrency exchanges. Bitcoin Gold was later delisted from Bittrex, after the team refused to help pay some damages.Bitcoin Gold suffered from 51% attacks again in January 2020. In July 2020, the version 0.17.2 was released as an “emergency update” in order to elude a long attack chain originated a few days before. == References ==

Bitcoin.com

Bitcoin.com is a bitcoin and cryptocurrency wallet developer and news & education portal. == Products and services == As a cryptocurrency company, Bitcoin.com provides products, services, and information related to the purchasing, selling, storing, and using of cryptocurrencies.Bitcoin.com's flagship product is the Bitcoin.com Wallet, a platform for buying, selling, trading, holding, using, and managing cryptocurrencies. The Bitcoin.com Wallet was launched in June 2017 as a mobile app. == History == The Bitcoin.com domain name was first registered in 2000 to the Swedish company Hurricane Communication AB. The company let it lapse, and, in 2003, it was picked up by Korean-based IVN Technology, which held the domain until 2005. The domain lay fallow until January 2008, when Jesse Heitler registered the name again. Heitler held on until July 2010, when he got an offer from David Lowy, who offered $2,000.Roger Ver, gained control of the Bitcoin.com domain name in April 2014, where he leased it to Blockchain.info and then later to OKCoin. In May 2015, the 5-year agreement was terminated by OKCoin who issued a statement claiming the agreement regarding the domain was invalid due to the entity named in the documents not being representative of the actual company. Ver sued OKCoin’s Hong Kong entity over contract breaches and was awarded a $570,000 judgement by a Hong Kong court in November 2017.In May 2020, former Apple and Rakuten senior manager Dennis Jarvis was appointed CEO of Bitcoin.com. Jarvis redefined Bitcoin.com's vision to more broadly support the concept of ‘economic freedom’ rather than promote a specific cryptocurrency.In April 2021, the Bitcoin.com domain was erroneously listed for sale on Godaddy. This prompted site owner Roger Ver to demand the domain registrar and web hosting company remove the $100 million listing, which it did without providing further explanation. == See also == List of bitcoin companies == References == == External links == Official website Best Bitcoin Earning Site 2023

BTC-e

BTC-e was a cryptocurrency trading platform primarily serving the Russian market, with servers located in the United States. The U.S. government seized their website and funds in 2017. It was founded in July 2011 by Alexander Vinnik and Aleksandr Bilyuchenko, and as of February 2015 handled around 3% of all Bitcoin exchange volume. The platform was eventually taken over by Russian Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, and funds from BTC-e were used for the war in Donbass, under the control of the FSB.It was a component of the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index since the index's September 2013 formation.BTC-e was operated by ALWAYS EFFICIENT LLP, which was registered in London and was listed as having two officers (Sandra Gina Esparon and Evaline Sophie Joubert) and two people with significant control: Alexander Buyanov and Andrii Shvets.The US Justice Department attempted to close down BTC-e on 26 July 2017, when they charged Vinnik and BTC-e in a 21-count indictment for operating an alleged international money laundering scheme and allegedly laundering funds from the hack of Mt. Gox. == History == BTC-e was established in July 2011, handling a few coin pairs, including Bitcoin/U.S. dollar and I0Coin to Bitcoin. By October 2011, they supported many different currency pairs, including Litecoin to dollars, Bitcoin to rubles and RuCoin to rubles.The BTC-e website went offline on 25 July 2017, following the arrest of BTC-e staff members and the seizure of server equipment at one of their data centres. These events led to the closure of the BTC-e service.To repay its customers, BTC-e created WEX tokens, which were used to represent customers' seized equity until its funds were also seized by US Government. The WEX tokens represented $1 and were issued to account for the value of customers cryptocurrencies at the time of the seizure. Alexander Vinnik was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison in France while refusing to testify during his trial. He was acquitted on involvement with the Locky ransomware charges. WEX exchange is ultimately controlled by FSB and managed by Konstantin Malofeev. == References ==

Blockstream

Blockstream is a blockchain technology company led by co-founder Adam Back, headquartered in Victoria, Canada, with offices and staff worldwide. The company develops a range of products and services for the storage and transfer of Bitcoin and other digital assets.The company has raised $210M to date from investors, including venture capital firms Horizons Ventures, Mosaic Ventures, and AXA Strategic Ventures. == Products == === The Liquid Network === On October 12, 2015, Blockstream announced the release of its Liquid sidechain prototype which could allow for the transfer of assets between the Liquid sidechain and the bitcoin main blockchain. On October 11, 2018, a production-ready implementation of the Liquid sidechain was officially launched, called the Liquid Network, which is designed to facilitate interoperability between the Bitcoin main chain and the Liquid sidechain to extend Bitcoin’s capabilities.Liquid is built using Elements Core, a sidechain protocol also designed by Blockstream and built on the Bitcoin Core codebase, which introduces several features including Confidential Transactions, Segregated Witnesses (or SegWit), native asset issuance, and new opcodes. Elements Core version 0.18.1.6 was released in March 2020.Blockstream claims that Liquid reduces the delays and friction involved in a normal transfer of bitcoin. Blockstream asserts participating exchanges–including Bitfinex, BitMEX and OKCoin–can reduce counterparty risk for traders and enable near-instant financial transactions between their platform and other exchanges or a trader’s wallet(s). New blocks are added to the Liquid sidechain every minute, as opposed to Bitcoin's 10-minute block interval. === Blockstream Satellite === In 2017 Blockstream announced the availability of one-way satellite broadcasting of the full Bitcoin blockchain to enable the propagation of valid bitcoin transactions to people without Internet access or during a disruption event like an Internet blackout. In 2018 Blockstream extended the Bitcoin satellite network to four satellites across six coverage zones, adding Asia and Pacific region coverage. It also released API specifications to allow users to send data over its network. The network as of 2019 is only a one-way network and the user still needs a connection to the Bitcoin network to send transactions, which can include SMS gateways or higher cost internet. === Cryptocurrency data feed === In early 2018 Blockstream announced a partnership with Intercontinental Exchange Inc., or ICE, to launch a cryptocurrency market data feed. == Industry partnerships == === Digital Garage === Blockstream partnered with Digital Garage, an Internet technology company based in Tokyo, in January 2019 to create Crypto Garage, a joint venture dedicated to building Bitcoin and blockchain technology for the Japanese institutional market. The initiative's first product, called SETTLENET, is a protocol designed to enable institutional use of atomic swaps. === Bitcoin === Blockstream employs Bitcoin Core developers. Blockstream engineers developed a simplified Bitcoin smart contract development language called Miniscript, which currently has implementations in C++ and Rust. In 2023, Blockstream researcher Christian Lewe proposed a new update for Bitcoin smart contracts. === Lightning Network === Blockstream developer Rusty Russell was the first Bitcoin developer to try implementing the Lightning Network during the summer of 2015. Blockstream released version 0.8.1 of c-lightning, its own implementation of the Lightning Network, in February 2020. === Cryptographic privacy and security research === Blockstream has published work on Confidential Assets, Confidential Transactions, secure multi- and aggregate signatures, and Simplicity, a blockchain programming language. == References == == External links == Official website

Bitwala

BitMEX

BitMEX is a cryptocurrency exchange and derivative trading platform. It is owned and operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, which is registered in the Seychelles.BitMEX offers a variety of cryptocurrency-based financial products, including perpetual contracts, futures contracts, and options contracts. These products allow traders to bet on the price movements of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others, without actually owning the underlying assets. == History == BitMEX was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, with financing from family and friends. Bitmex completed a SAFE round of investment in July 2015 then shortly after was inducted into SOSV batch 8 china accelerator program where it sold equity in exchange for labour and financing. In 2016, the exchange introduced perpetual futures, which became its most popular derivative product. In 2018, Delo became the United Kingdom's first billionaire from bitcoin, and its youngest self-made billionaire.In July 2019, Nouriel Roubini, a critic of cryptocurrencies, suggested that the exchange is involved in illegal activities, allowing traders to take on too much risk and by trading against clients. Two days later, it was reported by Bloomberg that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was investigating BitMEX as to whether they broke rules by allowing Americans to trade on the platform.On October 1, 2020, Hayes, Reed, Delo, and Gregory Dwyer were indicted on charges of violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and conspiracy to violate that law, arising from allegations that the four failed to implement anti-money laundering measures. The case name is "U.S. v. Hayes et al", case number of 20-cr-00500, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.On April 6, 2021, former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes turned himself in to face U.S. charges for violating the Bank Secrecy Act. He was released on $10 million bond pending future court proceedings in New York.On February 24, 2022, Delo and Hayes pled guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering program at BitMEX. The pair agreed to separately pay a $10 million criminal fine representing pecuniary gain derived from the offense.On March 9, 2022, Reed pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay a $10 million criminal fine. Reed was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge John George Koeltl in New York to probation along with the other co-founders. Gregory Dwyer’s trial was initially scheduled for October 2022, and subsequently pled guilty and received a 12 month probation and $150,000 fine as punishment.On May 20, 2022, Hayes was sentenced to two years' probation, with home confinement for six months.On June 15, 2022, Delo was sentenced to 30 months' probation and as a UK citizen returned to Hong Kong subsequently to serve his probation. == References ==

BitMain

Bundle Africa

Bundle Africa, or simply Bundle is a social payment software that allows users to trade cryptocurrencies, send and receive fiat, and save in dollars and other currencies. == History == === Founding and early years === Bundle was launched in August 2019 by Yele Bademosi and Emmanuel Babalola. It was developed within the Binance ecosystem. Bundle Africa was a remote-first company that began as a startup inside Binance. Bademosi made his debut as the Director of Binance Labs, the crypto platform's venture arm, where he was responsible for creating Africa's blockchain ecosystem, a position he held until April 2020. He financed some of the most well-known tech businesses in the crypto industry, including Xend, Yellowcard, Bitsika, and Raise, to mention a few, all of which have gone on to achieve great success.Bundle is a cash and a cryptocurrency social payments' app aimed at driving crypto development on the continent by making it more engaging, convenient to use, and inclusive for Africans. The app had over 50 thousand downloads in the first four months following its release, with a 4.4 rating on Google Play and over $4.5 million in transaction volumes. Bundle had a monthly transaction volume of $56 million with over 350,000 customers in its early years. Bundle Africa grew to 650,000 users in 16 months, mostly through networking, community marketing, as well as a little marketing budget. === 2021: Bademosi resigns === Yele Bademosi stepped down as CEO of Bundle Africa on July 31, 2021, with the intention of exploring other areas in the African crypto community that require more support outside of traditional purchase currency trading, while continuing to drive the adoption of digital currency across Africa and the many economic opportunities that come with it. Emmanuel Babalola, the director of Binance Africa, was appointed to take over Yele's role, as the incumbent CEO of the company.Yele parted ways with Bundle Africa on friendly terms. He was pleased that Emmanuel would be taking over the position and went on to say that the director of Binance Labs has made significant contributions to the blockchain ecosystem and that he believes Babalola is the perfect successor he could wish for. == Services == Bundle Africa teamed together with the Feminist Coalition and The Female Media Network (TEFEM) to offer educational and vocational awards to their respective communities in March 2022. This project was created to recognize International Women's Day. Bundle also sponsored women to pursue free Udemy courses on art, technology, and entertainment. Bundle Africa has now announced the launch of a webpage in celebration of her second anniversary. == See also == List of bitcoin companies == References == == External links == Official Website

Circle

A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is called the radius. The circle has been known since before the beginning of recorded history. Natural circles are common, such as the full moon or a slice of round fruit. The circle is the basis for the wheel, which, with related inventions such as gears, makes much of modern machinery possible. In mathematics, the study of the circle has helped inspire the development of geometry, astronomy and calculus. == Terminology == Annulus: a ring-shaped object, the region bounded by two concentric circles. Arc: any connected part of a circle. Specifying two end points of an arc and a centre allows for two arcs that together make up a full circle. Centre: the point equidistant from all points on the circle. Chord: a line segment whose endpoints lie on the circle, thus dividing a circle into two segments. Circumference: the length of one circuit along the circle, or the distance around the circle. Diameter: a line segment whose endpoints lie on the circle and that passes through the centre; or the length of such a line segment. This is the largest distance between any two points on the circle. It is a special case of a chord, namely the longest chord for a given circle, and its length is twice the length of a radius. Disc: the region of the plane bounded by a circle. In strict mathematical usage, a circle is only the boundary of the disc, while in everyday the terms "circle" and "disc" may be used interchangeably. Lens: the region common to (the intersection of) two overlapping discs. Radius: a line segment joining the centre of a circle with any single point on the circle itself; or the length of such a segment, which is half (the length of) a diameter. Usually, the radius is denoted r {\displaystyle r} and required to be a positive number. A circle with r = 0 {\displaystyle r=0} is a degenerate case consisting of a single point. Sector: a region bounded by two radii of equal length with a common centre and either of the two possible arcs, determined by this centre and the endpoints of the radii. Segment: a region bounded by a chord and one of the arcs connecting the chord's endpoints. The length of the chord imposes a lower boundary on the diameter of possible arcs. Sometimes the term segment is used only for regions not containing the centre of the circle to which their arc belongs to. Secant: an extended chord, a coplanar straight line, intersecting a circle in two points. Semicircle: one of the two possible arcs determined by the endpoints of a diameter, taking its midpoint as centre. In non-technical common usage it may mean the interior of the two-dimensional region bounded by a diameter and one of its arcs, that is technically called a half-disc. A half-disc is a special case of a segment, namely the largest one. Tangent: a coplanar straight line that has one single point in common with a circle ("touches the circle at this point").All of the specified regions may be considered as open, that is, not containing their boundaries, or as closed, including their respective boundaries. == Etymology == The word circle derives from the Greek κίρκος/κύκλος (kirkos/kuklos), itself a metathesis of the Homeric Greek κρίκος (krikos), meaning "hoop" or "ring". The origins of the words circus and circuit are closely related. == History == Prehistoric people made stone circles and timber circles, and circular elements are common in petroglyphs and cave paintings. Disc-shaped prehistoric artifacts include the Nebra sky disc and jade discs called Bi. The Egyptian Rhind papyrus, dated to 1700 BCE, gives a method to find the area of a circle. The result corresponds to 256/81 (3.16049...) as an approximate value of π.Book 3 of Euclid's Elements deals with the properties of circles. Euclid's definition of a circle is: A circle is a plane figure bounded by one curved line, and such that all straight lines drawn from a certain point within it to the bounding line, are equal. The bounding line is called its circumference and the point, its centre. In Plato's Seventh Letter there is a detailed definition and explanation of the circle. Plato explains the perfect circle, and how it is different from any drawing, words, definition or explanation. Early science, particularly geometry and astrology and astronomy, was connected to the divine for most medieval scholars, and many believed that there was something intrinsically "divine" or "perfect" that could be found in circles.In 1880 CE, Ferdinand von Lindemann proved that π is transcendental, proving that the millennia-old problem of squaring the circle cannot be performed with straightedge and compass.With the advent of abstract art in the early 20th century, geometric objects became an artistic subject in their own right. Wassily Kandinsky in particular often used circles as an element of his compositions. === Symbolism and religious use === From the time of the earliest known civilisations – such as the Assyrians and ancient Egyptians, those in the Indus Valley and along the Yellow River in China, and the Western civilisations of ancient Greece and Rome during classical Antiquity – the circle has been used directly or indirectly in visual art to convey the artist's message and to express certain ideas. However, differences in worldview (beliefs and culture) had a great impact on artists' perceptions. While some emphasised the circle's perimeter to demonstrate their democratic manifestation, others focused on its centre to symbolise the concept of cosmic unity. In mystical doctrines, the circle mainly symbolises the infinite and cyclical nature of existence, but in religious traditions it represents heavenly bodies and divine spirits. The circle signifies many sacred and spiritual concepts, including unity, infinity, wholeness, the universe, divinity, balance, stability and perfection, among others. Such concepts have been conveyed in cultures worldwide through the use of symbols, for example, a compass, a halo, the vesica piscis and its derivatives (fish, eye, aureole, mandorla, etc.), the ouroboros, the Dharma wheel, a rainbow, mandalas, rose windows and so forth. Magic circles are part of some traditions of Western esotericism. == Analytic results == === Circumference === The ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is π (pi), an irrational constant approximately equal to 3.141592654. Thus the circumference C is related to the radius r and diameter d by: === Area enclosed === As proved by Archimedes, in his Measurement of a Circle, the area enclosed by a circle is equal to that of a triangle whose base has the length of the circle's circumference and whose height equals the circle's radius, which comes to π multiplied by the radius squared: Equivalently, denoting diameter by d, that is, approximately 79% of the circumscribing square (whose side is of length d). The circle is the plane curve enclosing the maximum area for a given arc length. This relates the circle to a problem in the calculus of variations, namely the isoperimetric inequality. === Equations === ==== Cartesian coordinates ==== ===== Equation of a circle ===== In an x–y Cartesian coordinate system, the circle with centre coordinates (a, b) and radius r is the set of all points (x, y) such that This equation, known as the equation of the circle, follows from the Pythagorean theorem applied to any point on the circle: as shown in the adjacent diagram, the radius is the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle whose other sides are of length |x − a| and |y − b|. If the circle is centred at the origin (0, 0), then the equation simplifies to ===== Parametric form ===== The equation can be written in parametric form using the trigonometric functions sine and cosine as where t is a parametric variable in the range 0 to 2π, interpreted geometrically as the angle that the ray from (a, b) to (x, y) makes with the positive x axis. An alternative parametrisation of the circle is In this parameterisation, the ratio of t to r can be interpreted geometrically as the stereographic projection of the line passing through the centre parallel to the x axis (see Tangent half-angle substitution). However, this parameterisation works only if t is made to range not only through all reals but also to a point at infinity; otherwise, the leftmost point of the circle would be omitted. ===== 3-point form ===== The equation of the circle determined by three points ( x 1 , y 1 ) , ( x 2 , y 2 ) , ( x 3 , y 3 ) {\displaystyle (x_{1},y_{1}),(x_{2},y_{2}),(x_{3},y_{3})} not on a line is obtained by a conversion of the 3-point form of a circle equation: ===== Homogeneous form ===== In homogeneous coordinates, each conic section with the equation of a circle has the form It can be proven that a conic section is a circle exactly when it contains (when extended to the complex projective plane) the points I(1: i: 0) and J(1: −i: 0). These points are called the circular points at infinity. ==== Polar coordinates ==== In polar coordinates, the equation of a circle is where a is the radius of the circle, ( r , θ ) {\displaystyle (r,\theta )} are the polar coordinates of a generic point on the circle, and ( r 0 , ϕ ) {\displaystyle (r_{0},\phi )} are the polar coordinates of the centre of the circle (i.e., r0 is the distance from the origin to the centre of the circle, and φ is the anticlockwise angle from the positive x axis to the line connecting the origin to the centre of the circle). For a circle centred on the origin, i.e. r0 = 0, this reduces to r = a. When r0 = a, or when the origin lies on the circle, the equation becomes In the general case, the equation can be solved for r, giving Without the ± sign, the equation would in some cases describe only half a circle. ==== Complex plane ==== In the complex plane, a circle with a centre at c and radius r has the equation In parametric form, this can be written as The slightly generalised equation for real p, q and complex g is sometimes called a generalised circle. This becomes the above equation for a circle with p = 1 , g = − c ¯ , q = r 2 − | c | 2 {\displaystyle p=1,\ g=-{\overline {c}},\ q=r^{2}-|c|^{2}} , since | z − c | 2 = z z ¯ − c ¯ z − c z ¯ + c c ¯ {\displaystyle |z-c|^{2}=z{\overline {z}}-{\overline {c}}z-c{\overline {z}}+c{\overline {c}}} . Not all generalised circles are actually circles: a generalised circle is either a (true) circle or a line. === Tangent lines === The tangent line through a point P on the circle is perpendicular to the diameter passing through P. If P = (x1, y1) and the circle has centre (a, b) and radius r, then the tangent line is perpendicular to the line from (a, b) to (x1, y1), so it has the form (x1 − a)x + (y1 – b)y = c. Evaluating at (x1, y1) determines the value of c, and the result is that the equation of the tangent is or If y1 ≠ b, then the slope of this line is This can also be found using implicit differentiation. When the centre of the circle is at the origin, then the equation of the tangent line becomes and its slope is == Properties == The circle is the shape with the largest area for a given length of perimeter (see Isoperimetric inequality). The circle is a highly symmetric shape: every line through the centre forms a line of reflection symmetry, and it has rotational symmetry around the centre for every angle. Its symmetry group is the orthogonal group O(2,R). The group of rotations alone is the circle group T. All circles are similar.A circle circumference and radius are proportional. The area enclosed and the square of its radius are proportional. The constants of proportionality are 2π and π respectively. The circle that is centred at the origin with radius 1 is called the unit circle. Thought of as a great circle of the unit sphere, it becomes the Riemannian circle. Through any three points, not all on the same line, there lies a unique circle. In Cartesian coordinates, it is possible to give explicit formulae for the coordinates of the centre of the circle and the radius in terms of the coordinates of the three given points. See circumcircle. === Chord === Chords are equidistant from the centre of a circle if and only if they are equal in length. The perpendicular bisector of a chord passes through the centre of a circle; equivalent statements stemming from the uniqueness of the perpendicular bisector are: A perpendicular line from the centre of a circle bisects the chord. The line segment through the centre bisecting a chord is perpendicular to the chord. If a central angle and an inscribed angle of a circle are subtended by the same chord and on the same side of the chord, then the central angle is twice the inscribed angle. If two angles are inscribed on the same chord and on the same side of the chord, then they are equal. If two angles are inscribed on the same chord and on opposite sides of the chord, then they are supplementary. For a cyclic quadrilateral, the exterior angle is equal to the interior opposite angle. An inscribed angle subtended by a diameter is a right angle (see Thales' theorem). The diameter is the longest chord of the circle. Among all the circles with a chord AB in common, the circle with minimal radius is the one with diameter AB. If the intersection of any two chords divides one chord into lengths a and b and divides the other chord into lengths c and d, then ab = cd. If the intersection of any two perpendicular chords divides one chord into lengths a and b and divides the other chord into lengths c and d, then a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 equals the square of the diameter. The sum of the squared lengths of any two chords intersecting at right angles at a given point is the same as that of any other two perpendicular chords intersecting at the same point and is given by 8r2 − 4p2, where r is the circle radius, and p is the distance from the centre point to the point of intersection. The distance from a point on the circle to a given chord times the diameter of the circle equals the product of the distances from the point to the ends of the chord.: p.71  === Tangent === A line drawn perpendicular to a radius through the end point of the radius lying on the circle is a tangent to the circle. A line drawn perpendicular to a tangent through the point of contact with a circle passes through the centre of the circle. Two tangents can always be drawn to a circle from any point outside the circle, and these tangents are equal in length. If a tangent at A and a tangent at B intersect at the exterior point P, then denoting the centre as O, the angles ∠BOA and ∠BPA are supplementary. If AD is tangent to the circle at A and if AQ is a chord of the circle, then ∠DAQ = 1/2arc(AQ). === Theorems === The chord theorem states that if two chords, CD and EB, intersect at A, then AC × AD = AB × AE. If two secants, AE and AD, also cut the circle at B and C respectively, then AC × AD = AB × AE (corollary of the chord theorem). A tangent can be considered a limiting case of a secant whose ends are coincident. If a tangent from an external point A meets the circle at F and a secant from the external point A meets the circle at C and D respectively, then AF2 = AC × AD (tangent–secant theorem). The angle between a chord and the tangent at one of its endpoints is equal to one half the angle subtended at the centre of the circle, on the opposite side of the chord (tangent chord angle). If the angle subtended by the chord at the centre is 90°, then ℓ = r √2, where ℓ is the length of the chord, and r is the radius of the circle. If two secants are inscribed in the circle as shown at right, then the measurement of angle A is equal to one half the difference of the measurements of the enclosed arcs ( D E ⌢ {\displaystyle {\overset {\frown }{DE}}} and B C ⌢ {\displaystyle {\overset {\frown }{BC}}} ). That is, 2 ∠ C A B = ∠ D O E − ∠ B O C {\displaystyle 2\angle {CAB}=\angle {DOE}-\angle {BOC}} , where O is the centre of the circle (secant–secant theorem). === Inscribed angles === An inscribed angle (examples are the blue and green angles in the figure) is exactly half the corresponding central angle (red). Hence, all inscribed angles that subtend the same arc (pink) are equal. Angles inscribed on the arc (brown) are supplementary. In particular, every inscribed angle that subtends a diameter is a right angle (since the central angle is 180°). === Sagitta === The sagitta (also known as the versine) is a line segment drawn perpendicular to a chord, between the midpoint of that chord and the arc of the circle. Given the length y of a chord and the length x of the sagitta, the Pythagorean theorem can be used to calculate the radius of the unique circle that will fit around the two lines: Another proof of this result, which relies only on two chord properties given above, is as follows. Given a chord of length y and with sagitta of length x, since the sagitta intersects the midpoint of the chord, we know that it is a part of a diameter of the circle. Since the diameter is twice the radius, the "missing" part of the diameter is (2r − x) in length. Using the fact that one part of one chord times the other part is equal to the same product taken along a chord intersecting the first chord, we find that (2r − x)x = (y / 2)2. Solving for r, we find the required result. == Compass and straightedge constructions == There are many compass-and-straightedge constructions resulting in circles. The simplest and most basic is the construction given the centre of the circle and a point on the circle. Place the fixed leg of the compass on the centre point, the movable leg on the point on the circle and rotate the compass. === Construction with given diameter === Construct the midpoint M of the diameter. Construct the circle with centre M passing through one of the endpoints of the diameter (it will also pass through the other endpoint). === Construction through three noncollinear points === Name the points P, Q and R, Construct the perpendicular bisector of the segment PQ. Construct the perpendicular bisector of the segment PR. Label the point of intersection of these two perpendicular bisectors M. (They meet because the points are not collinear). Construct the circle with centre M passing through one of the points P, Q or R (it will also pass through the other two points). == Circle of Apollonius == Apollonius of Perga showed that a circle may also be defined as the set of points in a plane having a constant ratio (other than 1) of distances to two fixed foci, A and B. (The set of points where the distances are equal is the perpendicular bisector of segment AB, a line.) That circle is sometimes said to be drawn about two points. The proof is in two parts. First, one must prove that, given two foci A and B and a ratio of distances, any point P satisfying the ratio of distances must fall on a particular circle. Let C be another point, also satisfying the ratio and lying on segment AB. By the angle bisector theorem the line segment PC will bisect the interior angle APB, since the segments are similar: Analogously, a line segment PD through some point D on AB extended bisects the corresponding exterior angle BPQ where Q is on AP extended. Since the interior and exterior angles sum to 180 degrees, the angle CPD is exactly 90 degrees; that is, a right angle. The set of points P such that angle CPD is a right angle forms a circle, of which CD is a diameter. Second, see: 15  for a proof that every point on the indicated circle satisfies the given ratio. === Cross-ratios === A closely related property of circles involves the geometry of the cross-ratio of points in the complex plane. If A, B, and C are as above, then the circle of Apollonius for these three points is the collection of points P for which the absolute value of the cross-ratio is equal to one: Stated another way, P is a point on the circle of Apollonius if and only if the cross-ratio [A, B; C, P] is on the unit circle in the complex plane. === Generalised circles === If C is the midpoint of the segment AB, then the collection of points P satisfying the Apollonius condition is not a circle, but rather a line. Thus, if A, B, and C are given distinct points in the plane, then the locus of points P satisfying the above equation is called a "generalised circle." It may either be a true circle or a line. In this sense a line is a generalised circle of infinite radius. == Inscription in or circumscription about other figures == In every triangle a unique circle, called the incircle, can be inscribed such that it is tangent to each of the three sides of the triangle.About every triangle a unique circle, called the circumcircle, can be circumscribed such that it goes through each of the triangle's three vertices.A tangential polygon, such as a tangential quadrilateral, is any convex polygon within which a circle can be inscribed that is tangent to each side of the polygon. Every regular polygon and every triangle is a tangential polygon. A cyclic polygon is any convex polygon about which a circle can be circumscribed, passing through each vertex. A well-studied example is the cyclic quadrilateral. Every regular polygon and every triangle is a cyclic polygon. A polygon that is both cyclic and tangential is called a bicentric polygon. A hypocycloid is a curve that is inscribed in a given circle by tracing a fixed point on a smaller circle that rolls within and tangent to the given circle. == Limiting case of other figures == The circle can be viewed as a limiting case of various other figures: The series of regular polygons with n sides has the circle as its limit as n approaches infinity. This fact was applied by Archimedes to approximate π. A Cartesian oval is a set of points such that a weighted sum of the distances from any of its points to two fixed points (foci) is a constant. An ellipse is the case in which the weights are equal. A circle is an ellipse with an eccentricity of zero, meaning that the two foci coincide with each other as the centre of the circle. A circle is also a different special case of a Cartesian oval in which one of the weights is zero. A superellipse has an equation of the form | x a | n + | y b | n = 1 {\displaystyle \left|{\frac {x}{a}}\right|^{n}\!+\left|{\frac {y}{b}}\right|^{n}\!=1} for positive a, b, and n. A supercircle has b =a. A circle is the special case of a supercircle in which n = 2. A Cassini oval is a set of points such that the product of the distances from any of its points to two fixed points is a constant. When the two fixed points coincide, a circle results. A curve of constant width is a figure whose width, defined as the perpendicular distance between two distinct parallel lines each intersecting its boundary in a single point, is the same regardless of the direction of those two parallel lines. The circle is the simplest example of this type of figure. == Locus of constant sum == Consider a finite set of n {\displaystyle n} points in the plane. The locus of points such that the sum of the squares of the distances to the given points is constant is a circle, whose centre is at the centroid of the given points. A generalization for higher powers of distances is obtained if under n {\displaystyle n} points the vertices of the regular polygon P n {\displaystyle P_{n}} are taken. The locus of points such that the sum of the 2 m {\displaystyle 2m} -th power of distances d i {\displaystyle d_{i}} to the vertices of a given regular polygon with circumradius R {\displaystyle R} is constant is a circle, if whose centre is the centroid of the P n {\displaystyle P_{n}} . In the case of the equilateral triangle, the loci of the constant sums of the second and fourth powers are circles, whereas for the square, the loci are circles for the constant sums of the second, fourth, and sixth powers. For the regular pentagon the constant sum of the eighth powers of the distances will be added and so forth. == Squaring the circle == Squaring the circle is the problem, proposed by ancient geometers, of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge. In 1882, the task was proven to be impossible, as a consequence of the Lindemann–Weierstrass theorem, which proves that pi (π) is a transcendental number, rather than an algebraic irrational number; that is, it is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients. Despite the impossibility, this topic continues to be of interest for pseudomath enthusiasts. == Generalizations == === In other p-norms === Defining a circle as the set of points with a fixed distance from a point, different shapes can be considered circles under different definitions of distance. In p-norm, distance is determined by In Euclidean geometry, p = 2, giving the familiar In taxicab geometry, p = 1. Taxicab circles are squares with sides oriented at a 45° angle to the coordinate axes. While each side would have length 2 r {\displaystyle {\sqrt {2}}r} using a Euclidean metric, where r is the circle's radius, its length in taxicab geometry is 2r. Thus, a circle's circumference is 8r. Thus, the value of a geometric analog to π {\displaystyle \pi } is 4 in this geometry. The formula for the unit circle in taxicab geometry is | x | + | y | = 1 {\displaystyle |x|+|y|=1} in Cartesian coordinates and in polar coordinates. A circle of radius 1 (using this distance) is the von Neumann neighborhood of its centre. A circle of radius r for the Chebyshev distance (L∞ metric) on a plane is also a square with side length 2r parallel to the coordinate axes, so planar Chebyshev distance can be viewed as equivalent by rotation and scaling to planar taxicab distance. However, this equivalence between L1 and L∞ metrics does not generalize to higher dimensions. === Topological definition === The circle is the one-dimensional hypersphere (the 1-sphere). In topology, a circle is not limited to the geometric concept, but to all of its homeomorphisms. Two topological circles are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of R3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy). == Specially named circles == == See also == Affine sphere Apeirogon Circle fitting Gauss circle problem Inversion in a circle Line–circle intersection List of circle topics Sphere Three points determine a circle Translation of axes == References == == Further reading == Pedoe, Dan (1988). Geometry: a comprehensive course. Dover. ISBN 9780486658124. "Circle" in The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive == External links == "Circle", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press, 2001 [1994] Circle at PlanetMath. Weisstein, Eric W. "Circle". MathWorld. "Interactive Java applets". for the properties of and elementary constructions involving circles "Interactive Standard Form Equation of Circle". Click and drag points to see standard form equation in action "Munching on Circles". cut-the-knot

Coincheck

Coincheck is a Japanese bitcoin wallet and exchange service headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, founded by Koichiro Wada and Yusuke Otsuka. It operates exchanges between bitcoin, ether and fiat currencies in Japan, and bitcoin transactions and storage in some countries.In April 2018, Coincheck was acquired by Monex Group for 3.6 billion yen. (US33.4 million) Coincheck since 2016 has been the trademark name of a numismatic supply company located and trademark registered in the United States since 2016. == History == Coincheck started in August 2014 and is operated by Coincheck, inc. (previously ResuPress, inc) (founded in 2012). There were then more than 2,200 merchants using their bitcoin payment solution, just in Japan. Coincheck is a member of JBA (Japan Blockchain Association) and is actively helping to build the Japanese bitcoin community's usage standards with the government. Coincheck partnered with SEKAI to support Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan investors to buy Japanese real estate with bitcoin. === 2018 hacking incident === In January 2018, Coincheck was hacked and approximately 500 million NEM tokens ($530 million) were stolen. The currency was transferred through a total of nineteen accounts, one of which was found to have no connection with the hacker.The hack led two of Japan's crypto-currency trade groups to merge into a new self-regulatory organization. The Financial Services Agency took administrative action by ordering Coincheck to improve its security practices, but did not order the exchange to shut down out of a concern for the protection of its users. Coincheck initially announced that it may not be able to compensate all users affected by the hack, but then announced that it would repay all 260,000 users affected in Japanese yen using its own capital. As of February 2021, the Tokyo Public Prosecutors Office has charged 31 individuals for their involvement in transactions of stolen NEM tokens. In total, these individuals converted around 18.8 billion yen of stolen coins into other cryptocurrencies.After the hack, Coincheck suspended trading temporarily and reimbursed its customers for their losses. The company also implemented new security measures, including enhanced KYC (know your customer) procedures, a review of its management system, and the strengthening of its internal control framework. == References ==

Crypto.com

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency exchange company based in Singapore. As of June 2023, the company reportedly had 80 million customers and 4,000 employees. The exchange issues its own exchange token named Cronos (CRO). == History == The company was initially founded in Hong Kong by Bobby Bao, Gary Or, Kris Marszalek, and Rafael Melo in 2016 as "Monaco". In 2018, the company was renamed as Crypto.com following a purchase of a domain owned by cryptography researcher and professor Matt Blaze. Domain sellers valued the domain at US$5–10 million.Crypto.com is operated by Foris DAX Asia, a Singapore-based company that's a subsidiary of Foris DAX MT (Malta) Limited.The company which had 10 million users in February 2021, reported more than 50 million active users as of May 2022 and 80 million users as of June 2023.In January 2022, Crypto.com was the victim of a hack totaling US$15 million in stolen Ether. After some users reported suspicious activity on their accounts, the company paused withdrawals. Withdrawal services were later restored alongside a statement from the company that no customer funds were lost.On August 18, 2022, it was reported that Crypto.com had been quietly letting go of hundreds of employees, beyond its initial 5% layoff in June, due to the downturn in the cryptocurrency market.By October 10, 2022, it was reported that Crypto.com had laid off over 2,000 employees (reportedly 30% to 40% of their staff) since May, due to the cryptocurrency market downturn.In November 2022, the exchange's token, Cronos, lost approximately $1 billion in value. The decline was caused in part due to concerns after the collapse of FTX, whose executive team was revealed to have used its native token, FTT, to prop up the balance sheet of a sister company and to have allegedly engaged in other fraudulent behaviors. On 14 November, Marszalek, the firm's CEO, assured users that the exchange was functioning as normal.On June 9, 2023, Crypto.com announced plans to shut down its institutional exchange in the United States by June 21, citing low demand from large financial institutions. The company's main retail trading service was unaffected. The change caused speculation that the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles would be renamed, but the company denied this. == Products == Crypto.com offers a range of cryptocurrency-based financial services, including the Crypto.com App for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, the Crypto.com Exchange for advanced traders, a non-custodial Crypto.com DeFi Wallet for holding and earning interest on crypto assets, the Crypto.com NFT marketplace for trading nonfungible tokens, Crypto.com Pay for direct cryptocurrency transactions, and the Crypto.com Visa Card, launched in 2017, which converts cryptocurrencies into fiat for retail purchases through Visa.In May 2022, they partnered with Shopify to allow businesses which use the e-commerce platform to accept payments in cryptocurrency. == Promotional activities == Crypto.com signed actor Matt Damon to serve as the company's brand ambassador in October 2021.In September 2021, the company became soccer club Paris Saint-Germain F.C.'s official cryptocurrency platform. The partnership included the release of exclusive Non-Fungible Tokens on Crypto.com's NFT platform.In September 2021, Philadelphia 76ers announced Crypto.com as their official jersey patch partner. In November 2021, the company acquired the naming rights to Los Angeles's Staples Center, renaming it Crypto.com Arena in a 20-year deal reported to be valued at US$700 million.In early 2022, the company announced a partnership with the LeBron James Family Foundation to provide educational resources focused on blockchain-related topics to students of the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. It also signed a sponsor deal for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. == Regulations == === Asia === The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced that it had given in-principle approval to the company for a Major Payment Institution License, allowing it to provide digital payment token services in the country. In August 2022, Crypto.com acquired two South Korean startups - the payment service provider PnLink Co., Ltd and the virtual asset service provider OK-BIT Co., Ltd. With these acquisitions, the company secured registration licenses to provide financial services under South Korea's electronic financial transaction act and as a virtual asset service provider. === Europe === The company received approval from the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority to be registered as a crypto asset service provider in August 2022. In July 2022, it received regulatory approval to operate in Cyprus from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. In September 2022, Crypto.com received the approval of the French authorities, and a month later announced plans to establish a European headquarters in Paris and invest 150 million euros in the French division. == See also == Binance Kraken Coinbase BTCC (company) == References ==

Digital Asset Holdings

Digital Asset (or Digital Asset Holdings, LLC) is a financial technology company founded in 2014 by Sunil Hirani, Don R. Wilson, Yuval Rooz, Shaul Kfir and Eric Saraniecki. It builds products based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) for banks and other financial institutions. == History == Blythe Masters was CEO from 2015 to 2018, and was succeeded by Yuval Rooz.On June 25, 2015 the Moneybeat column from The Wall Street Journal wrote that the "acquisition of HyperLedger might raise eyebrows in the bitcoin community, where there is aversion to the idea that Wall Street might co-opt blockchain technology and strip it of its decentralized nature."In November 2021, Goldman Sachs announced that it will use Digital Asset's Daml technology for its tokenized asset platform.In May 2022, SBI Holdings made a strategic investment in Digital Asset to build a programmable Japanese yen. == Daml == Daml is an open-source smart contract language inspired by Haskell. It aids in modeling agreements and runs on blockchain platforms. == References == == External links == Official website Official Daml product website Official Daml Forum

Genesis (cryptocurrency company)

Genesis is a cryptocurrency brokerage for institutional investors. It is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG).Genesis operates several businesses, including Genesis Global Trading, Inc. (“GGT”), Genesis Global Capital, LLC (“GGC”), Genesis Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (“GAP”), GGC International Limited (“GGCI”), and Genesis Custody Limited (“Genesis Custody”). Genesis Trading provides over-the-counter (OTC) trading services for large-volume digital assets transactions. Genesis' lending business offers institutional lending services to clients who want to borrow or lend digital assets.Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 19, 2023, to request court protection to reorganize its digital assets lending and borrowing business. == History == Genesis Global Trading, Inc. was founded in 2013. It is a subsidiary of the Digital Currency Group, a venture capital company founded by Barry Silbert.Genesis' business consists of entities that provide trading, lending, and custody digital assets, targeting institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals. They claim to have been the first OTC Bitcoin trading desk, launched in 2013.Genesis acquired the London-based crypto asset custodian company Volt in early 2020. Grayscale Investments' crypto assets were held by Xapo, which Coinbase bought in 2019. After the Volt acquisition, Genesis moved its crypto custody from Coinbase to Grayscale.In early July 2022, Genesis' parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) took on some of Genesis' debts to keep the company afloat after it was left exposed to losses from loans made to Singapore-based crypto lender Babel Finance and the bankrupt crypto hedge fund, Three Arrows Capital (3AC).Former CEO Michael Moro stepped down from his post on August 17, 2022. Genesis COO Derar Islim assumed the role of Interim CEO.In November 2022, the company said that it had $2.8 billion in outstanding loans. The company hired investment bank Moelis & Company to assist in restructuring. The options the company was considering at the time included declaring bankruptcy. In the same month, Barron's reported that Genesis was under investigation by state securities regulators.On January 12, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Genesis Global Capital, LLC with the unregistered offer and sale of securities to retail investors through Gemini Trust Company’s Gemini Earn crypto asset lending program. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against both Gemini and Genesis.On January 19, 2023, Genesis Global Holdco, LLC and two of its lending business subsidiaries, Genesis Global Capital, LLC and Genesis Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., filed voluntarily petitions under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of New York. Genesis listed over 100,000 creditors with aggregate liabilities in the range of US$1.2–11 billion dollars. The company stated that its derivatives and spot trading business were not a part of the bankruptcy filing and continue operating.On February 6, 2023, Genesis Global Holdco announced an agreement in principle with DCG and creditors of Genesis Global Capital. The agreement was filed with the court on February 10, 2023 describes that DCG will give its equity interest in Genesis Global Trading, Inc. (GGT) to Genesis Global Holdco, LLC.. DCG will also refinance its loans from Genesis and exchange its existing $1.1 billion promissory note for convertible preferred stock issued by DCG.After Genesis paused the withdrawals for Gemini customers claiming there was a liquidity mismatch, some of the customers formed what is now known as the Ad Hoc Group (AHG), who support the filing and confirmation of a "No Deal" Plan, seeking to deny approval of the Disclosure Statement and Motion. The AHG said that the Plan does not provide adequate information, that it does not identify the Released Parties and permits the Special Committee to designate any current and former officers and directors of the Debtors as Released Parties at any time and for any reason. Also the Plan does not provide information regarding any impact on Recoveries that legislation against Gemini including NYAG Action could cause. == References ==

FTX

FTX Trading Ltd., commonly known as FTX (short for "Futures Exchange"), is a bankrupt company that formerly operated a fraud-ridden cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund. The exchange was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. At its peak in July 2021, the company had over one million users and was the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. FTX is incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda and headquartered in the Bahamas. FTX is closely associated with FTX.US, a separate exchange available to US residents.Since November 11, 2022, FTX has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US court system. Public concern began with rumors of unethical and fraudulent inter-company transfers of client funds. In November 2022 CoinDesk also raised concerns stating that FTX's partner firm Alameda Research held a significant portion of its assets in FTX's native token (FTT). Following this revelation, rival exchange Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that Binance would sell its holdings of the token, which was quickly followed by a spike in customer withdrawals from FTX. FTX was unable to meet the demand for customer withdrawals. Binance signed a letter of intent to acquire the firm, with due diligence to follow, to ensure that customers could recover their assets from FTX in a timely manner, but Binance withdrew its offer the next day, citing reports of mishandled customer funds and U.S. agency investigations. On December 12, 2022, founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Bahamian authorities for financial offences, at the request of the US government.The current CEO of FTX is John J. Ray III, who specializes in recovering funds from failed corporations. Ray stated: "this situation is unprecedented." and "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here." == History == Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao "Gary" Wang founded FTX in May 2019. FTX began within Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, and other former employees of Jane Street in 2017, in Berkeley, California. FTX is an abbreviation of "Futures Exchange". Changpeng Zhao of Binance purchased a 20% stake in FTX for approximately $100 million, six months after Bankman-Fried and Wang started the firm.In August 2020, FTX acquired Blockfolio, a cryptocurrency portfolio tracking app, for $150 million. In July 2021, the venture raised $900 million at an $18 billion valuation from over 60 investors, including Softbank, Sequoia Capital, and other firms. Bankman-Fried bought out Zhao's stake for approximately $2 billion. In September of that year, FTX moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to The Bahamas.On January 14, 2022, FTX announced a $2 billion venture fund named FTX Ventures, raising $400 million in Series C funding at a $32 billion valuation that month. The FTX Ventures website went offline in November 2022. On February 11, 2022, FTX.US announced that the company would soon begin offering stock trading to its US customers.In February 2022, it was reported that FTX was creating a gaming division that would help developers add cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other blockchain-related assets into video games.In July 2022, FTX finalized a deal giving it the option to buy BlockFi for about $240 million. The deal included a $400 million credit facility for BlockFi.In August 2022, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued a cease-and-desist order to FTX for making "false and misleading representations" about deposits being covered by FDIC insurance following FTX president Brett Harrison's tweet implying otherwise. Following the regulatory action, Harrison deleted the tweet and Bankman-Fried clarified in another tweet that FTX deposits are not insured by the FDIC.On September 26, 2022, FTX.US won its bid at auction for the digital assets of bankrupt crypto brokerage Voyager Digital. The value of the deal was approximately $1.42 billion, including $1.31 billion in Voyager-held cryptocurrency and $111 million in additional consideration. The deal was subject to approval by bankruptcy courts and Voyager's creditors. Following the FTX bankruptcy, in December 2022, the US subsidiary of Binance won the bid to buy the assets of Voyager for approximately $1 billion.On September 27, 2022, FTX.US President Brett Harrison announced he would be stepping down from an active role at the exchange but would stay on in an advisory capacity. The company did not immediately announce a replacement for Harrison, who had been FTX.US president since May 2021.In October 2022, it was reported that FTX was under investigation in Texas for allegedly selling unregistered securities.In August 2023, it was reported that the company plans to restart offering cryptocurrency trading services after a restructuring of the bankrupt company is completed. == November 2022 crisis and bankruptcy == === Background: FTX and Alameda, Binance, and CoinDesk report === In September 2022, Bloomberg reported on the close relationship between Alameda Research and FTX. Bloomberg noted that Alameda had functioned as a market maker for FTX early in the exchange's history, and that the trading firm remained, in June and July 2022, the biggest known depositor of stable coins on FTX. Bloomberg further stated that the regulatory oversight which applies to companies operating in traditional equities markets would have prohibited the relationship between the two firms were it applicable. Alameda's trading on FTX meant the trading firm was potentially in a position to gain financially when others lost money on the exchange. Bankman-Fried, at points, defended FTX's use of Alameda as a liquidity provider.According to John J. Ray III, Alameda had a "secret exemption" from FTX's auto-liquidation protocol. Later, the existence of such an undisclosed beneficial relationship was described by Ray, the new CEO of FTX, as a "complete failure of corporate controls" and indicated gross mismanagement. Between early 2021 and March 2022, Alameda Research amassed crypto tokens ahead of FTX announcing the decision to list them for trading.According to anonymous sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, FTX had lent $10 billion of its customers' assets to Alameda Research in 2022. Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison disclosed to other Alameda employees that she, Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh knew about that decision. An anonymous source cited by the New York Times said the same. According to the sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, Ellison said the funds were used in part to pay back loans Alameda had taken to make investments. Ray said that FTX used software to conceal the misuse of customer funds.Several months after Bloomberg's initial report on the relationship between the two firms, on November 2, 2022, CoinDesk reported that a significant portion of Alameda Research's assets were held in FTT, the exchange token issued by FTX. It said that there were $5.1 billion worth of FTT tokens in circulation, and that Alameda's balance sheet held $3.66 billion of "unlocked FTT", $2.16 billion of "FTT collateral", and $292 million of "locked FTT". In the weeks immediately preceding the publication of the story by CoinDesk, Bankman-Fried was characterized by anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg as "desperately" attempting to raise money for FTX. Additionally, Bankman-Fried had been publicly "dueling" with Changpeng Zhao on Twitter in the months preceding the CoinDesk article, in part due to disagreements stemming from their differing views on the regulation of cryptocurrency. === Crisis begins: Binance FTT sale, sell-off, and withdrawn rescue bid === Several days after the publication of the CoinDesk article, on November 6, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Twitter that his firm intended to sell all its holdings of FTT. Binance had received FTT from FTX in 2021 during a transaction in which FTX bought back Binance's equity stake in FTX. Zhao cited "recent revelations that came to light" as the motivation for selling FTT. Bloomberg and TechCrunch reported that any sale by Binance would likely have an outsized impact on FTT's price, given the token's low trading volume. The announcement by Zhao of the pending sale and disputes between Zhao and Bankman-Fried on Twitter led to a decline in the price of FTT and other cryptocurrencies, resulting in a three-day depositor sell-off, like a bank run, of an estimated $6 billion that sent FTX into crisis. On November 8, Zhao announced that Binance had entered into a non-binding agreement to purchase FTX due to what he referred to as a "liquidity crisis" at FTX. The deal did not include the sale of FTX.US. Zhao announced on Twitter that the company would complete due diligence soon, adding that all cryptocurrency exchanges should avoid using FTT tokens as collateral. He also wrote that he expected FTT to be "highly volatile in the coming days as things develop". On the day of that announcement, FTT price dropped by 80 percent, erasing $2 billion in value.On November 9, Bloomberg called the acquisition of FTX by Binance "unlikely" due to the poor state of FTX's finances. Bloomberg also reported that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission were investigating the nature of FTX's connections to Bankman-Fried's other holdings and its handling of client funds. Later that day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Binance would not move forward with the deal to acquire FTX. Binance cited FTX's reported mishandling of customer funds and pending investigations of FTX as the reasons for not pursuing the deal. Bankman-Fried said in a Slack message that FTX had learned through the press about Binance's concern and decision.On November 9, FTX's website said that it was not processing withdrawals at that time. Bankman-Fried said that although the firm's assets were worth more than its clients' deposits, it would need funds from outside to meet demand for withdrawals due to a lack of liquidity. Bankman-Fried stated on November 9 that FTX.US, as a separate company, was "not currently impacted" by the crisis. === Bankruptcy and unauthorized transactions === On November 10, Axios cited anonymous sources who said that FTX approached Kraken for a potential rescue deal. Bankman-Fried made several statements on November 10, taking responsibility for FTX's failure and indicating that FTX was still seeking capital to remain solvent. Bankman-Fried also announced that Alameda Research would cease trading and end operations. FTX's in-house legal and compliance teams had, for the most part, resigned by November 10. Anonymous sources cited by the Wall Street Journal on November 10 said that Alameda Research owed FTX some $10 billion, as FTX had lent funds placed on the exchange for trading to Alameda so that Alameda could make investments with the money. On November 12, anonymous sources cited by the Wall Street Journal said Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison disclosed to other Alameda employees that she, Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh knew that client deposits were transferred from FTX to Alameda. An anonymous source cited by the New York Times on November 14 said the same. According to the sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, Ellison said the funds were used in part to pay back loans Alameda had taken to make investments.Though Bankman-Fried, on November 10, wrote on Twitter that FTX's US customers did not have reason to worry, employees began attempting to sell assets belonging to the firm on the same day. These assets include stock-clearing company Embed Financial Technologies and the naming rights to FTX Arena.On November 10, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas froze the assets of one of FTX's subsidiaries, FTX Digital Markets Ltd, "and related parties", and provisionally appointed an attorney as liquidator. Japan's Financial Services Agency ordered FTX Japan to suspend some operations. The company's Australian subsidiary was placed under administration.On November 10, the team running the FTX Future Fund, an ostensibly charitable group bankrolled by Bankman-Fried, announced that they had resigned earlier that day. Future Fund had committed $160 million in charitable grants and investments by September 1 of that year. Crypto lender BlockFi, which was affiliated with FTX, announced on November 10 that it was suspending operations as a result of FTX's collapse.On November 11, FTX, FTX.US, Alameda Research, and more than 100 affiliates filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. Anonymous sources cited by the New York Times said that the exchange owed as much as $8 billion. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO and was replaced by John J. Ray III, a corporate restructuring specialist who'd previously overseen the liquidation of Enron.Late on November 11, over $473 million in funds were siphoned from FTX through what Ryne Miller, FTX US's general counsel, characterized as "unauthorized transactions". Miller announced that FTX and FTX US intended to move remaining funds denominated in cryptocurrency to offline "cold storage" for security. The funds taken from FTX were mostly stablecoins such as Tether, and were quickly exchanged for Ether, a method used by cryptocurrency thieves to thwart attempts to retrieve stolen funds. A person speaking on behalf of FTX referred to the "unauthorized transactions" as a "hack" and encouraged users to delete FTX mobile apps as they were compromised. Kraken has since offered to assist in identifying the perpetrator.As of November 12, Bankman-Fried told Reuters that he was still in the Bahamas, though other high-ranking FTX employees had begun leaving for Hong Kong, the location of the company's former headquarters, or other locations. Authorities in the Bahamas, including the Royal Bahamas Police Force, questioned Bankman-Fried on November 12. Despite FTX's bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried continued to attempt to raise money for the firm during the weekend of November 12 and 13.On November 14, Kraken's chief security officer said on Twitter that the firm knew "the identity" of a user who paid transaction fees associated with moving the stolen money through their Kraken account. In an interview with Kelsey Piper published November 16 by Vox, Bankman-Fried blamed an "ex-employee" or malware on a device owned by an ex-employee for the theft.According to anonymous sources cited by Reuters, between $1 billion and $2 billion in customer funds could not be accounted for as of November 12. The Financial Times reported that FTX's balance sheet shortly before the bankruptcy showed $9 billion in liabilities, with $900 million in liquid assets, $5 billion in "less liquid" assets, and $3.2 billion in illiquid private equity investments.Bankman-Fried began publishing "cryptic" messages in sequence on Twitter on November 14. As of November 15, the messages all read "What HAPPENED".On November 15, FTX sought to raise $10 billion in liquidity from investors.On November 16, the Bahamas unit of FTX, FTX Digital Markets, officially filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in the United States.On November 17, John J. Ray III, the CEO brought in as a liquidator, stated in a sworn declaration submitted in bankruptcy court that, according to FTX's records, its subsidiary Alameda Research had on September 30 lent $1 billion to Bankman-Fried and more than $500 million to FTX co-founder Nishad Singh. Ray, having been involved in the bankruptcies of Enron, Residential Capital, Nortel and Overseas Shipholding, stated, "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented." Speaking to the House Committee on Financial Services, he testified that "literally, there's no record-keeping whatsoever" and that the company used for its accounting needs QuickBooks, a small-business accounting tool, despite handling "billions of dollars." === Widening impact and contagion fears === The exchange token of Crypto.com, Cronos, lost approximately $1 billion in value in November, a decline attributed in part due to the collapse of FTX and in part due to reporting that Crypto.com had accidentally sent $400 million of Ether to another exchange. On November 14, Crypto.com's CEO assured users that the exchange was functioning as normal. Commenters and customers remained fearful that Crypto.com could experience a collapse similar to FTX.BlockFi, a cryptocurrency lender, was reportedly taking steps to file for bankruptcy as of November 15. The firm had earlier begun preventing withdrawals. The company disclosed "significant exposure" to FTX on November 14. Another cryptocurrency lender, Genesis, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, halted withdrawals on November 16. This halt caused Gemini, an exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins, to cease allowing redemptions for clients using a service provided through a partnership with Genesis. Another Digital Currency Group subsidiary, Grayscale, saw the value of its flagship offering, the publicly traded Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, decline by 20% over the two weeks preceding November 17. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust was trading at a discounted price, 42% below the value of its Bitcoin, as of November 14.Concerns have also been raised about Silvergate Bank, as FTX was a depositor and could have also been a source of credit exposure. Silvergate has said that it has ample liquidity and no loan exposure to FTX. These concerns have been magnified due to Silvergate's key role as a gateway between its cryptocurrency clients and the wider financial world. === Responses and effects === ==== Effects on investors ==== Institutional investors that stand to lose money due to their stakes in FTX include Tiger Global Management, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, SoftBank Group, BlackRock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Temasek, and Sequoia Capital. Sequoia Capital wrote down its equity in FTX to $0 on November 9, losing some $214 million. Sequoia released a notice to investors, also published on Twitter, assuring them the firm's stake in FTX represented a small amount of its overall portfolio, and replaced a profile of Bankman-Fried published on the firm's website with a link to the same notice. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan released a similar statement. Temasek later wrote down its investment on November 16. Several public figures also invested in FTX or received compensation for promoting the company. These include football player Tom Brady, basketball players Shaquille O'Neal and Stephen Curry, model Gisele Bündchen, and businessman Kevin O'Leary.Gisele Bündchen was also appointed the ESG advisor for the cryptocurrency platform. After its bankruptcy, investors sued her for her involvement and accused her of participating in FTX's alleged scheme to take advantage of unsophisticated investors.Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, announced the firm was attempting to buy back a 30% stake in the business owned by FTX. ==== Effects on other cryptocurrency firms and cryptocurrency markets ==== Cryptocurrency investment firms with assets still held on FTX after its bankruptcy include Galois Capital and Galaxy Digital.Cryptocurrencies experienced swings and declines in value as news of FTX's collapse first emerged in early November: Tether dropped below its peg price of $1.00 to $0.97 and Bitcoin sank to its lowest price in two years. Share prices for publicly traded cryptocurrency companies declined. The price of Solana, which was affiliated with Bankman-Fried, declined as well. The crisis at FTX has inspired an increase in withdrawals from other exchanges. A decline in the value of Cronos, the token of exchange Crypto.com, triggered fears of the potential for a collapse similar to that of FTX and spurred withdrawals from the platform. CEO Kris Marszalek provided assurances that the firm was liquid and that it did not use Cronos in a manner similar to the way FTX used FTT. Bloomberg reported that the collapse of FTX exacerbated institutional skepticism of cryptocurrencies as an asset class.In December, it emerged that FTX had secretly invested in The Block, a cryptocurrency news firm, and to fund an LLC its CEO Michael McCaffrey used to buy an apartment. Its staff said they had no knowledge of the investments. McCaffrey then resigned. ==== Responses and commentary ==== Investment manager and short selling specialist Jim Chanos predicted in November 2022 the collapse of FTX would lead to "increased scrutiny and regulation" over cryptocurrencies. Chanos criticized the cryptocurrency sector as "designed to extract fees from really unsuspecting investors".Richard Handler, CEO of American financial firm Jefferies Group, tweeted on November 10 that he had attempted to meet with Bankman-Fried in July and again in September, as he perceived the FTX CEO was "in over his head". Handler stated that Bankman-Fried did not respond to the emails sent from Jefferies staff on Handler's behalf.The sudden collapse of FTX has been compared to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in publications such as The New York Times and the Financial Times. Lawrence Summers acknowledged the comparisons to Lehman and further compared the collapse to the Enron scandal, caused by fraud perpetrated by Enron executives. Rostin Behnam, the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, called for Congress to grant the organization more power to regulate cryptocurrencies. The financial impact of the collapse having reached beyond the immediate FTX customer base, financial industry executives said at a Reuters conference that "regulators must step in to protect crypto investors." Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that "everything...needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience, controls, safety, [and] customer service." Risk management firm Titan Grey published a primer on the commencement and early motions practice of the FTX chapter 11 case, analyzing issues such as creditor privacy, relief from the automatic stay, proposed differential treatment of customers from other creditors, and others. == Legal process == Following the collapse of FTX, the Royal Bahamas Police Force launched a criminal investigation into the company.Anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg said that the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York had begun an investigation into FTX's collapse as of November 14, 2022.The United States House Committee on Financial Services announced it plans to conduct hearings in December on the collapse of FTX, and committee leaders said they would seek testimony from Bankman-Fried. According to anonymous sources cited by The Information, some venture capital firms are considering suing Bankman-Fried.On December 13, 2022, FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was charged by the US attorney's office for the southern district of New York with fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the US and violate campaign finance laws. After being extradited from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bond and ordered to remain under house arrest at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California. He was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on January 3, 2023, and entered a plea of not guilty to all counts. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan set the trial date for United States v. Bankman-Fried for October 2, 2023, saying he might move it "forward or backward a day or two." Meanwhile, Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, who had served as Alameda's CEO, pleaded guilty to multiple charges and began cooperating with federal prosecutors.FTX's former engineering director, Nishad Singh, has pleaded guilty to six different charges, including three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud. Singh is a childhood friend of Bankman-Fried's brother and worked at Alameda Research before being brought into FTX. Singh is now said to be cooperating with prosecutors' investigations against Bankman-Freid. Former FTX executive Ryan Salame has pleaded guilty to both a campaign finance law violation and a charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, but is reportedly not cooperating with prosecutors as of September 2023. == Sponsorships == FTX sponsored a number of sports teams and organizations. Deals included the naming rights to the Miami Heat's basketball stadium, renaming it FTX Arena, a partnership with Major League Baseball to place the FTX logo on the uniforms of umpires, and a deal with Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team to add the FTX logo to their cars and merchandise. The professional esports organization TSM also had a naming rights deal with FTX, thus the organization became TSM FTX.Other sponsorships included the title sponsorships of the first season of MLB Home Run Derby X, and the title sponsorship of the tournaments FTX Road to Miami and FTX Crypto Cup as part of the Champions Chess Tour 2022.Following the bankruptcy of FTX in November 2022, Mercedes-AMG F1, TSM and the Miami Heat cut ties with the company, with the latter also announcing that they would be seeking a new naming rights partner for the FTX Arena. FTX held talks with American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift starting in the fall of 2021 regarding a $100 million sponsorship deal but negotiations were broken off the following spring without a deal being reached. == References == == External links == Official website Official website of FTX.US FTXFoundation.com website Archived September 9, 2022, at the Wayback Machine

OKEx

Paxos Trust Company

Paxos Trust Company is a New York–based financial institution and technology company specializing in blockchain. The company's product offerings include a cryptocurrency brokerage service, asset tokenization services, and settlement services. ItBit, a bitcoin exchange run by Paxos, was the first bitcoin exchange to be licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services, granting the company the ability to be the custodian and exchange for customers in the United States.Paxos was founded in 2012 and is based in New York City, with offices in London and Singapore. As of April 2021, the company has received $540 million in funding. == History == Charles Cascarilla and Rich Teo founded Paxos in 2012 as the itBit Bitcoin exchange. In 2015, the company changed its legal name from itBit to Paxos Trust Company. At the same time, the New York State Department of Financial Services granted Paxos a limited-purpose trust charter, making it the first company in the U.S. approved and regulated to offer crypto products and services.The company received $65 million in a funding round in May 2018. In September 2018, Paxos launched the Paxos Standard stablecoin as one of the industry’s first regulated stablecoins. Paxos introduced PAX Gold, the first regulated gold-backed digital token, in September 2019.In October 2019, Paxos received a no-action letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to test a new settlement service for U.S.-listed equities on a private blockchain. The service went live in February 2020. In July 2020, Paxos launched its crypto brokerage with Revolut as the first client.In October 2020, PayPal announced that it would offer cryptocurrency buy, hold and sell services to its users through a partnership with Paxos.In September 2022, Canada-based multi-asset retail financial trading services provider OANDA Global Corporation (OANDA) collaborated with Paxos to develop a crypto trading ecosystem. On 20 October 2022, OANDA launched crypto trading function to its forex trading platform in partnership with Paxos. The partnership will allow the U.S.-based clients of OANDA to trade cryptocurrencies on Paxos’ itBit exchange from the OANDA mobile app. == Products == === Crypto brokerage === Paxos provides a crypto brokerage so clients can give their customers access to the cryptocurrency market. The company manages the regulatory and technology components of cryptocurrency trading on behalf of its clients. === Pax Dollar === Paxos Standard (PAX) that was renamed Pax Dollar (USDP), launched in September 2018, is one of the industry's first regulated stablecoins, tied to the U.S. dollar such that 1 PAX = 1 USD. === PAX Gold === PAX Gold (PAXG) is a digital asset backed by physical gold. Paxos Trust Company is the custodian for PAX Gold tokens and their associated physical gold bars. === itBit === ItBit is a digital asset exchange approved by the New York State Department of Finance to trade five digital assets: bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin (LTC), and PAX Gold (PAXG). === Post-trade services === Paxos provides post-trade automation services for precious metals and other trades. Services include automation of trade confirmations and settlement among multiple parties. === Securities settlement service === In October 2019, the SEC gave Paxos permission to establish a settlement service for stock trading. Credit Suisse and Société Générale were the first banks to sign on to use the service. Paxos announced it had settled a securities trade on a blockchain for the first time in February 2020. == References ==

ShapeShift

ShapeShift is a cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Switzerland. As of 2018, the company was run out of Denver, Colorado. == History == The company was founded July 1, 2014 in Switzerland by Erik Voorhees. He cites the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange as an impetus for creation of Shapeshift, as it demonstrated the need to create a method of exchange where customer funds were not held in custody by a third-party. In March 2015, the company received a US$525,000 seed-stage investment by Roger Ver and Barry Silbert. Additional funding totaling US$1.6 million were raised by September 2015, from investors in a second funding round including Digital Currency Group, Bitfinex, Bitcoin Capital and Mardal Investments.ShapeShift released initially on the iOS platform in June 2015, allowing users to swap 25 digital currencies and value tokens. As of September 2015, there were over 40 different digital currencies available for trade, providing 940 trading pairs, greater than any single exchange on the market. On 11 June 2015, ShapeShift "cut off service to New York in response to the state’s new regulatory policy for digital currency businesses, ... BitLicense," which was released in June with the final regulations approved in August. The company stated that if they had complied with the New York BitLicense regulations, then significant personal and private data would also have been in the hands of the hacker. Between March and April 2016, Shapeshift experienced a total of 3 attacks which resulted in 469 BTC, 1900 LTC and 5800 ETH stolen from their hot wallets. As a result, the Shapeshift team put Shapeshift.io offline through April 20 to rebuild Shapeshift's infrastructure with enhanced security protocols. In March 2017, ShapeShift raised $10.4 million in series A funding from both US and international venture capital firms. Berlin-based Earlybird Venture Capital was the lead investor, with additional funding from Lakestar, Access Venture Partners, Pantera Capital and Blockchain Capital.In August 2017 ShapeShift announced it would stop functioning in the state of Washington because of BitLicense-style regulations imposed by the passage of Senate Bill 5031. A 2018 investigation by the Wall Street Journal found that ShapeShift had processed $9 million in funds from criminal activities over a two-year period.The company first began requiring personal identification information from its customers on October 1, 2018. == References ==

Upbit

Upbit is a South Korean cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2017. It is operated by Dunamu, which is one of the highest-valued startups in South Korea. == History == Upbit launched in South Korea on October 24, 2017, with the help of their partnership with American cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex.Sirgoo Lee was named CEO of Dunamu, Upbit's parent company, on December 21, 2017, with Dunamu founder and CEO Chi-hyung Song assuming the role of chairman. Lee previously served as Co-CEO of Kakao Corp. and JOINS, Inc.Approximately two months after its launch, Upbit became the top global cryptocurrency exchange in terms of 24-hour trading volume.On May 10, 2018, its main office was raided as part of a fraud probe.The exchange began expanding into Southeast Asia in late 2018, first by launching in Singapore on October 30, and then beginning services in Indonesia starting January 2019, and Thailand starting January 2021.On December 21, 2018, three Upbit officials were indicted for allegedly making fake orders. The exchange has denied the allegations.In December 2018, Upbit became the first cryptocurrency exchange in the world to receive certifications from the Korea Internet and Security Agency for Information Security Management System (ISMS) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for information security (ISO 27001), cloud security (ISO 27017) and cloud privacy (ISO 27018).On November 27, 2019, Upbit lost about US$48.5 million worth of Ethereum from a hack.In September 2021, South Korea started to regulate virtual asset service providers. == References == == External links == Official website

Xapo

Xapo Bank is a private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, which operates globally and is licensed as a virtual asset currency provider by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. The company originally established to offer a bitcoin wallet service that combined cold storage vaults with a bitcoin-based debit card. As of 2023, the company offers stock market trading to its clients in Europe. == History == Xapo Bank's founding CEO and entrepreneur Wences Casares became interested in bitcoins because of the frequent financial fluctuations in his native Argentina. He has said that his family's finances were “devastated as the economy (in Argentina) rocketed from inflation to deflation to devaluation.” Casares believes that digital currencies such as bitcoin “could solve the disjointed nature of our world economy.”In 2011, Casares bought his first bitcoins but couldn't find a way to store them, so he built a ‘vault’ for his own use. Friends, and later financial institutions, soon asked Casares if they could store their bitcoins in his vault. This became the foundation for Xapo, which was founded in late 2013 by Casares and COO Federico Murrone. Xapo opened its products to the public in March 2014.Casares said Xapo Bank was founded with the aim of making the bitcoin currency more secure and accessible. The Xapo Wallet operates through a mobile app and online and includes the ability to transfer funds to and from the Xapo Vault. In April 2014, Xapo introduced a debit card that will link to the user's Xapo Wallet and will function like a standard debit card, except that it is backed by bitcoins instead of traditional currency.Prior to Xapo Bank, Casares founded and later sold online brokerage firm Patagon to Banco Santander for $750 million. He also launched the first Internet provider in his home country of Argentina in 1994.In May 2015 Xapo Bank moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Zug, located in the Zurich metropolitan area of Switzerland. That year LifeLock, which acquired Lemon, a company led by eventual Xapo founder Casares, alleged in a suit that Casares developed the source code for Xapo using Lemon's resources. In July 2017, Xapo was granted a European e-money license in Gibraltar allowing it to provide electronic fiat money custodial and transfer services. In July 2018 Xapo Bank was awarded a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services and with it formal approval to operate in the state of New York as a regulated Bitcoin business. The company relinquished its license in January 2022.In 2019, Coinbase acquired Xapo Bank's institutional custody business. === Security === The Xapo Bank Vault consists of physical servers located around the globe that the company says is protected by biometric scanner access, 24-7 video surveillance, and armed guards. Casares claims that Xapo “is the first bitcoin vault fully protected and insured against hacking and bankruptcy.” == Investors == Xapo announced $20 million Series A funding in March 2014. The funding round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Fortress Investment Group, Pantera Capital, and Ribbit Capital. Benchmark partner Matt Cohler said the VC firm backed Xapo in part because Xapo “is led by one of the most important people in the bitcoin ecosystem, it’s insured and has investors from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.” The company has raised a total of $40 million as of August 2014. == See also == Bitcoin == References ==

2021 Squid Game cryptocurrency scam

The 2021 Squid Game cryptocurrency scam was a significant fraudulent event that took place in the world of cryptocurrency. Inspired by the popular South Korean Netflix series "Squid Game," this cryptocurrency, known as Squid Coin, promised investors an opportunity to play and earn. However, it quickly unraveled, leaving investors defrauded of millions of dollars. == Background == In November 2021, Squid Coin gained sudden popularity, with its valuation soaring to an astonishing $2,861 per coin. Marketed as a "play-to-earn cryptocurrency," it garnered immense attention and witnessed a meteoric rise in its price, surging by thousands of percentage points.The creators of Squid Coin presented it as a revolutionary opportunity for investors to participate in an upcoming online game inspired by the Netflix series "Squid Game," in which participants compete in deadly children's games for money.The mechanics of the scam involved enticing investors with the promise of earning rewards by purchasing Squid Coin tokens. Investors were led to believe that these tokens could be used to participate in the forthcoming Squid Game online platform, where they could earn more tokens through gameplay. These earned tokens were purportedly exchangeable for other cryptocurrencies or national currencies, further fueling the excitement around Squid Coin.However, as the value of Squid Coin skyrocketed, concerns began to surface. Investors who had bought into the cryptocurrency soon discovered that they were unable to sell their tokens. This inability to resell raised significant doubts about the legitimacy of the project and started to sound alarm bells among cryptocurrency experts and enthusiasts.The situation escalated when Squid Coin's value suddenly plummeted to $0, leaving investors with worthless tokens. This abrupt crash, commonly referred to as a "rug pull" in the cryptocurrency world, is an event where the creators of a cryptocurrency rapidly sell their holdings, causing the coin's value to collapse. It became apparent that the developers of Squid Coin had quickly cashed out their holdings, draining liquidity from the exchange.As the scam unraveled, investors were left with substantial losses, while the developers of Squid Coin disappeared from the public eye, taking an estimated $3.38 million with them. The project's website, which had previously been active, disappeared along with its social media accounts, further erasing any trace of its existence. == Warnings and Disappearance == The absence of an option to sell the coin was a significant loophole that signaled trouble. Furthermore, the website contained numerous errors, and social media accounts associated with the project disappeared. == References ==

Atom Asset Exchange

Atom Asset Exchange (AAX) is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange that offered spot, perpetual contracts and savings products across a wide variety of digital assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and others. == History == AAX was formed in 2018, in Seychelles, operating primarily in Hong Kong. CEO Thor Chan has resigned since May, 2021.Two days after crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy, AAX suspended all withdrawals on 13 November 2022, and deleted its social media accounts. On December 16, its website and App ceased to function. Using the Telegram app, thousands of AAX investors formed multiple online messaging groups, joining their efforts to locate the senior executives of the company. On December 23, 2022, two men were detained by police in Hong Kong. == Products == AAX offered crypto futures contracts, spot pairs, P2P fiat trading, savings products, and API connectivity. AAX supports bitcoin trading along with support for over 20 fiat currencies. == References == == External links == Official website

Exit scam

An exit scam is a confidence trick where an established business stops shipping orders while receiving payment for new orders. If the entity had a good reputation, it could take some time before it is widely recognized that orders are not shipping, and the entity can then make off with the money paid for unshipped orders. Customers who trusted the business do not realize that orders are not being fulfilled until the business has already disappeared. Conversely, purchasers can also perpetrate exit scams if, while secretly planning to close their business and/or abscond, they procure goods and services for which they do not intend to pay. However, these sorts of incidents are less common. Moreover, it is not uncommon for a procurer to go out of business due to insolvency they did not wish to occur. Such insolvencies are not typically considered to be criminal acts, let alone exit scams unless there is clear evidence of bad faith – e.g., if it can be proven the business avoided paying vendors even though it was solvent before closing down and/or it became insolvent as a result of embezzlement or other such behavior. Individual vendors often reach a point of reputation maturity whereby they have sold sufficient product to have accumulated both significant reputation and escrowed funds, that many may choose to exit with those funds rather than compete at the higher-volume higher-priced matured product level. For individual vendors, exit scams are often a viable scheme when dealing with any physical product (for which buyers must reasonably expect to wait before receiving orders, thus often granting the perpetrator a considerable grace period before the scam can no longer be plausibly denied) compared to digital, virtual and other intangible goods which buyers will generally expect to be delivered within a very short time after remitting payment. Exit scams could be a tempting alternative to a non-fraudulent shutdown of illegal operations if the operation was inevitably going to shut down anyway for other reasons. If an illegal entity thrives by selling and/or facilitating the sale of illicit drugs, for example, it is at constant risk of being shut down by the authorities, whereas if the operators perform an exit scam, there are much better prospects for the perpetrators to both keep their profits and avoid eventual prosecution. In illegal darknet markets, exit scams are frequently perpetrated. While the most common such schemes are perpetrated by individual vendors who receive payment for the product they have no intention of shipping, such scams have also been perpetrated both by individual procurers who obtain the product which they have no intention of paying for and by operators and/or administrators of these markets who, by shutting down an entire market, can abscond with whatever currency the market was holding on behalf of buyers and/or sellers in escrow at the time of the shutdown. Regardless of who is perpetrating the scam, if the cheated parties are themselves knowingly participating in illegal activities, it is not usually a viable option to notify law enforcement.The best-known examples are online sellers where the buyer does not know the real identity or physical location of the scammer and therefore has little recourse. Payments to darknet markets are usually made in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or monero, where payments are irreversible and cannot be recovered through a chargeback. This is sometimes known in cryptocurrency as a rug pull. == Examples == In 2016, the darknet market (online black market) Evolution was previously cited as the biggest exit scam yet, where the administrators apparently made off with $12 million in bitcoin, which was held in escrow on the marketplace.Most exit scams and Ponzi schemes involving cryptocurrencies take place in the context of initial coin offerings. For example, a report by Satis Group estimates that 80% of all ICOs that took place in 2017 were scams of this type.This would ultimately be surpassed by the Wall Street Market exit scam of 2019, which had $14.2 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen just before the site was seized by the authorities. Prosecution is difficult due to the anonymity offered by the darknet. The damage caused by exit scams is estimated to exceed $4.3 billion in 2019. == References ==

Mirror Trading International

Mirror Trading International (MTI) declared a pyramid scheme by the South African High Court was a cryptocurrency trading platform promising automated trading services with significant returns.MTI was masterminded by Johann Steynberg, who claimed to use an artificial intelligence bot for its trading activities. MTI faced intense scrutiny and legal challenges, particularly from South African authorities, who alleged that it was operating as a fraudulent scheme. MTI's unraveling led to its eventual collapse, the arrest of key figures, and significant financial losses for many investors.The scheme involved 100,000 people from 140 countries. == See also == List of Ponzi schemes == References ==

Save the Kids token

Save the Kids token was a cryptocurrency token and pump and dump scheme launched in 2021, which was marketed as a charity token meant to give a percentage of the transaction fee to a Binance-operated charity. The token was widely publicized by YouTube personalities, including RiceGum and members of the FaZe Clan who were later removed, in the time leading up to its launch. == Background == Save the Kids token was developed by an individual named Lucas, who disclosed that the project was first formed by two individuals named "Manny" and "H.", who for legal reasons could not disclose the full name of the founders. Lucas claimed when he was originally recruited to develop, he initially believed the charitable intentions of the founders, though later learned that the founders were going around bringing on board several social media influencers to market the coin. Lucas additionally added that he was initially concerned Manny and H. were part of a larger group who were working to fund further pump and dump schemes.The pump and dump aspect was caused from the token's anti-whaling mechanism, which is intended to prevent larger stakeholders from selling a large part of their funds. The site initially described that any single holder who owned over 0.5% of all tokens would be designated as a "whale", who could only sell 20% of your total supply every 24 hours in 0.1% transaction limits until they no longer held 0.5% of all supply. However, it was later discovered that the code had been tweaked at the last minute, enabling "whales" to sell all of their holdings with only a minute time limit. === Promotion === Save the Kids was widely promoted by commentator RiceGum, Xcademy founder Joel Morris, and model Sommer Ray, as well as FaZe Clan members Kay (Frazier Khattri), Jarvis (Jarvis Khattri), Nikan (Nikan Nadim), and Teeqo. Many of the influencers appeared in videos promoting the token and made numerous tweets encouraging their fanbase, mostly consisting of teenagers, to purchase the token. == Launch == Save the Kids Token was launched on June 5, 2021, and traded on the PancakeSwap exchange under the symbol $KIDS, starting around US$0.02. Immediately, though, the price of tokens collapsed to less than half a cent and further declined to price the token around $0.00138 at the start of July 2021. According to YouTuber Coffeezilla, the crash of Save the Kids was caused by Jarvis selling two-thirds of his coins, Nikan selling one-third of his holdings, and Kay selling nearly his entire collection of tokens, predicted to be valued around US$80,000 by Coffeezilla. == Aftermath == After the scandal arose, Save the Kids Token's website was taken offline, and various influencers have removed their tweets on the incident. Binance themselves addressed the controversy saying that they do not accept donations from altcoin campaigns, disproving Save the Kids Token's claim that they had donated over US$80,000 to the charity. The project is believed to have been abandoned, and the website has since been taken offline. === Coffeezilla investigation === YouTuber Stephen Findeisen, known online as Coffeezilla, conducted an investigation into the entirety of the Save the Kids token scandal. Ultimately, Findeisen found that Manny was only a middleman behind the scandal and that most influencers who promoted the currency were connected with it through their managers. The primary architects of the scheme were Frazier Kay, who had used several cryptocurrency wallets to potentially hide his tracks, Jordan Galen, a manager and promotion finder for Kay and various other members of the FaZe Clan, and YouTube personality Sam Pepper. Findeisen eventually uncovered that Lucas had changed the anti-whale mechanism on orders from Pepper, and that Kay was one of the main architects of the Save the Kids token. It was also suggested in Findeisen's videos that Kay and Pepper broke ties during the launch of Save the Kids, a possible motive for Pepper to order that Lucas change the anti-whale mechanism, a claim Kay continues to make. However, Kay additionally stated to Findeisen that he knew nothing about cryptocurrency, which Findeisen debunked by stating Frazier had multiple cryptocurrency wallets with one having hundreds of different cryptocurrencies. === FaZe Clan === FaZe Clan management tweeted that they were completely unaware of the actions of its members and did not support them, posting that Kay had been expelled from the group entirely while Jarvis, Nikan, and Teeqo would be suspended until further notice; the latter of whom would later be reinstated after it was discovered that he had not sold any of his holdings. Kay responded by saying that though he had admitted he should have vetted his promotion through FaZe clan initially, he had absolutely no involvement in the scandal and promoted the coin with a belief that it would help the world for the better, though Findeisen, after conducting his investigation, discovered Kay had a history of promoting altcoins. After his expulsion from FaZe Clan, Kay claimed he had been scared himself and was planning to pursue legal action against Findeisen. Kay additionally promised that he would pay back as many people as possible who lost their money to the token, claiming that he had lost $37,000 himself (which was adjusted in March 2022 to total around US$500,000), and further vowing to embargo Pepper on a personal and professional level. == Legacy == The scandal has been commonly cited as a textbook example of the cryptocurrency influencer scam and serves as a warning for other influencers to refrain from participating in or endorsing digital assets. Frazier Khattri has encouraged influencers after Save the Kids to refrain from endorsing cryptocurrency, saying that the crypto market has "not fully developed". Save The Kids was additionally credited as one of the focus examples for the growing trend of cryptocurrency scams, to which more than $80 million has been lost so far mostly from younger audiences buying into the currencies simply from the hype. == References == == External links == Official website, archived from the original

Financial cryptography

Financial cryptography is the use of cryptography in applications in which financial loss could result from subversion of the message system. Financial cryptography is distinguished from traditional cryptography in that for most of recorded history, cryptography has been used almost entirely for military and diplomatic purposes. Financial cryptography includes the mechanisms and algorithms necessary for the protection of financial transfers, in addition to the creation of new forms of money. Proof of work and various auction protocols fall under the umbrella of Financial cryptography. Hashcash is being used to limit spam. Financial cryptography has been seen to have a very broad scope of application. Ian Grigg sees financial cryptography in seven layers, being the combination of seven distinct disciplines: cryptography, software engineering, rights, accounting, governance, value, and financial applications. Business failures can often be traced to the absence of one or more of these disciplines, or to poor application of them. This views Financial cryptography as an appropriately cross-discipline subject. Indeed, inevitably so, given that finance and cryptography are each built upon multiple disciplines. == History == Cryptographers think the field originated from the work of Dr David Chaum who invented the blind signature. The blind signature is a special form of a cryptographic signature which allowed virtual coins to be signed without the signer seeing the actual coin. It permitted a form of digital token money that prevented traceability. This form is sometimes known as digital currency. Similar concepts are now being applied to modern blockchain technologies.A system that was widely used during the 1970s-1990s and previously developed cryptographic mechanism is the Data Encryption Standard, which was used primarily for the protection of electronic funds transfers. However, it was the work of David Chaum that excited the cryptography community about the potential of encrypted messages as actual financial instruments. As part of a business model, Financial cryptography followed the guide of cryptography and only the simplest ideas were adopted. Account money systems protected by SSL such as PayPal and e-gold were relatively successful. In 2001, PayPal processed $3.1 billion in payments, averaging 189,000 transactions daily totaling $9.6 million.But more innovative mechanisms, including blinded token money, struggled to gain traction. David Chaum's DigiCash, opened in 1989, filed for bankruptcy protection in November 1998. Two competitive rivals also failed to remain viable. First Virtual Holdings abandoned its business in August 1998. CyberCash ceased its "CyberCoin" in early 1999. == Associations == Financial cryptography is to some extent organized around the annual meeting of the International Financial Cryptography Association, which is held each year in a different location. == See also == Automated teller machines (ATM) Bitcoin Blockchain Cryptoeconomics Digital currency Monero (cryptocurrency) Point-of-sale (POS) Hardware security modules (HSM) Payment system Smart contracts Economics of security Bilateral key exchange == References == == External links == International Financial Cryptography Association

Social token

A social token is a type of cryptocurrency used to monetize a brand. They can be personal (or creator tokens) or community tokens. The value of a social token revolves around the brand issuing it, and are used by holders as a way to feel belonging to a certain group.Social token are usually used by creators, as a way to monetize their personal brand. They provide creators with a means to get paid by selling the tokens, with buyers receiving special perks such as meet and greets with the creators. The rewards associated with each token is determined by the creator. == References ==

Solana (blockchain platform)

Solana is a blockchain platform which uses a proof-of-stake mechanism to provide smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency is SOL. Solana was launched in 2020 by Solana Labs, which was founded by Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal in 2018. The blockchain has experienced several major outages, was subjected to a hack, and a class action lawsuit was filed against the platform. Solana's total market cap was US$55 billion in January 2022. However, by the end of 2022, this had fallen to around $3 billion following the bankruptcy of FTX. Following the general rise of the cryptocurrency market in 2023, its market cap rose to $7 billion. == Characteristics == According to the company's white paper, Solana runs on a proof of stake model. The New York Times and Financial Times described the coin as an alternative to Ethereum. == History == Solana was first opened to the public in March 2020, with its first block being created on 16 March 2020. The Solana blockchain was designed to support smart contracts and decentralized apps in particular. Large numbers of simultaneous transactions have contributed to several outages of the Solana blockchain.In June 2021, Solana Labs sold $314 million worth of its native cryptocurrency, SOL, to a group of funds led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital.On 1 July 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed against Solana. The lawsuit accused Solana of selling unregistered securities tokens in the form of Solana from 24 March 2020, onward and that Solana deliberately misled investors concerning the total circulating supply of SOL tokens. According to the lawsuit, Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder of Solana Labs, lent a market maker more than 11.3 million tokens in April 2020 and failed to disclose this information to the public. The lawsuit claimed that Solana stated it would reduce the supply by this amount, but it only burned 3.3 million tokens.On 3 August, 2022, 9,231 Solana wallets were hacked and four Solana wallet addresses stole approximately $8 million from victims. The Solana Foundation stated that the hack was caused by digital wallet software from Slope Finance.In April 2023, Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, began selling the Solana Saga, an Android smartphone with several Solana-based decentralized apps preinstalled.In June 2023, the SEC sued Coinbase, alleging that Solana and twelve other currencies offered by the platform failed the Howey Test and qualified as securities. The suit accuses Coinbase of illegally evading requirements for disclosure by offering these tokens. The SEC had previously issued a Wells notice to Coinbase in March.In September 2023, Visa announced that along with payment processors Worldpay, Inc. and Nuvei, it had added support for the Solana blockchain to send payments to merchants using the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), rather than fiat currency via bank wire. === Market value === The value of Solana tokens has fluctuated greatly since the system's inception. The market capitalization of the Solana blockchain surpassed $63 billion in September 2021, and reached $74 billion in early November 2021, having risen by nearly 12,000% that year to a price of $259.96. The blockchain's popularity at this time was due in part to interest in NFTs.In November 2022, the price of Solana dropped by 40 percent in one day following the bankruptcy of FTX, due to sell off from Alameda Research. Solana was Alameda's second-largest holding at the time and FTX held $982 million in Solana tokens. By the end of 2022, Solana had lost more than $50 billion in value since the beginning of the year. Since the start of 2023 until 15 March, coinciding with a rise in the cryptocurrency market, Solana's value had risen by 100 percent to a market capitalization of around $7 billion. On 11 June 2023, Solana dropped nearly 30% in one day after the SEC announced that it would make the case in court that Solana is a financial security, causing big exchanges to liquidate their holdings, including Robinhood which delisted SOL and other tokens named by the SEC in its lawsuit. == Outages == The Solana blockchain had experienced several notable outages in service. On 14 September, 2021, the Solana blockchain went offline after a surge of transactions caused the network to fork, and different validators had different views of the state of the network. The network was brought back online the next day on 15 September, 2021. The outage lasted a total of about 17 hours.The Solana blockchain again went offline on 1 May, with the outage lasting roughly seven hours due to it being taken offline by bots. The blockchain went offline again on 31 May, 2022, due to a bug in how the blockchain processes offline transactions. This outage lasted about four and a half hours.On 1 October, 2022, the Solana network went down for 6 hours due to a consensus bug in the validator client allowing a misconfigured node to publish multiple valid but different blocks.Solana's outages have frequently resulted in the value of the network's native SOL token falling. == See also == List of cryptocurrencies Decentralized finance == References ==

SpankChain

SpankChain is an adult entertainment website and cryptocurrency exchange mostly used for exchanges in the sex work industry. Users pay for services using SpankChain Ethereum-based coin "SPANK". The SpankChain's tokens are sometimes referred to as "SpankCoin". == History == In April 2018, SpankChain offered a $25,000 reward to sex workers who revealed information about political clients who supported the passing of the FOSTA/SESTA acts, which regulated sex work in the United States. The company reportedly had 6,000 users as of October 2018.In 2018, a malicious attacker stole 165 Ether (valued at $40,000) from SpankChain by exploiting a vulnerability in the Ethereum blockchain. After the cryptocurrency bubble of 2018 burst, the company downsized to eight employees. == References == == External links == https://spankchain.com

Stablecoin

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency where the value of the digital asset is supposed to be pegged to a reference asset, which is either fiat money, exchange-traded commodities (such as precious metals or industrial metals), or another cryptocurrency.In theory, 1:1 backing by a reference asset could make a stablecoin value track the value of the peg and not be subject to the radical changes in value common in the market for many digital assets. In practice, however, stablecoin issuers have yet to be proven to maintain adequate reserves to support a stable value and there have been a number of failures with investors losing the entirety of the (fiat currency) value of their holdings. == Background == Stablecoins have several purported purposes. They can be used for payments and are more likely to retain value than highly volatile cryptocurrencies. In practice, many stablecoins have failed to retain their "stable" value.Stablecoins are typically non-interest bearing and therefore do not provide interest returns to the holder. == Reserve-backed stablecoins == Reserve-backed stablecoins are digital assets that are stabilized by other assets. Furthermore, such coins, assuming they are managed in good faith and have a mechanism for redeeming the asset(s) backing them, are unlikely to drop below the value of the underlying physical asset, due to arbitrage. However, in practice, few, if any, stablecoins meet these assumptions. Backed stablecoins are subject to the same volatility and risk associated with the backing asset. If the backed stablecoin is backed in a decentralized manner, they are relatively safe from predation, but if there is a central vault, it may be robbed or suffer loss of confidence. === Fiat-backed === The value of stablecoins of this type is based on the value of the backing currency, which is held by a third party–regulated financial entity. Fiat-backed stablecoins can be traded on exchanges and are redeemable from the issuer. The stability of the stablecoin is equivalent to the cost of maintaining the backing reserve and the cost of legal compliance, licenses, auditors, and the business infrastructure required by the regulator. In this setting, the trust in the custodian of the backing asset is crucial for the stability of the stablecoin's price. If the issuer of the stablecoin does not actually possess the fiat necessary to make exchanges, the stablecoin can quickly lose value and become worthless. The most popular stablecoin, Tether, initially claimed to be fully backed by fiat currency; this was proven to be untrue, and Tether was fined $41 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for deceiving consumers. Instead, Tether only had enough fiat reserve to guarantee 27.6% of their stablecoin. Nevertheless, Tether still remains widely used. Cryptocurrencies backed by fiat currency are the most common and were the first type of stablecoins on the market. Their characteristics are: Their value is pegged to one or more currencies (most commonly the US dollar, the euro, and the Swiss franc) in a fixed ratio; The value connection is realized off-chain through banks or other types of regulated financial institutions which serve as depositaries of the currency used to back the stablecoin; The amount of the currency used to back the stablecoin should reflect the circulating supply of the stablecoin.Examples: TrueUSD (TUSD), USD Tether (USDT), USD Coin, Monerium EURe.In January 2023, National Australia Bank (not Australia's central bank) announced that it would create by mid-2023 an Australian Dollar fiat-backed stablecoin called the AUDN, for streamlining cross-border banking transactions and trading carbon credits. === Commodity-backed === The main characteristics of commodity-backed stablecoins are: Their value is fixed to one or more commodities and redeemable for such (more or less) on demand; There is an implied or explicit promise to redeem by unregulated individuals, agorist firms, or even regulated financial institutions; The amount of commodity used to back the stablecoin should reflect the circulating supply of the stablecoin.Holders of commodity-backed stablecoins can redeem their stablecoins at the conversion rate to take possession of the backing assets under whatever rules as to timing and amount are in place at the time of redemption. Maintaining the stability of the stablecoin is the cost of storing and protecting the commodity backing. === Cryptocurrency-backed === Cryptocurrency-backed stablecoins are issued with cryptocurrencies as collateral, conceptually similar to fiat-backed stablecoins. However, the significant difference between the two designs is that while fiat collateralization typically happens off the blockchain, the cryptocurrency or crypto asset used to back this type of stablecoins is done on the blockchain, using smart contracts in a more decentralized fashion. In many cases, these allow users to take out a loan against a smart contract via locking up collateral, making it more worthwhile to pay off their debt should the stablecoin ever decrease in value. In addition, to prevent sudden crashes, a user who takes out a loan may be liquidated by the smart contract should their collateral decrease too close to the value of their withdrawal. Significant features of crypto backed stablecoins are: The value of the stablecoin is collateralized by another cryptocurrency or a cryptocurrency portfolio; The peg is executed on-chain via smart contracts; The supply of the stablecoins is regulated on-chain, using smart contracts; price stability is achieved by introducing supplementary instruments and incentives, not just the collateral.The technical implementation of this type of stablecoins is more complex and varied than that of the fiat-collateralized kind, which introduces a greater risk of exploits due to bugs in the smart contract code. With the tethering done on-chain, it is not subject to third-party regulation creating a decentralized solution. The potentially problematic aspect of this type of stablecoins is the change in the value of the collateral and the reliance on supplementary instruments. The complexity and non-direct backing of the stablecoin may deter usage, as it may take time to comprehend how the price is ensured. Due to the highly volatile and convergent cryptocurrency market, substantial collateral must also be maintained to ensure stability. Live stablecoins projects of this type are Havven (the pair: nUSD – stablecoin and HAV – the collateral-backed nUSD), DAI (pair: CDP – Collateralized Debt Position and MKR – governance token used to control the supply) and others. There is also Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), see BitGo. == Seigniorage-style/algorithmic stablecoins (not backed) == Seigniorage-style coins, also known as algorithmic stablecoins, utilize algorithms to control the stablecoin's money supply, similar to a central bank's approach to printing and destroying currency. Seigniorage-based stablecoins are a less popular form of stablecoin.Algorithmic stablecoins are a type of stablecoin intended to hold a stable value over the long term because of particular computer algorithms and game theory rather than a peg to a reserve asset. In practice, some algorithmic stablecoins have yet to maintain price stability. For example, the "UST" asset on the Terra blockchain was theoretically supported by a reserve asset called "Luna", and plummeted in value in May 2022. Wired magazine said, "The Ponzinomics were just too obvious: When you pay money for nothing, and stash your nothing in a protocol with the expectation that it will give you a 20 percent yield—all you end up with is 20 percent of nothing."Significant features of seigniorage-style stablecoins are: Adjustments are made on-chain, No collateral is needed to mint coins, Value is controlled by supply and demand through algorithms, stabilizing the price.Basis was one example of a seigniorage-style coin.TerraUSD (UST), created by Do Kwon, was meant to maintain a 1:1 peg with the United States dollar. Instead of being backed by dollars, UST was designed to keep its peg through a complex system connected with another Terra network token, Terra (LUNA). In May 2022 UST broke its peg with its price plunging to 10 cents, while LUNA fell to "virtually zero", down from an all-time high of $119.51. The collapse wiped out almost $45 billion of market capitalization over the course of a week.On 13 June 2022, Tron's algorithmic stablecoin, USDD, lost its peg to the US Dollar. == Possible advantages == The Bank of International Settlements lists the possible merits of the subject as enhancement of anti-money laundering efforts, operational resilience, customer data protection, financial inclusion, tax compliance, and cybersecurity. == Risks and criticisms == === Lack of regulation === Nellie Liang, Under Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance reported to the Senate banking committee that the rapid growth of the stablecoin market capitalization and its potential for financial services innovation require urgent congressional regulation. === Lack of transparency === Tether is currently the world's largest market capitalization stablecoin. It has been accused of failing to produce audits for reserves used to collateralize the quantity of minted USDT stablecoin. Tether has since issued assurance reports on USDT backing, although some speculation persists. === De-pegging === Many projects can advance a product and call it a stablecoin. Thus, despite the name, many stablecoins have historically needed more stability because digital assets can be built to many different standards. Stablecoins such as TerraUSD, USDD, DEI and others crashed to zero in 2022 alone. === Other concerns === Griffin and Shams' research attributed the creation of unbacked USDT to the rise in Bitcoin's price in 2017. Following that, research indicated little to no evidence that Tether USD minting events influenced Bitcoin values unless they were publicized to the public by Whale Alert. == Failed and abandoned stablecoin projects == A number of stablecoins have crashed or lost their peg. For example: The stablecoin project Basis, which had received over $100 million in venture capital funding, shut down in December 2018, citing concerns about US regulation. On 11 May 2022, Terra's stablecoin UST fell from $1 to 26 cents. The subsequent failure of Terraform Labs resulted in the loss of nearly $40B invested in the Terra and Luna coins. In September 2022, South Korean prosecutors requested the issuance of an Interpol Red Notice against the company's founder, Do Kwon.Diem (formerly Libra) was abandoned by Facebook/Meta and later purchased by Silvergate Capital. == References ==

Stacks blockchain

Stacks, formerly Blockstack, is a blockchain platform for smart contracts, decentralized finance ("DeFi"), NFTs, and decentralized apps ("DApps"). Stacks blockchain is a layer for bitcoin similar to the Lightning Network. == Design == Concerns around internet privacy, security, and data breaches brought attention to the Stacks project. Software developers have used the Stacks software to build decentralized alternatives to popular services. Stacks (STX) token is the native cryptocurrency of the Stacks blockchain, which is used as gas fee for executing smart contracts and processing transactions. == History == Stacks project was originally started by Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea as Blockstack. STX became the first SEC qualified token offering in 2019. Blockstack PBC, a company working on the Stacks technology, raised around $75 million through a mix of venture capital and token sales. The main Stacks blockchain launched in Jan 2021. == Applications == === Blockchain Naming System (BNS) === The Blockchain Naming System is an application used to register human-readable, globally unique names with accounts on the Stacks blockchain. A BNS name consists of a namespace, the name and optionally a subdomain. Examples are muneeb.id, muneeb.btc and muneeb.id.blockstack. === CityCoins === In 2021, the CityCoins project launched fungible tokens for the cities of Miami and New York City. In September 2021, Miami's city commissioners voted to accept the protocol treasury, valued at $21 million at the time. MiamiCoin's value crashed, and so Stacks donated $5.25M to the City of Miami.As of March 2023, Bloomberg was reporting that CityCoin was facing a "quiet demise" as liquidity issues and a lack of interest caused both the New York City and Miami coins to be delisted from the OkCoin cryptocurrency exchange. == References ==

Security token offering

A security token offering (STO) / tokenized IPO is a type of public offering in which tokenized digital securities, known as security tokens, are sold in security token exchanges. Tokens can be used to trade real financial assets such as equities and fixed income, and use a blockchain virtual ledger system to store and validate token transactions.Due to tokens being classified as securities, STOs are more susceptible to regulation and thus represent a more secure investment alternative than ICOs, which have been subject to numerous fraudulent schemes. Furthermore, since ICOs are not held in traditional exchanges, they can be a less expensive funding source for small and medium-sized companies when compared to an IPO. An STO on a regulated stock exchange (referred to as a tokenized IPO) has the potential to deliver significant efficiencies and cost savings, however. By the end of 2019, STOs had been used in multiple scenarios including the trading of Nasdaq-listed company stocks, the pre-IPO of World Chess, FIDE's official broadcasting platform, and the creation of Singapore Exchange's own STO market, backed by Japan's Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings. == Controversy regarding ICOs == Though sharing some core concepts with ICOs and IPOs, STOs are in fact different from both, standing as an intermediary model. Similarly to ICOs, STOs are offerings that are made by selling digital tokens to the general public in cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Kraken, Binaryx and others. The main difference stands in the fact that ICO tokens are the offered cryptocurrency's actual coins, entirely digital, and classified as utilities. New ICO currencies can be generated ad infinitum, as might in some cases their tokens. Additionally, their value is almost entirely speculative and arises from the perceived utility value buyers expect them to provide. Security tokens, on the other hand, are actual securities, like bonds or stocks, tied to a real company.In terms of legislation, some jurisdictions do treat STOs, ICOs, and other cryptocurrency-related operations under the same legislative umbrella. In general, though, STOs are placed under securities legislation (together with traditional IPOs), and ICOs under utilities, with the differentiation being made mostly on a case-by-case basis.The main debate surrounding security tokens is, thus, the legal differentiation of what can be qualified as a utility instead of a security. Generally, legislation understands that if a passive financial return is expected from the investment, then it is classified as a security. This way, even if the offering company understands their tokens are merely a utility asset with no expected return investment, if it can be proven otherwise then the ICO becomes an unregulated STO, passive of legal punishment. Moreover, this assumption of utility has been abused by some STO offering companies to sell securities without regulatory compliance (maliciously labeled as ICOs).This legal ambiguity has led to some ICO offerers being prosecuted by the SEC as a security offering part, though their tokens were announced as utilities. Such companies include messaging apps Kik and Telegram, the former being sued by the SEC for over $100 million and the latter delaying their offering plans after similar prosecution. == Regulation == One of the main selling points of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin has been the decentralization aspect, by which no government can influence or control the currency. By extension, a cryptocurrency is not directly affected by a specific country's jurisdiction, sociopolitical environment, or economic events. Such a lack of regulation has led to the rising of large-scale crypto-related criminal activity, ranging from terrorist funding to tax evasion, most of which go untracked and unpunished. Similarly, ICO scams have been an increasingly troublesome matter, causing billions of dollars in losses and damaging the cryptocurrency market's value as a whole.So far, STOs have been regulated and legalized in many countries where ICOs have not, due to fitting in many already pre-existing regulations regarding securities. == See also == Initial coin offering Initial public offering Alternative currencies Private currency Digital asset == References ==

The Open Network

The Open Network (previously Telegram Open Network, both abb. as TON) is a decentralized computer network consisting of a layer-1 blockchain with various components. TON was originally developed by Dr. Nikolai Durov and the messaging platform, Telegram and now embraced by a global community of independent contributors. == History == In 2017-2018, the Telegram Messenger team is starting to explore blockchain solutions for themselves. Finding no current Layer 1 blockchain able to support Telegram's 9-figure userbase, they decide to design their own layer-1 chain, then called Telegram Open Network.To obtain the resources required to make TON a reality, Telegram is launched a Gram token sale in Q1 2018. Durov considered venture capital financing but decided against it. According to documents related to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v. Telegram suit (2020), by 2017, the self-funded startup needed money to pay for servers and services. Funds raised during the Telegram ICO were planned to be used for the development of Telegram and TON and for the ongoing expenses required to support the growth of the ecosystem. More than 80 percent of collected funds planned to be spent on equipment, bandwidth, colocation, and user verification costs. The rest planned to be allocated for wages, offices, and legal and consulting services. === Genesis (2018-2020) === Telegram introduces design and first implementation of TON Blockchain. The Telegram team releases a series of documents detailing the design of TON Blockchain. Telegram initially launched the TON Testnet to the public through a testing environment for the TON blockchain. During the early testnet phase, Telegram released testnet tokens, which had no value and were used for testing purposes.To fund the development of the messenger and the blockchain project, Telegram attracted investments through a private Gram offering, but in light of regulatory complications, the Telegram team withdrew from the TON project (May 2020)On July 2020 Telegram placed the remaining testnet tokens into special Giver smart contracts that allowed anyone to participate in future mining and discontinued support for the TON testnet.A small team of open-source developers and Telegram contest winners Anatoliy Makosov and Kirill Emelyanenko, NewTON, took a deep dive into TON's codebase and resumed active blockchain development, adhering to the principles outlined in the original TON whitepaper. === Development and launch (2020-2022) === After TON's private development phase, all of its code was released to the open-source in September 7, 2019. The launch of the test network was initially scheduled for Q2 2018 with the main network launch in Q4, but the milestones were postponed several times. The testnet was launched in January 2019 with a half a year deviation from the plan. In May the company released the lite version of the TON blockchain network client. In September the company released the complete source code for TON nodes on GitHub, making it possible to launch a full node and explore the testnet. The launch of the TON main network was scheduled for October 31. == Design == === TON blockchain === The Open Network's fundamental infrastructure is a scalable multi-blockchain platform designed to support the creation and operation of decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Utilizing the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, it can theoretically support up to 2^92 accompanying blockchains. TON's design philosophy involves leveraging sharding to attain scalability. Its blockchains are designed with the ability to split and merge automatically to adapt to fluctuating loads. This design feature ensures that block generation speed is independent of transaction volume, avoiding network congestion and maintaining low operational costs irrespective of demand. Hypercube routing mechanisms in TON ensure efficient data exchange between any two blockchains, regardless of the network size. Due to the logarithmic relationship between the time taken to transfer data and the number of blockchains in TON, the network can scale to millions of chains without compromising processing speed.TON employs an advanced proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. Validator nodes use deposit stakes to vouch for their reliability, achieving consensus through a variant of the Byzantine fault tolerance protocol. This approach is resource-efficient and allows TON to devote the computing power of nodes to processing transactions and executing smart contracts. The TON network comprises a masterchain and up to 2^32 workchains, each with its unique ruleset. These rulesets dictate various aspects of the workchains, such as account address formats, transaction protocols, and virtual machines for executing smart contracts and managing basic cryptocurrencies. The workchains function cohesively within the TON ecosystem while maintaining their individual characteristics. === Governance === Governance in TON is inherently decentralized and decisions for network modifications are contingent upon approval from the majority of validators. This is facilitated through the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism where validators can vote for network configuration changes or update their software to accept proposed changes. == Applications == === Toncoin === Toncoin is the principal cryptocurrency of The Open Network (TON) blockchain, and in particular of its masterchain and basic workchain. It is used for transaction fees, securing the blockchain through staking, deciding how the network develops, gas payments (i.e., smart-contract message processing fees), and settling payments. === TON Proxy === A network proxy and anonymizer layer designed for TON nodes, TON Proxy is akin to the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) and facilitates the creation of decentralized VPN services and blockchain-based TOR alternatives. This capability enhances online privacy and offers protection against censorship towards the facilitation of decentralized applications which may be more resistant to censorship. As of September 30, 2022, TON Proxy has been made compatible with HTTP Proxy. === TON DNS === Launched by the TON Foundation on June 30, 2022, TON DNS operates similarly to domain names associated with other cryptocurrencies, offering ".ton" as its domain zone. The program assigns human-readable names to accounts, smart contracts, services, and network nodes. This service simplifies the process of accessing decentralized applications by allowing users to use short and simple domain names rather than long strings of alphanumeric characters. Domain names can also be associated with wallet addresses. === TON Storage === On December 31, 2022, TON Storage, a decentralized file storage system, was introduced. TON Storage is a distributed file storage system accessible through the TON P2P Network, resembling torrent-like technology that utilizes smart contracts for reliability. TON Storage provides a platform for the storage and exchange of large amounts of data using the TON blockchain network, in an effort to eliminate the need for centralized web servers. === TON Payments === Launched on June 30, 2022, TON Payments can be used for instant off-chain value transfers between users, bots, and other services. Security measures embedded in the system ensure that these transfers are as secure as on-chain transactions. == Everscale == By May 2020, when Telegram's commitment to the project was unclear, other projects started to develop the technology.Launched on May 7, 2020, "Free TON" is another project to continue development of Telegram Open Network technology using the source code freely available under GNU GPL. By January 2021, the community of the project reached 30,000 people. Free TON's token titled "TON Crystal" or just "TON" is distributed as a reward for contributions to the network. Of five billion tokens issued at the moment of launch, 85% were reserved for users, 5% for validators, and 10% for the developers (including 5% dedicated for TON Labs, the developer of TON OS middleware for TON blockchain, which is the essential part of Free TON). In 2021 it was rebranded to Everscale. == Regulation == On October 11, 2019, a couple of weeks before the planned TON launch, SEC obtained a temporary restrictive order to prevent the distribution of Grams. The regulator contended that initial Gram purchasers would be acting akin to underwriters, and the resale of Grams, once distributed, will be an unregistered distribution of securities.After a lengthy legal battle between Telegram and the SEC, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York agreed with the SEC's vision that the sale of Grams, the distribution to initial purchasers, and the highly likely future resale should be viewed as a single "scheme" to distribute Grams to the secondary market in an unregistered security offering. The "security" at issue consisted of the whole set of contracts, expectations, and understandings around the sale and the distribution of tokens to the interested public, and not the Grams themselves. In this case, the initial purchasers acted as underwriters that planned to resell tokens, and not to consume them. The restrictions on Gram distribution remained in force for purchasers based in and outside U.S., as Telegram had no tools to prevent U.S. citizens from purchasing Grams on the secondary market.Following the court decision, the Telegram Open Network team announced that they would be unable to launch the project by the expected 30 April 2020 deadline. On 12 May 2020, Pavel Durov announced the end of Telegram's active involvement with TON. On June 11, Telegram settled with SEC U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and agreed to return $1.22 billion as "termination amounts" in Gram purchase agreements, and pay an $18.5 million penalty to SEC. The company also agreed to notify the SEC of any plans to issue digital assets over the next three years. The judge approved the settlement on June 26. "New and innovative businesses are welcome to participate in our capital markets, but they cannot do so in violation of the registration requirements of the federal securities laws," the SEC spokesperson noted. Telegram had subsequently shut down TON test network.In 2020, Telegram repaid TON investors $770 million and converted $443 million into a one-year debt at 10% interest, raising its total liabilities to $625.7 million. On 10 March 2021, the company made the placement of 5-year bonds worth $1 billion to cover the debts it had to return by 30 April 2021. == References ==

Tokenomics

Tokenomics, also known as token economics, is an emerging field concerned with the economic properties of agent-driven systems that use cryptographic tokens that are typically created and managed on blockchain-based distributed ledgers.Key areas of interest include determining the value properties of the tokens themselves, and how the properties of tokens (together with other cryptographically secured rules and associated system actions) affect broader economic characteristics of the system including: How they provision and distribute scarce resources How that system interacts with other external economic processes How economic agents behave The economic efficiency of all these processesThe field often has a strong applied focus, concerning itself with how to use its insights and principles to engineer economic systems to possess specific, desired properties.Both cryptocurrency and tokens are the subclasses of digital assets that use the technology of cryptography. Crypto is the native currency of a blockchain, and it is developed directly by the blockchain protocol.Tokens can be created as native elements of a blockchain protocol, or by using a smart contract that is deployed on a blockchain which will host the new token. For example, Ether (ETH) is the native crypto asset of the Ethereum blockchain, and was created by the core Ethereum developer team to incentivise proper maintenance of the blockchain. While Axie Infinity Shards (AXS) tokens, were created using a Ethereum smart contract developed an unaffiliated third party, in order to give token holders certain governance rights over the game Axie Infinity.In both cases, different tokenomic attributes are chosen to support the token's intended role. With particular attention typically being paid to tokens' ability to function as an incentive mechanism, and choosing monetary policy that brings token supply into line with its demand. This includes specifying rules about how and when new token should be generated or removed from the system. Rules that are written into smart contracts allow these system processes to be automated.In the real-world economics system, the economy is subject to fluctuations like inflation and deflation. Central banks intervene through monetary policies. Tokenonomics can be thought of as an approach to implementing monetary policies and economic rules via automated smart contracts. On the blockchain, different projects may issue their own tokens with different tokenomics to complete their ecosystem for various purposes, such as fundraising and governance. Some common tokenomics models include the deflationary model, inflationary model, and dual-token model. For instance, before the very last Bitcoin is added to the Bitcoin pool, it is inflationary because as miners (people who find Bitcoin by using algorithms to solve mathematical puzzles) keep mining Bitcoins, the amount of Bitcoins increases and the purchasing power of each Bitcoin decrease. However, the tokenomics of Bitcoin has multiple mechanisms to lower the rate of inflation, such as making mathematical puzzles harder and harder to solve and allowing fewer and fewer miners to receive the coin. == Creation of tokens and token types == Companies may create their own tokens for economic and structural reasons. Tokens are created to encourage the holder to interact and empower the product by automatically distributing the rewards to their stakeholders. Projects may use tokens to raise funds from the public and for proof of internal operation (e.g. game tokens and governance tokens for the right to vote). To achieve the purposes and function of the tokens created, a fine tokenomics structure is needed. === Security tokens for fundraising === In traditional capital markets, if a company wants to raise funds from the public, it must go through an initial public offering (IPO), which may take years, costing anywhere from $4 to $28 million in fees, depending on its size. In the early stages, only accredited investors are allowed to enter an investment, such as a venture capital. In the decentralized, automated world, with lower cost, tokens can be created by anyone, with fundamental parameters and functions described by tokenomics. Instead of equities, blockchain companies raise funds through the issuing of tokens in the process of initial coin offerings (ICOs). The security tokens can be thought of as equity shares of the blockchain companies. After issuing the tokens, individual investors are allowed to buy tokens and own shares. For investors, they can become early contributors to gain returns along with the growth of the company. Web 3.0 investors can sell their holdings of tokens after the vesting period. === Utility tokens for internal use === Utility tokens are used as proof to access a company's service or product. Unlike security tokens, utility tokens are for exchange and securing the liquidity and value of the company. Utility tokens are an in-ecosystem currency. For example, with a token named Smooth Love Potion (SLP) in the game Axie Infinity, players can use it to breed desired spirits. In this case, SLP acts as the internal currency within the game. Users earn SLP from tasks, and spend SLP to defeat opponents. === Risk === Investors risk being "rugged," meaning that the token issuer may "raise money and disappear," resulting in a value loss in those tokens and a capital loss for investors. Hackers may hack into the system and steal the tokens. Each tokenomics model has its disadvantages and advantages. == See also == Cryptoeconomics == References ==

Thodex

Koineks Teknoloji A.Ş, known online as Thodex, is a defunct Turkey based cryptocurrency exchange founded by Faruk Fatih Özer. Thodex was the first global exchange based in Turkey and of the 40 cryptocurrency exchanges in Turkey at the time, it was one of the big ones. It had 391,000 users when it froze in April 2021 and the owner fled Turkey with the clients' money. Thodex was founded as Koineks in 2017, at the time only the 4th cryptocurrency exchange to be founded in Turkey. They established Turkey's first Bitcoin ATMs. Koineks went global in 2020 changing its name to Thodex in March 2020. That year, Thodex was also licensed by Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a Money Service Business (MSB). The total transaction volume on Thodex was ~$3 billion as of November 2020. The exchange had various rewards campaigns to draw in new users and new capital. == Shutdown == What would turn out to be the last of these rewards campaigns ran from 15 March to 15 April 2021. It was a Dogecoin rewards campaign where they stated that they would distribute 2 million dogecoin, 150 per new user that signs up. This campaign was set up in the month leading up to what is known by fans of Dogecoin as Dogeday (April 20) a day at which Dogecoin fans expected Dogecoin to go up in price significantly. Due to the hype, over half of the trading on the exchange was in Dogecoin. On the 19th of April, users experienced some disruptions in their transactions. Following complaints, Thodex stated that the issues were due to the exchange being under a cyberattack and the next day, April 20, trading on Thodex was halted entirely.Thodex assured users in a statement that things would resume to normal in 4–5 days and that trading had temporarily shut down because "big-name banks" were interested in investing substantially as partners of the exchange, and they needed to temporarily suspend trading for the partnership to settle. In the meantime, Faruk Fatih Özer, the owner of the exchange, left Turkey for Tirana, Albania with $2 billion of cryptocurrency in their possession.Complaints by users led to the start of an investigation on April 22 by public prosecutors, and after determining that users of Thodex could not access their funds and verifying that Özer had indeed left Turkey, financial crimes agents froze all the assets of Thodex. Arrest warrants were issued for Özer and 81 other suspects. The Cyber Crimes Directorate arrested all suspects except for Özer himself, the arrested suspects included Özer's two brothers. An Interpol Red Notice was issued for Özer the next day. The Istanbul Public Prosecutors Office opened a fraud investigation into the owner, and an investigation into Thodex in the scope of tax offenses and Consumer Protection Law. The prosecutors also requested that the Cyber Crimes Directorate establish contact with foreign exchanges to determine if Özer had sent Bitcoins to their Binance address and if so whether those could be frozen/confiscated.In May, the first hearing for a victim of the frozen exchange was held by the Anatolian Civil Court. They sued Thodex for the taking/using of deposited money contrary to the user agreement.The Public Prosecutors' office in 2022 reportedly received certain receipts that showed that Özer had compensated some of the victims out of remorse. Nevertheless, 21 of the suspects including Özer were indicted for 3 separate crimes and face up to 40,564 years of collective prison sentence.The court determined that the suspects had converted their clients' money to cryptocurrency and gold and that they had lured in their victims with deceptive advertising.The arrest of Faruk Özer was made public by the Ministry of Interior on 30 August 2022. Albanian authorities had apprehended him in Vlorë. On 7 September 2023, Özer was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison by a Turkish court. == Aftermath == After the Thodex collapse, Turkey which did not have any regulations regarding cryptocurrency exchange operations started to look into ways to regulate cryptocurrency, and new regulations followed in 2021. == References == === Notes === === Citations === === Bibliography ===

USD Coin

USD Coin (USDC) is a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. USD Coin is managed by a consortium called Centre, which was founded by Circle and includes members from the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Bitcoin mining company Bitmain, an investor in Circle. USDC is issued by a private entity and should not be confused with a central bank digital currency (CBDC). == Usage == USDC is primarily available as an Ethereum ERC-20 token, and on blockchains including Hedera Hashgraph, Algorand, Avalanche, Solana, Stellar, Polygon, and TRON. in August of 2023, Circle announced that USDC would be available on six additional blockchains: Base, Cosmos via the Noble network, NEAR, Optimism, Polkadot, and Polygon PoS. Visa announced it was expanding a pilot program that sends USDC over the Solana blockchain to help pay merchants in cryptocurrency. == Reserves == Circle claims that each USDC is backed by a dollar held in reserve, or by other "approved investments", though these are not detailed. The wording on the Circle website changed from the previous "backed by US dollars" to "backed by fully reserved assets" in June 2021.USDC reserves are regularly attested (but not audited) by Grant Thornton, LLP, and the monthly attestations can be found on the Centre Consortium's website. == History == USDC was first announced on 15 May 2018 by Circle, and was launched in September 2018.On March 29, 2021, Visa announced that it would allow the use of USDC to settle transactions on its payment network.As of July 2022, Circle states that there are 55 billion USDC in circulation.On March 11, 2023, USDC lost its peg to the dollar after Circle confirmed $3.3 billion, approximately 8% of its reserves, were at risk due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank that occurred the previous day. USDC regained its peg to the dollar four days later.In August 2023, Circle and Coinbase closed the Centre Consortium, the organization that had managed USDC since 2018, giving circle sole governance of USDC. == See also == Jeremy Allaire Tether (cryptocurrency) == References == == External links == Official website

Mining pool

In the context of cryptocurrency mining, a mining pool is the pooling of resources by miners, who share their processing power over a network, to split the reward equally, according to the amount of work they contributed to the probability of finding a block. A "share" is awarded to members of the mining pool who present a valid partial proof-of-work. Mining in pools began when the difficulty for mining increased to the point where it could take centuries for slower miners to generate a block. The solution to this problem was for miners to pool their resources so they could generate blocks more quickly and therefore receive a portion of the block reward on a consistent basis, rather than randomly once every few years. == History == November 2010: Slush launched in 2010 and is the first mining pool.< 2011–2013: The era of deepbit, which at its peak held up to 45% of the network hashrate. 2013–2014: Since the introduction of ASIC, and when deepbit failed to support the newer stratum protocol, GHash.IO replaced deepbit and became the largest. 2014–2015: F2Pool, which launched in May 2013, overtook GHash.IO and became then the largest mining pool. 2016–2018: Rise of Bitmain and its AntPool. Bitmain also controls a few other smaller pools like BTC.com and ViaBTC. 2019–2020: The launch of Poolin. Poolin and F2Pool each held about 15% of the network hashrate at this time period, with smaller pools following. 2020: Binance launches a mining pool, following Huobi and OKex. Luxor launches a US-based mining pool.. 2022: Cruxpool launches the first French mining pool. PEGA Pool launches the first eco friendly focused mining pool. But at the end of summer 2023, PEGA Pool announced the closure of its mining operation. == Mining pool share == Share is the principal concept of the mining pool operation. Share is a potential block solution. So it may be a block solution, but it is not necessarily so. For example, suppose a block solution is a number that ends with 10 zeros and, a share may be a number with 5 zeros at the end. Sooner or later one of the shares will have not only 5, but 10 zeros at the end, and this will be the block solution. Mining pools need shares to estimate the miner's contribution to the work performed by the pool to find a block. There are numerous miner reward systems: PPS, PROP, PPLNS, PPLNT, and many more. == Mining pool methods == Mining pools may contain hundreds or thousands of miners using specialized protocols. In all these schemes B {\displaystyle B} stands for a block reward minus pool fee and p {\displaystyle p} is a probability of finding a block in a share attempt ( p = 1 / D {\displaystyle p=1/D} , where D {\displaystyle D} is current block difficulty). A pool can support "variable share difficulty" feature, which means that a miner can select the share target (the lower bound of share difficulty) on their own and change p {\displaystyle p} accordingly. === Pay-per-Share === The Pay-per-Share (PPS) approach offers an instant, guaranteed payout to a miner for their contribution to the probability that the pool finds a block. Miners are paid out from the pool's existing balance and can withdraw their payout immediately. This model allows for the least possible variance in payment for miners while also transferring much of the risk to the pool's operator. Each share costs exactly the expected value of each hash attempt R = B ⋅ p {\displaystyle R=B\cdot p} . === Proportional === Miners earn shares until the pool finds a block (the end of the mining round). After that each user gets reward R = B ⋅ n N {\displaystyle R=B\cdot {\frac {n}{N}}} , where n {\displaystyle n} is amount of their own shares, and N {\displaystyle N} is amount of all shares in this round. In other words, all shares are equal, but its value is calculated only at the end of each round. === Pooled mining === Pooled mining (BPM), also known as "slush's system", due to its first use on a pool called "slush's pool', uses a system where older shares from the beginning of a block round are given less weight than more recent shares. A new round starts the moment the pool solves a block and miners are rewarded Proportional to the shares submitted. This reduces the ability to cheat the mining pool system by switching pools during a round, to maximize profit. === Pay-per-last-N-shares === Pay-per-last-N-shares (PPLNS) method is similar to Proportional, but the miner's reward is calculated on a basis of N last shares, instead of all shares for the last round. It means that when a block is found, the reward of each miner is calculated based on the miner contribution to the last N pool shares. Therefore, if the round was short enough all miners get more profit and vice versa. === Solo Mining Pool === Solo pools operate the same way as usual pools, with the only difference being that block reward is not distributed among all miners. The entire reward in a solo pool goes to the miner who finds the block. === Peer-to-Peer Mining Pool === Peer-to-peer mining pool (P2Pool) decentralizes the responsibilities of a pool server, removing the chance of the pool operator cheating or the server being a single point of failure. Miners work on a side blockchain called a share chain, mining at a lower difficulty at a rate of one share block per 30 seconds. Once a share block reaches the network target, it is transmitted and merged onto the blockchain. Miners are rewarded when this occurs proportional to the shares submitted prior to the target block. A P2Pool requires the miners to run a full node, bearing the weight of hardware expenses and network bandwidth. === Geometric method === Geometric Method (GM) was invented by Meni Rosenfeld. It is based on the same "score" idea, as Slush's method: the score granted for every new share, relatively to already existing score and the score of future shares, is always the same, thus there is no advantage to mining early or late in the round. The method goes as follows: Choose parameters f {\displaystyle f} and c {\displaystyle c} (fixed and variable fee). At the start of every round, set s = 1 {\displaystyle s=1} . For every worker k {\displaystyle k} , let S k {\displaystyle S_{k}} be the worker's score for this round, and set S k = 0 {\displaystyle S_{k}=0} . Set r = 1 − p + p c {\displaystyle r=1-p+{\frac {p}{c}}} , where p = 1 / D {\displaystyle p=1/D} . If the difficulty changes during the round, r {\displaystyle r} needs to be updated. When worker k {\displaystyle k} submits a share, set S k = S k + s p B {\displaystyle S_{k}=S_{k}+spB} , and then s = s r {\displaystyle s=sr} . If the share is a valid block, end the round. For every worker k {\displaystyle k} pay ( 1 − f ) ( r − 1 ) S k s p {\displaystyle {\frac {(1-f)(r-1)S_{k}}{sp}}} === Double Geometric method === Generalized version of Geometric and PPLNS methods. It involves new parameter: o {\displaystyle o} ("cross-round leakage"). When o = 0 {\displaystyle o=0} this becomes the Geometric method. When o = 1 {\displaystyle o=1} this becomes a variant of PPLNS, with exponential decay instead of a step function. Choose parameters f {\displaystyle f} , c {\displaystyle c} , and o {\displaystyle o} . When the pool first starts running, initialize s = 1 {\displaystyle s=1} . For every worker k {\displaystyle k} , let S k {\displaystyle S_{k}} be the worker's score, and set S k = 0 {\displaystyle S_{k}=0} . Set r = 1 + 1 c p ( 1 − c ) ( 1 − o ) {\displaystyle r=1+{\frac {1}{c}}p(1-c)(1-o)} . If at any point the difficulty or the parameters change, r {\displaystyle r} should be recalculated. When worker k {\displaystyle k} submits a share, set S k = S k + ( 1 − f ) ( 1 − c ) s p B {\displaystyle S_{k}=S_{k}+(1-f)(1-c)spB} (where B {\displaystyle B} is the block reward at the time it was submitted), and then s = s r {\displaystyle s=sr} . If the share is a valid block, then also do the following for each worker k {\displaystyle k} : Give him a payout of 1 c s ( 1 − o ) S k {\displaystyle {\frac {1}{c_{s}}}(1-o)S_{k}} , and then set S k = S k ⋅ o {\displaystyle S_{k}=S_{k}\cdot o} . == Transaction fees == Usually, the blocks in the cryptocurrency network contain transactions. Transaction fees are paid to the miner (mining pool). Different mining pools could share these fees between their miners or not. Pay-per-last-N-shares (PPLNS), Pay-Per-Share Plus (PPS+) or Full Pay-Per-Share (FPPS) are the most fair methods where the payouts from the pool include not only the block subsidy but also the transaction fees. == Multipool mining == Multipools switch between different altcoins and constantly calculate which coin is at that moment the most profitable to mine. Two key factors are involved in the algorithm that calculates profitability, the block time, and the price on the exchanges. To avoid the need for many different wallets for all possible minable coins, multipools may automatically exchange the mined coin to a coin that is accepted in the mainstream (for example bitcoin). Using this method, because the most profitable coins are being mined and then sold for the intended coin, it is possible to receive more coins in the intended currency than by mining that currency alone. This method also increases demand on the intended coin, which has the side effect of increasing or stabilizing the value of the intended coin.Some companies that sell hash power may do so by aggregating the work of many small miners (for example, NiceHash), paying them proportionally by share like a pool would. Some such companies operate their own pools. These can be considered multipools, because they usually employ a similar method of work switching, although the work they assign is determined by customer demand rather than "raw" profitability. == PoC mining == Similar to other mining technologies, the PoC, PoC+, PoS Proof of Space method allows the computing to be performed beforehand and all answers are stored on a miners hard drive, the heavy energy consumption for PoC is not required like it is for PoW mining and therefore PoC is almost always a more environmentally friendly blockchain choice. When mining happens the miner simply "looks" through the pre-stored answers and submits the best one found to the network, with minimal energy used to read the hard drives. Due to the low hardware specification requirements of the PoC mining process, this type of mining can be conducted on a regular PC still being used for other day-to-day tasks. The first PoC blockchain was brought online in 2014 and is known as Signum today, with other PoC chains coming out much later, examples: Chia, Flax, and BitcoinHD. The network difficulty, as well as other network and mining status information, can be viewed on any of the public mining pool dashboards, example: Mining Pool Dashboard A list of current PoC, PoS, PoC+ type mining pools are also tracked by some third party "Mining Pool Stats" pages, an example of one is Mining Pool Stats. == See also == Cryptographic protocol Digital currency exchanger Electronic money == References == == External links == An estimation of hashrate distribution amongst the largest mining pools First PoC blockchain example of a PoC+ Mining Pool example of a PoC mining pool stats tracking site

Meme coin

A meme coin (also spelled memecoin) is a cryptocurrency that originated from an Internet meme or has some other humorous characteristic. It may be used in the broadest sense as a critique of the cryptocurrency market in its entirety—those based on particular memes such as "doge coins", celebrities like Coinye, and pump-and-dump schemes such as BitConnect—or it may be used to make cryptocurrency more accessible. The term is often dismissive, comparing the value or performances of those cryptocurrencies to that of mainstream ones. Supporters, on the other hand, observe that some memecoins have acquired social currency and high market capitalizations.In late 2013, Dogecoin was released after being created as a joke on the Doge meme by software engineers. This sparked the creation of several subsequent meme coins. In October 2021, there were about 124 meme coins circulating in the market. Notable examples include Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.In late 2021, advertisements promoting the meme coin Floki Inu in London led to subsequent investigations around promoting the meme coin, considered to be an unregulated financial product by the ASA (The Advertising Standards Authority).Some countries have taken steps to regulate meme coins. In early 2021, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission banned meme coins as part of a crackdown on digital goods with "no clear objective or substance". == Popularity == Meme coins have surged in popularity since Elon Musk endorsed the use of Dogecoin, one of the first meme coins. He continues to post tweets about Dogecoin in 2022, including one in January where he stated he would eat a Happy Meal from McDonald's on live TV if they started accepting Dogecoin as payment. The risk of losing money is significant. However, some projects seem to be successful and sustainable over time. == See also == Meme stock == References == == External links == Will APENFT token listed on Binance Bigtert Token Prediction Storepay Token Prediction

Zealot Campaign

The Zealot Campaign is a cryptocurrency mining malware collected from a series of stolen National Security Agency (NSA) exploits, released by the Shadow Brokers group on both Windows and Linux machines to mine cryptocurrency, specifically Monero. Discovered in December 2017, these exploits appeared in the Zealot suite include EternalBlue, EternalSynergy, and Apache Struts Jakarta Multipart Parser attack exploit, or CVE-2017-5638. The other notable exploit within the Zealot vulnerabilities includes vulnerability CVE-2017-9822, known as DotNetNuke (DNN) which exploits a content management system so that the user can install a Monero miner software. An estimated USD $8,500 of Monero having been mined on a single targeted computer. The campaign was discovered and studied extensively by F5 Networks in December 2017. == How it works == With many of the Zealot exploits being leaked from the NSA, the malware suite is widely described as having “an unusually high obfuscated payload”, meaning that the exploit works on multiple levels to attack the vulnerable server systems, causing large amounts of damage. The term “Zealot” was derived from the StarCraft series, namely a type of warrior. === Introduction === This multi-layered attack begins with two HTTP requests, used to scan and target vulnerable systems on the network. Similar attacks in the past were only targeted to either Windows or Linux-based systems, yet Zealot stands out by being prepared for both with its version of Apache Struts exploit along with using DNN. === Post-exploitation stage === After the operating system (OS) has been identified via a JavaScript, the malware then loads an OS-specific exploit chains: ==== Linux/macOS ==== If the targeted system runs on either Linux or macOS, the Struts' payload will install a Python agent for the post-exploitation stage. After checking the target system to see if it has already been infected, it then downloads a cryptocurrency mining software, often referred to as a “mule”. From there, it obfuscates an embedded Python code to process. Different from other botnet malware, the Zealot campaigns request the Command & Control (C&C) server-specific User-Agent and Cookie headers, meaning that anyone but the malware will receive a different response. Due to Zealot encrypting via a RC4 cipher, see below, most network inspection and security software were able to see that the malware was on the network, but were not able to scan it. ==== Windows ==== If the targeted OS is Windows, the Struts' payload downloads an encoded PowerShell interpreter. Once it is decoded two times, the program then runs another obfuscated script, which in turn leads the device to a URL to download more files. That file, known as PowerShell script “scv.ps1”, is a heavily obfuscated script which allows the attacker to deploy mining software on the targeted device. The deployed software can also use a Dynamic-link Library (DLL) mining malware, which is deployed using the reflective DLL injection technique to attach the malware to the PowerShell processing itself, as to remain undetected. ==== Scanning for a firewall ==== Prior to moving onto the next stage, the program also checks to see if the firewall is active. If yes, it will pipe an embedded base64 embedded Python code to circumvent the firewall. Another possible solution is known as the “Little Snitch”, which will possibly terminate the firewall if active. ==== Infecting internal networks ==== From the post-exploitation stage, the program scans the target system for Python 2.7 or higher, if it is not found on the system, it will then download it. Following that, it then downloads a Python module (probe.py) to propagate the network, the script itself is highly obfuscated with a base encryption of base64 and is then zipped up to 20 times. The downloaded zip file could be named several iterations, all of which are derived from the StarCraft game. The files included are listed below: Zealot.py – main script executing the EternalBlue and EternalSynergy exploits, see below. A0.py – EternalSynergy exploit with built-in shellcode for Windows 7 A1.py – EternalBlue exploit for Windows 7, receives shellcode as an argument A2.py – EternalBlue exploit for Windows 8, receives a shellcode as an argument M.py – SMB protocol wrapper Raven64.exe – scans the internal network via port 445 and invokes the zealot.py filesAfter all these files run successfully, the miner software is then introduced. ==== Mining ==== Known commonly as the “mule” malware, this PowerShell script is named the “minerd_n.PS2” within the compressed files that are downloaded and executed via the EternalSynergy exploit. The software then utilizes the target system’s hardware to process mining for cryptocurrency. This mining software has reportedly stolen close to $8,500 from one victim, yet total amounts of mined Monero are still speculated among researchers. == Exploits involved == === EternalBlue === Initially utilized in the WannaCry ransomware attack in 2017, this exploit was specifically utilized as a mining software with the Zealot campaign. === EternalSynergy === While not much is known about this exploit, it was used in cooperation with EternalBlue, along with other exploits in the Zealot campaign and others. Most notably, EternalSynergy was involved in the Equifax hack, WannaCry ransomware, and cryptocurrency mining campaigns. === DNN === An ASP.NET based content management system, DNN (formerly DotNetNuke) sends a serialized object via a vulnerable DNNPersonalization cookie during the HTTP request stage. Using an “ObjectDataProvider” and an “ObjectStateFormatter”, the attacker then embeds another object into the victim’s shell system. This invoked shell system will then deliver the same script that was delivered in the Apache Struts exploit. The DNN acts as a secondary backup for the attackers, should the Apache Struts exploit fail. === Apache Struts Jakarta multipart parser === Used to deliver a PowerShell script to initiate the attack, this exploit is one of the two HTTP requests sent during the initial stage of infection. Among the first discovered of the exploits of the Zealot campaign, the Jakarta Parser exploit allowed hackers to exploit a “Zero-Day” flaw in the software to hack into the financial firm, Equifax in March 2017. This particular exploit was the most notable and public of the exploits, as it was utilized in a largely public case, and was still being utilized until December 2017, when the exploit was patched. == Uses == === The Lazarus Group === The Bangladeshi-based group utilized a spear-phishing method, known commonly as Business Email Compromise (BCE), to steal cryptocurrency from unsuspecting employees. Lazarus primarily targeted employees of cryptocurrency financial organizations, which was executed via a Word document, claiming to be a legitimate-appearing European company. When the document was opened, the embedded trojan virus would then load onto the system computer and begin to steal credentials and other malware. While the specific Malware is still unknown, it does have ties to the Zealot malware. === Equifax Data Breach (2017) === Among the several exploits involved the March 2017 Equifax data breach, the Jakarta Parser, EternalBlue, and EternalSynergy were heavily involved with attacking the servers. Instead of the software being utilized to mine cryptocurrency, it was used to mine the data of over 130 million Equifax customers. == References ==

Zerocoin protocol

Zerocoin is a privacy protocol proposed in 2013 by Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew D. Green and his graduate students, Ian Miers and Christina Garman. It was designed as an extension to the Bitcoin protocol that would improve Bitcoin transactions' anonymity by having coin-mixing capabilities natively built into the protocol. Zerocoin is not currently compatible with Bitcoin. == History == Due to the public nature of the blockchain, users may have their privacy compromised while interacting with the network. To address this problem, third-party coin mixing service can be used to obscure the trail of cryptocurrency transactions. In May 2013, Matthew D. Green and his graduate students (Ian Miers and Christina Garman) proposed the Zerocoin protocol where cryptocurrency transactions can be anonymized without going through a trusted third-party, by which a coin is destroyed then minted again to erase its history.While a coin is spent, there is no information available which reveal exactly which coin is being spent. Initially, the Zerocoin protocol was planned to be integrated into the Bitcoin network. However, the proposal was not accepted by the Bitcoin community. Thus, the Zerocoin developers decided to launch the protocol into an independent cryptocurrency. The project to create a standalone cryptocurrency implementing the Zerocoin protocol was named "Moneta". In September 2016, Zcoin (XZC), the first cryptocurrency to implement the zerocoin protocol, was launched by Poramin Insom and team. In January 2018, an academic paper partially funded by Zcoin was published on replacing Proof-of-work system with memory intensive Merkle tree proof algorithm in ensuring more equitable mining among ordinary users. In April 2018, a cryptographic flaw was found in the Zerocoin protocol which allows an attacker to destroy the coins owned by honest users, create coins out of thin air, and steal users' coins. The Zcoin cryptocurrency team while acknowledging the flaw, stated the high difficulty in performing such attacks and the low probability of giving economic benefit to the attacker. In December 2018, Zcoin released an academic paper proposing the Lelantus protocol that removes the need for a trusted setup and hides the origin and the amount of coins in a transaction when using the Zerocoin protocol. == Architecture == Transactions which use the Zerocoin feature are drawn from an escrow pool, where each coin's transaction history is erased when it emerges. Transactions are verified by zero-knowledge proofs, a mathematical way to prove a statement is true without revealing any other details about the question. == Zerocash == On 16 November 2013, Matthew D. Green announced the Zerocash protocol, which provides additional anonymity by shielding the amount transacted. Zerocash reduces transaction sizes by 98%, however was significantly more computationally expensive, taking up to 3.2 GB of memory to generate. More recent developments into the protocol have reduced this to 40 MB. Zerocash utilizes succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge arguments of knowledge (also known as zk-SNARKs), a special kind of zero-knowledge method for proving the integrity of computations. Such proofs are less than 300 bytes long and can be verified in only a few milliseconds, and contain the additional advantage of hiding the amount transacted as well. However, unlike Zerocoin, Zerocash requires an initial set up by a trusted entity.Developed by Matthew D. Green, the assistant professor behind the Zerocoin protocol, Zcash was the first Zerocash based cryptocurrency which began development in 2013. == Cryptocurrencies == === Zcoin (XZC) === In the late 2014, Poramin Insom, a student in Masters in Security Informatics from Johns Hopkins University wrote a paper on implementing the zerocoin protocol into a cryptocurrency with Matthew Green as faculty member. Roger Ver and Tim Lee were Zcoin's initial investors. Poramin also set up an exchanged named "Satang" that can convert Thai Baht to Zcoin directly.On 20 February 2017, a malicious coding attack on Zerocoin protocol created 370,000 fake tokens which perpetrators sold for over 400 Bitcoins ($440,000). Zcoin team announced that a single-symbol error in a piece of code "allowed an attacker to create Zerocoin spend transactions without a corresponding mint". Unlike Ethereum during the DAO event, developers have opted not to destroy any coins or attempt to reverse what happened with the newly generated ones.In September 2018, Zcoin introduced the Dandelion protocol that hides the origin IP address of a sender without using a The Onion Router (Tor) or Virtual Private Network (VPN). In November 2018, Zcoin conducted the world's first large-scale party elections in Thailand Democrat Party using InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). In December 2018, Zcoin implemented Merkle tree proof, a mining algorithm that deters the usage of Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in mining coins by being more memory intensive for the miners. This allows ordinary users to use central processing unit (CPU) and graphics card for mining, so as to enable egalitarianism in coin mining. On 30 July 2019, Zcoin formally departed from Zerocoin protocol by adopting a new protocol called "Sigma" that prevents counterfeit privacy coins from inflating coin supply. This is achieved by removing a feature called "trusted setup" from the Zerocoin protocol. == Reception == One criticism of zerocoin is the added computation time required by the process, which would need to have been performed primarily by bitcoin miners. If the proofs were posted to the blockchain, this would also dramatically increase the size of the blockchain. Nevertheless, as stated by the original author, the proofs could be stored outside the blockchain.Since a zerocoin will have the same denomination as the bitcoin used to mint the zerocoin, anonymity would be compromised if no other zerocoins (or few zerocoins) with the same denomination are currently minted but unspent. A potential solution to this problem would be to only allow zerocoins of specific set denominations, however, this would increase the needed computation time since multiple zerocoins could be needed for one transaction.Depending on the specific implementation, Zerocoin requires two very large prime numbers to generate a parameter which cannot be easily factored. As such, these values must either be generated by trusted parties, or rely on RSA unfactorable objects to avoid the requirement of a trusted party. Such a setup, however, is not possible with the Zerocash protocol. == References == == External links == Official website

Cryptocurrencies in Europe

The general notion of cryptocurrencies in Europe denotes the processes of legislative regulation, distribution, circulation, and storage of cryptocurrencies in Europe. In April 2023, the EU Parliament passed the Markets in Crypto Act (MiCA) unified legal framework for crypto-assets within the European Union. == The legality of cryptocurrencies in Europe == There are some regulatory policy recommendations for EU states to follow in the course of cryptocurrency adoption and regulatory framework development that are given below in chronological order. In 2013, the European Banking Authority (EBA) issued a public warning about the possible risks of virtual currencies. In 2014, The EBA issued a decision on virtual currencies, which included a list of more than 70 risks associated with its dissemination. In 2016, the European Central Bank issued an analysis of virtual currency schemes, acknowledging the potential advantages of virtual currencies. In 2017 The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a study in 2017 on the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in securities markets. Also in the same year, ESMA released two statements on initial coin offerings (ICOs), one on investor risks and the other on the laws that apply to companies that participate in these offers. After that, the European Commission directed the EBA and ESMA to evaluate the applicability and appropriateness of the existing EU financial services regulatory framework to crypto assets. In 2018 The European Parliament released two reports about virtual currencies and central banks’ monetary policy. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) released a study on the crypto asset market and its potential pathways for future financial stability concerns. In 2019 During the G7 meeting of July 2019 risks posed by global stablecoin projects were discussed. FINMA, the Swiss financial authority, published a supplement to its ICO guidelines outlining how it treats so-called ‘stable coins’ under Swiss supervisory law. In 2019, ECB highlighted the paper series with a discussion about stability in crypto-assets. In 2020 In September 2020, The European Commission has today adopted a new Digital Finance Package, including Digital Finance and Retail Payments Strategies, and legislative proposals on crypto-assets and digital resilience. In 2020, the ECB released a report about stablecoins’ regulatory status. In 2020, the European Commission proposed a pilot regime for market infrastructures that wish to try to trade and settle transactions in financial instruments in crypto-asset form. In 2021 In July 2021, The European Central Bank is launching a pilot project for the "digital euro". Also, it has officially launched a 2-year-long study on the creation of a Digital Euro and the various nuances that would involve. In July 2021, the European Commission released a statement that would apply what is known as the travel rule to crypto transactions to make them more traceable. In September 2021, European Securities and Markets Authority published a report on Trends, Risks and Vulnerabilities where crypto assets are considered a high-risked innovational financial technology. On April 20, 2023, the EU Parliament passed the Markets in Crypto Act (MiCA), a unified legal framework to regulate crypto-assets in the European Union, in order to mitigate money laundering and help reduce consumer risk by making providers liable for losses. == Cryptocurrency market == According to Chainalysis, Europe's growth was largely driven by so-called "whales", large institutional investors shifting enormous sums of cryptocurrency. According to Chainalysis, Europe has the world's largest crypto economy, collecting $1 trillion in the previous year, or 25% of all crypto activity worldwide.Different countries have their own approach to cryptocurrencies legalization, distribution, and storage. === Germany === Germany continues implementing crypto into the national regulation. First, they started with licensing crypto custody service providers and defining crypto assets as financial instruments. Now private funds are allowed to keep 20% of their investments in crypto.In August 2020, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice of Germany promulgated a bill to regulate electronic securities in the country (eWpG-E). === United Kingdom === Although the United Kingdom affirmed in 2020 that crypto assets are property, it has no cryptocurrency regulations and does not consider cryptocurrencies to be legal tender. Mining of cryptocurrencies is permitted.In March 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) declared that all cryptocurrency ATMs in the country were illegal and would need to be shut down. None of the ATM's operators had successfully registered with the agency. The FCA cited a failure to comply with know your customer laws (KYC), which track and prevent money laundering, as well as the high risk to customers, due to a lack of regulation and protection. At the time, Coin ATM Radar listed 81 such ATMs in the country. === Ukraine === In September 2021, the Parliament of Ukraine passed a law to legalize cryptocurrency. The law divided virtual currencies into secured and unsecured assets and establishes an obligation for crypto service providers to comply with anti-money laundering laws. === The Netherlands === In July 2020, The Dutch Central Bank (DNB) said the euro system's central bank digital currency (CBDC) should be more programmable than Bitcoin. === Estonia === Estonia published its AML Bill as early as 2018. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Estonia's tax policy is one of the most competitive in the world. There is no income tax in this jurisdiction, therefore funds received through ICOs are not subject to it, and Bitcoin and altcoins are not subject to VAT. As of 2021, 55% of all crypto currency service providers in the world are registered in Estonia according to the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) (Estonian: Rahapesu Andmebüroo (RAB)). === France === Government policy appears to be supportive of crypto, if it would be possible to regulate. In March 2020, the Central Bank of France began to study the topic of CBDC, in May it sold securities for the digital euro, and in September 2020, France announced the launch of CBDC based on the Tezos blockchain. === Spain === In Spain, there is no specific virtual currencies' legislation, except for the law approved in July 2021 on preventing and fighting tax evasion. === Austria === Investors were cautioned by the Financial Market Authority (FMA) that cryptocurrencies are risky and that FMA does not monitor or control virtual currencies, including bitcoin or any cryptocurrency trading platforms. === Hungary === In 2014, in a press release the central bank of Hungary, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), stated that Cryptocurrencies are "much riskier" than conventional forms of electronic payment, such credit cards. === Denmark === The Financial Supervisory Authority of Denmark declared in a statement that it will not regulate the use of bitcoin and that it is not a form of currency.The Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) released a statement on 17th December 2013 that supporting the European Banking Authority 's warning. In 2017, FSA notified that it has no regulatory control over bitcoin transactions, hence it does not prevent anyone on the establishment of such business.In 2013, FSA's chief legal adviser stated that Denmark might consider changing existing financial regulation to include virtual currencies. === Sweden === The Swedish Tax Agency issued a preliminary decision on Value Added Tax (VAT) on bitcoins, declaring that trading bitcoins is not subject to Swedish VAT, but is instead subject to the Financial Supervisory Authority regulations and treated as a currency.Financial Supervisory Authority and the central bank in a statement publicly declared that bitcoin is legal but not an official form of payment or legal tender. === Czech Republic === Czech Republic Govt. stated that businesses and people who purchase, sell, store, manage, or mediate the acquisition or selling of virtual currencies or offer similar services are required to adhere to anti-money laundering regulations.For the purposes of accounting and taxes, Bitcoin is categorized as an intangible asset rather than as electronic money. === Switzerland === Swiss Govt declared that Bitcoin businesses in Switzerland are regulated by anti-money laundering laws and may need a banking license in certain situations. On December 5, 2013, a proposal was submitted by 45 Swiss Parliament members concerning digital sustainability, which urged the Swiss government to evaluate the opportunities for utilization of bitcoin by the country's financial sector.In response to the parliament's recommendations, the Swiss Federal Council issued a report on virtual currencies in June 2014. === Norway === In December 2013, the Norwegian Tax Administration said that they did not classify bitcoin as currency but rather as an asset. Wealth tax is applied on profits. In business, use of bitcoin will be subject to tax sale tax. === Luxembourg === In Luxembourg, the first BitLicense was issued in October 2015. == See also == Central bank digital currency == Notes == == References ==

Cryptocurrencies in Puerto Rico

With the arrival of several figures led by Brock Pierce following the passing of hurricane Maria in 2017, cryptocurrency became an issue of media and economic interest in the Caribbean archipelago of Puerto Rico. These traders relocated to the island motivated by the tax incentives provided by Act 20-2012 and Act 22-2012 (both now part of as Act 60–2019) and the tropical setting. They claimed that their intention was to create an utopian blockchain "crypto city" or "community", which at various times became known by the names of Puertopia, Crypto Rico, Puerto Crypto or Sol, calling themselves Puertopians. The ideas promoted by this group have prompted a mixed reception, being favored by gubernatorial administrations but also spawning protests from political and grassroots movements that raise concerns about disaster capitalism, gentrification and settler colonialism. Puerto Rico has earned a reputation as a hub for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and, according to Pierce, by 2021 the archipelago had the largest quantity of coins concentrated in a single place in the world. == History == === Background === As a semi-autonomous territory that "belongs to, but is not part of" the United States, Puerto Rico is regarded as a foreign jurisdiction by the IRS for tax purposes. However, despite this the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FACTA), does not apply. In 2012, the Promotion of Export Services Act (more commonly known as "Act 20") and the Act to Promote the Relocation of Individual Investors to Puerto Rico (a.k.a. "Act 22"), which facilitated the export of services and offered significant tax exemptions to wealthy individuals that were willing to relocate to Puerto Rico respectively, were passed with the intention of attracting venture funding. Most of those who arrived have focused on the acquisition of real estate and other forms of economic development. In 2019, the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico approved Act 60, which integrated all preexisting laws into a new Incentives Code.Roosevelt Roads Naval Station closed down in 2004, after the United States Navy was ousted from Vieques, Puerto Rico, following a wave of civilian protests. Since then, a number of initiatives have been proposed, but the redevelopment of the zone has stalled and only specific facilities have been repurposed. Among the projects that did not make it past the planning stage are the Caribbean Riviera mega-project under Luis Fortuño, the involvement of Clark Realty Capital in housing/commercial projects under Alejandro García Padilla and a large scale amusement park under Ricardo Rosselló. Others, such as the filming of productions like Wrecked and Crossbones or Marine Environmental Remediation Group's boat recycling facility were either temporary or short lived. In its current form, cryptocurrency was introduced as a response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and anonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto is considered its popularizer. Bitcoin, created in 2009, was the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Since then, numerous others have been created. An increase in the value of these cryptocurrencies has made several traders wealthy, with some oscillating between being millionaires and billionaires. === Influx of crypto traders, Puertopia === Michael Terpin, founder of BitAngels, claims to be the first crypto investor to relocate by doing so in 2016 and has been active in promoting the settlement of more foreigners as part of a practice that he does not consider "colonization". On September 20, 2017, hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico, creating what is considered the worst natural disaster on record for the archipelago. Only months later, a group of cryptocurrency figures led by Bitcoin Foundation chairman Brock Pierce relocated to Old San Juan, gathering in hotels and purchasing a colonial building that previously housed a children's museum. The first reference to this migration in media happened in January 2018, when Jeremy Gardner said that "they're going to build a modern-day Atlantis out there". The new arrivals numbered in the dozens and were mostly composed by executives of firms (Ethereum Blockchain-as-a-Service entrepreneur Andrew Keys), early adopters, nouveau riche men that had benefited from the early adoption of bitcoin and its value rising in 2017, traders and investors, among other enthusiasts. According to a New York Times article that quoted Pierce, it was the economic environment that followed which convinced them to choose the ravaged archipelago. In the words of Fifth Avenue Capital's Stephen Morris, "It's only when everything's been swept away that you can make a case for rebuilding from the ground up". The group unveiled plans to build Puertopia or Sol, a city in which all transactions were made via digital currency and contracts codified in the underlying technology of blockchain. Located at in the derelict remains of Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, the project would include the first cryptocurrency-exclusive bank in the world and was to be a showcase for the group to promote their vision of "what a crypto future could look like". The group claimed that it would be investing in the local economy, in particular the widespread reconstruction efforts following the hurricane. The Puertopians are part of a larger group of clients that have fueled the creation of local businesses dealing with tax and legal advice for the incoming super rich. A number of foreign-owned banking institutions were created in Puerto Rico, including FV Bank, Mercantile Bank International (SJMX, formerly San Juan Merchantile Exchange) and a new iteration of the historical Medici Bank, all of which welcomed transactions in cryptocurrency. Bitcoin ATMs hosted by Bitstop and Athena began being installed, while Robots Inc. was granted a patent for a similar device. A pattern of decline in the value of digital coins during 2018 directly resulted in the dissolution of the San Juan-based noble bank. As the Puertopians began to lose money, some left Puerto Rico, while others adopted defensive measures while the possibility of a prolonged market crash, known as the "crypto winter", was forthcoming. As traders lost money initiatives involving local non-profits were abandoned, mainly those directed towards aiding the communities that remained affected by the hurricane. The goal to build a crypto city remains unfulfilled, with recent initiatives at Roosevelt Roads focusing on restoring its airport and establishing a spaceport. Pierce, who purchased a colonial building from the Catholic Church in 2020, has claimed that "these were loose ideas, nothing of which was concrete of well thought out". Puertopians themselves broadened their presence in the archipelago, retaining their home base in Old San Juan but acquiring properties in Dorado, Humacao, Rincón and the island municipality of Vieques.During the summer of 2020, Puerto Rican software mogul Orlando Bravo became interested in bitcoin while vacationing at Dorado, purchasing an undisclosed amount of it and publicly speaking in its favor. By 2021, the influx had increased again, with the relocation of cryptocurrency hedge funds Pantera and Redwood City Ventures as well as the mining operations of CoinMint. Among these was Frances Haugen, who earned notoriety after exposing the inner workings of Facebook and had purchased enough cryptocurrency "at the right time". At the time, retired baseball player Alfredo Escalera publicly lobbied for more public policy, stating that "our governors should educate themselves about the development of the technology, the mining of the coins and the programming of the 'blockchains' to attract the thousands of investors that engage in this business worldwide." Shortly after moving to Dorado, influencer Logan Paul became involved into a cryptocurrency named Dink Doink, which has been labelled as a "scam" by Nasdaq. Crypto personality Amanda Cassatt and her husband Samuel relocated, as more individuals arrived from different states. However, this wave also brought individuals that did not receive Act 60 exemptions but also became involved with the community, such as Keiko Yoshino of the Puerto Rico Blockchain Trade Association.Aware that the perception of the group became increasing contentious as property prices in San Juan increased, the Puertopians began to rebrand their efforts as "more inclusive, empowering and communal", individual-owned and linked them to the advent of Web3. As such, weekly events known as CryptoCurious and Crypto Mondays are organized with the general public as their targets. Local crypto entrepreneurs such as Juan Carlos Pedreira began to capitalize. According to the DEDC, at least 31 individuals classified as "crypto entrepreneurs" arrived to Puerto Rico in 2021, with potentially up to 100 involved in the industry. Among local corporations, the Díaz Fontanez Group was the first to pay the salary of its employees in digital currency, citing the move as a response to growing inflation in international markets.The 2022 Puerto Rico Digital Trends Study published by the Sales & Marketing Executives Association (CME) placed overall awareness of cryptocurrencies in 67.7%, of which 40.6% "does not understand" how they work and another 30.5% "does not consider them trustworthy", with another 14.5% considering them "the money of the future". The temporary suspension of the physical presence requisite prior to hurricane Fiona led to YouTuber/investor Hayden Bowles publicly announcing that he was leaving the island prior to the event, sparking public backlash. Likewise, criticism was targeted at the group for failing to deliver on most of their proposals, including the construction of decentralized power grids backed by blockchain technology, following Maria and for failing to deliver funds gathered after the latest storm to local NPOs. === House of Representatives of Puerto Rico hearings on regulation === In January 2022, Speaker Tatito Hernández of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), who has argued in favor of employing blockchain for tasks such as fighting public corruption, revealed that the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico was investigating the topic of creating a regulatory frame for cryptocurrency. House Resolution 527 was passed with the expressed intent of studying “the concept of blockchain as a government filing system, as well as the use of digital coins (cryptocurrency) as an accepted form of payment in Puerto Rico". Jesús Manuel Ortiz of the PPD, chair of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico's Government Commission and who has publicly endorsed cryptocurrencies as the “scaffold of the worldwide economy in the near future", was responsible for the investigation. According to a February 2022 report, the Puerto Rico Department of Treasury has established that the acquisition of property and real estate using cryptocurrencies has become widespread in Puerto Rico. All of those involved in the hearings acknowledged that such transactions had become pervasive.In representation of the PRDT, Ángel L. Pantoja recommend following the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines on the topic, given the political status of Puerto Rico and a lack of precedent. Natalia Zequeira, Financial Institutions Commissioner, emphasized that the volatility of cryptocurrencies had convinced banks to adopt “conservative positions" and after listing what she perceived as positives and negatives, concluded that once the regulatory framework is in place “Puerto Rico cannot fall behind. The future is all about markets, transactions and digital currency. It is imperative for us to be at the forefront of this technology". Speaking for the Puerto Rico Bankers Association, Zoimé Álvarez argued that in order to comply with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation standards regulatory controls were required to prevent illegal activity such as “money laundering [or] terrorism financing". Afterwards, Ortiz made it clear that he had been satisfied and anticipated that bill will be presented to regulate cryptocurrencies in the jurisdiction.On November 7, 2022, the Government Commission issued a positive report signed by Ortiz for the investigation of potential uses for the implementation of blockchain for public purposes and regulating cryptocurrencies. The DDEC created its own regulatory framework in February 2023, when it extended Law 60 tax exemptions to blockchain-related ventures. Days later, the PRHOR defeated P.C. 1565 with votes of 24-14, which was promoted by Ortiz and intended to create a task force, the Comité Asesor de la Asamblea Legislativa para implementar la tecnología Blockchain, to create a plan for the implementation of the technology within 180 days. === The 2022–2023 Crypto Winter === As the price of all cryptocurrencies fell systematically throughout 2022 and scandals such as FTX’s sudden bankruptcy contributed to the collapse, the Puertopians publicly dismissed the issue as cyclical and continued operations unconcerned, this despite facing additional criticism that Puerto Ricans that wanted to begin startups within the industry received little to no support from the investors. When queried, some shrugged off thousands of dollars in losses and that less people were attending their events at San Juan by saying that the devaluation had repelled “crypto tourists” away, even claiming that the “quality” of attendees had improved. The group was also tied to other incidents that took place within the archipelago, including the death of DeFi developer Nikolai Mushegian at Condado following a paranoid Tweet about being pursued by intelligence agencies including the CIA and Mossad, their “sp[ies]” and what he called the “pedo elite”. The market collapse led to a decrease in settlers that moved to Puerto Rico expecting to become rich from their investment in the future, while sobriety overtook the longstanding Puertopians. == Reception == === Government and politics === The Puerto Rico Department of Treasury declined to comment on the issue, recognizing that they did not have an expert in cryptocurrency at the moment, but noted a future interest in having one. The Puerto Rico Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions has seen sufficient legitimacy to approve the existence of "Digital Internacional Bank" licenses, under the interpretation of international banking laws. However, unlike other locations where banks have suppressed the use of cryptocurrency, the Puerto Rico Bankers Association notes through president Zoimé Álvarez that they did not consider themselves "enemies" and that "[cryptocurrency] is here to stay, only being concerned by the irreversible nature of payments. When first interviewed about the topic, governor Ricardo Rosselló of the conservative Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) expressed that "there is still a lot of work to be done and giving clarity that this is not used for money laundering or it's not used for other areas", but favored widely adopting blockchain as a "game changer". Despite being in charge of the conference (named "Puerto Crypto") where relevant legislation is to be addressed, Manuel A. Laboy Rivera Secretary of Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico (DEDC), expressed a lack of knowledge about the real reach of bitcoin within the Puerto Rican economy (despite it being recorded since the early 2010s) and speculated that some changes to the local financial regulations may be needed. When prodded about what these would involve, he states that they would revolve around fraud protection. Corporative lawyer Antonio Bauzá agreed and argued in favor of audits. In 2021, Carlos Fontán director of the invcentives program of the DEDC reaffirmed the government's assessment that the Puertopians were creating jobs.By the time that he left office among public protests related to the Telegramgate, Rosselló was regarded as "supportive of crypto-entrepreneurial efforts " and among his final appointments was SJMX founder James Robert 'Bo' Collins to the board of Invest Puerto Rico. Wanda Vázquez Garced, who held the office for two years, increased the yearly fee paid by Act 60 beneficiaries from $300 to $5,000. Elected in 2020, PNP governor Pedro Pierluisi, who had publicly supported the tax incentives since his days as Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico, resumed the favorable public policy and hosted a dinner with Pierce and cryptocurrency-friendly New York mayor Eric Adams. By 2019, the legal ramifications the topic was discussed in the University of Puerto Rico School of Law's Revista Jurídica, where Verónica S. Otero Rivera concluded that Acts 20 and 22 were designed for other types of business and that new legislation was needed for the model used by digital coins.In 2021, OCIF commissioner Natalia Zequeira defended that a lack for formal regulation responded to an aversion to "innovation" in entities such as FDIC. She was later responsible for licensing the digital-asset custody and settlement services that the office authorized to FV Bank in November 2022. OCIF also ordered Athena to cease and desist its cryptocurrency operations in Puerto Rico until it received a MSB from the government, this after the unregulated operation of the BATMs was linked to irregular transactions involving stolen money and fake IDs in the municipality of Manatí.Liberal factions including the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) and Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana (MVC) have opposed the settlement of Puerto Rico by beneficiaries of Act 60, believing that it promotes displacement, with María de Lourdes Santiago presenting a bill to repel the benefits. Former gubernatorial candidate for the defunct Working People's Party, Rafael Bernabe Riefkohl, linked the influx of foreigners to the economic policies that the United States imposed following the Spanish–American War, and how they decimated the sugar industry in Puerto Rico, the subsequent implementation Operation Bootstrap and their relationship to previous migrations. In December 2022, Avraham Eisenberg was arrested in the island for pilfering more than a hundred million dollars by exploiting the Mango Markets platform to accumulate cryptocurrency loans, prior to this he was given Act 60 benefits by DDEC secretary Manuel Cidre. === Media === The largest newspaper in Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día, has been covering cryptocurrency topics since 2014, with articles ranging from bitcoin adoption and local regulation to the establishment of Medici Bank. Most of these articles have been informative as opposed to investigative, with exceptions including a piece where Sharon Minelli Pérez created a profile of the "crypto enthusiasts" that had become involved since the "crypto boom" of 2017. Christian Gabriel Ramos Segarra has authored several articles about the topic for El Vocero in 2021, initially discussing the lack of formal regulation and how, in conjunction with price fluctuations of BTC, this had slowed down the widespread adoption among the general populace in Puerto Rico, citing that by this point the bulk of those involved was still in the influx of foreign traders. In another piece, he echoed the arguments of several traders including Pierce about the potential of cryptocurrency for economic development in Puerto Rico if properly regulated. When price of bitcoin improved in 2021, Aiola Virella of Metro Puerto Rico interviewed Juan Carlos Pedreira the concept of that coin displacing traditional currency within some markets as inflation increased.When the Puertopians first made their presence known in 2018, Rafael Lenín López of WAPA-TV began an investigation for NotiCentro, the channel's news service. In it he interviewed a number of government officials, technological experts and economists, whose reactions varied between cautious support and skepticism. Eva Lloréns Vélez of Caribbean Business wrote about the regulation that would be required before Puerto Rico could become "a crypto-paradise", citing figures that discussed the legal and banking aspects of the idea. This publication also gave general coverage of other local topics related to cryptocurrency including regulation, the proposal for a digital coin known as "Kokicoin", the relationship between Noble bank and Tether and conferences including CoinAgenda. Digital newspaper NotiCel has published several pieces on cryptocurrency, with its staff adopting differing views on the subject following an initial report on the arrival of the Puertopians and the tax incentives. Eric De León Soto has written informative pieces about crypto banking and a proposal to create an investment fund promoted by Pierce. However, Adriana De Jesús Salamán has critical about the group, noting the suspicions surrounding them and writing about the acquisition of properties in Old San Juan and the arrival of the Special Economic Zones, which she labelled as "another experiment for Puerto Rico from the crypto-community". In 2022, Jeremy Ortiz Portalatín of Telemundo Puerto Rico's (WKAQ-TV) newsservice published an investigative series where he interviewed traders and politicians within the context of the ongoing inflation of the United States dollar, discussing the Puertopians, regulation and the Metaverse.Abroad, journalists like Larisa Yarovaya and Brian Lucey of The Conversation have expressed concerns that the creation of Sol would result in crypto-colonialism. Mariah Espada of Time focused her coverage on the activists that opposed Act 60 beneficiaries including "crypto currency tycoons" and the perception that it fuels displacement and gentrification. Neil Strauss of Rolling Stone opted to publish a biographical article of Pierce and documented his day-to-day life as he intended "to turn Puerto Rico into a Burning Man utopia", discussing a number of personal quirks which prompt comparisons to cult leaders and hippies, but establishing his position as the de facto leader of the Puertopians. Chloe Watlington of The Baffler, disregarded the Puertopians' proposal to build a techno-utopia as a "battery of garbled catchphrases and slogans masquerading as business plans" and linked them "old colonial scams in Puerto Rico". Mark Elwood of the New York Post wrote positively about the administration's approach to what it calls the "Puerto Crypto movement", comparing it to Singapore and arguing that it's going to "reshape Puerto Rico into America's homegrown answer to Dubai". Samantha Bee was critical of the arrival of these traders to Puerto Rico, calling the group "tax locusts" and hosting Manuel Natal in a segment of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee titled "Tax Locusts and Blockchain Bros". Canadian author Naomi Klein shares a similar opinion in The Battle for Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists, asserting that "the true religion here is tax avoidance". Writing for British newspaper The Times, Josh Glancy described the group as more idealistic, "self-assured and utopian" than Sillicon Valley tycoons, presenting them in a generally favorable light as an emerging "technological network". === Other demographics === Upon their arrival the general populace the concept was not well understood and often compared to the Iraqi dinar investment scam. In contrast, the idea of cryptocurrency was favored by young Puerto Ricans that are interested in technology, entrepreneurs and those involved in the creative industries. By 2018 some businesses began accepting bitcoin as a form of payment, as did individuals involved in services such as touristic taxis and Uber drivers. The first health care institution to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment in Puerto Rico was Profesional Hospital Guaynabo located in the eponymous municipality. The media attention to the topic resulted in better awareness in the following years, reaching more blue collar workers. The increase in adoption also led to cryptocurrency being used by criminals that began requesting scam payments in bitcoin. Parallel to this, grassroots movements that oppose gentrification began to publicly oppose the arrival of the Puertopians along other beneficiaries of Act 60, led by an organization known as #AbolishAct60, which considers the acquisition of real state by these traders as a "predatory" practice as it takes place in conjunction with an ongoing migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida and other locations. The first instance took place in October 2018, when a young woman confronted Pierce while he was hosting an event named #RestartWeek. Local feminist group Taller Salud has protested Act 60 as it believes that "tax havens and inaccessible incentives for natives that have strengthened and upheld colonialism." This animosity extended to Puerto Ricans that cooperated with the group, who were referred to as "vendepatrias" (traitors) for their involvement. Amid a pattern of foreigners acquiring the increasingly expensive buildings in Old San Juan, posters depicting the Puertopians (in particular Pierce) with the caption “this is what our colonizers look like" began appearing throughout the colonial city along other beneficiaries of Act 60.Among members of the stateside Puerto Ricans, artists Liat Berdugo and Emily Martinez, collectively known as Anxious to Make, created an exhibit known as "Eternal Boy Playground" that documented the reactions of people that opposed the arrival of the first wave cryptocurrency traders as disaster capitalism. Others like Diáspora en Resistencia have been actively trying to point the attention of Congress towards the issue, both to scrutinize Act 60 beneficiaries and to pressure the local government into action. In September 2022, Bad Bunny released the video for "El Apagón", which criticizes gentrification and a number of interest groups including "crypto bros". == References == Footnotes

Cryptocurrency and crime

Cryptocurrency and crime describe notable examples of cybercrime related to theft (or the otherwise illegal acquisition) of cryptocurrencies and some methods or security vulnerabilities commonly exploited. Cryptojacking is a form of cybercrime specific to cryptocurrencies that have been used on websites to hijack a victim's resources and use them for hashing and mining cryptocurrency.According to blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, 0.15% of known cryptocurrency transactions conducted in 2021 were involved in illicit activities like cybercrime, money laundering and terrorism financing, representing a total of $14 billion. == Background == There are various types of cryptocurrency wallets available, with different layers of security, including devices, software for different operating systems or browsers, and offline wallets. Novel exploits unique to blockchain transactions exist, aiming to generate unintended outcomes for those involved. One of the more well-known issues that open the possibility for exploits on Bitcoin is the transaction malleability problem.The Immunefi Crypto Losses 2022 Report lists industry losses from frauds and hacking as a combined total of US$3.9 billion for the year, and at US$8 billion for 2021. == Notable thefts == In 2018, around US$1.7 billion in cryptocurrency was lost to scams, theft and fraud. In the first quarter of 2019, the amount of such losses rose to US$1.2 billion. 2022 was a record year for cryptocurrency theft, according to Chainalysis, with US$3.8 billion stolen worldwide during 125 system hacks, including US$1.7 billion stolen by "North Korea-linked hackers". === Exchanges === Notable cryptocurrency exchange compromises resulting in the loss of cryptocurrencies include: Between 2011 and 2014, US$350 million worth of bitcoin was stolen from Mt. Gox. In 2016, US$72 million was stolen through exploiting Bitfinex's exchange wallet, users were refunded. On December 7, 2017, Slovenian cryptocurrency exchange NiceHash reported that hackers had stolen over $70 million using a hijacked company computer. On December 19, 2017, Yapian, the owner of South Korean exchange Youbit, filed for bankruptcy after suffering two hacks that year. Customers were still granted access to 75% of their assets. In 2018, cryptocurrencies worth US$400 million were stolen from Coincheck. In May 2018, Bitcoin Gold had its transactions hijacked and abused by unknown hackers. Exchanges lost an estimated $18 m and Bitcoin Gold was delisted from Bittrex after it refused to pay its share of the damages. In June 2018, South Korean exchange Coinrail was hacked, losing over $37M worth of cryptos. The hack worsened an already ongoing cryptocurrency selloff by an additional $42 billion. On July 9, 2018, the exchange Bancor, whose code and fundraising had been subjects of controversy, had $23.5 million in cryptocurrency stolen. Zaif US$60 million in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Monacoin was stolen in September 2018 Binance In 2019 cryptocurrencies worth US$40 million were stolen. Africrypt founders are suspected of absconding in June 2021 with US$3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin PolyNetwork (DeFi) suffered the loss of US$611 million in a theft in August 2021. Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid was compromised in August 2021 resulting in a loss of US$97 million worth of digital coins Cream Finance was subject to a US$29 million theft in August, 2021 and $130 million October 28, 2021. On December 2, 2021, users of the BadgerDAO DeFi lost around $118,500,000 worth of bitcoin and $679,000 worth of ethereum tokens in a front-end attack. A compromised API key of the Cloudflare content delivery network account allowed injecting a malicious script to the web interface. BadgerDAO "paused" all smart contracts due to user complaints. On December 6, 2021, the cryptocurrency exchange BitMart lost around $135M worth of Ethereum and an estimated $46 million in other cryptocurrencies due to a breach of two of its wallets. Although BitMart stated that it would reimburse its clients, many BitMart clients have not received any money from the exchange as of January 2022. On December 12, 2021, users of VulcanForge lost around $135M worth of PYR due to breaches of multiple wallets. Partnering centralized exchanges had been notified of the hack and they have pledged to seize any stolen funds upon deposit. On January 27, 2022, Qubit Finance (DeFi) lost around $80M worth of Binance Coin due to a flaw in the smart contract that enabled the withdrawal of the said amount in exchange for a deposit of 0 ETH. In March 2022, the largest cryptocurrency theft of the year, US$625 million in ether and USD coin was stolen from the Ronin Network. Hacked nodes were finally discovered when a user reported being unable to withdraw funds. The heist was later linked to Lazarus Group, a North Korean state-backed hacking collective, by the U.S. Treasury Department. On September 20, 2022, Wintermute was hacked resulting in theft of US$160 million. The company attributed the vulnerability to a service used by the platform that generates vanity addresses for digital accounts. On September 25, 2023, it was reported that $200 million was stolen by hackers from crypto firm Mixin Network. The company stated that the database of its network's cloud service provider was attacked by hackers resulting in the loss of the assets. === Wallets === The Parity Wallet has had two security incidents amounting to 666,773 ETH lost or stolen. In July 2017, due to a bug in the multisignature code, 153,037 ETH (approximately US$32 million at the time) were stolen. In November 2017, a subsequent multisignature flaw in Parity made 513,774 ETH (about US$150 million) unreachable; as of March 2019, the funds were still frozen. === Energy === Notable cases of electricity theft to mine proof-of-work cryptocurrencies include: In February 2021 Malaysian police arrested six men involved in a Bitcoin mining operation which had stolen US$2 million in electricity Ukraine authorities shut down an underground gaming and cryptocurrency farm in July, 2021, accused of stealing $259,300 of electricity each month In July 2021 Malaysian authorities destroyed 1,069 cryptocurrency mining systems accused of stealing electricity from the grid In May, 2021 UK authorities closed a suspected bitcoin mine after Western Power Distribution found an illegal connection to the electricity supply === Blockchains === ==== Bitcoin ==== There have been many cases of bitcoin theft. As of December 2017, around 980,000 bitcoins—over five percent of all bitcoin in circulation—had been lost on cryptocurrency exchanges.One type of theft involves a third party accessing the private key to a victim's bitcoin address, or of an online wallet. If the private key is stolen, all the bitcoins from the compromised address can be transferred. In that case, the network does not have any provisions to identify the thief, block further transactions of those stolen bitcoins, or return them to the legitimate owner.Theft also occurs at sites where bitcoins are used to purchase illicit goods. In late November 2013, an estimated US$100 million in bitcoins were allegedly stolen from the online illicit goods marketplace Sheep Marketplace, which immediately closed. Users tracked the coins as they were processed and converted to cash, but no funds were recovered and no culprits were identified. A different black market, Silk Road 2, stated that during a February 2014 hack, bitcoins valued at $2.7 million were taken from escrow accounts.Sites where users exchange bitcoins for cash or store them in "wallets" are also targets for theft. Inputs.io, an Australian wallet service, was hacked twice in October 2013 and lost more than $1 million in bitcoins. GBL, a Chinese bitcoin trading platform, suddenly shut down on 26 October 2013; subscribers, unable to log in, lost up to $5 million worth of bitcoin. In late February 2014 Mt. Gox, one of the largest virtual currency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo amid reports that bitcoins worth US$350 million had been stolen. Flexcoin, a bitcoin storage specialist based in Alberta, Canada, shut down in March 2014 after saying it discovered a theft of about $650,000 in bitcoins. Poloniex, a digital currency exchange, reported in March 2014 that it lost bitcoins valued at around $50,000. In January 2015 UK-based bitstamp, the third busiest bitcoin exchange globally was hacked and US$5 million in bitcoins were stolen. February 2015 saw a Chinese exchange named BTER lose bitcoins worth nearly $2 million to hackers.A major bitcoin exchange, Bitfinex, was compromised by the 2016 Bitfinex hack, when nearly 120,000 bitcoins (around US$71 million) was stolen in 2016. Bitfinex was forced to suspend its trading. The theft was the second-largest bitcoin heist ever, dwarfed only by the Mt. Gox theft in 2014. According to Forbes, "All of Bitfinex's customers... will stand to lose money. The company has announced a cut of 36.067% across the board." Following the hack the company refunded customers. In 2022, the US government recovered 94,636 bitcoin (worth approximately $3.6 billion at the time of recovery) from the 2016 thefts of the Bitfinex exchange, reported as the "largest financial seizure" in U.S. history. By February 2022, the amount of bitcoin stolen in 2016 had increased in value to $4.5 billion. Two people were arrested for the thefts in 2022; married couple Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and rapper Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States.On May 7, 2019, hackers stole over 7000 Bitcoins from the Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange, at a value of over 40 million US dollars. Binance CEO Zhao Changpeng stated: "The hackers used a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses, and other attacks... The hackers had the patience to wait, and execute well-orchestrated actions through multiple seemingly independent accounts at the most opportune time."Thefts have raised safety concerns. Charles Hayter, founder of the digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare said, "It's a reminder of the fragility of the infrastructure in such a nascent industry." According to the hearing of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on April 2, 2014, "these vendors lack regulatory oversight, minimum capital standards and don't provide consumer protection against loss or theft." ==== Ethereum ==== In June 2016, hackers exploited a vulnerability in The DAO to steal US$50 million. Subsequently, the currency was forked into Ethereum Classic, and Ethereum, with the latter continuing with the new blockchain without the exploited translations.On November 21, 2017, Tether announced that it had been hacked, losing $31 million in USDT from its core treasury wallet. The company has 'tagged' the stolen currency, hoping to 'lock' them in the hacker's wallet (making them unspendable).In 2022, hackers created a signature account on a blockchain bridge called "Wormhole" and stole more than $300 million worth of ether. == Fraud == === Exit scams and ponzi schemes through initial coin offerings (ICOs) === Most exit scams (or rugpulls) as well as many ponzi schemes involving cryptocurrencies are performed through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). As an example, according to a report by Satis Group almost 80% of all projects launched through an ICO in 2017 were scams. These scams usually involve attracting investments from mostly retail investors, inflating the price and the perpetrators subsequently abandoning the project in question after selling off their own shares.The novelty of ICOs accounts for the current lack of governmental regulation. This lack of regulatory measures as well as the pseudonymity of cryptocurrency transactions and their international nature across countless jurisdictions in many different countries can make it much more difficult to identify and take legal action against perpetrators involved in these scams. Since 2017 the SEC has been actively pursuing groups and individuals responsible for ICO-related scams. ==== Examples of ICO-related scams ==== AriseCoin (AriseBank): AriseBank marketed itself as the world's first decentralized bank, falsely claiming to be able to offer FDIC-insured accounts, VISA-cards as well as services related to cryptocurrency and making other false statements. AriseBank promoted its AriseCoin through celebrity endorsement and social media in order to raise the US$1 billion the company was aiming for. Their ICO was halted by the SEC in early 2018 with their CEO and COO receiving a fine of US$2.7 million. BitConnect: Bitconnect was among the highest performing cryptocurrencies in 2017, promising investors enormous returns through a trading bot. At its height it reached a market capitalization of US$3.4 billion. In early 2018 the exchanged ceased to operate with investors losing millions of dollars, amounting to a total of US$14.5 million. It later turned out that the initial profits were generated through a ponzi scheme by paying earlier customers with money made through newer customers. Legal action against the perpetrators was taken on an international scale. Centra: Centra was a Miami-based company claiming to offer a cryptocurrency-based debit card backed by VISA and Mastercard. The company raised US$32 million by October 2017 through an ICO and few months later performing an exit-scam. In April 2018 two of the founders were arrested. It was soon revealed that neither Mastercard nor VISA backed the company in their alleged efforts. Modern Tech (PinCoin/iFan): Based in Vietnam, Modern Tech hosted two separate ICOs for PinCoin as well as iFan promising monthly returns of 48%. After the initial success the founders ran off with approximately US$660 million raised from 32,000 investors. The founders are still at large and none of the funds have been retrieved. PlexCoin: After Dominic Lacroix and Sabrina Paradis-Rogers (the founders of PlexCoin) had officially raised around US$15 million through a fraudulent ICO in August 2017 while promising a return of 1,354 % within a month, the SEC filed a civil complaint in December of the same year against them and sought an injunction to cease those sales, freeze the assets involved, pay civil penalties and prohibit the ones responsible behind the token launch from participating in any future offerings of cryptocurrency. Shortly after Lacroix was sentenced to two months in prison and fined CA$110,000 by the Quebec Superior Court. The SEC's proceedings lead to seven-figure fines for the defendants in 2019 and a retrieval of the investors' funds. During the proceedings the SEC was able to prove that the success of the ICO was inflated by the founders who in fact had raised US$8.5 million instead of the US$15 million they had announced. === Ponzi schemes === Ponzi schemes are another common form of utilizing blockchainbased technologies to commit fraud. Most schemes of this sort use multi-level marketing schemes to encourage investors to conduct risky investments. Onecoin is one of the more notable examples of cryptocurrency-ponzi schemes: Founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova, OneCoin is estimated to have generated US$4 billion in income. While at least in China some of the investors' funds have been recovered and several members of the organisation arrested in the U.S., Ignatova herself is still at large. === Money laundering === Due to the inability of third parties to de-pseudonymize cryptotransactions criminal entities have often resorted to using cryptocurrency to conduct money laundering. Especially ICOs lacking KYC guidelines and anti-money laundering procedures are often used to launder illicit funds due to the pseudonymity offered by them. By using ICOs criminals launder these funds by buying tokens off of legitimate investors and selling them. This issue is intensified through the lack of measures against money laundering implemented by centralized cryptocurrency-exchanges.A well-known early example of money laundering using cryptocurrencies is Silk Road. Shut down in 2013 with its founder Ross Ulbricht indicted for among other counts a money laundering conspiracy, the website was used for several illicit activities including money laundering solely using Bitcoin as a form of payment.Apart from traditional cryptocurrencies, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are also commonly used in connection with money laundering activities. NFTs are often used to perform Wash Trading by creating several different wallets for one individual, generating several fictitious sales and consequently selling the respective NFT to a third party. According to a report by Chainalysis these types of wash trades are becoming increasingly popular among money launderers especially due to the largely anonymous nature of transactions on NFT marketplaces. Auction platforms for NFT sales may face regulatory pressure to comply with anti-money laundering legislation. ==== Regulatory measures ==== Canada is generally regarded as the first state-actor implementing regulatory measures dealing with money laundering conducted by usage of cryptocurrencies. By 2013 the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) — in direct reference to the centralized exchange Mt. Gox — issued regulations making it clear that all crypto-to-fiat exchangers had to apply KYC- as well as anti-money laundering methods. Any suspicious transactions have therefore to be reported to the authorities. Centralized exchanges have to register as money transmitters, with the exact definition of who and what constitutes a money transmitter in the cryptosphere being somewhat blurred and regulations differing between the different states of the U.S. An important exemption from these regulations are decentralized exchanges due to the fact that they do not hold any fiat-currency.As part of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive of 2015 and in an effort to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the European Union has issued a directive making all member-states to have to make sure that cryptoexchanges are licensed and registered. The EU is furthermore planning to take measures to ensure that all customers of cryptocurrency-exchanges are to verify their identity as part of the registration process. ===== Regarding NFTs ===== Auction platforms for NFT sales may face regulatory pressure to comply with anti-money laundering legislation. A February 2022 study from the United States Treasury assessed that there was "some evidence of money laundering risk in the high-value art market," including through "the emerging digital art market, such as the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)." The study considered how NFT transactions may be a simpler option for laundering money through art by avoiding the transportation or insurance complications in trading physical art. Several NFT exchanges were labeled as virtual asset service providers that may be subject to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network regulations.The European Union has yet to establish specific regulations to combat money laundering through NFTs. The European Commission announced in July 2022 that it is planning to draw regulations regarding that issue by 2024. === Further examples === Josh Garza, who founded the cryptocurrency startups GAW Miners and ZenMiner in 2014, acknowledged in a plea agreement that the companies were part of a pyramid scheme, and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2015. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission separately brought a civil enforcement action against Garza, who was eventually ordered to pay a judgment of US$9.1 million plus $700,000 in interest. The SEC's complaint stated that Garza, through his companies, had fraudulently sold "investment contracts representing shares in the profits they claimed would be generated" from mining. Garza was later found guilty of fraud and ordered to pay US$9 million and begin serving a 21-month sentence commencing January 2019 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Connecticut.The cryptocurrency community refers to pre-mining, hidden launches, ICO or extreme rewards for the altcoin founders as deceptive practices. This is at times an inherent part of the cryptocurrency's design. Pre-mining refers to the practice of generating the currency before its released to the public.FTX and Alameda Research founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in December 2022 and charged with commodities and wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, as well as with violating campaign finance laws. == Malware == === Malware attacks === Some malware can steal private keys for bitcoin wallets allowing the bitcoins themselves to be stolen. The most common type searches computers for cryptocurrency wallets to upload to a remote server where they can be cracked and their coins were stolen. Many of these also log keystrokes to record passwords, often avoiding the need to crack the keys. A different approach detects when a bitcoin address is copied to a clipboard and quickly replaces it with a different address, tricking people into sending bitcoins to the wrong address. This method is effective because bitcoin transactions are irreversible.: 57 One virus, spread through the Pony botnet, was reported in February 2014 to have stolen up to $220,000 in cryptocurrencies including bitcoins from 85 wallets. Security company Trustwave, which tracked the malware, reports that its latest version was able to steal 30 types of digital currency.A type of Mac malware active in August 2013, Bitvanity posed as a vanity wallet address generator and stole addresses and private keys from other bitcoin client software. A different trojan for macOS, called CoinThief was reported in February 2014 to be responsible for multiple bitcoin thefts. The software was hidden in versions of some cryptocurrency apps on Download.com and MacUpdate. === Ransomware === Many types of ransomware demand payment in bitcoin. One program called CryptoLocker, typically spread through legitimate-looking email attachments, encrypts the hard drive of an infected computer, then displays a countdown timer and demands a ransom in bitcoin, to decrypt it. Massachusetts police said they paid a 2 bitcoin ransom in November 2013, worth more than $1,300 at the time, to decrypt one of their hard drives. Bitcoin was used as the ransom medium in the WannaCry ransomware. One ransomware variant disables internet access and demands credit card information to restore it, while secretly mining bitcoins.As of June 2018, most ransomware attackers preferred to use currencies other than bitcoin, with 44% of attacks in the first half of 2018 demanding Monero, which is highly private and difficult to trace, compared to 10% for bitcoin and 11% for Ether. === Unauthorized mining === == Phishing == A phishing website to generate private IOTA wallet seed passphrases, and collected wallet keys, with estimates of up to US$4 million worth of MIOTA tokens stolen. The malicious website operated for an unknown amount of time and was discovered in January 2018. == Fraud factories == Fraud factories in Asia traffic workers to scam westerners into buying cryptocurrencies online. == Other incidents == In 2015, two members of the Silk Road Task Force—a multi-agency federal task force that carried out the U.S. investigation of Silk Road—were convicted over charges pertaining to corruption. Former DEA agent, Carl Mark Force, had attempted to extort Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht ("Dread Pirate Roberts") by faking the murder of an informant. He pleaded guilty to money laundering, obstruction of justice, and extortion under color of official right, and was sentenced to 6.5 years in federal prison. Former U.S. Secret Service agent, Shaun Bridges, pleaded guilty to crimes relating to his diversion of $800,000 worth of bitcoins to his personal account during the investigation, and also separately pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection to another cryptocurrency theft. Bridges were sentenced to almost eight years in federal prison.Gerald Cotten founded QuadrigaCX in 2013, after graduating from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto. Cotten was acting as the sole curator of the exchange. Quadriga had no official bank accounts since banks at the time had no method of managing cryptocurrency. In late 2018, Canada's largest crypto exchange QuadrigaCX lost US$190 million in cryptocurrency when the owner died; he was the only one with knowledge of the password to a storage wallet. The exchange filed for bankruptcy in 2019.Michael Terpin, the founder and chief executive officer of Transform Group, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based company that advises blockchain businesses on public relations and communications, sued Ellis Pinsky in New York on May 7, 2020, for leading a "sophisticated cybercrime spree" that stole US$24 million in cryptocurrency by hacking into Terpin's phone in 2018. Terpin also sued Nicholas Truglia and won a $75.8 million judgment against Truglia in 2019 in California state court.On July 15, 2020, Twitter accounts of prominent personalities and firms, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple, Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg and Uber were hacked. Twitter confirmed that it was a coordinated social engineering attack on their own employees. Twitter released its statement six hours after the attack took place. Hackers posted the message to transfer the Bitcoin in a Bitcoin wallet, which would double the amount. The wallet's balance was expected to increase to more than $100,000 as the message spread among the Twitter followers.In 2021, US Authorities carried out a raid on James Zhong's home in Gainesville, Georgia. Authorities found over 51,000 bitcoin that Zhong had stolen from Silk Road between 2012 and 2013. Through an error on Silk Road, Zhong was able to withdraw more bitcoin than what was initially deposited. He concealed his identity and was able to evade authorities for nearly a decade. Zhong ended up pleading guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison along with a forfeiture of all bitcoin.In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission reported that $139 million in cryptocurrency was stolen by romance scammers in 2020. Some scammers targeted dating apps with fake profiles.In early 2022, the Beanstalk cryptocurrency was stripped of its reserves, which were valued at more than US$180 million, after attackers had managed to use borrowed US$80 million in cryptocurrency to buy enough voting rights to transfer the reserves to their own accounts outside the system. It was initially unclear if such an exploit of governance procedures was illegal. == See also == Bitcoin network § Alleged criminal activity Computer security Cryptocurrency bubble Terrorism financing == Notes == == References == == External links == Zandt, Florian (31 March 2022). "Infographic: The Biggest Crypto Heists". Statista.

Cryptocurrency exchange

A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may accept credit card payments, wire transfers or other forms of payment in exchange for digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency exchange can be a market maker that typically takes the bid–ask spreads as a transaction commission for its service or, as a matching platform, simply charges fees. Some brokerages which also focus on other assets such as stocks, like Robinhood and eToro, let users purchase but not withdraw cryptocurrencies to cryptocurrency wallets. Dedicated cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase do allow cryptocurrency withdrawals, however. == Operation == A cryptocurrency exchange can typically send cryptocurrency to a user's personal cryptocurrency wallet. Some can convert digital currency balances into anonymous prepaid cards which can be used to withdraw funds from ATMs worldwide while other digital currencies are backed by real-world commodities such as gold.The creators of digital currencies are typically independent of the digital currency exchange that facilitate trading in the currency. In one type of system, digital currency providers (DCP) are businesses that keep and administer accounts for their customers, but generally do not issue digital currency to those customers directly. Customers buy or sell digital currency from digital currency exchanges, who transfer the digital currency into or out of the customer's DCP account. Some exchanges are subsidiaries of DCP, but many are legally independent businesses. The denomination of funds kept in DCP accounts may be of a real or fictitious currency.A digital currency exchange can be a brick-and-mortar business or a strictly online business. As a brick-and-mortar business, it exchanges traditional payment methods and digital currencies. As an online business, it exchanges electronically transferred money and digital currencies.Often, the digital currency exchanges operate outside the Western countries to avoid regulation and prosecution. However, they do handle Western fiat currencies and maintain bank accounts in several countries to facilitate deposits in various national currencies.Decentralized exchanges such as Etherdelta, IDEX and HADAX do not store users' funds on the exchange, but instead facilitate peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading. Decentralized exchanges are resistant to security problems that affect other exchanges, but as of mid 2018 suffer from low trading volumes. == History == === 2004–2008 Pre crypto regulatory issues === In 2004 three Australian-based digital currency exchange businesses voluntarily shut down following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The ASIC viewed the services offered as legally requiring an Australian Financial Services License, which the companies lacked.In 2006, U.S.-based digital currency exchange business Gold Age Inc., a New York state business, was shut down by the U.S. Secret Service after operating since 2002. Business operators Arthur Budovsky and Vladimir Kats were indicted "on charges of operating an illegal digital currency exchange and money transmittal business" from their apartments, transmitting more than $30 million to digital currency accounts. Customers provided limited identity documentation, and could transfer funds to anyone worldwide, with fees sometimes exceeding $100,000. Budovsky and Kats were sentenced in 2007 to five years in prison "for engaging in the business of transmitting money without a license, a felony violation of state banking law", ultimately receiving sentences of five years' probation.In April 2007, the U.S. government ordered E-Gold administration to lock/block approximately 58 E-Gold accounts owned and used by The Bullion Exchange, AnyGoldNow, IceGold, GitGold, The Denver Gold Exchange, GoldPouch Express, 1MDC (a Digital Gold Currency, based on e-gold) and others, forcing G&SR (owner of OmniPay) to liquidate the seized assets. A few weeks later, E-Gold faced four indictments. === 2008–2014 advent of crypto currency === Following the launch of a decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin in 2008 and the subsequent introduction of other cryptocurrencies, many virtual platforms were created specifically for the exchange of decentralized cryptocurrencies. Their regulation differs from country to country. In July 2008, WebMoney changed its rules, affecting many exchanges. Since that time it became prohibited to exchange WebMoney to the most popular e-currencies like E-gold, Liberty Reserve and others. Also in July 2008 E-gold's three directors accepted a bargain with the prosecutors and pleaded guilty to one count of "conspiracy to engage in money laundering" and one count of the "operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business". E-gold ceased operations in 2009. In 2013, Jean-Loup Richet, a research fellow at ESSEC ISIS, surveyed new money laundering techniques that cybercriminals were using in a report written for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. A common approach to cyber money laundering was to use a digital currency exchanger service which converted dollars into Liberty Reserve and could be sent and received anonymously. The receiver could convert the Liberty Reserve currency back into cash for a small fee. In May 2013, digital currency exchanger Liberty Reserve was shut down after the alleged founder, Arthur Budovsky Belanchuk, and four others were arrested in Costa Rica, Spain, and New York "under charges for conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business." Budovsky, a former U.S. citizen and naturalized Costa Rican, was convicted in connection with the 2006 Gold Age raid. More than $40 million in assets were placed under restraint pending forfeiture, and more than 30 Liberty Reserve exchanger domain names were seized. The company was estimated to have laundered $6 billion in criminal proceeds. === 2014 to present === In February 2014, Mt. Gox, the largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time, suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan from creditors. In April 2014, the company began liquidation proceedings. This was the result of a large theft of bitcoins that were stolen straight out of the Mt. Gox hot wallet over time, beginning in late 2011.In December 2021 the MyCryptoWallet exchange called in liquidators.In June 2022, the US Securities and Exchange Commission launched an enquiry into Binance as an entity and not into the crypto products it was dealing in.On 11 November 2022, FTX, which was at that time the third largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and valued at $18 billion, entered bankruptcy proceedings in the US court system, following what the exchange termed as "a liquidity crisis". The financial impact of the collapse extended beyond the immediate FTX customer base, as reported, while, at a Reuters conference, financial industry executives said that "regulators must step in to protect crypto investors." Technology analyst Avivah Litan commented on the cryptocurrency ecosystem that "everything...needs to improve dramatically in terms of user experience, controls, safety, [and] customer service." On December 13, 2022, FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, after being extradited from the Bahamas, was charged by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York with fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the US and violate campaign finance laws. == Examples == In early 2018, Bloomberg News reported the largest cryptocurrency exchanges based on the volume and estimated revenues data collected by CoinMarketCap. Similar statistics was reported on Statista in a survey by Encrybit to understand cryptocurrency exchange problems. According to the survey, the top three cryptocurrency exchanges are: Binance Coinbase KrakenOther data points in the survey included the problems that cryptocurrency traders experience with cryptocurrency exchanges and the expectation of traders. Security and high trading fees are the top concerns. The exchanges are all fairly new and privately held. Several do not report basic information such as the names of the owners, financial data, or even the location of the business. == Legislation == By 2016, several cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the European Union obtained licenses under the EU Payment Services Directive and the EU Electronic Money Directive. The adequacy of such licenses for the operation of a cryptocurrency exchange has not been judicially tested. The European Council and the European Parliament announced that they will issue regulations to impose stricter rules targeting exchange platforms. In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission maintained that "if a platform offers trading of digital assets that are securities and operates as an "exchange," as defined by the federal securities laws, then the platform must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration". The Commodity Futures Trading Commission now permits the trading of cryptocurrency derivatives publicly.Among the Asian countries, Japan is more forthcoming and regulations mandate the need for a special license from the Financial Services Authority to operate a cryptocurrency exchange. China and Korea remain hostile, with China banning bitcoin miners and freezing bank accounts. While Australia is yet to announce its conclusive regulations on cryptocurrency, it does require its citizens to disclose their digital assets for capital gains tax. == See also == Bitcoin Blockchain Cryptocurrency Cryptography Digital gold currency List of bitcoin companies Foreign exchange market Medium of exchange == References == == Further reading == Rash, Wayne (7 March 2018). "Crypto-Currency Exchanges, Coin Offerings Facing Likely SEC Regulation". eWeek. Retrieved 9 March 2018.

Cryptoeconomics

Cryptoeconomics is an evolving economic paradigm for a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of digital economies and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Cryptoeconomics integrates concepts and principles from traditional economics, cryptography, computer science, and game theory disciplines. Just as traditional economics provides a theoretical foundation for traditional financial (a.k.a., Centralized Finance or CeFi) services, cryptoeconomics provides a theoretical foundation for DeFi services bought and sold via fiat cryptocurrencies, and executed by smart contracts. == Definitions and goals == The term cryptoeconomics was coined by the Ethereum community during its formative years (2014-2015), but was initially inspired by the application of economic incentives in the original Bitcoin protocol in 2008. Although the phrase is typically attributed to Vitalik Buterin, the earliest public documented usage is a 2015 talk by Vlad Zamfir entitled “What is Cryptoeconomics?” Zamfir's view of cryptoeconomics is relatively broad and academic: “… a formal discipline that studies protocols that govern the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services in a decentralized digital economy. Cryptoeconomics is a practical science that focuses on the design and characterization of these protocols”. Alternatively, in a 2017 talk, Buterin's view is more narrow and pragmatic: “… a methodology for building systems that try to guarantee certain kinds of information security properties”.According to Binance, the primary goals of cryptoeconomics are to understand how to fund, design, develop, and facilitate the operations of DeFi systems, and to apply economic incentives and penalties to regulate the distribution of goods and services in emerging digital economies. Cryptoeconomics may be considered an evolution of digital economics, which in turn evolved from traditional economics (commonly divided into microeconomics and macroeconomics). Consequently, traditional economic concepts regarding production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services also apply to cryptoeconomics. For example, these include Adam Smith's three basic laws of economics: Law of Supply and Demand, Law of Self Interest, and Law of Competition. They also include more modern economic concepts, such as fiat money theory and Modern Monetary Theory. == History == The historical roots of cryptoeconomics can be traced to the rise of altcoins, prominent among them the Ethereum project, which in 2015 pioneered the integration of smart contracts into its blockchain, thereby enabling a wide range of DeFi applications. == Subdisciplines == Similar to how traditional economics is divided into macroeconomics (regional, national, and international economics) and microeconomics (individual and enterprise economics) subdisciplines, cryptoeconomics can be divided into crypto-macreconomics and crypto-microeconomics subdisciplines. === Crypto-macroeconomics === Crypto-macroeconomics is concerned with the regional, national, and international regulation of cryptocurrencies and DeFi transactions. The Group of Seven governments' interest in cryptocurrencies became evident in August 2014, when the United Kingdom Treasury commissioned a study of cryptocurrencies and their potential role in the UK economy, and issued its final report in January 2021. In June 2021, El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. In August 2021, Cuba followed with a legal resolution to recognize and regulate cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. However, in September 2021, the government of China, the single largest market for cryptocurrency, declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal, completing a crackdown on cryptocurrency that had previously banned the operation of intermediaries and miners within China. === Crypto-microeconomics === Crypto-microeconomics is concerned with the individual and enterprise usages of cryptocurrencies and DeFi transactions. A strong majority of USA adults have heard about major cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ether), and 16% say they personally have invested in, traded, or otherwise used one. More than 300 million people use cryptocurrency worldwide, and approximately 46 million Americans have invested in Bitcoin. == Criticisms and controversies == Bitcoin, along with other cryptocurrencies, has been described as an economic bubble by many economists, including Robert Shiller, Joseph Stiglitz, Richard Thaler, Paul Krugman, and Nouriel Roubini. In addition, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been criticized for the amount of electricity required for cryptocurrency “mining” (blockchain transaction validation), and for their being used to purchase illegal goods. == See also == Tokenomics == References == == External links == Cryptoeconomics In 30 Minutes by Vitalik Buterin (Devcon5) on YouTube MIT Cryptoeconomics Lab Wikiversity - Cryptoeconomics == Further reading == Chris Berg, Sinclair Davidson, Jason Potts. Understanding the Blockchain Economy: An Introduction to Institutional Cryptoeconomics. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019. Jian Gong, Wei Xu. Cryptoeconomics: Igniting a New Era of Blockchain. CRC Press, 2020.

CryptoNote

CryptoNote is an application layer protocol designed for use with cryptocurrencies that aims to solve specific problems identified in Bitcoin. Namely: Traceability of transactions The proof-of-work function (see Bitcoin network) Irregular emission Hardcoded constants Bulky scripts Financial privacyThe protocol powers several decentralized privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, including Monero, MobileCoin and Safex Cash.Nothing is known about the original author of CryptoNote, "Nicolas van Saberhagen." Its mathematical component and motivation are described in the article "CryptoNote Whitepaper", released in two editions: in 2012 and in 2013. Launched in the summer of 2012, Bytecoin was the first cryptocurrency to use this technology. Later, several teams launched their networks, based on the Bytecoin code. == Emission == Just like in Bitcoin, miners are rewarded for finding solutions. But the stepped release curve characteristic of Bitcoin has been replaced with a smooth one in CryptoNote: the reward decreases with each block.One implementation of the CryptoNote protocol has resulted in a non-smooth emission curve, specifically, the S-curve of the Safex Blockchain, which was designed to match the Diffusion of Innovations technology adoption curve theory. == See also == Monero (cryptocurrency) == References ==

Cryptojacking

Cryptojacking is the act of exploiting a computer to mine cryptocurrencies, often through websites, against the user's will or while the user is unaware. One notable piece of software used for cryptojacking was Coinhive, which was used in over two-thirds of cryptojacks before its March 2019 shutdown. The cryptocurrencies mined the most often are privacy coins—coins with hidden transaction histories—such as Monero and Zcash.Like most malicious attacks on the computing public, the motive is profit, but unlike other threats, it is designed to remain completely hidden from the user. Cryptojacking malware can lead to slowdowns and crashes due to straining of computational resources.Bitcoin mining by personal computers infected with malware is being challenged by dedicated hardware, such as FPGA and ASIC platforms, which are more efficient in terms of power consumption and thus may have lower costs than theft of computing resources. == Notable events == In June 2011, Symantec warned about the possibility that botnets could mine covertly for bitcoins. Malware used the parallel processing capabilities of GPUs built into many modern video cards. Although the average PC with an integrated graphics processor is virtually useless for bitcoin mining, tens of thousands of PCs laden with mining malware could produce some results.In mid-August 2011, bitcoin mining botnets were detected, and less than three months later, bitcoin mining trojans had infected Mac OS X.In April 2013, electronic sports organization E-Sports Entertainment was accused of hijacking 14,000 computers to mine bitcoins; the company later settled the case with the State of New Jersey.German police arrested two people in December 2013 who customized existing botnet software to perform bitcoin mining, which police said had been used to mine at least $950,000 worth of bitcoins.For four days in December 2013 and January 2014, Yahoo! Europe hosted an ad containing bitcoin mining malware that infected an estimated two million computers using a Java vulnerability.Another software, called Sefnit, was first detected in mid-2013 and has been bundled with many software packages. Microsoft has been removing the malware through its Microsoft Security Essentials and other security software.Several reports of employees or students using university or research computers to mine bitcoins have been published. On February 20, 2014, a member of the Harvard community was stripped of his or her access to the university's research computing facilities after setting up a Dogecoin mining operation using a Harvard research network, according to an internal email circulated by Faculty of Arts and Sciences Research Computing officials.Ars Technica reported in January 2018 that YouTube advertisements contained JavaScript code that mined the cryptocurrency Monero.In 2021, multiple zero-day vulnerabilities were found on Microsoft Exchange servers, allowing remote code execution. These vulnerabilities were exploited to mine cryptocurrency. == Detection == Traditional countermeasures of cryptojacking are host-based and not suitable for corporate networks. A potential solution is a network-based approach called Crypto-Aegis, which uses machine learning to detect cryptocurrency activities in network traffic, even when encrypted or mixed with non-malicious data. == References ==

Colored Coins

Colored Coins is an open-source protocol built on the Bitcoin 2.0 that allows users to represent and manipulate immutable digital resources on top of Bitcoin transactions. They are a class of methods for representing and maintaining real-world assets on the Bitcoin blockchain, which may be used to establish asset ownership. Colored coins are bitcoins with a mark on them that specifies what they may be used for. Colored coins are also considered the initial step toward NFTs built on top of the Bitcoin network.Although bitcoins are fungible on the protocol level, they can be marked to be distinguished from other bitcoins. These marked coins have specific features that correspond to physical assets like vehicles and stocks, and owners may use them to establish their ownership of physical assets. Colored coins aim to lower transaction costs and complexity so that an asset's owner may transfer ownership as quickly as a Bitcoin transaction.Colored coins are commonly referred to as meta coins because this imaginative coloring is the addition of metadata. This enables a portion of a digital representation of a physical item to be encoded into a Bitcoin address. The value of the colored coins is independent of the current prices of the bitcoin; instead, it is determined by the value of the underlying actual asset/service and the issuer's desire and capacity to redeem the colored coins in return for the equivalent actual asset or service. == History == Colored coins arose due to the necessity to generate new tokens and move assets on the Bitcoin network. These tokens can be used to represent any asset in the world, including equities, commodities, real estate, fiat currency, and even other cryptocurrencies.Yoni Assia, the CEO of eToro, was the first to suggest Colored coins in an article published on March 27, 2012. In the article titled bitcoin 2.X (aka Colored bitcoin), Assia claimed that the initial specifications that bitcoins transmitted using the "Genesis Transaction" protocol are recognizable, distinctive, and trackable on the ledger. The idea was growing, and on forums such as Bitcointalk, the concept of colored coins started to take form and gain traction. This culminated in Meni Rosenfeld releasing a whitepaper detailing the colored currencies on December 4, 2012.The next year, in 2013, Assia collaborated with Buterin and two others, Lior Hakim and Meni Rosenfeld, to write Color Coins — BitcoinX, which explored the potential possibilities of colored coins. == Development == Colored coins originated as an afterthought by Bitcoin miners. The blockchain's data space had been utilized to encode numerous metadata values. This unexpected data caused processing issues, causing the network to slow down. The Bitcoin team fixed the problem by including a 40-byte area for storing data as a transaction, as well as an encrypted ledger of transactions and information about the coin's genesis.While bitcoin was developed to be a cryptocurrency, its scripting language makes it possible to associate metadata with individual transactions. By precisely tracing the origin of a particular bitcoin, it is possible to distinguish a group of bitcoins from the others, a process known as bitcoin coloring (a term that served as a basis to the name of the Colored Coins protocol).Through the oversight of an issuing agent or a public agreement, special properties can be associated with colored bitcoins, giving them value beyond the currency's value. One way of looking at this is from the abstraction that there are two distinct layers on top of bitcoin: the lower layer referring to the transaction network based on cryptographic technology and an upper layer that constitutes a distribution network of values encapsulated in the design of colored coins.Due to the fact that colored coins are implemented on top of the Bitcoin infrastructure, allow atomic transactions (exchanged for each other in a single transaction) and can be transferred without the involvement of a third party, they enable the decentralized exchange of items that would not be possible through traditional means.To create colored coins, "colored" addresses must be created and stored in "colored" wallets controlled by color-aware clients such as Coinprism, Coloredcoins, through Colu, or CoinSpark. The "coloring" process is an abstract idea that indicates an asset description, some general instructions symbol, and a unique hash associated with the Bitcoin addresses.In 2013, Flavien Charlon, the CEO of Coinprism, developed a Colored Coin Protocol that permitted the generation of colored currencies by employing specified settings in transaction inputs and outputs. This was Bitcoin's first working Colored Coin Protocol. This protocol, also known as the Open Assets Protocol, is open source and may be integrated into existing systems by anyone.On July 3, 2014, ChromaWay developed the Enhanced Padded-Order-Based Coloring protocol (EPOBC), which simplified the process of manufacturing colored coins for developers, and was one of the first to employ Bitcoin Script's new OP RETURN function.In 2015, Colu created the ColoredCoins platforms and Colored Coins protocol allowing users to build digital assets on top of the Bitcoin blockchain using the Bitcoin 2.0 protocol. == Layers of Colored Coins == Colored coin functions by adding a 4th layer to the Bitcoin blockchain. 1st Layer: Network 2nd Layer: Consensus 3rd Layer: Transaction 4th Layer: Watermark (color)Before ERC token standards were created, the concept of using tokens to represent and monitor real-world items existed. Colored coins were the original notion for representing assets on the blockchain. They are not widely used because the transaction structure required to represent colored coins relies on unspent transaction outputs, which Ethereum-based blockchain systems do not support. The primary concept is to add an attribute (the color) to native transactions that specify the asset it symbolizes. For example, for the Bitcoin blockchain, each Satoshi (the lowest potential value of Bitcoin) might represent a separate item. This notion is mostly used to monitor ownership of tokens and, by extension, assets. There is promise in using colored coins as an effective way of tracing in production situations since the transactions can be merged or divided into new transactions and the color can be readily altered after each transaction. Finally, current tools, like as blockchain explorers, make it simple to view and analyze transactions.The nature of colored coins makes them the first non-fungible tokens to be created on the Bitcoin blockchain, albeit with limited features. Colored coins are transferrable in what is known as atomic transactions. Atomic transactions are transactions that permit the direct peer-to-peer exchange of one token for another in a single transaction. In this way, colored coins allow traditional assets to be decentralized. == Transactions == Colored coin uses an open-source, decentralized peer-to-peer transaction protocol built on top of WEB 2.0. Despite being created to be a protocol for monetary transactions, one of the Bitcoin's advantages is a secure transaction protocol not controlled by a central authority. This is possible through the use of Blockchain, which maintains track of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide. A transaction consists of: A set of inputs such that each input has (a) a Transaction Hash and Output Index of a previous transaction carried out on that bitcoin and (b) a digital signature that serves as cryptographic proof that that input address authorizes the transaction. An output set such that each output has (a) the bitcoin value to be transferred to that output and (b) a script that maps a single address to that output. == Staining and transferring == The manipulation of colored coins can be performed through several algorithms, which create a set of rules to be applied to the inputs and outputs of Bitcoin transactions: At a given moment, a digital resource is associated with the output of a Bitcoin transaction, called Genesis Transactions. The output of this transaction (currency) belongs to the initial owner recorded in the system (in a case of a jewelry store associating its jewelry with digital resources, the newly colored coins will belong to the store). When the resource is transferred or sold, the currency that belongs to the previous owner is consumed, while a new colored currency is created at the outgoing address of the transfer transaction. When it is necessary to identify the owner of a coin, it is enough to evaluate the transaction history of that coin from its genesis transaction to the last transaction with unconsumed output. The Bitcoin blockchain has tracking of the public keys associated with each address, such that the owner of the coin can prove ownership by sending a message with the private key associated with that address.Among these algorithms, the best known of them is the EPOBC. The EPOBC algorithm colors the coins by inserting a mark in the nSequence field of the first input of the transaction. It is important to note that the nSequence field is always present in Bitcoin transactions, but it is not used, so it does not generate an overhead for the coloring process. Examples of companies driving the EPOBC are ChromaWallet, Cuber, LHV and Funderbeam. === Genesis transactions === To issue new colors, it is necessary to release coins of that color through genesis transactions. In general, there are two cases to consider about genesis transactions: Non-reissuable colors In this case, the transaction inputs are irrelevant to the algorithm, since once the transaction is executed, the coin issuer has no power over them. So all that matters is the genesis transaction itself. Reissuable colors In this scenario, the issuer must choose a secure address to be the “Issuing Address” and set transaction entry 0 to come from that address. In a second moment, the issuer will be able to issue new units of that color through genesis transactions with the same secure address. It is important to note that an address can only be associated with a single color. Once an address emits a reissuable color, it will no longer be able to participate in coloring coins of other colors, not even non-reissuable colors. === Transfer transactions === Transfer transactions are used to send colored coins from one address to another. It is also possible to transfer coins of multiple colors in a single transfer transaction. Tagging-based coloring is the most well-known algorithm for this operation. If colored coins are used as input for transactions that do not follow the transfer protocol, the value associated with their color is lost. Furthermore, their value can also be lost in a malformed transaction.There are one or more colored inputs in a transfer transaction. Inputs do not need to be of the same color, e.g. "gold" and "silver" can be transferred within one transaction, which is beneficial for peer-to-peer trade. The order of inputs and outputs within a transaction, as it is used for non-ambiguous decoding. === Alternative coloring algorithms === Determining a way to transfer colored coins from one Bitcoin address to another is the most complex part of the colored coins protocol. For transactions with only one input and one output, it is easy to determine that the color of the output coins is the same color that was received by the input address, since a Bitcoin address can only handle a single color value. However, in transactions with multiple inputs and outputs, determining which colored coins of inputs correspond to which outputs become a more complex task. For that, there are several algorithms that propose to solve this problem, each one with its peculiarities. Order based coloring is the first and simplest coloring algorithm. An intuitive way to understand this algorithm is to consider that the transaction has a width proportional to its total input amount. On the left side there are inputs, each a width proportional to its value, on the right side there are outputs with values proportional to their bitcoin values. Assume, then, that colored water flows in a straight line from left to right. The color of an outlet will be the color of the water arriving at it, or colorless if multiple-color coins arrive at that outlet. A single Bitcoin address cannot handle coins of different colors. Padded order based coloring is a slightly more complex algorithm than the OBC (Order based coloring) algorithm. In essence, the algorithm has the same principle as the OBC, however, treating each output as containing a pad of a certain number of colorless bitcoins, with the colored coins following them. == Applications == The Bitcoin network's decentralized nature indicates that its security does not need dependence on trusted parties and that its players may operate anonymously provided adequate safeguards are adopted. Colored Coins protocols adoption enables the integration of decentralized stock exchanges and other financial functionality into Bitcoin such as certifying credentials (like academic certificates), or establishing the existence of digital documents. Smart property: For example, a product rental company can release a colored coin to represent their products, such as a car. Through an application, the company could configure a control message that would send a message signed by the private key that currently has the colored coin. In this way, its users could transfer the vehicle's digital key to each other, by transferring the currency. This protocol feature may be used in land management by indicating ownership of a piece of land with a single or several tokens. The token's information may be used to maintain public registry parameters such as size, GPS locations, year created, and so on. The land administrator may encrypt ownership details such as titles or identification so that only individuals with the right private key can see the information. Anyone with an internet connection can publicly verify and trace the ownership of each token using block explorer software. Issue of shares: A company can issue its shares through colored coins, taking advantage of the Bitcoin infrastructure to manage activities such as voting, exchange and payment of dividends. Colored coins may also be used to form Distributed Collaborative Organizations (DCOs) and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which are acting as virtual corporations with shareholders. In such cases, the blockchain may assist in keeping track of a company's ownership structure as well as creating and distributing DCO shares in a transparent and safe manner. Examples: community currency or corporate currency, deposit representation, access and subscription services. Issue of coupons: A company can issue promotional coupons or loyalty points among its customers in the form of colored coins. Digital collectibles: Decentralized management of digital resources. Similar to how collectors acquire and sell paintings, colored coins enable managing digital resources in a similar way, such as e-books, music, digital games and software, guaranteeing ownership of the resource to the owner of the coin.As long as the provider's identity is protected by the legal framework, colored coins may be used to transfer any digitally transferable right. The circulation is based on a cryptographic signature. The contract and any payments linked to it are recorded on the blockchain using a unique cryptographic key that identifies the rightful owner of the currency. Parties may use an alias to sign up for the protocol under legally permissible circumstances. In reality, the secret cryptographic key enables the system to validate subscribers' digital identities without disclosing any personal information.Private key holders might then transfer the asset directly to other persons or corporations through a public blockchain. Users may trade and manage all asset classes in a somewhat decentralized framework with a minute amount of colored Bitcoin, according to marketing literature, rather than needing to send hundreds or even thousands of bitcoins in return for an item or service. Deterministic contracts: A person or company can issue contracts by pre-scheduling a payment, such as stock options. Bonds: A special case of a deterministic contract, bonds can be issued with a down payment amount and an installment schedule in bitcoin, another currency or commodity. Decentralized digital representation of physical resources: It means tying physical resources, such as physical objects, commodities, or traditional currencies, to digital resources and proving ownership of those objects in that way. NFT tokens use this approach, selling ownership of artworks and even living properties. == Сolored coin wallet == Colored coins can be handled through wallets in the same manner as Bitcoin monetary resources can be managed through bitcoin wallets. Wallets are used to manage the addresses associated with each pair of keys (public and private) of a Bitcoin user, as well as the transactions associated with their set of addresses. Rather than dealing with cryptocurrencies, colored coin wallets add a layer of abstraction, managing digital assets, such as stocks, altcoins, which are created on the Blockchain, intellectual property and other resources. While bitcoin wallets are required to use a unique Bitcoin address for each transaction, colored coin wallets frequently reuse their addresses in order to re-issue coins of the same color. To issue colored coins, colored addresses must be generated and stored in colored wallets administered by a color-aware client such as Coinprism. == Protocol implementation == Protocol implementations are associated with wallet software, so that the end user does not have to be concerned about transaction structuring or manual resource manipulation. There is, however, some concern about the interoperability of the existing implementations, owing to the fact that colored coins transactions are operationalized using the variety of different algorithms. Transactions between unsupported wallets may result in the loss of currency coloring features.Colored coins require a unified wallet that can distinguish between items other than bitcoins. In June 2015, a Torrent-based version of Colored Coins was developed to cover the protocol's use while Bitcoin has not yet been widely adopted by the market. Making the protocol compatible amongst different Bitcoin implementations is one approach to increase the usage of Bitcoin for digital asset management. == Legal aspects == A smart property or an item with an off-chain identifier that is transferred via blockchain remains subject to legal interpretation. Colored coins and other virtual currency are presently not recognized as evidence of ownership by any government agency in the United States. For financial institutions, the lack of an identifiable identity across on-and off-chain settings is still a barrier.There's a legal challenge with regard to the transfer of common stock ownership using blockchain. Due to the fact that the rights to receive notifications, vote, receive dividends, and exercise appraisal rights are restricted to registered owners, establishing ownership is likely even more critical for blockchain stock.Due to the extralegal nature of colored coin transactions such as NFTs, they frequently result in an informal exchange of ownership over the item with no legal basis for enforcement, frequently conferring nothing more than usage as a status symbol. == Limitations == As virtual tokens colored coins cannot compel the real world to meet the obligations made when they were issued. They can represent something external, in the actual world, such as a corporate action or debt repayment obligation. This suggests that they are issued by a person or entity, which carries some level of risk. That the issuer does not comply with its related obligations or there may even be fraud and that those currencies may not represent anything actual. They are unable to prevent a user from changing the underlying cryptocurrency in a way that destroys the extra information. Using virtual tokens in a transaction that does not conform with the rules of colored currencies (stricter than the rules of blockchain transactions and not mandated by it) destroys the additional meaning, leaving only the token’s monetary worth on the blockchain. It is impossible to store the semantics of information indicating what a token represents. For instance, the blockchain can record the number of concert tickets that have been issued and the addresses of their owners, but it cannot encode the fact that they represent allowed access to a specific concert at a specific time. Metadata storage and processing require an external system, such as Open-Transactions. Open-Transactions is a free software library that implements cryptographically secure financial transactions using financial cryptographic primitives. It can be utilized to issue stocks, pay dividends, purchase and sell shares, etc. The speed of transactions and the capabilities of the smart contract procedures utilized by virtual tokens are equivalent to those of the blockchain they are based on. Due to the nature of the Bitcoin host network, adding an additional layer is neither simple nor scalable. Additionally, it inherits all of the information security and safety concerns of the host blockchain. Developing a comprehensive protocol that incorporates asset issuance and native tracking may be a more rigorous and scalable method for creating a blockchain-based asset-tracking system. == Concerns == Opposition to the use of Colored Coins for the treatment of abstracted resources on Bitcoin mainly originates in the financial and banking sectors. It is argued that the proof-of-work blockchain-based security system cannot be exported to a regulated financial resolution environment. As a result, there is no legal framework for Colored Coins' transactions. Finally, there are some regulatory concerns with the coin coloring method. According to institutions that criticize the decentralized transaction system, the legal effect of an individual or entity transferring ownership of a given object to another individual or entity through Bitcoin abstractions is still uncertain. == See also == Bitcoin Blockchain Digital currencies Non-fungible token Bitcoin network Smart contract Altcoins == References ==

Crypto Leaks

CryptoLeaks is an anonymous publisher and investigative media organization founded in 2022. It operates as a non-profit and is funded by donations and media partnerships. The organization claims to be a group of anonymous cryptocurrency enthusiasts and investigative journalists who want to clean up the cryptocurrency industry from corruption, manipulation, and fraud. CryptoLeaks has released several videos purporting to be sting operation videos in which figures in the cryptocurrency industry have revealed key information hidden from the public.In August 2022, CryptoLeaks released over twenty video clips of lawyer Kyle Roche, a founder of Roche Freedman law firm, talking about his relationship with his client Ava Labs, developer of the Avalanche Blockchain and its native AVAX cryptocurrency. In the videos, Roche revealed that Ava Labs had given him AVAX digital tokens worth tens of millions of dollars, and seemed to indicate that his overarching priority was to further Ava Labs’ interests, even when representing other clients. Roche appeared to boast about utilizing litigation as "a tool to competition", using lawsuits against competitors to harm their business and distract financial regulators from scrutinizing Ava Labs.Roche denied any improper relationship with Ava Labs, insisting that although the videos were genuine, they had been “illegally obtained” and were “highly edited and spliced out of context”. However, Roche was forced out of his law firm, which rebranded under a new name, and the firm was dismissed from several cryptocurrency cases it had been litigating. == References ==

Crypto naming controversy

The meaning of the word crypto as an abbreviation is controversial. Cryptographers - people who specialize in cryptography - have used the term "crypto" as an abbreviation for their field of study. However, "crypto" has also become a common abbreviation for cryptocurrency. == Etymologies and definitions == The word cryptography derives from the prefix "crypto-" of Greek origin meaning "hidden" and the suffix "-graph" also of Greek origin and meaning "to write". This name reflects cryptography's historical role as the study of codes for secret communication. Still, the prefix crypto appears in many other words, such as cryptofascism (secret support for fascism), cryptosporidium (a parasite), and cryptomnesia (a long-forgotten memory).The term "cryptography" nowadays refers to an effervescent area of research that has moved beyond secret ciphers to study message authentication, digital signatures, secure multiparty computation and zero-knowledge proofs, among other active areas of research.Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are currencies that use cryptography as an underlying mechanism. Nevertheless, most cryptocurrencies only use digital signatures and hash functions. == Usages == Dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary, define "crypto" as a shorthand for cryptography.Matt Blaze registered the domain crypto.com in 1993, but sold the domain in 2018 to a cryptocurrency company. In 2021, the Staples Center in Los Angeles was renamed to the Crypto.com Arena, referring to the cryptocurrency company now behind the domain.Descriptivism, as opposed to prescriptivism, is the school of thought that accepts crypto as referring to cryptocurrency rather than cryptography based on the common use of the term. == Opinions == Computer scientist Matthew D. Green stated that most cryptocurrencies barely have anything to do with serious cryptography, aside from trivial use of digital signatures and hash functions. Matt Blaze stated in 2018 that "I think calling cryptocurrencies 'crypto' is a poor choice, with bad consequences for both cryptography and cryptocurrencies".Parker Higgins of the Freedom of the Press Foundation stated that the cryptography crowd is by nature deeply invested in precision.Journalist Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai from Vice compared the controversy to the meaning of the word "hacker", which can used for criminals as well as curious technology enthusiasts as part of the hacker culture.The website cryptoisnotcryptocurrency.com features the statement "‘Crypto’ does not mean cryptocurrency, it means cryptography" on a red background and with an emoticon expressing incredulity.Amie Stepanovich, the executive director of the Silicon Flatirons center at the University of Colorado, created T-shirts bearing the message: "Crypto. It means cryptography." This shirt is popular among cybersecurity experts; it was, for example, worn by Matt Blaze. == References ==

Crypto-trading hamster

The crypto-trading hamster, also known as Mr Goxx, was a hamster and economic experiment that was used to randomly select cryptocurrencies to buy or sell, on a trading platform. The hamster would spin a wheel that would select from a range of cryptocurrencies, and then, using the same method, would select what action to do with them. The hamster passed away on the 26th of November 2021. == Origin == The hamster was owned by a German student, who together with his friend coded the system and linked it to a real cryptocurrency portfolio on an online trading platform. The pair also created a Twitter and Twitch account for the hamster where the latest news and decisions were shared. == References ==

ICON (blockchain platform)

ICON is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. ICX is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. == History == === Founding === ICON was founded in 2017 by Min Kim of the Switzerland-based ICON Foundation. According to the ICON white paper, the purpose for ICON was to introduce a new era of decentralization and hyper connect Korea, Asia. === Launch === ICON's initial coin offering (ICO) in September 2017 raised 150,000 ETH (approximately US$43 million at the time).At the time of launch, ICON was supported by various public and private organizations, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government in South Korea, and the Line Corporation in Japan. === ICON 2.0 === In November 2021, ICON 2.0 was launched. Changes included Java smart contract support, and preparation for future interoperability via the Blockchain Transmission Protocol (BTP). == Design == ICON is a permission less, non-hierarchical network of computers (nodes) that build on a growing series of "blocks" of transactions, known as a blockchain. Each block contains an identifier of the chain that must precede it if the block is to be considered valid. ICON's consensus mechanism is called Loop Fault Tolerance (LFT), a modified version of the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus.The nodes are run by public representatives (P-Reps), with a block being generated approximately every two seconds. ICON was designed to be scalable for both public and private blockchain use cases. == Applications == === Decentralized finance === Decentralized finance (DeFi) is a use case of ICON. It offers traditional financial instruments in a decentralized architecture, outside of companies' and governments' control, such as money market funds which let users earn interest. Decentralized finance applications can be accessed through a Web3-enabled browser extension or application, which allows users to directly interact with the ICON blockchain through a website. Many of these decentralized applications (also known as dapps) can connect and work together to create complex financial services. === Smart contracts === Smart contracts are a use case of ICON. A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol which is intended to automatically execute, control, or document legally relevant events and actions, according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need in trusted intermediators, arbitrations, and enforcement costs, fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions. === Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) === ICON allows for the creation of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since tokens of this type are unique, they have been used to represent such things as collectibles, digital art, sports memorabilia, virtual real estate, and items within games. Land, buildings, and avatars in blockchain-based virtual worlds can also be bought and sold as NFTs. == See also == List of cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Decentralized finance == References ==

Initial exchange offering

An Initial exchange offering (IEO) is the cryptocurrency exchange equivalent to a stock launch or Initial public offering (IPO). An IEO is the process of digital asset (e.g. coins or tokens) procurement through an established exchange for the purpose of raising capital for start-up companies. Exchanges act as a middleman between investors and the startup, profiting from fees generated by services rendered during the due diligence process and funding phase. IEO's and initial coin offerings (ICO) share similar characteristics with, however, an IEO can be seen as an evolution from the ICO due to legal influence and an increase in financial regulations within the cryptocurrency market. == History == The first use of an IEO by a major exchange was in January 2019, with the launch of Binance's platform Binance Launchpad. == Advantages == IEO's allow for companies and startups to raise capital in through the sale of tokens or coin on a cryptocurrency exchange. This reduces investor risk by the due diligence and vetting completed by the exchange. The use of Utility Tokens allow for investors and business to mutual benefit due to the additional access given by holders of a given business utility token. IEO's create a safer investment ecosystem by providing access to new investment opportunities on a trusted platform. IEO's use the exchanges brand to further promote new projects through their platforms users giving the startup a larger invest pool to raise capital. == Disadvantages == IEO's allow for startups to participate in large scale investments opportunities with the introduction of their business to a large investment ecosystem. IEO's are a vastly more secure method of investment procurement for startups, but it comes at the cost of fees paid to the exchange for their time analyzing the business and a predetermined percentage of the capital raised. Fees rendered during research stage of IEO development and percentage of total revenue earned. Exchanges vary in security level and overall quality, thus some IEO's may be less effective The risk of pump and dump schemes is still present in IEO's == Procedure == An IEO which is successful has to follow specific guidelines during the due diligence stage of IEO selection. Since exchanges are using their company brand to promote and invite investors to purchase a startups token or utility coin they insure the project and company is reliable and trustworthy. Platforms that are to promote new startups analyze and vet the businesses white paper, team, business plan, tech and assess the tokenomics of the business. Exchanges vet and analyze business to insure the business plans and projects are up to the values of the exchange. This saves the exchange from damaging their reputation and insures the business is following the global legal requirements such as Anti-Money Laundering Act for cryptocurrency sales. == Regulation == Following the major rise of IEO's in 2019 many regulatory agencies have not created legal restrictions. The Securities and Exchange Committee commented on IEO's stating:"Be cautious if considering an investment in an IEO. Claims of new technologies and financial products, such as those associated with digital asset offerings, and claims that IEOs are vetted by trading platforms, can be used improperly to entice investors with the false promise of high returns in a new investment space. As described below, IEOs may be conducted in violation of the federal securities laws and lack many of the investor protections of registered and exempt securities offerings." As of 2022, regulation in major industries have been limited and only a few nations have implemented some level of restriction. Registered national security exchanges and automated trading systems (ATSs) are governed by federal laws and regulations aimed at protecting investors and preventing fraudulent and manipulative trading practices. Several online trading platforms mislead investors into believing that they are registered or meet any of the regulatory requirements for a national securities exchange or an ATS, and so do not provide investors with the investor protections that such exchanges or ATSs provide. By failing to comply with federal securities laws, an IEO and/or trading platform may be operating unlawfully and may not be offering the investors and market protections and remedies these laws are designed to provide. Consider carefully whether the trading platform and the company involved in the IEO have complied with federal securities laws. == Red flags == The following are signs of fraud or illegal behaviour, as stated by SEC: In the absence of discussion or reference to the U.S. federal securities laws, the IEO and online trading platform should be considered as a red flag. Any offering that declares it will avoid the federal securities laws of the United States by occurring on an overseas trading platform, but nonetheless allows US investors to invest, should be regarded as a red flag. IEOs that claim to be vetted by the trading platforms are a red flag. A security offered in the IEO may violate U.S federal securities laws regardless of whether the trading platform vetted the offering.Further, the SEC cautioned that there is no such thing as an "SEC-approved IEO." == Comparison of IEO and ICO == ICOs were the first method used by cryptocurrency companies to raise money. Ethereum followed suit in 2014, raising about $18.3 million. Its blockchain project was based on the so-called charitable foundation model, in which investors donate to support the project. The concepts of IEOs and ICOs may seem similar. During the boom of 2017-2018, ICOs on Ethereum were held daily, resulting in many projects raising millions of dollars, although there were also many dubious and fraudulent offerings on the market. Since ICOs could not be verified, the more reliable concept of IEO gradually emerged based on them. In addition, many ICOs were later found to violate U.S. securities laws, which led to various lawsuits and refunds to investors. There are much greater risks involved in participating in an ICO. Investors must send bitcoin or ether to a smart contract or website and hope they receive tokens. Anyone with a little knowledge of smart contracts and web development skills can create a spectacular website with a promising plan of action and start raising money. Thus, investing in an ICO is considered more risky. == References ==

JPM Coin

JPM Coin is a dollar-backed cryptocurrency (stablecoin) from the bank JP Morgan Chase, announced in February 2019 as an institution-to-institution service.JPM Coin is intended to serve as a value token on the Quorum consortium blockchain, using software (called "Quorum") also built by JP Morgan Chase, and is used to facilitate interbank payments on the Interbank Information Network (IIN).As of October 2023, JPM Coin is used for approximately $1 billion of transactions each day. == References == == External links == Quorum homepage, JP Morgan

Bitcoin in El Salvador

El Salvador became the first country in the world to use Bitcoin as legal tender, after having been adopted as such by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador in 2021. It has been promoted by Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, who claimed that it would improve the economy by making banking easier for Salvadorans, and that it would encourage foreign investment. The adoption has been criticized both internationally and within El Salvador, due to the volatility of Bitcoin, its environmental impact, and lack of transparency regarding the government's fiscal policy. == History == === Background === The colón (SVC) was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 until it was replaced by the US dollar on January 1, 2001, when the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador passed the Monetary Integration Act under the administration of former President Francisco Flores. The Act authorized the free circulation of the United States dollar in El Salvador, and removed the colón from circulation. The purpose of dollarizing El Salvador was to achieve financial stability by encouraging foreign investment and decreasing transaction costs of international trade.However, the government was unable to control monetary policy after dollarization, as the value of currency was tied to the United States Federal Reserve. The exchange rate, which was fixed at one U.S dollar being equivalent to 8.75 colóns, decreased the purchasing power of the population. Dollarization slowed down El Salvador's exports because it could not compete against the undervalued currencies of other developing countries such as China. The lack of financial literacy harmed the population of El Salvador since they did not know how to use the US dollar, nor did they understand its value.Remittances accounted for 23% of GDP in 2020. They are currently delivered by money transmitters, which operate on an in-person basis.In 2019, the village of El Zonte adopted bitcoin as a payment following a donation of $100,000 worth of bitcoin from an anonymous donor. The donation came with the stipulation that the village adopt a circular economy based on bitcoin. Many residents in El Zonte did not have access to banking services, and accessed bitcoin through mobile devices and Bitcoin ATMs in commercial areas. The village has since become known as "Bitcoin Beach", and has been cited as an example of using cryptocurrency as legal tender by advocates of bitcoin. As of 2022, Honduras and Guatemala had also made attempts to attract tourists through the use of bitcoin in "bitcoin hubs." === Adoption === On June 5, 2021 President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele announced a bill to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, via an English-language video at Bitcoin Conference 2021 in Miami. Bukele claimed that the adoption of Bitcoin would make it easier for Salvadorans living abroad to send remittances to their relatives in the country. The use of bitcoin would also make digital transactions more accessible to underbanked people.On June 9, 2021, the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted to adopt the Bitcoin Law, that would make the cryptocurrency legal tender in the country, with a majority vote of 62 of the 84 deputies in favor. The government announced that it had set aside $150 million in cash to back the country's bitcoin. The World Bank rejected a request from the government to assist with the implementation of the law due to transparency concerns and the environmental impact of bitcoin mining. The government announced that it would distribute US$30 in bitcoin to people who sign up to use an electronic wallet called Chivo (Salvadorean slang for 'cool'), at a cost of up to $75 million. Chivo is run by a private enterprise, but information regarding the platform and its policies are classified by the government.A poll published by the Central American University in September 2021 found that 9 out of 10 Salvadorans did not have a clear understanding of what bitcoin was, and 68% disagreed with the decision to adopt it as legal tender. The government of El Salvador purchased ₿400, worth about $20.9 million at the time, on September 6. On September 7, 2021, the Bitcoin Law came into effect and bitcoin became legal tender in El Salvador, making it the first country in the world to do so. As part of this adoption, the government began requiring all businesses to accept it. Under the law, transactions in bitcoin are not subject to capital gains tax, and foreign bitcoin investors who invest over ₿3 in the country are eligible for permanent residence. === Reaction === The adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador drew criticism both internationally, and within El Salvador. On September 7, thousands of protestors gathered in San Salvador to protest the launch of Chivo and the adoption of bitcoin. The cause of these protests was concern over a lack of transparency regarding the creation of the Bitcoin Law and Chivo, and the use of tax dollars to purchase bitcoin. The limited rate of internet penetration in El Salvador would also limit the number of people who could make use of cryptocurrency.Many international financial experts warned that bitcoin's volatility would introduce unnecessary risk and instability to El Salvador's underdeveloped economy. In July 2021, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit rating of El Salvador, citing Bukele's fiscal policies and the adoption of bitcoin as a factor. The day following El Salvador's adoption of bitcoin, Panamanian congressman Gabriel Silva proposed a similar bill that would give "legal, regulatory, and fiscal certainty to the use, holding and issuance of digital value and crypto assets in the Republic of Panama."Some critics suggested that bitcoin's anonymity would make it easier to engage in money laundering and criminal activities. In particular, the potential use of Bitcoin to evade taxes, and in transactions related to transnational gangs and human trafficking in El Salvador was noted.The international cryptocurrency community was largely supportive of the law, which they believed could lead to a greater acceptance of cryptocurrency by states and central banks. Cryptocurrency advocates on Twitter and Instagram shared videos of people using bitcoin to make purchases at chains like Starbucks, Pizza Hut and McDonald's.A poll by the Centro de Estudios Ciudadanos at Francisco Gavidia University in November 2021, found that 91% of Salvadorans preferred to use the US dollar over Bitcoin. In January 2022, Fortune reported that the switch to bitcoin had made paying remittances more difficult for many Salvadorans, rather than easier as had been promised, because the fees associated with the bitcoin transactions were several times as expensive as traditional remittances.In January 2022, the International Monetary Fund urged El Salvador to cease using bitcoin as legal tender, citing its risk to the country's financial stability, integrity and consumer protection. The IMF advised that the continued use of bitcoin would make it less likely that the institution would grant El Salvador a previously discussed loan of $1.3 billion. == Usage of and economic impact of bitcoin in El Salvador == === Immediate impact in 2021 === Chivo launched in October 2021, and immediately drew criticism for issues regarding features like payment processing and transactions. Shortly after midnight, Bukele confirmed via Twitter that the app was not available through either the Apple Store or Huawei, although the latter later added it. Chivo was disabled a few hours after launch to allow the platform to increase the capacity of its servers. The system was also plagued by identity theft, which resulted in the theft of sign-on bonuses. Shortly after launch, Chivo announced that it was changing its pricing features to prevent scalping, which led to further complaints over the difficulty of day trading on Chivo and pricing discrepancies.The majority of users stopped using the platform after they had collected their sign on bonuses. According to Financial Times, one of the country's largest banks reported that during the first week of Chivo's under 0.0001% of its transactions were in bitcoin.In 2021, the government of El Salvador began purchasing bitcoin. It spent about $85.5 million on bitcoin between September 2021 and January 2022. The value of bitcoin began decreasing in November 2021, and had fallen by about 45% of its value by January 2022. It is estimated that the Salvadoran national reserves had lost $22 million as a result of this. The government continued to purchase bitcoins during this dip, and had holdings of at least ₿1,801 valued at $66 million as of January 2022.Bukele announced that the government would use sustainable geothermal energy for Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin mining uses large amounts of energy, which contributes to pollution if fossil fuels power it. Bukele announced plans for a "Bitcoin City" in November 2021, to be built in a circle at the base of the Conchagua volcano, which would provide geothermal energy for bitcoin mining. Income taxes would be waived in the city.In 2022, the government began drafting legislature for the creation of $1 billion in "Volcano Bonds". Half of these bonds would fund Bukele's Bitcoin City, with the remaining half used to purchase bitcoin on a five-year lock up period. The announcement caused the value of El Salvador's overseas bonds to fall by 30% in December 2021. === Usage in 2022 === According to a survey done by the Central American University 100 days after the Bitcoin Law came into force: 34.8% of the population has no confidence in bitcoin, 35.3% has little confidence, 13.2% has some confidence, and 14.1% has a lot of confidence. 56.6% of respondents have downloaded the government bitcoin wallet; among them 62.9% has never used it or only once whereas 36.3% uses bitcoin at least once a month.A year after the adoption of bitcoin, economic surveys found that cryptocurrency was not widely used in El Salvador, due in part to a lack of digital literacy. A study published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research found that 20% of people who downloaded the Chivo app did not use their $30 sign-on bonus, and an additional 61% of Chivo users stopped using the app after spending their bonus. Despite governmental support for universal bitcoin acceptance, only an estimated 20% of businesses accepted payment in bitcoin. The Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce found that only 14% of businesses in El Salvador had conducted bitcoin transactions between September 2021 and July 2022, and 3% felt that being able to use bitcoin was valuable. According to the Central Reserve Bank, bitcoin was used in 1.9% of remittance payments sent to El Salvador between September 2021 and April 2022. Media outlets reported that bitcoin had failed to increase tourist revenue, and that its use even in tourist hubs was limited to a minority of tourists. However, some businesses in El Zonte reported that they had seen a 30% increase in business from cryptocurrency tourists.In March 2022, the Salvadoran government announced that the "Volcano Bonds" project had been postponed, citing global economic conditions and the war in Ukraine as factors.After the 2021–2022 cryptocurrency crash, bitcoin lost 70% of its value from November 2021. By this time, Bukele had spent about US$150 million, roughly 4% of El Salvador's national reserves, to invest in Bitcoin. According to BBC, the 2,300 bitcoins purchased by the Salvadoran government had lost 50% of their value. El Salvador's economic growth rate declined during this time, and many economists predicted it would likely default on its debt. In response to these issues, Bukele decreased public expenditure, including water infrastructure and public services in some municipalities. He frequently responded to volatility in the cryptocurrency market by announcing on Twitter that he was "buying the dip." In June 2022, he bought an additional 80 bitcoins. The Salvadoran Minister of Finance Alejandro Zelaya stated that the country had not lost any money during the crash, because it did not sell any of its bitcoin.Prior to the crash, several other countries had announced plans to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, but only the Central African Republic has done so. == See also == Legality of bitcoin by country or territory == References ==

Environmental effects of bitcoin

The environmental effects of bitcoin are significant. Bitcoin mining, the process by which bitcoins are created and transactions are finalized, is energy-consuming and results in carbon emissions as about half of the electricity used is generated through fossil fuels. As of 2022, bitcoin mining was estimated to be responsible for 0.2% of world greenhouse gas emissions, and to represent 0.4% of global electricity consumption. Moreover, bitcoins are mined on specialized computer hardware with a short lifespan, resulting in electronic waste. The amount of electrical energy required and e-waste generated by bitcoin mining can be compared to countries like Greece or the Netherlands. Bitcoin's environmental impact has attracted the attention of regulators, leading to incentives or restrictions in various jurisdictions. == Greenhouse gas emissions == === Mining as an electricity-intensive process === Bitcoin mining is a highly electricity-intensive proof-of-work process. Miners run dedicated software to compete against each other and be the first to solve the current 10 minute block, yielding them a reward in bitcoins. A transition to the proof-of-stake protocol, which has better energy efficiency, has been described as a sustainable alternative to bitcoin's scheme and as a potential solution to its environmental issues. Bitcoin advocates oppose such a change, arguing that proof of work is needed to secure the network.Bitcoin mining's distribution makes it difficult for researchers to identify the location of miners and electricity use. It is therefore difficult to translate energy consumption into carbon emissions. As of 2022, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) estimates that bitcoin consumes 95.5 TWh (344 PJ) annually, representing 0.4% of the world's electricity consumption, ranking bitcoin mining between Belgium and the Netherlands in terms of electricity consumption. According to a 2022 estimate published in Joule, bitcoin mining may result in annual carbon emission of 65 Mt CO2, representing 0.2% of global emissions, which is comparable to the level of emissions of Greece. === Bitcoin mining energy mix === Until 2021, most bitcoin mining was done in China. Chinese miners relied on cheap coal power in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia during late autumn, winter and spring, migrating to regions with overcapacities in low-cost hydropower (like Sichuan and Yunnan) between May and October. After China banned bitcoin mining in June 2021, its mining operations moved to other countries. By August 2021, mining was concentrated in the U.S. (35%), Kazakhstan (18%), and Russia (11%) instead. A study in Scientific Reports found that from 2016 to 2021, each US dollar worth of mined bitcoin caused 35 cents worth of climate damage, compared to 95 for coal, 41 for gasoline, 33 for beef, and 4 for gold mining. The shift from coal resources in China to coal resources in Kazakhstan increased bitcoin's carbon footprint, as Kazakhstani coal plants use hard coal, which has the highest carbon content of all coal types. Despite the ban, covert mining operations gradually came back to China, reaching 21% of global hashrate as of 2022.Reducing the environmental impact of bitcoin is possible by mining only using clean electricity sources. As of 2023, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, renewables represent about half of global bitcoin mining sources, while research by the nonprofit tech company WattTime estimated that US miners consumed 54% fossil fuel-generated power. Still, experts and government authorities, such as the European Securities and Markets Authority and the European Central Bank, have suggested that using renewable energy for mining may limit the availability of clean energy for the general population.Bitcoin mining representatives argue that their industry creates opportunities for wind and solar companies, leading to a debate on whether bitcoin could be an ESG investment. According to a 2023 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering article, directing the surplus electricity from intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, to bitcoin mining could reduce electricity curtailment, balance the electrical grid, and increase the profitability of renewable energy plants—therefore accelerating the transition to sustainable energy and decreasing bitcoin's carbon footprint. Another 2023 study published in the same journal argued that mining bitcoin off-grid during the precommercial phase (when a wind or solar farm is generating electricity but not yet integrated into the grid) could bring additional profits and therefore support renewable energy development. A 2023 review published in Resource and Energy Economics also concluded that bitcoin mining could increase renewable capacity but that it might increase carbon emissions and that mining bitcoin to provide demand response largely mitigated its environmental impact. Bitcoin mining may also incentivize the recommissioning of fossil fuel plants. For instance, Greenidge Generation, a closed coal-fired power plant in New York State, was converted into natural gas in 2017 and started mining bitcoin in 2020 to monetize off-peak periods. Such impact is difficult to quantify directly. === Methane emissions === Bitcoin has been mined via electricity generated through the combustion of associated petroleum gas (APG), which is a methane-rich byproduct of crude oil drilling that is sometimes flared or released into the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 28 to 36 times greater than CO2. By converting more of the methane to CO2 than flaring alone would, using APG generators reduces the APG's contribution to the greenhouse effect, but this practice still harms the environment. In places such as Colorado, where flaring is prohibited, this practice has allowed more oil drills to operate by offsetting costs, delaying fossil fuel phase-out. Commenting on one pilot project with ExxonMobil, political scientist Paasha Mahdavi noted in 2022 that this process could potentially allow oil companies to report lower emissions by selling gas leaks, shifting responsibility to buyers and avoiding a real reduction commitment. === Comparison to other payment systems === In a 2023 study published in Ecological Economics, researchers from the International Monetary Fund estimated that the global payment system represented about 0.2% of global electricity consumption, comparable to the consumption of Portugal or Bangladesh. For bitcoin, energy used is estimated around 500 kilowatt-hours per transaction, compared to 0.001 kWh for credit cards (not including consumption from the merchant's bank, which receives the payment). However, bitcoin's energy expenditure is not directly linked to the number of transactions. Layer 2 solutions, like the Lightning Network, and batching, allow bitcoin to process more payments than the number of on-chain transactions suggests. For instance, in 2022, bitcoin processed 100 million transactions per year, representing 250 million payments. == Electronic waste == Bitcoins are usually mined on specialized computing hardware, called application-specific integrated circuits, with no alternative use beyond bitcoin mining. Due to the consistent increase of the bitcoin network's hashrate, mining devices are estimated to have an average lifespan of 1.3 years until they become unprofitable and need to be replaced, resulting in significant electronic waste. As of 2021, bitcoin's annual e-waste was estimated to be over 30,000 tonnes, which is comparable to the small IT equipment waste produced by the Netherlands. Each bitcoin transaction was estimated to result in 272 g (9.6 oz) of e-waste. == Water footprint == According to a 2023 paper, bitcoin's water footprint reached 1,600 gigalitres (5.7×1010 cu ft) in 2021, due to direct water consumption on site and indirect consumption from electricity generation. The author notes that this water footprint could be mitigated by using immersion cooling and power sources that do not require freshwater such as wind, solar, and thermoelectric power generation with dry cooling. == Regulatory responses == China's 2021 bitcoin mining ban was partly motivated by its role in illegal coal mining and environmental concerns.In September 2022, the US Office of Science and Technology Policy highlighted the need for increased transparency about electricity usage, greenhouse gas emissions, and e-waste. In November 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency confirmed working on the climate impacts of cryptocurrency mining. In the US, New York State banned new fossil fuel mining plants with a two-year moratorium, citing environmental concerns, while Iowa, Kentucky, Montana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Wyoming encourage bitcoin mining with tax breaks. Texas incentives aim to cut methane emissions from flared gas using bitcoin mining.In Canada, due to high demand from the industry and concerned that their renewable electricity could be better used, the provinces Manitoba and British Columbia paused new connections of bitcoin mining facilities to the hydroelectric grid in late 2022 for 18 months while Hydro-Québec increased prices and capped usage for bitcoin miners.In October 2022, due to the global energy crisis, the European Commission invited member states to lower the electricity consumption of crypto-asset miners and end tax breaks and other incentives benefiting them. == References == === Works cited === de Vries, Alex; Gallersdörfer, Ulrich; Klaaßen, Lena; Stoll, Christian (16 March 2022). "Revisiting Bitcoin's carbon footprint". Joule. 6 (3): 498–502. doi:10.1016/j.joule.2022.02.005. ISSN 2542-4351. S2CID 247143939.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is a 2014 American documentary film directed by Nicholas Mross. The film interviews multiple companies and people that have played important roles in the history expansion of Bitcoin. It first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on April 23, 2014. The film was nominated for the “Best International Documentary Film” at the 2014 Zurich Film Festival. The film has a run time of 96 minutes.The documentary included footage of Gabriel Sukenik, Zach Harvey, Erik Voorhees, Yifu Guo, Gavin Andresen, Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, Mark Karpeles, Vitalik Buterin, Julian Assange, Tim Berners-Lee, George W. Bush and Ross Ulbricht. The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin's writers were advised by academics and consultants, such as Daniel Mross, Charlie Shrem, Alex Waters, Jered Kenna, Trace Mayer, Andrew Lokenauth, Nicholas Mross and Patrick Lope. == Synopsis == The documentary follows 35-year-old computer programmer Daniel Mross. On top of his job, kids, and marriage, Daniel is an avid enthusiast of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. He discovered Bitcoin in 2011, and from there he has been fascinated by anything that has to do with it. Daniel and his brother and producer, Nicholas Mross, decided to start filming because they believe that this could really be the future of currency, and filming a documentary is one way to expedite the process. By doing this, they were able to educate anyone who watched this film. Throughout Daniel's journey around the World, he meets the individuals who are leading this potential financial revolution. Daniel and the people that he interviews are the pioneers that are adventuring into this mysterious concept. The future goes to show that not everyone involved in Bitcoin early made it out unscathed. === Development === Daniel and Nicholas Mross came up with the idea of this documentary due to the difficulty Daniel experienced attempting to explain Bitcoin to his peers. In an interview, Daniel states “And I found in short time it was really difficult to talk to people about Bitcoin if they didn't know what it was or to explain it ... It's not something that, you know, especially earlier on was easy to explain to somebody in 1 or 2 minutes.”. This documentary acts as a bridge between those educated in Bitcoin technology and those interested in educating themselves. == Reception == On Rotten Tomatoes, a reviewer aggregate, the film was rated a 67% based on 9 reviews. Those reviews had an average rating of 6.1 out of 10.The New York Times critiqued the film for its sidestepping of economists' past criticisms of the Bitcoin economy. Variety's Dennis Harvey criticized the film for having an overly positive tone towards Bitcoin, as he felt that the "consistent rah-rah tenor makes Nicholas Mross’ documentary less interesting than it could be, since it shies away from most tough questions to simply chase the enthusiasm demonstrated by Bitcoin supporters."Common Sense Media rated the movie at 4/5 stars, stating that, "Although viewers may still have questions afterward, the use of animated visuals to explain how Bitcoin transactions work and interviews with some of Bitcoin's earliest users and pioneers provides a basic understanding of the currency's role in today's society." == See also == Bitcoin Bitcoin network Cryptocurrency == References == == External links == The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin at IMDb

OpenTimestamps

OpenTimestamps (OTS) is an open-source project that aims to provide a standard format for blockchain timestamping. With the advent of systems like Bitcoin, it is possible to create and verify proofs of existence of documents (timestamps) without relying on a trusted third party; this represents an enhancement in term of security, since it excludes the possibility of a malicious (or careless) trusted third party to compromise the timestamp.OTS defines a set of rules for conveniently creating timestamps and later independently verifying them. Currently, timestamping with Bitcoin is fully supported, however the format is flexible enough to support a variety of methods.Anyone could create timestamp with the permissionless blockchain by paying the transaction fees, for convenience OTS built an infrastructure that aggregates timestamp requests from users and packs them into transactions funded by public calendar servers; as a result, users can timestamp for free, in a trust-minimized setting. == What is a timestamp == A timestamp is a proof that some data d existed prior to a certain point in time.To create such proof, it turns out that it is not necessary to publish d on the blockchain, which would be expensive, but it is enough to commit d to the blockchain. Such commitment proves that d existed prior to a certain block, in the sense that if d changes, then the proof becomes invalid and hence useless. The proof consists in a sequence of commitment operations, such as sha256, append, prepend. These operations are the cryptographic path that proves that d commits to a certain block header. In other words, that d caused the block header to have its value, indeed, if d were different then, due to the mathematical properties of commitment operations, the block header would be different. To verify the commitment, the operations are applied in sequence to the data d, then the result, which should be the transaction merkle root, is checked to be equal to the one observed in the blockchain; if the check goes fine, then one can assert that d existed prior to the block. For the timestamped file hello.txt, the OTS proof is encoded in a file named hello.txt.ots which contains: the hash of the timestamped file; the commitment operations; one or more attestations on the blockchain.With this information, a challenger can independently verify that hello.txt existed prior to a certain block. == Usage == OTS provides users multiple and easy ways to create and independently verify timestamps: With opentimestamps-client in Python; With java-opentimestamps; With javascript-opentimestamps; On opentimestamps.org.In the following sections it is shown an example of the usage of the Python client. === Timestamp creation === The stamp operation creates the first version of the timestamp. It is applied to the file for which you want to prove its existence (original file). The stamp operation calculates the SHA256 hash of the original file, concatenates a random 128-bit nonce to maintain privacy, and recalculates the SHA256 hash, sending this unique value to the calendar servers. Each of the calendar servers will add the received hash to its Merkle tree and return the necessary response to generate the initial OTS file. This OTS file is still incomplete because it does not yet contain the record in the blockchain.Once a reasonable time has elapsed, the user will run the upgrade operation on the same OTS file. This will communicate with the calendar servers and update the OTS file with the Bitcoin block header attestation. It is also possible to create timestamps for several different files simultaneously. In that case, the stamp operation will send a single request to the calendar servers with a Merkle root derived from the original files, and later, that same operation will calculate the Merkle tree paths and create the timestamps for each one of the original files. === Timestamp verification === The verification of the OTS proof requires both the OTS file and the original file. The user must also have an up-to-date Bitcoin node on their own machine to perform the verification without relying on trusted third parties. === Show timestamp information === The basic structure of a timestamp is divided into three main sections: File hash Merkle tree construction Bitcoin block header attestationThe timestamp is saved in a binary file to save space and avoid problems of interpretation, encoding and compatibility between systems. Generally, this file has a .ots extension and its magic number is \x00 O p e n T i m e s t a m p s \x00 \x00 P r o o f \x00 \xbf \x89 \xe2 \xe8 \x84 \xe8 \x92 \x94.The info operation presents the content of the timestamp on a human-readable format. In this case, a single attestation of the hello.txt file is shown, which hashes all the way to the Bitcoin block header at block 518387. == Use cases == Applications include defensive publications. == Notes == == References ==