Image of The Day, 4 of December: Forbes, Bloomberg, Market Watch and Others
We're presenting "the image of the day". Bitnewstoday.com has chosen the most important news about the digital economy and virtual currencies. Only the most valuable stories from only the trusted sources. Each and every event from this list will change the world of the digital economy either way. The most important stories of this day in the most indicative quotes are below!
1. OLD TRICKS — NEW KICKS (The Next Web)
South African man hands thugs $60K in Bitcoin after heinous torturing
A man from South Africa was purportedly attacked for his Bitcoin by someone he met on Facebook, according to local news outlet, the Soweto Urban.The man, known as Andrew, was lured to give a presentation about Bitcoin in Ntuli Street in Meadowlands Zone Five, the report states.
It appears Andrew was drugged shortly after entering the premises to give his presentation. The Bitcoin trader claimed that a “drug-infused” cloth was used to cover his face, causing him to pass out. When he awoke, he claims to have been in a different location. Andrew was stripped of his clothing and tortured by attackers in attempts to extort his Bitcoin password. To preserve his own life, he eventually gave in and complied with his attackers demands.
2. BRAVE AND BOLD (Forbes)
Bitcoin miner makes bold statement about 'bright' future after market rout
Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain, a UK-listed company, has today sought to soothe shareholder unrest following a steep decline over the last month in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, including Ripple's XRP, Ethereum's ether, and Stellar lumens.
Despite the downward trend for the Bitcoin price, which has dragged the cryptocurrency market down by some $700 billion since the beginning of 2018, Argo has said demand for its products and services has remained robust. "Our mining packages are being snapped up as quickly as we make these available and demand continues to exceed supply," said Argo co-founder and director Mike Edwards in a trading update to the market.
3. UPS AND DOWNS (Market Watch)
Bitcoin trades higher, but struggles to stay at $4,000
Cryptocurrency prices are trading mostly higher on Tuesday, looking to claw back some of the ground lost on Monday. After falling as much as 8% on Monday, Bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency, was last changing hands at $3,954.90, up 2.2% since Monday’s level at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange.
Altcoins — the collection of more than 2,000 coins other than Bitcoin — are mostly higher on Tuesday. Ether is trading up 1.3% at $109.75, Litecoin has gained 1.5% to $31.40, XRP, the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ripple protocol, was trading at 35 cents, up 1.4%, and bucking the trend was Bitcoin Cash that is down 3.8% at $151.90
4. BRAVE NEW WORLD (The Daily Hodl)
G20 nations agree to reform crypto regulation in response to “rapidly changing world”
All G20 nations are coming together to sign a declaration agreeing to initiate reform to keep up with the rapidly digitizing global economy. Although the G20 report states that “transformative technologies are expected to bring immense economic opportunities, including new and better jobs, and higher living standards,” they did acknowledge that governments and businesses will face challenges.
They agreed on Saturday to regulate cryptocurrencies in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). “We look forward to continued progress on achieving resilient non-bank financial intermediation. We will step up efforts to ensure that the potential benefits of technology in the financial sector can be realized while risks are mitigated. We will regulate crypto-assets for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism in line with FATF standards and we will consider other responses as needed.”
5. EVIL DAYS OF LUCKLESS COIN (Fortune)
Bitcoin's having another bad day in a very bad month
It’s another bad day in what has been an absolutely miserable stretch for Bitcoin. On Nov. 3, the digital currency was worth $6,351.74. Today, it’s worth 39% less. Since the beginning of the year, when Bitcoin was worth $14,112, the currency has lost a whopping 73% of its value.
The drop seems to be tied to some investors losing faith after Bitcoin’s value fell, once again, below $4,000. The spiral coincided with an opinion piece on Marketwatch from Atulya Sarin, professor of finance at Santa Clara University. Sarin posited Bitcoin was entering a “death spiral” and was on the path to “a swift and painful drop to zero”.
6. THE FUTURE IS EVEN BRIGHTER (Bloomberg)
Roger Ver is optimistic about this whole thing
Roger Ver, chief executive officer at Bitcoin.com, discusses the safety of the cryptocurrency, his outlook for the technology, Bitcoin Cash and where prices are heading. He believes that the future is “brighter than ever” noting that “there is more awareness, there is more adoption and other amazing stuff happening all over the world.”
Roger Ver is also bullish on Bitcoin Cash and the entire market. Bitcoin bulls and other industry leaders are coming out to assure users and investors that the downtrend is only for a short time and that the market will soon resume the uptrend.
7. A MOMENT OF SILENCE (Market Watch)
Blockchain companies go silent when their tech promises fall short, research group finds
As major cryptocurrency prices flounder to multi-month and, for some, all-time, lows, the distributed ledger technology that underpins virtual currencies has come under fire.
Blockchain technology allows counterparts and organizations to record transactions on a decentralized permanent ledger that are immutable and transparent. To crypto bugs, the technology is more efficient and secure than current databases and is set to disrupt current practices, claims that have, for the most part, come without challenge.
However, for all the hype and promise, a research group has found that the opaque technology is anything but transformative and far from disrupting current industry practices. In a joint report for Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Technology, Christine Murphy, social researcher at Social Solutions International and John Burg and Jean Paul Pétraud, fellows at USAID, found that a host of blockchain-based projects undelivered.
8. PAYING EXTRA FOR SPEED (Fortune)
Conflux raises $35 million from chinese web giants for new blockchain protocol
A big knock on Bitcoin is that its underlying technology is too slow to be a useful real world ledger. And while developers are tinkering with a variety of fixes — to Bitcoin and other decentralized blockchain protocols — they have yet to solve the speed problem.
Conflux claims that it have overcome this with a system that permits parties to work on blocks concurrently and add them to the chain. In doing so, the protocol also preserves the decentralized method of consensus that prevents any one entity from controlling the blockchain.
The proclaimed breakthrough is being led by some notable names, including Andrew Yao, a Turing Award recipient who is known as China’s “godfather of computer science.” Another co-founder is Fan Long, a University of Toronto professor, who described Conflux to Fortune.
9. RIDING THE WAVE (The Next Web)
There's no stopping to the crypto-jacking epidemic
Researchers have discovered over 415,000 routers across the globe have been infected with malware designed to steal their computing power and secretly mine cryptocurrency.
The attack, which is still ongoing, affects MikroTik routers in particular. For the record, the string of crypto-jacking attacks on the brand first began in August, when security experts discovered over 200,000 devices had been infected. The number has more than doubled since then.
While the majority of affected devices was initially concentrated in Brazil, data suggests there are tons of affected devices worldwide. It is worth pointing out that the number of breached devices might be slightly off, since the data reflects IP addresses known to have been infected with crypto-jacking scripts. Still, the total amount of compromised routers is still pretty high.
10. BANKS VS CLIENTS (Reuters)
Chase customers fight dismissal of lawsuit over crypto purchases
Chase Bank was wrong to treat the purchase of cryptocurrencies as cash advances and charge customers extra fees for the transactions because cryptocurrencies are not cash, customers suing the bank argued in Manhattan federal court.
Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender, are not issued by any government and are not accepted as payment by the overwhelming majority of businesses, the customers argued. Chase thus violated federal law when, without warning, it began treating purchases of the currency as cash advances in January after previously letting customers purchase it with credit cards, the customers said in a motion opposing dismissal of their lawsuit.