Image of The Day, 5 of October: Forbes, CNBC, TechCrunch 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. INVESTMENTS IN THE FUTURE (Bloomberg)
Yale invests in crypto fund that raised $400 million
Yale University, the Ivy League school that has invested in everything from Puerto Rican bonds to timber in New Hampshire, is getting into the market for cryptocurrencies.
The second-largest endowment in higher education is among investors that helped a new fund focused on digital assets raise $400 million, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.
2. JACKED UP (The Next Web)
Crypto-jacking epidemic spreads across India
The spate of crypto-jacking plaguing the internet shows no sign of slowing down. After infesting hundreds of thousands of routers in Brasil with cryptocurrency mining malware, reports indicate hackers have compromized a further 30,000 routers across India.
As Hard Fork previously reported, black-hat hackers are waging a war on the internet. Attackers have already forced almost 280,000 MicroTik routers in Latin America to mine Monero (XMR) non-stop, so the discovery of the malware running on routers elsewhere is nothing but troubling.
3. ALL QUIET IN A CRYPTO (Forbes)
Bitcoin price volatility falls to lowest of 2018
Compared to earlier this year, the cryptocurrency's volatility has fallen sharply, according to Bloomberg data compiled by U.S.-based asset manager Blockforce Capital.
"Both BTC volatility and spread between high and low prices at 30 min intervals are at year-to-date lows," noted Eric Ervin, CEO of Blockforce Capital. He added that this "volatility has been trending downward since the middle of September, with the average volatility reading today (0.404) being the lowest its been all year."
4. EVOLVE OR DIE (Daily Hodl)
Siam commercial bank reveals major expansion with Ripple
One of Thailand’s biggest banks plans to create a new payment hub centered on Ripple’s blockchain technology. Siam Commercial Bank (SBC) has a main remittance corridor between Thailand and Japan that’s powered by a partnership with Ripple and banking giant SBI.
Thailand and Japan that’s powered by a partnership with Ripple and banking giant SBI.SCB’s partnership with Ripple began in 2016, and the company’s chief technology officer Colin Dinn says he now believes banks that don’t implement similar technology are facing extinction. According to Dinn, Ripple’s technology is allowing Siam Commercial Bank to plan for a major expansion across the region.
5. BEGINNING OR THE END (Bloomberg)
Bitcoin hits inflection point
Is this the start of a new phase for Bitcoin or the beginning of the end for the biggest cryptocurrency? That seems to be the question being pondered by both proponents and skeptics with volatility lingering at the lowest level since before the epic surge and collapse of the peer-to-peer electronic alternative to cash.
Those looking for some guidance from historical pricing patterns are out of luck. Neither a strong positive or negative divergence has formed over the past month, technical analysis measures show. Bitcoin traded in a similar pattern only one other time this year — in June, when its price jumped from around $5,900 to around $8,200.
6. JUMPING INTO THE SILICON VALLEY (CNBC)
The most influential endowment manager just jumped into crypto
David Swensen, who's known as Yale's “Warren Buffett” because of his investing success with the university's endowment, is making his first big bets on cryptocurrency following the recent swoon in the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Swensen, who is chief investment officer of the university's $29.4 billion endowment, has invested in two venture funds dedicated to cryptocurrency, according to people familiar with the matter.
7. THE WINE DLT (TechCrunch)
Overstock’s investment arm funded blockchain for wine
Of all the things to add to the blockchain, wine makes a lot of sense. Given the need for provenance for every grape and barrel, it’s clear that the ancient industry could use a way to track ingredients from farm to glass. VinX, an Israeli company founded by Jacob Ner-David, is ready to give it a try.
According to a release, the plan is to create a “token-based digital wine futures platform based on the Bordeaux futures model” that lets you track wine from end to end “at a cost bearable to the industry.”
8. THE DANGERS OF PROGRESS (Market Watch)
Thieves use Bitcoin ATMs to scam Australian immigrants out of $50,000
Being in a new country can be confusing and scary at times. Australian crooks are taking advantage of this and are using Bitcoin ATMs to scam newly-arrived migrants out of their life savings.It seems the crooks managed to scam more than $35,000 USD ($50,000 AUD) out of four Australian immigrants by telling them they needed to pay a tax debt. The victims were told they would be arrested if the amount was not paid, The Age reports.
Believing that their immigration status might be in jeopardy, the targets obliged.
It appears the victims were told to withdraw money from their bank accounts and pay the cash into a specific Bitcoin wallet address using a Bitcoin ATM in Braybrook, Melbourne.
9. PESKY RUSSIAN HACKERS! (Mashable)
Russian government hackers mined bitcoin to fund attacks on FIFA
A lengthy indictment from the Justice Department dropped today, accusing seven Russian intelligence officers of conspiring to hack anti-doping agencies around the world in retaliation for their efforts to expose Russian athletic doping. And, at least according to the US officials, the GRU hacking group mined bitcoin to fund its efforts.
"The pool of bitcoin generated from the GRU’s mining activity was used, for example, to pay a United States-based company to register the [phishing] domain wada-arna.org through a payment processing company located in the United States," reads the indictment. "The conspirators used the same funding structure — and in some cases, the very same pool of funds to purchase key accounts, servers, and domains used in their anti-doping related hacking activity."
10. A FLIP IN STRATEGY (Wired)
How the blockchain could flip Google's advertising economy
Advertising has been part of the cultural fabric for well over 100 years, but will it provide the basis for the next generation of web services? Those experimenting with cryptocurrencies already talk in terms of it being a “movement” akin to the open source software advances of the 1970s.
New technologies, whether that’s the mainframe computer or the smartphone, unlock new capabilities, meaning that products and services are built on top of new innovations. There would be no Uber without the smartphone, for instance. No Wooga without Facebook. No Tweetdeck without Twitter.