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KimCoin: North Korea Is Developing Its Own Cryptocurrency to Skirt Western Sanctions

source-logo  news.u.today  + 14 more 19 September 2019 02:30, UTC

North Korea is currently working on its own cryptocurrency that would help the hermit kingdom to avoid international sanctions, VICE News reports. The vague description states that the coin will be “more like Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.”

Getting ready for KimCoin

As of now, there is very little information about North Korea’s would-be cryptocurrency (there is even no official name). Alejandro Cao de Benos, the official who manages the country’s cryptocurrency conferences, claims that the coin is currently in its inception stage. 

We are still in the very early stages in the creation of the token. Now we are in the phase of studying the goods that will give value to it.” 

Tongues have been waggling that North Korea does have the required expertise to develop its own coin. Financial crime expert Kayla Izenman claims that Kim Jong-un's authoritarian regime has been keen on mining, cryptojacking, and other activities that are associated with crypto.

There is absolutely no doubt that they have the technical expertise to develop and utilize almost any iteration of cryptocurrency, whether that means laundering a previously-established coin such as Bitcoin through foreign unregulated exchanges, or creating a nationalized cryptocurrency for themselves.”    

North Korea’s crypto crimes  

North Korea stole an eye-popping $2 bln worth of fiat currencies and crypto with the help of complicated cyberattacks in order to fund its nuclear program.

As reported by U.Today, these accusations were later played down by North Korea as Western propaganda. However, the US Treasury eventually imposed sanctions on three major hacking groups that are directly coordinated by the DPNK.

news.u.today

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