Catalonia Contemplates Creating Digital Currency and E-Residency Program

Certain parts of the world stand to gain a lot from creating their own digital currencies. That is much easier said than done, though, as no country or central bank has successfully done so to this point. Catalonia, a region in Spain fighting for independence, is looking to create its own digital currency. In this respect, the region aims to emulate Estonia's e-residency program. It's an interesting idea, but is it even feasible?

Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock these past two weeks will be aware of the situation in Catalonia. More specifically, there is a major conflict underway between the regional government and Spanish authorities right now. Catalonia wants to become independent of Spain, but the Spanish officials aren't in favor of its independence whatsoever. However, the Catalonia government is putting up a valiant effort to achieve its goal moving forward.

Given the current institutional crisis in the region and the rest of Spain, it is evident something has to give sooner or later. The latest venture by the Catalonia government revolves around creating its own version of Estonia's e-residency program. That will not be easy by any means, although the precedent is certainly in place to make it become a reality sooner or later. Attracting entrepreneurs to help create an independent economy will benefit the region and help solidify its independence as well.

Dani Marco, the director of SmartCatalonia, has traveled to Estonia on multiple occasions to see firsthand how its initiative works. Meeting with technology experts has been one of the team's top priorities in creating a digital residency solution. In Estonia, the e-residency program has attracted over 20,000 entrepreneurs from over 140 countries already. Whether or not Catalonia can boast similar success in the end remains to be determined.

Moreover, there is growing talk of introducing a national digital currency in Catalonia as well. Considering that this part of Spain aims to become independent, that isn't surprising in the slightest. It seems there are quite a few entrepreneurs working on virtual currencies throughout Spain already. In a way, it's the perfect ecosystem in which to develop a national digital currency for a region attempting to become completely autonomous.

So far, it appears people close to the matter have already reached out to Vitalik Buterin in regards to the creation of a blockchain-based system to support this new currency. It is very likely we will see an ICO of some sort, although most of the details remain shrouded in mystery for the time being. There are quite a few benefits to this project, assuming it's actually feasible in the first place.

As of right now, there is no official timeline or roadmap associated with this venture. It is not even a full-fledged plan of action either, although the option is seriously being considered as we speak. Only time will tell whether or not Catalonia gets its own digital currency in the future. If there ever was a reason to pursue such an option, Catalonia's independence would certainly fit the bill.

Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions: ”Bitcoin is a big problem”

President Donald Trump's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The committee is given rather broad powers concerning federal criminal law and internet privacy. During a quick exchange, hours into the hearing, Mr. Sessions was asked about the "dark web." His answers might foreshadow what's ahead for digital privacy and bitcoin users.

At three hours, forty three minutes and thirty seconds into his testimony, ranking member Mrs. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat from California, announced her line of questioning would focus on "the dark web."

Citing a New York Times article, "Opioid Dealers Embrace the Dark Web to Send Deadly Drugs by Mail," by Nathaniel Popper, Senator Feinstein began, "it seems to me, the dark web, being used by criminals, is going to grow in the coming years."

The "dark web" refers to a tucked-away part of the "deep web," which is purposely aloof from mainstream search engines. Authorizations, special software, are often required. If such is considered "dark," then regular internet usage is known as clearnet. 

The phrase strikes deep fear among government officials. Mrs. Feinstein in her questioning was sure to harden the 'b' when pronouncing "dark web," adding a sense of seriousness.

"If you have any plans to address it," she continued, "or would you begin to think about it so that we might have some conversations on this, because I think there's a lot of concern out there in law enforcement communities," the Senator emphasized.

Holding both his hands together, Attorney General Sessions sat fully upright and announced he "would be pleased to do so."

"We are very concerned about that," he elaborated. "The FBI's very concerned about that. They did take down, I think, the two biggest, dark web sites. This last one, Alphabay, we took down recently. They had 240,000 sites where individuals were selling, for the most part, illegal substances or guns on that site, including Fentanyl. And, they use bitcoins and other untraceable financial capabilities, and it is a big problem," he nodded.

"Thank you," Mrs. Feinstein returned a nod, "I'd like to work with you on it, and if it requires legislation in particular. So, thank you very much. I'm going to quit while I am ahead."

Looking for a Way In

More than a few histories of Bitcoin credit darker markets for moving drug traffic off streets, and onto safer environments, limiting potential violence. They're also central, according to theorists, to advancing the idea that bitcoin could be a viable currency in its earliest days.

The History and Evolution of Proof of Stake

Proof of Stake (PoS) was first introduced in a paper by Sunny King and Scott Nadal in 2012 and intended to solve the problem of Bitcoin mining's high energy consumption. At that time, it cost an average of $150,000 a day to maintain the Bitcoin network. Today, this figure is at a staggering $6.7 million (if we assume a $0.12/watt cost and multiply that with the estimated 56,209,833 KWh of electricity that the Bitcoin network consumed on Oct. 13, 2017).

Rather than relying on the energy-dependent work of miners to add blocks, Sunny and Scott suggested an alternative method called "staking" where a deterministic algorithm would choose nodes based on the number of coins an individual had. In other words, stakers would have more chances of being selected to add a block to the chain and reap the reward if they "staked" more coins in their wallet.  They hoped this would avoid the ever increasing energy costs and hashrate difficulty of mining. However, their new consensus mechanism was not without its own issues.  

Four Issues With PoS

There are four main challenges in designing a Proof of Stake system:

Distribution. Since block rewards go to stakers, how do you distribute coins initially?

Monopolization. Those with a significant amount of coins reap a majority of all future coins.

51% attack. Just like how Proof of Work (PoW) has to be wary of a 51% attack from a miner, so too does PoS have to be wary of a staker who has a 51% stake weight.

Nothing at Stake (NoS). PoS adds a block when a node meets a set of conditions which includes stake weight. However, the coin forks when two nodes meet these conditions at the same time. The fork is then resolved by other nodes signing one of the two transactions. The hypothetical problem of NoS arises when 99% of all nodes sign both chains because there is no cost (nothing at stake) to verify these transactions. Therefore a 1% staker could potentially "double spend" by paying with coins on one chain but then verifying the other.

In light of this, the evolution of PoS can be understood by each coin attempting to solve these issues in their own way.  We will now look at Peercoin.

Peercoin PPC

Sunny King created Peercoin (PPC) in 2013 to become the first cryptocurrency to implement Proof of Stake while still keeping Proof of Work (PoW). It addressed the 4 issues of PoS in the following ways:

Distribution. Peercoin uses a PoW-based decreasing distribution. In the beginning, PoW was heavily emphasized for PPC's initial distribution phase but has since then been decreasing.  

Monopolization. Coin age was implemented to prevent coin-rich stakers from dominating the rewards.

51% attacks. PPC's chain is completely secured by PoS even though it is a hybrid. Attacks are highly unlikely because it is incredibly expensive to perform an attack. The attacker must effectively purchase or bribe 51% of the staked coins in order to perform this action. Any attack would significantly devalue the coin and cost the attackers a great deal.

Nothing at Stake. PPC developers don't believe this would happen. However, Sunny implemented optional "checkpoints" at first in case there was a successful attack.  Now that the PPC's network has matured, checkpoints are in the process of being phased out.

Blackcoin BLK

This next phase of PoS history is called considered a pure proof of stake protocol without any mining and was first implemented by NXT on November 24, 2013. However, let's consider another coin, Blackcoin, that was also a pure proof of stake that was released shortly thereafter as it has a simpler protocol and had a fairer initial distribution phase.

Blackcoin was created by Pavel Vasin (a.k.a. Rat4) and was released in February 2014.  When Rat4 decided to create BLK, he set out to remove coin age and PoW.  He believed coin age would increase the chance of a 51% stake attack as older aged coins would need less than 51% of staking coins to cause a fork. He also believed that coin age disincentivized users from staking consistently. Rather, stakers were incentivized to remain offline for 90 days to maximize their chances of getting a stake thereby making the network less secure. Rat4's implementation of PoS v.2 protocol addresses the four issues of PoS in the following ways:

Distribution. BLK went through a temporary Proof of Work phase with no pre-mine to ensure fair distribution.

Monopolization. This was addressed via a fair distribution period.

51% attacks. It is incredibly expensive to buy enough coins in order to perform this attack.  Also, the coin would lose significant value.

Nothing at Stake. BLK dev's also believed this was not a threat. However, BLK included checkpoints to protect against hard forks.  Checkpoints will be removed in PoS 3.

Ether ETH

Since Blackcoin, there have been several iterations of the PoS protocol. For example, Bitshares was the first to implement Delegated Proof of Stake.  But the newest iteration of PoS is Ethereum's (ETH) attempt at PoS.  The motivation for ETH to switch is primarily a desire to move towards a more eco-friendly and decentralized system.  If the Ethereum Virtual Machine is truly to be adopted world-wide, Bitcoin's current $6.7 million daily electricity cost would quickly be surpassed.

Ethereum's PoS system will implement a Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)-style PoS. Validators will be randomly assigned block rewards, however consensus is formed through a multi-round process where every validator votes for a chain. Ethereum is NOT utilizing Proof of Stake at the moment and there have been some doubts as to whether or not it will actually be implemented. With that being said, here's how Ethereum hopes to solve the four ssues involved with PoS:

Distribution. ETH has already been distributed with approximately 70% sold in it's ICO in 2014 representing 70% of total of Ether in circulation. Eleven million was given to the Ethereum Foundation and continues its distribution via PoW.

Monopolization. ETH has already been distributed.  Another way ETH hopes to solve this issue is by locking coins in a smart contract in order to stake. Therefore, staking comes at the cost of liquidity.

51% attacks. As mentioned above, it is incredibly costly to buy or bribe nodes to participate in a 51% attack. Should an attack happen, Michael Gubik proposes utilizing social/business/exchange forums to select one of the forked chains in his Proof of Stake FAQ on Ethereum's github.

Nothing at Stake. Validators will be disincentivized from signing orphaned blockchains as they will be punished.

Conclusion

There have been many fully functional and secure iterations of PoS over the history of cryptocurrency from the Hybrid PoS-PoW to pure PoS to Delegated PoS.  The BFT-style PoS is the newest attempt to address the four main issues surrounding the protocol initially proposed by Sunny and Mark. Each coin reflects a different approach and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, the move to PoS reflects a larger philosophical move in the world of cryptocurrency towards a more eco-friendly and decentralized system.

Meet the New Bitcoin Cash P2P Exchange Localbitcoincash.org

Meet the New Bitcoin Cash P2P Exchange Localbitcoincash.org

On October 14 a new bitcoin cash exchange was launched called, Localbitcoincash.org, a platform that enables people to trade the decentralized currency in a peer-to-peer fashion.

Localbitcoincash.org Launches Beta Platform

Meet the New Bitcoin Cash P2P Exchange Localbitcoincash.orgThis week the beta version of Localbitcoincash.org (LBC) was released after bitcoin cash (BCH) fans were teased with screenshots of the platform two weeks ago. The developer of the site states that the platform is in its very early stages and the team plans to improve the marketplace over time. Further, the LBC developer says he tried to contact the team from Localbitcoins so they could offer assistance with forking the code but received no reply. "We have decided to take matters into our own hands," explains the LBC developer.

"We aim to keep transactions free, including escrows and bank transfers, to encourage more people to use Bitcoin Cash," explains the LBC website announcement. "However, currently all expenses came from the founder's savings so to ensure the site sustainability, we will be charging optional fees."

As long as we can pay the bills, we are happy. We are determined as hell to make bitcoin cash become a household name.

A Good Thing About Bitcoin Cash is That Transaction Fees Are Less Than a Penny

Additionally, deposits and withdrawals are free as well except for the network transaction (tx) fee. However, the LBC developer says tx fees on the Bitcoin Cash network are typically "less than a penny, depending on your transaction size." The site offers escrow options for trades, bank transfers and local meetups for bitcoin cash exchanges. Currently, a majority of the individuals with trades listed on the platform are choosing the meetup option.

"Please do not deposit anything if you are uncomfortable doing so — Use the meetup option to trade with other users off-site," details the LBC developer emphasizing the platform is still in beta.

Localbitcoincash.org's listings for October 14, 2017.

Further, the website gives step-by-step instructions for trading BCH with escrow, and methods of meeting up locally as well. The website also has a price index covering a variety of the top cryptocurrencies, so users don't need to go to a separate website to find various prices. A trader reputation will be added to the LBC platform in roughly a month, the developer details on Reddit. Moreover, the LBC administrator says they have big plans for the peer-to-peer website stating:         

It has been a wild ride for bitcoin cash owners as the price swings between a low of $200 to a high of $1000 in the two months since bitcoin cash was born. As a founder, I would like to share that we have extremely ambitious plans for bitcoin cash over the next 12 months.

What do you think about the new Localbitcoincash.org platform? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse this product/service. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Current Batch of Bitmain Miners Can Only Be Paid for With Bitcoin Cash

Most Bitcoin users are well aware that Bitmain is one of the largest ASIC hardware manufacturers in existence today. It is also one of the few companies still selling cryptocurrency mining equipment to mainstream consumers. The company recently made the decision to only accept Bitcoin Cash payments for its latest batch of Antminer S9 units. It's an interesting decision, although a controversial one as well.

Although the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem has seen its fair share of growth as of late, there is still a lot of work to be done. When it comes to spending BCH especially, things are not necessarily straightforward. A lot of companies still don't accept BCH payments right now and that situation will not change anytime soon. Bitmain is setting an interesting precedent in this regard, even though it may hurt business in the process.

Indeed, the mining hardware manufacturer has made a very bold decision by requiring that the new batch of Antminer S9 mining units be paid for with Bitcoin Cash exclusively. That is a rather surprising turn of events, considering the company has always accepted payment with Bitcoin. Interestingly enough, the unit price is still denominated in BTC, BCH, and LTC right now. However, after scrolling down to the "Payments" section of the page, only BCH is shown as an accepted payment method.

While this decision may bring more usability to the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem as a whole, it is not necessarily a smart business decision. That's not because people don't want to spend their BCH on things they can use, mind you, but rather because Bitcoin Cash is still a rather small – albeit valuable –  ecosystem right now. In a way, it was to be expected that one of the biggest proponents of BCH would accept this payment method, although exclusivity was not necessarily something anyone saw coming.

The big question is what Bitmain hopes to gain from this course of action. It is in its best interest to see BCH succeed.  The company's Antpool is still one of the largest supporters of BCH right now, although not the largest entity by any means. Moreover, Bitmain may still support SegWit2x when that hard fork occurs, although it is unknown whether they would ever accept that new altcoin for payment purposes. With this rather surprising precedent, it is only a matter of time before we see other companies follow its example.

Moreover, it is also unclear if future batches of Bitmain products will support BCH payment. It is certainly possible this is just a "test run" by the company to gauge interest in the concept. A lot of people hold BCH as a means of speculation, rather than an actual intent to use it to make purchases. Moreover, not everyone wants to mine cryptocurrency at home with such machines, either due to costs, noise, or genuine disinterest.

All things considered, this decision comes at a time during which Bitcoin Cash is struggling to retain its value in the market, and whether or not things will improve for BCH remains to be seen. It is good to see some more positive attention for different cryptocurrencies, especially by such a well-established company. Rest assured this controversial decision will not go by unnoticed for long.

Ethereum Price Falls Below $300 Again

Everyone in the world is seemingly keeping a close eye on the cryptocurrency markets right now. One of the currencies for which many people have high expectations is Ethereum. While still the world's second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, things are not exactly going as planned. With a 3.51% loss since yesterday, the Ethereum price has dipped below US$290 at the time of writing. This trend will not last all that long, though; that much is certain.

When the Bitcoin price dips briefly, the rest of the cryptocurrency markets will do the exact same thing. In the case of Ethereum, the price of this token has taken a tumble over the past few hours. While the Ethereum price was well above US$300 not too long ago, maintaining that high price point has proven problematic. Volatility is the second nature of all cryptocurrencies, and it clearly shows as of right now.

As far as the Ethereum price is concerned, it's now hovering close to US$290 for the time being. That is still a more than respectable price, all things considered, but it remains to be seen if a return to US$300 will happen before, during or after this weekend. We saw a sharp price increase for Ethereum from US$250 to US$306 earlier this week, which means a correction was due at some point.

Although the Ethereum price has dropped by 3.51%, there is no reason to be concerned whatsoever. It is a bigger dip than most people would have liked to see right now, but things will recover eventually. Particularly when the Bitcoin price recovers in a few hours from now, the Ethereum price will see some upward momentum accordingly. Despite what some people may claim, all cryptocurrencies derive value based on the Bitcoin price momentum, and Ethereum is no exception in this regard.

One thing that is somewhat disconcerting, however, is the low Ethereum trading volume. Relative to a few weeks ago, the Ethereum trading volume has dropped from well over US$1 billion to about half a billion USD right now. More specifically, there was US$532 million in volume over the past 24 hours, which is not bad, but nothing spectacular either by any means. Then again, this lower trading volume is no big surprise whatsoever, nor should it affect the currency in the long run.

Looking over the Ethereum trading markets ranked by volume, Bithumb is in the lead by a small margin over Bitfinex. GDAX is a surprise in the number three slot, but it is good to see some more competition in the Ethereum marketplace these days. With three fiat currency trading pairs dominating the Ethereum trading volume right now, the popular altcoin follows the same path as Bitcoin. More fiat currency-based trading is always a positive sign, though, as it confirms the global demand for cryptocurrency is still there.

As of right now, it appears to be only a matter of time until the Ethereum price surpasses $300 once again. However, with the weekend almost upon us, no one can say for sure what the future may hold, which is always somewhat troubling. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency to be reckoned with, as it does things very differently from Bitcoin or any other top cryptocurrency. A bright future lies ahead, regardless of the current price movements.

Roger Ver bets $1M that Bitcoin Cash will not be ‘short-lived’

Bitcoin.com chief executive Roger Ver has issued a $1 million challenge to F2Pool owner Wang Chun, who has claimed at a blockchain conference in Hong Kong that Bitcoin Cash "will be short-lived."

The two executives were part of a roundtable discussion at the Bitkan-hosted 2017 Shape the Future Blockchain Global Summit, debating on the potentials of Bitcoin Cash versus the original Bitcoin. For his part, Wang said Bitcoin Cash will be abandoned soon, or as early as November, when another hard fork is expected to happen.

Roger Ver bets $1M that Bitcoin Cash will not be 'short-lived'"Bitcoin Cash will be short-lived compared with earlier attempts because we will soon have another one coming very soon… after SegWit2X is introduced," Wang said.

The F2Pool co-owner's comment caught the ire of Ver, a confessed fan of Bitcoin Cash, prompting him to issue a bet.

"How short-lived do you think Bitcoin Cash will be and would you be interested in making a wager about that?" Ver asked. "I'd like to bet $1 million on that and I'll give you two-year time frame."

Ver, an early Bitcoin investor, said he is a fan of Bitcoin Cash due to its low fees and fast confirmations, which makes it much more in line with the original vision of true decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash with more efficient transaction capacity.

"Anybody who use Bitcoin I think you know… the network's completely full and caused a horrible user experience, so I think everybody else in this stage wants Bitcoin to have a good user experience for people, and Mr. Wang Chun here thinks [the] Bitcoin network is not full and it's not a problem at all… He's blaming it on spammers, spammers are just people who use the Bitcoin network… so you can decide for yourself whose stand seems more reasonable here," Ver said.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Ver said Bitcoin Cash is the answer to Bitcoin's scaling problem.

"From day one, the plan was always to allow the blocks to become as big as they needed to be in order to accommodate people using Bitcoin, so the fact that this has become a problem with Bitcoin now is actually a sign of its success. Bitcoin Cash is the answer to that problem," Ver told CoinGeek. "Blockstream and these other guys that want to intentionally make the fees high and the confirmations of Bitcoin transactions slow or indeterminate, like, of course people don't want to use that. Bitcoin Cash is much more useful for people that actually want to use it as money."

Top 10 Cryptocurrency ICOs of 2017

ICOs have rapidly become the new standard method of raising funds for cryptocurrency startups and enthusiasts. Although not every ICO raises its minimum goal, most projects have had no problem selling all the available tokens quickly. Throughout 2017, we have seen some major cryptocurrency ICO projects raise a lot of money. Below is a brief overview of the most successful ICO projects in terms of funding throughout 2017 so far.

10. MONETHA

Although this project was only launched a short while ago, the amount of money raised surprised a lot of people. Monetha aims to provide a globally trusted commerce solution powered by the Ethereum blockchain to merchants in all industries. By raising US$36.6 million during the crowdsale, the ICO showed that people have high expectations for this project moving forward.

9. AETERNITY

Bringing smart contract technology to the masses will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Aeternity aims to do exactly that by making smart contracts interface with real-world data.  Whether or not the company will be successful in doing so remains to be seen. However, with US$36.96 million raised during the ICO, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this concept.

8. SONM

The world of supercomputing can benefit from more decentralization. Although SONM is competing against other projects in this industry, it also has a tremendous amount of potential. Its ICO raised US$42 million, which is a modest amount compared to how highly-valued this project can become, given enough time. There is not much hype surrounding SONM, as the team mainly focuses on developing a working ecosystem rather than making empty promises.

7. MOBILEGO

One of the more fascinating projects to date goes by the name of MobileGO. Bringing the world of cryptocurrency and mobile gaming together is quite a major undertaking. However, the project has seen its fair share of successes so far. This also explains how it raised US$53.069 million during its initial crowdsale. It's definitely a project worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

6. TENX

In the world of cryptocurrency-related debit cards, one can never have enough competition. TenX is one of the ICO projects launching in 2017 which aims to make a big impact in this regard. By raising US$64 million during the ICO, there has been a lot of initial interest in this project. However, that amount of money is no guarantee for success whatsoever.

5. STATUS

Many people will recall the Status ICO for the wrong reasons. It's not because the project is bad, as some real progress has been made. Unfortunately, the Status ICO highlighted major scalability issues for the Ethereum network, which got stuck due to the number of people trying to invest. When everything was said and done, Status raised US$90 million rather quickly.

4. BANCOR

The Bancor ICO has received a lot of initial interest due to the involvement of Tim Draper. This project is also one of those ICOs which sold out very quickly, for obvious reasons. Raising US$153 million is not shabby. It will be interesting to see what the team will do with this money, as the expectations of them are incredibly high.

3. EOS 

The EOS project has turned a lot of heads even though no one knows for sure if the team can deliver on its promises. There is a lot of interest in the concept, though, which has already translated into successfully raising US$185 million during its ICO. Putting that money to good use will be the number one priority right now.

2. TEZOS

Creating a decentralized blockchain capable of governing itself through a digital commonwealth sounds pretty interesting on paper. Bringing this technology to the masses will be something else entirely, though. Tezos successfully raised US$232.319 million to bring this blockchain to fruition. Whether or not the product will succeed in the end still remains to be determined.

1. FILECOIN

A lot of people were legitimately surprised by the Filecoin ICO, for obvious reasons. This project raised US$257 million out of the blue, even though the concept appears to be solid. A decentralized file storage network will certainly have major implications. Users will also earn Filecoin for hosting files, which is something a lot of enthusiasts will look forward to.

The Pirate Bay Tests Cryptocurrency Miner as Alternative Revenue Stream

Recently a story broke on TorrentFreak outlining a test that The Pirate Bay ran for a short period of time. The Pirate Bay team is looking to see if skimming the computational resources of site visitors is a better way to raise revenue than displaying advertisements. Some users are not happy about this, but I see it as an interesting opportunity.

MINING INSTEAD OF ADVERTISING

Users who visited the Pirate Bay's site on September 16th may have noticed a spike in their CPU usage. Only certain pages would spike the CPU, and some users decided to look into what was going on. Apparently, the Pirate Bay had inserted a few lines of Javascript code – developed by Coinhive – into selected pages on the site that would utilize visitors' computing resources to mine cryptocurrencies, specifically Monero.

The effect is detrimental to the overall user experience, apparently. Some users complained that it was immediately noticeable and off-putting. This makes sense, as the miner was variously throttled at 0.6 and 0.8. Disabling Javascript was sufficient to stop the miner, however. This short-term test likely lasted around 24 hours in total, but it has already upset many users.

AN INTERESTING IDEA THAT NEEDS BETTER EXECUTION

For the most part, I love this idea. Consumers today are inundated with ads for products and services. Flashy banners, the dreaded pop up, and – worst of all – ads that auto-play with sound can be incredibly disruptive to users. If I am reading an article or looking for some information on a website, there is nothing more infuriating than wading through ads.

I can already hear what some of you are saying: "Why not put on an ad blocker then?" Honestly, I have given it some thought, but realize that these media platforms do deserve some sort of compensation for providing me with content. If ads are their main form of revenue, blocking their ads and denying them revenue seems wrong to me.

However, there is a tacit agreement that I allow companies to collect big data from me in order to make their ad campaigns successful. This means my data is stored in a large, centralized location and is then accessible to malicious attackers looking for vulnerabilities in those systems.

Having a site dedicate some of one's computer power to mine cryptocurrencies while using their product or service might be a smart way to move forward. They would not need to show ads, which means ad companies would not need to collect big and vulnerable data to create better ad campaigns, and the companies would still get paid in the form of computational power required to find a block. All parties would seemingly benefit from this kind of arrangement.

It would need a few tweaks however. Firstly, not announcing a test like this – even if only for 24 hours – strikes me as a little cavalier. While companies do not need to announce every business test they perform, something that directly affects the CPU performance of a user's computer probably deserves some upfront explanation. I also think that perhaps the miner should be throttled down a bit. No one will make any money if accessing a site is clunky and slow enough that users decide to go elsewhere. This is only a first test, but I think the idea – if modified – could be a great approach moving forward.

South Korean Court Rules Confiscation of Bitcoin to Be Illegal

There are many different opinions among government officials worldwide on what can and cannot be done with Bitcoin. Although most countries still claim Bitcoin is not a currency, some states are looking at ways to confiscate the cryptocurrency. However, that may not be the case much longer in South Korea, where a local court ruled that Bitcoin cannot be confiscated. It is a very interesting precedent, to say the least.

It is quite interesting to keep an eye on the Bitcoin situation in South Korea. As most people are well aware, South Korean exchanges are the main sources of trading volume for quite a few different major cryptocurrencies. Bithumb in particular is bringing in a lot of trading volume, although Coinone and Korbit should not be overlooked either. Despite growth in the legitimate use of Bitcoin, it appears criminals are also flocking to Bitcoin in the country.

Local police recently seized 216 bitcoins from an individual who was considered to be involved with criminal activity. Interestingly enough, it appears this seizure of assets was not legitimate according to a local district court. The Suwon District Court ruled that Bitcoin is not subject to confiscation, according to local sources. This is a rather surprising precedent that could send shockwaves throughout the world. After all, it only takes one precedent like this one to change regulation in the future.

In this particular case, the arrested individual was charged with running an illegal pornography site. Although the site in question had quite a lot of members, the operator never reported much in the way of membership fees collected. It is unclear whether the membership fees were paid in Bitcoin or if the money was converted later on. If the latter were the case, it was only a matter of time before this individual got arrested.

While the charges against the individual himself were not dismissed, the confiscation of his Bitcoin assets has been deemed illegal. It is evidently "not appropriate to confiscate Bitcoins as they cannot assume an objective standard value." That is a rather clear and interesting statement by the Suwon district court. It does not claim that Bitcoin does not have a value, but rather that it is electronic money with no physical representation. It is a bit unclear if this means we may soon see dedicated legislation for Bitcoin in South Korea.

This does mean that, even if bitcoins were to be seized as criminal profits, the value calculation of these assets would prove pretty difficult. Bitcoin does not have a fixed value whatsoever, and one would need to calculate the corresponding amount instead of simply confiscating it. There will likely be some opposition to this judgment, as not everyone will see eye to eye regarding this decision.

The bigger question here is whether cryptocurrencies will ever gain legal recognition in South Korea. There are plans to introduce some form of legislation in the coming months, but nothing has been set in stone just yet. This may very well be the only case in which the confiscation of bitcoins is deemed illegal. The government will try to prevent rulings like this one from happening in the future; that much is evident.

 

Carefull Closing a Word Document Could Infect Your Computer

Cybercriminals have not given up on the idea of distributing Locky ransomware. Although most of the distribution methods in place today are being used by virtually everyone, there is a new solution being utilized by a few criminals. They now distribute the Locky ransomware payload through a modified Microsoft Word file, which will only be triggered once the document is closed. This is a new spin on the traditional "Word macro" distribution method we have seen used so often in recent years.

A NEW WAY TO DISTRIBUTE LOCKY RANSOMWARE

The Microsoft Word software suite allows criminals to execute many things that should not be theoretically possible. Installing malware by forcing users to enable specific macros to view content in a document and distributing the malicious payload that way seems to work just fine. However, since almost every ransomware distributor is using this method, the average consumer is slowly becoming aware of this problem and the threat it poses.

The latest Locky ransomware distribution campaign still relies on Microsoft Word documents. That in itself will not change anytime soon, as criminals have come up with a new way to successfully exploit a few other options at their disposal. The newest method uses Word documents laden with Locky malware which will only trigger the payload download and execution once the documents are closed. This is a pretty unique way to deliver a payload since it is not something that has been explored up to this point.

Similar to the previous distribution method, this Microsoft Word campaign still relies on macros. It seems these macros are of particular concern to Microsoft, as the criminals have found a way to make them useful to execute code when a document closes. It still relies on executing a macro within Word itself, and the user still needs to enable macros in order for it to succeed. However, it has nothing to do with displaying content per se, as the document itself displays information.

This also makes a major difference for any security software that may be installed on the victim's computer. Since most software now blocks malicious macros in Word documents when it comes to displaying content, an on-close Macro is the new go-to solution. A lot of sandboxed environments allow Word macros by default. Now that these new types of documents appear to be completely harmless, they can still infect computers by flying under the radar.

This new Microsoft Word campaign is not the only Locky distribution method to keep an eye on. Another researcher has discovered that there is a fake Dropbox email phishing method being employed right now. Once a user clicks on the link in an email, he or she is redirected to a spoofed website which will install the Locky payload on the target computer. Criminals will continue distributing Locky for quite some time to come; that much is obvious.

With so many "affiliates" distributing one of the more destructive types of malware, the future is looking pretty bleak. It seems as if the war against ransomware is not evolving in favor of the potential victims. Criminals remain at least two steps ahead of security researchers in this ongoing cat-and-mouse game. Locky has been one of the top ransomware types for quite some time and it will not necessarily go away overnight. With this new Microsoft Word macro trick, things will only get more confusing and dangerous for computer users.

Canadian Woman Scammed By Purported Cop Using Bitcoin ATMs

According to Canadian news sources, there is a new type of Bitcoin-related scam making the rounds. A story on the CBC website mentions how a woman was asked to make several cash deposits to cryptocurrency ATMs over several days. It is estimated around C$17,000 was obtained from just this one victim. The criminal's choice to use Bitcoin raises a lot of questions, especially considering that the largest cryptocurrency is anything but an anonymous payment method. Police officials claim they cannot track the relevant transactions, though.

Criminals are getting craftier when it comes to scamming people out of their money. Locking computer files and encrypting them has proven to be a very lucrative business model over the past few years. However, there are plenty of other options waiting to be explored as well. According to the CBC, one such method involves scammers having victims deposit cash using Bitcoin ATMs.

One worrisome aspect of this story is how a bystander observing an older person putting cash into a Bitcoin ATM automatically assumed a connection to criminal activity. This goes to show how the public image of Bitcoin and all its related services are extremely skewed. The woman in question was also holding a CRA legal notice, which made things even more suspicious. It turns out she had allegedly been contacted by a person falsely claiming to work for the local police department. This seemingly hints at quite a complicated scam, although specifics are impossible to come by right now.

Once the police showed up and confronted the woman, her phone rang. During the call, the criminal identified herself as Mary Jones with the police department. The criminal also successfully spoofed the phone number to resemble the non-emergency line of the Hamilton police. For the time being, it remains anybody's guess if this was a cop gone rogue or someone with some advanced skills successfully pulling off one of the biggest Bitcoin cons in years. After all, there is a history of law enforcement agents going rogue when Bitcoin is involved.

Further information revealed that the victim made several cash deposits to other Bitcoin ATMs in the same area. Canada has seen a rapid growth in the number of Bitcoin ATMs, although no one expected they would be used for nefarious purposes so soon. Around C$17,000 worth of Bitcoin has been purchased from the various machines, although no one knows for sure where the money was sent to. Hamilton, Ontario police officials claimed that transferring money into Bitcoin made it very hard to track. That is not exactly the case, as all Bitcoin transactions are recorded publicly in real time.

There are various blockchain analysis companies who will gladly help out any police team looking into suspicious Bitcoin transfers. There is some work to do for sure, but it goes to show there are many ways to find out who is behind this scam. The biggest concern is how this perpetrator can successfully imitate police officials – at least over the phone – and trick people into using Bitcoin ATMs to transmit significant sums of money in mere days. The letter in question must have appeared pretty legitimate to the victim, although no further specifics have been provided at this time.

The general public needs to be properly educated on how official government or administrative officials will never call or text people to force them to make payments, especially not with Bitcoin. It appears the Hamilton police have a major scammer on their hands who is more than willing to put them in a bad light right now. This sort of thing is what gives Bitcoin a bad reputation. It remains strange that criminals would opt for the one cryptocurrency which has no privacy or anonymity traits whatsoever.