Bitcoin Guru

News dominating the current cycle is all about bitcoin core (BTC) skipping above the psychological $7,000 price point. However, quietly, determinedly, the altcoin Dash has been besting all comers. It is up double digits in recent days, thanks in part to its proponents' dogged hustle and commitment to emerging economies such as Venezuela. Venezuela Dash Adoption Helps Price Surge Dash CEO Ryan Taylor explained, "Our partnership with Kripto will put all the components needed to use Dash preloaded into the phones of 10,000 new Venezuelan consumers every month." So called 'KRIP phones' contain "a Dash wallet to store Dash, services to obtain Dash, and the Bitrefill app to enable spending on various services. This complements the over 1,000 merchants already accepting Dash in Venezuela, and really addresses the chicken and egg problem of attracting both consumers and merchants to our growing ecosystem," he detailed to Business Insider. It's working. Mr. T...

Favorable conditions have been created on the territory of the Leningrad Region for the creation of mining farms. There is enough capacity in the region, so electricity prices are relatively low. This is among the undeniable advantages of the region, along with the availability of engineering sites and qualified personnel. The opening ceremony. The farm is built by a company called Cryptouniverse on the site of the former Soviet fertilizer-producing laboratory, which stood unoccupied for 20 years, according to the Japan Times. The company explained that "The first buildings of the center put into operation occupy an area of 4,000 square meters and contain more than 3,000 pieces of equipment for the production of bitcoins and litecoins. Any private investors can place their equipment on the territory of the mining center or rent its computing power." Alexei Korolyov, the center's co-founder, was quoted by the news outlet saying that "this is the largest and so far the...

A partnership between a bill payment company and a crypto exchange will allow Australians to pay their bills with between 50 and 100 cryptocurrencies. Customers can use any coins in their Cointree accounts to pay their bills regardless of whether the billers accept cryptocurrency. Gobbill Partners With Cointree Cointree and Gobbill Enable Australian Bill Payments in Over 50 CryptocurrenciesBill payment company Gobbill and cryptocurrency exchange Cointree jointly announced a partnership on August 20 to enable Australians to pay bills using cryptocurrencies. The announcement reads, "the global alliance [between the two companies] will allow users from both platforms to pay household bills using their crypto coins stored in Cointree's wallet." Gobbill's website states that bills issued from any Australian provider can be paid through its system, including utilities, telecommunications, council rates, and insurance. A Cointree representative told news.Bitcoin.com : We are...

A recent report from Russia-based antivirus and cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Labs states that in the second quarter of 2018, cybercriminals stole over $2.3 million dollars via crypto scams. The report, entitled "Spam and phishing in Q2 2018," notes so-called "crypto giveaways" as a pervasive example of phishing, wherein cybercriminals dupe individuals into giving up sensitive information as part of a too-good-to-be-true promotion giving away popular cryptocurrencies. In these crypto phishing scams, unsuspecting individuals are fooled into voluntarily giving up important information on convincing but malicious copies of popular crypto wallets and markets. Kasperksy states that cybercrooks also pose as new Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects to collect money from potential investors that try to buy up tokens in supposed early access events. The report also notes that Kaspersky's anti-phishing system prevented 58,000 user attempts to connect to phishing websites i...

Japan has always been a very interesting country when it comes to cryptocurrency and regulation. It is one of the few companies which has made Bitcoin legal tender. The current approach of self-regulating cryptocurrency is still controversial, but the concept continues to gain a lot of traction regardless. Self-Regulation Remains a Risk Bringing more legitimacy to the cryptocurrency industry in Japan will always be a big challenge. That isn't because the government is opposing this industry, as it is doing the exact opposite. The Japanese government has shown a lot of leniency toward cryptocurrency and even made Bitcoin legal tender over a year ago. Although that initial response was relatively positive, it has become evident that there is still a need for active regulation of the cryptocurrency industry. Considering that exchanges remain subject to hacking and other incidents, having a regulatory framework in place to deal with such incidents is more than warranted. For the time b...

Cryptocurrencies are dropping in value once again on Wednesday, August 8 as most of the top digital assets are down between 9 to 18 percent over the last 24 hours. Prices started dropping yesterday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended the Cboe exchange-traded fund decision. Immediately after the announcement, bitcoin core (BTC) values shaved off $400 in an hour and the currency has lost another $300 in spot value today. After the SEC Announcement Cryptocurrency Prices Slide Significantly   Digital currency values are hurting today as the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped since our last markets update from $250B to $231B on August 8. Despite the drop in value, trade volumes for all 1600+ coins has increased to $15B over the last day. A few days ago, cryptocurrencies saw the first dip before the SEC announcement, which took place after the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) deal was revealed. However, after the quick dip, BTC/USD prices move...

Motherboard has reportedly obtained court documents pertaining to the arrest of Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old from Boston, who is accused of stealing $5 million USD in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Mr. Ortiz and his currently unidentified accomplices stole crypto from roughly 40 victims through a hacking technique known as "SIM jacking." "It has been reported that on the 12th of July, Californian police arrested a college student accused of being part of a group of criminals responsible for the theft of more than $5 million in cryptocurrencies. Mr. Ortiz was reportedly arrested at Los Angeles International Airport whilst on his way to Europe donning a Gucci bag presumed to have been paid for with stolen money. The 20-year-old now faces 28 charges, including 13 counts of hacking, 13 counts of identity theft, and 2 counts of grand theft. Ortiz is currently in jail awaiting his plea hearing on August 9th. His bail was set at $1 million. First Reported Instance of Crypto S...