Bitcoin Guru

For governments, fighting the coronavirus pandemic is like fighting a war. The leaders of Italy, Spain and Germany have used the analogy – along with the CEOs of Bank of America and the U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T – to describe the mass-scale efforts needed to combat the disease: mobilizations of the health care industry, a retooling by factories to produce masks and makeshift morgues to accommodate a fast-rising death count. During a televised press conference this week, U.S. President Donald Trump characterized himself as a "wartime president." Now, it's becoming clearer that the economic toll of the virus, as in a war, is likely to be dire. In the U.S. alone, a record 3.3 million jobless claims were filed last week. Deutsche Bank predicts the country's job losses might exceed 15 million, with Europe approaching a similar level. Countries are prepping aid and stimulus packages into the trillions of dollars, stretching already heavily indebted government b...

Smart contract development platform sCrypt Inc. has dispelled the notion that Bitcoin contracts are limited compared to other currently popular platforms such as Ethereum and EOS. In a post detailing how complex contracts can be written and run, the company said Bitcoin scripting is "extremely extensible, versatile, and future-oriented," with "unbounded" scaling. Bitcoin was always designed to run smart contracts A common myth in the digital/blockchain industry is that Bitcoin can't run the kind of sophisticated smart contracts that Ethereum and others were "designed" to handle, or that smart contracts were never part of Bitcoin's original purpose. Quite the contrary, sCrypt founder and CEO Xiaohui Liu says—any perceived limits stem from a lack of deep understanding among developers of Bitcoin's full functionality, or on the artificial limits imposed on alternate versions of Bitcoin such as BTC. Moreover, Ethereum may even be fundamentally flaw...

Japanese automotive manufacturing giant Toyota has launched a blockchain lab that will focus on integrating the technology into most of its operations. Known as the Toyota Blockchain Lab, the project has been in the works since April last year. It will integrate blockchain into its verification processes, global supply chain, financial systems and more. The global automotive industry has evolved rapidly, forcing carmakers to focus on providing more value to their customers. Toyota intends on keeping ahead of its rivals, and with the integration of blockchain, it will allow its customers to "connect more openly under safety and security," the company said in a press release. @ToyotaMotorCorp #Toyota's latest #blockchaintechnology improves information reliability and accelerates the sharing of data among multiple parties in a more open environment that is safe and secure. The Blockchain Lab is a collaboration between the Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Financial Service...

Celebrities and digital currencies have not augured particularly well, with many of them having to part with huge sums of money just to get the authorities off their backs. One celebrity is however out to change all this and is building a futuristic city powered by blockchain technology and digital currencies. Grammy-nominated singer Akon believes he can change millions of lives in Africa with his Akoin currency, but is it all just a dream or can the real-life Wakanda be actualized? Born Aliaume Damala Badara Akon Thiam, Akon relocated to the U.S from Senegal at seven where he went on to release chart-topping hits. He, however, never forsook his roots and has invested a lot of resources into several initiatives in Senegal and beyond. His most prominent is the Akon Lighting Africa Initiative, one that seeks to bring clean energy to millions of African homes.  In his most daring project yet, Akon announced in 2018 that he would be launching Akon City, a utopian city which would avail all...

The outgoing governor of the Bank of England has warned of the risks of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), highlighting the potential impact of CBDCs on fiat currency and the wider financial system. Mark Carney, who is due to leave his post on Friday, addressed the risks posed by central bank digital currencies, highlighting the "significant challenges" that could be posed to financial stability. First reported by Reuters, the comments come at a time when the bank is reported to be considering the feasibility of issuing its own digital currency on the blockchain: While CBDC poses a number of opportunities, it could raise significant challenges for maintaining monetary and financial stability…and would need to be very carefully designed if it were to be introduced. Carney said there were likely implications for commercial banks, should significant balances move towards CBDCs: "If significant deposit balances are moved from commercial banks into CBDC, it could have i...

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement in a lawsuit over changes to the fees for purchasing digital currency on its credit cards, bringing an end to legal action over the matter. The unannounced fee structure changes were introduced in 2018, which the plaintiffs said was a violation of its cardholder terms of service. Chase bank customers Brady Tucker, Ryan Hilton, and Stanton Smith brought the action after the bank implemented the new fee structure without providing any advanced warnings to its customers. Notably, Chase applied cash advance fees for digital currency purchases, a position it has previously defended. In a prior hearing, Chase argued digital currency purchases could be characterized as "cash-like transactions," and as a result, the fee change was not a breach of its terms. In August, a judge upheld the arguments of the plaintiffs in demonstrating the definition of "cash-like" as referring specifically to instruments tied directly to fia...

Two co-founders of an alleged crypto Ponzi scheme have pleaded not guilty to a range of charges, following a criminal indictment on money laundering and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. John Caruso and Zachary Salter of Zima Digital Assets have been accused of running a crypto scam responsible for defrauding some $9 million from its customers, in a structure defined as a "classic Ponzi scheme." The first $1.9 million of deposits into the scheme were returned to early investors, validating the scheme and its claims for significant investment returns. These payments were allegedly used to encourage more investment in the scheme. The following $7 million invested was purported to have been spent frivolously by the founders, including on luxury vacations, private jets and casino trips. The founders themselves claimed no taxable income during the period, despite showcasing their monied lifestyle on their social media profiles. Some 90 investors were conned by the scheme, including...

An unknown group of hackers breached Trident Crypto Fund, stole the data for over 250,000 users and leaked it online. According to a recent report, the hackers were able to access email addresses, cellphone numbers, passwords and more. The hack comes hot on the heels of yet another data breach at Digitex Futures Exchange. The hackers managed to access the persona data for 266,000 users, Russian outlet Izvestia reported. Speaking to the outlet, Ashot Oganesyan, the technical director at cybersecurity firm DeviceLock, revealed that the hackers posted the data on a number of file-sharing websites. They exploited a vulnerability on the fund's website, which they openly claimed as they leaked the data. The hackers managed to access email addresses, phone numbers, passwords in encrypted form, countries of residence and IP addresses. Two weeks after they leaked the data, they then decrypted the passwords for 120,000 users. Armed with the usernames and the passwords, the hackers can easily...