 QUOTE OF THE DAY  |
| "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." - Albert Einstein |
Happy Friday! It was discovered $300 million of Bitcoin was transferred for $0.04. $300 MILLION! FOR $0.04! Anyway, have a great weekend Brew Crew!
Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team
| COIN | PRICE | 24H |
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| BTC | $5,869.87 | -3.54% |
|
| ETH | $409.08 | -5.98% |
|
| XRP | $0.427756 | -6.5% |
|
| BCH | $655.765 | -6.16% |
|
| EOS | $7.21987 | -7.26% |
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*Information as of 9:30 AM EST
Developer Plans to Airdrop $300 Million in Bitcoin to Venezuelans
HYPERINFLATION IN VENEZUELA
- Over the past few years, the people of Venezuela have been victims to runaway hyperinflation, witnessing the value of their hard earned bolivars crash to becoming essentially worthless
- Normal inflation rates are usually around 2-3% and is healthy for the economy, in Venezuela, the inflation rate has risen more than 43,000% in the past year
- The hyperinflation has been caused by the country's central bank endlessly printing more currency to pay for the massive deficit the government is running
- The economic effect has been even more severe than the Great Depression and the impact of the falling of communism on Russia
- As a result of the hyperinflation, it now costs 1,000,000 bolivars to buy a cup of coffee (29 US cents) and rather than counting bills, merchants instead resort to weighing stacks of cash to estimate its value
- Hyperinflation has devastated the country's citizens leaving a record number of people hungry and hopeless of their future
GOVERNMENT CRYPTO
- In December of last year, the government announced that they are establishing a national cryptocurrency to combat the hyperinflation problem
- The government-backed coin is called 'Petro' and is claimed to be backed by the country's oil reserves
- An initial coin offering was held in February and the government claims to have raised $735 million selling tokens to private investors
- It is not really clear how successful the cryptocurrency has been, especially because it is only on one exchange in the country and the hyperinflation seems to be growing faster than ever
Venezuela's announcement stated:
"Venezuela will create a...cryptocurrency to advance monetary sovereignty, as it will help to overcome the financial blockade and thus move towards new forms of international financing for the economic and social development of the country."
BTC PRESCRIBED TO CRISIS
- Bitcoin emerged out of the US housing crisis and is very much a hedge to flawed monetary and fiscal policies of governments, because it is decentralized and has a limited supply
- Some Venezuelans have already seeked economic refugee into Bitcoin to avoid the hyperinflation and one developer hopes to extend this benefit to many more Venezuelans
- Jonathan Wheeler, a former Goldman Sachs employee now developer, has devised a plan to airdrop what he hopes to be as much as $300 million worth of Bitcoin to Venezuelan citizens
LIBERATING WITH BITCOIN: OPERATION VENEZUELA
- Started in February, Wheeler now has 14 others working alongside of him under the "Pale Blue Foundation" that he founded
- Wheeler hopes to raise $300 million via donations and partnerships with other non-profit organizations and is developing an app called Azul to facilitate these donations
- While developing a plan to raise funds, Wheeler and company are also researching how airdropping a massive amount of digital currency into an country like Venezuela will affect the economy and what is the most effective way to get the Bitcoin into the hands of citizens
- If the project in Venezuela is successful, the foundation plans to perform similar ventures with other economies in crisis
Wheeler explains the scale of the project:
"To give it the greatest likelihood of success, it has to be done en masse. We're trying to make this a large-scale collaborative mission to help people suffering from financial tyranny."
Stay up to date with the project by checking the Pale Blue Foundation's website
Cybersecurity Analysts Locate Double-Spending Vulnerability in Tether
DOUBLE-SPENDING
- Double-spending is a unique problem to cryptocurrencies in which a transaction can be replicated
- However, due to mining and the need to verify transactions, the ability to double-spend is hindered because a hacker would need great computing power to falsify the blockchain
SLOWMIST
- Yesterday, Chinese cybersecurity firm SlowMist claims it has found a double-spending problem vulnerability in the popular stablecoin Tether (USDT)
- In a tweet, SlowMist published the vulnerability and explained that it was able to send USDT to an unnamed exchange without the correct transaction field values
- SlowMist then clarified that this is not an issue with Tether, but rather an issue exchanges may encounter because the vulnerable exchanges don't verify the status of the "valid" parameter
Crypto writer CryptoMedication quickly took to medium and posted a picture of the vulnerable code:
EXCHANGE REACTION
- After the faulty code was posted, exchanges took notice and quickly examined their own platforms for possible vulnerability
- OKEx, the second largest exchange in the world by volume, published a statement announcing that it is not vulnerable to this issue
- No exchanges have reported being exploited by this Tether vulnerability and it is a good thing that this code hiccup was acknowledged by a company acting in good faith rather than criminals
Cryptojacking Up 629% in Q1 2018, McAfee Report Finds
CRYPTOJACKING RISE
- Cryptojacking is the process of using victims' computing power to mine cryptocurrencies without their knowledge or permission
- According to a report released by McAfee Labs, there was a 629% rise of known coin miner malware samples in the first quarter of 2018, up to 2.9 million samples from 400,000 samples the previous quarter
The report acknowledges the underlying reason that criminals are turning to cryptojacking:
"This suggests that cybercriminals are warming to the prospect of monetizing infections of user systems without prompting victims to make payments, as is the case with popular ransomware schemes. Compared with well-established cybercrime activities such as data theft and ransomware, cryptojacking is simpler, more straightforward, and less risky."
TARGETING MOBILE
- One report released by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky believes that the new growth in cryptojacking will come at the expense of mobile devices
- The firm explained that once cryptojacking softwares unlock stronger profits on mobile devices, many more people could be affected
The report by Kaspersky explained why cryptojacking will remain a problem for the foreseeable future:
"While ransomware has provided a potentially large but one-off income for its cybercriminals, miners will provide a lower, but longer lasting one. Last year we asked what tips the scales for cybercriminals? Today, this is no longer a question. Miners will keep spreading across the globe, attracting more people."
- $300 Million Dollars Sent in Bitcoin for Just $0.04 USD
- SharesPost Research: 15X Potential Growth in Valuation of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Startups Over Next 10 Years
- Japanese Economist Explains Why Another Bitcoin Price Surge Is Unlikely
Bitcoin (BTC)
Last trade date / contract expiration of: 2018 JUNE BTC Futures contract / @CME exchange/marketplace / Trading terminates 4:00 p.m. GMT
Fusion (FSN)
"Dear FUSIONites, we will be hosting a FUSION Community Meet-up in Amsterdam on June 29."
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