Cryptocurrency News Now!: Nvidia cuts crypto

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Nvidia cuts crypto

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"If you are working on something that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you."

- Steve Jobs

Happy Thursday! Someone made a Bitcoin trading indicator that takes the contrarian view of CNBC's tweets. The creator alleges to have a 30%+ return on bearish tweets. Not too shabby.

Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team

MARKET

COIN	PRICE	24H

BTC	$6,450.863139	-3.37%

ETH	$273.082407	-4.5%

XRP	$0.322171	-5.39%

BCH	$520.581836	-5.23%

EOS	$4.751201	-5.96%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST

NEWS

Nvidia cuts crypto

SEC Denies Nine More Bitcoin ETFs

AGAIN AND AGAIN

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission denied the application of nine Bitcoin ETFs
These applications were filed by ProShares, Direxion, and Granite Shares
The SEC's decisions Wednesday come just weeks after the Commission denied the widely publicized Winklevoss Twin's ETF

COPY AND PASTE

The SEC used the exact same language in their denial letters for the ETFs, writing:

"...the Commission is disapproving this proposed rule change because, as discussed below, the Exchange has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission's Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with the requirements of the Exchange Act Section 6(b)(5), in particular the requirement that a national securities exchange's rules be designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices."

AFTERMATH

Surprisingly, the market did not respond as negatively to this SEC decision as it did to the Winklevoss decision
This may be because investors were not expecting the SEC to approve these ETFs, but the decisions did come sooner than expected
Many experts remain hopeful that we will one day see a Bitcoin ETF, but anticipate it to come sometime next year

REGULATION

China Doubles Down on Cryptocurrency Ban

BANNING ALL COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES

China has already had a blanket ban in place, banning all of the country's citizens from trading in cryptocurrencies and participating in initial coin offerings
Now, China has expanded the ban, an official new release coming from the state government reveals that the country is banning all commercial activities and events related to cryptocurrency
The government even went as far as asking WeChat, the country's most popular messaging app, to shut down the accounts to crypto-related news outlets

The new regulations ask that chat apps comply with government orders, stating:

"Users of instant messaging tools serving in public information service activities shall abide by relevant laws and regulations. For instant messaging service users who violate the agreement, the instant messaging service provider shall take measures such as warning, restriction, suspension, and closure until the account is closed, and save the relevant records and fulfill the obligation to report to the relevant competent authority."

BIPOLAR

China has had a very odd relationship with blockchain and cryptocurrencies over the past few years
While having a ban, the country has been rumored to be experimenting with blockchain technology and contemplating implementations throughout the government
A couple of months ago, China's president, acknowledged that blockchain is a breakthrough technology that can have an impact on the country's future

RESEARCH

Banks Consume Three Times More Energy Than Bitcoin, According to Researcher

BITCOIN ENERGY WOES

Bitcoin has been slammed by critics for being energy intensive since mining Bitcoin takes a significant amount of computer power
Since mining difficulty is only expected to increase, critics worry that Bitcoin's electricity usage will be off the charts
Already, the Bitcoin network is estimated to have used 30 terawatt-hours in 2017 which is as much electricity as the entire nation of Ireland uses in one year

STOP WORRYING

In a recent article, University of Pittsburgh researcher Katrina Kelly-Pitou urged critics to stop worrying about Bitcoin energy consumption
Addressing her point, Kelly-Pitou explains that new technologies are often energy-intensive in the early days, but then naturally become more efficient because "saving energy equates to saving costs"
In addition, Kelly-Pitou argues that many critics fail to understand that if electricity production increases, it can still maintain a minimal impact on the environment if the electricity is coming from renewable sources

CHECK THE NUMBERS

Kelly-Pitou notes that banking already uses 3 times the amount of power that Bitcoin does with an estimated 100 terawatts of power annually
Lastly, Kelly-Pitou claims that even if Bitcoin technology matured 100 times larger than its current market size, it would still be less than 2% of all energy consumption

HACK

North Korean Hackers Spread 'First' MacOS Malware Targeting Crypto Exchanges

THE PLOT

Russian security company Kaspersky Lab announced today that North Korean hacker group Lazarus has successfully spread its first macOS malware targeting crypto exchanges
According to Kaspersky Lab, the malware infiltrated one crypto exchange's systems after an employee downloaded a "tainted" app containing the malware
Though Kaspersky Lab reports the malware infected the unnamed crypto exchange, no funds were reportedly stolen

BIG PROFITS POSSIBLE

Vitaly Kamluk, an employee at Kaspersky Lab commented on the depth of the hack and its ability to reap big profits:

"The fact that they developed malware to infect macOS users in addition to Windows users and – most likely – even created an entirely fake software company and software product in order to be able to deliver this malware undetected by security solutions, means that they see potentially big profits in the whole operation."

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BREW BITS

The World Bank is scheduled to settle its first blockchain bond worth $73 million on August 28th.
US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii revealed she bought more than $1,000 worth of Litecoin and Ethereum last December.
The FTC published an article for men titled 'How to Avoid a Bitcoin Blackmail Scam' providing tips to avoid scams that claim to release affair information if the victim doesn't pay the scammer in Bitcoin.

LEARN LINGO

Satoshi

noun

The smallest possible fraction of cryptocurrency named after the inventor which is available for transactions. It is approximated to 0.00000001 Bitcoin.

COIN OF THE DAY

Cortex (CTXC)
Cortex's main mission is to provide the state-of-the-art machine-learning models on the blockchain in which users can infer using smart contracts on the Cortex blockchain.
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