Thursday, August 2, 2018

Thieves Steal Over $5 Million Bitcoin by Hijacking SIM Cards

August 2, 2018 Read in Browser
Blockchain Brew
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MARKET
COIN PRICE 24H

BTC $7,549.016755 -0.89%

ETH $413.637124 -2.72%

XRP $0.43269 -3.75%

BCH $748.707002 -2.04%

EOS $6.974265 -4.75%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST


NEWS

Thieves Steal Over $5 Million Bitcoin by Hijacking SIM Cards

SIM HIJACKING

  • SIM card hijacking is a technique used by thieves in which the thief reroutes a victims phone number to a new SIM card controlled by the hijacker
  • Once the phone number is rerouted, the thief has access to all of your text messages and calls, and is able to reset passwords to your accounts

HIJACKERS CAUGHT

  • Joel Ortiz, a 20 year old college student from Boston, and his accomplices were arrested for stealing over $5 million in Bitcoin by using SIM card hijacking
  • The gang is thought to have hijacked around 40 SIM cards
  • Ortiz had his biggest theft during Consensus 2018, where he was able to pilfer $1.5 million in crypto from a single blockchain entrepreneur
  • With help from AT&T, investigators were able to trace phone numbers used by Ortiz and figure out his identity

PROTECT YOURSELF

  • This sort of attack can happen to anyone, your two best strategies to prevent it are:
    • Don’t use SMS 2FA, rather use Google Authenticator or something similar
    • Call your cell service provider and tell them you do not plan on porting your number and ask if there are any security measures they can put in place to prevent this sort of attack from happening

NEWS

Wikipedia Denies Any Interest in ICO

WIKI FUNDRAISING

  • Wikipedia is a non-profit and generates no revenue, so it must find a way to raise funds to stay alive
  • To raise funds, Wikipedia turns to asking for donations from users who visit the site
  • Surprisingly this method is actually effective, in 2016, Wikipedia received more than $80 million in donations

NO ICO

  • In the midst of the ICO craze, people recommend Wikipedia simply raise capital via an ICO

At a recent blockchain event, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales, was asked if his company would ever ICO, his answer was:

"We are absolutely never going to do that. Zero interest."

WALES & CRYPTO

  • Wales has not been an advocate to crypto in any form
  • In the past he has ripped ICOs for being “nothing of value” and “absolute scams”
  • He did say that blockchain is an interesting technology but there is too much hype around it and it is clearly a bubble

RESEARCH

Report Shows Bitcoin Use in Commerce Hit a Low in May After Peaking at $411 Million Last Year

VOLUME DECLINE

  • According to research conducted by Chainalysis, the value of Bitcoin transacted using the 17 largest crypto payment processing services has declined significantly
  • After transacting over $411 million in September 2017, popular crypto payment processing services transacted a low of $60 million in May 2018
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CRITIC SPEAKS OUT

  • After reading this report, Nicholas Weaver, a senior researcher at the International Computer Science Institute, commented that "Bitcoin is not actually usable"
  • Weaver continued to argue that Bitcoin's fees are often more expensive than that of a credit card transaction
  • Lastly, Weaver added that Bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed and that is concerning if merchant or consumer commits fraud

COUNTER ARGUMENT

  • On the contrary, many Bitcoin supporters say that real world use and adoption will take time, it is no surprise we are not in a mature market quite yet
  • In addition, fees for Bitcoin have fallen significantly since October 2017 and will likely continue to fall once the lightning network is fully adopted
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EXCHANGE

Coinbase Rolls Out British Pound Deposits for UK Users

IMMEDIATE TRANSFERS

  • Announced yesterday, Coinbase will now offer investors in the United Kingdom the ability to invest immediately with the British Pound
  • This is fantastic news for UK users since previously, to transact on the platform, users had to convert British Pounds into Euros to then purchase their desired cryptocurrencies

Coinbase chief executive Zeeshan Feroz commented on the new system's efficiency and cost savings:

"Customers will not only benefit from increased speed, but reduced cost as well. By no longer having to convert funds from GBP to euros and vice versa to add and remove funds, there will be no more exchange rates."

WORKING WITH REGULATORS

  • To break into new markets, Coinbase has to jump through different legal hoops for different countries
  • Coinbase has shown its strength as a leading cryptocurrency exchange by working closely with regulators and financial institutions to make its services universal

Feroz prided Coinbase for continuing to push the frontier of exploring new markets:

"UK banks have been conservative in terms of working with crypto businesses and we’re proud to be one of the first companies to get access to domestic banking"


SPONSORED


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MORE BREWING
  • Square Sees Profits From Bitcoin Sales Double in Q2
  • Bitcoin Cash Celebrates Its First Birthday: From a Hard Fork to Easy Going
  • Hester Peirce Hits Again says, SEC Focus Misplaced over Bitcoin ETF

TODAY IN CRYPTO
Qtum (QTUM)
"At this meetup, you're free to learn what innovations Qtum has done to build the bridge between blockchain and real business use cases."

Today in Crypto is powered by coinmarketcal.com


COIN OF THE DAY
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