Friday, December 28, 2018

Questionable whitepapers❓

December 28, 2018

The WSJ Found 16% of Crypto Projects to be Questionable

Examining whitepapers

In a new report, the Wall Street Journal investigated more than 3,300 different cryptocurrency whitepapers in an attempt to uncover some truth within the industry.

Following the analysis, WSJ reported a disturbing result. Apparently, 16% of cryptocurrency whitepapers included one of three fraudulent practices:

Plagiarism
Identity Theft
Promise of Improbable Returns

Now, WSJ has left an open, searchable database on its website so users can scan through the 513 projects that produced red flags.

Are we really surprised?

Probably not. The cryptocurrency space has been largely unregulated for most of its existence and scams aren't a stranger to the market.

In 2017, Statis Group marked over 80% of initial coin offerings (ICO) as scams, however, thankfully, 70% of all funding actually went to higher quality projects.

Still, 30% of funding to low quality projects is nothing to be proud of.

New year, new start

With 2019 right around the corner, the crypto industry has a clean slate to start anew.

What can we expect? In short:

More ICO crackdowns
Better exchange security standards
More dead projects

Those are just a few predictions for the upcoming year, however, fingers crossed 2019 ends with less scams.

NEWS

Former Mt Gox CEO Claims Innocence during Closing Arguments of Trial

Quick history of Mt Gox

Defunct Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox was once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, until in 2014 the exchange became insolvent after it was brought to light that the exchange had lost 744k Bitcoins over the span of a few years.

Even after Mt Gox went insolvent in 2014, the exchange has still been prominent in the news of the cryptocurrency world.

Earlier this year, Mt Gox was forced to dump a portion of its remaining Bitcoin to repay creditors and was blamed by cryptocurrency investors for crashing the price of Bitcoin.

Prosecutors seeking 10 years

Prosecutors in the Mt. Gox case are seeking a 10-year sentence for former CEO Mark Karpeles.

Part of the sentence stems from an accusation that Karpeles embezzled more than $3 million in customer money from the exchange he ran back in 2013. Allegedly, he used the money to invest in a "software development business for personal interest."

Maintains innocence

Since the collapse of the exchange he once ran, Karpeles has maintained the stance that he is innocent of any criminal wrongdoings.

Karpeles trial has been ongoing in Japan since July 2017 and just recently, the court heard the closing arguments. The former CEO maintained his long-held stance that he is innocent.

The verdict for his trial is expected on March 15 of next year (2019).

HACK

Electrum Lost Almost 250 Bitcoins in a Matter of Hours

Gone phishing

Hacked yesterday, many users of the popular Bitcoin wallet Electrum fell victim to phishing scheme that netted close to $1 million for the hacker.

Allegedly, the hacker set up a network of malicious servers and if a users connected to one of those servers, they would be asked to update their Electrum wallet information.

This "update" actually turned out to be a faulty link that collected user data. Then, unknowingly, users wallets were emptied.

Not Electrum's fault

Though the phishing hack happened to Electrum users, this isn't the wallet's fault.

Following the incident, Electrum released a statement that directed users to always make sure they are logging in to the correct web address.

And the same goes for almost all crypto activity online. Another large target for phishing attempts is exchanges.

To avoid these types of scams, always:

Double check for correct website address
Double check for fake emails
Only follow links directly from projects

CRIME

Taiwanese Man Uses Stolen Electricity to Mine $3 Million in Crypto

Turning power into coins

A Taiwanese man was recently arrested for allegedly mining approximately $3.25 million in Bitcoin and Ether using stolen electricity.

The man had an intricate plan to power his mining operations. He reportedly rented 17 retail locations, then hired electricians to redesign the buildings' wiring so that the electricity would not be metered.

He was eventually caught when the Taiwan Power Company noticed an unstable power supply and investigated the situation further.

No information has been disclosed about the extent of punishment for the electricity thief or how much of the crypto will have to be forfeited.

BITS

But wait, there's more...

📈 Venezuela saw a massive spike in LocalBitcoins activity to the highest recorded volume ever.
🐳 A mysterious Bitcoin "8 Whale" moved 5% of supply within the last month.
🇮🇹Italy has revealed 30 new experts to lead the nations blockchain strategy.

MEME