Coinbase is collecting BTC donations for Bahamas / Malware on Bitcoin blockchain / Decentralization

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Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Hello again, I received a hearty welcome from some readers after yesterday's edition of Inside Bitcoin. Many thanks! And a shout out to Jason G for keeping me honest. In yesterday's Jargon Watch, I miscommunicated M of N as the number of signatures received on a multisig transaction. It actually represents the number of signatures required of the number possible. Thanks Jason. Don't forget, We've got a running list of top Bitcoiners to follow on Twitter. If you're looking for top peeps to follow, there's a good place to start. -- Allen       Market Watch: Bitcoin is maintaining, but the rest of the market is drooping--like beagle ears. Bitcoin: $10,566 (⬆️ 0.70%) // $189.3 billion market cap. Ethereum: $172 (⬇️ 2.82%) // $18.53 billion market cap. XRP: $0.256 (⬇️ 1.31%) // $11.0 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $289 (⬇️ 2.11%) // $5.2 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Steem: $0.177 (⬆️ 8.07%) // $61.0 million market cap. Top 100 Loser: Egretia: $0.01 (⬇️ 35.86%) // $45.2 million market cap. Prices are as of 01:46 p.m. EDT.       1. Coinbase has opened a door for customers to donate Bitcoin and other digital assets to victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. Lend a Hand Bahamas set up a Coinbase Commerce account for the purpose, Coinbase announced on Twitter yesterday. Lend a Hand Bahamas is a nonprofit agency in the Bahamas and will use crypto donations for relief to adult and youth relocating to Nasau from the Abaco or Grand Bahama islands. Some of the funds could also be used for educational purposes. -- DECRYPT       2. A new strain of the Glupteba malware that feeds on the Bitcoin blockchain has been discovered. Glupteba has been around for a few years, but Trend Micro recently discovered a malvertising campaign that uses the malware's dropper to retrieve the latest command and control domain from Bitcoin transactions. In addition to the dropper, Glupteba downloads a browser stealer that is capable of stealing data such as browsing history, website cookies, and account names and passwords then send that information to a remote server. Another undocumented component the malware utilizes is a router exploiter that attacks MikroTik routers in a local network. -- TREND MICRO       A MESSAGE FROM AIRBNB Earn money by sharing your space. Millions of travelers stayed in an Airbnb last year. Turn your extra space into extra money. Learn More 3. Throwback Thursday: Bitcoin's Nosedive Last year, on September 5, Bitcoin's price dropped a precipitous 6 percent in the course of one hour and then continued to fall 13 percent over the next 16 hours. This happened just before 6 p.m. as most crypto enthusiasts on the east coast were sitting down for dinner. The fall led to a 242 percent 24-hour volatility rating for BTC and was the biggest price drop since March 2018.  It's hard to tell what caused the fall off, and it was likely a combination of influences. The crypto markets were mired in a bear market that lasted all year, China cracked down hard on cryptocurrencies, South Korea implemented new rules for crypto trading, and Facebook banned cryptocurrency ads. Fake news regarding Goldman Sachs opening a Bitcoin trading desk also got some airplay. It's likely that an accumulation of trading activity on that day caused most of the movement, but as every day traders know, there is huge volatility in the Bitcoin market so we'll likely never know what caused the massive stumble last year on this day.        4. According to Hanna Halaburda and Christoph Mueller-Bloch, Bitcoin is inherently centralized: Does that mean that decentralization is out of reach? The promise of decentralization has many blockchain and cryptocurrency advocates hoping for a better world, one in which trustlessness, privacy, and freedom reign. However, the daddy of all blockchains, Bitcoin, is itself centralized in four distinct ways: Transaction fees The high cost of mining has led to mining pools with a few performing most of the transaction validation Discussions on governing updates are dominated by a few active developers The blockchain design to begin with was proposed by a single individual or small group of individuals in secret While decentralization is a great goal, in practice, it may be out of reach--if we take Bitcoin as the example, Halaburda and Mueller-Bloch said. -- HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Do you think true decentralization will ever be realized in our lifetimes? Send me your reply to allen.taylor@inside.com.       A MESSAGE FROM WISE BREAD The Highest Paying Cash Back Card Has Hit The Market Here's why this card is awesome: An easy $200 bonus (after you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days) 3% cash back on online shopping, dining, travel, gas, home improvement, or drug stores 0% interest for 15 months (new offer!) No annual fee Bottom line: Don't miss out on these amazing perks. (Learn more)   5. Argentina has a Bitcoin premium, but it's not likely to affect the global price of BTC. Local exchange Buenbit listed BTC at $11,750 on August 13 while other exchanges had it at $11,330. The Argentinian peso is one of the most volatile fiat currencies on the planet. Argentina's citizens don't even trust it. Political elections in August led to more market volatility and social unrest. The peso dropped 30 percent against the U.S. dollar. Argentinians turned to Bitcoin for relief. Since there are restrictions on how much USD Argentinians can buy, that encourages more investment in BTC. Government controls and inflation add to the country's troubles. While there may be a premium on Bitcoin in Argentina, the country's influence isn't strong enough to affect the worldwide price. -- COIN RIVET       6. Van Eck Securities and SolidX Management have partnered to introduce a Bitcoin-linked investment vehicle through the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 144. The security will be listed on the OTC Link ATS alternative trading system. Crypto lender Compound's general counsel, Jake Chervinsky, says it's not a Bitcoin ETF. Nevertheless, that isn't stopping Van Eck from dreaming about someday offering a Bitcoin ETF. To date, the SEC has rejected every application for a Bitcoin ETF offering proposed. -- QUARTZ       7. There are multiple ways to protect the Bitcoin network from eclipse attacks, including multihoming, IP address tables, and satellite broadcasts. Bitcoin's built in permissionless and decentralization features give it protection from attacks that target a single trust authority such as SWIFT or ACH, but attackers can get sophisticated with their attacks if they have the means and budget to do so. The drawback to the network is that most nodes don't have enough bandwidth to communicate with all 10,000 nodes on the network. An eclipse attack relies on a node connecting to peers controlled by the attacker. Since nodes are anonymous and each node decides for itself which other nodes to trust, it's not farfetched that eclipse attacks can be sucessful. To ward off eclipse attacks, decentralized networks must rely on protocol heuristics and alternative connection options for risk mitigation. -- IN THE MESH       8. PwC Luxembourg will begin accepting Bitcoin payments from clients on October 1. PwC is one of the largest global consulting firms in the world and one of the Bit Four auditors that also include Deloitte, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. PwC made the announcement to accept BTC on its website a few days ago. The company is working with a locally regulated exchange to accept the payments. -- BITCOIN MAGAZINE       9. BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes went to Peru and predicts the price of Bitcoin to double. He made the announcement on Twitter yesterday: Did y'all miss me? I'm back from deepest darkest Peru, ready to cash checks. For those of you in Singapore next week for Invest Asia keep Wednesday night free. We will be two-steppin' straight to $20k. He didn't give a timeline on that prediction, and it's not the wildest BTC prediction to make publication. Anthony Pompliano expects it to hit $55,000. John McAfee says even higher. -- FX STREET       10. PlanB says Bitcoin has entered the first phase of a bull market. Using data from Coin360, the analyst predicted a "take off" based on a 200-week moving average (MA). Another analyst, Filb Filb, used the 20-week MA to arrive at the same conclusion. -- COIN TELEGRAPH       Inside Bitcoin is written and curated by award-winning journalist and former newspaper editor Allen Taylor. Recognized by the Dallas Bar Association three times for excellence in legal reporting, Allen has since gone on to author, edit, or ghostwrite several white papers, books and e-books, and over 10,000 blog posts for clients ranging from small business owners to global management companies and corporate executives. Learn more about him on LinkedIn. Editor: David Stegon (senior editor at Inside, whose reporting experience includes cryptocurrency and technology).       Ad Earn money by sharing your space. List your place now.

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