Friday, November 15, 2019

India won't consider crypto bill / Binance blocked on Weibo / FBI arrests SIM swapping suspects

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Market Watch: Friday trading has seen industry prices go into the red. Bitcoin remains below $9,000, but lesser-known altcoin BLOCKv has seen an impressive over 7,000% rise in value.

  • Bitcoin: $8,623 (⬇️ 1.35%) // $155.6 billion market cap.
  • Ethereum: $183 (⬇️ 1.77%) // $19.9 billion market cap.
  • XRP: $0.265 (⬇️ 1.78%) // $11.5 billion market cap.
  • Bitcoin Cash: $273 (⬇️ 2.33%) // $4.9 billion market cap.
  • Top 100 Winner: BLOCKv: $0.090 (⬆️ 7,595.26%) // $240 million market cap.
  • Top 100 Loser: Aurora: $0.008 (⬇️ 12.05%) // $52 million market cap.

Prices are as of 12:30 p.m. ET.

     

1. The Indian government is not going to consider a crypto-related draft bill during its winter session of Parliament. In August, the Indian government said that a draft bill, Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currencies, would be introduced during the winter session, which takes place from November 18 and December 13. The draft bill suggests a complete ban on the use of crypto in India. At the same time, it introduces a Digital Rupee, which would be issued by the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). According to Sohail Merchant, CEO of Indian crypto exchange Pocketbits, the delay provides some relief. Merchant added that the time can be used to help them present their case to regulators. –COINTELEGRAPH

     

2. Binance's account on China's Weibo website has been blocked. According to a notice on Binance's Weibo page, the account has been blocked due to violations of law and regulations. Zhu Hongbing, chairman of Singapore Blockchain Technology Foundation, said that the account's suspension is related to Binance's plan to accept fiat through China's payment companies Alipay and WeChat. –THE CHINA TIMES

Binance account blocked on Weibo
     
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3. Follow Friday: Caitlin Long

A 22-year Wall Street veteran from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and Salomon Brothers, Long turned her attention to the crypto space becoming chair and president of enterprise blockchain company Symbiont from 2016 to 2018.

From 2018, she has been a gubernatorial appointee of the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force, which has endorsed a number of draft bills aimed at encouraging the technology in the U.S. state. Since 2012, Long has been a Bitcoin evangelist and a blockchain one since 2014. In 2016, she was awarded the Women in Finance Award for Excellence in Blockchain.

Some of her posts on Twitter focus on the steps Wyoming is making in the blockchain space and crypto custody rules for blockchain banks in the state.

Follow Friday: Caitlin Long
     

4. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested two residents from Massachusetts after they allegedly stole cryptocurrency and hacked into social media accounts by SIM swapping their phones. The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Eric Meiggs, 21 and Declan Harrington, 20, with conspiracy, wire fraud, computer fraud, abuse, and identity theft. The two are alleged to have targeted those they believed were likely to have "significant amounts of cryptocurrency." The two are reported to have sought to steal $500,000 in cryptocurrency from 10 individuals. –COIN DESK

     

5. Joerg Molt, an individual who is claiming to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, has allegedly been scamming seniors with a so-called Bitcoin Pension plan. He's reportedly still operating the scam, which has been up and running since 2017, and is believed to have swindled an estimated 7,000 people out of at least 0.1 Bitcoin. That's around 700 Bitcoin, worth more than $6 million at today's rate. –BE IN CRYPTO

     

6. China's Shuangjiang county has given a seal of approval to a tea traceability platform powered by VeChain. Teaming up with local tea producers, the VeChainThor blockchain will record the lifecycle of the tea from the raw materials to the consumer. Consumers will be able to access the information by scanning a QR code or near field communication (NFC) tag on their smartphone. According to a Department of Commerce representative, the Pu'er Tea Traceability Platform will help to raise the reputation of Yunnan tea worldwide. –COINTELEGRAPH

     

7. Crypto platform Binance has added support for the purchase of crypto assets such as Bitcoin with the Turkish lira through digital wallet partner Papara. The announcement was made on the exchange's website today. According to it, users can now exchange lira for Bitcoin, Ether, and XRP; however, the sell option is not yet enabled. The lira is the sixth fiat currency supported by Binance, after the Nigerian naira (NGN), the Russian ruble (RUB), the euro (EUR), the Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) and the Kazakhstani tenge (KZT). The ultimate goal for Binance is to support 180 fiat currencies on it. –THE BLOCK

     

8. Retail firms Carrefour and Nestlé are using IBM's Food Trust blockchain to track the supply chain of infant formula. With the platform, the companies are hoping to boost confidence in product quality by delivering increased transparency of the entire supply chain of the Bio 2 and 3 infant milk range, which are produced by Laboratoires Guigoz. –THE NEXT WEB

     

9. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has awarded $199,984 to Digital Bazaar, a Virginia-based company, to develop blockchain security for it. The Department's Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) made the Phase 1 award as it explores the application of the blockchain and distributed ledger technology "to issue credentials digitally to enhance security, ensure interoperability, and prevent forgery and counterfeiting." –THE BLOCK

     

10. Ukraine's Lviv Railway has been caught illegally mining crypto using the electricity at Ukrainian Railways. According to the state-owned company, the railway firm used electricity to plug in over 100 crypto mining devices to mine Bitcoin. Since the beginning of 2019, the estimated amount of electricity losses totals $40,700. –COIN DESK

     

This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.

Edited by Inside Dev and Inside Deals editor Sheena Vasani.

     
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