Wednesday, May 20, 2020

📌 Reddit's Cryptocurrency, Rare BTC Event, and the Hacker Who Saved the Internet

May 20, 2020 | Issue #118

MUST READS

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet

At 22, Marcus Hutchins stopped WannaCry, the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Three months later, the FBI arrested him. This is the untold story of how he went from an international hero to a convict looking at 10 years in prison.

Something Rare in Bitcoin Just Happened...

Earlier today, a Bitcoin UTXO more than 11 years old, was spent on-chain (you can see the transaction here). Those coins were first mined on February 9, 2009, only one month after Bitcoin was launched. This is the first time since 2017 that someone spent coins dating back to 2009.

As expected, some people are claiming that this is Satoshi moving his coins, in turn driving the price of Bitcoin down almost immediately.

You can ignore the FUD though, based on prior research from SatoshiBlocks, this block is NOT believed to be Satoshi.

Reddit Rolls Out 'Community Points' on Ethereum to Incentivize Positive Behavior

Reddit just made a statement by rolling out two coins on two subreddits.

While it's just a beta launch, Reddit is arguably the first major social media outlet to utilize public blockchains and cryptocurrencies to reward its existing users. The incentive is to let users reward each other for their contributions... and ultimately promote positive behavior.

Key takeaways:

The new Community Points system is using tokens issued on Ethereum
The tokens are $MOONS for the subreddit r/CryptoCurrency, and $BRICKS for the subreddit r/FortNiteBR
With 2.4M subscribers between the two subreddits, this is a big moment for both Ethereum and Reddit... If it proves to be successful, this new feature could make its way towards the rest of Reddit's 400M users.

In the broader scope, Reddit is essentially launching two "Loot Tokens." If you have no idea what those are, you may want to check this out.

It will help you get up to speed on the emerging asset class that Reddit is now apart of.

CryptoList: A Hand-Researched List of Over 8,000 Companies and People in Crypto

Whether you're launching your own crypto startup, looking to connect with industry leaders, or just investing in crypto, you'll be sure to get value out of CryptoList.

CryptoList compiles 8,600+ companies and people in crypto with 4,500+ verified email addresses to get you access to the businesses and individuals that matter most to your business.

We spent thousands of hours researching the crypto ecosystem so you don't have to.

SPONSOR

DEEP DIVE

Crypto Lender BlockFi Hacked

Crypto lender BlockFi, who's been on a tear of user signups and revenue, says it experienced a data breach last week due to a SIM card swap attack on an employee's phone number. The hacker attempted to withdraw client funds but was unsuccessful. Instead, they resorted to stealing account activity information, customer emails, and postal addresses of ~50% of retail clients.

To be clear, BlockFi is stating that funds, passwords, and non-public identification information are secure.

Bad News: Clients that were holding a large amount of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will have to start watching their backs.

Good News (for BlockFi): News of the data breach was largely drowned out by BitMEX going offline.

Tuur Deemester: Why the Bottom is In

Tuur Deemester, one of our favorite OG crypto analysts, joined Messari last week to talk about the recent halving, the next phase of BTC adoption, whales, and to share some epic predictions. We highly suggest you watch it here.

His latest prediction? The bottom is in and the next bull market is here.

His reasoning? While retail isn't flooding back in just yet, he does believe that institutions, family offices and billionaires are. He believes this next cycle could take us to $50,000-$100,000 BTC.

We get crazy predictions all the time, but maybe Tuur's on to something. This narrative is perfectly captured in Messari's lastest post-halving report, covering the now-legitimized institutional investment market.

(Relatable news: Bakkt announced they have expanded their custody business to cover more than 70 clients.)

Steem Network to Seize 23.6 Million Steem from Users

A hardfork was scheduled today which has seized the accounts of several Steemit users, and drained $5 million worth of STEEM coins from their wallets.

Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin eloquently chimed in on this sticky situation.

REGULATORY FRONT

Another Exchange Delists Monero Amid Ongoing Sex Scandal

Just weeks after Huobi exchange delisted Monero (XMR), Bithumb has officially announced they will also be delisting Monero from their trading platform as of June 1.

Monero has been in the news recently due to reports of Telegram users using XMR to purchase illegal pornographic material — much of which involved minors.

In other news, the European supercomputers that you may have heard about recently that were programmed to search for a vaccine for COVID-19 were remotely hijacked to mine cryptocurrency. Guess which one...

Company That Sued FTX and Ripple Now Sets Its Sights on BitMEX

A new lawsuit from BMA LLC, the same group suing Ripple and FTX, is accusing crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX of illegal activities.

BMA alleges that BitMEX was designed to engage in illegal activities such as racketeering, money laundering and market manipulation, earning the defendants "billions of dollars in illicit profits."