FCC letter SIM-swap / PBoC tests CBDC / ECB president supports CBDC developement

Inside Bitcoin presented by Catchy Content.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Bitcoin has slipped back to $7,700 during Friday trading after enjoying a slight reprieve to higher values earlier this week. Industry prices across the board are down as well. Bitcoin: $7,764 (⬇️ 2.23%) // $140.9 billion market cap. Ethereum: $136 (⬇️ 2.29%) // $14.8 billion market cap. XRP: $0.203 (⬇️ 1.81%) // $8.8 billion market cap. Tether: $1.01 (⬆️ 0.72%) // $4.6 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Cosmos: $4.24 (⬆️ 4.91%) // $809 million market cap.  Top 100 Loser: Bytecoin: $0.0002 (⬇️ 17.06%) // $44 million market cap.  Prices are as of 11:45 a.m. ET.       1. U.S. lawmakers have sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging it to provide an account as to why it failed to protect consumers against SIM swap attacks. Yesterday, six Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate sent a letter to FCC Chair Ajit Pai, asking for improved methods on mobile operators to prevent risks from taking place in the future. The letter noted that between 2016 and 2019, the number of SIM-swapping attacks - which involve the theft of a mobile phone number to steal online financial, crypto, and social media accounts - had risen from 215 to 728. Mobile carrier AT&T is one company that has faced more than one lawsuit for failing to protect users. –COINTELEGRAPH       2. The central bank of China has completed the top layer design and joint testing of its proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC). The People's Bank of China (PBoC) has also, reportedly, developed relevant standards, carried out research and development. Reports about China planning to test its CBDC first appeared in December, with the first pilot projected for the city of Shenzhen before the end of 2019. Increased interest in China's central bank digital currency follows after Facebook announced it would be launching its stablecoin Libra in 2020, with the intention of helping people without access to financial services. –SINA       A MESSAGE FROM CATCHY CONTENT Free Guide: 7 Steps to Great Technical Marketing Content. Drive qualified leads to your sales team through strong technical marketing content. Start by creating a strategic plan and follow through with great execution, learn how with the 7 Step Guide. Download the free guide 3. Follow Friday: Vanessa B Vanessa B, also known as Crypto Vanessa, is the owner of the Cryptocurrency Insider blog, where she posts articles aimed at helping new individuals entering the crypto space. Under the "First Steps" tab, she focuses on posts such as software wallet vs. hardware wallet and how to recognize the potential of a good ICO. As a regular user on Twitter, some of her tweets focus on where Bitcoin is currently trading, how the market started at the beginning of 2020 (not very well), and who she will be watching in 2020.        4. Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has said that she supports the bank's involvement in the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Speaking in an interview for the business magazine Challenges, Lagarde said that there was a need for fast and low-cost payments. She added that the "ECB will continue to assess the costs and benefits of issuing a central bank digital currency..." while ensuring that the general public can use money from a central bank even if physical money declines. Last December, the ECB president indicated her friendly stance toward crypto assets, stating that the central bank should be ahead of the curve regarding the demand for stablecoins. –CRYPTO NEWS BYTES       A MESSAGE FROM FASTLY Extend the power of your core cloud to the edge with our API-first platform. Bring your innovative ideas to life, faster. Our edge cloud platform moves data and applications closer to users, at the network edge — so you can deliver fast, secure, and scalable online experiences. Take it for a spin and test up to $50 traffic, free. 5. A report from cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs has found that a cybercrime group, known as the Lazarus Group, with links to North Korea is using "enhanced capabilities" to send malware through the Telegram messaging app to steal crypto. According to the firm, victims' had downloaded a manipulated software with the malware attached. Several of the victims were linked to China, Poland, Russia, and the U.K. Most of them are said to have links to crypto businesses. –COIN DESK       6. Netherlands-based Deribit, a crypto derivatives platform, has announced that it is leaving the European Union for Panama in a bid to avoid new anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. In a statement, Deribit B.V., which is responsible for Deribit.com, will assign the trading exchange to DRB Panama Inc., on Feb. 10. The company noted that if it remained where it is, new AML rules would require it to demand more information from its current and future customers. At the same time, though, it will be expanding its Know-Your-Customer (KYC) requirements on the same date. –DERIBIT       7. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that crypto companies should pay for their own regulation costs. As part of the governor's "Making Progress Happen" 2020 agenda, Cuomo has proposed amending the state Financial Services Law (FSL). According to him, there is a discrepancy between firms that are listed under the Insurance Law or Bank Law and those that are licensed under the FSL. –THE BLOCK       8. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has tied three parties behind a $3.5 million crypto scheme. Donald Blakstad, crypto mining outfit Energy Sources International Corporation (ESI), and Xact Holdings Corporation, a vehicle part company, have been charged by the SEC. Blakstad is alleged to have taken $3.54 million from at least 14 different investors through fake offerings. –COINTELEGRAPH       9. Crypto businesses in Austria will have to apply for a license to the country's financial watchdog as part of new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules. Failure to apply for these from the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) will see companies facing a maximum fine of €200,000 on cryptoasset-related businesses. –FINANCE MAGNATES       10. China's search engine Baidu has launched a public beta of Xuperchain, a blockchain service for businesses. And according to this report, this is just the start of China's blockchain rush. The company first revealed its plans for Xuperchain back in September 2018 and has been described as an "innovative design [with] ultra-fast transaction processing speed compared with decentralized blockchains like Bitcoin." –MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW       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.

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Ethereum and North Korea 🇰🇵

January 10, 2020	View in browser

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Go Pro. This week, our pro newsletter dove into whether bitcoin's rise is correlated with the conflict in the middle east, why bitcoin's hash rate is increasing, and explored the topic of information capitalism.

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This week in a nutshell

• Ethereum researcher Virgil Griffith has been formally indicted for "conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act."

• Bitmain and DMG Blockchain Solutions have terminated their plans to open the world's largest bitcoin mining farm in Rockdale, Texas. According to DMG's most recent press release, "cost and operational efficiencies have not materialized as planned."

• A lawsuit alleging that Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the bitcoin market has been withdrawn by its plaintiffs. 

• Binance Futures has launched an XRP/USDT perpetual contract allowing users to select between 1-75x leverage.

• Coinbase Pro, Coinbase's trading platform for professional investors, is now available for Android users.

• For the first time, Bitcoin SV (BSV) has surpassed Binance Coin (BNB) in terms of market cap.

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The Komodo Website Is Now Available In 6 Different Languages

And there are 5 more on the way.

January 10, 2020 Updates & Developments The Komodo team is pleased to announce that the official Komodo website is now available in 6 different languages: English, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Spanish, and Indonesian. There are 5 more languages on the way: Arabic, German, Korean, Japanese, and Portuguese. Komodo is a truly global project that recognizes the importance of making information about Komodo's technology available in a variety of languages. The newly translated versions of the site will be accompanied by efforts to find new ambassadors and advocates to build communities in various locations around the world.     Komodo recently listed Electra (ECA) on AtomicDEX beta. Electra is a secure, decentralized, open-source, community-driven P2P cryptocurrency project that is lightning fast at near-zero fees. This latest listing of ECA brings the total number of supported assets on AtomicDEX up to 30, including five different stablecoins. If you haven't already, download AtomicDEX now to start making your first atomic swaps. Download AtomicDEX for Android on Google Play here. Download AtomicDEX for iOS through Test Flight here.   This week, KMD was listed on AntPool, one of the world's largest mining pool operators. AntPool is running two promotions to support the addition of KMD. First, from January 7 to January 19, the AntPool team will give each miner a 25% bonus on all block rewards earned. Second, there are no fees to mine in the AntPool KMD mining pool from January 6 to February 5. If you're a miner, now is a great time to join AntPool's KMD mining pool!   The popular Crypto 101 Podcast is holding a free online conference called the CRYPTO 2020 Summit. Komodo Chief Technology Officer Kadan Stadelmann will be speaking at the event, which takes place from Jan 29 to Jan 31, 2020. Tickets are free if you register online before January 23. Register here.   Komodo is looking for two new developers: a frontend developer and UX/UI designer with at least 3 years of experience; and a blockchain core developer with at least 5 years of experience with C/C++ and at least 2 years of experience with either the BTC or the ZEC protocol. Learn more on the Komodo Careers page.   A Word From The C-Suite "The sheer size of unmoved bitcoin is definitely a sign of the developing community of HODLers," Kadan Stadelmann, chief technology officer at Komodo Platform, told CoinDesk.   The top cryptocurrency witnessed substantial swings last year, rising from $3,693 to $13,879 in the first six months only to fall back to $7,179 by mid-December. Thus, bitcoin just about doubled last year despite the brutal sell-off in the second half.  Even so, a large number of bitcoins remained inactive, possibly because investors are expecting a significant price rise following the mining reward halving, due in May. The process, repeated every four years, reduces block rewards by half in order to keep inflation under check.  However, if the market doesn't live up to lofty expectations, some selling could be seen, Stadelmann said. In that case, the sum of bitcoins lying dormant would drop. Read the full article on Yahoo! Finance here. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.