SIM-swap charges / Zhao: Coins on exchanges are safer / Cardano hard fork due mid-February

Inside Bitcoin.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Bitcoin has seen a drop in value during Monday trading but still remains within the $8,000 mark. Bitcoin SV has experienced another surge in value, jumping nearly 18 percent in 24 hours. Bitcoin: $8,652 (0.02%) // $157.2 billion market cap. Ethereum: $166 (0.33%) // $18.1 billion market cap. XRP: $0.231 (0.77%) // $10 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $338 (1.79%) // $6.1 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Bitcoin SV: $301 (17.65%) // $5.4 billion market cap. Top 100 Loser: Centrality: $0.069 (6.60%) // $74 million market cap. Prices are as of 12:30 p.m. ET. 1. An 18-year-old is facing four criminal charges linked to a $50 million SIM-swapping scam that targeted crypto holders. Samy Bensaci, from Montreal, is being accused by Canadian authorities for their involvement in the crime that targeted Americans and Canadians. Among those targeted included Don and Alex Tapscott, co-authors of the book "Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World." According to a report in The Star, Don said that while the hacker had attempted to steal crypto from them, the hack had been unsuccessful. -INFOSECURITY MAGAZINE 2. The co-founder and CEO of crypto exchange Binance has said that for many people, keeping their crypto assets on an exchange is safer than if they held their own keys. Changpeng Zhao made his comments after crypto skeptic and gold bug Peter Schiff announced that he had lost access to his Bitcoin wallet. According to Zhao, "a trusted centralized exchange is SAFUer for most people." However, according to one Twitter user, the remarks from Zhao are ill-timed, stating that Binance was previously hacked. Last May, Binance was hacked for around 7,000 Bitcoin, which amounted to $40.7 million at the time. -@CZ_BINANCE/TWITTER A MESSAGE FROM ATHLETIC GREENS Health experts, top performers and pro athletes all agree that the perfect diet doesn’t exist...so then what? They use Athletic Greens. It’s the all-in-one daily nutritional beverage that gives you 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole-food sourced ingredients–plus the antioxidant equivalent of 12 servings of fruits and veg, gut health benefits, and adaptogens for hormonal support. You’d struggle to find a better go-to source for comprehensive nutrition. We’re giving inside readers 20 Free Travel Packs with their first order! Order Now 3. Charles Hoskinson, co-founder and CEO of IOHK, the blockchain company behind altcoin Cardano, has said that he expects to see a hard fork for the coin mid-February. During a live stream, Hoskinson said that there was a "pretty high certainty" that the Ouroboros Bizantine Fault-Tolerant Consensus Protocol (OBFT) would be introduced next month. According to a report, however, the CEO didn't answer an inquiry concerning the changes brought on by the upgrade. -COINTELEGRAPH 4. Al-Nasser Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), reportedly received Bitcoin amounting to around $29 million to help fund operations in and out of the Gaza Strip. According to a report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), the Bitcoin wallet received around 3,370 Bitcoin between October 2015 and July 2019. The report claims that the money was used to avoid sanctions, enable cross-border money transfers, and offer a degree of anonymity. -COIN DESK A MESSAGE FROM WINC Meet the future of wine...   Winc delivers a world of wine right to your doorstep so that you can discover international flavors from the comfort of your couch. Simply answer 6 questions and they’ll pair you with 4 wines tailored to your personal taste preferences. What's more? We're giving Inside readers 40% off their first order! Click here to see your curated wines. 5. Crypto skeptic and gold bug Peter Schiff has admitted that he's lost access to his Bitcoin wallet, claiming that owning the asset was a "bad idea." Schiff took to Twitter to say that his wallet somehow "got corrupted" and that his "password is no longer valid." The crypto community responded in kind, though, with many offering ways to help Schiff restore access. Blockchain.com tweeted a message to reassure him that his "funds are secure" and that they would send a message shortly. -@PETERSCHIFF/TWITTER 6. South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance is thinking about introducing a 20 percent tax on the income of crypto tractions. The finance ministry has reportedly ordered its office of income tax to review a taxation plan on cryptocurrencies. An anonymous official has stated that nothing has been finalized as yet, but that the government may impose a 20 percent tax. -THE KOREA TIMES 7. Singapore-based crypto exchange Zipmex has received a license to operate in Thailand. The platform, which currently operates in Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore, was given the green light by Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the exchange, it had to meet "several stringent conditions" to receive the license, in addition to having shareholder equity of around $1.6 million. -THE BLOCK 8. London-based mining company Argo Blockchain saw a tenfold increase in revenue in 2019 compared to 2018. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the company expects revenues for 2019 to total $11 million. In 2018, revenue amounted to $987,000. Despite this, though, revenue fell from $4.7 million in Q3 2019 to $3.45 million in Q4 of last year. Argo Blockchain cited a decline in crypto prices, "increased mining difficulty," and unfavorable foreign exchange rates as the reasons. -PROACTIVE INVESTORS 9. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Indian Telecoms and IT Minister, has requested that the National Informatics Center (NIC) develop a blockchain-based solution to help improve government schools. The minister has asked the NIC to involve startups that are also in the technology space to help open up doors that could see the NIC "become a big patron of the startup movement." -SOCIAL STORY 10. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is working with Whiteblock, a blockchain testing and development company and a member of the EEA, to provide a testing environment for the EEA global membership base. Through the partnership, the EEA will use the Whiteblock Genesis to test the EEA network, the EEA TestNet. -ENTERPRISE TIMES 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.   Ad The daily habit that sets you up for a healthy future. Order Now Ad We're giving Inside readers 40% off their first order! Click here to see your curated wines.

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Overnight coup

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January 20, 2019 SPEEDY EXIT: Overnight, co-founder Ketuan “Micree” Zhan was stripped of his director role at not only Beijing Bitmain Technology, but the cryptocurrency miner maker's parent entity, BitMain Technologies Holding Company, corporate records show. Wolfie Zhao investigates how it was done. Full story BITCOIN MOVE: Industry veteran Jonathan Wilkins, a co-founder of bitcoin tech startup Blockstream, is joining up-and-coming bitcoin brokerage River Financial as chief security officer. River is a bitcoin-only financial institution for buying and selling the digital currency (emphatically not an exchange), currently in invite-only mode. Full story MILITANT MONEY: A Palestinian militant group took millions of dollars-worth of bitcoin donations to finance its operations, according to a new report. Obtained by the Jerusalem Post, the report from the Israeli International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) found the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) had been sent 3,370 BTC from overseas as a means to fund operations both in and out of the Gaza Strip. Full story BLOCKCHAIN BILL: The World Economic Forum’s Global Blockchain Council is creating a “Blockchain Bill of Rights,” with a document already co-designed by some of the foremost leaders in the space. The goal is to align private-sector leaders, policymakers and consumers in a fundamental vision of how users can and should be protected as blockchain technology develops. Full story GOOD START: London Stock Exchange-listed bitcoin mining firm Argo Blockchain says it took 10 times more revenue in 2019 than in the previous year. For its first full year of operations, the company said it generated £8.5 million (just over $11 million) in revenue, compared with £760,000 ($985,720) in 2018. Full audited finances are due in April. Full story HEADED TO DAVOS? CoinDesk is sending a team of journalists to scrutinize the global elite as it meets for the annual World Economic Forum. It will be Davos, but through a lens of crypto and blockchain. Our daily dispatches will tell you what sessions you should attend, what you missed yesterday (or last night) and prep you for what people are talking about on the Promenade today. The CoinDesk Confidential newsletter will run for five days only, so be sure to sign up now. Catch the first edition here. CRUCIAL SUPPORT: Bitcoin's rapid fall from Sunday's high of $9,200 looks to have come to a halt near $8,460, a level that’s been defended twice in the last 24 hours. As long as it holds, the bulls will have scope to push prices back to highs above $9,000. Conversely, if breached, the bull exhaustion signaled by Sunday's engulfing candle would gain credence and could attract stronger selling pressure. Full story 3 BILLION FACES:  Clearview AI could meaningfully end digital privacy as we know it. The startup has developed a facial recognition app which pulls from a database of more than 3 billion images scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and other websites, the New York Times reports. What's more, federal and state law enforcement officials in the U.S. have already begun using the app. Read more WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list