Elon Musk, who's still running his victory lap after his electric car company Tesla proved its detractors wrong, has once again gone out to bat for his "fav" bitcoin alternativesending its price sharply higher.

Musk, the chief executive of both Tesla and aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, yesterday tweeted his support of minor bitcoin rival dogecoin, saying "dogs rock" and "they have the best coin."

Elon Musk has previously voiced his support of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but has a special ... [+] place in his heart for the "joke" bitcoin rival dogecoin.

Musk's tongue-in-cheek comments, which sent the dogecoin price up by around 5% yesterday, come after a thumping 12-months for dogecoin, one of the oldest alternatives to bitcoin.

The dogecoin price is up around 30% on this time last year, with the price of dogecoin being significantly boosted by Binance, the world's biggest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, last July, when it added dogecoin to its list of supported digital tokens.

It's not the first time Musk and voiced his support for dogecointhough he has heaped praise on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well.

In April last year, Musksurprised bitcoin and cryptocurrency watchers by saying that the meme-based dogecoin is his "fav" cryptocurrency in response to a Twitter poll that found him to be the favorite to take on the mantle of dogecoin CEO, with 49% of the vote.

However, Musk has recently rowed back his previous bitcoin praise, telling the Tesla-focused podcast Third Row in January he is "neither here nor there on bitcoin," raising concerns about its use for illegal transactions.

The price of dogecoin jumped yesterday after Elon Musk shared his ongoing support for the minor ... [+] bitcoin rival.

Dogecoin has found other high-profile supporters as well as Musk. Last year, John McAfee, the millionaire creator ofMcAfee security software-turned U.S. presidential hopeful and globe-trotting adventurer,praiseddogecoin as "one of the fastest growing coins based on use."

"Doge started life as joke/prank coin," McAfee said viaTwitter. "The coin now has a market cap of $360 million. The crypto market is, in no way, related to the stock market. Inherent value is, ultimately, based on usage. Go figure."

Dogecoin, surprisingly one of the oldest bitcoin rivals,was created in 2013 by a then 26-year-old Australian Jackson Palmer and American programmer Billy Markus after joking about it on Twitter.

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Elon Musk Just Sent The Best Cryptocurrency And Prank Bitcoin Rival Sharply HigherHeres Why - Forbes

Cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, is an extremely new technology and financial asset, that hasnt truly yet become widely adopted or proven its use case. The disruptive new fintech has incredible potential that could revolutionize the future of finance, but only if a black swan event doesnt come along and send it to an early grave.

But that black swan event may be here in the form of the coronavirus. Its already causing traditional markets to collapse, and the high-risk cryptocurrency asset class may be next to experience a panic-induced selloff of cataclysmic proportions.

Bitcoin and the technology powering cryptocurrency assets was born from the last major economic recession.

Newspaper headlines referencing the bank bailouts during this time are even referenced in Bitcoins earliest blocks.

Recession-proofing Bitcoin was among the creators key design attributes, and include a hard-coded, digital scarcity, and a regularly scheduled reduction in supply.

Related Reading | Has the Coronavirus Put an End To the Bitcoin Safe Haven Narrative?

And although the cryptocurrency certainly is equipped to withstand the collapse of fiat currencies, and perhaps provide a flight of safety for capital to flow into, the asset class may simply be too young at this point to withstand a black swan event.

A black swan event is a term popularized by finance professor and former Wall Street trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who authored a book on the 2008 recession.

Black swan events are cataclysmic events that completely unpredictable and unpreventable, and grave consequences due to how the event takes the world by surprise.

The coronavirus is potentially one of those black swan events.

The coronavirus in just a few short months went from an unusual, yet severe respiratory ailment, to a widespread pandemic on the verge of collapsing the economy.

Transportation, a key factor in the function of any economy, has been restricted, and production and many of the worlds largest manufacturing facilities have declined as a result of the virus spreading.

The death toll is sending investors into a downward spiral of panic, which prompted the largest one-week decline in the stock market since the great recession.

If the stock market is tanking, and investors are selling off their assets in a complete panic in an attempt to cash out while they still can and de-risk from further decline, what might a similar selloff do to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin should the fears hit the crypto market in the same way?

Compared to the stock market, cryptocurrencies are just a flash in the pan in terms of overall capital invested and liquidity. A massive, panic selloff in crypto markets would likely not have enough liquidity to accommodate every person seeking to cash out.

The selloff could crush prices completely, to the point of no return.

Even key crypto market executives such as Matthew Hougan, the vice president of research and development at Bitwise warns that a black swan event is possible in the cryptocurrency space.

Related Reading | Stock Market, Bitcoin, and Gold: Everything Is Collapsing Together

Examples of the type of black swan events that could interfere with the longevity of cryptocurrency include overly aggressive regulation, exchanges going under, or massive breaches of underlying blockchain networks.

But remember, black swan events are typically unpredictable, and among the scenarios crypto investors likely never saw coming, is a pandemic wiping out their life savings and putting their lives at risk.

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Is the Coronavirus The Black Swan Event That Crushes Cryptocurrency? - newsBTC

The $245bn cryptocurrency industry needs to do more to secure its digital assets if it wishes to continue to grow according to a new report from KPMG.

Since 2017, hackers have stolen at least $9.8bn in digital assets as a result of weak security or poorly written code, the accounting firm said in its report titled Cracking Crypto Custody.

As institutional investors have adopted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, this has led to a competition for a place in their portfolios and safeguarding these digital tokens is more important than ever. Co-author of the report and co-leader of KPMG's cryto-asset services, Sal Ternullo explained why security is holding investors back from acquiring more cryptocurrency in a statement, saying:

Institutional investors especially, will not take positions in cryptoassets if their value cannot be custodied and safeguarded in the same way traditional assets are.

Custody services for cryptocurrencies have begun to spring up and Fidelity Investments along with units from the cryptocurrency exchanges Intercontinental Exchange, Coinbase and Gemini have begun to offer them to investors.

In the same way that cash and certain types of bonds are bearer investments where whoever holds them is the owner, so to are cryptocurrencies. However, the private keys, which are a string of characters stored in a digital wallet or written down on paper, are quite easy to misplace.

When a user loses their private key or has it stolen, the asset is gone forever and this makes key custody a major challenge for traditional financial firms that are more familiar with protecting non-digital assets. KPMG explained why custody is so important to the continued growth of the cryptocurrency market in its report, saying:

Custody the management of cryptographic private keys that cryptoasset owners use to execute transactions is a critical building block for crypto insitutionalization. It is fundamental to earning customer trust in cryptoassets and allowing the market to scale. As crypto-assets proliferate, custodians have a tremendous opportunity to profit -- both by earning management fees for delivering straightforward custodian services, and also by offering adjacent services only possible in the emerging crypto ecosystem.

If cryptocurrencies are to continue to be bought and traded by institutional investors, then the industry needs to ensure that it can secure them first.

Via Bloomberg

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Nearly $10bn worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the past three years - TechRadar

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is making a bold prediction about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

In a series of tweets, Armstrong says he believes that the stock market rout and the aggressive reduction in interest rates could boost the crypto industry in 2020.

A down stock market and interest rate cuts may lead to growth in crypto this year. Governments around the world are likely to look to stimulate the economy in any way they can, including using quantitative easing and expanding the money supply (printing money).

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve announced that it will cut interest rates by 50 basis points. The development failed to stop the bleeding as both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 fell nearly 3%.

Armstrong says Chinas expanding money supply could be the catalyst that boosts crypto and Bitcoin.

China has already done this, printing $173B. This may lead to a movement of funds into crypto, that are viewed as a hedge against inflation

This could be the year where the mindset of institutional investors begins to shift, from crypto as a venture bet, to crypto as a reserve currency.

Armstrongs sentiments run contrary to the prevailing wisdom from a number of industry leaders, including Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, who recently said Bitcoin is not a hedge against global economic turmoil.

An October research paper from the cryptocurrency prime dealer SFOX may support Armstrongs theory. It found that Bitcoin could be viewed as a hedge in a select number of countries struggling with crippling inflation.

While Bitcoin has key attributes that may make it valuable as a hedge against macroeconomic factors in the future, its important to keep in mind that it remains today a highly speculative asset class that is extremely volatile. Bitcoin may be seeing some usage as a hedge against inflation in countries like Venezuela (which represents a unique case study) or against monetary policy, but were still a long way from widespread adoption.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong

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Coinbase CEO Reveals Controversial Bitcoin (BTC) and Cryptocurrency Prediction With Major Shift Incoming - The Daily Hodl

Defiant developers behind a morbid cryptocurrency based on the number of victims falling prey to coronavirus have denied they are cashing in on death.

The mainly anonymous group which created the CoronaCoin a token claiming to be backed by proof of death say their project is designed to educate the public about the disease.

They even claim that 20% of all funds will be donated to the Red Cross and its efforts to assist in controlling the spread of Covid-19.

However, the brazen boasts of its links to the coronavirus mortality rate on the cryptos website have attracted huge criticism something the tokens bosses dismiss, saying their work is no different to a bond scheme run by the World Health Organisation.

The World Health Organisation currently offers an official pandemicbond, CoronaCoins Sunny Kemp told Coin Rivet.

Is that immoral? Just google WHO pandemic bond.

The group refers to the establishment of a common bond scheme among large financial institutions designed to mitigate the economic impact of global disasters.

While such bonds are often derided, economists the world over largely agree on the requirement for such financial back-up.

Few, however, would draw reasonable comparisons between the mitigation bonds and a cryptocurrency which burns tokens in accordance with how many cases of a potentially fatal virus are confirmed.

Insurance is also morbid, defends the developer one of several based across Europe who are running coronatoken.org.

We had no ICO, did not raise funds from the public, do not sell coins to the public directly, and actively airdrop free coins to our community.

Additionally, the fact that tokens can be traded on themarket is secondary to the purpose of this blockchain, and we are buildingDAPPs to educate the public about the spread of the virus.

The group says it has also made its first payment to the Red Cross, although this has yet to be confirmed by the international relief agency.

We are starting at one Ethereum per day and will go up from there asthe value of our token increases, the developer told us.

Despite the morally-questionable basis of CoronaCoin, its founders claim they have had an incredible response.

Backed by Proof of Death

Most people are fascinated by the idea of a Proof of Death blockchain, added Sunny Kemp.

We get a lot of questions about how it all works we arenearing 1,000 members in our Discord, over 600 Twitter followers, and577 Telegram members.

Discussing the rights and wrongs of basing a cryptocurrency supply on the number of cases and fatalities associated with coronavirus, the developer gave a blunt answer.

We anticipate a token burn of up to 80%, he said.

Apart from Coronacoinsutility in recording the virus on the blockchain, we also have tip bots, a game, and blockchain applications in thepipeline.

We believe these applications will ensure value long intothe future.

The latest information from the World Health Organisation places the number of infections as rapidly approaching 100,000 with more than 3,000 deaths linked to the virus.

Originally posted here:
Coronavirus cryptocurrency creators claim theyre not cashing in on death - Coin Rivet

Today, as of March 2nd, 2020, ThreatFabric, an Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company, has released a report about a new threat to the crypto community, known as the Cereberus Trojan virus.

According to their report, Cereberus is capable of stealing two-factor authentication codes generated by the Google Authenticator app, which are used to secure online banking and email accounts, as well as cryptocurrency accounts on certain exchanges.

Cereberus was first identified in June of last year but has since become a more serious threat after being updated in mid-January of this year.

Once the virus is installed on a device, it is capable of downloading all content to a remote location, which can then be accessed by any number of fraudsters or criminals.

And whats more is that, amongst 25 other cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase, one of the worlds leading cryptocurrency exchanges, was also on the list of the Trojans main targets.

Like other types of malware, a Trojan virus is designed to undermine a devices or networks security functions.

The Cereberus virus works by stealing two-factor authentication codes (2FA) and giving them to whoever is behind the attack. On top of this, the virus is also able to steal PIN codes and swipe patterns from infected devices, giving the malicious actor access to any content present the device.

Cereberus is amongst the three other threats that have emerged recently aimed at some 26 cryptocurrency exchanges. Other than Coinbase, Xapo, Bitpay, Binance, and Wirex were also on the list of potential targets.

Fortunately, the best way to prevent a cyber attack on your crypto is to use a physical authentication key, as opposed to a digital key, which can be accessed remotely.The only way for a fraudster to gain access to a physical key is by actually gaining access to the device itself. Therefore, theres a significantly lower chance of an attack taking place.

AsCryptopotatorecently reported, $45 million worth of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash was stolen from a whale investor through a purported SIM attack.

This highlights the importance of taking security measures seriously. When it comes to larger amounts of cryptocurrency, its always advisable to keep it on a hardware wallet which is not connected to the internet. At the same time, its essential to keep your seed phrases and private keys safe.

Never store large amounts of cryptocurrency on an exchange and make sure to remember the popular phrase not your keys, not your Bitcoin. It applies to other digital currencies as well.

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Binance, Coinbase, And Other Cryptocurrency Exchanges Reportedly Targeted By A New Trojan Virus - CryptoPotato

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has finally picked one out of the thousands of cryptocurrencies in existance and declared that it is the best. And it's not Bitcoin.

It's Dogecoin.

Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that was invented as a joke by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markusbut it took on a life of its own. With the Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu as its mascot and an entire language built around the coin, "wow, such coin, many profit," it developed a cult following.

It's not the first time Musk has showed his love for Dogecoin. He previously changed his Twitter bio to reflect that he was the CEO of Dogecoin and once tweeted "throw a dogecoin to ur witcher" before deleting it shortly after.

Today, he first tweeted that "Dogs rock," with an image of a dog celebrating its birthday without any concept of numbers. Underneath it he added that dogs "have the best coin."

Musk has spoken about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency too but in peculiar ways. He once tweeted, "Cryptocurrency is my safe word," before later adding that, "Bitcoin is not my safe word."

He has also spoken about Bitcoin too, saying that it could be a replacement for cash in terms of enabling illegal activity. But that he doesn't see it becoming the main method of payment around the world. Perhaps that role is reserved for his favorite cryptocurrency. Wow.

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Elon Musk says Dogecoin is the best cryptocurrency - Decrypt

The involvement of North Korea in cryptocurrency has always been subject to speculation. A new report seems to indicate that the US wants to gain control of all digital assets tied to this country.

Various countries around the world are subject to sanctions.

These sanctions are imposed for a wide variety of reasons, including financial wrongdoings or other crimes.

In the case of North Korea, it is not difficult to see why these sanctions are put in place.

Bypassing and evading these rules has been a popular practice in certain regions.

Over the years, numerous reports have surfaced as to how North Korea is using Bitcoin to evade these sanctions altogether.

Domestic state-sponsored hacking groups have also been tied to attacks against South Korean exchanges and trading platforms.

The US is now taking this concept to a whole new level.

By actively suing to gain control of crypto assets is a very interesting move.

A total of 113 accounts have been identified, and may be forfeited in the near future.

As the funds in these accounts are obtained through illegal means, the outcome may be carved in stone.

That said, controlling the assets is a different matter.

This is very different from seizing a bank account, as cryptocurrencies have no centralized authority.

Image(s): Shutterstock.com

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North Korea may Have to Forfeit 113 Cryptocurrency Accounts - The Merkle Hash