Zcash Alliance Aims to Bring Privacy Tech to Bitcoin, Cosmos and Ethereum – CoinDesk

A handful of big names in crypto want in on the privacy features offered by Zcash.

It is humbling and inspiring that such a strong group of builders is leaning in to push that mission forward and help guide the future of Zcash, privacy coin co-founder Zooko Wilcox said in a press statement.

The Electric Coin Company (ECC) announced Monday the launch of the Zcash Developers Alliance (ZDA), an invite-only working group that includes the Lightning Network startup Bolt Labs, the cross-chain technology startup Thesis, the Ethereum conglomerate ConsenSys and two leading startups working on the Cosmos project, Agoric and Iqlusion, just to name a few.

The ZDA is an attempt to introduce a way to collaborate with the ECC, and the Zcash ecosystem, which focuses around other peoples priorities, Iqlusion founder Zaki Manian said. Product-market fit is other people [beyond fans and founders] actually caring about it.

Manian said the Zcash anonymity set is a valuable public good, describing how the privacy coin allows shielded transactions and the construct that allows individual transactions to get lost in the metaphorical crowd.

It feels like its time for a Zcash-Ethereum bridge, ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin said in a press statement.

Basically, other blockchains can connect to the Zcash ecosystem to enable, say, Cosmos users to enter and exit the staking system without revealing personally identifying information, just like Zcash users can shield their information while making payments. The more people tapping into this shared anonymity set, the more effective it is at anonymizing data.

Zcash Foundation researcher Henry de Valence said his team is helping bring the Zcash shielded pool to Cosmos, although the nonprofit hasnt been invited to the ZDA.

If you think privacy is important in order to have fungibility, then networks should have a privacy layer. So were going to add a privacy layer to Cosmos in such a way that the anonymity set from Cosmos users is joined up with the anonymity set of all the Zcash users, de Valence said.

The Ethereum Foundation is already researching ways to use these privacy options for Eth 2.0, the networks overhaul to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Bolt Labs founder Ayo Akinyele has been working to enable some of Zcashs privacy features on Bitcoins Lightning Network since 2019. And yet, the alliance is about more than formalizing the work startups were already doing. Its about ECC shouldering the organizational burden, Akinyele said, so that other companies can focus on building tools related to the Zcash protocol.

Its not just about having the best anonymous crypto, Manian added. You have to have enough users of the anonymous crypto so that your anonymity set is sufficiently large that it can provide meaningful privacy.

Cypherpunk model

Agoric CEO Dean Tribble, an original member of cypherpunk mailing lists and community groups in decades past, said the ZDA is more like those hacker groups than it is like the Libra Association or JavaScript Foundation, or even Microsoft industry alliances.

The ZDA is invite-only, with the requirement being that members need to actively build privacy technology. This isnt a group for promoting token adoption or formalizing standards for specific products or services. Members are building wildly different tools, hoping to use the same privacy solution. As such, Akinyele said the ZDA has bi-annual meetings and private communication channels so projects can leverage resources across the group.

Were not building different solutions. We want to build one solution that can be adapted to multiple chains, Akinyele said. His startup launched a Zcash-inspired testnet for bitcoin in April called zkChannels. It works like the Lightning Network, in that it offers an additional layer for more complex features. While Lightning channels offer speed and reduced transaction fees, the Zcash-inspired channels offer privacy.

Its a way for a customer to establish a zkChannel with a merchant or a service and the merchant wont be able to link transactions on that channel to the identity of the customer, Akinyele said. In the case of [wallets], the provider just knows that two users paid each other.

He aims to have a beta version live this year, but it wont be connected to the Lightning Network quite yet. That will come in 2021, Akinyele said, when additional work enables both layers to be used at the same time. For now, imagine that people must choose between chocolate or vanilla frozen yogurt, privacy or speed. In the future, bitcoiners will be able to choose a chocolate-vanilla swirl swirl without diluting either feature.

The anonymity set is going to be tied to the number of channels the provider youve communicated with already has, Akinyele said, offering an example of a merchant with 10,000 channels. A customer using zkChannels is anonymized because the merchant cant see which of the 10,000 customer channels is the buyer.

Akinyeles startup is working on a Lightning-inspired scaling layer for Zcash as well. But tokens require different techniques than bitcoin, especially when it comes to privacy. This is why such different crypto companies joined ZDA.

We all have independent reasons to start that interoperability, said Tribble, whose team is focused more on smart contracts than payments. Agoric also plans to eventually launch its own token.

We dont believe theres going to be one winning chain, so getting the mainstream world online with added privacy requires the cooperation of a lot of chains, Tribble said.

Privacy perks

Despite the ZDAs cypherpunk roots, this is still an industry alliance focused on business, not rebels.

Theres often an inaccurate conflation of such privacy features with criminal intent. But a Rand Corporation survey commissioned by the ECC found only 1% of illicit darknet operations accepted zcash (the publicly auditable bitcoin is still the dominant cryptocurrency on the darkweb). Someday, consumers may choose ZDA member services to shop online at regular websites, without being constantly tracked for affiliate marketing profiles they have no control over.

We have to look at technology as a neutral, that it could be used for a wide variety of applications, Rand Europe analyst Erik Silfversten told Forbes.

Likewise, the ZDA aims to identify business needs and shift resources to making the Zcash protocol useful for companies that may not transact directly with the namesake privacy coin.

Other organizations may join the alliance in the future, like the Zcash Foundation or Interchain Foundation, if they get involved in industry projects, not research.

For me, the future state is in a year or two to be able to use zcash, or wrapped zcash, on Cosmos or Ethereum, said ECC CTO Nathan Wilcox. Were certainly thinking about folks that didnt make it in the first batch.

Over at the foundation, de Valence said the nonprofits goal is less token-centric and more focused on infrastructure, a privacy layer for the entire cross-chain ecosystem.

Our goal is to leverage the unique properties of Zcash particularly the strong network effects of its anonymity set to provide privacy to all of these projects, de Valence said.

One goal the nonprofit shares with the new alliance, ZDA, is both of them see diversifying Zcash stakeholders and developers as the top priority.

The focus for this year is interoperability, Nathan Wilcox said.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Bitcoin poised to shine as governments print more money: report – Decrypt

The unprecedented reaction from governments around the world to do whatever it takes to keep their economics afloat in response to the coronavirus pandemic could drive a flight to Bitcoin.

Thats the principal takeaway from the latest report by Bitcoin research firm Delphi Digital. The exhaustive documentcovering everything from the macro financial climate to Bitcoins on-chain datalooks at a mixture of historical precedent and Bitcoins current data trends to presage what the rest of the year may look like for the cryptocurrency.

The report began with a rosy reminder that the worlds economy is basically on debt-based life support. The amount of monetary and fiscal relief thats been pledged [by central banks in 2020] equates to more than $10 trillion globally, it stated.

But as governments print more money, Bitcoin (as evidenced by yesterdays successful halving) is going to tick on with a decreased inflation rate.

This activity will benefit Bitcoin in the long run, according to Delphi Digital. But it will take some time. Using the limited data they have for Bitcoins 11 year existence, the team asserted that, historically, it is notable that prior BTC cycles tended to peak when major central bank asset growth began to decelerate.

Continuing to evaluate the risk currency debasement poses for poorer populations, Delphi noted that Bitcoin is already performing well against the monies of troubled states. For instance, its up 44% against the Russian ruble, 74% against the Brazilian real, and 52% against the Mexican peso among others.

We expect the demand for non-sovereign safe haven assets to rise considerably as the risk of broad-based currency debasement increases, Deplhi reported, adding that gold has a place here among Bitcoin, which it expects to grow in market cap.

Perhaps this growth isnt so far-fetched when we crunch some on-chain numbers. The number of addresses holding fewer than 1 Bitcoin trends upwards over the last five years, while addresses holding larger amounts of Bitcoin has trended downwards. This is typically considered to be an indication that Bitcoins investor base is growing among retail (though, its important to note that multiple addresses could belong to a single, privacy-minded user).

Moreover, this recent rally following Marchs precipitous price drop was led by the spot market, typically made up of low-capitalized retail investors. But the January rally preceding the Black Thursday crash was largely institution-driven.

This level of spot volume hasn't really been seen since last summer; it's tough to know who exactly to attribute it to (holder size wise), but I definitely agree that it's bullish, Yan Liberman, co-founder of Delphi Digital, told Decrypt.

As retail volume booms, the amount of Bitcoin held on exchanges is dwindling, experiencing previously unseen outflows, according to the report.

Delphi ended its report with a nod to the previous halving, and compared how the current holder base stacks up to Bitcoins second halving four years ago.

The current composition of the underlying holder base looks nearly identical to the one leading into the second halving, the report noted. It added that, at the moment, the percentage of holders who havent moved coins for at least one year or three years is only a single digit percentage point off the figures from 2016.

22% of the network hasnt moved in 5 years, and 7.7% hasnt moved in a decade, Delphi said in its report. Adding to these findings, Liberman told Decrypt that these holders basically represent the portion of the base that's in it for the long haul, and don't care as much about short-term moves.

In other words, hardcore Bitcoiners are creating a bedrock of support as the networks so-called holders of last resort. At the very least, as Delphi said in a tweet when it released its report, the data makes one thing clear: Dismissing Bitcoin is no longer an option.

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Bitcoin poised to shine as governments print more money: report - Decrypt

Bitcoin could hit above $100000 by August 2021 – Nairametrics

The Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, Bolaji Balogun, said that though the Coronavirus pandemic has caused numerous health and economic challenges Nigerians should always remember that crises also create opportunities.

He disclosed this during a Q&A session at the Workshift online conference organised by Liberty Church, London, as he laid emphasis on available opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) amid the pandemic.

According to him, this is the right time for business owners to reflect inwards, carry out some critical analysis of their businesses, and answer some important questions. Some of these questions include the following:

He then focused on the last question by giving numerous examples of how businesses can reinvent in order to adapt during this period. For instance, companies that primarily make clothes may consider switching over to sowing clothe masks which are in serious demands right now. Such companies can also consider producing bedsheets for hospitals because almost certainly, at a time like this, hospitals arent going to be using and re-using bedsheets. They will be using bedsheets and disposing of them because if the highly-infectious nature of the virus.

I think the first thing is to recognise that every Crisis must not be wasted and in every crisis, there is an opportunity. I dont necessarily subscribe to the people who have turned themselves to opportunists who started off n95 masks at N2000 and are now selling those same n95 masks at N5000 to N6000. I think that is a bit of opportunism at the wrong time. And that is not something which, in itself, brings sustainable prosperity, he said.

He also spoke more on cutting down on costs, stressing that it is absolutely essential at this point. He did, however, note that for SMEs (which are a large source of employment in Nigeria), this may be a difficult time to manage costs. This is because there are really no existing support systems for these SMEs. Even the palliatives announced by the government are not enough.

What this means, therefore, is that businesses must watch their costs. He warned against spending money on things that are not necessary. He said:

It should also be recognised that this is a time when everybody should watch their costs. So, absolutely dont spend money on things that are unnecessary. This is also not a time to be investing, unless you are investing in technology that allows you to do your business, or investing in data. This is absolutely not a time to be investing. Slow down on investment. Keep cash as much as possible.

Its also a time when you have to look at your people and make some honest decisions. And those honest decisions require a lot of open communication with your people. There will be many scenarios where people will tell you that you know what hat, it may be easier for all of us to take 50% pay cut rather than firing 30% to 40% of the workforce.

You may watch the rest of the CEOs comments by clicking here.

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Craig Wright: Bitcoin truth versus the ‘turd that is fake news’ – CoinGeek

Dr. Craig Wright has continued to vent at some of the digital asset industrys bad actors. In his latest blog post, he trained his sights on those peddling misinformationabout Bitcoins structure and incentives, digital asset investments, and those who use their media platforms to damage his own reputation. Combating fake news, he said is one of the reasons I invented Bitcoin.

Dr. Wright named several well-known identities in the Bitcoin and digital asset space, including John McAfee, Ira Kleiman, Peter McCormack, and Greg Maxwell. These people, he said (some of whom are engaged in ongoing disputes with Wright) have used online media and their own platforms to spread false information by citing each others words and creating a self-feeding cycle of confusion for the public.

Forbes and YouTube Flim-Flam

The post begins with a look at Forbes and other famous-name online media outlets that publish unpaid contributor articles. These articles, Dr. Wright said, are not properly vetted for accuracy and exist only to drive eyeballs and clicks to site ads. Destroying the internets ad-based model, he added, is one of the reasons he invented Bitcoin.

The fact is, such burnishing of the truth does nothing to create integrity in journalism. It is merely adding a gloss to a turd that is fake news.

Access to brand-name media through contributions (sometimes unpaid) has allowed both unqualified and outright deceptive individuals to publish investment advice with a veneer of legitimacy. YouTube, he said, has also been an open platform for those promoting digital asset pump and dumpsincluding BTC. He called technical analysis trading YouTube channels unscientific flimflam that forever promise big price gains, while their hosts often make the opposite moves they advise their viewers to make.

Wright noted that, even though Google has recently taken stricter action against content it regards as misinformation, Forbes and other contributors continue their free run with digital currency investment promotion.

(We should note that Googles censorship dragnet has also ensnared several legitimately informative content producers, such as the BSV Channel.)

Some examples: misinformation about Bitcoin

Price isnt the only topic the fake news media promotes. The nature of Bitcoin itself is often misrepresented, which either demonizes truth-tellers or deflects criticism away from guilty parties.

Dr. Wright gave the example of Bitcoin transaction malleability being responsible for the loss of 850,000 BTC from the Mt. Gox exchange in the years leading up to its 2014 collapse. Even though that myth was debunked at its outset, the phrase continues to appear. Most serious investigators believe the Mt. Gox debacle was caused by embezzlement and theft by those with inside knowledge, not a technical issue with Bitcoin.

The structure of Bitcoins own network is misunderstood (accidentally or deliberately) due to phrases like mesh network and relay nodesneither of which are relevant to the way Bitcoin should function, he added. Believing they are true, or somehow important, creates incorrect impressions about what Bitcoin is for and makes networks like BTC less secure.

Misinformation about Dr. Craig Wright

Given Dr. Wrights outspoken nature, knowledge of Bitcoin and willingness to challenge some of BTCs biggest proponents, its natural they see him as a threat to their interests. Efforts to smear his character began from the instant he was outed as Satoshi Nakamoto in late 2015, but have ramped up since he took back control of the Bitcoin project with BSV.

Wright gave a few examples: Ira Kleiman and his lawsuit claiming ownership of early Bitcoins; Peter McCormacks claims that Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, and Greg Maxwells more technical takes against Wright and on Bitcoin history.

Easily debunked

Though Kleimans lawsuit purportedly concerns ownership of Dr. Wrights (and/or Satoshi Nakamotos) early Bitcoins and company IP, it serves also as a means to generate plenty of headlines and misleading news articles that attack Wrights reputation. Thats something Kleiman, who works in the area of search engine optimisation (SEO), would understand, he wrote.

Misleading reports about Dr. Wrights past actions resulting from the case have suggested he fled Australia for the United Kingdom, has plagiarized research, and is under investigation by the Australian Tax Offices criminal investigations unit (which does not exist).

Like the ATO claim, such myths are easily debunked, but lazy reporters dont bother to check them and neither do gullible readers. Wright said his U.K. visa showed clear intent to travel there in late 2015. Moreover, the U.K. is hardly a useful destination for anyone trying to escape the law in Australia.

Falsifying documents, he added, has been the domain of his attackers rather than himself. He claimed his own signature was forged multiple times either to make accusations and even to launch the infamous 2015 raid on his property (which coincided with his outing as Satoshi). He called the latter example a case of swatting; where bad actors make a false report with the intent to prompt law enforcement action on another individual.

Dr. Wright said Ira Kleiman was perhaps being used by other forces, and was not smart enough to know when he is being played.

Plagiarism claims show lack of academic understanding

In another example, Dr. Wright referred to BTC developer and former Blockstream employee Greg Maxwell, who he said publishes articles under his own name and several pseudonyms. Maxwell has long been a Wright adversary with antagonism between the two preceding Bitcoin by years.

Maxwell has in the past accused Wright of plagiarizing research, particularly in a recent hit piece article that referenced Wrights legal cases against both Kleiman and McCormack.

The article concerned mathematical concepts like random forests and decisions, which the article suggested Wright had plagiarized a medical paper whose data was incorporated into a training and example package that researcher John Maindonald created. Maindonald used the original paper to create a CRAN R statistical package, while Wright did not use the original paper and instead took his graph from the courseware. Wright said Maxwells lack of academic experience and training had caused him to misunderstand the nature of references in his patent applications, he said. Speaking to CoinGeek, Dr. Wright said:

John is one of the authors of the original R package and incorporated much of the original statistical work into common packages people have now. This included the particular piece of data that that image came from. Ironically, Ill probably not terribly ironically I dont think Greg Maxwell has a clue when it comes to academic work, it is referenced. When youre referencing academically, you dont actually put different papers if its not from a different paper. This particular diagram comes from statistical notes and processes and courseware developed by John Maindonald.

You see they dont care about investigating truth. The fact that Ive actually referenced a document by saying its notes from the forthcoming publication does not mean its not referenced, it is referenced as part of a statistical software package and it is the image derived from that. Then, if Mr Greg Maxwell had done any statistical training using the CRAN R package before going into calling himself paintedfrog, he would have probably recognised the source, it is a very common one that is used in many statistical programming training courses around the world. Dr Maindonald was one of the original authors of the CRAN R statistical package and I learnt from him before this was popular or well-known.

All these accusations, and misinformation about Bitcoin, echo through online media and causes both accidental confusion and deliberate damage. Dr. Wright said reporters hadnt bothered to investigate their own stories thoroughly, and his own critics chose to attack the man rather than address them as technical debates.

What they and other detractors failed to understand, he said, is that he personally has plenty of patience to wait for real facts to emergesomething he attributed to his Aspergers spectrum condition.

Other people may stop, I dig in deeper. I bide my time.

It sounds like it is going to be a rocky road on the horizon for Wrights distractors.

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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Analysing Bitcoin’s revival: CoinMarketCap notes cautious optimism amid Covid-19 – as halving arrives – The Block – The Block

The most recent quarter has been turbulent to say the least across all global economies but while Bitcoins performance naturally fell, according to CoinMarketCaps most recent analysis, it still outperformed global benchmarks for equities.

In its Q1 assessment of crypto market and user trends, CoinMarketCap argued that, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, crypto markets have regained a good portion of their March losses, but warns there was still some way to go before they fully recover.

Bitcoin reached a high of $10,500 and total market cap of $305 billion in February, before touching a low of $3,900 on March 12, dropping 43%. Its year-to-date performance based on January 2 to March 31 saw a drop in price of 10.52%. This was better than the MSCI World Index, which fell 20.65% over the quarter, and the S&P 500 Index (-19.42%).

Since March 31, where Bitcoins price was at $6,445, there has been a gradual revival, with many seeing it as a comparative safe haven amid the crisis. The currency touched $10,000 again, in line with positive comments hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones made, saying it was a great speculation.

Alongside that, this week has seen the latest Bitcoin halving, whereby the reward for unlocking a new block has been cut from 12.5 new coins to 6.25. The event, approximately once every four years, has its supporters and detractors within the industry. Supporters of Bitcoin see it as a protection part of ensuring only 21 million Bitcoins will ever exist while others see it as a potential disincentive for miners. Stephen Innes, from AXI Corp, told the BBC that miners will probably switch to more profitable cryptocurrencies.

Within the cryptomarket itself, according to CoinMarketCap, some cryptoassets most notably Ethereum (+3.29%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH, +10.48%) and Bitcoin SV (BSV, +76%) saw a solid quarter, with market caps of $14.74bn, $4.11bn and $3.08bn at the end of the quarter respectively. As a result of these gains, BSV and BCH both reside in the top 10 most viewed cryptoassets on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin naturally remains on top, with Ethereum nudging XRP into second place. Litecoin also moved into the top 10 this quarter.

Among the reports other interesting findings was that the number of female Bitcoin users had increased significantly. Led by countries such as Greece, Romania, Colombia and Venezuela, there was a 42.34% quarterly growth worldwide. CoinCorner, a UK-based Bitcoin exchange, said in a note that it had seen a similar rise, with women accounting for more than one in five (22.8%) of all sign-ups in Q1.

CoinMarketCap concluded its report with the most cautious of optimism, noting that while the strongest hype around concepts like ICOs has almost certainly died off, the solid figures elsewhere show opportunities for growth do not rest solely on Bitcoin.

From the 2017 boom of initial coin offerings to exchange-led fundraising in initial exchange offerings, the viability of raising capital via the issuance of tokens is now at a trough, the company noted. That said, there is much untapped potential in the blockchain revolution.

You can read the full analysis here.

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Analysing Bitcoin's revival: CoinMarketCap notes cautious optimism amid Covid-19 - as halving arrives - The Block - The Block

There’s Still a Non-Trivial Chance of a Ban on Bitcoin – Kraken CLO – Cryptonews

Source: Adobe/Alexey Novikov

Even today, there is a non-trivial chance that governments try to ban Bitcoin (BTC), according to Marco Santori, the recently appointed Chief Legal Officer (CLO) of major crypto exchange Kraken.

I dont think its a 20% or 30% chance in the next five years, but I think its real. And its up to us to do everything that we can to give this stuff realand maybe this is where this starts to get a little controversialreal functional use that people in government can appreciate as something more than just what they see oftentimes as a casino, he said during the Kraken Block Drop VR Halving Party on Sunday.

Santori noted that its important for crypto lobbying organizations like Coin Center to be on the front lines to make sure that the Overton window, which is the range of ideas that the general public is willing to accept from politicians, never opens far enough for a ban on Bitcoin to ever come close to a possibility.

That said, Santori tries to remain practical in terms of the potential for a ban.

I still operate every day as if it is a non-trivial possibility [Bitcoin could be banned], and I think folks who are regulated and subject to laws are wise to think that as well, said Santori. There was a time where I wouldnt have described it as non-trivial . . . I would have described it as maybe a 20% chance [or] 30% chance.

According to the CLO, his views on the potential for an outright ban on Bitcoin were altered by the release of FinCENs (Financial Crimes Enforcement Networks) guidance regarding cryptocurrencies like BTC in 2013.

When the government first said, Okay Bitcoiners. Youre under our thumb. You have to follow the rules like everybody else. I think a lot of people reacted negatively to that, but just as many people reacted positively, explained Santori. They thought, Oh my goodness. This is the government recognizing the legitimacy of this thing. They said something for the first time about Bitcoin and it wasnt that its bad and illegal.

Before joining Kraken, Santori served as President and Chief Legal Officer for Blockchain.com, a major crypto wallet provider, and is known as the Dean of Digital Currency Lawyers for his work in litigating, advising on and creating new law in the crypto industry.

In April, he argued that the courts, not the lawmakers, will likely be the ones that'll make "new sources of law" for the crypto industry within the next couple of years.

Meanwhile, during the same discussion on Sunday, Coin Center Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh, said that preventing a government ban has been easier than youd think.

Government is just a bunch of people, and they all have their specific interests, said Van Valkenburgh.

From his perspective, people at the Securities and Exchange Commission are mostly interested in protecting mainstream investors from penny stocks and certain initial coin offerings, FinCEN just wants to make sure illicit money isnt flowing through the regulated financial system, and the Internal Revenue Service just wants Americans to pay their taxes.

Maybe the taxes thing is where things start to break downwhere if you had widespread tax evasion because of Bitcoin wed see a different tone, youd see government unify under one interest (they all want to make sure they still get paid as a government), Van Valkenburgh added. But right now, you have a bunch of fractured interests, and you dont have an existential threat to the government. So, there really hasnt been a widespread call here in the US amongst anyone in Congress or the agencies to sort of ban this thing.

According to Van Valkenburgh, the United States has a long history of not just accepting new technologies but also embracing and promoting them to the point where politicians want to take credit for these advancements. The Coin Center director of research pointed to Al Gores infamous claim (which he didnt actually make) that he invented the internet as supporting evidence for this phenomenon.

The internet created a whole new suite of potential vulnerabilities and issues for American society, but our reaction wasnt to get rid of it, said Van Valkenburgh.

He added that for every congressperson or regulator who gets loud about the perceived negative aspects of Bitcoin there are one or two people in government who are excited about the technology and think its cool.____

Learn more:As US Seized Gold in 1933, Is There a Threat to Bitcoin in the 2020s?This Is How G20 Might Keep Crypto And Stablecoins at BayIndia's Crypto Ban Overruled, But the Battle is Far From OverUS Congressman Wants to Outlaw Crypto, Cryptoverse Fires Back

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There's Still a Non-Trivial Chance of a Ban on Bitcoin - Kraken CLO - Cryptonews

Telegram shuts down its cryptocurrency operation – The Verge

After years of drama with the SEC, Telegram is calling it quits on its crypto-focused subsidiary, Telegram Open Network (TON).

Telegrams active involvement with TON is over, wrote Pavel Durov, founder and CEO, in an announcement on his channel. You may see or may have already seen sites using my name or the Telegram brand or the TON abbreviation to promote their projects. Dont trust them with your money or data.

TON was a blockchain platform designed to offer decentralized cryptocurrency to anyone with a smartphone, in a similar fashion to Facebooks Libra project (which has also faced significant scrutiny).

Last October, the SEC ordered Telegram to halt sales of its cryptocurrency (called Gram) after it failed to register an early sale of $1.7 billion in tokens prior to launching the network. The funds were raised in a series of what Telegram billed as pre-ICO offerings back in 2018, though the company ended up canceling the much-hyped ICO due (in part) to increased SEC scrutiny.

Durov spoke out against the ruling in his announcement, arguing that American courts shouldnt have the power to stop the sale of cryptocurrency beyond US borders, and he urged others to take up the decentralization fight in Telegrams stead. This battle may well be the most important battle of our generation, he wrote. We hope that you succeed where we have failed.

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Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday: COVID-19 and cryptocurrency scams – KTVZ

Crime And Courts

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- This week, the Oregon FBIs Tech Tuesday segment discusses building a digital defense againstcryptocurrencyscams.

Fraudsters are leveraging increased fear and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic to steal your money and launder it through the complex cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Developments in technology and an increasing number of businesses accepting it as payment have driven the growing popularity and accessibility of cryptocurrency. There are numerous virtual asset service providers online as well asthousands of cryptocurrency kiosks located throughout the world whichcriminals exploitto facilitate their schemes.

Here are somecryptocurrency fraud schemes related to COVID-19:

A number oflegitimate charities, investment platforms, and e-commerce sites accept payment in cryptocurrency these days. But, if a person or organization is pressuring you to use a virtual currency, you should consider that a red flag and proceed cautiously.

Here are someotherwaystoprotect yourself fromcryptocurrencyfraud:

As always, if you have been victimized by a cyber fraud, you can report it to the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.IC3.gov.

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Oregon FBI's Tech Tuesday: COVID-19 and cryptocurrency scams - KTVZ

Teen Hackers Accused of Cryptocurrency Theft, Sued For $71 Mn – CISO MAG

A cryptocurrency investor accused a teen hacker and his crew of juvenile hackers for stealing $24 million in cryptocurrency via a SIM swap attack. According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York, Michael Terpin, the founder and CEO of blockchain advisory firm Transform Group, claimed that a teenage hacker Ellis Pinksy (aged 15), along with his group of teen hackers, compromised his phone and stolen his cryptocurrency in 2018. Terpin is suing Pinsky (now aged 18) for $71 million under a federal racketeering law that allows for triple damages, Bloomberg reported.

Pinsky and his other cohorts are in fact evil computer geniuses with sociopathic traits who heartlessly ruin their innocent victims lives and gleefully boast of their multi-million-dollar heists, Terpin said in his complaint.

Terpin stated that Pinskys group identified people with cryptocurrency holdings and illicitly took control of their phones by launching SIM swapping attack to divert authentication messages, gain information, and breach victims cryptocurrency accounts.

What Is a SIM Swapping Attack?

A SIM swapping attack is one of the simplest ways for cybercriminals to bypass users 2FA protection. In a SIM swap attack, the attacker calls service providers and tricks them into changing a victims phone number to an attacker-controlled SIM card. This allows the attacker to reset passwords and gain access to victims sensitive data.

In a similar cyber heist, Jack Monroe, a popular food blogger and activist, revealed that she lost about 5,000 (around US$ 6,395) from her bank account after being hit by a SIM-Swapping attack. The British-based writer stated that her phone number was seized and re-activated on another SIM card, despite using two-factor authentication (2FA). Monroe stated the attackers were able to receive her 2FA messages and accessed her bank and payment accounts.

It seems my card details and PayPal info were lifted from an online transaction. The phone number was ported to a new SIM, meaning criminals access/bypass authentication and authorize payments. Im an autistic, methodical, ruthless investigator, and I have a LOT of info to go on, Jack Monroe said.

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Voyager Digital Partners with Silver Cost Basis to Deliver Comprehensive Year-end Cryptocurrency Gain/Loss Statements in Advance of Regulatory…

NEW YORK, May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Voyager Digital Canada, Ltd. ("Voyager" or the "Company") (CSE:VYGR; OTCQB:VYGVF; FRA:UCD2), a public, licensed crypto-asset broker that provides investors with a turnkey solution to trade crypto assets, today announced that it has partnered with Silver Cost Basis ("Silver"), a leading provider of regulatory cost basis processing solutions, to deliver year-end cryptocurrency gain/loss statements to its customers. The partnership enhances Voyager's already outstanding client experience by providing investors and traders with gain/loss information for use in preparing accurate tax returns.

"Silver's cryptocurrency cost basis processing solution further extends our user experience by providing real-time gain/loss analysis and fully compliant investor tax information that otherwise, may or may not have been realized," explains Steve Ehrlich, CEO and co-founder of Voyager Digital. "Our integration with Silver helps Voyager to continue to deliver on our goal to offer a fully transparent crypto trading platform that puts the customer first."

For more than a decade, Silver has been recognized for its industry-leading regulatory securities cost basis processing solutions. Building on its proven track record of compliance and innovation, Silver has emerged as the leader in the cryptocurrency cost basis space. Silver Cost Basis applies regulatory treatment for cryptocurrency activity under established taxation rules and guidance, including Notice 2014-21 and the more recent Revenue Ruling 2019-24 and updated FAQs. The Company previously announced that it had partnered with Voyager to provide cryptocurrency cost basis tax analysis and processing for Voyager customers.

"Customer gain/loss statements provide the information needed for cryptocurrency traders to accurately complete their Forms 8949 and 1040, and can even be attached to tax returns," said Neal Ruskin, Silver's Managing Partner responsible for product strategy. "By providing statements to their customers in advance of regulatory requirements, Voyager is setting the standard for transparent reporting in the cryptocurrency space."

Earlier this year, Voyager announced that it has acquired Circle Invest, the retail digital asset business from Circle Internet Financial, Inc. This transaction added more than 40,000 retail accounts to Voyager's customer base, making it one of the largest, digital-asset-only agency brokers in the U.S. As of February 29, 2020, the Company is servicing over 200,000 global users across its platforms.

About Voyager Digital (Canada)Ltd.

Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd. is a crypto-asset broker that provides retail and institutional investors with a turnkey solution to trade crypto assets. Voyager offers customers best execution and safe custody on a wide choice of popular crypto-assets. Voyager was founded by established Wall Street and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who teamed to bring a better, more transparent and cost-efficient alternative for trading crypto-assets to the marketplace. Please visit us athttps://www.investvoyager.com for more information and to review the latest Corporate Presentation.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this press release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information: The forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise it to reflect new events or circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

About Silver Management Group of Companies

Silver is a leading provider of business and technology solutions for the investment services industry. The Silver team applies decades of security industry and software development experience, along with a passion for solving real-world problems, to deliver cost-effective brokerage operations and wealth management solutions for our clients. Silver's strategic partners provide complementary services, software, and market data to enhance Silver solutions. Silver's proprietary software solutions are currently used by some of the world's most respected financial institutions to process tens of millions of investment accounts and trillions in assets. Please visit http://www.silvermanagement.com/

Contacts

Voyager Digital (Canada) Ltd. Contacts

Media:Anthony Feldman / Raquel Cona(347) 487-6194 / (212) 682-6300afeldman@kcsa.com / rcona@kcsa.com

Investor Relations:Phil Carlson / Scott Eckstein(212) 896-1233 / (212) 896-1210pcarlson@kcsa.com / seckstein@kcsa.com

Silver Management Group of Companies Contacts

Media:Stephen Lach(800) 319-6865slach@silvermanagement.com

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Voyager Digital Partners with Silver Cost Basis to Deliver Comprehensive Year-end Cryptocurrency Gain/Loss Statements in Advance of Regulatory...