« First...102030...1,7961,7971,7981,7991,800...1,8101,8201,830...Last »

Labor is likely to support Turnbull’s encryption fight – iTnews

Posted on by

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has indicated his party is likely to support the government's push to force technology companies to be able to decrypt user communications.

Over the weekend the government revealed its plans to follow the United Kingdom and introduce new requirements on operators of end-to-end encrypted communications services like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram and Apple's iMessage.

The UK's so-called "technology capability notices" force communications operators to ensure they are technically able to hand over decrypted data in "near real time" to law enforcementfollowing the issuance of a warrant.

Critics of the scheme in the UK and now Australia say these noticesleave communications operators no choice but to build backdoors into their products.

The UK and Australian governments have both denied they are asking for backdoors, but neither have provided any detail on how they expect operators to meet the requirements of the technical capability notices.

The Australian government intends to discuss the issue with its Five Eyes partners at a conference in Canada in a fortnight.

Speaking to parliament today, opposition leader Bill Shorten said "big internet companies" needed to be "part of our society in the sense of working with us as well as taking from us".

"They need to see this fight as their fight, not just our fight, not just a fight wherethey help when asked, but a fight in which they come to us with ideas," Shorten said.

"We need them to be proactive, not reactive. Terrorism does not self-police, so we cannot rely on a self-policingsystem."

He said terrorists were hiding behind encryption technologies, Bitcoin, andthe so-called dark web to "stay in the shadows" and obscure their activities.

"We must target this threat head-on. As terrorists adapt their methods and seek to hide online, we must ensure our agencies have the tools, resources and technology so terrorism has no place to hide," Shorten said.

"We can allow them no sanctuary, no place torest - we must dislodge them from wherever they hide.

"In doing this, though, we must always be mindful of the rule of law and the properprotections of our citizens. [But] we cannot sit back when our enemies have access to a worldwide system to educate and fund extremists."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said while encryption was a "vital piece of security" for everything from communication to shopping and banking,"the privacy of a terrorist can never be more important than public safety".

He denied the campaign was about creating backdoors, but did not detail how operators were expected to decrypt communications they do not hold the keys to.

"It is about collaboration with and assistance from industry in the pursuit of public safety," he said.

Turnbull said the government would 'balance the priority of community safety with individual liberties'.

"An online civil society is as achievable as an offline one, and the rights and protections of the vast, overwhelming majority ofAustralians, must outweigh the rights of those who will do them harm,"he told parliament.

"My government is committed to this. We will not take an 'if it ain't broke, we won't fixit' mentality.The government does not set and forget."

See the rest here:
Labor is likely to support Turnbull's encryption fight - iTnews

‘Whack-a-moles’: Warnings from cyber experts on encrypted messaging crackdown – SBS

Posted on by

Cyber-security experts have raised concerns about the federal governments counter-terrorism plans to crack down on encrypted messaging, saying that it may do little in the fight against terrorism and could lead to a game of whack-a-mole with new services to replace compromised ones.

The Turnbull government reportedly wants technology and telecommunications firms to cooperate with them in a bid to stop terrorists using encrypted messaging services to evade authorities.

Details are scarce but Attorney-General George Brandis will be in Canada next month to attend a meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence network in Canada.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the meeting will be about ensuring terrorists and organised criminals are not able to operate with impunity within ungoverned digital spaces online.

Encryption technology is being increasingly used by individuals, companies and governments to keep information secure.

Encrypted messages are scrambled into a code using an algorithm, meaning it can be intercepted, but not deciphered, on the way to its destination.

Only the intended recipient has the algorithm, or key, to be able to unscramble or decrypt the original message.

End-to-end encryption means not even the server, operated by providers such as WhatsApp or Facebook, can decrypt it.

Even if the tech companies wanted to do so, the data could not be descrambled and passed on to authorities.

Mr Turnbull has denied the government will be pushing for a so-called "backdoor" to be built into encrypted messaging systems.

Now this is not about creating or exploiting 'backdoors' as some privacy advocates continue to say despite constant reassurance from us. It is about collaboration with and assistance from industry in the pursuit of public safety, he said.

Technology journalist Chris Duckett also said forcing companies like Facebook, Google, or Apple to provide governments a backdoor would just lead to new services popping up.

Alternatively anyone who wants to stay away from the government is able to go and get open source encryption libraries - make their own app, run their own servers and then they don't have to pay attention to the government at all, he said.

Electronic Frontiers Australia said even if the major tech players dilute the strength of their encryption technology, it wouldn't stop those with a sophisticated understanding of the technology.

It could push people further underground, executive officer Jon Lawrence said.

This is an issue with encryption as well, if we start breaking certain encryption technologies people will just move on to others," he said.

Then you're in a bit of an arms race or a game of whack-a-mole and eventually the really sophisticated terrorists and organised criminals are going to be well ahead of anything that the government's doing."

Chris Gatford, the director of HackLabs, said weakened encryption could be exploited by criminals. "If provider were to create a backdoor for governments to get access to certain messages, it's inevitable that hackers and hobbyists would find the backdoor also and make use of it, he told SBS World News.

And you're weakening the overall design of the encryption which then puts the average person who uses that application at risk as well."

Former Australian Federal Police officer Nigel Phair, now at Canberra University's Centre for Internet Safety, said police already had many tools in their arsenal to track extremists without having to target encryption including metadata, physical surveillance, electronic surveillance and also eavesdropping on normal communication.

And then we start going down to social media feeds and all the other things that people are doing out there, this gives a really good picture of the sorts of people that are out there and the sorts of things they are doing," he said.

Continue reading here:
'Whack-a-moles': Warnings from cyber experts on encrypted messaging crackdown - SBS

Why Does Open Source Really Matter? It’s about Control, Not Code – The VAR Guy

Posted on by

Why is open source software so popular today? You might think it's about money, open standards or interoperability. Ultimately, however, the most important factor behind the success of open source is its ability to offer control -- or the allusion of it, at least -- to people who use it.

To understand this point, let's take a look at conventional explanations for why open source has become so popular.

It you look at sources like this, this or this that attempt to explain why open source is attractive to organizations today, you'll notice that the answers center around the following:

All of the above are important reasons that help to explain the popularity of open source.

I'd argue, however, that the very most important reason is not on that list -- or most of the lists you can find of explanations for the rise of open source.

The most important factor is that open source software (and free software) gives users a feeling of control over the software they use.

I don't mean simply control in the sense that they can study and contribute to the code. That's obviously important to some open source users.

However, it's a safe bet that the majority of people who use open source software don't actually understand code. They can't inspect or fix it.

I'd also venture a guess that the vast majority of users of major open source platforms don't modify them, even if they have the skills to do so. People using Firefox, LibreOffice, Apache HTTP, Docker or any other popular open source platform tend to use the stock version. They don't generally customize it and recompile the code.

For these reasons, it's hard to argue that people like open source software primarily because they want to study or customize it. In most cases, they lack the expertise to do these things. And even people who have that expertise usually choose not to take advantage of it.

Yet the fact remains that users of open source software could modify it if they wanted. With closed-source software, they don't have that ability. This is the difference that truly matters because it means open source users have a feeling of control over the code they use -- even if they don't exercise that control.

When you think about it, it makes sense that people would crave control over software. Software runs our lives, and in many senses the way it works is mysterious and uncertain. Even if you can view the source code of the software you use, many unknowns remain. There is no certain relationship between source code and the way software works because compilers can translate code in different ways, different machines can execute it in different ways and so on.

So, if you want to understand what really drives people to invest in open source code, I think the answer is a desire to feel some sense of control -- or the possibility of control, at least -- over their digital lives. This yearning for open code will only increase as our digital lives grow ever more complicated.

See the original post here:
Why Does Open Source Really Matter? It's about Control, Not Code - The VAR Guy

The Secret Life: Three True Stories by Andrew O’Hagan review – The Guardian

Posted on by

An unreliable narrator but a reliable narcissist: Julian Assange speaks to the media from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy last month. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

The internet has changed us, our means of communication, what we believe to be true, our identities and sense of self. That is a statement of such obviousness that we rarely stop to think about what it all actually means. But Andrew OHagan explores these themes with great depth and originality in three long essays originally published in the London Review of Books that make up his new collection, The Secret Life.

The first, entitled Ghosting, concerns that pathologically divisive figure, Julian Assange. The founder of WikiLeaks is awash with fictional potential. So much so that characters based on him regularly turn up in novels (Jonathan Franzens Purity) and TV dramas (Homeland).

OHagan, though, was commissioned to write ghostwrite Assanges autobiography. On the surface, it was aninspired choice of author and subject. OHagan, a vivid and meticulous writer, was sympathetic to Assanges cause, and he has the talent and staying power to draw even the most enigmatic characters out intotheopen.

But as becomes apparent in the essay, things didnt go according to plan. This is partly because Assange is an unreliable narrator but a reliable narcissist. Its also because hes spent his life hiding in online shadows, where myths grow like fungus.

The Australian is caught between wanting to promote himself and maintain a secretive control of his image. It makes for a fascinating portrait of a prickly character who affects an egalitarian stance while awarding himself exceptional status, in which anything he does, however questionable, is by definition good because hes the one doing it.

As OHagan becomes steadily more disillusioned, he cant ignore the massive hypocrisy in which Assange indulges. For example, he makes WikiLeak employees sign contracts that threaten them with a 12m lawsuitif they disclose information about the organisation. As OHagan writes: He cant understand why any public body should keep a secret but insists that his own organisation enforce its secrecy with lawsuits. Every time he mentioned legal action against the Guardian or the New York Times, and he did this a lot, I would roll my eyes.

OHagans eyes come in for a lot of exercise as he carefully documents a man whose ego invariably triumphs over his conscience. Gradually, the relationship comes apart as Assange attempts to play everyone off against one another. Although OHagan manages to get together a 70,000-word draft, Assange then wanted for questioning in Sweden on a potential rape charge thwarts his own book, forwhich hes been handsomely paid, by refusing to sign off the manuscript.

Eventually the book comes out as a whole new genre: the unauthorised autobiography. This is not a hatchet job, but rather the best and most finely nuanced journalistic profile that this reviewer has read this century.

In the pantheon of internet celebrities Satoshi Nakamoto is not nearly as famous or infamous as Assange, but he is certainly more mysterious. Nakamoto is the inventor of bitcoins, the so-called cryptocurrency that has helped the illicit darknet flourish, and which, now legally traded, could one day prove the end of banks and money markets.

Nakamoto is a pseudonym that was a presence on the net during bitcoins development and release in 2009. Then it and its owner disappeared, prompting in their wake a search for the real Nakamoto that has turned him into the abominable snowman of the digital age.

In late 2015, OHagan was approached by an intermediary to write the life story of Nakamoto, who he was told was one Craig Steven Wright, another Australian who was about to become a fugitive fromjustice.

Intrigued but wary, OHagan decides to spend as much time as possible with Wright in an effort to get to the elusive truth. But in The Satoshi Affair we see that Wright is a frustratingly complex character who conceals every bit as much as he reveals. He shows OHagan a wealth of documentary evidence, much of it extremely technical and layman-unfriendly. Yet he stops short of providing conclusive proof that he is Nakamoto. Is this because he is a conman he gets involved in a multimillion dollar business venture that is dependent on his being Nakamoto or because hes reluctant to give his true self up? The answer to that question remains, like so much that concerns the internet, enticingly out of reach.

Squeezed between these two compelling character studies is a relatively short essay entitled The Invention of Ronald Pinn. This Nabokovian-sounding figure is a dead man of around OHagans age whom the author reanimates online, creating a series of supporting fake identities on social media.

Its a strange, slightly haunting voyage into digital life that reads as much like a short story as an essay. It ends with OHagan encountering the dead mans mother. And suddenly, at the core of this excellent collection, weglimpse the unbridgeable difference between the real and theinvented.

The Secret Life: Three True Stories by Andrew OHagan is published by Faber (14.99). To order a copy for 11.24 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99

Original post:
The Secret Life: Three True Stories by Andrew O'Hagan review - The Guardian

Bitcoin bulls runs wild as cryptocurrency surges above $3,000

Posted on by

Provided by CNBC

Bitcoin (BTC=-USS)traded above $3,000 for the first time on Sunday, continuing this year's massive surge and helped by increased demand from Asia-based investors.

FactSet Research Systems Inc

After trading in a range for the last week, bitcoin climbed to an all-time high Sunday of $3,012.05, according to CoinDesk.

On Chinese exchanges such as BTCC, the currency traded about $40 to $60 above that price. Last week, several major Chinese bitcoin exchanges allowed customers to resume withdrawals of the cryptocurrency, after halting withdrawals in early February amid scrutiny from the People's Bank of China.

The digital currency has had a stellar year, rising nearly 200 percent and easily outperforming stock market benchmarks like the S&P 500 (.SPX) Index and the Nasdaq composite (.IXIC) in 2017. The cryptocurrency has now more than tripled in value since trading at $968 on Dec. 31, and has gained nearly 30 percent in June alone.

Bitcoin in 2017

Source: FactSet

Brian Kelly, CEO and founder of BKCM and a CNBC contributor, told CNBC this week that the cryptocurrency was "in the first years of what is likely to be a multi-year bull market. Of course there will be corrections and even crashes along the way, but bitcoin is here to stay."

A contributing factor to bitcoin's recent surge is growing demand from Asia. In addition to the China factor, Japanese interest has risen ever since the government approved bitcoin as a legal payment method in April.

Investors also plowed more money into the currency after Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari commented on the blockchain technology behind bitcoin, saying it "has more potential than bitcoin itself."

CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.

Read more:
Bitcoin bulls runs wild as cryptocurrency surges above $3,000

Attackers Mining Cryptocurrency Using Exploits for Samba Vulnerability – Threatpost

Posted on by

Unknown attackers are using a recently patched vulnerability in Samba to spread a resource-intensive cryptocurrency mining utility. To date, the operation has netted the attackers just under $6,000 USD, but the number of compromised computers is growing, meaning that a significant number of Samba deployments on *NIX servers remain unpatched.

The attack also demonstrates that the vulnerability in Samba, CVE-2017-7494, can extend EternalBlue-like attacks into Linux and UNIX environments. Samba is a software package that runs on Linux and UNIX servers and sets up file and print services over the SMB networking protocol, integrating those services into a Windows environment.

The Samba vulnerability is similar to the SMB bug exploited on May 12 by attackers using the NSAs EternalBlue exploit to spread WannaCry ransomware. Experts warned that EternalBlue can be fitted with any measure of attack, and they have a similar message about this flaw, which has been nicknamed SambaCry.

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab said that one of their honeypots snagged on May 30 some of the first exploits targeting the Samba vulnerability. The payload was a two-headed threat: a Linux backdoor and a mining utility called Cpuminer that is leveraging the processing power of its victims to create Monero cryptocurrency.

The attacked machine turns into a workhorse on a large farm, mining crypto-currency for the attackers, Kaspersky Lab said in a report published on Securelist.com.

The researchers said the attackers Monero wallet and pool address are hardcoded in the attack.

According to the log of the transactions, the attackers received their first crypto-coins on the very next day, on April 30th, Kaspersky Lab said. During the first day they gained about 1 XMR (about $55 according to the currency exchange rate for 08.06.2017), but during the last week they gained about 5 XMR per day. This means that the botnet of devices working for the profit of the attackers is growing.

As of Friday, the attackers had mined about $6,000 USD, and Kaspersky Lab said it was unsure about the scale of the attack. Upon disclosure of the Samba vulnerability almost three weeks ago, Rapid7 said an internet scan using its ProjectSonarsoftware found more than 104,000 endpoints running vulnerable versions of Samba over port 445, the SMB port. More than 92,000 are running versions of Samba that have no patches available. The vulnerability was introduced into Samba in 2010 in version 3.5.0; admins should upgrade to patched versions: 4.6.4, 4.5.10 and 4.4.14.

Kaspersky Lab said the exploit is assembled as a Samba plugin, below. After running a checka file containing random symbolsto see whether the server has write permissions for the network, the attack must then brute-force the full path to dropped file. The most obvious paths are laid out in Samba instruction manuals, Kaspersky Lab said. Once it finds the path, the exploit is loaded and executed in the context of the Samba server process using the vulnerability; it runs only in virtual memory.

Kaspersky Lab said the attacks captured by its honeypot contained two files, a Linux backdoor and the miner. INAebsGB.soandcblRWuoCc.so respectively. INAebsGB.sois a reverse shell that connects to the port of the IP address specified by the owner giving it remote access to the shell.

As a result, the attackers have an ability to execute remotely any shell-commands. They can literally do anything they want, from downloading and running any programs from the Internet, to deleting all the data from the victims computer, Kaspersky Lab said, adding that this is similar to the SambaCry exploit in Metasploit.

The other file, cblRWuoCc.so, downloads and executes Cpuminer from a domain registered on April 29.

Coincidentally, another set of attackers used EternalBlue to spread a cryptocurrency miner called Adylkuzz for Monero on Windows machines. Monero is marketed as a privacy conscious cryptocurrency, and goes to great lengths to obfuscate its blockchain making it a challenge to trace any activity.

The Adylkuzz attacks pre-date WannaCry with the first samples going back to April 24, researchers at Proofpoint said. More than 20 virtual private servers were scanning the internet for targets running port 445 exposed, the same port used by SMB traffic when connected to the internet, and the same port abused by EternalBlue and DoublePulsar.

Go here to read the rest:
Attackers Mining Cryptocurrency Using Exploits for Samba Vulnerability - Threatpost

Former UBS innovation lead establishes cryptocurrency fund – Finextra

Posted on by

Europe's first diversified Cryptocurrency Fund Crypto Fund AG is launching the Cryptocurrency Fund, which will be based on the Cryptocurrency Index, investing in the most important cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, and other well-established cryptocurrencies.

The Cryptocurrency Index is calculated by a well-known index provider, and invests in the largest virtual currencies by market capitalization and liquidity. This ensures a high level of diversification which leads to a reduced volatility of the fund, while at the same time ensuring the ability to benefit from the emergence and high growth rate of new cryptocurrencies.

Jan Brzezek, CEO of Crypto Fund AG, explains: "We recognized the growing demand of qualified investors for a regulated and transparent gateway to cryptocurrencies and realized that we need a proven and recognized legal framework allowing qualified investors to invest in cryptocurrencies. Unlike the Winkelvoss-ETF, which was rejected by the SEC, we use the regulated and proven Swiss fund structure according to KAG, where the asset manager, the fund management company and the custodian bank are legally separate from each other. The Fund will be highly diversified and will not list on an exchange and exclusively target qualified investors.

The team headed by cryptocurrency expert Mr. Brzezek, who until recently worked for the President of UBS Asset Management and UBS Group EMEA and was also nominated as Group Innovation Expert by UBS, is complemented by experienced other finance professionals and is supported by well-known Swiss entrepreneurs: Dr. Tobias Reichmuth, CEO and Founder of the successful infrastructure fund manager SUSI Partners AG, has joined Crypto Fund AG both as founding investor and Chairman of the Board. Together with Fintech expert and investor Marc P. Bernegger (Board Member) and further soon to be announced senior banking industry professionals, they support the fast growth of Crypto Fund AG.

Mr. Reichmuth says: "Private and institutional investors alike show a keen interest for cryptocurrencies as a deflationary value storage medium independent of central banks. Access via a regulated vehicle, to execution and safe storage were so far missing. The Cryptocurrency Fund will be the first regulated fund globally which provides a safe and easy access to the rapidly growing cryptocurrency world.

The fact that Switzerland was chosen as a fund domicile is not a coincidence. Mr. Bernegger adds: The term "Crypto Valley" has quickly gained acceptance and demonstrates the concentration and growth of Cryptocurrency companies and foundations in the region of Zug and Zurich. It is also important to mention that Switzerland with its good reputation in asset management and stable regulation has already accepted virtual currencies as an asset class. In addition, the Swiss mountains offer safe and tested warehouses for digital assets.

The law firm MME Legal, which is specialized in blockchain and ICOs, advises Crypto Fund AG on legal matters. The launch of the Fund is expected for Q4 2017. Initial discussions with FINMA have already taken place.

Here is the original post:
Former UBS innovation lead establishes cryptocurrency fund - Finextra

Israeli Banks Can Legally Refuse Service to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Companies – newsBTC

Posted on by

Even though the Israeli exchange is fully compliant with all regulations, that does not appear to be sufficient.

Banks around the world have always had an uneasy relationship with Bitcoin companies. Banks do not like Bitcoin and vice versa. A financial institution was never able to legally deny service to a cryptocurrency company before, though. That has now come to change in Israel, thanks to a recent court ruling. It is quite troublesome to know banks are legally allowed to prevent the Bitcoin ecosystem from growing on a global basis.

According to a new Tel Aviv district court ruling, Israeli banks can now refuse services to Bitcoin companies. This ruling is a result due to a dispute between Bits of gold and Bank Leumi. The financial institution dropped the Bitcoin exchange as a client, which did not sit well with Bits of Gold. There does not appear to be a solid reasoning behind this decision either. The Bitcoin exchange complies with all AML and KYC requirements. On paper, this was an unlawful action, which eventually resulted in a court case.

Unfortunately, the Tel Aviv district court ruled the bank is legally allowed to refuse service to Bitcoin companies. Bank Leumi feels their proprietary cybersecurity issues are the reason for denying service to the exchange. More specifically, the bank claims hackers broke into accounts to send funds from the bank to buy bitcoins. Even though Bits of Gold aided in this matter, there was never a link between the hackers and the exchange itself. It seems quite odd to judge the company for something they are not even involved in, to say the least.

Even though the Israeli exchange is fully compliant with all regulations, that does not appear to be sufficient. This is quite problematic, to say the least. Bank Leumi is concerned over how anyone can transfer Bitcoin through the exchange of potentially malicious addresses. This would still grant criminals easy access to cryptocurrency, even if they do not sue the platform themselves. It is a valid concern, albeit one that is blown out of proportion quite a bit.

This is a very interesting precedent for other banks in Israel. The Bitcoin ecosystem has been growing in the country for quite some time now. However, it is very likely no bank will want to work with Bitcoin companies moving forward. It will be interesting to see how the Bitcoin ecosystem evolves in Israel over the coming years. Israeli cryptocurrency companies may find themselves in a bit of a pickle if more banks legally deny them services, though.

Continue reading here:
Israeli Banks Can Legally Refuse Service to Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Companies - newsBTC

The Legal Future of Cryptocurrencies in Brazil – CoinDesk

Posted on by

Jonathan Darcie has a PhD and Masters in General Theory of Law and Tax Law, and is partner of a law firm in Brazilwith ongoing consulting for digital currency businesses.

In this CoinDesk opinion piece, Darcie speaks out about proposed cryptocurrency rulesin Brazil, arguing that attempts to regulate the industry at this stage are premature and misguided.

Living in Brazil over the last four years has been an experience of watching a real and live and even more interesting, some would say version of TV's "House of Cards".

The still in-course criminal investigation called 'Operao Lava Jato'(Operation Car Wash) has become the most comprehensive criminal investigation in the history of Brazil, sending many dozens of politicians, CEOs and executives of the most important Brazilian companies to prison.

At the same time, the country has entered the most intense recession of its history, leading businesses to bankruptcy, millions of people to unemployment and setting up a scenario of economic chaos.

It is within this window of never-seen-before-events (the last one being a wiretap of the actual president of Brazil) that the Brazilian House of Representatives is doing something else unprecedented initiating a debate about regulating bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

When reading the news that a legislative commission will study and regulate cryptocurrencies, one might have the impression that local startups will now have limitless freedom to transact and form businesses.

Unfortunately, that's not even close to the reality of any business in Brazil.

As it happens with nations that have their legal system built under a civil law tradition, every innovation that emerges joins the current status quo to become legally equivalent of other similar technologies.

Back in 2009, if someone living under Brazilian law made his or her first transaction buying and selling bitcoin at a profit, they had to pay (or should have paid) income tax in order of 15% of its capital gains (unless the total amount involved wasless than to R$35,000 ($10,600) in a month, when a tax exemption was applicable).

This means the current situation is the same for cryptocurrencies as it is for guitars, books or any other goods involved in transactions.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were never legal currencies under Brazilian law, though a federal law issued a definition of digital currency by declaring it as a resource stored in a device or electronic system.

As this definition didn't capture the nature of cryptocurrencies in general covering private cryptographic keys instead of 'digital currency' itself their legal status is given by Brazilian Civil Code, which defines them as regular assets. Being a movable asset means that transactions are possible without any kind of restriction except for the duty of paying taxes and declaring its property to Brazilian IRS.

For businesses, the requirements are a bit more complicated.

It's not easy to have a business in Brazil. Anyone wanting to do so needs to hire an accountant and a lawyer to prepare a contract equivalent to the articles of organization in the US. Afterwards, there is the need to obtain a taxpayer ID issued by the federal, state and municipal governments.

Small businesses are obliged to deliver monthly and annual income information for tax purposes (normally to more than one branch), including information about employees. The obligations more than double for larger businesses.

The exact same process is applied to digital currency businesses. It doesn't matter if we are speaking of an exchange, wallet or payment service: there is not much freedom involved.

But differently from most businesses, cryptocurrency-related ventures that deal directly with large sums of money, securities, art, jewelry or other assets are subject to very specific duties regarding anti-money laundering policies and compliance in general.

Theseobligations and duties were enacted in 1998 through a federal law written more than 10 years before the first bitcoin transaction happened.

It is therefore required that digital currency businesses comply withstrict compliance policies and keep logs of transactions made within its field of operation, reporting activities considered suspicious to the federal council that controlsfinancial activities.

Considering the intent of congress to specifically regulate cryptocurrencies, most people at this point might be asking: "What is left to be regulated?"

Congressmen involved in the special commission gave statements covering tax aspects and the relation of digital currencies with criminal activities, though this suggests they don't have a strongfamiliarity with the current legal status of cryptocurrencies.

It's notable then that the timing of the debate follows a recent kidnapping in which criminals asked for theransom to be paid with monero and z-cash. Just a few weeks later, the WannaCry ransomware attack struck international organizations, bringing negative attention tobitcoin.

It may have seemed like an opportunity for Congress to present the public opinion with a (supposedly) good agenda.

First presented in 2015, the discussed bill adds nothing to the digital currency legal environment.

There are three goals in the bill:

So as long as the bill passes in the current form, owners and businesses should be just fine.

Given the tradition of complicating things and the Brazilian actual political crisis, however, 'just fine' might be simply too much to ask for.

Brazilian federal court image via Shutterstock

Here is the original post:
The Legal Future of Cryptocurrencies in Brazil - CoinDesk

Top 5 Ways to Shill a Cryptocurrency – The Merkle

Posted on by

In the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, we have a phenomenon known as shilling. This particular endeavor revolves around tricking as many people as possible into thinking a particular coin or token will be valuable in the future. There are many different ways to go about things, although some methods are far more common compared to others. Below are some of the more common methods people use to shill particular cryptocurrencies.

One of the places where people often used to shill cryptocurrencies was the Trollbox on the Poloniex exchange. Albeit such hangout places are designed to have a nice chat with other users, they often become a tool to promote new cryptocurrencies regardless of whether they have any real value whatsoever. Trollboxes and chatboxes on most cryptocurrency exchanges simply need to be avoided when it comes to any cryptocurrency advice. Shilling is the top priority there, rather than having mature conversations. Thankfully, Poloniex shut down its Trollbox not too long ago.

The BitcoinTalk forums are the go-to place for any discussion related to cryptocurrency. What once started out as a bitcoin-only bastion slowly evolved into a place where multiple cryptocurrencies can be discussed at any given time. Do keep in mind a lot of people hanging out in the altcoin section are merely shilling particular coins, though. There are also quite a few paid advertising campaigns to spread the world about coin X or token Y. Always be careful when looking for specific information on BitcoinTalk.

As we have come to expect these days, a lot of people rely on Reddit for the latest information regarding cryptocurrency. Virtually every token, asset, or coin has its own subreddit these days, which is good. However, a lot of those Reddit posts in those subsections are merely speculation, fake news, and shilling attempts as well. Any information found on Reddit regarding whichever cryptocurrency needs to be taken with a massive grain of salt, to say the least. There is also the risk of seeing a paid Reddit advertisement at the top of a particular subreddit, which is designed to shill a particular coin.

One of the most common ways to shill currencies, tokens, and assets is by using social media. Things are getting a bit out of hand on both Twitter and Facebook these days. A lot of people will tweet something in quick succession to gain some form of social traction. That is not always a successful way of doing things, but it certainly ensures things get noticed on the platform. This is especially true with most ICO tokens and altcoins which bring nothing of value to the table.

Things are virtually the same on Facebook, though. Every group related to Bitcoin or cryptocurrency will ultimately attract shills trying to promote a specific project or service. In most cases, these coins are useless or the service turns into a scam. It is impossible to trust the information one receives from social media, as shilling becomes a second nature pretty quickly.

The most intriguing way to ensure some projects gain traction regardless of their legitimacy is by paying for content on blogs and news sites. We often see scam projects and pointless ICOs issue press releases to sites, who publish them in exchange for a small fee. In some cases, such paid content will show up on PR Newswire, or even get picked up by mainstream media outlets. People need to be especially wary of this type of content, as a lot of shills will gladly pay a small fee to ensure their flavor of the month project gets some attention.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

Continued here:
Top 5 Ways to Shill a Cryptocurrency - The Merkle


« First...102030...1,7961,7971,7981,7991,800...1,8101,8201,830...Last »