Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

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.

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Top 5 Ways to Shill a Cryptocurrency - The Merkle

Linux.MulDrop.14 is a Linux worm that seeks out networked Raspberry Pi systems with default root passwords; after taking them over and ZMap and sshpass, it begins mining an unspecified cryptocurrency, creating riches for the malware's author and handing you the power-bill.

Experts say the initial infection takes place when Raspberry Pi operators leave their devices' SSH ports open to external connections.

Once a Raspberry Pi device is infected, the malware changes the password for the "pi" account to:

$6$U1Nu9qCp$FhPuo8s5PsQlH6lwUdTwFcAUPNzmr0pWCdNJj.p6l4Mzi8S867YLmc7BspmEH95POvxPQ3PzP029yT1L3yi6K1

After this, Linux.MulDrop.14 shuts down several processes and installs libraries required for its operation, including ZMap and sshpass.

The malware then launches its cryptocurrency mining process and uses ZMap to continuously scan the Internet for other devices with an open SSH port.

Once it finds one, the malware uses sshpass to attempt to log in using the username "pi" and the password "raspberry." Only this user/password combo is used, meaning the malware only targets Raspberry Pi single-board computers.

Linux Malware Mines for Cryptocurrency Using Raspberry Pi Devices [Catalin Cimpanu/Bleeping Computer]

(Image: Evan-Amos, PD)

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Linux worm turns Raspberry Pis into cryptocurrency mining bots - Boing Boing

In the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, there are multiple pump-and-dump schemes to be found every week. Mainly smaller coins are often pumped to inflate the price, in the hopes of getting other people to buy in. Unfortunately, there is often a lot of hype associated with any major pump, regardless of whether it is relevant news or not. We have seen quite a few pumps in recent weeks, and the following ones stood out.

One of the many smaller altcoins to integrate Segregated WItness goes by the name of Vertcoin. On paper, there is no real reason to sue this cryptocurrency over others, by any means. However, some people are trying to drive the price up, and one VTC is worth nearly US$1 at the time of writing. That is quite a jump in value, considering VTC was valued at roughly US$0.25 a few weeks ago. Someone is definitely pumping the value.

It has been extremely quiet where CloakCoin was considered for quite some time. A few days ago, the value per coin suddenly started going up, despite there being very little trading volume. One CLOAK is valued at US$3.83 now. There is absolutely no reason to use CloakCoin, other than from a privacy perspective. Then again, there are multiple major cryptocurrencies offering similar and sometimes better- technology to achieve the same goal. It looks like CloakCoin is a clear pump-and-dump, although it is too early to tell what might happen.

It is not hard to see why people think of BitcoinDark as a pump-and-dump scheme. The currency is trying to ride Bitcoins coattails on the way to success. It is one of the many futile attempts to bring more privacy and anonymity to Bitcoin. In fact, it uses its own blockchain, removing any potential ties with Bitcoin in the process. Every BTCD is worth US$65.65 right now, which is massively overvalued, to say the least.

When Primecoin initially launched, a lot of people got excited because it provides a bit of a novel concept. To this very day, there is no reason to actually use Primecoin, other than from a speculative point of view, though. Primecoin has seen its market cap grow to over US$10.7m, despite having no real use cases. Once again, a clear example of someone trying to pump the price and looking to dump on investors getting caught up in the frenzy.

Although a lot of people would rather not see Digibyte on the list, it is impossible to deny the currency is getting pumped hard right now. Many people still believe there is a Minecraft deal, which is not the case. Nor did Digibyte win the Citibank tech challenge, which is somewhat of a shame. In fact, there is no real reason for one Digibyte to be worth what it is today, and the trend is already showing signs of reversing. The Digibyte team is working on some amazing technology, yet they do not hinge on the success of DGB as a currency.

It is a bit difficult to quantify the use cases for Stellar, albeit they are quite similar to Ripple and their XRP asset. It appears Stellar is trying to compete with Ripple in developing technology and a currency for the financial sector. There are some key differences between both projects, as we highlighted before. Over the past few weeks, the value of Stellar Lumens has been pumped to US$0.05. That is rather remarkable, considering a large amount of XLM is distributed free of charge. Stellar has some partnerships with banks, but it is not even close to the same level Ripple is at right now.

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Top 6 Recent Cryptocurrency Pumps The Merkle - The Merkle

In the world of alternative cryptocurrencies, it is very important to keep a diversified portfolio. Not every coin going up in value has a legitimate use case, and there are quite a few pump-and-dump schemes to be wary of. However, some altcoins are getting a lot of positive attention due to the developers putting in a lot of hard work. Below are some coins which have recently achieved major technological breakthroughs, and are now seeing their value rise as a result.

Although a lot of people have seemingly forgotten about BlackCoin, the cryptocurrency is still around. One of the main areas of focus for this project has always been to find ways to improve the proof-of-stake protocol. In a recent update, the BlackCoin developers have unveiled their Blackcoin Lore launch, which is a solution paving the way for smart contract potential.

Moreover, this new milestone will also make BlackCoin the first proof-of-stake digital currency to implement key components from Bitcoin Core 0.12. More importantly, this update paves the way for smart contracts on the BlackCoin blockchain moving forward. It will be interesting to see when this dream will be realized, but it is definitely something to look forward to. Additionally,the update allows BlackCoin to benefit from projects such as Blockstack and Joinmarket.

A lot of people were caught by surprise when the value of Maidsafecoin suddenly started to explode a few days ago. It seems the most recent development update has something to do with the price momentum, even though none of the updates are major. All of this goes to show the Maidsafe concept is inching closer toward finalization, which is good news for anyone looking into using a decentralized internet.

It has to be said, the Stratis value has been a bit of a rollercoaster these past few weeks. With the value surging non-stop for nearly a week, it almost started to look like a pump. However, the value corrected quickly and is now seemingly stable around the US$9 mark. A new wallet update was released not too long ago, and it looks like developers are making good progress on the Breeze Wallet too. Moreover, it has been confirmed one can effectively mine PoS blocks inside the Breeze Wallet, which is a major development.

Siacoin has been of great interest to cryptocurrency users and speculators over the past few weeks. The world of decentralized file storage solutions is getting a lot more interesting, to say the least. A lot of users are experimenting with these solutions as a way to earn Siacoin for sharing excess hard disk space with people looking for storage solutions. Sia is one of the projects getting very close to providing actual decentralized file storage solutions to the masses. It is only natural the price of this native token goes up as well.

Although a lot of people would rather not think of Ethereum as an alternative cryptocurrency, it still fits into this category. That being said, the recent value increase of Ether has been nothing short of amazing. The value per ETH surpassed US$365 and seems to maintain that value with relative ease. However, there is still a question of how much of this price point is due to speculation, rather than actual value. For a cryptocurrency ecosystem with no supply cap, some people feel Ether is incredibly overvalued. Then again, the token is necessary for people looking to buy into most cryptocurrency ICOs.

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Top 5 Alternative Cryptocurrencies on the Rise - The Merkle

Cryptocurrency mining malware has come a very long way over the past few years. Whereas Bitcoin used to be the center of attention in the beginning, this type of mining malware has expanded to include Dogecoin, Monero, Ethereum, and ZCash as well. However, the latest iteration of mining malware uses Raspberry Pi devices to mine coins. Not the most efficient approach, but it is still an interesting development.

A lot of people have shown great interest in the Raspberry Pi devices. These pocket-sized computers are quite powerful and very affordable. Although they will not replace traditional desktops or laptops anytime soon, they make for appealing home theater devices, among other things. Every Raspberry Pi usually runs some form of the Linux operating system, although there is a slimmed down Windows 10 IoT version in the works as well.

Up until now, the Linux operating system has been relatively safe when it comes to malware. Criminals often only develop nefarious tools to harm Windows computers, with a few exceptions going after Apple users as well. This new variant of cryptocurrency mining malware is a Linux Trojan, which goes by the lackluster name of Linux.MuLDrop.14. It is also purposefully designed to attack Raspberry Pi devices and use the machines resources to mine cryptocurrencies.

As most people are well aware of, the Raspberry Pi is not the most powerful device by any means. It doesnt have a powerful CPU or integrated graphics chip by any means. In fact, the device is entirely unsuited to mine cryptocurrency whatsoever. However, if you control a few thousand of these devices without having to pay for their electricity, things can start to look a lot better from now on.

It appears this new cryptocurrency mining malware has been around since May of 2017. It appears the Raspberry Pi devices are infected through the SSH protocol, assuming the device owner leaves this port open to external connections. That is the case more often than not, though, as a lot of people connect to their Pi over SSH. If the mining malware is installed successfully, it also changes the password of the standard account to a long string of characters.

It is quite interesting to see developers go out of their way to only target these smaller devices, though. Cryptocurrency mining on a cluster of Raspberry Pis will still not generate much income by any means. It is unclear which cryptocurrencies are mined exactly using this malware, though. It would take millions of enslaved devices to make even a dollar per day, which makes this entire effort not exactly worthwhile by any means.

The bigger problem is how this could signal an era of Linux-oriented malware. Considering many people feel Linux is the safest operating system, it is certainly possible criminals will try to prove them wrong. In the case of this mining malware, however, it appears victims can get rid of the malware by flashing the operating system again. There is no ransom demand to regain control over the device whatsoever. Still, it is quite a troublesome development, to say the least.

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New Cryptocurrency Mining Malware Targets Raspberry Pi Devices - The Merkle

Ethereum's Big Switch: The New Roadmap to Proof-of-Stake

May 5, 2017 at 13:00 | Alyssa Hertig

Ethereum's developers are offering more clarity on how the network is preparing for its biggest change yet.

May 5, 2017 at 10:00 | Corin Faife

A new project is seeking to combine ethereum's smart contract capabilities with the privacy afforded to the zcash blockchain.

May 2, 2017 at 22:55 | Charles Bovaird

Five things you should know about ether, a cryptocurrency that surged in value during the first quarter of 2017.

Apr 28, 2017 at 13:35 | Michael del Castillo

Differences between EEA members at a public debate reveal how the group is growing and progressing.

Apr 27, 2017 at 14:20 | Stan Higgins

The price of ether, ethereum's native token, has hit a new all-time high, exceeding $60 for the first time ever.

Apr 26, 2017 at 21:20 | Stan Higgins

A former software engineer for digital currency startup Coinbase has launched a new search engine for ethereum.

Apr 25, 2017 at 15:07 | Charles Bovaird

Ether classic's price reached an all-time high this week, amid robust transaction volume. We ask the experts why...

Apr 25, 2017 at 00:55 | Alyssa Hertig

Ethereum prediction market project Gnosis sparked broad debate today following an initial coin offering that didn't exactly go as planned.

Apr 24, 2017 at 14:00 | Michael del Castillo

The UN is preparing to kick off an epic ethereum pilot, but the future could also include actually accepting cryptocurrencies.

Apr 23, 2017 at 11:26 | Alyssa Hertig

A look at what's still to do for ethereum developers working on the Metropolis upgrade the platform's third of four planned stages.

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Cryptocurrency 2.0 and Smart Contracts News - CoinDesk

Dr. Chan currently offers the online course Mean Reversion Strategies to a select number of traders and portfolio managers. This is an online workshop conducted in real-time through Adobe Connect. This workshop focuses on the theories and practical implementation of mean reversion strategies. (Free MATLAB trial licenses and pre-recorded MATLAB programming tutorials are included.) The math requirement assumed is basic college-level statistics.

Course outline can be downloaded here.

___________

We are offering the pre-recorded online course Cryptocurrency Trading with Python. This course was conducted by Nick Kirk, an expert in algorithmic crypto trading and a quantitative developer, and was moderated by Dr. Ernest Chan.Participants will receive Python source code and data for backtesting. Gemini Exchanges Sandbox environment will be used, which offers full exchange functionality using test funds, for testing API connectivity and the execution of strategies.

Course outline can be downloaded here.

About Nick Kirk

Nick is an active algorithmic crypto trader and quantitative developer. He has more than 10 years worth of experience in developing, automating and integrating trading systems for Investment Banks and Asset Management firms. Prior to working in Finance, he worked at IBM Labs and Siemens Research. He has previously taught algorithmic crypto trading at the CQF Institute to wide acclaim.

Praise for this workshop

Excellent class. Particularly liked the technical aspects of building a trading system in python.

-Anonymous participant review

Nick is a very passionate advocate of cryptocurrencies. I was very pleased to have attended one of his cryptocurrency trading workshops in the past. His blunt enthusiasm along with his in-depth knowledge on the field result in a very positive and value added experience on cryptocurrency trading with actual hands-on implementation. In combination with Ernie Chan, the guru of algo trading, the mix is going to be explosive! Cant wait!

Konstantinos Moutsioulis Portfolio Analyst, Dutch Development Bank, The Hague Area

I have been very impressed with Ernies past workshops and have enjoyed discussing cryptocurrency trading ideas with Nick on many occasions. I look forward to their unique partnership in the upcoming Bitcoin workshop.

Stephen Hope Former Head of Fixed Income Quantitative Trading Strategies, BNP Paribas ___________

The pre-recorded online course Backtestingis nowavailable. This consists of recorded Adobe Connect sessions. Thefocus is on discovering and avoiding various pitfalls during the backtesting process that may degrade performance forecasting. Illustrative exercises are drawn from a futures strategy and a stock portfolio trading strategy using MATLAB.Free MATLAB trial licenses will be arranged for extensive in-class exercises. No prior knowledge of MATLAB is needed, but some experience with programming is necessary. The math requirement is basic college-level statistics.

Course outline can be downloadedhere.

___________

Ernie also offers in-person workshops in London, September 11-15, 2017.These workshops may qualify for CFA Institute continuing education credits.

___________

Praise for ourworkshops:

An excellent course by a great teacher. Ernie clearly explained and applied the different areas of Artificial Intelligence, provided invaluable insights as to their relative merits, and gave me the confidence to implement them in my own trading. Dr Nikhil Shenai (Ph.D., Imperial College, BA, Cambridge University), Founder of E K Technologies (Quantitative Trading & Development)

thank you again for the Momentum Strategies training course this week. It was very beneficial. I found your explanations of the concepts very clear and the examples well developed. I like the rigorous approach that you take to strategy evaluation. Andrew B.

Ernies workshop offers particularly helpful insights in implementing profitable trading strategies and thats beyond hisbooks content. And he is one of the most patient and giving instructors I ever metK.W. Fung, CQF, Founder of Quants Investment

These workshops have provided me with enough familiarity and confidence to tackle the latest research. Justthe segment on intermarket sweep orders in the MFT course was worth the price of admission to all three workshops I went to. Cedric Yau

Dr. Chan is a phenomenal instructorAnonymous student evaluation

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Mining references generally evoke images of picks and shovels.

For advocates of bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies surging in value, the gold may be in the shares of the companies that produce the computer processors and chips used to create the digital currencies in the process thats become known as mining.

Digital coins can only be created by using computers to solve complex mathematical problems. The difficulty increases as more of the problems get solved, prompting the miners to require even more powerful hardware.With digital coin prices soaring, demand for the components is surging as miners are able to recoup their initial investment quicker.

A complete mining rig, which is made up of graphics cards, a processor, power supply, memory, cabling and a fan, costs between $2,400 to $3,800 on Amazon.com. The Antminer S9, which is estimated to mine 0.29 bitcoin per month, and retails for $2,795, which means you can break even in about four months with bitcoin at $2,700, without taking into account electricity costs. Miners typically buy complete rigs or build them themselves.

The following are some of the companies that make the parts.

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The Santa Clara, California-based company manufactures graphic processing units used by gamers and increasingly, by digital-currency miners. GPUs listed in Nvidias website can cost as much as $1,200. The rig-mining market can grow to about $1.3 billion, and with GPUs making up approximately 2/3 of coin mining costs, the demand for GPUs can increase to $875 million, according to a RBC Capital Markets report on June 6. If Nvidia gets half of that, it represents a 10 percent increase on its GPU sales, RBC analyst Mitch Steves said in an interview. The company currently has about 75 percent of the GPU market, according to a Jon Peddie Research report.

The complexity of mining bitcoin has increased to the point that GPUs arent powerful enough, and miners are mostly using application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, which Nvidia and competitor Advanced Micro Devices dont make. Tech news website Digitimes reported Nvidia and AMD are planning to release GPUs specifically designed to mine bitcoin.

Shares of Nvidia have climbed 45 percent this year, and have more then tripled in the past year.

AMD, as the company is known, also makes graphics cards used for mining ethereum and other coins. The Sunyvale, California-based companys shares have rallied the most in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index in the past week, in part thanks to a PCWorld article that said its almost impossible to get AMDs Radeon graphics cards after a surge in demand from ethereum miners.

The company also builds the processors typically used to build mining rigs, and itsChief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster said at a Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference its product compete with bigger rival Intel Corp.

The shares are up 27 percent in the past month, and have almost tripled over 12 months.

Digital currency mining has the potential to boost demand for Intels processors, said Kevin Cassidy, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. While AMD CPUs are popular among miners, Intel is the traditional leader in the sector and is taking steps to counter its fledgling rival.

The companys shares have lagged rivals, with a gain of 17 percent in the past year.

Boise, Idaho-based Micron is the largest U.S. maker of memory chips, one of the components of a mining rig, so it also stands to benefit, Cassidy said.

Micron shares have surged almost 50 percent this year, and have more then doubled in the past 12 months.

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These Companies Stand to Gain the Most From the Cryptocurrency Rush - Bloomberg

It is always nice to see projects attempting to better the world they live in. This is especially nice because of the low adoption rate of cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technologies on a global scale. A recent CryptoCoinNews interview went over the lack of Blockchain adoption in Africa, while pointing out the massive opportunities that reside on the continent because of that fact. One new project, Bolenum, is looking to start off there.

Though Bolenum has sights on an intercontinental project, the majority of their initial efforts appear to be in Africa. Their Whitepaper outlines the two main issues they feel have caused cryptocurrencies to see lower scale adoption than other parts of the world.

The first obstacle is one known all too well by all cryptocurrencies: lack of public awareness. Many just do not know about cryptocurrency, the Blockchain, or what it can provide. This could be because of a lack of cryptocurrency and blockchain evangelists, but also can be blamed on the lack of readily translated literature into local dialects.

The second problem is one that many in the western world have not really had to deal with: convertibility of funds. While every exchange takes Euros, United States Dollars, and Chinese Yuan, it is way less likely that these exchanges will take the Egyptian Pound, the Nigerian Naira, or the Moroccan Dirham. Without access to fiat exchanges to convert to more readily accepted currencies for crypto, individuals may be out of luck.

They hope to provide solution to these issues at the first ethereum based token and exchange platform that aims to engender more participation in the cryptocurrency on the African continent.

The projects token, BLN, aims to serve as a secure payment method, and also be able to protect wealth. These are Ether based tokens so they benefit from the speed and security of the Ethereum Blockchain.

The main perk that may help the project accomplish its goal is the fact that they will also be opening an exchange that will allow for BLN tokens to be traded for local currencies. This means that someone will be able to not only withdraw the value of their tokens into local currencies, but could give better access to the cryptosphere as a whole. If someone buys BLN with a local currency, they should in theory be able to trade those BLNs on a different exchange for any other digital asset they were interested in. It not only is an asset by itself, but a gateway asset to others previously denied by fiat binding.

They will be holding an ICO for this project starting July 15, and it will span for 30 days. 10,000,000 BLN tokens will be made, with 50% of those being open to the public in an ICO with the other 50% behind held by the Bolenum team as capital to support their future exchange.

Disclaimer: This is a paid press release, the product / service mentioned is not endorsed by The Merkle, always do your own independent research. This is not investment or trading advice.

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Bolenum's Project to Widen Cryptocurrency Adoption - The Merkle

Older Raspberry Pi devices, such as this Raspberry Pi 2, may be more vulnerable to the malware if they haven't been updated in a while.

Someone has developed a simple Linux trojan designed to harness the meager power of Raspberry Pi devices to mine cryptocurrency.

Raspberry Pi users may need to consider applying a recent Raspbian OS update to their devices, particularly if they are currently configured to allow external SSH connections.

According to Russian security firm Dr Web, the malware Linux.MulDrop.14 exclusively targets Raspberry Pi devices to use their processing power to mine a cryptocurrency.

Dr Web discovered the Raspberry Pi mining malware after its Linux honeypot machine became infected with it. The malware uses a simple Bash script to attempt to connect to Raspberry Pi devices configured to accept external SSH connections. It targets Raspberry Pi boards with the default login and password, which are 'pi' and 'raspberry', respectively.

It then changes 'pi' to '$6$U1Nu9qCp$FhPuo8s5PsQlH6lwUdTwFcAUPNzmr0pWCdNJj.p6l4Mzi8S867YLmc7BspmEH95POvxPQ3PzP029yT1L3yi6K1'.

From there it installs the internet-scanning tool ZMap and the sshpass utility, and searches the network for other devices with an open port 22 to infect them.

Older Raspberry Pi devices may be more vulnerable to this malware if they haven't been updated in a while. The Raspberry Pi Foundation told ZDNet sister site TechRepublic that a Raspbian OS update released late last year turned off SSH by default and forced users to change the default password.

However, it warned that there could still be millions of Raspberry Pi boards that haven't been updated. Some 12.5 million of the single-board computers have been sold over the past five years, according to the official Raspberry Pi Magazine.

The malware doesn't try to mine for Bitcoin, whose 'difficulty level' is too high to mine cost-effectively, even for a massive network of PCs let alone Raspberry Pi devices.

However, there are numerous other cryptocurrencies that can be mined with less computational power. In 2014, malware writers experimented with Android malware to mine Dogecoins and Litecoins. Dr Web's virus analysts said the Raspberry Pi malware mines Monero, a lesser-known, but increasingly popular cryptocurrency for dark-web drug markets.

Researchers in May discovered that a network of several hundred thousand PCs infected with the Adylkuzz mining malware, which used the same Windows exploit behind the WannaCry ransomware epidemic, had been toiling away on Monero blocks. At the time, Adylkuzz had generated about $43,000 over several months of mining activity.

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Linux malware enslaves Raspberry Pi to mine cryptocurrency - ZDNet