March 24, 2023

Governor of Hawaii: Attorney General Warns Of Fake FBI Bitcoin Phone Scam Involving “Spoofed” Department Of The Attorney General Phone Number

Governor of Hawaii: Attorney General Warns Of Fake FBI Bitcoin Phone Scam Involving “Spoofed” Department Of The Attorney General Phone Number. “Scammers are calling Hawaiʻi residents pretending to be Federal Bureau of Investigations (‘FBI’) agents. The callers are lying and telling potential victims that they owe unpaid fines and are going to be arrested unless they immediately make a payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency, or using other methods.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
January 16, 2023

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: LockBit Gang Using Musk’s Internet Services, Laundering BitCoin in Hong Kong, China

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project: LockBit Gang Using Musk’s Internet Services, Laundering BitCoin in Hong Kong, China. “A security strategist who spent months undercover on the darkweb published a report on Monday that offers insight into one of the world’s most notorious ransomware groups, claiming its members are using internet services owned by billionaire Elon Musk and laundering money through Hong Kong and China.”

Security & Legal Issues 0
November 22, 2022

Swiss bankers warn: Three quarters of retail Bitcoin investors are in the red (The Register)

The Register: Swiss bankers warn: Three quarters of retail Bitcoin investors are in the red. “Somewhere between 73 and 81 percent of retail Bitcoin buyers are likely to be into the negative on their investment, according to research published Monday by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). In other words: the Bitcoin they bought is now worth less. Bitcoin is down 73 percent in the past year, and up 155 percent in the past five years. Losses are only realized upon sale.”

Research & Opinion 0
November 20, 2022

Deutsche Welle: El Salvador takes risks for Chinese investments

Deutsche Welle: El Salvador takes risks for Chinese investments. “This week, FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world, announced it had filed for bankruptcy. The news caused a sharp drop in the price of bitcoin over the past days — and caused all eyes to turn to El Salvador. The president of the Central American nation, Nayib Bukele, made bitcoin legal tender in 2021 and also invested a large part of the country’s fiscal reserves in it.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
November 18, 2022

Crypto trading and Bitcoin prices: evidence from a new database of retail adoption (Bank for International Settlements)

Bank for International Settlements: Crypto trading and Bitcoin prices: evidence from a new database of retail adoption. “We study the drivers of crypto trading app adoption using a novel database on the daily use of crypto exchange apps for 95 countries over 2015–22. We make this database available as a resource for researchers, policymakers and practitioners. We answer the following questions: do more people join crypto markets when the price of Bitcoin rises? If so, who are these new users? And what country characteristics matter more for crypto adoption?”

New Resources 0
September 16, 2022

The Conversation: One year on, El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has proven a spectacular failure

The Conversation: One year on, El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment has proven a spectacular failure. “When [Nayib] Bukele announced his plans in July 2021, Bitcoin’s value was about US$35,000. By the time the legislation came into effect, on September 7 2021, it was about US$45,000. Two months later, it peaked at US$64,400. Now it is trading at around US$20,000.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
August 27, 2022

Rolling Stone: Will This Be the First Country Bankrupted by Crypto?

Rolling Stone: Will This Be the First Country Bankrupted by Crypto?. “Today, despite efforts to mitigate financial disaster — including bitcoin-backed ‘volcano bonds,’ and a plan for a tax-free crypto mining hub called ‘Bitcoin City’ — the value of bitcoin has plummeted, and the country is on the brink of defaulting on its debt. The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly warned El Salvador to drop bitcoin if it wants to save its economy.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
July 6, 2022

New York Times: A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency. The Bet Isn’t Paying Off.

New York Times: A Poor Country Made Bitcoin a National Currency. The Bet Isn’t Paying Off.. “… nearly a year after the country’s president, Nayib Bukele, shocked the financial world by making its most popular digital coin a national currency, his bet appears to be backfiring, highlighting the gap between the utopian promises of cryptocurrency’s proponents and economic realities. The government’s bitcoin holdings have lost about 60 percent of their presumed value during the recent market plunge.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
April 16, 2022

Ars Technica: Wikipedia community votes to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations [Updated]

Ars Technica: Wikipedia community votes to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations [Updated]. “More than 200 long-time Wikipedia editors have requested that the Wikimedia Foundation stop accepting cryptocurrency donations. The foundation received crypto donations worth about $130,000 in the most recent fiscal year—less than 0.1 percent of the foundation’s revenue, which topped $150 million last year. Debate on the proposal has raged over the last three months.”

Tweaks & Updates 0
April 14, 2022

Instagram beyond pics: Sexual harassers, crypto crooks, ID thieves (Bleeping Computer)

Bleeping Computer: Instagram beyond pics: Sexual harassers, crypto crooks, ID thieves. “A platform for everyone to seamlessly share their best moments online, Instagram is slowly turning into a mecca for the undesirables—from sexual harassers to crypto ‘investors’ helping you ‘get rich fast.’ The Gram today has a dark side that goes beyond fancy filters and reels. The network is being actively abused by shady marketers to promote obscene content or by Bitcoin investors with dubious whereabouts.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

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