Security experts have issued an alert over a new social engineering campaign using Zoom’s remote control features to take over victim devices.

In a report from Trail of Bits, researchers attributed the campaign to a cyber criminal group known as ‘Elusive Comet’, which attempted to target the company’s CEO on social media.

The campaign in question centers around abusing the video conferencing software’s remote control feature, which allows participants to take control of another users’ computer.

In a blog post detailing the CEO’s exchange with the group, the firm said the attack started with an invitation to appear on ‘Bloomberg Crypto’ as part of an interview.

These invitations were sent via social media or email, using phony email addresses mimicking official Bloomberg accounts belonging to journalists. Notably, invitations were sent via Calendly links, the company said, which are intended to lure the victim under the guise of authenticity.

“Two separate Twitter accounts approached our CEO with invitations to participate in a “Bloomberg Crypto” series—a scenario that immediately raised red flags,” the firm said in a blog post.

“The attackers refused to communicate via email and directed scheduling through Calendly pages that clearly weren’t official Bloomberg properties. These operational anomalies, rather than technical indicators, revealed the attack for what it was.”

Trail of Bits identified a number of accounts linked to the campaign and warned organizations to update monitoring systems to include these new indicators.

These included:

• X: @KOanhHa
• X: @EditorStacy
• Email: bloombergconferences[@]gmail.com
• Zoom URL: https://us06web[.]zoom[.]us/j/84525670750
• Calendly URL: calendly[.]com/bloombergseries
• Calendly URL: calendly[.]com/cryptobloomberg

Zoom attack relies on user trust

Trail of Bits warned that with the campaign relying on a feature in a legitimate service, it could pose a serious risk to unwitting users.

Upon entering a call with the threat actors, they change display names to ‘Zoom’ to make the request “appear as a system notification”. If granted access, the attacker can assume control of the victim’s device to install malware, exfiltrate data, or steal cryptocurrency.

“What makes this attack particularly dangerous is the permission dialog’s similarity to other harmless Zoom notifications,” the firm said. “Users habituated to clicking “Approve” on Zoom prompts may grant complete control of their computer without realizing the implications.”

Max Gannon, Intelligence Manager at Cofense, echoed Trail of Bits’ comments on the campaign, noting that the use of legitimate software by cyber criminals has become a serious problem for enterprises.

“The malicious use of legitimate software is a growing trend we've continued to see in 2025,” he said.

“In this case, threat actors are leveraging legitimate Zoom and Calendly links to bypass security controls. As trusted domains, their use in this attack makes it more difficult to detect and block."

Analysis from Mimecast earlier this year highlighted the growing threat posed by cyber criminals using legitimate services in attack chains. In its most recent threat intelligence report, the firm flagged more than 5 billion threats in the second half of 2024 alone, with ‘living off trusted services’ (LOTS) attacks a key cause for concern.

Also known as malware-free attacks, this approach is useful in helping cyber criminals circumvent authentication practices at target organizations, the study noted.

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From electrical grids to the global positioning system, it’s easy to forget the dizzying array of complex systems that make the modern world function – at least, right up until the point when something stops working.

This is something that Russia learned the hard way in early March when, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, the US and Europe quickly agreed to cut it off from one of these critical systems: the Swift network that banks use to send money across borders.

In just a few keystrokes, it became significantly more difficult for money to transfer in and out of Russia, with the aim being it’d contribute to an economic collapse that might force Vladimir Putin to halt the aggression.

But what exactly is Swift, and what is the technology behind the global banking system?

Swift is essentially WhatsApp for Banks

The most important thing to know about Swift is that, surprisingly, it isn’t actually the system that transfers money at all. The name actually stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, and it’s essentially a messaging platform used by banks to communicate transaction details across borders.

First established in 1973, the system today is used by more than 11,000 institutions including central banks, high street banks and countless financial services firms in more than 200 countries. According to Swift itself, more than 31 million “FIN” – financial messages – are sent every day, adding up to over 8.4 billion every year. According to the Financial Times, this accounts for about half of the world’s “high value” transactions.

From a technical perspective, shifting this sort of big data around is relatively trivial. Originally, Swift was a manual system that used Telex machines, but since the mid-2000s, the network has used the same IP-based networking as the rest of the internet, and the average message is scarcely longer than a tweet. For context, Twitter handles around 16 times as many messages – around 500 million – every day.

The contents of Swift messages is arguably more important than your tweet about what you had for breakfast, however.

How does Swift work?

The most common way money is transacted within a single currency is by using a separate real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system that transfers money between banks. These RTGS systems don’t send details on individual transactions, though, and transactions are typically aggregated together to send money in bulk. So, without Swift, the banks wouldn’t know what the money being received is actually for.

“The bank at the other end will use the instructions that have been sent by your bank, when it gets the money, to decide where to put it,” says Frances Coppola, a finance and economics writer and former banker. “The RTGS system is completely blind as to the origin of these payments, or who they're going to, they're just making a payment from one bank to another bank, that's all they do.”

The Swift messaging system is flexible too. Messages are sent as structured data and are carefully categorised by the type of transaction and type of message. “There are XML (hierarchical) standards which makes them a little complicated to the human eye, but this simplifies [automatic] processing, and the relationship of message items is clearly identified for subsequent processing,” says professor Alistair Milne, a financial economics specialist at Loughborough University.

Although, not all Swift messages are incomprehensible. “If anything goes wrong there's a message format that you can use in Swift to say, 'Oh, I can't send this because...',” says Coppola, highlighting that Swift is flexible enough to handle both free-form messages and structured error messages. “It's a very comprehensive set of messages that you can send with Swift, which covers all eventualities in payments.”

There is an obvious question to ask with all of this complexity: why isn’t sending money around the world easier? We live in a world in which live streaming is surging and where we can send 4K video at the blink of an eye. So why are the banks still using multiple complex systems to settle payments? Also, why do some banking systems only work at certain times of day?

“Replacing legacy [tech] is expensive,” says Milne, “but APIs and middleware can provide some solutions and have gone quite a long way. The messaging really is pretty much instant. The majority (95%) of international bank-to-bank payments reach the intended recipient within 24 hours.”

We’re still some way away from sending money around the world being as easy as sending a tweet, though. “Technology is no longer the constraint,” says Milne. “The real issue is the underlying business model.”

Cutting off Russia

“It’s certainly not up to banking staff to simply know not to send money to Russia,” says Milne. “Most payments are fully automated. There must be flags that lead to either messages being blocked or to manual intervention… before the message is processed.”

“A key will be the [Bank Identification] codes of the excluded Russian banks which can be used to generate a warning within the Swift systems.”

Though losing access to Swift makes it harder to send money to Russia, it doesn’t make it impossible. “Swift exclusion makes fully automated payment transmission to excluded banks difficult or impossible,” says Milne. “But if a stage of manual intervention is to be allowed, and if the different parties want to make it happen, then it's not so difficult to get around.”

He gives the example of how a British bank could conceivably use a bank in a country such as Kazakhstan as an intermediary – sending it a payment using Swift. Then the bank would communicate another way, such as through a phone call or even a WhatsApp message, to instruct the Kazakh bank to send the cash using Russia’s home-made Swift alternative called SPFS. This formats messages using the same structured data standard as Swift.

“If the parties to this chain are willing to play this game, and can conduct the relevant supporting transactions, then the payments get into Russia,” says Milne. “The bottom line is that Swift exclusion is pretty good at preventing the smaller payments of $10,000 or less, but for $100,000 or more there are plenty of workarounds.”

Can cryptocurrency serve as a workaround?

The idea behind economic sanctions is that they make it legally – possibly even logistically – impossible to trade with the sanctioned country. And for most of the 20th century they have prevented trade with places such as Cuba, or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In 2022, there could be another force that makes sanctions harder to enforce: crypto.

“There's been a bit of chatter about using Bitcoin to get round the sanctions… and it could,” says Coppola. “Russia's imposing soft capital controls, but people being what they are, they're going to find ways around them. And we've seen crypto used before for capital flight in places like Venezuela.”

Because cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin don’t use the traditional financial system, or require governments or banks to function, it makes it much more difficult for authorities to control how money is used.

This isn’t just science fiction. In early February, a report published by the United Nations argued that North Korea had funded its nuclear missile programme to the tune of $2 billion by using cryptocurrency stolen in cyber attacks around the world. Similarly, early this year the central bank of Iran officially launched a programme to help businesses in the country make payments in crypto that evade sanctions.

Could Russia, now isolated in large part from the global economy, turn to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin too? “The first problem with Bitcoin is it's incredibly volatile,” says Coppola. “The second is it's actually incredibly slow, and then you have the problem of on-off ramps.”

By this, Coppola means the problem of still requiring crypto exchanges to convert Bitcoin into US dollars and other useful currencies – many exchanges don’t have many dollars on hand. She does envisage a way that Russia might get around this, though, by using so-called “stablecoins”, which function and act like crypto, but are algorithmically linked in value to traditional currencies such as the dollar. The UK, for example, announced it would introduce stablecoins, in April 2022.

“That will ensure the exchange rates, and it's actually a whole lot easier to use something that kind of looks like a dollar and behaves like a dollar,” she says. “And you can exchange it for actual dollars at some point at your leisure, rather than having to immediately get it out in case the whole thing crashes. So I think stablecoins are quite a considerable risk for the sanctions.”

Of course, it isn’t only Russia that knows this – the US and Europe do too. Which is why one consequence of the Ukraine invasion could turn out to be western governments further tightening the screws on crypto exchanges.

“I imagine that the US government will want to take steps to ensure that crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers can't be used to evade sanctions,” says Coppola. “I'm expecting to see more regulation of crypto as a result of this.”

Cloud-based cryptomining has evolved into a vibrant form of cyber crime, and a variety of attack groups are fighting each other for access to cloud accounts.

Cryptomining groups hack victims' cloud computing accounts, using their computing power to mine cryptocurrency, explained Trend Micro in its latest report. The research, called 'A Floating Battleground: Navigating the Landscape of Cloud-Based Cryptocurrency Mining', warned that victims stand to lose more than the cost of higher cloud computing bills.

Cryptomining attacks either use cloud GPU resources, which offer better mining performance, or compromise CPUs at scale, the report said. The latter requires compromising as many instances in a cloud account as they can to mine as much digital currency as possible.

Trend Micro ran XMRig, which mines the Monero cryptocurrency, on its own cloud instance and saw CPU usage jump from 13% to 100%. That would increase electricity costs from $20 to $130 per month, and running that on multiple instances would spike cloud bills considerably.

While some attack groups use cryptomining as their main source of income, others focus on selling on access to cloud accounts and only mine while they're waiting for a buyer. Groups will often fight each other for cloud resources, using kill scripts to wipe out each others' malware.

The report details several active cryptomining groups. The most active as of August 2021 was called 8220. Trend Micro detected a peak of 2,000 beacons to its servers in July last year, dropping to just over 1,000 the next month.

8220 had taken the top spot from Kinseng, another group which had dropped to around 500 beacons per month in August from 2,000 in January. These two groups often fight each other, ejecting each others' malware from target servers.

Other groups include Outlaw, which consistently targets IoT devices and Linux servers, using brute-force SSH attacks. A rival, TeamTNT, has evolved its tactica quickly by exploiting software services, stealing AWS credentials and deploying root kits. This gang now appears inactive.

A cryptomining attack is a sign of poor cyber security that could render the victim open to more attacks, warned Trend Micro. Most attacks exploit outdated software. Cloud users should ensure that their systems are up to date and only running required services, it said.

The report also identified API security as an issue, warning cloud customers not to expose APIs from products such as Docker and Kubernetes to the Internet. Keep them accessible to admins only, it added.

Other mitigating measures includes setting thresholds for metrics like CPU activity and allow lists for external connections.

Large cloud providers have acknowledged the cryptomining problem. Last month, Google added cryptomining protection to its cloud services after widespread infections.

Five US democrats have proposed a bill that would develop an electronic version of the US dollar for use by the public.

The bill, the Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware (ECASH) Act, would promote greater financial inclusion, maximise consumer protection and data privacy, and advance US efforts to develop and regulate digital assets, said US representative Stephen Lynch, chairman of the task force on Financial Technology.

US representatives Jesús García, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Alma Adams are the other cosponsors of the bill, and are also part of the Committee on Financial Services.

The ECASH Act would establish a two-stage pilot programme led by the Treasury to develop and issue an electronic version of the US dollar that promotes consumer safety and privacy, financial inclusion and equity, and anti-money laundering and counterterrorism compliance.

The bill also requires the Treasury to incorporate key security and functionality safeguards into e-cash that are generally associated with the use of physical currency, including anonymity, privacy, and minimal generation of data from transactions.

It must also be interoperable with existing financial institution and payment provider systems, capable of executing peer-to-peer offline transactions, and distributed directly to the public via secured hardware devices. E-cash would also be regulated similar to physical currency and subject to existing anti-money laundering, counterterrorism, and transaction reporting requirements and regulation.

“As digital payment and currency technologies continue to rapidly expand and with Russia, China, and over 90 countries worldwide already researching and launching some form of Central Bank Digital Currency, it is absolutely critical for the U.S. to remain a world leader in the development and regulation of digital currency and other digital assets,” said Rep. Lynch.

“By establishing a pilot programme within the Treasury for the development of an electronic U.S. Dollar, the ECASH Act will greatly complement and advance ongoing efforts undertaken by the Federal Reserve and President Biden to examine potential design and deployment options for a digital dollar."

Lynch added that the pilot programme will also preserve a role in the US's financial system for smaller anonymous cash-like transactions which are currently transacted in physical dollars and which have seen a rapid decline in use.

"As of this writing in fact, no less than 81 identifiable central banks have launched, piloted or are performing CBDC research, with many more in stealth mode," Jens Seidl, CEO of Currency Research told IT Pro. "It was expected that the US would not shy away from this either, however, we cannot comment on the likelihood of the legislation passing. We do believe it is clear that the Federal Reserve and the payments industry at large will form a view on the potential benefits and risks of a digital dollar. We also don’t expect that such an instrument would replace physical cash in the near future, as there are still important questions to resolve, such as accessibility, resilience and privacy."

The ECASH Act has been designed to be in line with guidance and directives from the US government, including president Biden’s executive order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets announced earlier in March. The administration placed the highest urgency on research and development efforts into digital dollar design, including assessments of financial inclusion, possible benefits and risk for consumers, existing payment systems, and national security.

Similarly, the Federal Reserve released a whitepaper in January, warning that the introduction of new centralised digital currencies in other countries could lead to a decrease in the use of the US dollar if they are deemed more attractive.

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase was downed by its own Super Bowl advert on Sunday after a huge influx of users flocked to the site after it used a QR code to direct onlookers to its free Bitcoin promotion.

Mimicking the classic DVD standby screen in which a logo bounced around a screen, Coinbase's own riff on the idea saw a code bounce around for 60 seconds and directed users to its site where it is currently offering $15 in Bitcoin to all newly registered accounts, with the offer expiring on 15 February.

However, a large number of individuals scanning the code led to a volume of traffic too heavy for the platform to handle, ultimately forcing its app offline.

"Coinbase just saw more traffic than we've ever encountered, but our teams pulled together and only had to throttle traffic for a few minutes," said Surojit Chatterjee, chief product officer at Coinbase via Twitter.

"We had over 20 million hits on our landing page in one minute," he added. "That was historic and unprecedented. We also saw engagement that was six times higher than our previous benchmarks."

While considered a success at Coinbase, the incident sparked online discussions in the cyber security community around the implications involved with using QR codes.

There are fears around the technology regarding the hidden nature of the web service they conceal. Some experts believe they should not be trusted fully due to the potential for hijacking by cyber criminals.

"QR code technology is safe in itself, but as reliance on it grows, cyber criminals are taking note," said Anna Chung, principal researcher, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 to IT Pro. "These codes could offer an entryway to potential cyber attacks because they don’t provide visibility into the webpage, application etc. behind them.

"Instead, they automatically redirect users to webpages, app stores to download apps, make payments and more which provides cyber criminals with opportunities to insert themselves into the process."

Others feel the concern around the technology is overblown and the real-world threat to individuals in normal scenarios is relatively low.

"It's important not to get too carried away by the threat of QR codes," Chris Boyd, senior threat researcher at Malwarebytes told IT Pro. "Some examples exist of victims connecting scammers to their bank accounts via apps, and you can easily find explanations of how to create payloads tied to QR scanning.

"However, any encounter with a bogus code is likely going to involve steering people to phishing pages. Some phones display links in advance of visiting, and even if they don't, standard phishing caution advice applies."

The conversation around the use of QR codes has become more pressing in recent years as industries such as hospitality resorted to using the technology to facilitate at-table ordering in outdoor dining scenarios, for example.

As recently as January 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a public service announcement alerting people to the dangers of scanning codes found in seemingly innocuous locations out in the world, and how these can be misused by cyber criminals.

The announcement followed reports a week earlier that QR codes had been appearing more often in Austin, Texas - specifically on parking machines - designed to direct drivers to a fake parking payment website.

"HTTPs isn't a guarantee that the site is legitimate because HTTPs certificates are freely available," said Boyd. "Any site reached from a code in the street or elsewhere should be verified with the company you assume you're dealing with before entering login or banking details."

Coinbase responded to the discussions taking place immediately after the advert's success saying security "is super important to us", pointing users to a direct link and warning them that if the link didn't come directly from the company, it could be a scam.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged El Salvador to remove Bitcoin’s legal status, warning it could impact the nation’s ability to receive a loan from the fund.

The government of the country adopted Bitcoin as legal tender in September 2021, with president Nayib Bukele’s decision prompting thousands of Salvodorans to take to the streets to protest at the time.

The IMF’s Executive Board said that the adoption of a cryptocurrency as legal tender entails large risks for financial and market integrity, financial stability, and consumer protection, as well as creating contingent liabilities.

The directors agreed that boosting financial inclusion was important and noted the country’s digital means of payment, like the Chivo e-wallet, could play a role in this. However, they emphasised the need for strict regulation and oversight of the new ecosystem of Chivo and Bitcoin.

The directors stressed that there are large risks associated with the use of Bitcoin and urged authorities to narrow the scope of the Bitcoin law by removing its legal tender status. Some directors also expressed concern over the risks associated with issuing Bitcoin-backed bonds.

The use of the cryptocurrency as legal tender could impact its efforts to get a loan from the IMF, according to Bloomberg. The country sought a $1.3 billion IMF loan last year but talks have reportedly been hindered by the fund’s Bitcoin concerns, and any programme would need to be approved by the board.

El Salvador began buying Bitcoin last year and bought around 1,801 coins. Its value has fallen 45% from its peak in early November meaning the nation has lost around $20 million, estimated Bloomberg.

The IMF predicts that El Salvador’s economy is projected to grow around 3.2% in 2022, although public debt vulnerabilities have emerged. The fiscal deficit is projected at 5¾% of GDP in 2021 and about 5% of GDP in 2022.

“Under current policies, public debt is expected to rise to about 96% of GDP in 2026 on an unsustainable path,” said the fund.

The IMF’s demands to El Salvador on Bitcoin show the institution to be on the wrong side of history and is bullish for cryptocurrencies, said Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group.

“Of course, the situation in El Salvador needs to be monitored extremely carefully and every precaution must be taken to ensure the Bitcoin rollout truly benefits the population,” said Green. “But the IMF asking a pioneering sovereign nation to drop a future-focused financial policy that attempts to bring it out of financial instability and a reliance on another country’s currency shows the institution to be on the wrong side of history.”

Green asked whether the IMF is scared of the future of finance and why the fund wants to continue to pile on debts to poorer countries that they know are unlikely to be able to repay using traditional currencies.

“Low-income countries have long suffered because their currencies are weak and extremely vulnerable to market changes and that triggers rampant inflation,” explained Green. “This is why most developing countries become reliant upon major ‘first-world’ currencies, such as the US dollar, to complete transactions.”

He added that reliance on another country’s currency comes with its own set of problems. For example, a strong US dollar will weigh on emerging-market economic prospects, as developing countries have taken on so much dollar-denominated debt in past decades.

“By adopting cryptocurrency as legal tender these countries then immediately have a currency that isn’t influenced by market conditions within their own economy, nor directly from just one other country’s economy,” said Green. “Bitcoin operates on a global scale and therefore is impacted by wider, global economic changes.”

He also noted cryptocurrencies could help bolster financial inclusion for individuals and businesses in developing countries as they can circumnavigate the biases of traditional banks and other financial services providers.

The introduction of new centralised digital currencies in other countries could lead to a decrease in the use of the US dollar if they are deemed more attractive, the Federal Reserve has warned.

In a whitepaper released on Thursday, the Federal Reserve examined the pros and cons of a potential US central bank digital currency (CBDC), and is inviting comment from the public on its potential roll out.

The consultation is seen as the first step in a discussion of whether and how a CBDC could improve the country’s safe and effective domestic payments system.

One of the benefits outlined is that it could support the dominant international role of the US dollar. However, the Federal Reserve said that it's important to consider the implications of a potential future state in which many foreign countries and currency unions may have introduced CBDCs, warning that it they were more attractive than existing forms of the US dollar, global use of the dollar could decrease. However, it added that a US CBDC might help preserve the international role of the dollar.

This is important as the dollar is the world’s most widely used currency for payments and investments, and is the world’s reserve currency. This benefits the US by lowering transaction and borrowing costs for US households, businesses, and government. The currency’s international role allows it to influence standards for the global monetary system too.

The Federal Reserve added that a CBDC would offer the general public broad access to digital money that is free from credit and liquidity risk and provide a safe foundation for private-sector innovations to meet current and future needs for payment services. All options for private digital money, including stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies, require mechanisms to reduce credit and liquidity risk.

A CBDC may also help level the playing field in payment innovation for private-sector firms of all sizes, and generate new capabilities to meet the evolving speed and efficiency requirements of the digital economy. It could also streamline cross-border payments by using new technologies, introducing simplified distribution channels, and creating additional opportunities for cross-jurisdictional collaboration and interoperability.

The Federal Reserve said that a CBDC could reduce common barriers to financial inclusion and lower transaction costs, which could be particularly helpful for lower-income households, although further study is needed.

However, it was also warned that a CBDC could fundamentally change the structure of the US financial system, altering the roles and responsibilities of the private sector and central bank. The ability to quickly convert other forms of money, including deposits at commercial banks, into CBDC could also make runs on financial firms more likely or more severe.

The report highlighted that any CBDC would need to strike an appropriate balance between safeguarding consumer privacy rights and affording the transparency necessary to deter criminal activity.

Lastly, the report also warned that threats to existing payment services, including operational disruptions and cyber security risks, would apply to a CBDC as well. Its infrastructure would need to be extremely resilient to such threats and designing appropriate defenses for CBDC could be particularly difficult, as a CBDC network could have more entry points than existing payment services.

"We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives, and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency in the United States," Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell said.

While the US begins its consultation into whether to create a CBDC, China is already implementing its own digital yuan. The country confirmed on Wednesday that it is ready to provide digital yuan payment services to Beijing Winter Olympics visitors, as reported by Reuters. This is the first time it will globally showcase its digital currency and a pilot version of its digital yuan wallet app has been available to download in the country since 4 January.

Cyber criminals are turning to cryptomixing services to hide the proceeds of ransomware activities and make them harder to track by law enforcement.

That's according to security researchers at IT cyber security firm Intel 471, which reports that cryptomixing services, which mix cryptocurrency transactions from a variety of sources to provide more privacy, are available on the internet and the dark web.

While this is not illegal - cryptomixers are dvertised as adding an extra layer of privacy for cryptocurrency transactions - the researchers found that these services had well-established presences on multiple, well-known cyber crime forums.

“All of the mixers had professional-looking sites, likely serving as an attempt to make their operations appear more legitimate and attract a wider range of clients,” said Intel 471.

“None of the providers advertised their roles in money laundering, instead preferring to suggest their sites serve businesses using cryptocurrencies and individuals interested in protecting their privacy.”

From a cyber criminals' perspective, these cryptomixers work by sending a sum of cryptocurrency, typically Bitcoin, to a wallet address the mixing service operator owns. This sum joins a pool of the service provider’s own Bitcoins, as well as cryptocurrencies from other cyber criminals using the service. The initial threat actor’s cryptocurrency joins the back of the “chain”, and the threat actor receives a unique reference number known as a “mixing code” for deposited funds.

“This code ensures the actor does not get back their own 'dirty' funds that theoretically could be linked to their operations. The threat actor then receives the same sum of Bitcoins from the mixer’s pool, muddled using the service’s proprietary algorithm, minus a service fee,” the researchers said.

This can be made more anonymous by criminals by sending this “clean” sum of Bitcoins to numerous wallet addresses to further obfuscate the trail of the illicit funds.

“This makes it more difficult for law enforcement to associate the original “dirty” cryptocurrency with the threat actor,” the researchers added.

Cyber criminals were found to be using four popular cryptomixing services: Absolutio, AudiA6, Blender, and Mix-btc. These cryptomixers can either charge a flat fee or a “dynamic” one, which Intel 471 said is most likely done to “complicate investigations into illicit cryptocurrency funds by altering the amount being laundered at different stages of the process, making it more difficult to tie the funds to a specific crime or individual”.

Researchers said that a thorough understanding of the operational underpinnings of these mixing services is key to comprehending how criminals are laundering the money they earn from their crimes.

“It’s important to understand how all facets of a ransomware operation works if civil society is to stop the losses inflicted by these schemes,” they said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are set to link their Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and PayNow fast payment systems by July 2022, allowing users to transfer money across borders using mobile numbers and virtual payment addresses.

The central banks hope this will help users of each payment system make instant, low-cost fund transfers directly from one bank account to another between the two countries. Fund transfers will be able to be made between India and Singapore using mobile phone numbers while funds from Singapore can be sent to India using virtual payment addresses.

The banks said that the connectivity between Pay Now and UPI is a major milestone in the development of next-generation infrastructure for payments between Singapore and India and is closely aligned with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments.

“By reducing the cost and inefficiencies of remittances between Singapore and India, the PayNow-UPI linkage will directly benefit individuals and businesses in Singapore and India that greatly rely on this mode of payment,” said Sopnendu Mohanty, chief finTech officer of MAS. “Given that PayNow and UPI are integral components of their respective national digital infrastructures, the link between the two systems also paves the way for establishing more comprehensive digital connectivity and interoperability between the two countries.”

MAS added that the new initiative builds on earlier efforts to foster cross-border interoperability of card and QR payments and “will further anchor the substantial trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries.”

UPI is India’s mobile-based fast payment system that allows customers to make round the clock payments instantly using a virtual payment address created by the customer, which RBI says eliminates the risk of sharing bank account details by the remitter. PayNow is Singapore’s fast payment system which allows users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore via their mobile number.

At the start of September, the reserve banks of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Africa were set to test the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for international settlements in the hopes that it would reduce the time and costs for these types of transactions. The project, named “Dunbar”, aims to develop prototype shared platforms for cross-border transactions using various CBDCs.

El Salvador has become the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, sparking further debate about both the opportunities and dangers of cryptocurrencies.

A of 7 September, businesses and consumers will be allowed to accept and use the digital coins as payment in the South American country.

As part of the announcement, the country's government is also issuing a new digital wallet app, which will initially come with $30 (£22) in Bitcoin to every citizen who downloads it. There are also reports that there will be more than 200 new cash machines installed across El Salvador that enable dollars to be converted into Bitcoin.

However, not everyone is onboard, as recent protests in the capital, San Salvador, have shown. Many feel that the new interest in crypto is a tactic being used to distract from widespread scrutiny of the government and its policies.

There are also concerns that the digital coin isn't fully understood throughout the country. A recent study by the Central American University (UCA) found that only 4.8% of people knew what Bitcoin was and how it was used. What's more, over 68% of those questioned said they disagreed with using it as a legal tender.

A number of governments, such as China, have moved in the opposite direction with policies aimed at restricting the adoption of cryptocurrencies and calling for it to have increased regulation. Bitcoin, in particular, has a history of volatility, with dramatic rises in value and sharp declines. Over the last year alone, its value has jumped from $10,000 for a single coin to a high of $63,000 in April 2021. It has since fallen by half, sitting at around $30,000 in July this year.

Off the back of the decision by the El Salvador government it is thought that the value of Bitcoin has risen to around $51,000. On Tuesday, Reddit users began buying $30 worth of Bitcoin in support of the El Salvadoran government.

The reserve banks of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Africa are set to test the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for international settlements in the hopes that it will reduce the time and costs for these types of transactions.

The project, named "Dunbar", aims to develop prototype shared platforms for cross-border transactions using multiple CBDCs. The group hopes the platforms will allow financial institutions to issue transactions directly with each other using digital currencies issued by participating central banks, eliminating the need for intermediaries and cutting the time and cost of transactions.

The project, led by the Bank of International Settlement’s Innovation Hub and involving the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the South African Reserve Bank, will involve multiple technology partners to develop “technical prototypes” on different distributed ledger technology platforms.

It will also explore different governance and operating designs to allow central banks to share CBDC infrastructures.

"The multi-CBDC shared platform explored under Project Dunbar has the potential to leapfrog the legacy payment arrangements and serve as a foundation for a more efficient international settlement platform,” said assistant governor Fraziali Ismail from Bank Negara Malaysia.

“We hope the project will spur greater public-private collaboration to enable fast and frictionless cross-border payments, combining both the benefits of distributed ledger technology and the efficiency of a common platform.”

The project also aims to explore the “international dimension” of CBDC design and support the efforts of the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments more broadly.

Its results are expected to be published in early 2022 and the group hopes this will inform the development of future platforms for global and regional settlements. Technical prototypes of the shared platforms will also be demonstrated at the Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2021.

In June, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced it was exploring the possibility of launching a centralised digital currency as part of its “Fintech 2025” strategy. Chief executive Eddie Yue revealed it would begin a comprehensive study on e-HKD to understand its use cases, benefits, and related risks.

The HKMA also revealed it would continue to work with the People’s Bank of China in supporting the technical testing of e-CNY, China’s digital yuan, in Hong Kong with the aim of providing a convenient means of cross-boundary payments for domestic and mainland residents.

PayPal has launched a new service for UK customers that enables them to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies on the platform.

The service, which is available via both the PayPal app and website, is rolling out this week, with customers able to choose from four different cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

The announcement marks the first international expansion of PayPal's crypto offerings outside of the US and another push for the tech to reach the mainstream in the UK. Cryptocurrencies are considered private money under English law and are still largely seen as volatile.

"The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives - including the digitisation of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services," said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, VP and GM of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies at PayPal.

"Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the UK to explore cryptocurrency. We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support - and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce."

Customers can start by purchasing as little as £1 worth of cryptocurrency and the new service will allow them to view real-time crypto prices, access educational content to help them answer commonly asked questions about the tech, and also learn more about cryptocurrencies, which includes information about the opportunities and risks they present.

In addition to its new crypto services, PayPal is also exploring other potential avenues of digital currencies in partnership with other platforms and global central banks. Its internal blockchain research team is looking at the next generation of digital financial services infrastructure and enhancements to digital commerce.

Welcome to IT Pro's News in Review, a weekly bitesize bulletin of the top tech stories of the week, for the week ending 30 July, 2021.

This week:

• Apple, Microsoft and Google all post record revenues off the back of cloud growth
• Cyber criminals are turning to ‘exotic’ languages to beat malware detection
• Amazon could soon accept payments in Bitcoin and may even be developing its own cryptocurrency.

You can find more videos like this in our video library and even more on our YouTube channel. Let us know what you think of this week's video – you can find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Amazon has plans to accept Bitcoin payments 'by the end of the year' and is said to exploring its own token for 2022, according to reports.

A job advert spotted by City AM over the weekend suggested the e-commerce giant is looking for a "cryptocurrency and blockchain lead".

The company's subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS), already has a number of blockchain programmes, but this is the first time the parent firm has shown any interest in the technology.

The vacancy calls for someone who can "leverage domain expertise in blockchain, distributed ledger, central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrency". It also adds that Amazon wants to "develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities."

There's no specific detail in the advert that states Amazon is planning to accept cryptocurrencies, but City AM cites an insider who claims that the tech giant is looking to go deeper with the technology.

"This isn't just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future - this is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work," the source told City AM.

"It begins with Bitcoin - this is the key first stage of this crypto project, and the directive is coming from the very top... Jeff Bezos himself."

IT Pro has approached Amazon for comment, but it is worth noting that Bezos is no longer the CEO of the company, having stepped down at the start of July. He does still have a role on the board, which is said to involve developing new ways to improve the workplace culture, but it is highly unlikely that would involve business operations.

Security researchers have discovered a plethora of fake Android apps that pretend to offer cloud-based cryptocurrency mining in exchange for a fee.

Around 170 Android apps, including 25 on Google Play, have been identified as fraudulent, with each offering cryptocurrency mining services to users as a way of generating tokens without any mining actually taking place.

“The apps’ entire raison d'être is to steal money from users through legitimate payment processes, but never deliver the promised service,” said researchers at Lookout Security, in a post detailing the scam.

In total, criminals are thought to have taken $350,000 from approximately 93,000 users, either through initial payments or through additional fake upgrades and services.

Researchers classified these apps into two distinct families: BitScam and CloudScam. While there are some distinctions between the two families, both have a similar business model, indicating that many cyber criminals have set up competing businesses to target users in the same manner.

While mobile malware tries to extract data or send premium rate messages, these apps have flown under the radar as they don't do anything inherently malicious to the device itself, instead acting as shells to collect money for services that don’t exist.

Victims are led to believe that the apps grant them access to a cloud-based cryptocurrency mining pool, where individuals can contribute varying amounts of computing power from their devices in exchange for cryptocurrency.

While the apps appeared to represent different mining operations, all of the apps analyzed shared very similar code and design, according to the researchers.

“Both CloudScam and BitScam also offer subscriptions and services related to crypto mining that users can pay for via the Google Play in-app billing system," the researchers said. "What makes BitScam different is that its apps also accept Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment options."

While Google Play has since removed the apps from their store, many others are still available on third-party app stores around the world.

Researchers recommended users investigate developers behind any such apps to make sure they are legitimate, and only install apps from an official store app.

El Salvador has doubled down on its plans to support Bitcoin by offering $30 of the digital asset to any adult citizen downloading and registering with the country’s official cryptocurrency app. At the time of writing, $30 was is 0.00093 bitcoin.

The country announced plans to recognize Bitcoin as legal tender earlier this month, passing a 'Bitcoin law' that officially eliminated capital gains taxes on the digital asset and enabled citizens to use it for tax payments.

President Nayib Bukele made the announcement on television late last night as part of an hour-long talk explaining the country's support of Bitcoin to citizens. It will provide the app, called Chivo, on iOS and Android.

"The government is going to give this bonus for two reasons: one, to promote the use of Bitcoin in the economy, and second, so that people have an incentive to use the application and download it," Bukele said.

"What we are trying to do with the Bitcoin law is to connect our country with the rest of the world, attract foreign exchange, investment, and tourism, and boost our economy," Bukele continued.

He hopes to bring more money into the country via Bitcoin, using it as an economic multiplier to funnel tourist funds into the national economy. The app attempts to kickstart the process by creating a critical mass of users who can accept Bitcoin.

Bitcoin has become more of a speculative asset these days as massive swings in value make it difficult to rely on it as a form of exchange. It fell from $35,884 last night to $31,600 this morning.

However, the president hopes that the app's dual-currency functionality will protect users who don't want exposure to that risk.

He explained the app's functionality at length, dwelling extensively on its ability to make and receive payments in US dollars — the standard currency in El Salvador — or Bitcoins. A person might make a payment in Bitcoins using the app, but the recipient can receive the money in dollars.

Article seven of the Bitcoin law forces everyone to accept Bitcoins as payment, but he argued that articles eight and 12 constrain that mandate. Article eight says the state must provide instant conversion from Bitcoins to dollars. Article 12 says those without the technology to accept Bitcoins are excluded from the mandate.

By offering that conversion, the government appears to be setting itself up as a de facto Bitcoin exchange. The big question is if its dollar conversion service protects citizens from Bitcoin’s volatility, what is the government doing to protect itself from that risk in the long term?

There are no details yet on how the government plans to distribute the $30 in free Bitcoin.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is exploring whether to launch a centralised digital currency as part of the country's "Fintech 2025" strategy".

The HKMA will soon begin a comprehensive study on e-HKD to understand its use cases, benefits, and related risks, chief executive Eddie Yue revealed at a seminar this week.

"This is to increase our technical readiness so that we are prepared for all kinds of circumstances in the future, including the potential for Hong Kong to issue e-HKD," he added.

"We have already established an internal cross-departmental working group within the HKMA to study the relevant technical, policy and legal issues, and we hope to offer our initial thought[s] on this complex matter in 12 months' time."

The HKMA also stated it will continue to work with the People's Bank of China in supporting the technical testing of e-CNY, China's digital yuan, in Hong Kong with the aim to provide a convenient means of cross-boundary payments for both domestic and mainland residents.

This comes as part of the country's new fintech strategy, "Fintech 2025", which aims to encourage comprehensive technology adoption across its financial sector by 2025 and promote the provision of fair and efficient financial services for the benefit of Hong Kong citizens and the economy.

As part of this, the HKMA will promote the all-round adoption of fintech by Hong Kong banks and fully encourage them to digitalise their operations, "from front-end to back-end". To support this, it will roll out a "Tech Baseline Assessment" to take stock of banks' current and planned adoption of fintech and identify areas that would benefit from HKMA support.

The authority also hopes to take the lead in enhancing the city's existing data infrastructure and build new ones. Additionally, it wants to increase the supply of fintech talent by introducing initiatives such as a fintech training programme and qualifications, as well as promoting joint projects between industry and academia.

The HKMA said that the full details of the strategy will be unveiled at a later date.

Lawmakers in the Central American country El Salvador have voted to consider Bitcoin as legal tender, with citizens able to trade freely for goods and services using the digital token, as well as pay their taxes.

Measures agreed on by the nation's parliament will see Bitcoin regulated as "unrestricted legal tender" with people able to make unlimited transactions, and businesses compelled to accept payment in the digital currency.

Citizens can also pay their taxes in Bitcoin, while exchanges in Bitcoin won't be subject to capital gains tax, just as with any other legal tender in the nation, as opposed to an asset.

The shock move comes as a swathe of institutions have distanced themselves from Bitcoin due to a variety of reasons, chief among them being the fact that its value fluctuates so wildly. This is one of the main reasons why nations and businesses across the world have so far been reluctant to adopt it as legal tender.

In the space of six months, Bitcoin has swung in value from under $15,000 in early November 2020, to $40,000 in January 2021 to $30,000 a month later, before hovering between $55,000 and $65,000 over subsequent months and crashing in May to little more than $33,000 at the time of writing.

El Salvador's Bitcoin law, however, will indeed tie the value of Bitcoin to the US dollar (USD) as determined by the market. The USD is the country's primary currency.

The state will also work to establish the infrastructure to apply the law, and promote training and mechanisms so the wider population can access Bitcoin to pay for goods and services.

According to a decree published by the legislative assembly, roughly 70% of the country doesn't have access to traditional or legacy financial services. The legislature, therefore, sees digital currencies as the ideal chance to involve more people in the financial system, while also promoting economic growth.

The law, which was approved by 62 out of 84 votes in the Salvadoran Congress, will come into force roughly 90 days from now. Between now and then the country's central bank will establish a trust to automatically and instantly convert Bitcoin to USD.

"Where El Salvador has led, we can expect other developing countries to follow," said Nigel Green, the CEO of deVere Group, a financial consultancy. "This is because low-income countries have long suffered because their currencies are weak and extremely vulnerable to market changes and that triggers rampant inflation.

"This is why most developing countries become reliant upon major 'first-world' currencies, such as the US dollar, to complete transactions. But reliance on another country's currency also comes with its own set of, often very costly, problems."

Several organisations such as PayPal have moved in recent months to support cryptocurrencies as a means to pay for goods and services, with recent changes allowing PayPal customers to store digital tokens in their online wallets. Other institutions, such as Mastercard and HSBC have deemed Bitcoin too unstable to reasonably support.

Many nations, too, have distanced themselves from Bitcoin, and other digital currencies. Turkey, for example, is banning the use of Bitcoin due to the "high risk of fraud", while China's effective ban against cryptocurrencies sparked the downturn last month.

Bitcoin mining company Blockstream has partnered with Square to build a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility.

Square will provide $5 million in funding for the project, which will be a proof-of-concept for larger renewable mining operations. Blockstream will provide infrastructure and expertise.

Blockstream, which also develops Bitcoin wallets and financial products, already runs a mining operation on what it says is 80% renewable energy. It began mining using its own purpose-built data centers in 2017 and now has a hydroelectric facility in Quebec, Canada and another facility in Adel, Georgia. In 2019, it launched an enterprise colocation service for Bitcoin miners.

The partnership with Square will go beyond Blockstream's existing projects to provide a reference model for renewable mining facility designs, Blockstream said in an announcement on Saturday. It vowed to make the project open and transparent by publishing regular economics reports. It will also offer a dashboard that will display real-time information on the project's power output and Bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin's proof of work-based consensus mechanism consumes vast amounts of power that increase as it becomes more popular. This has drawn criticism for its effect on the environment.

New York lawmakers recently proposed a law banning cryptocurrency mining operations that affected its greenhouse gas emissions targets. The seminal cryptocurrency, first launched in 2009, has suffered other setbacks of late, including signals of a major government crackdown on mining in China, which dominates the Bitcoin mining space.

In March, Blockstream also partnered with Aker, a specialist Bitcoin investment company created by Norwegian holding company Seegee, which operates in energy and construction. The two companies will work together in the Bitcoin mining space, they said.

Blockstream has a stated goal to use "orphaned" renewable resources in areas that would otherwise be problematic to transmit power from. The company has developed a satellite-based network for propagating Bitcoin blockchain information to remote areas.

HSBC will not be offering Bitcoin as an asset class anytime soon, according to comments made by the bank’s chief executive Noel Quinn.

The British banking businessman, who was appointed CEO of the HSBC Group in March 2020, told Reuters that the bank is “not into Bitcoin as an asset class” due to the cryptocurrency’s “volatility”.

“We are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business," he said, adding that, “for similar reasons”, the bank is “not rushing into stablecoins”.

Quinn’s comments come as Bitcoin fell from this year's record high of over £45,000 to just over £26,000, tumbling almost 50%.

Meanwhile, China, where roughly 65% of all mining globally is based, announced a crackdown on mining and trading behaviour, forcing cryptocurrency exchange platforms to suspend operations. Although Quinn made no mention of China in his comments, recent events might have influenced HSBC’s decision due to the country being inherent to the bank’s growth strategy, according to Reuters.

“I view Bitcoin as more of an asset class than a payments vehicle, with very difficult questions about how to value it on the balance sheet of clients because it is so volatile. Then you get to stablecoins which do have some reserve backing behind them to address the stored value concerns, but it depends on who the sponsoring organisation is plus the structure and accessibility of the reserve,” he told the publication, adding that his sceptical approach to Bitcoin stems from the difficulty of assessing the transparency of cryptocurrency ownership and issues with their ready convertibility into fiat money.

Quinn’s statement comes weeks after NatWest non-executive director, board member, and chair of the bank’s risk committee, Morten Friis, suggested that the bank would refuse business customers who accept virtual currencies as payment.

“We have no appetite for dealing with customers, whether taking them on as new clients or having an ongoing relationship with people, whose main business is backed by an exchange for cryptocurrencies, or otherwise transacting in cryptocurrencies as their main activity,” Friis said during an online shareholder event last month.

His comments contrast Mastercard’s decision to support specific cryptocurrencies if they prove to be stable, secure, and compliant with industry standards and regulations.

China has signalled a deeper push against cryptocurrencies after its crackdown last week, this time targeting the process of cryptocurrency mining as well as exchange platforms.

The country’s State Council Financial Stability and Development Committee, which is charged with overseeing financial stability, issued a statement on Friday declaring the time is right to crack down on mining and trading behaviour.

Moves to restrict cryptocurrency mining within China is hugely significant, given that roughly 65% of all mining globally is based in China, according to CNBC.

Cryptocurrency miners and exchange platforms have, as a result, been forced to suspend operations, with Huobi Mall, a mining service, suggesting it’s seeking overseas support in order to export mining operations in the future, Al Jazeera reported.

The crackdown follows measures proposed last week that would ban banks and financial institutions from providing cryptocurrency-related services. The ban, which was issued alongside warnings against speculative investments, sent the price of Bitcoin tumbling by roughly 30% last week.

Bitcoin’s value continued to fall over the course of last week and in recent days following China’s doubling down against cryptocurrencies.

The motivation behind the actions isn’t fully clear, although the committee’s statement suggested the crackdown is part of a wider package of financial measures aimed at fighting instability, and illegal activity. More broadly, the committee is intent on guarding against external risk shocks, responding effectively to inflation, and bolstering market supervision.

China’s policy coincides with the US Treasury’s decision to clamp down on the anonymity that cryptocurrencies provide. Under broad tax and spend proposals, businesses dealing with cryptocurrency transactions valued at more than $10,000 will need to report these to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as they do with cash payments.

Treating digital tokens like Bitcoin as cash would likely reduce the appeal of using them for large business transactions, given these regulatory barriers. One of the major appeals of exchanging cryptocurrencies; that transactions are anonymous, would also be negated.

Both countries join a growing list of nations to consider regulatory action against cryptocurrencies. Turkey, for example, has banned all cryptocurrencies, where the UK has only prohibited crypto derivative products from being sold to consumers.

Bitcoin has been top of the pile when it comes to cryptocurrency. Over a decade after its launch, just one Bitcoin is worth over $40,000 at the time of writing.

But there's more to cryptocurrency than just Bitcoin. Altcoins — a portmanteau of "alternative" and "coins" — are any cryptocurrency that isn't Bitcoin. Each of these alternative cryptocurrencies operates under its own rules but also shares some characteristics with Bitcoin.

What is an altcoin?

In essence, altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency that could eventually replace fiat money, such as the dollar.

Cryptocurrencies are decentralized, meaning central banks do not issue them, and their value doesn't hang on bank policies. Namecoin is widely considered to be the very first altcoin. Since then, the rate of altcoin launches started to grow at a phenomenal rate.

Like Bitcoin, they use blockchain as a means of securing peer-to-peer transactions. How these altcoins use blockchain can differ greatly from Bitcoins, as different consensus mechanisms are used to validate transactions or create blocks.

Not only that, but altcoins also take the Bitcoin concept further with unique features, such as "smart contracts" that can automatically perform agreements between two parties using blockchain technology.

In addition, altcoins have improved on Bitcoin in many other ways. Processing transactions can be faster or can scale better. Bitcoins are mined every 10 minutes, whereas an altcoin, such as Litecoin, produces coins every 2.5 minutes, speeding up transactions on this coin over Bitcoin.

How does an altcoin work?

Altcoin works similarly to Bitcoin. A private key is used to send payment from one digital wallet to another, and a blockchain acts as a recording ledger to permanently record the transaction so it can't be altered. The blockchain is secured by mathematics proofs, which ratify transactions in blocks.

What are the different types of altcoins?

Some of the main types of altcoins include mining-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, security tokens, and utility tokens. There are around 9,000 cryptocurrencies, and altcoins make up over 40% of the market as of April 2021. Some of the most familiar altcoins are Ethereum, Ripple, Tether, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, and Litecoin.

Certain altcoins do more than just allow the exchange of money for goods and services. These are usually called utility tokens or security tokens for example. Some altcoins offer better anonymity, while others target specific industries.

Stablecoins

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to either another cryptocurrency, fiat money (i.e., Dollars), or an exchange-traded commodity (i.e., precious metals), which minimizes price volatility compared to a particular "stable" asset or array of assets.

Stablecoins aren't subject to turbulent, daily price fluctuations, meaning they're useful in practical everyday cases, such as payments, investments, and loans.

Mining-based

These altcoins are mined into existence using proof-of-work (PoW), which creates new coins by solving difficult problems, to create blocks. There are several PoW coins, such as Litecoin, Monero, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin SV.

Alternative to mining-based coins are pre-mined coins. These are distributed rather than created through an algorithm. Ripple is an example of this.

Utility tokens

This type of coin is used within a platform to receive a service. A common type of utility token is the ERC20 Ethereum standard. These tokens are created to be spent within a certain blockchain ecosystem. An example of this is Sia, a decentralized peer-to-peer cloud storage solution.

Security Tokens

Security tokens operate as investment contracts. The token's purchaser expects future profits from dividends, revenue share, or market appreciation. These differ from utility tokens in that security tokens follow stringent rules on who can buy and transfer them.

Non-fungible tokens

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a cryptographic asset on a blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that differentiate them from each other and are stored in smart contracts.

Users can't duplicate or divide NFTs. Some of the use cases for these tokens include collectibles, music, artwork, and video game tokens.

In contrast, fungible tokens, such as Bitcoin, are identical; they have the same characteristics and value when traded.

How does altcoin compare to Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is widely regarded as the original cryptocurrency. It was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, introducing the world to blockchain technology and the principle of proof of work.

Most altcoins are a variation (fork) of Bitcoin and are created using Bitcoin's open-sourced, original protocol and then changed to create a new cryptocurrency with new features, although tokens come in all shapes and sizes today.

Every altcoin has a unique way of being created, the number of coins available, and how difficult it is to create them. While Bitcoin now takes hefty computing power to mine — it's said Bitcoin consumes 'more electricity than Argentina' — many altcoins still only need the power of a desktop computer and some specialized software to mine a coin.

The advantages and disadvantages of altcoins

One of the main advantages of altcoin is it's an alternative to Bitcoin. Should Bitcoin's value plummet, altcoins are generally good as a fallback option, although you might find that larger shifts that affect Bitcoin also hit everything else on the market. In a sense, they provide competition to Bitcoin.

Altcoins generally offer improvements to Bitcoin's problems, such as the speed and cost of mining. There are also lower transaction costs with altcoins.

However, one major disadvantage of each altcoin is its lack of public acceptance and exposure relative to Bitcoin. As altcoins are newer than Bitcoin, their value can change dramatically, so they're not for the faint-hearted or the risk-averse investor.

Another major issue with altcoins is that they're often used in scams to fleece unsuspecting victims, such as pump and dump schemes.

Lastly, many altcoin trading sites don't provide customers with the means to convert to Bitcoin before converting it yet again to USD.

Aren't altcoins a risky investment?

We can't give investment advice on altcoins. Different cryptocurrencies fall in and out of fashion and you can easily lose some or all of your money invested in shady altcoin schemes, as these are mostly unregulated. A lot of sleazy marketing exaggerates the benefits and investment potential of almost every altcoin project.

What we can say is that you should always seek independent financial advice before parting with any money to buy altcoins.

The government is establishing a special taskforce that combines expertise from the Treasury and the Bank of England to explore the launch of a UK central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The state-backed digital currency would operate alongside traditional currencies, and allow households and businesses to make payments using digital money issued by the Bank of England. The group will consult with stakeholders to explore how viable launching a CBDC would be, as well as how this is being handled abroad.

CBDCs are fundamentally different from cryptocurrencies because they’re managed by a central authority, such as the Bank of England, while cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are decentralised assets and managed through a distributed ledger.

The announcement comes as part of a wider package of measures the government is hoping will boost the UK’s fintech and financial services industries. As part of the policy, the government will establish a Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology as well as the second phase of its Digital Sandbox to allow companies to test concepts that tackle sustainability and climate change-related challenges.

“Our vision is for a more open, greener, and more technologically advanced financial services sector,” said the chancellor Rishi Sunak. “The UK is already known for being at the forefront of innovation, but we need to go further.

“The steps I’ve outlined today, to boost growing fintechs, push the boundaries of digital finance and make our financial markets more efficient, will propel us forward. And if we can capture the extraordinary potential of technology, we’ll cement the UK’s position as the world’s pre-eminent financial centre.”

Alongside prospective plans to create a digital currency, the new sandbox will give companies experimenting with distributed ledger technology the space to develop and execute their ideas.

Fintech firms will also be offered a ‘scale box’, which is a package of measures designed to guide these companies scale-up. This comes alongside a ‘scale up’ visa stream to allow skilled people a route to work at a recognised UK scale-up without the need for sponsorship.

Plans to launch a CBDC comes only a few months after Mastercard announced it would begin supporting digital currencies, but only those which adhere to a set of strict criteria that would seem to rule out most mainstream tokens, including Bitcoin.

The Bank of England has previously explored the viability of creating a CBDC, especially over the last couple of years, although has never publicly stated whether or not it considers doing so a good idea.

Visa has announced that it will allow customers to settle transactions on its payment network in USD Coin – a stablecoin cryptocurrency linked to the US dollar.

The announcement follows similar decisions made by financial service providers, including Mastercard and PayPal, which have recently moved to embrace digital currencies as a valid payment method.

The option to pay in USD Coin will be made available through Visa’s pilot programme with cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com, and is also planning to extend the programme to other partners later this year, according to Reuters.

Visa's head of crypto Cuy Sheffield said that its choice to welcome USD Coin to its list of available currencies was influenced by the growing demand for digital currencies.

“We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers,” he said, speaking to Reuters.

If a Visa customer wants to pay for a service using USD Coin, the amount won’t have to be converted into traditional currency, simplifying the process and reducing costs for businesses, the company confirmed.

Last month, Visa partnered with online banking service First Boulevard in order to pilot “crypto APIs that enable a bank to offer cryptocurrency custody and trading to their customers”. Commenting on the news, Visa chief product officer Jack Forestell said that his company is to become “the bridge between digital currencies and [its] global network of 70 million merchants”.

“With this pilot program, we want to extend the value of Visa to our neobank and financial institution clients by providing an easy bridge to crypto assets and blockchain networks,” he added.

However, despite its venture into digital currencies, Visa hasn’t announced any plans to welcome the use of Bitcoin.

Similarly, despite Mastercard’s recent decision to support select cryptocurrencies, early indications suggest Bitcoin won’t make the cut. Mastercard also outlined some requirements for the currencies, including the need to prove that they are secure, compliant with industry standards and regulations, as well as stable enough to be used as a "vehicle for spending".

Bitcoin trading and lending platform Sovryn has announced its biggest bug bounty program. The announcement comes after the company raised an equivalent of $10 million in bitcoin through its governance token presale.

The bounty, launched in partnership with Immunefi, will offer white-hat hackers a whopping $1.25 million to unearth security vulnerabilities in the Sovryn smart contract.

“Throughout the proposal drafting process for SIP-8, the Sovryn team and community have provided valuable feedback and sharing ideas on how to improve the program, said Immunefi co-founder Travin Keith.

Keith continued, “the program will incentivize white hats to look through the code as well as incentivizing black hats to disclose bugs, instead of exploiting them."

According to the bounty’s official page, payouts will adhere to Immunefi’s vulnerability severity classification system.

For smart contract and blockchain vulnerabilities, the bounties range from $2,200 for low-risk issues to as much as $1 million for critical flaws. Sovryn will cap the $1 million bounties at 10% of the funds at risk.

Sovryn will also pay a bonus for smart-contract- and blockchain-related bugs reported within the first three weeks of the bounty program. The special reward starts at 25% and is split into seven-day rounds. The bonus reduces by five percentage points at the end of each round until it reaches 10% in the final bonus round.

Website and app vulnerabilities have lower payouts that range from $2,200 for medium-severity vulnerabilities to $22,140 for critical issues.There’s no bonus for finding these vulnerabilities in the first three weeks.

Rewards are payable in bitcoin, but the Sovryn team may decide to have “up to 50% of the reward payable in schedule of values (SOV) tokens according to a vesting schedule dependent on the amount paid out.”

Casting light on the most rewarding vulnerabilities, Sovryn said the company is especially interested in receiving news about missing access controls, consensus failures, logic errors, susceptibility to block timestamp manipulation, remote code execution, clickjacking, and cryptography problems.

Sovryn also clarified that in case two or more reports suggest the same vulnerability, only the first complete bug report will receive the reward. “The final reward amount is capped at 10% of the funds at risk based on the vulnerability reported," the company said.

“The Sovryn developer team/community takes security seriously and this successful presale has allowed us to take that to the next level, encouraging thousands of hackers to try to penetrate our decentralized protocol. Forged in the white-hot fire of this testing, the armor of our security will emerge all the strong,” added Sovryn co-founder Edan Yago.

The CEO of European fintech giant Adyen has expressed concerns around using Bitcoin as a mainstream form of payment.

The cryptocurrency's volatility makes it less viable for transactions, the company's founder and CEO, Pieter van der Does, told CNBC.

Ayden, a Dutch payment platform founded in 2006, processes payments on behalf of Netflix, Facebook, and other leading brands. It's one of a number of companies that enjoyed significant growth due to the pandemic with more customers using its online payments and e-commerce services. But, the firm's CEO has said it has "no interest" in adding crypto payment methods to its roster of services.

"Bitcoin is more of an investment asset than a payment method," Van der Does said, according to CNBC. "We are interested in payment methods which are being used. I am wondering if the huge movement in the value of Bitcoin is helping it as a payment method."

In that regard, the value of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, has fluctuated wildly throughout its existence. Just over the last few years, Bitcoin value has dropped below £10,000 but also, more recently, shot up to new heights of $36,352.20. The recent news that Tesla will use its corporate cash to buy Bitcoin saw its value soar past $40,000.

The electric car firm announced a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin on Tuesday alongside plans to start accepting payments in the digital currency. Similarly, Mastercard has also suggested it will offer some cryptocurrencies on its network in the future, although it's unclear if Bitcoin will be included.

Adyen's stance to not follow suit adds to a growing list of companies and organisations that are suspicious of cryptocurrencies. The likes of in-coming Intel boss Pat Gelsinger and the Financial Conduct Authority have expressed concerns and warnings around the use of digital tokens. Van der Does has also suggested that Adyen's clientele have shown no interest in it either.

"It might not actually be helping cryptocurrencies if they are more like investment assets than a currency," he told CNBC. "That makes it less interesting for a merchant - to have potential (as a means of payment), you need a stable currency."

Bitcoin prices surged to an all-time high this morning, reaching a value of $36,352.20 (£26,627.80).

The all-time high trading was recorded at around 7:00 this morning (GMT), just days after the cryptocurrency managed to cross the $34,000 mark for the first time.

However, the cryptocurrency remains volatile, and at the time of publication, its value had dropped to $35,024 (£25,666).

On 3 January, Bitcoin’s value rose to $34,452.08 (£25,242.18), significantly surpassing its previous record of $19,140.80 (£14,028.96) recorded in December 2017.

However, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky, told Forbes that the digital currency was “overdue” for a pullback.

“I expect a severe 30% correction between now and March, and then we will see new highs of $50k or more,” he told the publication.

Only last month, Bitcoin’s value surpassed the $22,000-barrier for the first time in its history, representing a 175% rise during 2020. Its success has been credited to wider economic conditions, backing from investors, and encouraging signs that the cryptocurrency is being adopted by mainstream platforms and services such as PayPal.

An example of such could be the UK-based Ruffer Investments, which purchased a staggering $744 million worth of Bitcoin in November.

However, the digital currency’s all-time record comes as it has been revealed that cyber criminals had been running a sophisticated operation to steal cryptocurrency from unsuspecting victims by luring them to fake exchange platforms to access their wallets.

The campaign, which has been running for a year, comprises domain registrations, websites, malicious applications, fake social media accounts and a previously undetected remote access tool (RAT) dubbed ElectroRAT, according to Intezer Labs researchers.

The ElectroRAT campaign is reported to have affected more than 6,500 users, based on the numbers of visitors to the pastebin pages used to locate the command and control servers.

Malware that has remained undetected for six months is exploiting misconfigured Docker API ports to launch malicious payloads, while abusing the Dogecoin cryptocurrency blockchain in the process.

The malware, known as ‘Doki’, is targeting misconfigured containerised environments hosted on Azure, AWS, and a number of other major cloud platforms, according to Intezer researchers, with attackers able to find publicly accessible Docker API ports and exploit them to establish their own containers.

Doki is then able to instal malware on targeted infrastructure based on code received from its operators, spawning and deleting containers during the process.

Doki serves as an undetectable Linux backdoor, and represents an evolution of the two-year-old Ngrok Botnet campaign. Alarmingly, it has also managed to evade every one of the 60 malware platforms listed on VirusTotal since it was first analysed in January 2020.

This particular strain is unusual in the sense that it abuses the Dogecoin cryptocurrency blockchain in order to attack these containerised environments. The attackers use a fairly ingenious method to prevent the botnet infrastructure from being taken down, which involves dynamically changing the command and control (C2) server's domain based on the transactions recorded on a Dogecoin wallet.

The C2 domain address, from which the payload is sent, changes based on the amount of Dogecoin in the wallet at any given time. When a cryptocurrency is added or removed from the wallet, the system encodes the transaction and creates a new unique address from which they can control the Doki malware.

Because of the secure and decentralised nature of Blockchain, this infrastructure can't be taken down by law enforcement, and new addresses can't be pre-empted by others as only the attackers can make transactions on their Dogecoin wallet.

“Linux threats are becoming more common. A contributing factor to this is the increasing shift and reliance on cloud environments, which are mostly based on Linux infrastructure,” said researchers Nicole Fishbein and Michael Kajiloti. “Hence, attackers have been adapting accordingly with new tools and techniques designed specifically for this infrastructure.”

Historically, the Ngrok Botnet has been one of the most prevalent threats abusing misconfigured Docker API ports in such a way to execute malware, they added. As part of the attack, the hackers would abuse Docker configuration features to elude container restrictions and execute various payloads from the host.

Such threats also deploy network scanners to identify the cloud providers’ IP ranges for additional potentially vulnerable targets. What makes it so dangerous is that it only takes a few hours from when a misconfigured Docker server is online to become infected.

Meanwhile, because the cryptocurrency blockchain the hackers abuse is immutable and decentralised, Fishbein and Kajiloti added, the method is resistant to infrastructure takedowns as well as domain filtering attempts.

Hackers can create any container as part of the attack, and execute code from the host machine by exploiting a container escape method. This is based on creating a new container, which is achieved by posting a ‘create’ API request.

Each container is based on an alpine image with curl installed, which isn’t malicious in and of itself, rather it’s abused to execute the attack with curl commands, activated as soon as the container’s up and running.

Hackers then abuse the Ngrok service, which provides secure tunnels connecting between local servers and the public internet, to craft unique URLs with a short lifetime, using them to download payloads during the attack by passing them to the curl-based image.

“The Ngrok Botnet campaign has been ongoing for over two years and is rather effective, infecting any misconfigured Docker API server in a matter of hours,” added Nicole Fishbein and Michael Kajiloti. “The incorporation of the unique and undetected Doki malware indicates the operation is continuing to evolve.

“This attack is very dangerous due to the fact the attacker uses container escape techniques to gain full control of the victim’s infrastructure. Our evidence shows that it takes only a few hours from when a new misconfigured Docker server is up online to become infected by this campaign.”

The researchers have recommended that both companies and individuals who own cloud-based container servers must immediately fix their configuration settings to prevent exposure to the threat. This process includes checking for any exposed ports, verifying there are no foreign or unknown containers among existing containers, and monitoring excessive use of computing resources.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was one of 18 plaintiffs to file a lawsuit against YouTube on Tuesday.

The lawsuit seeks punitive damages, a trial by jury and demands YouTube remove all Bitcoin giveaway scams using Wozniak’s name and likeness. The lawsuit also alleges YouTube is aware of the Bitcoin giveaway scams plaguing its platform but has yet to take the videos down.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in California Superior Court, YouTube has been hosting, promoting and profiting from videos posted to the platform claiming Wozniak is hosting a Bitcoin promotion.

The videos entice users to send Bitcoin to the given address. In return, “Wozniak” will give them double the amount. The suit alleges the image and likeness of Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Michael Dell have been exploited in these scams too.

The lawsuit states: "Plaintiff Wozniak repeatedly has tried to get YouTube to stop this unauthorized use of his name and likeness that has been used to defraud so many Youtube users. But YouTube has been unresponsive. Despite Plaintiffs’ and legions of other users’ repeated pleas that YouTube take timely action to end this BITCOIN GIVEAWAY scam, YouTube repeatedly delayed or refused to do so.”

In a statement made Thursday, YouTube said: “We take abuse of our platform seriously, and take action quickly when we detect violations of our policies.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse alleged the same misconduct Wozniak cited in his lawsuit in a lawsuit he filed against YouTube and Google in April. In response to Garlinghouse’s lawsuit, YouTube said it cannot be held liable for the scam videos under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The Bitcoin world is no stranger to fraudulent giveaways, but they’re getting more attention lately. Last week, hackers infiltrated several high-profile Twitter accounts and used them to promote fraudulent Bitcoin giveaways. Twitter acknowledged the incident shortly after it began and subsequently locked all verified accounts while it investigated the breach.

Mastercard has announced an expansion of its cryptocurrency program.

As part of the expansion, Mastercard has simplified access to its Accelerate program for crypto card issuers, allowing applicants to be onboarded as partners “in a matter of weeks.”

Mastercard also announced Wirex has become the first native cryptocurrency platform to be granted a Mastercard principal membership, allowing it to issue payment cards directly.

By streamlining its approval processes, Mastercard has effectively reduced the time to market for crypto card issuers. To gain access to the Accelerate program, cryptocurrency partnerships must provide strong consumer protections and a level playing field for all stakeholders, and they must be in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Making it simpler and quicker for partners to bring secure payment cards to market, the Accelerate program supports partners with market entry, growth and international expansion. New partners can also integrate Mastercard’s proprietary technology and will benefit from the company’s data insights and cybersecurity services.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships at Mastercard, said: “The cryptocurrency market continues to mature, and Mastercard is driving it forward, creating safe and secure experiences for consumers and businesses in today’s digital economy.

“Our work with Wirex and the wider crypto ecosystem is accelerating innovation and empowering consumers with more choice in the way they pay.”

With Mastercard principal membership, Wirex can now issue payment cards directly to consumers, making it easier for them to buy, hold and exchange traditional currencies and cryptocurrencies. Users will also benefit from Wirex’s Cryptoback rewards program, which gives customers up to 1.5% back in Bitcoin for in-store purchases.

When cardholders want to use their cryptocurrency for purchase or trade, they can immediately convert their cryptocurrency into fiat currency for the country they’re in. The currency then enters the network for use anywhere that accepts Mastercard.

“We are very excited for Wirex to be the first crypto-native company granted principal membership from Mastercard,” said Pavel Matveev, CEO and co-founder of Wirex.

“It represents a growing interest and recognition in the acceptance of cryptocurrency by leading bodies and regulators and will help us to realize our vision of empowering everyone to experience a world where all currencies, traditional and crypto, are equal,” Matveev continued.

Wirex isn’t the first crypto company Mastercard has teamed up with. In June, Mastercard also collaborated with BitPay to launch a prepaid card for crypto users in the US.

A cryptocurrency investment scam has exposed the personal details of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Group-IB, a Singapore-based intelligence company, uncovered the stolen personal records of 248,926 people from the UK, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Singapore, the US, Malaysia and other countries.

The United Kingdom and Australia represent approximately 93% of all affected users.

It’s not known exactly where or how the leak originated, but Group-IB has discovered that it’s being used in a multi-stage cryptocurrency investment scam that comes at the victims in three phases.

To begin with, the target receives a text message that is masked as a local media outlet. The link bears a headline boasting that a celebrity endorses a new get-rich-now investment, and each text message also contains a short, unique link.

When the target clicks the link, they are taken to a fake news website that displays a long, personalized URL that includes the target’s name, phone number, and sometimes, email address.

The fake news site shows made-up content about a particular celebrity who made a fortune with a new cryptocurrency investment platform. Celebrities whose names and images were stolen for this scam include Bryan Wong, Travers ’Candyman’ Beynon, Gina Rinehart, Andrew Forrest, Chris Brown and others.

The use of celebrity names and images to promote scams is nothing new. Earlier this month Elon Musk’s name was used in a Bitcoin giveaway scam.

If the target clicks on that second link, they are taken to a fake cryptocurrency investment platform site where their personal information is already preloaded into the signup form. If they join, they are then asked to add to their account using cryptocurrency.

Group-IB detected six active domains that offer the same Bitcoin investment platform but operate under different names including Crypto Cash, Bitcoin Supreme, Bitcoin Rejoin and Banking on Blockchain.

Group-IB CEO, Ilya Sachkov, states in the company’s report on the scam: “The bad guys got smarter in a bid to increase the success rate of their fraudulent operations. Using personal data allows them to carry out targeted attacks and make a victim’s journey easier and smoother, which levels up the overall effectiveness of the scheme.”

The firm has shared its findings with the appropriate law enforcement groups in the affected countries for further investigation.

In a blog post published earlier this week, Brian Strong, CEO of Coinbase, announced the company would continue to work remotely after the coronavirus pandemic. Strong previously told Coinbase employees as stay-at-home orders begin to expire, Coinbase will continue to embrace being a “remote-first” company.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Coinbase was forced to make the shift to remote work in March. In a letter to the Coinbase team, Armstrong shared that the experience of suddenly shifting to a remote environment had a “silver lining.” Overall, Armstrong shared, "it’s been less complicated to transition than we would have expected.” As a result, most Coinbase employees will have the privilege of choosing whether they want to work in an office or remotely.

Armstrong continued, citing two major considerations in making the decision to become a remote-first company. One consideration was strategic, while the other was more practical.

He explained, “On a practical level, as countries around the world have emerged from quarantines, we’ve seen broad direction to adopt measures like six feet of separation between people in offices. This is likely to be our reality soon. To be concrete: with six feet between all employees in an office, even if we moved into every floor of our SF HQ, we wouldn’t have enough space to bring all current SF employees back, let alone hire more.”

As for Armstrong’s strategic considerations? The company has gone back and forth on remote work for some time and has now concluded “there will be substantial strategic advantages in a mix of remote and in-office work going forward.” Not only will a remote workforce allow Coinbase added economic freedoms, but it also means the company can hire top talent worldwide.

Coinbase isn’t the only tech company to announce its intentions to continue working remotely after the pandemic has subsided. Earlier this week, Square told its employees they can work from home permanently. The move came shortly after Twitter made a similar announcement to its employees. Meanwhile, companies such as Facebook and Google have directed their team members to work from home until 2021.

The amount rewarded to miners for Bitcoin is going to be reduced by an annual technical event called "halving" on Tuesday, and the impact of the latest cut has somewhat divided the community.

It is possible that the cryptocurrency will be better in the long term, but there are concerns that Bitcoin miners will be facing a serious, immediate hit.

The halving of Bitcoin is an event where the block reward for mining new Bitcoin reduces by half and miners receive 50% less for every transaction they verify. It happens every 210,000 blocks, which equates to roughly once every four years.

If there is a bump in the next few years the mining operation could become more profitable once again, but the fear is it will be too far away from many small and medium-sized Bitcoin mining operations that might be forced to shut down as a result.

As the cost of producing Bitcoin continues to rise, the majority of small miners may be forced to sell off their equipment and also their Bitcoins, potentially at a loss.

"With high costs comes the pressure to sell off a miner's BTC inventory since power expenses must be paid in fiat," Nathan Nichols, a managing partner at Imperium Investments told Finance Magnates.

With every halving of Bitcoin, there seems to be a delayed spike in the following years which has convinced a number within the community that something similar will happen this time around, with lofty predictions for 2022.

"Bitcoin always goes 10X (or more) in max 4 years. And it doesn't matter where you start on the chart; the 10X always happened in max 4 years," Twitter users Bit Harrington posted. "That's a cool fact (and '4 years' is important since the halving is every 4 years). If this pattern repeats we will see - 200K before 2022."

Bitcoin prices have collapsed nearly 40% - the biggest single-day drop since 2013, while volatility was at its highest following last week’s market plunge.

Last Thursday, Bitcoin’s worth plummeted from $7,895 to $4,970, before rising 16% the following day. The 40% crash was reported to be the biggest one-day drop since spring 2013.

The reason for this is attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, which is currently taking its toll on the global economy and has since reached the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin now sits at around the same price it did around this time last year, effectively wiping out any gains it made in the time since. The loss of value is only a fraction of what Bitcoin experienced in early 2018, when it fell from around $19,000 to around $6,400 over the course of two months.

Volatility has plagued Bitcoin since its inception, as investors have found it significantly difficult to invest in a cryptocurrency that fluctuates so wildly. Because of its ever-changing prices, that volatility has been a primary indicator of Bitcoin.

However, Denis Vinokourov, head of research at crypto exchange BeQuant, told Reuters that: “volatility is not an issue — it’s whether the technology can deal with the volatility.”

One of the problems cryptocurrency exchanges have is a lack of 'circuit breakers' that traditional stock echanges have to halt market activity when stock markes go into free fall when panic selling causes a widespred decline.

Furthermore, cyber attacks have dogged cryptocyrrency echanges, and prsent a technolgicla problem to overcome.

The coronavirus outbreak started to influence the tech industry in January when manufacturing was temporarily halted in China. Store closures and event cancellations followed as the virus spread to other parts of the world, and the stock market reflected the uncertain times.

On 9 March, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Amazon lost $321.6 billion in value between them, in what was reportedly the worst day for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis.

Facebook is reportedly planning to reinvent its Libra cryptocurrency, in a bid to seek the good will and favour of previously-sceptical banks and global regulators.

The social media giant announced its own stablecoin in June of last year, following months of speculation. Named after the Ancient Roman unit of weight, Libra was designed to allow the billions of Facebook users to send and receive payments without the need for a banking intermediary.

The news of the cryptocurrency was said to be welcomed by those seeking independence from traditional banking methods, but could also be seen as a life-changing opportunity for the 1.7 billion adults worldwide who do not have access to a bank account.

However, the backlash was swift, with experts pointing out Libra’s fundamental design flaws and Facebook being called to address possible data privacy considerations in front of the US Senate Banking Committee. Moreover, in the months before Libra was supposed to launch, it was reported that the project had failed to receive any funding, despite $10 million being expected from each of the Libra Association's 21 partnering firms.

That is why Bloomberg’s reports that Libra could be redesigned to accept coins issued by central banks should not come as a surprise.

According to two sources who spoke to the publication, Facebook and the Libra Association are currently reimagining the cryptocurrency “as mostly a payments network that could operate with multiple coins”.

According to a statement from Dante Disparte, The Libra Association’s head of policy and communications: “The Libra Association has not altered its goal of building a regulatory compliant global payment network, and the basic design principles that support that goal have not been changed nor has the potential for this network to foster future innovation.”

The news comes after Facebook called off its annual F8 developer conference due to growing concerns over the coronavirus. The virus has had an immense impact on the tech industry, ranging from factory closures and event cancellations to quarterly-revenue losses.

A new cryptocurrency is gaining momentum by giving its traders the morbid opportunity to bank on how many people fall ill or die from the coronavirus.

'CoronaCoin' might sound like something straight out of a technology-centric horror movie or an episode of Black Mirror, but it's reportedly a thriving cryptocurrency available on online exchanges such as Saturn.Network.

The cryptocurrency’s supply is based on the world population and its tokens are said to be diminished every 48 hours, updating its worth based on the rate of new cases.

According to the latest information from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the coronavirus, also known as the COVID-19, has infected over 87,000 people worldwide. Over the weekend, five more WHO-member countries had reported its first cases: Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Ireland, Monaco and Qatar.

The death toll is estimated to be just under 3,000, out of which 104 deaths were outside of the epicentre of the virus, China. This has prompted WHO to raise the coronavirus’ global spread and impact alert to “very high".

A user who identified himself as one of the developers, Sunny Kemp, told Reuters that “some people speculate a large portion of the supply will be burned due to the spread of the virus, so they invest”.

Speaking via chat on messaging app Telegram, Kemp claims that seven developers are involved, but more would be joining soon. Although he refused to identify them, he told Reuters that the cryptocurrency’s developers were based mostly in Europe.

CoronaCoin has been deemed by Twitter and Reddit users as an immoral attempt at monetising the coronavirus outbreak, with complete disregard for its victims. Nonetheless, Kemp also claimed that around 20% of the supply will be allocated for a monthly donation to the Red Cross, with the assistance of a well-known cryptocurrency payments processor.

Coronavirus concerns have negatively impacted quarterly revenues for numerous tech giants and continued to blight high-profile tech events, following the cancellations of MWC and the Facebook F8 conference.

The adoption of cryptocurrencies has surged in recent years. Unlike traditional monetary systems, they offer a more decentralised and secure approach for managing financial transactions. But with research showing that hackers profited from cryptocurrency-related crimes to the tune of more than $4 billion in 2019 alone, there’s clearly a significant security risk here. Which raises the question, are cryptocurrencies really that safe?

While cryptocurrencies are based on highly secure blockchain technology and use strong cryptographic techniques to ensure financial transactions can’t be hacked, other aspects of this ecosystem may not be as secure. Jake Moore, cyber security specialist at ESET, believes exchanges, wallets and human error all increase the threat of hacking.

“Cryptocurrencies have regularly been overshadowed by risk, whether it’s a story about their volatility or the possibility of being hacked. Not being policed in the same ways as banks leaves the users far more vulnerable to this risk but in my opinion that suffices. I believe people should only invest in something they know about and fully understand the risks,” Moore says.

As cryptocurrencies have become more popular over the past few years, the hacking threat has grown significantly. He adds: “There have been several high profile cryptocurrency attacks over the last couple of years in which cryptocurrency owners have lost their coins and been unable to get their currency back.”

Structural weaknesses

More recently, researchers at Kraken Security Labs discovered that hackers can take control of KeepKey cryptocurrency wallets within fifteen minutes by using a "voltage glitching". This enables attackers to extract encrypted seeds that are protected by a 1-9 digit pin. They claim that this pin is “trivial to brute force”.

But this type of attack isn’t easy, requiring specialised hardware and knowledge. Moore continues: “The complexity of this particular attack mentioned by Kraken Security Labs, however, means it cannot be done remotely as it requires physical access to the device making it far more difficult for the attacker.”

However, Moore points out that there are specific circumstances where this is possible, so shouldn’t be completely ignored. He adds: “KeepKey wallet owners can enable the KeepKey client’s passphrase functionality, which adds an additional layer of protection. It encrypts the seed words and creates a new wallet for every possible passphrase.”

Just like cryptocurrency wallets, exchanges play an important role in this industry but these too aren’t impenetrable to cyber criminals. Tyler Moffitt, senior threat research analyst at Webroot, goes as far as to advise people against storing their cryptocurrency in them due to a number of security vulnerabilities.

Moffitt explains: “Crypto enthusiasts store large amounts of money in their crypto holdings, and like to know that the option they've chosen to store their crypto is secure. Storing crypto in exchanges is a terrible idea because you are at the mercy of the exchange to keep your private keys safe. Plenty of people have been burned by hacked exchanges, and there is nothing that can be done to get that money back.”

Securing crypto wallets

With cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges both clearly vulnerable to attacks, what can users do to protect themselves?

Moffitt suggests hardware may be the answer. “Many people who have large amounts of crypto, totaling billions, store in hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger. They are renowned for being the most secure way to store crypto,” he says.

Professor Kevin Curran, senior IEEE member and professor of cybersecurity at Ulster University, also believes hardware could hold the answer, although according to him second factor authentication devices are the way forward.

“These devices can dramatically lower the risk of phishing attacks, as hackers would also need to gain physical access to the hardware as well,” he tells IT Pro. “Examples of such devices include YubiKey and Titan Security Keys.”

The downsides of these devices, according to Curran, is they often involve additional costs and require users to carry the device with them.

He adds: “Biometric, authenticator apps or hardware token solutions may not provide us with the complete authentication solution we need right now, to more fully secure our accounts and systems, but they will play an increasingly important role in the future. It is likely that, until some superior mechanism is created, proper multi-factor authentication via hardware security keys is the gold standard.”

Pascal Geenens, security evangelist at Radware, strikes a similar tone to Moffitt, advising never to put online what can be stored offline.“That advice is not limited to crypto keys, it goes for all sensitive data - think about scans of passports, which are still requested as proof of identity for banking products for example, and also with crypto exchanges for that matter,” he says.

“You have to remember that whatever is stored online is subject to being remotely snatched. I'm not saying it is easy to do, but the attack surface online is much larger and the threshold for trying is much lower for 'bad guys' than having to physically break into your home at the risk of being caught and exposing themselves to harm.”

Despite their volatility and shady reputation, interest in cryptocurrencies continues to grow. But anyone investing in or developing this technology needs to be aware of not just the inherent financial risks, but security threats too. Cryptocurrencies may be secure by design thanks to the blockchain technology that underpins them, but with hackers finding sophisticated ways to attack wallets and exchanges, taking mitigatory steps to stop criminals in their tracks is paramount.

Central banks are considering issuing their own digital currencies — and they've likely been encouraged by Facebook's Libra.

Several institutions have set up a new group to examine the issue of central bank digital currency (CBDC), including the Bank of England, central banks in Canada, Japan, Sweden and Switzerland, the European Central Bank and the Bank for International settlements. The US Federal Reserve, however, has opted not to join.

“The group will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies,” the central banks said in a statement.

Lead by Benoît Cœuré, head of the BIS Innovation Hub, and Jon Cunliffe, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, the group will look at economic and technical design choices — notably around cross-border interoperability — as well as potential use cases.

CBDC isn't quite the same as a cryptocurrency. Though digital currencies will likely also make use of blockchain and also require a "digital wallet" to be used, they are controlled centrally, just like existing cash. Indeed, digital currency is effectively the same as cash, but without a physical counterpart; that could make it ideal for cross-border transactions and digital payments.

The move is seen as a response to Facebook's Libra, its digital currency that is yet to launch. According to former Bank of Japan executive Hiromi Yamaoka — who led the bank's research into digital currencies but now works at a consulting firm — the central bankers will be looking to retain their power in the face of tech company competition.

"The latest decision [by the central banks] is not just about sharing information," Yamaoka told Reuters. "It’s also an effort to keep something like Libra in check."

“Something like Libra would make transactions costs much cheaper," he added. "Major central banks need to appeal that they, too, are making efforts to make settlement more efficient with better use of digital technology."

Facebook Libra has been the subject of regulatory questions in the US and Europe, sparking some of its backers to depart, including Visa and Mastercard — and now Vodafone, with the British mobile company saying it would continue to monitor the Libra Association's development and may rejoin in the future.

None of the $10 million expected from each of the Libra Association's 21 partnering firms has been paid to Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project, despite its projected launch in 2020.

A timeline for the fee was not on the docket for the Libra Association's first general assembly last week, and no formal financial agreement has yet been made, according to the BBC.

One association member said: "The feeling is that we needed to form, ratify a budget, and then figure out how to fund that budget, rather than the other way around."

Some high-profile partners including Visa and Mastercard abandoned the Libra project just before its executive board formed on 14 October. The companies cited concerns about Libra's regulation and stability as reasons for pulling their support, a decision made soon after lawmakers urged Libra payment providers to "proceed with caution".

Distrust in Facebook has played a significant role in the Libra project's stagnation. Though all members have equal say over the Libra Association's actions, some are still sceptical about how much influence Facebook actually has, and how it will shape the cryptocurrency's security given the company's history of data privacy violations.

According to the testimony submitted to the US House of Financial Services Committee, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will acknowledge this atmosphere of scepticism at his upcoming address at the US capitol, but will underplay the company's role in the voting process.

"The genesis for this idea was with Facebook and now one of its senior employees is a key board member," a congressional staffer noted in an email to CNBC, referring to the election of Facebook's vice president of messaging products, David Marcus, to one of five chairs on Libra's board of directors. "If Zuckerberg tries to downplay Facebook's leverage in the development of Libra, it will come off as disingenuous and not likely to be well received by members."

Zuckerberg has been pushing relentlessly for Libra's launch, and will reiterate in his address that "while we debate these issues the rest of the world isn't waiting", adding that "China is moving quickly to launch similar ideas in the coming months".

However, the projected launch of Libra in 2020 may simply be too ambitious for the pace of Libra's other partners, and moving ahead without proper regulation, a move Facebook's previous statements refused to rule out, may be another major reason for investors' hesitation.

Zuckerberg is also expected to revise his stance on proceeding without regulation when speaking to the House committee later, and will instead "support Libra delaying its launch until it has fully addressed US regulatory concerns."

Craig Wright, the Australian IT security consultant who has claimed to have invented Bitcoin, has been ordered by a US judge to hand over half his Bitcoin holdings to the estate of his alleged former business partner. The payout could be worth over $5 billion.

Wright was sued by the estate of David Kleiman, who died in 2013. The estate alleges that Wright and Kleiman were partners and that the estate is entitled to a share of the Bitcoin mined by the pair. The pair were involved with the cryptocurrency from 2009 to 2013.

In a US district court in Florida, it was ruled that half of the mined currency and intellectual property from that time belongs to Kleiman. However, it is not known just how much bitcoin Wright has and Wright has claimed that he is unable to access all of them.

According to reports from the Guardian, Wright told the court that many of the mined bitcoins were encrypted when the currency became associated with criminals and money laundering. Encryption keys used to scramble the bitcoins were divided up and given to Kleiman who then distributed them to other people through a trust.

Wright has said that the file containing bitcoins could not be decrypted until January 2020 when he gets a key from a bonded courier. Wright has made such a claim before when he alleged he was Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin.

Judge Bruce Rheinhart described his story as "inconceivable" and criticised his credibility as a witness.

"During his testimony, Dr. Wright's demeanor did not impress me as someone who was telling the truth. When it was favorable to him, Dr. Wright appeared to have an excellent memory and a scrupulous attention to detail. Otherwise, Dr. Wright was belligerent and evasive," Reinhart said.

The tech sector has warned the UK government "not to get complacent" about its status as a leader in fintech, according to a survey.

Leaders from the sector are concerned that the impact of Brexit and the potential lack of access to both talent and capital could see the country lose its position as the global leader in fintech.

Some 50 fintech founders took part in the survey with 63% suggesting the country was indeed the global leader in the sector. However, only 33% of the respondents said it would still be the case in the next five years.

The survey comes from the Digital Finance Forum and more than have of its respondents have called for the government to appoint a Secretary of State for Technology to save the UK's reputation as champions of fintech.

"The UK must not be complacent about being the world leader in Fintech and there's definitely a feeling from Fintech founders, as revealed through this survey that this threatens to be the case," said Christian Faes, chair of the Digital Finance Forum.

"There is clearly an opportunity with the new government to make the fintech sector a priority again."

Faes added that the aim of the Digital Finance Forum is to facilitate dialogue and asking those who are building the fintech sector, what they think and how the government might be able to help.

However, one area that is causing concern, to which the government is currently dealing with, is Brexit. In the survey, 69% of founders said they were worried about the impact the UK's exit from the EU will have on their businesses. What's more, 66% want reform to the visa system to encourage highly skilled workers into the sector.

I never thought I'd find myself in absolute agreement with US president Donald Trump. Whether it's a sign of a changed man or just simply the law of averages, Trump's latest Twitter tirade has, for the most part, shown a remarkable degree of foresight.

Yesterday, Trump spent part of his evening expressing his unsolicited take on cryptocurrencies, arguing that the likes of bitcoin are valued "based on thin air" and are responsible for a rise in drug trafficking and other illegal activities. He also took a swipe at Facebook's new crypto project Libra, which he argues will have "little standing or dependability" unless it is subject to banking regulations.

It's worth noting that I have always been in favour of cryptocurrencies, at least in concept. The notion of an alternative to traditional banking could prove to be revolutionary, and the spirit of crypto greater control over money and better access to financial services for more of the world's population is still a commendable worthwhile vision.

Yet, whether it's a genuinely held belief or the opinion of someone whispering in his ear, Trump is right in his cynicism of crypto. Bitcoin, in particular, has proved too volatile to be useful as a long term payment method and, let's face it, is only celebrated by those who were shrewd enough to invest early. In fact, I was unable to suppress a shudder when I read this week that the Winklevoss twins, brothers who raked in a fortune from the surging price of bitcoin, had congratulated Mark Zuckerberg on the Libra project with the message: "Welcome to the party".

When it comes to Trump's comments on Libra, however, the issue is less about volatility and more about a lack of trust. Trump is right when he says the Libra Association needs to be subject to regulations if it's to have any clout though I suspect our reasoning differs somewhat. Regardless of your attitude towards current banking regulations, at least they enforce some semblance of accountability for new companies entering the market.

The Libra Association, with its plans to connect billions of users around the world with a virtual currency, currently sits outside the jurisdiction of any authority. There is no oversight governing what it can and can't do, or dictate what sort of services and terms it can offer. That may be welcomed by those that celebrate the decentralised nature of bitcoin, but, for me, that's troubling. Let's not forget, the Libra Association is covered in the stink of a social media company that has, over the course of a single year, comprehensively destroyed its reputation and eroded all trust in its platform.

This deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny is what I have issue with. I simply don't trust a project of this kind to protect an individual's data and money, and it seems that regulators across the globe don't either. There are already reports that the project could be blocked in India, and the US Federal Reserve is calling on a halt to its development until risks can be assessed. Facebook likely anticipated this backlash, which is possibly why the project was announced in advance of its 2020 launch date.

One Libra investor perhaps put it best when he told CNBC that many countries are "freaked out about the ruthless amoral Facebook vampire squid having its tentacles jammed into their countries control of currency and banking systems". This is from a guy who is actively supporting its development.

On this one issue, Trump is absolutely right. I never thought I'd say those words.

Scottish craft beer sensation BrewDog has opened up its long-running investment scheme to crypto enthusiasts, allowing potential investors to purchase shares with a variety of cryptocurrencies.

The Equity For Punks scheme, which is now in its fifth round of funding, has so far attracted more than 100,000 investors and raised in excess of 70 million for the company's expansion.

In addition to more conventional forms of payment, the scheme is now accepting Ripple, Ethereum, Litecoin, 0x, Qtum, Augur, OmiseGO, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV, and any investors who invest via cryptocurrencies will receive a six-pack of the company's limited-edition Cryptonite west coast IPA. The current funding round has also been extended to April next year.

"Our Equity Punks are our community, our shareholders and our friends and the driving force behind our business," said BrewDog founder James Watt. "The growth BrewDog has shown over the last decade could only have been achieved with their encouragement and support and together we have shown the city slickers what can be achieved with taking charge of something you believe in. Cryptocurrency is exactly the same. If you embrace change to subvert the mainstream we are in your corner; whether your weapons of choice are malt, hops, yeast and water or blockchain."

The company, which operates more than 80 physical bars and venues worldwide, has courted crypto markets in the past, accepting cryptocurrency payments in its Canary Wharf bar, although a representative said "this is the only bar we offer this in for now".

The cryptocurrency industry has been experiencing changes recently, with Facebook attempting to muscle in on the nascent market with the launch of Libra and the G20 world leaders approving new regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges designed to fight money laundering and terrorism.

Dozens of world's largest retail chains have started accepting cryptocurrencies as a means for paying for goods in physical stores, with initial support for bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and gemini dollar payments.

US retailers including Starbucks, Whole Foods, Game Stop, Nordstrom, and Jamba Juice have partnered with mobile payments firm Flexa, which has built a new network capable of simplifying the payment process.

Payments are handled using Flexa's mobile app Spedn, which has a user's cryptocurrency wallet attached. The app generates a QR code that can be scanned at the checkout, which then prompts a payment transfer from the attached wallet to the store, converting the payment into dollars along the way.

Although the app only supports a handful of cryptocurrencies at launch, the plan is to provide support for any token at any store.

What makes the process so compelling is that payments are issued immediately to the retailer, something which is typically difficult to achieve with cryptocurrency payments. In order to do this, the Flexa network has developed its own token, known as the FlexaCoin, with the network acting as a middle man for the process.

Once the QR code has been scanned, the network will pay the store immediately using the FlexaCoin as collateral, and will then start the much slower process of debiting cryptocurrencies from the user's wallet.

What this means in that stores need only sign up to officially support the app, without having to do any of the legwork required to support the network, such as setting up their own cryptocurrency wallets.

Currently, the system is only available in the US, but given that a number of the stores involved are global chains, it's possible we could see UK stores supporting the payment option in the near future.

The announcement coincides with a partial market resurgence. Bitcoin has surged by almost $3,000 since the start of May, with similar percentage gains across ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin.

26/04/2019: Bitcoin price drops 6.4% amid Bitfinix allegations

New York's Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against iFenix inc., the owner and operator of the Bitfenix cryptocurrency exchange and Tether, the company behind the stablecoin of the same name for allegedly covering up fraudulent activity.

James alleges that Bitfinix failed to inform authorities that it allegedly lost $850 million of its customer's money and then tapped into $700 million from the $900 million-strong reserve cash of Tether, the stablecoin it effectively owns in order to replace it in the hope that the State of New York wouldn't notice.

Tether is a stablecoin that many traders use and rely on for liquidity in markets; if the allegations prove true then the valuation of the coin and its users' assets will plummet, proving the long-questioned monetary reserve backing of Tether correct.

The knock-on effect of this resulted in a massive decline in valuation across all cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin which dropped 6.4% to a valuation $5,143 but has since risen to $5,288 at the time of writing - around a $400 drop since the start of the week.

03/04/2019: Bitcoin price rises 20% due to mysterious mass investor

Bitcoin surged to its highest price since November on Tuesday, pulling other 'altcoins' up with it thanks to an anonymous person buying a large amount of the oldest and highly volatile cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin rose up to 20% according to Asian trading, reaching a $5,000 valuation for the first time since mid-November 2018 but then later settled at $4,800 which still marked the biggest one-day rise in a year.

The massive order from an anonymous buyer totalling around $100 million kickstarted a crazed trading period whereby investors tried to capitalise on the sudden and unexpected upturn of the coin's valuation.

The big order of roughly 20,000 BTC was spread across various exchanges: Coinbase, Kraken and Luxembourg's Bitstamp said Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, chief executive of cryptocurrency firm BCB Group.

Analysts have been unable to pinpoint with any certainty to any specific reasons why the mysterious buyer chose to buy so much of the crypto at this time specifically.

Bitcoin's underlings Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), the second and third most popular cryptocurrencies respectively also saw surges in their valuations as a direct result of the recent Bitcoin investment - both ETH and XRP soared by more than 10%.

Prices of lesser coins tend to be linked with developments to Bitcoin, which still holds over half the value of the entire crypto market.

28/02/2019: Samsung S10 to feature Bitcoin wallet

Samsung has confirmed its latest flagship phone the Galaxy S10 will feature a cold-storage cryptocurrency wallet.

Among a host of upgrades, the Galaxy S10 and S10+ will allow its users to securely store digital currencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as host a number of decentralised apps (dApps).

Samsung confirmed the new feature at one of its business sessions during Mobile World Congress this week, according to CoinDesk Korea.

Although a handful of 'blockchain phones' already exist, Samsung's device will become the first mainstream handset that can support the most widely-used cryptocurrencies when it begins shipping in March.

Little information about the specifics around how the cold-storage wallet works have come to light, but the South Korean tech giant hinted at the feature at its launch event for the Galaxy S10 last week.

"Galaxy S10 is built with defence-grade Samsung Knox, as well as a secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services," the event's accompanying press release briefly stated.

HTC in announced plans to build a blockchain-powered phone, dubbed the Exodus 1, similarly featuring a cold-storage wallet, last May. The handset, which has already been released, comes packaged with a universal wallet and hardware support for all major cryptocurrencies as well as dApps.

This followed Foxconn's announcement in April that it aimed to release its own blockchain-centric phone that would run on similar technology. This 5.5in handset, which was released in November, also features 64GB internal storage and 6GB RAM with a 12MP main camera and a 13MP front-facing camera.

Previous Bitcoin news

21/11/18: Bitcoin plummets to one-year low as market decline continues

The crypto that reached dizzying heights in 2017 has fallen further in value to a new 2018 low of $4,387 (3,432), taking its total losses to nearly 30% in the past week.

Bitcoin enjoyed a period of stability in September and October this year, hovering steadily in the $6,000 to $7,000 range but dropped suddenly below $5,600 (4,733), making it the lowest value since October 2017 at the time.

Bitcoin price from previous seven days (14/11/2018 - 21/11/2018) according to CoinMarketCap

The news comes in stark contrast to predictions from Bitcoin enthusiasts and Fundstrat Global Advisors' Tom Lee about the potential for the cryptocurrency to rise to an impressive high before the year is out.

In an interview with CNBC, Lee maintains that Bitcoin can reach a year-end value of $15,000 dollars, reducing his original prediction by $10,000. "There's a few things that could happen that could drive [a price increase], Lee said, without detailing hat these were.

"But these past few days have definitely been a negative development because we're talking about breaking to the downside of momentum."

The hard fork to Bitcoin Cash is expected to have played a contributing factor into the initial slump last week. The cryptocurrency born out of a hard fork to Bitcoin in August 2017, was forked on Thursday, splitting it into two separate blockchains.

Cryptocurrencies get hard forked only when the vast majority of the mining community associated with that currency is in favour. In Bitcoin's case, developers wanted to raise the block size limit, theoretically allowing for more, faster transactions on the new and upgraded blockchain.

15/11/2018: Bitcoin plummets to one-year low as market decline continues

The price of Bitcoin has slumped below $5,600 (4,377) for the first time in over a year on Wednesday, equating to 10% drop in its total value.

In a significant turn following a period of stability in recent months, which saw it hover between $7,000 and $6,000, the world's most funded cryptocurrency hit its lowest price point in since October 2017, stabilising at $5,322 (4,160) on Wednesday evening.

Bitcoin price (April-November 2018) according to CoinMarketCap

Experts suggest that the slump was expected and that an upcoming hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, expected on Thursday, has created widespread uncertainty across the market. This echoes Bitcoin Cash's own creation when it split from Bitcoin in July 2017.

Following Bitcoin's plummet, other leading cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, also experienced drops of around 17%.

"It's safe to say that bitcoin cash's upcoming hard fork stirring uncertainty among crypto investors, and forecasters across crypto and traditional markets alike have predicted a prolonged bear market heading into 2019," said Donald Bullers, North American representative for the blockchain firm Elastos, in an email to The Independent.

2017 saw unprecedented demand for Bitcoin, seeing the currency surge from a $1,000 valuation to nearly $20,000 in a year. However, like most trends, it seems the hype has ebbed away, as the coin has endured a 60% drop in valuation over the course of 2018.

19/09/2018: MPs urge government to tame crypto "Wild West"

MPs have urged the government to reign in what is being described a "Wild West" cryptocurrency market, with calls for regulations to help protect against volatile price swings, anonymous activity and security vulnerabilities.

In February, the Treasury Committee announced it would be launching an investigation into the risks of cryptocurrencies for investors and the UK economy, in a bid to "scrutinise the regulatory response" from authorities.

The government's current approach to regulations has now been criticised for being too ambiguous and unsustainable in the long term, in the final report released on Wednesday.

The report argued that regulations would lead to better protections for consumers, enable sustainable growth for the market as a whole, and help reduce the risks associated with hacking and lost account details.

If enacted, Britain could become a "global centre for crypto-assets", the report added.

"Bitcoin and other crypto-assets exist in the Wild West industry of crypto-assets. This unregulated industry leaves investors facing numerous risks," said Nicky Morgan MP, chair of the Treasury Committee.

"It's unsustainable for the Government and regulators to bumble along issuing feeble warnings to potential investors, yet refrain from acting. If the Government decides that crypto-asset growth should be encouraged, appropriate and proportionate regulation could see the UK become a global centre for this activity."

The cryptocurrency industry relies largely on self-regulated bodies which adhere to a code of practice, however, this is voluntary and will inevitably lead to companies abusing the system, the report found. The Committee suggested at a minimum regulation should be introduced to address the risk of money laundering.

Interestingly, the Committee also hinted at the possibility of a deliberate stifling of the market, urging the government to assess whether the growth of cryptocurrencies should be encouraged in the context of the wider economy.

However, if regulatory action is favoured, online exchanges are likely to be the first target. Exchanges, where customers buy and sell cryptocurrencies, have featured in a number of high profile data breaches over the past year, companies which lacked any form of payment insurance, leaving customers out of pocket.

The report also assessed the feasibility of blockchain, the underlying technology that supports most cryptocurrencies on the market. While it found that development has been slow, costly to set up and often consumes large amounts of energy, there are potential use cases for the storage and management of data in the long term.

The European Union has similarly avoided introducing regulations to the market, largely due to its relative infancy.

06/09/2018: Billions wiped from Bitcoin in less than an hour

The price of Bitcoin fell over $500 in the space of an hour earlier this morning during a sudden market slump that put every major cryptocurrency into the red.

Every one of the world's top 100 most traded cryptocurrencies was hit by the price crash, with most trading around 20% below their value just one day ago.

Bitcoin prices according to CoinMarketCap

The cause of the crash isn't clear but it seems to coincide with an announcement from Goldman Sachs that it will be ditching plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading platform.

A number of major sell-offs occurred shortly before the announcement, leading some to speculate on Twitter that investors may have had insider knowledge of the decision.

The slump saw billions wiped off the market value, with Bitcoin alone losing just over $9 billion within 60 minutes of trading. Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Monero and Litecoin all fell either just below or above 18%.

It's yet another blow for a market that's struggled to recover from a major crash in January, which saw the value of many cryptocurrencies effectively cut in half. Since that time, the market has seen similar, albeit less dramatic slumps, keeping the price of Bitcoin down between $5,000 and $7,000 -- a far cry from the $19,300 mark it enjoyed in December last year.

However, Bitcoin evangelists have celebrated the currencies relative stability over the past few months and, despite occasional slumps, maintain that the cryptocurrency is still capable of hitting $20,000 by the end of 2018.

23/08/2018: Following a shocking period of decline for virtual currency Bitcoin's value, it has finally started rising again, after traders took advantage of rival platform BitMEX's schedule maintenance.

When the alternative cryptocurrency went down and was therefore inaccessible for traders, Bitcoin's value simultaneously rose from around $6,450 to nearly $6,900 almost instantly as cryptocurrency speculators rushed to buy Bitcoin.

When maintenance on the BitMEX platform was finished, some users said they were still struggling to access the service, allowing Bitcoin to continue stabilising (although it did hit the high of $6,858.61 before declining again slightly). The company later revealed this was due to a DDoS attack, although it seems the system is back up and running now.

The price of Bitcoin according to Coinmarketcap.com

By the end of the day, the digital currency was almost back to its starting price, although analysts and digital currency commentators said this indicates that maybe Bitcoin's days aren't over and there is hope that it'll hit $10,000 again this year. Bitcoin is still down 66% compared to its $20,000 value at the tail-end of last year.

Other digital currencies also rose when BitMEX went down, although not to the same extent as Bitcoin. For example, Ethereum rose 1.72% to trade at $298.91, Ripple rose by 8.61% and Litecoin's value increased by 1.59% to hit $57.83.

07/08/2018: Bitcoin's value has fallen below $7,000 for the first time, following a 19-day drop - with other cryptocurrencies following suit.

This is the first time since July that Bitcoin's value has been sub $7,000, following a steady stream of increases and putting the year-to-date decline at 60%. Over the last two weeks, the cryptocurrency has dropped by 17% and over just three days has lost 48.76% of its value.

The price of Bitcoin according to CoinMarketCap

At its lowest point, Bitcoin hit $6,933.09 according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). Although not as low as the year's low, which was $5785.43 in June. However, just one month later, the currency hit the annual high of $8,479.33.

One of the reasons Bitcoin may have dropped so suddenly is the news that Starbucks is set to team up with Intercontinental Exchange to bring together digital currencies and commerce. This seems to worried some as to what it means for traditional currency.

"If you really dig into it, the service would allow customers to convert their cryptocurrency at the time they're making the purchase," said Ryan Taylor, chief executive officer of Dash Core explained to Bloomberg. "They're clarifying that 'hey, we're not getting into cryptocurrency speculation here -- we're accepting dollars, same as we always have.'"

This trend shows the real volatile nature of cryptocurrencies. In fact, it's not just Bitcoin suffering from losses either. At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 1.48%, XRP by 5.23% and Litecoin down 3.37%.

24/07/201: City of London police get cryptocurrency training

The City of London Police is teaching officers to understand cryptocurrencies, as more criminals turn to them as a method of fraud and money laundering.

The new one day course, called Cryptocurrencies for Investigators, is the first of its kind in the UK and will be taught by the force's Economic Crime Academy (ECA).

"In recent years the cryptocurrency market has grown considerably, with more and more people using it and investing their money," said Mike Betts, head of skills and development at the ECA.

"However, this surge in popularity has also given rise to more fraud in this area, with criminals identifying cryptocurrencies as a new way to defraud people and steal their money, and also launder money."

Officers who successfully complete the course will be able to understand how to detect, seize and investigate the use of cryptocurrencies and will be able to explain the investigative opportunities available to recover and trace them. The course also covers the criminal use of cryptocurrencies and the legal framework relevant to digital currency investigation.

So far the ECA has delivered a successful pilot course to City of London Police officers, with another scheduled in August for a regulatory body partner. It is hoped that the course will then be rolled out nationally in autumn.

"The Economic Crime Academy continues to develop national and international courses in response to emerging threats and this new course will provide training to counter the growing risks that cryptocurrencies pose," Betts added.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used by criminals who value the lack of transparency around transactions, as well as the difficulty of tracing money flows. A recent incident saw the Indian Bitcoin exchange Coinsecure hit by a devastating cryptocurrency heist in April, where thieves made off with $3.3 million worth of digital coins.

The company posted an announcement on its homepage in April telling users that its systems had been breached and that the attackers had stolen around 438 bitcoin ($3.3 million).

18/7/2018: Bitcoin value soars above $7,000

Bitcoin grew above a $7,000 valuation yesterday, in what was one of the cryptocurrency's biggest upswings in over a year.

The volatile digital currency sunk below $10,000 in March after reaching to close to $20,000 a coin at the end of 2017, thanks to a combination of regulatory actions and warnings.

It's difficult to point to the exact reason for the rise, up from around $6,300 on Monday, but Bitcoin has had positive regulatory news in the market for digital currencies recently, and incoming Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon has said the bank wants to add more digital currency services.

Explaining the rally in Forbes, blockchain investor and advisor Oliver Isaacs pointed to positive developments and the impact they had on the markets.

"I think we are starting to see a strong positive shift in sentiment," he said. "Major recent positive news includes the CFA examination adding blockchain topics to its curriculum, a move that is most certainly going bring widespread knowledge and exposure of digital assets to Wall Street.

"In addition, Coinbase, which is the largest exchange in the world, has just been approved to list securities, representing significant progress in its bid to operate as an officially regulated crypto broker-dealer".

This is a rare upswing in the price of Bitcoin, which fell to its lowest point in eight months at the end of June, where the cryptocurrency dipped below $5,800, a price not seen since early November.

Such is the influence of Bitcoin on the market, the fall in value has been felt by almost every other major cryptocurrency.

29/06/2018: Bitcoin drops to eight-month low, wipes out end-of-year price surge

The price of Bitcoin has now fallen to its lowest point in eight months, officially undoing all the gains it made during its unprecedented climb at the end of 2017.

This week the cryptocurrency dipped below $5,800, a price not seen since early November.

The world's most funded cryptocurrency made headlines across mainstream media for its dramatic surge in value that saw the value of one virtual coin rise from around $1,000 at the start of 2017, to just under $20,000 by December.

Data courtesy of coinmarketcap.com

The hype created a buzz of interest among short-term investors looking for a quick return, despite warnings from financial institutions that the currency's volatility would almost certainly result in mass losses.

Those losses came following a sudden market sell-off between January and February that saw almost $8,000 wiped off the currency, and despite the occasional modest resurgence, Bitcoin has essentially been in free fall ever since.

Given the influence Bitcoin exerts on the market, the fall in value has been felt by almost every other major cryptocurrency.

Ether is currently priced at $416, while Bitcoin Cash, a currency created as a result of a fork in Bitcoin, is valued at $665, both of which hold a similar position held before the late November price surge.

A handful of currencies, including Ripple at $0.44, still retain some of their gains, however, these are a fraction of the prices seen in December.

The market has come under increased pressure from regulatory bodies seeking to protect investors from a volatile industry, while a series of breaches to cryptocurrency exchanges have undermined the trust that investments will remain secure.

28/06/2018: Facebook drops cryptocurrency ad ban

Facebook is to reverse a decision on banning cryptocurrency ads running on its social network.

The social network will immediately allow advertisers to promote cryptocurrency products again, backtracking on a previous decision to block them.

However, it said that advertisers wishing to do so must submit an application to help Facebook assess their eligibility including any licenses they have obtained, whether they are traded on a public stock exchange, and other relevant public background on their business.

"Given these restrictions, not everyone who wants to advertise will be able to do so. But we'll listen to feedback, look at how well this policy works and continue to study this technology so that, if necessary, we can revise it over time," said Rob Leathern, product management director at Facebook.

Facebook brought in the ban in January. At the time it said that too many firms were "not currently operating in good faith". It added that the ban was "intentionally broad" while it worked to better detect deceptive and misleading advertising practices.

While the ban has been partially rescinded, Facebook continues to prohibit ads that promote binary options - where traders bet on a market movement for a set amount of money - and initial coin offerings. It added that users of the social network should continue to report content that violates its Advertising Policies by selecting "report ad" in the upper right-hand corner of any advertisement.

Bitcoin has suffered a fall in its value to just above $6,000 after more than $20 million in Bitcoin was seized from illegal vendors on the Darknet by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the US. According to a statement released by the DoJ, the operation involved the Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Postal Inspection Service, and was the nation's "first nationwide undercover operation targeting darknet vendors".

Law enforcement officials also seized illegal drugs, firearms, $3.6 million in cash and gold bars.

The digital currency could plummet further to $5,000 before summer ends, according to the Express, due to tough regulation in Japan and the hacking of some exchanges across Europe.

18/06/2018: Bitcoin could never replace flat currency, says central banking authority

Bitcoin could never replace fiat currency because it is a poor substitute for the institutional backing of money, according to a report from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

In a report called Cryptocurrencies: Looking beyond the hype, the Swiss-based umbrella group for the world's central banks rejected the notion that Bitcoin and blockchain could ever replicate bank-backed currencies on a national retail scale because they are 'unstable', and would struggle with the scale of transactions people make.

"The key issue with cryptocurrencies is their unstable value. This arises from the absence of a central issuer with a mandate to guarantee the currency's stability," BIS said in its report, a reference to Bitcoin's fluctuating value - it has fallen from a near-$10,000 valuation in early May to just $6,458 today.

"Well-run central banks succeed in stabilising the domestic value of their sovereign currency by adjusting the supply ... in line with transaction demand," BIS's report added. "They do so at high frequency, in particular during times of market stress but also during normal times." This ability to boost the number of currency tokens in circulation isn't possible with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which generally have a hard limit for the total number of tokens it is possible to create, and which become increasingly difficult to mine.

BIS also said that cryptocurrencies are also vulnerable to a breakdown in confidence because trust can evaporate at any time due to the fragility of the decentralised consensus through which transactions are recorded - where far-flung people confirm and record transactions via blockchain's distributed public ledger.

In addition, the bank suggests that using a blockchain to process a nation's daily volume of retail payments would prove too much for the typical storage capabilities of current smartphones.

"Even under optimistic assumptions, the size of the ledger would swell well beyond the storage capacity of a typical smartphone in a matter of days, beyond that of a typical personal computer in a matter of weeks and beyond that of servers in a matter of months," BIS said.

The report claims that "only supercomputers" possess the processing power needed to conduct every retail transaction on a blockchain, and even if there were sufficient supercomputers to create a decentralized network, millions of users would exchange files on the order of a magnitude of a terabyte. This massive volume of communication volume would impact the internet, according to the report.

16/05/2018: HTC planning to build blockchain phone

HTC is planning to build a new blockchain-powered phone featuring a built-in cryptocurrency wallet.

The touted Android device, known as Exodus, will come packaged with a universal wallet and hardware support for all major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as well as featuring decentralised applications.

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC is aiming to sync its Exodus devices to a native blockchain network, with each device acting as nodes, enabling cryptocurrency trading among users with ease.

Head HTC's business and corporate development Phil Chen, who founded the company's virtual reality system Vive, outlined these plans in an interview with The Next Web, also providing provisional schematics.

"Through Exodus, we are excited to be supporting underlying protocols such as Bitcoin, Lightning Networks, Ethereum, Dfinity, and more," Chen said. "We would like to support the entire blockchain ecosystem, and in the next few months we'll be announcing many more exciting partnerships together."

HTC's latest innovation follows in the footsteps of electronic manufacturing giant Foxconn, which last month announced it had agreed to build a blockchain-powered device developed by Sirin Labs.

The Finney, which is expected to ship in October, features a 'cold storage' crypto wallet, enabled via a physical switch, that, when flicked, immediately turns off all unencrypted communications - meaning the crypto wallet will be offline unless deliberately activated.

HTC's announcement continues a recent trend of companies taking up blockchain technology in a bid to refresh and enhance their products and services - with a range of sectors, from finance to automotive, indulging in the new technology's appeal.

Automakers such as BMW, Ford, Groupe Renault and General Motors, for instance, earlier this month came together to form a consortium that will explore how blockchain can reinvent mobility and address industry shifts.

But KPMG, meanwhile, believes blockchain still remains in the "hype stage" with results not expected till at least 2019 at the earliest.

Speaking to IT Pro in February, KPMG head of tech growth Patrick Imbach said: "I'm not sure actually whether some sort of tangible use-cases and commercial models based on blockchain technologies will evolve over the next months.

"We're still a little bit early in that process, I wouldn't expect any exciting commercial opportunities to arise in large numbers any time soon - in the UK, particularly."

The use and exchange of cryptocurrencies have been largely unregulated to date - but a handful of regulatory bodies have indicated plans to provide some oversight on trading in future, with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) last month announcing its intention to launch a regulatory review of cryptocurrencies.

30/04/2018: Unicef wants to use your CPU to mine cryptocurrency

Unicef wants to borrow your computer's processing power for a good cause - mining cryptocurrency.

Any digital coins the children's charity successfully mines via its Hopepage, which people can visit to 'donate' their CPU, are automatically donated to the charity's Australian arm, Unicef Australia, and spent on life-saving supplies such as clean water, food and vaccines for vulnerable children.

People can choose the level of processing power they want to let Unicef use, and Unicef can borrow it as long as users stay on its mining page.

"We wanted to leverage new emerging technologies to raise awareness about current humanitarian crises and raise funds to support children caught up in them," said Unicef Australia's director of fundraising and communication, Jennifer Tierney.

"We don't have a target in minas it is the first time a product like this is developed for the market. We're hoping to raise thousands, and we're asking people in Australia to make the Unicef Hopepage their homepage."

The donations platform is powered by Coinhive's AuthedMine.com, which offers a mining tool for the digital currency Monero that can be embedded into other websites. By donating CPU, Unicef is able to use processing power in bulk to solve complex equations that reward successful miners with new coins they can spend.

The Hopepage is currently supporting the charity's response to the Rohingya crisis and follows on from Unicef's previous cryptocurrency-driven fundraising platform, Game Chaingers, which started earlier this year.

Game Chaingers used cryptocurrency mining as a method to help raise donations for Syrian children caught up in the country's ongoing conflict, by asking gamers to install Claymore to generate Ethereum.

Salon recently asked readers using ad-blockers to allow it to mine cryptocurrencies with their spare processing power instead.

Picture: Shutterstock

13/04/2018: Indian Bitcoin exchange lost $3.3m in cryptocurrency heist

Indian Bitcoin exchange Coinsecure has confirmed it was hit by a devastating cryptocurrency heist, which saw crooks make off with $3.3 million worth of digital coins.

On Thursday, the company posted an announcement on its homepage telling users that its systems had been breached and that the attackers had stolen around 438 bitcoin ($3.3 million).

It announced the news in the form of a written statement penned by the Coinsecure team, as well as a copy of a complaint issued to New Delhi Police by CEO Mohit Kaira.

"Our system itself has never been compromised or hacked, and the current issue points towards losses caused during an exercise to extract BTG [Bitcoin Gold] to distribute to our customers, " said the firm in a statement.

Dr Saxena, chief security officer at Coinsecure, alerted Kaira that the exchange had been hit by "some attack" which had resulted in funds being "stolen from the company's bitcoin wallet".

"Our CSO, Dr. Amitabh Saxena, was extracting BTG and he claims that funds have been lost in the process during the extraction of the private keys," explained the company.

However, Kaira is not buying this story and has accused Saxena of orchestrating the entire heist. In the police complaint, he claims that Saxena is "making a false story to divert attention and might have a role to play in this entire incident".

The CEO explained that the "user funds are securely kept in our bitcoin wallet". Only Karia and Saxena have access to the private keys for the wallet.

He added: "The incident reported by Dr. Amitabh Saxena does not seem convincing to us." Kaira is also urging the authorities to cancel his passport because he "might fly out of the country soon".

The news comes as the Reserve Bank of India has implemented a new rule banning banks and other financial organisations from accepting cryptocurrencies.

B.P. Kanungo, deputy governor of the bank, said: "We have decided to ring-fence the RBI regulated entities from the risk of dealing with entities associated with virtual currencies.

"They are required to stop having a business relationship with the entities dealing with virtual currencies forthwith and unwind the existing relationship within a period of three months."

Max Heinemeyer, director of threat hunting at cyber security firm Darktrace, said it is becoming increasingly difficult for the police to handle cryptocurrency-related crime.

"There used to be a money trail that law-enforcement could trace back to offenders. Cryptocurrencies allow anonymous monetary transactions, basically eliminating the traceable money trail that was the biggest challenge for a lot of cyber-criminals in the past," he said.

"Criminals are notoriously adaptable and will follow the money wherever it goes, leading to an increase in the popularity of cryptojacking."

06/04/18: Monex confirms Coincheck buyout

Japanese online currency exchange Monex is to acquire Coincheck, a cryptocurrency exchange that became notorious earlier this year for suffering a major security breach.

The deal, which was first rumoured earlier this week, will cost Monex 3.6 billion yen (24 million) but give it full control over the company, with the current CEO and COO stepping down and Monex's CEO Toshihiko Katsuya taking over as head of the business.

Monex has had no dealings in Bitcoin or any kind of cryptocurrency previously, but the acquisition will give it a foot in the door of this increasingly lucrative market.

In a statement reported by CCN, Monex said: "We recognise blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies as next-generation technologies and platforms which are likely to drastically change the way people approach money."

"[T]he cryptocurrency exchange business plays a core part in a vision of 'MONEX's new beginning'. Therefore, the Company has resolved on 100% share acquisition of Coincheck which has been a pioneer among cryptocurrency exchanges," it added.

Coincheck has something of a chequered past, having fallen victim to a massive hack in January this year. The incident saw thieves take 523 million units of the digital currency NEM, which at the time was valued at $547 million (390 million), exceeding the infamous hack that brought down Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in 2014 and making it possibly the most expensive hack ever.

The company ended up paying its 260,000 customers a total of $440 million (313 million) in compensation for the loss and was ordered by Japanese financial authorities to tighten up its security.

Addressing this issue in its acquisition statement, Monex said: "We aim to build a secure business environment for customers by fully backing up Coincheck's enhancement process."

05/04/2018: Foxconn plans to manufacture 'blockchain phone'

Electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn has agreed to build a blockchain-centric phone that will help its owners securely store and trade cryptocurrency.

Developed by Sirin Labs, the device - dubbed Finney - will run the Android-based Sirin OS, and act as a device to securely store cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero and convert cash from one cryptocurrency to another.

The phone will also feature a 'cold storage' crypto wallet, enabled via a physical switch, that, when flicked, immediately turns off all unencrypted communications - meaning the crypto wallet will be offline unless deliberately activated.

Furthermore, as Sirin OS makes use of the distributed ledger consensus found in blockchain systems, it is claimed to be fully tamper proof.

Accompanying a sleek design, provisional hardware specs include a 5.5in display, 64GB internal storage, 6GB of RAM with a 12MP main camera and 13MP front-facing camera.

The phone is expected to ship in October, with Sirin aiming to sell between 100,000 units to a few million in 2018, potentially adding to more than 25,000 pre-orders. Moreover, the device will initially be sold in eight new stores located in regions with the most active crypto communities, from Vietnam to Turkey, according to Bloomberg.

Foxconn, as one of the world's biggest electronics manufacturers, is known for producing some of the world's best-selling products - from iPhones to Kindles - and recently diversified its portfolio by agreeing a deal to purchase Belkin for $866 million.

But according to auditors KPMG, blockchain still remains in the "hype stage" with results not expected till at least 2019 at the earliest.

Speaking to IT Pro in February, KPMG head of tech growth Patrick Imbach said: "I'm not sure actually whether some sort of tangible use-cases and commercial models based on blockchain technologies will evolve over the next months.

"We're still a little bit early in that process, I wouldn't expect any exciting commercial opportunities to arise in large numbers any time soon - in the UK, particularly."

Finney is Sirin Labs' second smartphone device following the release of Solarin in 2016.

Marketed as an ultra-secure smartphone, Solarin was priced at $14,000, a princely sum compared to Finney's relatively modest pre-order price of $999. Users will also be able to pre-order Finney using SRN, Sirin's own token, at a discounted price.

04/04/2018: Monex considers buying Coincheck

Monex, a commercial foreign exchange service, has expressed an interest in buying Coincheck, the bitcoin business that was the victim of a huge digital money theft earlier this year.

If the deal, which was first reported by Reuters goes ahead, it will give Monex the opportunity to use Coincheck's trading platform and snipe its customers, transitioning them to its products instead, although it's unclear how many customers Coincheck has at present.

Monex, however, currently has 1.74 million customers and is estimated to hold 4.3 trillion yen (28 billion) in customer currency. At present, it doesn't have a cryptocurrency business, but has realised the potential and will look to Coincheck to provide guidance. Coincheck is estimated to be the fifth largest crypto currency exchange in Japan, which would give Monex quite the start to its virtual currency business.

It's thought that up to 380 million worth of digital currency was stolen from Coincheck in a high-profile attack in January, although the company hasn't formally revealed how much was taken. It did, however, pay back investors hit by the cyber attack 46 billion yen (307 million) from its own reserves.

Following the theft, the Japanese authorities came down hard on all the country's digital currency providers, accusing them of being lax over customer data protection and money laundering regulations.

27/03/2018: Twitter has said it will join Facebook and Google in banning adverts for initial coin offerings on its platform over concerns that users could be duped by misleading claims.

"Advertisement of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and token sales will be prohibited globally," said a Twitter spokesperson, speaking to Bloomberg on Monday.

"We know that this type of content is often associated with deception and fraud, both organic and paid, and are proactively implementing a number of signals to prevent these types of accounts from engaging with others in a deceptive manner."

Adverts for token sales had increased in volume across social media sites following the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies last year, allowing potential investors to trade cash for new speculative cryptocurrencies set up to support the launch of a new service.

While many of these ICOs are legitimate attempts at crowd-funding, users are frequently stung by projects that either fail to live up to promises or outright scam their investors out of their funds.

Facebook was the first to take action against this style of investment, banning all cryptocurrency adverts in January, while Google later said it would also start removing all adverts starting in June.

Twitter's new stance is not an outright ban, as it said it will be restricting adverts to only those cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet services that are offered through public companies already listed on major stock exchanges.

Bitcoin is hovering at just under $8,000 at the time of writing, and has yet to recover from the market slump at the start of the year which saw hundreds of billions wiped off the cryptocurrency market almost overnight.

19/03/2018: Cryptocurrency traders hit with substantial tax bills

Bitcoin owners may soon find themselves faced with a nasty tax bill that's worth more than the value of their coins, amid a market downturn that shows no signs of recovery.

Three months ago users were enjoying a cryptocurrency market surge that saw the price of Bitcoin surge to just shy of $20,000, only for the market to crash at the start of 2018, wiping more than half of the value of the currency.

For those that traded in the US, and therefore were subject to Internal Revenue Service tax laws, it's likely that they have capital gains to report that may be in excess of the value of any coins they now hold.

The issue was highlighted earlier this week when one Reddit user revealed they owed $50,000 to the IRS following trades valued at $120,000 - coins that are now worth $30,000.

"I took most of my savings and bought 8 bitcoins back in early 2017 for about $7200," a Reddit user who goes by the name 'thoway' said in a post. "Around December 2017, I got caught up in the altcoins frenzy and sold most of my bitcoins (about $120k worth) to buy a bunch of different coins."

"I didn't know this back then but it looks like I owe income taxes on those trades, which adds up to about $50k if I add up state (California) and federal. But with the crash that happened recently, I added up my altcoins and I only have like $30k worth. I only have about $5k in other savings."

"I feel like I might have accidentally ruined my life because I didn't know about the taxes..."

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $8,200, Ethereum at $521, and Litecoin at $153, all significantly down since the start of the year.

In November the IRS informed currency exchange Coinbase that it would need to provide the details of almost 15,000 users who had traded more than $20,000 in digital currencies between 2013 and 2015. The position is that failing to report capital gains could be considered tax evasion.

While IRS rules are fairly straightforward, the same can't be said of other countries struggling to deal with tax issues and consumer protections.

UK traders are currently subject to three-year-old guidelines, implemented when Bitcoin was worth just under 500, which state that those who buy or sell cryptocurrencies are subject to capital gains tax. This would force traders to pay 10% on transactions over 11,700 (the current exemption) if they are basic rate payers, or 20% for higher rate payers.

However, whether any profit is chargeable is judged on a "case by case basis", and that "depending on the facts, a transaction may be so highly speculative that it is not taxable or any losses relievable.. For example gambling or betting wins are not taxable and gambling losses cannot be offset against other taxable profits," the guidance reads.

Importantly, the UK has yet to make any demands similar to the IRS on cryptocurrency exchanges, but given the number of users trading in high value transactions, that could change.

14/03/2018: Google bans cryptocurrency adverts in new clampdown

Google is banning all advertising for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings, joining Facebook in a clampdown on speculative financial services.

Starting in June, the world's largest provider of digital ads will block promotions for platforms such as Bitcoin across its entire portfolio of services, including Youtube and any third-party websites that buy adverts from Google.

Adverts for cryptocurrencies, exchanges, digital wallets, trading advice, and initial coin offerings will all be banned under the revised policy, according to a brief Google statement released on Tuesday.

Other instruments, such as binary options trading and spread betting, which often sell themselves as get-rich-quick schemes to internet users, will also be banned.

Google hasn't given its reasoning for the ban, but it's likely to be in response to a rising number of online scammers trying to take advantage of the furore around cryptocurrencies by promising quick returns on investments.

It follows a decision by Facebook in January to ban all adverts for Bitcoin and similar crypto assets, which it made clear at the time was an attempt to protect its users from exaggerated promotions.

Initial coin offerings, which ask investors to fund a new cryptocurrency in order to support a service or product, have become particularly problematic for online advertisers. While there are many legitimate offerings, it's thought that only half of the ICOs in 2017 successfully made it out of their initial funding stages, and many were deliberate attempts to scam their investors.

The ban contributes to a much wider regulatory clampdown on the crypto market, with major markets in the US, China, Japan and South Korea having already made it clear that tougher regulations are on the horizon.

The tightening grip of the market since the New Year has meant the cryptocurrency market has struggled to recover from recent price adjustments, and has largely remained stagnant over the last three months. At the time of writing, one Bitcoin is worth $8,944, $10,000 less than its December high.

05/03/2018: Bitcoin heist sees 600 crypto-mining servers stolen in Iceland

Authorities in Iceland have reportedly arrested 11 people in connection with the theft of 600 cryptocurrency mining servers from data centres across the country.

Police believe that this was one of Iceland's biggest ever burglaries, with Icelandic publications branding it the "Big Bitcoin Heist".

Of the 11 arrested, only two people remained in custody after a hearing at Reykjanes District Court on Friday, Associated Press reported.

Police are still looking for the servers, which are apparently valued at $2 million. The heist happened in the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, though the authorities did not name the companies that were affected.

Olafur Helgi Kjartansson, police commissioner for the region, described it as a "grand theft on a scale unseen before", adding that it was "a highly organised crime".

Prosecutors believe that the criminals behind the heist masterminded four burglaries in total. Three of them happened in December, while another occurred in January.

Cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin in particular, are potentially lucrative assets for criminals, with their values rising, if volatile. Bitcoin, for instance, reached $20,000 at the end of 2017, but has since plunged to around $11,000. They also make it more difficult for police to follow criminal transactions due to their anonymous nature.

"The weakest point in any cybercrime operation used to be the monetisation - e.g. selling stolen data or transferring ransom money," Max Heinemeyer, director of threat hunting at cyber security firm Darktrace, told IT Pro. "There used to be a money trail that law enforcement could trace back to the offenders. Cryptocurrencies allow anonymous monetary transactions, basically eliminating the traceable money trail that was the biggest challenge for a lot of cyber criminals in the past."

Governments across the world have voiced concern about digital currencies, with China and South Korea already having implemented strict regulations on crypto-mining.

Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney slammed cryptocurrencies for causing a "global speculative mania".

02/03/2018: Japan's crypto market to self-regulate after $530m heist

Sixteen of Japan's cryptocurrency exchanges have said they will form a self-regulatory body in order to garner trust in the highly volatile industry and undo the damage caused by a $530 million heist in January.

The group is to form an organisation that will enforce standards for cyber security and best practice across the industry, an effort that's almost certainly an attempt to get ahead of government-led regulations that some fear could stifle the cryptocurrency market in the country.

All 16 government registered exchanges have signed up to the organisation which seeks to operate under the country's Payment Services Act, as reported by Reuters, including bitFlyer and GMO Coin.

There's currently no name or launch date for the organisation, although sources have suggested the body will form at some time in the Spring.

It follows a $530 million hack on Tokyo-based crypto exchange Coincheck in January, which sparked alarm that the industry was doing very little to ensure customers are protected. Calls for industry-wide security standards were made when it was discovered Coincheck had stored funds in wallets connected to their networks rather than in isolated, offline wallets that many other exchanges favour.

An additional sixteen exchanges, including Coincheck, have also been permitted to continue operating while their applications to the self-regulatory body are reviewed.

If the body is able to self-regulate successfully, it could be a compromise to heavy-handed government oversight that threaten exchanges in South Korea, one of the most influential markets in the cryptocurrency industry.

02/03/2018: EU warns of crypto regulation if risks are not addressed

The European Union has warned that it will begin regulating cryptocurrencies if the market's volatility, born from spikes in the value of Bitcoin and others, is not addressed by the industry.

Policymakers have long been concerned by the lack of regulatory oversight of alt-currencies, which have grown incredibly popular over the past year, despite the significant risks to investors.

Bitcoin, in particular, has enjoyed cycles of huge success, peaking at $20,000 in late 2017, only to plummet dramatically the next month, wiping off hundreds of billions from the market.

The accelerated pace of the cryptocurrency market, matched against the digital transformation of societies, has posed concerns, particularly as the decentralised nature of the market means there's a lack of accountability or central regulatory body.

The anonymity it affords participants within its transactions has also created concerns that it will provide a major boost to illicit proceeds generated from drug sales and arms laundering.

"This is a global phenomenon and it's important there is an international follow-up at the global level," Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's financial chief, said, as reported by the Guardian. "We do not exclude the possibility to move ahead by regulating cryptocurrencies at the EU level if we see, for example, risks emerging but no clear international response emerging."

Similarly, in a Reddit 'Ask Me Anything' session, founder and former CEO of Microsoft Bill Gates slammed cryptocurrencies by going so far as to say Bitcoin had "caused deaths" with its use in the drug trade.

The Treasury Committee recently announced it would be launching an inquiry into whether the technology is harmful, while Lloyds announced it was banning their customers from using credit cards to purchase bitcoin.

Elsewhere across Europe, there is a cautious pursuit of bitcoin. Germany and France have recognised its potential for innovation and growth but believe it presents substantial dangers to investors and, without the necessary regulatory frameworks, could be a boon to the financial crime industry.

22/02/2018: UK MPs launch inquiry into risks of cryptocurrencies

The UK's Treasury Committee has said it will investigate digital currencies and the underlying blockchain technology, in an effort to assess the potential benefits and risks facing consumers, businesses and the government.

The scope of the cross-party inquiry will include an assessment of the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which in theory could lead to more stringent regulations for trading in the UK.

It aims to "scrutinise the regulatory response" to digital currencies from the likes of the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, and government ministers, and assess whether regulations could be rebalanced to provide "adequate protection for consumers and businesses without stifling innovation", according to a statement issued on Thursday.

Particular attention will be given to the risks that digital currencies pose to businesses and consumers, such as the market's volatility and its use as the currency of choice for cyber criminals and money launderers.

The Treasury Committee will also look at the development of distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain and its potential effects on UK financial institutions and infrastructure, which includes the central bank.

"This inquiry comes at the right time, as regulators and Governments wrestle with recent events in cryptocurrency markets," said Treasury Committee member and Labour MP Alison McGovern. "New technology offers the economy potential gains, but as recently demonstrated, it may also bring substantial risks.

"It is time that Whitehall and Westminster understood cryptocurrency better, and thought more clearly about the policy environment for blockchain technology."

The cross-party committee will take evidence from market experts as part of the investigation, before submitting a report to the government outlining its recommendations.

It's likely that the UK government will fall into line with other European countries looking to enact tougher regulations on the use of cryptocurrencies France and Germany have both signalled their desire to have the implications of cryptocurrencies placed on the agenda at the G20 summit in Argentina in March.

However, the UK's inquiry into digital ledger technology is most likely going to strike a more positive tone, as the likes of the Bank of England have already worked closely with blockchain startups on projects involving asset exchanges and the tracking of public money.

16/02/2018: Bitcoin exchange bug overcharged customers thousands

The Bitcoin exchange Coinbase has overcharged users thousands of dollars due to an error in its system, but will offer refunds.

Customers were charged multiple times for transactions, which Coinbase has explained as a result of a bug tied to how credit companies billed for the service. Having fixed the issue, the Bitcoin exchange has vowed to refund those affected.

Coinbase apologised for the error and said it was, "actively working with banks, processors and networks to improve the digital currency purchasing experience".

The popular Bitcoin exchange has attributed the error to changes in the Merchant Category Code, which is used by Visa to identify debit and credit transactions. After banks issued warnings they would no longer permit customers to buy cryptocurrencies using credit cards, the changes kicked into effect.

Users took to Coinbase's Reddit forum to voice their complaints, with one citing to a $67,000 charge and another being hit with $17,000.

"I made ALL of that money in crypto over the past 8 months. This is not good and I feel sick. I knew there is risk to lose money in this space, but not like this!! I may as well have burned it all. I hope Coinbase implodes!" raged Reddit user ipizi.

This will simply fuel worries echoed by banks and governments that cryptocurrency is posing a risk. Banks are largely concerned that consumers are investing in Bitcoin to pay off debts, and instead worsening their situation.

There are also concerns that the anonymous nature of cryptocurrency transactions is powering criminal behaviour such as money laundering and funding both the drugs sale and arms sale.

The Treasury will reportedly regulate Bitcoin and require traders in cryptocurrency to disclose their identities and report suspicious activity.

14/02/18: American news publication Salon has announced it is testing the use of cryptocurrency mining software to boost revenues.

In a bid to counter ad-blockers, which are often the main source of generating revenue for websites, Salon has explained that in a trial test it will give readers an option of accepting ads or allowing spare parts of their computer's processing power to be mined for Monero, a cryptocurrency that is similar to the well-known Bitcoin.

The progressive-leaning website described this to their readers as their intention to "contribute to the advancement of technological discovery, evolution and innovation."

It's believed the website is using CoinHive, a mining tool that was used to hack numerous government websites, including the British. However, Salon notifies users and requires them to agree to use the tool.

The computer's spare processing power is harnessed when users are browsing the Salon website and readers will reportedly hear their machine's cooling fans stir into life, as the computer begins to utilise more power.

This move by Salon represents a new method used by news websites to generate revenue many have used online subscriptions, pay-walls and donations to fund their journalism.

13/02/2018: Bitcoin requires more energy than powering Iceland

Bitcoin is causing serious power supply problems in Iceland according to energy executive Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, saying the data centres supporting the virtual currency's use are consuming more power than all of the country's homes.

He added the Icelandic population is excited about jumping on Bitcoin mining opportunities, but if everyone who's expressed an interest in mining starts taking part, it's unlikely the energy infrastructure will be able to take it.

Almost all of Iceland's power comes from renewable sources and many of the companies building data centres in the country want to stick to their guns and make use of green energy.

"What we're seeing now is... you can almost call it exponential growth, I think, in the [energy] consumption of data centres," Sigurbergsson told the BBC. "I'm getting a lot of calls, visits from potential investors or companies wanting to build data centres in Iceland."

If all of these data centres were to go ahead, the country would run out of energy to supply both them and homes and businesses.

Just as a comparison, Iceland's population of 340,000 people use around 700 gigawatt hours every year. If Bitcoin mining continues to rise at its current rate, Bitcoin mining operations will use around 840 gigawatt hours of electricity in the very near future. This energy is used for powering the computers in the data centres, as well as cooling systems.

08/02/2018: Bitcoin stable again after crash

Yo-yoing digital currency Bitcoin is stable again today after its price plummeted to a two-month low of sub-$7,000.

The decline came after several banks around the world banned their customers from using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies, fearing they'd have to pay for unpaid debts that result from price fluctuations. On Tuesday, it was trading at just $6,430.30, down two-thirds on its all-time high of nearly $20,000 value from mid-December.

However, data on crypto currency go-to, Coinmarketcap.com, showed that Bitcoin surged by 26% in the last 24 hours to past the $8,000 mark following the temporary crash, along with many other popular digital currencies, including Ethereum, which is up 32%, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash, which both rose 22% and Cardano, which is up 25%. Bitcoin is now trading at $8,496.17 (at the time of writing).

Out of the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, all have seen a boost of at least 20%. It's unknown what exactly caused the rise and fall and rise again of the currencies, but Bitcoin and the like are known for being particularly volatile, meaning there's no real way of knowing if it's prospering or about to take a nose dive into the black.

Nevertheless, the news of the currency's growth is encouraging news for investors, many of whom were probably a little sweaty palmed when news of the crash spread yesterday.

06/02/2018: Bitcoin is continuing to plummet in price and has hit the sub-$7,000 mark for the first time since last November.

On digital currency exchange Coinbase, the cryptocurrency is now trading at just $6,430.30 (at time of writing), down two-thirds on its all-time high of nearly $20,000 value from mid-December.

Coindesk spotted the same issue hitting other cryptocurrencies such as Ripple, which is down 14% and Ethereum's Ether, which has also dropped 13% in the last 24 hours.

The decline comes after several banks around the world banned their customers from using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies, fearing they'd have to pay for unpaid debts that result from price fluctuations.

However, according to CoinMarketCap, the current total market capitalisation of all digital currencies taken together is up, standing at $397 billion, which is a decent increase of 14% from Friday's figure of $348 billion.

05/02/2018: Lloyds Bank bans credit card customers from buying Bitcoin

Lloyds Banking Group has blocked its customers from buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with their credit cards.

Starting from today, the ban affects all eight million credit card customers of Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA.

The decision comes after Bitcoin saw a drop of 30% to just over $8,200 on Friday, the lowest it has been for almost five years, while it plunged further to $7,829 this morning from a high of nearly $20,000 over Christmas.

Lloyds is reportedly worried it will have to foot the bill for unpaid debts should the price of Bitcoin continue to drop. However, the ban is said to only affect credit card purchases, and customers will still be able to use their debit cards to buy cryptocurrencies.

Commenting on the decision, a Lloyds spokeswoman told the BBC: "We continually review our products and procedures and this is part of that."

IT Pro has contacted Lloyds for comment.

Lloyds isn't the only bank in the world declining purchases of cryptocurrencies. In the US, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup all halted purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards on Saturday, as they don't want the credit risk associated with the transactions.

UK games platform Steam dropped support for Bitcoin last December due to the currency's fluctuations, which resulted in unpredictable transaction fees for users.

02/02/2018: A series of clampdowns and advertising bans have rocked the cryptocurrency market, sending prices plummeting and wiping off hundreds of billions of dollars almost overnight.

Bitcoin saw its price sink to $8,200 on Friday morning, officially undoing its December surge which saw prices rocket from $8,300 to just under $20,000 over the course of 30 days, marking the steepest decline in the currency's history.

The slide began after news emerged that Bitfinex, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was being investigated by the US Futures Trading Commission over its ties with a digital asset known as Tether.

Tether was designed to be a one-to-one with the US dollar, allowing for the benefits of cryptocurrency trading with the stability of a fiat currency. However, concerns were raised after critics claimed the reserves were under-capitalised, with more Tether tokens being created than the amount of US dollars being deposited to support the currency.

Current prices from coinmarketcap.com

There are currently two billion Tether tokens in circulation, yet Bitfinex has yet to provide evidence that there is $2 billion in its accounts.

The market was hit again when the Indian government said it would move to ban all cryptocurrency trading in the country, and yet again when Facebook announced it would be placing a ban on all cryptocurrency and ICO advertisements on its platform, citing mistrust of the industry and the potential for users to be misled by shaky investment opportunities.

The series of bullish moves against the cryptocurrency industry has meant the likes of Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin have struggled to recover from its most recent slump following the now abandoned proposals by the South Korean government to ban trading in the country.

99 of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap were down as much as 35% at the time of writing, including the surprise hit Ripple which is currently trading at $0.7, almost half that of its all-time high in December.

01/02/2018: Analysts warn price of Bitcoin could crash by 80% if being artificially pumped by Tether

Currency analysts have warned that the price of Bitcoin could crash by up to 80% if it turns out the price has been artificially pumped up by controversial crytpocurrency Tether.

The cryptocurrency experts warned on Wedsnesday that if the cryptocurrency Tether is revealed to have been artificially increasing Bitcoin's value, it would result in a "bloodbath" for investors.

Tether is a so-called "stablecoin" which aims to maintain a value of one US dollar per tether and is owned by trading company Bitfinex, which has recently come under scrutiny by a blogger identifying themselves as "Bitfinex'd".

The blogger has taken to Twitter and YouTube to warn that Tether has been plucked from thin air to boost the value of Bitcoin, leading to it being described by experts as the "ticking time bomb" of the cryptocurrency world, which could trigger an event similar to that of the 2014 collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange.

Nicholas Weaver, a professor from UC Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute, tweeted recently that a "bloodbath" would ensue if Tether fails to hold its value and reassure investors.

"At current prices, net new Bitcoin requires $18 million of net new dollars flowing in to maintain the price," his tweet read. "Yet there is a net $100 million a day of fake dollars in the form of Tethers. If that tether printing press ever breaks, there will be a true bloodbath on the cryptocurrency prices. Good."

Bitcoin expert David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, added that everyone in crypto "is very worried about the tether situation, and if these really count as dollars".

The warnings come not long after Japanese exchange Coincheck confirmed it had lost up to $530 million (372 million) in a huge hack on Friday.

31/01/18: Samsung has reportedly started mass production of a new range of chips designed to be used in cryptocurrency mining, with a major partnership already lined up with a Chinese hardware provider.

The tech giant is said to have perfected a range of application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) semiconductors, which are to be supplied to an as-yet unnamed Chinese hardware company from January, according to South Korean outlet The Bell.

The semiconductors are said to be bespoke chips designed to optimise the mining of cryptocurrencies which typically requires high-speed, high-efficiency hardware.

Bitcoin mining, in particular, requires vast amounts of computational power, something that has been served in recent years by large companies offering dedicated mining equipment, particularly in China where electricity costs are relatively cheap.

While Samsung has yet to confirm the report, it does coincide with the company's fourth quarter results, which, despite an overall decline for its Foundry business, pointed to increased sales in China thanks to new customer contracts. It also pointed to increased earnings over the next quarter due to a greater demand for cryptocurrency mining chips.

Paul Armstrong, author of 'Disruptive Technologies: Understand, Evaluate, Respond', said that competition from Samsung should stabilise the cryptocurrency mining market, which is currently dominated by the likes of Bitmain and Canaan Creative, both of which currently source their chips from Taiwan's TSMC.

"Samsung is a huge force in the industry and as Asian markets are polarised somewhat this goes a long way to adding some calm to choppy investor seas," said Armstrong, speaking to IT Pro. "One thing this move will do is keep Bitmain on their toes and should cause some more competition, which considering Bitmain's dominance is no bad thing.

"Time will tell what sort of impact this has on the market and Samsung's price and competitive edge but one thing this does show the world [is] Samsung isn't afraid of new technologies, placing a bet and getting their hands dirty; something many companies are increasingly bad at or cautious about doing."

26/01/2018: Prime Minister Theresa May has said the government is 'seriously considering' a clamp down on cryptocurrencies following fears that criminals are exploiting the anonymity of platforms such as Bitcoin.

"In areas like cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, we should be looking at these very seriously," said May, in an interview with Bloomberg. She added that because the use of Bitcoin has been "increasingly developing", a tougher stance may be required "precisely because of the way they are used, particularly by criminals".

Cryptocurrencies have long been used as a way to finance criminal activity online, with hackers exploiting the anonymity that platforms such as Bitcoin provide. More recently, criminals have started adopting other cryptocurrencies, particularly Monero which is designed to be even more difficult to trace.

May's comments echo calls from other nation states that more restrictions need to be placed on the use of cryptocurrencies. The market is still reeling from the news that South Korea is considering a complete plan on online cryptocurrency exchanges, a move that some fear would send the market into a nosedive.

Compared to the South Korean market, where some of the world's largest exchanges are headquartered, a clampdown in the UK, or even an outright ban, is unlikely to have a significant impact given that it boasts only one major exchange.

Cryptocurrencies have yet to fully recover from the new South Korean stance, with Bitcoin still operating at $10,000, over $9,000 below its all time high last month.

22/01/2018: Bitcoin will see a huge crash over the next year, Wall Street expert Peter Boockvar predicted yesterday, claiming that this is the only outcome of a "bubble like this".

In an interview with CNBC, the chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group said the crash might be in the form of an epic plunge or a slow and steady drop. Nevertheless, he said it's coming and is thus in danger of dropping 90% from current levels.

"When something goes parabolic like this has, it typically ends up to where that parabola began," he told CNBC's Futures Now show.

"I wouldn't be surprised if over the next year it's down to $1,000 to $3,000." Currently Bitcoin is trading at $11,819, though it peaked at $19,000 briefly in December.

However, Yale economics professor Robert Shiller, who has also previously discribed Bitcoin as "the best example of a bubble", told Coin Telegraph on Friday that while Bitcoin "might totally collapse and be forgotten" it's also possible that it "could linger on for a good long time, it could be here in 100 years".

The predictions come after another analyst claimed Bitcoin could hit between $50,000 and $100,000 in 2018 (see below).

18/01/2018: Despite recent price fluctuations, Bitcoin's value could continue to rise throughout 2018 to reach between $50,000 and $100,000, an analyst has predicted.

This means its value would need to increase by 635% from its current highest value of $13,601.43.

Kay Van-Petersen, an analyst at Saxo Bank, thinks the virtual currency will rise significantly over the next year after correctly predicting its value previously. In December 2016, he said he thought Bitcoin's value would surpass a value of $2,000 in 2017. Sure enough, it reached that figure and beyond by May.

"First off, you could argue we have had a proper correction in Bitcoin, it has had a 50% pull back at one point, which is healthy," Van-Petersen said, reported by CNBC. "But we have still not seen the full effect of the futures contracts."

Previously, Van-Petersen said it wasn't likely the virtual currency would reach $100,000 for 10 years.

The journey to $100,000 won't be without bumps in the road, though, he said. It's likely the currency will continue to level out and then bump up, or re-rate as it's known, in stages.

But although Bitcoin is the market leader now, Van-Petersen thinks virtual currency fanatics should keep an eye on rival Ethereum too, because it's possible the outsider could overtake Bitcoin in future.

"Ethereum came after Bitcoin, it has a more unified leadership than Bitcoin," he said. "They seem to be a bit further along the way in regards to forming the solution to scaling issues. And you can see transactions on their side eclipses transactions across other cryptos."

17/01/2018: Bitcoin plunges below $10,000 following uncertainty in South Korea

Bitcoin plunged to below $10,000 on digital currency exchange Coinbase yesterday evening, along with several other major crytocurrencies, such as Ethereum, which dropped 30% to below $1,000.

While Wall Street said there was no apparent reason for Bitcoin's fall in stock price, breaking below $10,000 to $9969.01, it did follow comments from South Korean authorities regarding tougher regulation on digital currency trading.

Nevertheless, it only fell below the 'psychological benchmark' just briefly before it started to tick higher and above $10,000 again. At the time of writing, it was at $10,457.10

Bitcoin traders, and investors in other digital currencies, are still left with concerns as uncertainty looms around South Korea's government's attitude to cryptocurrencies, with the country being one of the largest crypto markets in the world. There's fears that the country could block such trading altogether after finance minister Kim Dong-yeon said banning crypto trading was "a live option".

The matter is currently being reviewed by the country's government. Such a ban would require a majority vote from the country's National Assembly, which the Evening Standard reports could take months or possibly years.

16/01/18: KFC embraces cryptocurrency hype with Bitcoin Bucket

Fast food favourite KFC has started selling a special Bitcoin edition bucket of its popular chicken - and you guessed it, you can buy it with Bitcoin.

The company's selection of poultry themed treats includes "10 Original Recipe Tenders, Waffle Fries, Med Side, Med Gravy and 2 Dips," and costs whatever the equivalent of CA$20 is at the time of purchase. At the time of writing, this was 0.0010102 Bitcoin.

However, the bucket can only be sold in Canadian KFC delivery zones, presumably because it's only been given the green light with a limited number of authorities. KFC explained its Bitcoin bucket is proving hugely popular. So popular, in fact, it keeps selling out of the selection buckets.

"A lot of you want to buy in Bitcoin, which means we keep selling out," the company said on its regional page. "Keep on checking in for restocks of this Bucket. Craving chicken now? Our Original Recipe is available for purchase and delivery with old-fashioned people money."

Even if you're not in Canada, or have no interest in buying KFC with Bitcoin, it's a handy tool to keep tabs on the value of Bitcoin at any time. The dynamically-updated page changes every few seconds so fanatics can make sure they get the best deal for their chicken.

"Despite the ups and downs of Bitcoin, the Colonel's Original Recipe is as good as always," the company said. "So, trade your Bitcoins for buckets and invest in something finger lickin' good."

11/01/2018: Confusion over South Korean crypto ban sends Bitcoin tumbling

Confusion over reports South Korea was ready to announce a complete ban on cryptocurrency trades that later turned out to be incorrect has caused the price of Bitcoin to plummet, sending shockwaves through the market.

Reports surfaced earlier today that the South Korean justice ministry was preparing a bill to ban the trading of all digital currencies on exchanges operating in the country.

Justice minister Park Sang-ki said that there were "great concerns regarding virtual currencies and the justice ministry is basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges," according to Reuters.

The news wasn't entirely unexpected, given comments made by South Korean prime minister Lee Nak-yeon that suggested the craze might "corrupt the nation's youth".

As a result, the price of Bitcoin fell through the floor, tumbling from an already relatively low position of just under $15,000 to $13,100 in a matter of hours. At the time of writing the currency has yet to recover, hovering at $13,200. Ether, Litecoin, Ripple and Dash were also down following the news.

However, South Korea's financial watchdog, the FSC, has said government ministries are only discussing the possibility of further restrictions, within the context of trade regulations, and that several ministers are divided on how best to regulate the market.

"...the FSC is mapping out measures to restrict [cryptocurrency] transactions to some extent," which may eventually lead to "an all-out ban," said FSC chairman Choi Jong-ku, speaking to a Yonhap reporter. "The restriction is aimed at minimising side effects of bitcoin transactions and reducing speculative investment."

This means that while a potential ban on cryptocurrency exchanges is being discussed, there are no immediate plans to ban trades in the country, although the current ban on ICOs will remain in effect.

The confusion proved to further highlight Bitcoin's volatility, and its delicate ties to the South Korean market, which is heavily invested in cryptocurrencies. South Korean currently sees the 5th highest volume of global Bitcoin trades, comparable to the whole of Europe.

11/01/2018: Warren Buffett doesn't think Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will last, he has told CNBC, suggesting trading virtual currencies is not a good idea and will not end well for those involved.

"In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending," the investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said on CNBC's Squawk Box programme.

Buffett's vice chairman, Charlie Munger, supported his boss's position, adding that it's not only cryptocurrencies causing problems - venture capital is also a trend that won't last. He said there's too much money in VC, comparing it to the dotcom bubble.

"Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are also bubbles," he said. Investors "are excited because things are going up at the moment and it sounds vaguely modern. ... But I'm not excited," he added.

Buffet also said he would avoid "going short" on any investment in Bitcoin. This process involves selling shares of borrowed stock, which the investor then hopes the value of which will increase over time, then returning them to the investor to make a profit.

"When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know," he added. "If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I'd be glad to do it but I would never short a dime's worth."

"We don't own any, we're not short any, we'll never have a position in them," he said. "I get into enough trouble with things I think I know something about. Why in the world should I take a long or short position in something I don't know anything about."

08/01/2018: Visa moves to block Bitcoin payment cards

Visa has blocked access to a range of prepaid Bitcoin credit cards, stopping users from being able to use them to make transactions or withdraw funds in Sterling or Euros.

Cards issued by BitPay, Cryptopay and Bitwala, which are operated by WaveCrest, have all stopped working as of 5th January. The card issuers are now returning all funds to users.

Visa explained that it had made the decision to revoke WaveCrest's Visa membership because it failed to comply with the payment providers operating rules.

"The termination of WaveCrest's Visa membership does not affect other Visa issuers' card programmes, including those using fiat funds converted from cryptocurrency," Visa said in a statement. "Visa is committed to the security of its ecosystem and compliance with Visa's operating rules is critical for ensuring the safety and integrity of the Visa payment system."

Visa said that the cards had been suspended due to "continued non-compliance with our operating rules", adding that all card programmes must comply with its membership regulations, as well as all applicable laws in their company of operation.

"Following an announcement from our card issuer on behalf of Visa Europe, Bitwala cards are taken out of operation starting today. Our team is holding an emergency meeting to resolve the issue with the card holders best interest in mind and will make an update shortly," Bitwala said on Twitter.

London-based Cryptopay said: "Unfortunately, our card issuer instructed us to cease all Cryptopay prepaid cards starting January 5th, 2018. All funds stored on cards are safe and will be returned to your Cryptopay accounts ASAP."

BitPay said it was in talks with alternative providers about getting its card back up and running in Europe, although it didn't say who it was talking to or any further details about the situation.

03/01/2018: Peter Thiel helps Bitcoin return to growth with 10% spike

Bitcoin soared in value on Tuesday following the announcement that Peter Thiel's Founders Fund now own "hundreds of millions of dollars" worth of the cryptocurrency.

The price of Bitcoin spiked by over 10% to hit around $14,500 per coin after the fund bought $15 to 20 million of the digital currency, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, with the fund telling investors that the bet is now worth over five times its principal investment.

Bitcoin wasn't the ony cryptocurrency seeing big gains in popularity this last week. A Bitcoin rival called Ripple bacome the second most valuable virtual cash system over the weekend when market monitors claimed the digital currency hit more than $100 billion (74 billion).

The surge in valuation means that each Ripple coin, also known as XRP, is now worth about $2.34, much higher than the half a US cent they were worth a year ago.

A cryptocurrency mining group is "aggressively" targeting a key rival as it attempts to gain a greater foothold on cloud-based environments as a platform for launching more effective attacks.

Researchers have learned that Pacha Group, discovered only in February, is targeting Linux servers on a broader scale, suggesting cloud-based environments are increasingly becoming a target for malicious actors.

But these cyber criminals are also targeting rival cryptocurrency mining groups; specifically channelling efforts into disrupting the operations of a similar collective known as Rocke Group. The latter is also known to target cloud environments.

The main malware infrastructure used by Pacha Group appears to be identical to previous campaigns, although there's a "distinguishable effort" to detect and mitigate Rocke Group implants, according to Intezer.

Rocke is one of the most prominent cryptocurrency mining outfits and has run a variety of campaigns in previous months, most recently targeting Linux servers with mutatable malware in January.

Pacha, by comparison, is smaller and newer, active since September 2018, but far more aggressive. Its malware strain, dubbed Linux.GreedyAntd, uses a variety of techniques to disable or eliminate other strains implanted by rival groups on infected servers. The wider aim is to gain the largest foothold of computing power possible for cryptomining activities.

"We have presented evidence that Pacha Group is targeting cloud-based environments and being especially aggressive towards Rocke Group," said security researcher Nacho Sanmillan.

"We have based this conclusion on the process blacklist used by Pacha Group and the newly added IP blacklist which contains Rocke Group correlated artefacts.

"We have also provided a YARA rule in order to detect Pacha Group's Linux.GreedyAntd implants based on reused code among the implants are attempting to displace each other."

Intezer researchers added that while threats to cloud infrastructure are increasing, detection rates of Linux-based malware remains low. The security industry, the firm added, must do more collectively to effectively mitigate these threats.

Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has lost $145 million worth of cryptocurrency after its CEO died, taking the private key to a company cold wallet with him.

The company has filed for legal protection against its creditors in accordance with Canadian law while it continues to attempt to regain access to the funds.

As part of the filing, Jennifer Robinson, the widow of late company CEO Gerry Cotten who died of Chron's disease in Jaipur, India in December 2018, filed an affidavit saying that Cotten had sole access to the cold wallet containing the massive amount of cryptocurrency the exchange needed to conduct business.

"The normal procedure was that [Cotten] would move the majority of the coins to cold storage as a way to protect the coins from hacking or other virtual theft," the affidavit read.

A cold wallet is one that stores cryptocurrencybut is not connected to the internet and is therefore safe from any cyber heists. It's a popular security measure taken by other exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.

Usually, there are failsafe measures in place in the form of multi-signature systems that allow companies to regain access to cold wallets in the event that they become inaccessible by others. This isn't the case with QuadrigaCX, though.

Despite losing access to the funds in December, QuadrigaCX continued to operate for nearly a month using liquid assets stored in hot wallets and fiat currency accounts.

It's understood that QuadrigaCX hired an outside IT consultant to try and decrypt Cotten's laptop in the hope that the cold wallet password was stored on it, to no avail.

According to the Affidavit originally acquired by CoinDesk, the lost funds comprised a range of cryptos including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum. The wallet held just shy of 430,000 Ethereum tokens which equates to roughly 0.5% of all Ether in existence, according to one market analyst.

"For the past weeks, we have worked extensively to address our liquidity issues, which include attempting to locate and secure our very significant cryptocurrency reserves held in cold wallets, and that are required to satisfy customer cryptocurrency balances on deposit, as well as sourcing a financial institution to accept the bank drafts that are to be transferred to us," said QuadrigaCX in a company announcement. "Unfortunately, these efforts have not been successful. Further updates will be issued after the hearing."

The company also owes another $53.5 million in fiat currency which it cannot pay after using some of its reserves and Canadian authorities freezing other accounts, according to AMBCrypto.

Robertson initially announced the death of her husband on Reddit which prompted a mass withdrawal of funds from the exchange and tempers to continue to rise as more users lose access to their funds.The situation highlights how it is becoming more prevalent for people, especially those in high-level business positions, to have a will that addresses how their digital data, accounts and profiles are managed after they pass away.

For example, one might wish for their Facebook profile to be disabled once they are dead, or for cryptocurrency wallets and paid-for subscription services, say Office 365, to be passed on to their next of kin.

However, while some online services allow for next of kin to handle the digital affairs of the person who's passed away, others have yet to offer such services.

As such, we can expect to see similar situations to Cotten's crop up as more people tap into increasing amounts of digital services and online currency exchanges, yet have no will that contains passwords, credentials and authorisation to allow a beneficiary to them over, potentially leaving all manner of digital money, subscription services and social media profiles in a state of online limbo.

John McAfee has once again taken to Twitter to announce he is fleeing from the US government, claiming that he's being charged with "unspecified IRS crimes of a felonious nature".

The controversial cyber security pioneer posted a video on his Twitter account claiming that the IRS - the US government's tax enforcement division - has charged him, his wife, and several of his team with a number of crimes.

While McAfee said that the crimes were "unspecified", he is by his own admission a tax-avoider.

"I have not paid taxes for eight years," he said. "I've made no secret of it. I have not filed returns. Every year I tell the IRS... come and find me."

He claims that "it's not illegal".

McAfee says that he's being charged by the IRS, but other clues indicate that he may also be on the run from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In his tweet, McAfee said that he is "being charged with using Crypto Cuttencies [SIC] in criminal acts against the U. S. Government", and as the agency responsible for monitoring financial crime, any cryptocurrency-related crime would be the SEC's responsibility, rather than the IRS'.

It is not the first time that McAfee has had a run-in with the US white-collar crime watchdog. Indeed, the antivirus founder has had numerous run-ins with the agency over the years.

Most recently, he threatened to "rip [the SEC] a new asshole worthy of parking a tractor trailer in" after the agency ruled that promoting cryptocurrency ICOs without disclosing that you've been paid to do so constitutes fraud. McAfee regularly promoted so-called 'alt-coins' for a period last year, and it was later revealed that he was paid more than $100,000 per coin.

McAfee is a well-known figure in the crypto community and has been a big proponent of crypto currencies as an enabler of personal freedoms. As he explained in his video, he believes that the widespread use of cryptocurrencies will prevent governments from collecting income taxes, which will lead to conflict with the crypto community at large. "We are today at war," he said in his video.

McAfee attempted become president as part of the 2016 campaign, running as a candidate for the libertarian party. His campaign was characterised by bombastic quotes from McAfee, often focusing on his chequered past.

"I have no shame," he said; "yes, I've been in jail. I've taken drugs - more drugs than you in the audience can ever f*cking carry."

He has not abandoned his political ambition, and has previously announced his intention to run for president in 2020, once again as a libertarian candidate.

Going on the run has not fazed him either, and McAfee said that he plans to conduct his campaign "in exile".

Fleeing from the authorities is becoming something of a habit for McAfee. In May 2018, less than a year ago, he posted another video saying that he had "gone underground" in order to evade the SEC, which he claimed has too much power. He similarly made headlines in 2012 when he went on the run from authorities in Belize, who wanted to question him over the murder of his neighbour.

McAfee has confirmed his intention to remain on the lam. "I will not allow them to imprison me and shut my voice down," he said, "which they will do immediately. Why? Because I am a 'flight risk'."

"Obviously. I am in flight."

Rapper DJ Khaled and boxer Floyd Mayweather have been fined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over a failure to disclose payments for promoting cryptocurrencies.

The two celebrities were charged with illegal touting - the act of promoting certain investment opportunities without revealing that you have been paid to do so. Mayweather is accused of illegally promoting three Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), including one from a company called Centra Tech, which the SEC has claimed was fraudulent and is currently investigating. Khaled is also accused of touting for Centra Tech's ICO.

According to the SEC, Centra paid $100,000 to Mayweather and $50,000 to Khaled in exchange for social media posts promoting its ICO. Khaled called it a "game changer", while Mayweather warned his fans "get yours before they sell out". The champion boxer was allegedly paid a total of $200,000 for promoting the other two ICOs.

Neither Mayweather nor Khaled have admitted to the charges, but both have agreed to pay a total of $767,500 in collective fines and penalties. Khaled will pay $152,725, while Mayweather will pay $614,775, although the latter's estimated net worth of $1 billion means the fine may not prove much of a hardship. Mayweather has been banned from promoting securities for three years, and Khaled is subject to a similar two-year ban.

This case marks the first time that the SEC has issued touting charges related to the promotion of ICOs. It follows the Commission's warning last year that it may consider certain ICOs to be securities, meaning that they're subject to the same laws and restrictions as other stocks and securities.

"Investors should be skeptical of investment advice posted to social media platforms, and should not make decisions based on celebrity endorsements," said SEC Enforcement Division co-director Steven Peikin. "Social media influencers are often paid promoters, not investment professionals, and the securities they're touting, regardless of whether they are issued using traditional certificates or on the blockchain, could be frauds."

Contactless payments have become so prevalent in Europe that almost one in two transactions use the payment method over other traditional card payment techniques.

Such a surge in contactless use has been helped by the adoption of the payment method by transportation systems across Europe, according to MasterCard.

With the likes of the London Underground adopting contactless payments through credit and debit cards, as well as supporting the likes of Google Pay and Apple Pay, making payments by simply hovering a card close to a terminal or, somewhat ironically, tapping it on a card reader is becoming the standard method of payment within transit systems.

MasterCard noted that come 2020, all payment terminals in Europe will have contactless support.

Europe is being cited as a forerunner in the adoption of contactless technology, with the continent looking to be a leader when it comes to embracing the idea of a "cashless economy" whereby the idea of carrying loose change and paper notes becomes increasingly archaic.

"Europe is leading the way in contactless payments and what is consistent across the board, despite the economy and development status of each country, is the consumers' adoption behaviour to embrace contactless technology. We're increasingly seeing various European markets demonstrating swift adoptions of the technology as consumers increase their trust in the technology," highlighted Javier Perez, president at Mastercard Europe.

18/06/18: Debit card payments overtake cash for the first time

Debit card transactions overtook cash as the most frequently used payment method for the first time towards the end of last year, according to figures released yesterday.

An increase in debit card payments last year of 14% was mirrored by a fall in cash payments by 15%, taking the number of recorded transactions for the two methods to 13.2 billion and 13.1 billion respectively in 2017.

UK Finance, the body that represents the UK's financial services industry, said the earlier-than-expected crossover was partly fuelled by a rise in contactless payments - up 97% year-on-year in 2017 - with 5.6 billion credit and debit payments made via contactless.

The rise in alternative payment methods speaks to the waning power of cash across the UK, with nearly two-thirds of adults now using contactless payments - and 77% of those aged 25 to 34 making contactless payments last year. Moreover, 3.4 million consumers almost never used cash at all.

"The number of cash payments in the UK is expected to continue to fall over the next decade, as consumers continue to turn to alternative payment methods, most notably debit cards," UK Finance's Payment Markets Review, released today, said. The organisation also offered its projections for what the future of payments in the next 10 years will look like.

Cash payments in 2027 will only comprise 16% of all transactions, the report suggested, but will still be the second most popular payment method in the UK.

"Rather than the UK becoming a cash-free society over the next decade," the report continued, "it is transforming to an economy where cash is less important than it once was, but remains a payment method that continues to be valued and preferred by many."

The rise of cashless payments has coincided with the growing popularity of online banking, with 71% of adults using internet banking in 2017 and 41% of consumers using mobile banking. This, in turn, has led to a rise in the number of payments processed via the decade-old Faster Payments Service.

The Faster Payments Service, a UK banking initiative that has seen a reduction in the transfer time between bank accounts from the three working days to a few seconds, saw 1.6 billion payments in 2017, and is expected to process 2.4 billion payments by 2027 with the continued growth of online and mobile banking.

"The choice of payment options available in the UK is allowing people to choose to pay the way that best suits them," said UK Finance's chief executive, Steven Jones.

"But we're far from becoming a cash-free society, and despite the UK transforming to an economy where cash is less important than it once was, it will remain a payment method that continues to be valued and preferred by many."

He added: "These trends are likely to shift further over the next decade. Developments such as open banking are expected to bring extensive changes to the payments landscape, something that will likely shape how we interact with our money in the coming years."

The report also noted that contacless payments will jump from 15% of all payments in 2017 to 36% of all payments by 2027.

The significance of such payments services as iZettle, routinely deployed by businesses across the UK, was demonstrated last month when PayPal acquired its Swedish rival for $2.2 billion.

Forecast growth of debit card payments, meanwhile, which UK Finance predicts will rise by 49% to 19.7 billion payments in 2027 - the fastest growing payment method - will also be driven by the ongoing growth of online shopping, and the ever-increasing levels of card acceptance by all businesses, but particularly among smaller businesses.

"Card use will continue to rise for now - but will face stiffer competition in the future from open banking innovations that enable people to pay for items with a transfer directly from their bank account," said Jake Morgan, senior analyst with Forrester.

"Offering payments directly from a bank account is generally cheaper as it avoids card fees.

"Broader changes in shopping habits, such as order ahead and remote purchasing, contactless and mobile payments, as well as experiments with voice-based payments using Siri or Alexa, mean that payments are now embedded in many devices.

"Card use will continue to grow for now, however open banking driven innovation that bypasses cards will only increase competition at the checkout."

Image: Shutterstock

Google has updated its Play store policies to make it safer for Android users, with its new guidelines blocking cryptocurrency mining tools and apps that it believes could endanger children.

The company released its revamped documentation last week to try and clamp down on illegal and questionable practices, stipulating that although apps managing crypto mining are allowed, those that encourage people to use the digital currency mining apps are now banned.

"We don't allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices. We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency," the updated rules read. So tools that manage crypto-miners are allowed, but not the mining tools themselves. It comes after Google banned miners from the Chrome Web Store earlier this year, when it blamed "malicious software developers" who tried to "abuse the platform at the expense of users", according to EnGadget.

Additionally, Google has stated it won't allow apps aimed at children that contain "prohibited adult themes" to be submitted to the Play Store, a step to ensure children aren't exposed to apps that seems to be perfectly safe on the surface, but actually contain inappropriate content.

The issue first arose with YouTube content, with some videos claiming to be harmless Disney content such as movies Frozen or Moana, but actually contained adult material. The problem has crossed over into apps now, with seemingly harmless videos broadcasting harmful footage and images to children.

"Apps that include content that sexualizes minors are subject to immediate removal from the Store. Apps that appeal to children but contain adult themes are not allowed," the company's new developer policy states. "If we become aware of content with child sexual abuse imagery, we will report it to the appropriate authorities and delete the Google Accounts of those involved with the distribution."

Other types of apps now prohibited from being submitted to Google Play include firearms-related apps, including those relating to explosives and ammunition.

"We don't allow apps that provide instructions for the manufacture of explosives, firearms, ammunition, restricted firearm accessories, or other weapons," the guidelines added. "This includes instructions on how to convert a firearm to automatic, or simulated automatic, firing capabilities."