Weekly Digest: Reddit+ETH, new SEC & DOGE with Cryptonator

Every week we make a digest about the most significant news in crypto, and we thought it would be fun to ask what the community members and bloggers think about all things crypto.

Please, welcome Felix Brocker (aka Cryptonator`s)! Author, publisher and crypto enthusiast!

Projects And Updates

?? Ripple: Roadmap For Spark Token Airdrop For XRP Holders Published

The Flare Community recently published a roadmap for Flare Finance tokens (FLR) distribution on their Twitter account, explaining how exactly XRP holders can receive Spark and DFLR tokens. 15% of all Spark tokens will be distributed to XRP holders via airdrop shortly before the launch of the Flare Network's mainnet. The remaining 85% of all FLRs will be issued within 25 to 34 months. A snapshot and airdrop of the tokens of the Flare's DeFi project (DFLR) will be held a month after the start of the mainnet.

“I`m a passionate airdrop hunter, you know, but I have to admit that I wasn`t very excited about the Spark Token Airdrop. You had to hold the banker`s coin in order to receive it and I never was a big fan of it. Instead I prefer Stellar XLM, the people's coin. They also had some nice airdrops by the way.” — Felix Brocker

?? Bitfinex Now Allows Margin Trading For Polkadot/BTC

Starting from Monday, Polkadot margin trading paired with Bitcoin became available on the Bitfinex exchange. Just like other Polkadot pairs, DOT/BTC will have a leverage of 3.3 x with an initial margin of 30% and a supporting margin of 15%. The price of Polkadot continues to rise, attracting more and more contributors and developers.

?? Reddit Announces Partnership With Ethereum Foundation

Reddit has announced a partnership with the Ethereum Foundation. Together, the companies will search for solutions for scaling the blockchain. Ethereum also hopes that this collaboration will attract the attention of a multi-million Reddit audience to blockchain technology and decentralized finance. This agreement is a continuation of the cooperation that began a year ago when Reddit created a points system, working with ERC20 tokens, to pay rewards to active community members.

Regulations

??Biden Names New SEC And CFTC Administration – Curse Or Blessing For Bitcoin?

Joe Biden, who recently took Office of the President of the United States, has appointed new heads of key economic regulators. Thus, the appointment of Gary Gensler as head of the financial policy transition team could become a big boost to the crypto community this year. Since leaving the CFTC, Gensler has been an active participant of the crypto industry and is a well-known defender of Bitcoin. However, Gensler is likely to continue the lawsuit brought by his predecessor against Ripple for selling unregistered securities. At the same time, Janet Yellen, appointed as Secretary of the Treasury, is wary of cryptocurrencies due to their widespread use in illegal activities.

?? Top South African Financial Regulator Set To Regulate All Cryptocurrencies

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa's top regulator, will extend its control over the cryptocurrency industry after the disclosure of the Mirror Trading International Ponzi scheme, which deceived depositors for 23,000 BTC worth more than $700 million. The investigation revealed that the firm did not maintain accounting records and customers database. The CEO of MTI, Johann Steinberg, managed to escape to Brazil. The FSCA had already made proposals to introduce regulation to the cryptocurrency market of the country, but none of these previous attempts has come to fruition. As a result, the wild cryptocurrency market in the country is still unregulated, giving rise to many scams.

Mass Adoption

?? Largest Russian Bank Seeks Permission To Launch Blockchain

Sberbank has applied to the Central Bank of Russia to register its blockchain platform to issue it's Sbercoin cryptocurrency. If approved, it may appear as early as the spring of 2021. The representative of the bank Anatoly Popov said that the platform already went through internal technical tests and showed effectiveness. Popov did not specify whether or not the new Sberbank tokens will become stablecoins. Also in question are the rules for the taxation of digital assets, which should be clarified in the near future.

?? Blockchain payment firm Wyre receives $5 million investment from Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has invested $5 million in the Wyre cryptocurrency project, which offers payment services. This will help Stellar expand its ecosystem by integrating a wide range of Wyre payment APIs into Stellar's network's fintech applications. Wyre technologies allow transferring fiat money to digital assets and back. In particular, the initial goal was to launch Stellar USDC on/off ramps to USD, GBP, CAD, AUD and EUR.

“The Stellar foundation is always very generous. When they donate something, they dive deep into their pockets. Did you know, I`ve also received an investment from the Stellar Foundation. It was called the biggest airdrop of all time that took place on keybase at the end of 2019. It was around $100 in $XML. I still got them my HODL bag.” — Felix Brocker

?? Ethereum-based blockchain solutions to now feature in 80 Chinese cities

ConsenSys, one of the world's largest blockchain software companies, has concluded a partnership agreement with BSN, a blockchain project officially supported by the Chinese government. The protocol will be available in 80 different cities via public BSN city nodes in mainland China. Also, ConsenSys will partner with BSN to provide training programs on the corporate use of ConsenSys Quorum to speed up the adoption of the technology in the country.

Hacking

??Hackers Target Firo Cryptocurrency in 51% Attack

Earlier this week, the developers of the Firo, formerly known as Zcoin, reported a 51% attack on their network. The company asked the holders temporary not to make any transactions, and some exchanges suspended operations with the asset. At the time of publication, Firo resolved an issue and activated ChainLocks, but withdrawals of XZC on the BINANCE exchange were not available still. According to Firo Project Steward Reuben Yap, the attack occurred just a few weeks before the planned introduction of a technology based on control masternodes, designed to prevent such situations from occurring. This set of circumstances allows the creators to assume that an instant profit was not the main purpose of the attack.

??Hacker Posts Data of 350k BuyUcoin Users For Free on The Darkweb

The data of approximately 325,000 customers of the Indian cryptocurrency exchange BuyUcoin has been published in the darknet. Documents contain KYC data such as usernames, phone numbers, email addresses, hashed passwords, tax IDs, bank accounts details and transaction histories. BuyUcoin became the latest victim of the infamous hacker group Shinyhunters, which leak databases on darknet forums for free. As said in the official statement on the exchange's website, the service started an investigation and enabled three-factor authentication for all active accounts. Representatives of BuyUcoin also pointed out that there is the security system upgrade coming later this year.

“Awm, these hackers, why do they never rest? I was affected by the LEDGER database hack last year and since then I am receiving spammy mails and scammy calls frequently, so annoying. Maybe that`s the guy who gave out my data for free.” — Felix Brocker

?? Lawsuit Against Israeli Crypto Entrepreneur Moshe Hegog Fails in US Court

The Washington Court for the Western District of Tacoma dismissed the lawsuit by Seattle investor Sean Snyder against Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Hegog for insufficient grounds for the charge. In late 2019, Snyder sued Hegog and his company STX Technologies (Stox) for fraud and intentional misrepresentation, resulting in the loss of almost $500,000. However, the US court could not refer the case for further consideration because of the vague statements that took place in the lawsuit.

People

?? Former UK Cybersecurity Chief Says Laws Needed To Stop Ransomware Pay Outs

The former head of the UK's cybersecurity service has expressed concern that incidents with ransomware are close to getting out of control. Kieran Martin considered that insurance companies indirectly finance organized cybercrime in attacks with ransomware programs, allowing companies to make payouts benefiting criminals, burying serious problems with hackers. British laws prohibiting the payouts to terrorists do not apply to cybercriminals, which allows insurers to circumvent this rule. Martin called for a revision of the laws governing such insurance payments.

?? Ripple CEO Reveals Huge Growth Despite SEC Lawsuit And Focus On CBDCs For 2021

Brad Garlinghouse summed up the results of 2020 and talked about plans for the next year. The On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment system, where XRP token is as an intermediate currency, showed a 12-fold increase year-on-year. The volume of transactions for the year was about $2.4 billion. The head of Ripple noted that despite the legal troubles, many customers show loyalty to the company and the number of new clients kept growing. In the coming year, Ripple's primary activity will be aimed at expanding its influence in CBDC.

Prices

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