Author: Crypto News Guest Authors

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Bitcoin Crypto News Scams Worldwide

Man Loses $700,000 in Fake Elon Musk Crypto Scam

A man from Germany has fallen victim to a Bitcoin scam, losing over AU$700,000 to a fake Elon Musk giveaway.

Sebastian (not his real name) said that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, tweeted, “Dojo 4 Doge” and was curious about what he meant as Musk often tweets about crypto. Apparently, under the tweet, there was a link to an event that was giving away Bitcoin, which Sebastian clicked on.

Seemingly run by Musk’s Tesla team, the so-called giveaway invited people to send anything from 0.1 Bitcoin (AU$7,700) to 20 Bitcoin (AU$1.5 million) with the promise of sending back double the amount, reports the UK’s BBC News. A common impersonation scam which we’ve covered in our Bitcoin Scams Guide.

“It Was a Big Fake”

Believing he was on to a good thing, Sebastian sent 10 Bitcoin, amounting to over AU$700,000. For the next 20 minutes, Sebastian waited for his Bitcoin wallet’s value to increase.

It was only after the countdown ended that Sebastian realized he’d been scammed. He said:

I realized then that it was a big fake. I threw my head on to the sofa cushions and my heart was beating so hard. I thought I’d just thrown away the gamechanger for my family, my early retirement fund and all the upcoming holidays with my kids.

Even though he tried to get his money back, he finally accepted he wasn’t going to see it again.

Crypto Scams Soar

In recent years, crypto scams have risen targeting unsuspecting people with false promises that they can earn more if they just give a little. According to data from Chainalysis, scams made up the majority of all crypto-related criminal activity at 54%, in 2020, representing AU$3.35 billion.

Value received by illicit services monthly 2020 [source: Chainalysis]

Fake crypto giveaways are also gaining traction and often target high-profile pages in the hopes that they will trick people into thinking it’s real. They either achieve this by disguising the account to look like the real one or hacking into the account. Musk is one figure who has been used before.

However, it was in 2020 when hackers managed to steal AU$153,000 after a short-lived hack enabled them to tweet from celebrity accounts, including Bill Gates and Kim Kardashian-West.

Unfortunately, with interest in crypto continuing to rise amid increasing prices, crypto scams are going to remain. Speaking on this, Whale Alert founder Frank van Weert, said:

When the Bitcoin price goes up, people go crazy and a lot of them are new to the market and they want this idea of quick money.

Categories
Crypto News Digital Asset Mining Mining

Norwegian Billionaire Invests in Energy-Saving Crypto Supercomputer Mining Startup

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ole Andreas Halvorsen, currently Norway’s fourth richest man, has invested in Harmonychain. The company is currently developing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining chips that are allegedly 300% – 500% more energy efficient than existing chips.

Norwegian Investors Show Interest In Crypto

A report from local broadcaster, Trijo News, shows that when Harmonychain announced they would be listing on Oslo Stock Exchange’s OTC list (a marketplace for unlisted shares). It was followed by announcements that Halvorsen (currently 11th top-earning hedge fund manager in the world), former cross-country skiing star Bjørn Dæhlie, and stock trader and supercar collector Arne Fredly have invested in the crypto company.

Since Bitcoin electricity consumption has been under much scrutiny, there seems to be a call for more sustainable methods to keep blockchain technology running. And we’ve seen Ethereum move towards being 99% more eco-friendly with the introduction of PoS.

Harmonychain’s ASIC Miner to Launch Late 2022

The Harmonychain website states that:

Currently, Crypto mining consumes a lot of energy. Our microchips are designed to be up to 300%-500% more efficient than current chips, reducing computer energy use by 70-80%, all other things equal.

The startup believes that their “Crypto Supercomputer miner” will be the most profitable mining hardware upon its release in 2022 and 2023.

Hardware specs of the Supercomputer Chip

The company is going to offer two Supercomputer chips, one tailored toward Bitcoin and the other toward Litecoin both aim to reduce energy costs of mining among other things. The Litecoin chip is Scrypt, meaning that it is dedicated to mining the digital asset Litecoin (LTC) and other Scrypt-based coins. The other focuses only on processes associated with Bitcoin.

According to industry standard, customers can expect to prepay approx. 9-12 months prior to delivery. The Supercomputer is poised to be the most profitable Crypto hardware on the market. Our Crypto Supercomputer miners have an estimated payback of less than 2 years.

With another competitor soon to be part of the blockchain specific semiconductor market, the mining industry it seems is set for a boom in research and development. And some see Halvorsen joining the fray as positive news for the crypto sphere.

Categories
Crypto News Digital Asset Mining Mining

AMD In The Race for Crypto GPU Market Share

With the current bull-run in the crypto market there has been a large increase in crypto mining activities. And as it stands AMD wants to get into the crypto mining market with a GPU specifically made for mining Ethereum.

AMD’s old, new GPU

The AMD Navi 10 & 12, originally only made for Apple Macbook Pro could become the company’s first mining-specific GPU. The card has no video outputs and doesn’t support VCN (Video Core Next) which is needed for gaming. AMD also plans to introduce new architecture and repurpose these cards to combat Nvidia’s similar market offering in an attempt to gain a share of the crypto mining market.

CPU Radiating AMD – pixabay

Nvidia Takes the Side of Gamers

Recently Nvidia announced that they will be adding limiters to their gaming specific GPUs like the RTX 3060 and new RTX 3080Ti. These irremovable limiters activate when specific parts of the Ethereum mining algorithm are detected, then reduces the hash rate by 50%, making it wildly inefficient to mine with them. This move is mainly aimed at Ethereum miners, which means miners could still use them for other coins without worrying about the limiters.

Last week we announced a new line of NVIDIA CMPs or cryptomining processors. Shipments will start in March.

Nvidia on PC Gamer

Due to the demand for graphics cards globally (not just for mining) there is a shortage in supply, which in turn is pushing up prices. This is one of the reasons Nvidia and AMD have decided to sell dedicated mining GPUs.

(Source: CuttingEdgeGamer)

Since the pandemic began there has been a surge of people playing games, with hours played on Steam increasing by 50%, this means there are a few new gamers out there who needed GPUs.

Bitcoin mining rig manufacturers have seen a massive surge in demand since the price of the leading crypto asset skyrocketed. Companies such as Canaan Creative have placed significantly sized mining rig orders while other companies like Bitmain are completely sold out.

Global Times

An important thing to remember is that with the coming Ethereum hard fork the network is beginning its migration over to PoS, and should be completed by 2022. This means that miners will need to move to Bitcoin or any other PoW powered coin in order to mine for profits.

A person would be very foolish to invest in a high-end, power consuming GPU for crypto mining today.

TechRadar
Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Mining

Ethereum 2.0 is Greener and Better For the Environment

Crypto mining is an environmentally costly process with Bitcoin mining alone using more power than the entire country of Argentina. Using blockchain technology may be revolutionary, but at what cost?

Ethereum moved from mining to staking and it’s 99% greener!

Ethereum moves from PoW to PoS

PoS (Proof-of-Stake) was developed as an energy-saving alternative to PoW (Proof-of-Work). PoS using electricity to process blockchain transactions whereas PoW uses staking of ETH instead with minimal electricity required.

Ethereum moved to PoS at the end of 2020 as part of its Eth 2.0 Ecosystem update. And according to some Ethereum proponents this change could make mining of Ethereum significantly more sustainable, some even argue 99% more sustainable.

Ethereum’s eth2 upgrade – an overhaul of Ethereum’s core consensus to provide a more sustainable, secure, and scalable home for Ethereum and its community. […] to move from the energy-hungry, inefficient proof-of-work to a more sustainable, scalable proof-of-stake.

The State of Eth2 – ethereum.org

As it stands, there are currently approximately 414 PoW cryptocurrencies and 324 PoS cryptocurrencies in existence. Could we see more make the switch?

Bitcoin’s Proof of Work Is Bad For the Environment

The main issue with PoW is that it is extremely resource-intensive, and lots of energy is required to run the protocol. In addition, as many more people are joining the mining process, the difficulty increases in order to keep the mining time the same.

The mining done for Bitcoin has risen its annual carbon footprint equalling that of Argentina. Issues like these raise an environmental concern to such a magnitude that a major Bitcoin mining hub in Mongolia has been shut down recently due to massive power consumption.

Computer in the woods! flickr.com

The environmental impact of miners might make Bitcoin and other PoW protocols unattractive to environmentally conscious investors. Since the world is slowly on its way to going green, blockchain companies should consider the impact that they have on the environment.

Categories
Bitcoin Mining Crypto News Mining

Texas Turns to Bitcoin Mining – Goodbye Aluminum, Hello Cryptocurrency

There have been various crypto initiatives that started in Texas since 2017, and it seems that crypto-centered businesses are choosing this state as their home base.

In the meantime four mining facilities have been established in Texas, one of the instances was a small town called Rockdale which suffered massive economic losses due to the closure of the Alcoa Aluminum mine. A Bitcoin mining farm (Bitmain) then established itself in the town and aided the community by sourcing materials locally, job creation, and playing a role in the community.

Rockdale native and Bitmain project manager Clint Brown inside the former aluminum plant.

The Texas Bitcoin Rush

Northern Data Ag also building a 100-acre mining farm, as well as Layer 1 a mining startup, and the most recent by Argo Blockchain which will be running on the majority of renewable energy.

Klondike Gold Rush photo courtesy of PBS

Northern Data’s world leading Texas HPC data center is being constructed and expanded on an area of ​​more than 100 acres, which corresponds to the size of around 57 soccer fields.

Northern Data AG announces new 100 MW US customer

What Makes Texas so Attractive for Miners?

Texas has some of the lowest energy rates in the US which makes mining more affordable, and with a substantial portion of energy coming from wind turbines and natural gas so it’s more sustainable than states that rely mostly on fossil fuels. Yet due to the deregulated nature of the energy sector Texas does experience outages.

Yet the main reason for the influx could be due to Texas aiming to become the most favored state for blockchain innovation and investment in the US. A non-profit association of blockchain companies, Texas Blockchain Council, is working with legislators to promote blockchain initiatives, legislation, and in 2019 legislators passed two bills outlining the ability of local businesses to implement blockchain technology in bookkeeping and communications.

Texas has a long history of technological innovation and free-thinking entrepreneurs. We’ve now set our sights on becoming the jurisdiction of choice for investors, entrepreneurs, and enterprises to build and deploy blockchain technology applications and other emerging tech innovations.

Texas State Representative, Tan Parker

Even the availability of crypto ATMs in Austin and San Antonio where individuals can buy major cryptocurrencies shows the drive for crypto adoption.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Ethereum Gas

Ethereum’s New Transaction Pricing Mechanism ‘EIP 1559’ Good for Users, Bad for Miners

Ethereum are introducing Improvement Proposal EIP 1559 to help address issues with high transaction fees (known as “gas price”) and improve user experience. The update is scheduled to be included in the London hard fork in July or August 2021.

EIP 1559 is probably one of the biggest milestones we’ve seen recently […] Now, they’re actually controlling inflation on Ethereum

Eric Turner, Director of Research at Messari

Users traditionally have to set the Gasprice for a transaction, which is part of an auction process that allows miners to select transactions to process. With a higher than average Gasprice the user has an increased likelihood of their transaction to be processed faster. This mechanism can lead to:

  • Mismatch between volatility of transaction fee levels and social cost of transactions
  • Needless delays for users
  • Inefficiencies of first price auctions
  • Instability of blockchains with no block reward

How are miners affected by the hard fork?

Ethereum mining revenue grew 65.1% from January to February, and transaction fees grew with 122.1% this lead to a total mining revenue of over $1.3 billion. Users have been up in arms about fees as well as some users having to play many times the value of the transaction in Gasfees.

This means that miners have the most to lose from the proposal being implemented since transaction fees will be limited to a smaller range and also gradually increasing the difficulty of mining on the network. Thereby decreasing the reward and frequency of rewards. A community survey conducted on EIP 1559 included eight of the nine mining projects, and resulted in seven of the eight refusing to implement the IEP.

Additionally, 60% of Ethereum network’s hash power is against the proposal, however developers are going through with it regardless of the discontent shown by miners.

Why is this good for users?

Due to the reduced supply of Ether as a result of the burning process the value of Ether may increase because of the scarcity of the token. The update also helps reduce inconsistency in the price of fees stopping the guesswork needed to process a transaction or the reliance on sites like ETHGasStation. This will also allow wallets and users to auto-set the gas fees and inclusion fees.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs

Microsoft Introduces NFTs To Minecraft Game With More Than 126 Million Players Worldwide

Microsoft introduces NFTs to Minecraft, allowing players to collect in-game digital assets granting them access to special quests and other benefits across multiple platforms.

The tech giant acquired the popular block-building adventure game Minecraft for $2.5 Billion in late 2014 and has been trying to improve the game ever since.

Crypto Gamers Guild in Minecraft

Update: we are starting to see more games integrate blockchain technology to enable in-game currency and trading.

How NFTs Will Work in Minecraft

The engine behind the NFTs is a project called Enjin (ENJ) which provides the blockchain where the digital assets are stored.

Players scan a QR code which then drops the NFT automatically to their Enjin wallet and they can link their wallet to cross-platform gaming network MyMetaVerse. If you’re a Minecraft user, you can follow the video instructions on how to use your blockchain assets with the game.

MyMetaverse Hub linking to Enjin Wallet

With two new scaling solutions, Enjin aims to remove gas fees, while also supporting fungible and non-fungible token (NFTs) from any blockchain.

The first technology used is called JumpNet which is a Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus protocol built on a private Ethereum blockchain which the CTO of Enjin stated was created in order to bring “forever-free scaling” to Ethereum and is planned to launch 6 April.

NFTs Are Hot At the Moment

In late February Logan Paul raised $3.54 million by moving 1772NFTs in one day, from there many more NFT(Non-Fungible Tokens) projects have jumped up. From Nyan Cat being sold for almost $600,000, to Kings of Leon releasing a NFT album, to the Banksy piece “morons” that has now been burned and is going to be auctioned on SuperFarm.

When looking at interest over time from Google searches, NFTs have had a sharp rise in popularity from the 11th of February onward and has become quite the hot topic of debate.

NFTS on Google Trends – Source

With people like Gary Vanerchuck weighing in and dubbing it as disruptive as Napster was to the music industry, and then others calling it a bubble.

Are NFTs more than just collectables?

The ability that NFTs give to artists to directly monetise their own work, be it art/music/manga/animations might be a game-changer for their respective industries. On the other hand, lesser-known artists also need platforms for exposure. If curators can fill the gap there might be a major shift from traditional platforms to newer ones that run on blockchain technology.

Categories
Australia Crypto News DeFi

Synthetix Raises $12 Million as VC Confidence in DeFi Grows

Synthetix pattern.

Synthetix has successfully raised $12 million from major VC firms, including major names like Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and IOSG.

Synthetix co-founder Jordan Momtazi, made the announcement via Twitter.

What makes this capital raise particularly interesting is that VCs didn’t directly send funds to Synthetix’s Australian founders. Instead, they made a purchase of the platform’s native token directly from the synthetixDAO treasury.

Who is Synthetix?

Synthetix is a decentralised derivatives platform that features the native SNX token, as well as its own stablecoin called sUSD.

The reincarnation of Australian crypto project Havven, they have since rebranded as Synthetix and launched a new suite of crypto-backed synthetic asset tokens.

Synthetic assets are financial instruments in the form of ERC-20 smart contracts known as “Synths” that track and provide the returns of another asset without requiring you to hold that asset.

Recent price action has been encouraging for the bulls, as the launch of the Synthetix Staking dApp has propelled price higher, breaking out of key resistance.

VC Interest a Double Edged Sword for DeFi Projects Like Synthetix

The current popularity surge in DeFi projects has not been lost on the VC industry. But with DeFi being decentralised in its very nature, skepticism around centralising a project around a set of private investors remains the concern of aspects of the community.

DeFi is supposed to be decentralised finance, featuring open and public protocols after all. For this reason, questions around centralised VC money coming in and having the ability to exert control, should therefore definitely be asked.

New DeFi Synths now available for trading

There is a Place for VC Money within DeFi

But in the case of this particular announcement, the significance of the $12 million raised is not so much the dollar value, but mainstream belief in both the Synthetix project and wider DeFi industry itself.

In the grand scheme of things, $12 million is barely a drop in the Synthetix pool. The synthetixDAO is currently pushing $3 billion USD in its treasury!

But what this announcement does show, is there is still an appetite for industry knowledge and connections, which only working with the right VCs can offer.

SNZ Market cap is over US $5 billion

Money Continues to Enter the DeFi Space

While we don’t have a crystal ball to tell us the exact direction the DeFi industry is going to take over the next few years, the projects aligned with smart money are certainly going to be front and centre.

One thing for sure is that this won’t be the last piece of exciting news that we hear coming out of the Synthetix camp. If things continue on their current trajectory, the $2.8 billion USD locked in its treasury is just the beginning.

The future of finance is coming faster than we ever anticipated. It’s decentralised and permissionless, while running anywhere and everywhere 24/7.

Categories
Crypto News Market Analysis Trading

PNetwork Breakout Analysis – PNT Pumps +47% in a Week with Strong Bullish Trend

Breakout Analysis

PNT was squeezing inside the double top pattern on a 4-hour candle chart, it just went up over +47% in the last 7 days. Let’s take a quick look at PNT, price analysis, and possible reasons for the recent breakout.

What is PNetwork PNT?

The pNetwork is the governance layer of the pTokens system. pTokens are unchained assets, moving liquidity from one blockchain to another. A Provable, portable, and pegged solution for the DeFi ecosystem.

PNT Quick Stats

SYMBOL:PNT
Global rank:526
Market cap:$14,233,378 AUD
Current price:$0.7096 AUD
All time high price:$1.88 AUD
1 day:+16.78%
7 day:+47.21%
1 year:+129.76%

PNT Price Analysis

At the time of writing, PNT is ranked 526th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.7096 AUD. This is a +47% increase since 1st December 2020 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

Price already increased a little bit after the pNetwork announcement last week and then PNT did an awesome breakout from the triangle of this bearish rectangle pattern by breaking all previous resistances & is now currently trading at $0.7096 AUD price levels.

“The bearish rectangle is a continuation pattern that occurs when a price pauses during a strong downtrend and temporarily bounces between two parallel levels before the trend continues.”

What do the technical indicators say?

The PNT TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate PNT as a buy, except the Moving Averages which indicate PNT as a strong buy.

So Why did PNT Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over 100% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout. It could also be contributed to some of the recent news where they announced PNetwork Portals.

Recent PNT News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade PNT?

PNetwork has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading PNT/USDT or PNT/BTC pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

Categories
Crypto News Initial Coin Offering Market Analysis Trading

UNIFI Protocol DAO Breakout Analysis – UNFI Pumps +85% in a Single Day

Breakout

After the launch of UNFI Protocol DAO on Binance Launchpool. UNFI was flipping on a 4-hour candle chart & took a strong Breakout again with +85% gains in a single day. Let’s take a quick look at UNFI, price analysis, and possible reasons for the recent breakout.

What is Unifi?

Unifi Protocol DAO is a group of non-custodial, interoperable, decentralized, multi-chain smart contracts providing the building blocks for DeFi development. The project provides a bridge to connect the economy of Ethereum-based DeFi products to the growing DeFi markets on other blockchains. uTrade, a decentralized Automated Market Maker (AMM) and token exchange, is the first product built on the Unifi Protocol DAO smart contracts.

Unifi Quick Stats

SYMBOL:UNFI
Global rank:303
Market cap:$36,421,511 AUD
Current price:$18.03 AUD
All-time high price:$19.10 AUD
1 day:+85.4%
7 day:+203.70%
1 year:+305.74%

Unifi Price Analysis

At the time of writing, UNFI is ranked 303rd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $18.03 AUD. This is a +305.74% increase since the launch of its ICO at Binance Launchpool on 19 November 2020 as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

After the launch of Unifi on Binance Launchpool, It pumped up to $8.12 AUD having +300% gains in few hours and the initial opening price of UNFI was $2.1 AUD at Binance Exchange with many different trading pairs like UNFI/BTC, UNFI/USDT, and UNFI/BUSD.

Currently, UNFI is trading at $18.03 AUD price levels after breaking out the squeeze resistance in its sideways trend & now heading towards its all-time high price with a strong bullish trend.

Source: TradingView

What do the technical indicators say?

The Unifi TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate UNFI as a buy, except the Oscillators which indicate UNFI as a strong sell.

So Why did UNFI Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over 100% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout. It could also be contributed to some recent news where UNFI Protocol was Live on Ethereum

Recent UNFI News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade UNFI?

UNFI has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading UNFI/USDT or UNFI/BTC pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.