Category: Bitcoin

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Aussie Bitcoiners Launch Industry Body to Promote Bitcoin Only

“Bitcoin, not crypto” is the Bitcoiner maxim. Following hearings before the Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre, Australian Bitcoiners have just launched the country’s first bitcoin-only industry body.

Bitcoin only. Source: Amber

Australian Bitcoin Industry Body Formed in the Wake of Senate Hearings

As Australian regulators seek to make sense of the burgeoning digital asset ecosystem, numerous participants within the sector have made submissions to the Fintech Senate Committee in anticipation of the final report due to be released in October. While some participants have focused their efforts on calling for greater regulatory clarity, Bitcoiners have always been weary of being lumped together with altcoins.

This was clearly reflected in an impassioned presentation before the Senate Committee by Ethan Timor, the co-founder of Aussie-based bitcoin only exchange Bitaroo.

Bitcoin not crypto. Bitcoin not blockchain. The fiat currency system is broken. It is an experiment that began only 50 years ago and it’s led to more booms and busts, more wealth inequality and more devaluation of currencies. The Aussie dollar for example has lost 90 percent of its value since then.

Ethan Timor, Bitaroo co-founder

When speaking in relation to other crypto assets, Timor noted that:

… most of them are useless, some of them are different shades of scams, others are securities. Greed, not ideals, led to the creation of most. There is only one true altcoin and that is bitcoin. Bitcoin is the altcoin to the fiatcoin.

Ethan Timor, Bitaroo co-founder

Rather than trying to regulate exchanges, Timor argued that users should instead be educated to store their own bitcoin on their own wallet – “not your keys, not your coins”. He called upon regulators and lawmakers to study Bitcoin and “see all that it has to offer”. This, he argued, “will surely lead to classifying it differently than all other cryptocurrencies”.

Recognising that government was largely only interacting with crypto advocates and not with Bitcoin only advocates, he continued:

Get Involved

The initial board members for the industry body were announced via Twitter and included some familiar names within the community:

Membership applications open soon and in the interim, you can follow the group on Twitter.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum

Cuba Set to Embrace Crypto to Tackle Ongoing Economic Crisis

Amid a tumultuous economic crisis and its Central Bank enforcing a ban on US dollar cash deposits, Cuba is looking for a way forward – and crypto might be the answer.

The Caribbean island nation is taking its cue from many other South American countries and will start to recognise and regulate cryptocurrencies, it announced on August 26.

According to a resolution published in Cuba’s Official Gazette, the republic’s central bank – Banco Central de Cuba – will govern how citizens would be allowed to use cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. It is also expected that Cuban authorities will distribute relevant licences to businesses based on the crypto-related services they offer.

Cuba’s Dire Economic Situation

The announcement comes as Cuba finds itself immersed in anti-government protests over a lack of food and medicine during an economic crisis. The situation is made worse not only by the Covid-19 pandemic but also by foreign sanctions.

The Cuban government has also done away with its dual-currency system, causing many citizens to lose money as they traded in Cuban convertible pesos for the traditional Cuban peso.

Cryptocurrencies have gained in popularity as the population finds it harder to use US dollars, partly due to the toughened embargo rules imposed by former US president Donald Trump.

Crypto allows for anonymous long-distance transactions, making it popular with citizens and businesses wanting to evade government regulations – including US restrictions on sending money to Cuba.

The official resolution added that the Central Bank can authorise the use of cryptos “for reasons of socioeconomic interest”, but the state will ensure that their operations are controlled. The resolution made it clear that operations could not involve illegal activities.

Cuba Follows El Salvador’s Lead

Cuba is not the first South American country to openly endorse and allow the use of cryptocurrencies. El Salvador passed a bill in June making it the first country in the world to approve bitcoin as legal tender.

Argentina, Brazil, Panama, Paraguay and Nicaragua are among other South American countries embracing cryptocurrencies.

By Jana Serfontein, Crypto News Australia Guest Author

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Banking Bitcoin Payments

Anti-Bitcoin Protests Fill the Streets of El Salvador Amid BTC Legal Tender Launch

The political situation in El Salvador is heating up as hundreds of Salvadoreans protest the passing of the Bitcoin Law, which will make BTC a mandatory legal tender. The law takes effect on September 7 and prescribes that all citizens and economic agents accept BTC and the US Dollar as joint means of payment.

Demonstrations against the proposed law are taking place in the streets of El Salvador. Among the organising groups are workers, veterans and pensioners in their hundreds, all raising their voices in protest.

Last month, a group of university students, activists and unions gathered in front of Congress in capital San Salvador to demand the derogation of the Bitcoin Law, saying it only facilitates money laundering and corruption. Representatives of the group introduced a written statement arguing that bitcoin’s decentralisation could do more harm than good:

Bitcoin would facilitate public corruption and the operations of drug, arms and human traffickers, extortionists and tax evaders. It would also cause monetary chaos, hit people’s salaries, pensions and savings, ruin many MSMEs, affect peasant families and hit the middle strata.

Protest group statement

El Salvador is known for being an authoritarian country with non-transparent policies, and according to Salvadoreans the mandatory use of bitcoin will only encourage the government’s corrupt operations.

Cargo Carriers Threaten to Impose 20% Freight Levy

The Salvadorean Association of International Cargo Carriers (ASTIC) has demanded the modification of article 7 of the Bitcoin Law that stipulates the mandatory acceptance of bitcoin. It has threatened to introduce a 20 percent levy on customers paying for freight with BTC to protect itself from the currency’s volatility.

In an official statement, ASTIC argued:

No Central American carrier contracted by an economic entity in El Salvador will accept bitcoin as a form of payment, creating divisionism in the sector for paying the foreigner in [US] dollars and the national for being obliged with the cryptocurrency.

ASTIC statement

Neighbouring Countries Are Watching and Waiting

While Salvadoreans fill the streets to make their voices heard, neighbouring Central American countries are waiting to see how the situation develops once the Bitcoin Law is passed. If it succeeds, El Salvador could save substantial costs of remittances, besides facilitating financial inclusion for the unbanked – something that could also benefit neighbouring countries such as Guatemala and Honduras.

Stanley Quinteros, a member of El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice workers’ union, predicted that the mandatory adoption of bitcoin would damage Salvadorean finances as there is no way to control or stabilise prices.

We know this coin fluctuates drastically. Its value changes from one second to another and we will have no control over it. Everyone is watching if it goes well for El Salvador and if, for example, the cost of remittances drops substantially … other countries will probably seek that advantage and adopt it.

Stanley Quinteros, El Salvador’s Supreme Court of Justice workers’ union

In anticipation of the Bitcoin Law’s passing, in June El Salvador launched 1,000 Bitcoin ATMs installed by Athena Bitcoin for the purchase and sale of BTC.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Scams

Man Robbed of 16 Bitcoin Sues Young Thieves’ Parents

A man in the US has taken civil action against the parents of two young men in the UK for stealing 16 bitcoin (BTC) from him after the pair used clipboard-stealing malware to alter the destination of the crypto when the man tried to transfer it.

According to a civil order filed this year, in 2018 Colorado man Andrew Schober had 16.4 BTC stolen when he tried to move the digital asset from one account to another. When Schober realised the bitcoin never reached the intended account, he began to worry something had gone wrong.

After losing about 90 percent of his net wealth at the time, saved to finance a home and support his family, Schober spent over US$10,000 hiring a team of investigators to track down his lost crypto. On closer inspection of Schober’s computer, they found he had accidentally downloaded some malware after clicking a link posted on Reddit for a supposed cryptocurrency wallet application called “Electrum Atom”.

After months of investigation, the crypto was tracked to two young men in Britain who were minors at the time of the theft.

The first defendant had been found just hours after Schober’s bitcoin was stolen when he posted a message to GitHub asking for help accessing the private key corresponding to the public key of the bitcoin address used by the clipboard-stealing malware. The other defendant had the malware code that was bundled with the Electrum Atom application in his GitHub code library.

Beware Clipboard-Stealing Malware

The malware used to steal Schober’s bitcoin was bundled with a wallet program that was designed to wait for a user to copy in the lengthy wallet address. When an address is copied to the computer’s temporary clipboard, it gets swapped with another new address to which it gets sent.

How the malware scam worked. Source: Colorado Court file

Difficulty Retrieving Funds

After Schober tried to contact the young defendants’ parents for redress, there was no response. He stated that “losing that money has been financially and emotionally devastating. He [sic] might have thought he was playing a harmless joke, but it has had serious consequences for my life.”

After being met with continued silence from the parents for several months, Schober filed suit against both the young men and their parents in a Colorado court.

“These crimes can be monumentally difficult and expensive to track down,” said Mark Rasch, a former prosecutor with the US Justice Department who is now in private practice. “It’s designed to be difficult to do, but it’s also not designed to be impossible to do.”

Rasch said he was currently acting in several lawsuits involving young men who’ve been accused of stealing and laundering millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, specifically crimes involving SIM swapping.

A lot of these crimes are being committed by juveniles, and we don’t have a good juvenile justice system that’s well designed to both civilly and criminally go after kids.

Mark Rasch, attorney

It makes sense that some victims of cryptocurrency theft are spending serious money to track down perpetrators and sue them civilly.

In a related story from last year, Ledger users flagged a class-action lawsuit after having their personal information breached.

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Bitcoin Crypto Hardware Wallets Crypto News Crypto Wallets Cryptocurrencies

Family that Invested in Bitcoin Early Keeps 74% in Secret Vaults Worldwide

The Dutch family who sold all their worldly possessions to go all-in on bitcoin are now happily living in Portugal (among other exotic places), sitting pretty on their fortune of digital gold which is being kept safely offline on multiple cold storage wallets.

Didi Taihuttu and family

Selling It All for the Bitcoin Dream

Didi Taihuttu, his wife and three children liquidated all their assets to buy as much bitcoin as they could in 2017 when the BTC price was just US$900. They won’t say exactly how much they have, but let’s do some rough maths. Say they invested just US$50,000 at $900/BTC. That’s 55.56 bitcoins multiplied by US$50,000 (approximate worth of bitcoin today), equating to about $2.8 million.

Decentralised Hidden Treasure vs Centralised Storage

The family stores almost three-quarters of its crypto fortune in secret vaults across four continents. The remaining wealth is kept liquid for more precarious bets, day trading, and risky GIGO (go-in-go-out) shorter-term investments. Taihuttu says he has two hiding spots in Europe, another two in Asia, one in South America and a sixth in Australia. The goal for the near future is to have a stash on each continent across the world. Taihuttu aims to do this so it is easier to access his holdings when and if he needs to.

There are, of course, other options for storing your cryptocurrency safely offline. Centralised vaults like Coinbase-owned Xapo offer high levels of security, but Taihuttu says it feels too centralised to him: “I prefer to live in a decentralised world where I have the responsibility to protect my capital.”

To learn more about what’s been dubbed the “Bitcoin Family”, follow them on their YouTube channel and Instagram page.

Click here to read more about why cold storage is a great solution for those with a large stash that they don’t intend to trade in the near future.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis

Bitcoin Hits 3-Month High, Breaking Key $50,000 Resistance Level

Bitcoin has extended its recent stretch of positive returns by cracking the all-important US$50,000 psychological barrier. As user growth continues to skyrocket and investors find themselves firmly in positive territory, bitcoin bulls appear confident of a strong surge in the remaining months of 2021.

Within the past 35 days, bitcoin has bounced back some 70 percent from its lows. One of the main reasons offered by analysts relates to growth in long-term HODLers.

Record Levels of HODLers

On-chain data suggests we are now seeing record numbers of long-term HODLers. According to lead Bitcoin analyst at Ark Invest, Yassine Elmandjra, the number of short-term bitcoin holders is at an all-time low – a record 84 percent of bitcoin’s supply has not been moved in over three months.

Bitcoin supply last active. Source: Glassnode

A potentially more intuitive visualisation of this trend is outlined in the chart below. Notice the precipitous decline in long-term holders from November 2020 to May 2021 when the price went from around US$15,500 to US$58,000.

Total supply held by long-term holders. Source: Glassnode

Bitcoin’s Next Moves

Should the pattern outlined in the chart above repeat itself, we may be looking at a bitcoin price between US$150,000 and US$200,000. This would be more or less in alignment with Pete Humiston of Kraken Intelligence’s assessment:

Another approach to consider is the weekly moving average convergence/divergence (MACD) indicator for BTC/USD, which has now flipped from red to green. Historically, this has been a reliable indicator of the trajectory of an asset.

MACD indicator. Source: Trading View

The last time a bullish crossover occurred, BTC/USD saw a 5.5x price increase – from US$11,500 in October 2020 to all-time highs of US$64,500 just six months later. Should that play out again, bitcoin may end up over US$220,000 by the end of the year or early 2022.

The inimitable Bitcoin OG Max Keiser would seem to concur:

Of course when it comes to forward price projections, experienced investors generally advise those new to the space not to get overly focused on the short-term price fluctuations, both up and down. What matters, they say, is an asset’s long-term trajectory.

Notwithstanding, bitcoin bulls would be forgiven for being somewhat excited at present. HODLing through 2021 has certainly not been a walk in the park.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

US Mayor Wants to Give All Residents $1,000 in Bitcoin, With a Catch

The mayor of Cool Valley, a city in the US state of Missouri, is raising funds in order to give all residents US$1,000 in bitcoin. If successful, it would come with one big catch.

Jayson Stewart, Mayor of Cool Valley, Missouri. Source: Bitcoin Magazine

Mayor: Holding Bitcoin ‘Could Transform Town’

In a KSDK News interview, Mayor Jayson Stewart outlined his plan to provide all 1,500 residents with up to US$1,000 in bitcoin, suggesting that holding bitcoin could materially transform the town in years to come. In describing how he saw Cool Valley and its residents becoming “wealthier and wealthier”, he noted:

I have friends whose lives have been completely changed, like going from working a regular nine-to-five job to being worth over 80 million dollars in a matter of a few years.

Jayson Stewart, Mayor of Cool Valley

When asked as to how the project would be funded, the mayor said he had supportive donors who had agreed to match any funds that he personally was able to raise.

Get Bitcoin Into the Hands of Those Who Need It Most

One of Stewart’s concerns is that residents would immediately sell their bitcoin and then later, when it was trading much higher, regret it. To prevent this from happening, he was considering the idea of a vesting schedule where residents might not be able to get full access to their bitcoin for a period of five years.

We’re working on ideas like that because that’s my number one concern. If someone just sells their bitcoin to pay their car note, and then when bitcoin is sitting at like $500,000 all these years later, they’re going to really regret that.

Jayson Stewart, Mayor of Cool Valley

As part of the mayor’s plan, he stressed that residents would be given a crash course in cryptocurrency so they could securely store their own bitcoin.

Not Quite the First Free BTC Handout

While the mayor’s plans are undoubtedly progressive and would constitute a first in the US, it isn’t the first time the idea has been floated.

As reported by Crypto News Australia earlier this year, shortly after El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender, the government announced a program whereby it would give US$30 in bitcoin to each of its 6.5 million citizens in exchange for downloading the government wallet.

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Bitcoin Crime Crypto News

Swedish Government Pays Convicted Drug Dealer 33 Bitcoin Due to Prosecutor Error

The Swedish government has had to pay a convicted felon US$1.6 million upon release thanks to the increasing value of bitcoin (BTC) and a slip-up on the part of the prosecutor.

According to a report from Swedish news source Sveriges Radio, Swedish law enforcement has found itself in a rather unusual situation where it has to pay out roughly US$1.6 million to a released convict. The authorities are being forced to pay the man 33 BTC after his illegally obtained bitcoin appreciated while behind bars.

Appreciating Bitcoin Makes a Nice Get-Out-of-Jail Present

Two years ago, Swedish law enforcement arrested a man who was operating an illegal online drug shop, earning himself 36 BTC, or about U$136,000 at the time.

While he’s been locked up, the price of bitcoin has risen and as of August 20 was trading at around US$48,978 per coin, pushing the value of his 36 BTC to more than US$1.6 million.

By the time the convicted drug dealer was released, to satisfy the court’s original settlement of US$100,000 the Swedish Enforcement Authority needed to sell off just 3 BTC. This left the dealer with 33 BTC worth US$1.6 million in his wallet of ill-gotten gains.

An Unfortunate Turn of Events For the Prosecutor

Tove Kullberg, the prosecutor in the case, had reported the illegal funds in dollars instead of crypto. Kullberg admitted that in retrospect it was a mistake not taking into account how much the value of bitcoin would increase.

It is unfortunate in many ways. It has led to consequences I was not able to foresee at the time […] The lesson to be learned from this is to keep the value in bitcoin. The profit from the crime should be 36 bitcoin, regardless of what value the bitcoin has at the time.

Tove Kullberg, Swedish prosecutor

Since this was one of the first crypto-related cases that the department had to deal with, there was no established protocol or precedent to follow. Kullberg added: “I think we should probably invest in internal education in the [prosecution] authority, as cryptocurrency will be a factor we’ll be dealing with to a much greater extent than we are today.”

With the increase in crypto crimes, law enforcement is facing new crypto-related cases it hasn’t seen before.

On a related note, earlier this year we saw an Australian couple charged for running DarkMarket, a dark net marketplace.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Real Estate

Aussies Turn to Crypto as Wages Growth Lags in Australia

For many Australians, the dream of owning their own home is becoming more distant from reality as house prices soar and wages fail to keep pace with the CPI.

Wages have been out of step with inflation for years now and the cost of living in Australia continues to go up, with job insecurity also at an all-time high. Meanwhile the property market is booming as interest rates remain historically low.

For anyone looking to get into the housing market, accumulating enough money for a deposit has become an unfair race as prices are likely to grow well above 10 per cent in the time it takes to save. The chart below illustrates the problem:

Wages will not keep pace with the cost of living. When the cost of living is set to grow quicker than wages, families will be forced to make difficult decisions.

Jim Chalmers, shadow treasurer, Australian Labor Party

Australia Wage Growth Falls to 0.4% On Par with GFC Levels 

Wages growth in the June quarter fell to just 0.4 per cent, on par with the depths of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis which, until the Covid-19 recession in 2020 (now spilling well into 2021), was considered the most serious economic downturn since the 1930s Great Depression.

Last quarter wage data shows that at 1.7 percent, wages growth across 2020-21 was only just over half the 3 percent level the Reserve Bank of Australia considered necessary to lift inflation to within its target band and trigger a rise in interest rates. Additionally, real wages (the difference between wage growth and inflation) have fallen by 2.1 percent, the largest drop in 20 years.

Tokenised Real Estate is the Future

Increasing numbers have turned to cryptocurrency as a means to become financially free, or at least give it a go. Recent data shows that 40 percent of Australian millennials now prefer to invest in crypto over real estate. There is also a growing demand for workers choosing to be paid in crypto.

Because cryptocurrency is tokenised, it makes it an attractive asset class for millennials and anybody else who is curious about investing and trading, because you don’t have to buy a whole piece – you can just own a part of a bitcoin, for example.

As real estate investment now seems out of reach for many, crypto will help to revolutionise the industry and make it more accessible for those who want to buy property “shares”. Tokenisation of real estate is an inevitable next chapter in blockchain’s disruption of capital markets.

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Bitcoin Coinjar Crypto News Crypto.com Sports

PSV Eindhoven Football Club Gets €400,000 Sponsorship Deal Paid 100% in Bitcoin

Dutch football giant PSV Eindhoven has signed a partnership with Anycoin Direct to become the first major football club in the European Union to have its entire sponsorship paid in bitcoin. Chances are they won’t be the last.

Celebrating the deal. Source: Official PSV Eindhoven website

PSV No Stranger to Crypto

Earlier this year, the club got involved in the crypto sector for the first time when in April it sold an NFT of its historic victory in the 1988 European Cup final over Portugal’s Benfica.

According to the official press release, Anycoin Direct will be the club’s partner for the next two seasons with the goal being to grow awareness of the crypto industry and Anycoin Direct across the European region. While there were many candidates in the race for the partnership, PSV ultimately chose to have a local partner from the Eindhoven area, in the southern Netherlands.

Frans Janssen, the commercial director of PSV, has already created the relevant crypto wallets and expressed enormous enthusiasm about the partnership:

The possibilities and the future that the world of cryptocurrency offers is very promising. As a club in the heart of the Brainport region, we are always innovating; cryptocurrency fits well into this picture.

Frans Janssen, commercial director, PSV

Echoing those sentiments, Lennert Vlemmings, COO at Anycoin Direct, commented:

Growing up in the region, PSV has always been very close to me. As a technology company from the Brainport area we are very excited to be working with PSV. The payment in bitcoin marks the next step for the adoption of cryptocurrency in the EU.

Lennert Vlemmings, COO, Anycoin Direct

According to Dutch publication Eindhovens Dagblad, PSV will be paid €400,000 (about A$650,000) per season. The report further suggests that the arrangement guarantees undefined guaranteed returns in the case of a price reduction, taking into account bitcoin’s volatility.

Sports and Crypto – a Trend On the Rise

Increasingly, we are seeing the worlds of sports and crypto intertwine as unexpected partnerships proliferate within the sector. Earlier this year, the UFC partnered with Crypto.com in a US$175 million 10-year deal.

Turning to the world of football, Watford Football Club will be sporting the Dogecoin logo on its shirts this EPL season, while Crypto News Australia partner and Australian crypto exchange Coinjar recently concluded a partnership with newly promoted EPL team Brentford FC.