Category: China

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China Crypto News Gambling

Police Arrest a Team Running Illegal Gambling DApp in China

The Jianhu police have arrested a team of developers in the city of Yancheng in Jianhu province, China. The team has been operating a decentralised gambling app on the EOS network. Police have seized 26 million Yuan ($3.8 million USD) in EOS and BTC in illegal revenue.

China’s First Illegal Gambling DApp shut down

In a news report issued by the Jianhu Police, they have arrested 25 suspects that have been part of the online casino called “DAPP Biggame“. Between June 2018 and December 2020, the team behind Biggame allegedly profited from the operations with crypto assets worth 60 million Yuan, or nearly $10 million USD, law enforcement officials said. This is China’s first case involving a decentralised digital casino.

Apprehended suspects at the Biggame office

The report states that a preliminary investigation was opened on November 13, 2020, where they analysed 27 million transaction data in order to find contract addresses used for betting, lottery, and prize distribution, which led them to the perpetrators. Cryptocurrencies were used as a medium for betting and provided a platform to participate in illegal betting.

This DAPP does not need to be downloaded. Users can access and log in on the public chain or through various grapefruit coin wallets, and directly use the grapefruit coins to place bets.

Jianhu police

The DApp allowed players to use EOS smart contracts to place bets on various games such as Dice, Texas Hold’em, and others.

Illegal Activity on The Blockchain

Toward the end of 2020 Yancheng court sentenced individuals that were behind a multinational pyramid scheme to up to 11 years in prison. The perpetrators defrauded investors out of 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.25 billion). The size of the PlusToken scam makes it one of the largest uncovered Ponzi schemes in China to have taken advantage of blockchain technology.

The Chinese police started an “Internet Cleansing Movement” operation which is set to clamp down on illegal online activities from online gambling to money laundering.

Since Q4 last year, an increasing number of court rulings show that nearly 100 individuals have been convicted for knowingly laundering money through crypto over-the-counter trading desks that involved more than $30 million worth of Tether’s USDT.

Other arrests we’ve seen recently:

Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining China Mining

Recent BTC Price Dip Linked To China Mining F2Pool Selling Off

China are shutting down some of their mining operations and mining group F2Pool, who have many mining farms in China, are transferring BTC out of their wallets frantically.

China to Ban Mining Operations

As quoted by CNBC, China’s Inner Mongolia region plans to ban crypto mining and shut down existing operations by April 2021 – due to high energy consumption.

If we take a look at the some of F2Pool mining farms locations we can see they are located in the Inner Mongolia region of China – the same place as the ban.

F2Pool Mining Farms in Inner Mongolia

As China start to head towards a cleaner ecosystem, they might ban the rest of the Chinese mining locations, and that accounts for around 65% of all bitcoin mining globally – which could have a short term impact on BTC.

F2Pool BTC Outflow

If we take a look at the data in the charts provided by CryptoQuant we can clearly see the massive outflow of BTC from F2Pool affiliated wallets.

BTC: F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow Source

This consistent massive outflow of BTC is not “normal” for a BTC mining pool. If we compare it to the Antpool group which has 11% share of the total BTC pools, it averages around 300 BTC outflow mark every few days. F2Pool which has 18% of the share, you would expect the outflow to be only slightly bigger, but at the moment you can see, its considerably bigger.

F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow – zoom in showing 14,000 BTC outflow for Feb 25

That giant outflow on Feb 21 could have sparked the the BTC dip, with futures contracts being liquidated causing a domino effect.

F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow – zoom in showing hourly outflow vs BTC price drop

It will be interesting to see if F2Pool release something official about closing operations in China. Stay tuned for more news.

Categories
Australia Blockchain China

Australian Blockchain Startup Wins Australia’s Biggest Design Award

The results of Australia’s Peak most prestigious international design award — the Good Design Award — have been announced, with Aussie blockchain startup Beefledger taking home the Good Design 2020 Award in two categories. 

BeefLedger is primarily focused on streamlining transactions in the beef supply chain industry, offering blockchain-based solutions that track Aussie beef throughout the international supply chain. The platform won recognition in Good Design’s Commercial Services category for the award, with Good Design noting the “outstanding design” and innovation offered by BeefLedger.

The BeefLedger platform primarily focuses on reducing the $40 billion dollars in fraud that occurs annually within the Australian food supply chain, using blockchain-enabled beef provenance tracking and a blockchain-powered credentialing platform in order to minimize fraud and falsely labeled products.

BeefLedger Gets Aussie Farmers Paid Faster

Notably, BeefLedger incorporates smart contracts into an international cross-border payments platform that streamlines the international export and payment within the Australian beef industry, minimizing administrative friction and helping Aussie farmers get paid faster.

Judges presiding over the 2020 Good Design Awards highlighted BeefLedger’s innovative approach, focusing on the platform’s forward-leaning incorporation of decentralized solutions:

“A strong design combining mature approaches with newly developed blockchain technologies for an elegantly simple result. It’s a great example that demonstrates the intersection of data and design.”

By integrating blockchain technology into the Australian beef export supply chain, BeefLEdger embeds authentic regional data into the packaging and credentials provided to consumers that purchase Aussie beef in China, connecting multiple stakeholders in the supply chain for mutual benefit.

Categories
Australia Blockchain China

Australia Under Attack: 3 Major Data Breaches Reported Daily as Gov Turns to Blockchain Solution

Data published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner reveals that Australia is subject to nearly three significant data breaches every day, with leading cybersecurity and blockchain experts referencing China as the cause of ongoing cyber attacks. 

The January – June 2020 Notifiable Data Breaches Report, published by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), places the total number of reported data breaches across Australia for the last financial year at over 1,000. 

The OAIC’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme from which the data presented in the report tracks the occurrence of data breaches in which personal information is accessed or distributed without authorization. While many of the breaches in the report are attributable to human error, hundreds of the breaches occurring between 2019 and 2020 were executed by malicious or criminal actors.

Australian Health & Finance Sector Targeted, Bank Details Leaked

Data breaches reported in the report were executed by a variety of means, such as social engineering, storage device theft, insider threats, phishing, and malware. The majority of attacks executed in the last year were associated with malicious actors gaining access to user data through phishing attacks, closely followed by ransomware attacks.

The Australian health sector was the hardest hit by cyber attacks, accounting for over 10 percent of all data breaches, followed by the finance sector. The number of users affected by the breaches exceeds 10 million, with the contact information of 84 percent of affected individuals released along with home addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses as well as passport numbers and license numbers.

Concerningly, data breaches reported to the OAIC in the same period contained tax file numbers, bank account details, credit card numbers, and health data.

Key Industry Experts Identify Blockchain as Solution to Cyber Threat

A panel discussion hosted on July 30 by recently appointed Blockchain Australia CEO Steve Vallas saw blockchain specialists and experts from various sectors come together to discuss potential cyber security solutions to address the ongoing cyber threat faced by Australia. 

The panel, consisting of liberal Senator Andrew Bragg,  CyberCX CEO John Paitaridis,  National Blockchain Lead Chloe White from the Department of Industry, and several other speakers identified blockchain technology as a key driver in protecting Australia from future cyber attacks. 

During the panel, CyberCX CEO John Paitaridis noted that attacks directed toward Australia are increasing in frequency, and identified China as the primary actor executing cyberattacks against the country:

“In June this year, the Australian Prime Minister announced an ‘unnamed state actor’, you can read into that — China — as being targeting businesses and government agencies across Australia as part of a large, dedicated, persistent scale attack.”

Blockchain technology, stated Paitaridis, is able to prevent the manipulation of data after publishing, preventing data tampering and addressing the vulnerabilities that are currently exploited by malicious actors in cyber attacks.