EXPLAINER: Ethereum is ditching its 'miners.' Why?
SAN FRANCISCO — (AP) — A complex software change to the cryptocurrency ethereum holds the potential to dramatically reduce its energy consumption — and resulting climate-related pollution. By itself, however, the ethereum change won’t eliminate crypto’s expected environmental impact, although it's expected to help a great deal. Crypto mining favors well-resourced groups that can put together a lot of specialized computers and supply them with electricity as cheaply as possible. Such cards turned out to be ideal for crypto mining rigs. SO WHAT DOES THE ETHEREUM CHANGE DO?
wftv.comFirm behind popular US dollar stablecoin to launch Euro Coin
NEW YORK — (AP) — Cryptocurrency company Circle said Thursday that it will start issuing its first euro-denominated cryptocurrency, a stablecoin known as Euro Coin, later this month. Circle owns and operates USD Coin, the second-most-popular stablecoin in the industry, with more than $54 billion sitting in that coin. The new Euro Coin will be backed entirely by euros held in euro-denominated bank accounts, Circle said. The company is launching Euro Coin amid turmoil for cryptocurrencies. It has been the flight to safety for crypto.”Circle's Euro Coin will be tradeable on some of major crypto exchanges, including Binance, starting on June 30.
wftv.comCoinbase lays off 18 percent of workforce as CEO braces for ‘crypto winter’
Placeholder while article actions loadCryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced it would cut 18 percent of its workforce Tuesday as fears of a recession mount and crypto values plummet, shedding sometimes thousands of dollars per share by the day. Choose your plan ArrowRight The cuts will affect roughly 1,100 workers, leaving the firm with a staff of roughly 5,000. Coinbase’s stock fell 5.4 percent in morning trading, and crypto shares continued to see volatility: Bitcoin lost 4.9 percent to trade near $22,000. The leading cryptocurrency has lost more than two-third of its value in the past seven months. Coinbase will also cover four months of health insurance for U.S. employees and four months of mental health care for international employees, Armstrong said.
washingtonpost.comCrypto execs head to Capitol as Congress mulls regulations
How to regulate digital assets has been a thorny issue, with companies operating under a patchwork of state and federal oversight. Tennessee Rep. John Rose, for example, asked industry executives how Congress could prevent innovation from leaving the United States and happening offshore. “I’m optimistic that on the regulatory side, we’re not that far from that point,” said Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of trading exchange FTX. Alesia Haas, chief financial officer of Coinbase Global, said the U.S. government should create a new regulatory framework for digital assets. “Our existing regulatory system does not work effectively for the open, decentralized networks that crypto has created,” she said in written testimony.
wftv.comShiba Inu passes Dogecoin as top "dog" in cryptocurrency
Crypto-Shiba Inu Rising FILE - This mobile phone app screen shot shows the logo for Dogecoin, in New York, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. Shiba was up another 10% at midday on Monday and has doubled in value in the past week. Even with its recent meteoric rise — it's up about 900% in the past month — each Shiba coin costs just a tiny fraction of one cent. If you bought $1,000 worth of Shiba in late September, your 20 million coins would now be worth around $9,000. While Shiba is the current white-hot cryptocurrency, you can’t trade it through more traditional brokers — yet.
wftv.comPipeline CEO: Ransom payment among my 'toughest decisions'
Pipeline-Cybersecurity Attack Tanker trucks are parked near the entrance of Colonial Pipeline Company Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Charlotte, N.C. The operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline has confirmed it paid $4.4 million to a gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems. Colonial Pipeline’s CEO Joseph Blount told the Journal that he authorized the payment after the ransomware attack because the company didn’t know the extent of the damage. Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount will face the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, one day after the Justice Department revealed it had recovered the majority of the $4.4 million ransom payment the company made in hopes of getting its system back online. The company decided soon after the attack to pay ransom of 75 bitcoin, then valued at roughly $4.4 million.
wftv.comUS recovers most of ransom paid after Colonial Pipeline hack
Cybersecurity Colonial Pipeline Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announces the recovery of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from the Colonial Pipeline Co. ransomware attacks as she speaks during a news conference with FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate and acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Stephanie Hinds at the Justice Department in Washington, Monday, June 7, 2021. Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which supplies roughly half the fuel consumed on the East Coast, temporarily shut down its operations on May 7 after a gang of cybercriminals using the DarkSide ransomware variant broke into its computer system. Colonial officials have said they took their pipeline system offline before the attack could spread to its operating systems, and decided soon after to pay ransom of 75 bitcoin — then valued at roughly $4.4 million — in hopes of bringing itself back online as soon as it could. Ransomware attacks — in which hackers encrypt a victim organization's data and demand a hefty sum for returning the information — have flourished. Weeks after the Colonial Pipeline attack, a ransomware attack attributed to REvil, a Russian-speaking gang that has made some of the largest ransomware demands on record in recent months, disrupted production at Brazil’s JBS SA, the world's largest meat processing company.
wftv.comCourt Authorizes Service of John Doe Summons Seeking Identities of U.S. Taxpayers Who Have Used Cryptocurrency
The IRS is seeking the records of Americans who engaged in business with or through Kraken, a digital currency exchanger headquartered in San Francisco, California. “This John Doe summons is part of our effort to uncover those who are trying to skirt reporting and avoid paying their fair share.”Cryptocurrency, as generally defined, is a digital representation of value. On April 1, 2021, a federal court in the District of Massachusetts granted an order authorizing the IRS to serve a similar John Doe summons on Circle, a digital currency exchange headquartered in Boston. Today’s order from the Northern District of California grants the IRS permission to serve what is known as a “John Doe” summons on Kraken. The United States’ petition does not allege that Kraken has engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with its digital currency exchange business.
justice.gov