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January 22 · Issue #155 · View online
Kyle Torpey has been a full-time Bitcoin writer and researcher since early 2014. Currently, he contributes regularly to Forbes and CoinJournal. His work has also appeared in Business Insider, VICE Motherboard, Nasdaq, and many other media outlets. Additionally, Kyle goes over the day's top Bitcoin stories in a daily YouTube show and podcast, which can be found at http://kyletorpey.com.
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Note 1: My articles are now included in the âmust read Bitcoin storiesâ section. Any article Iâve written will say âđ¨BY KYLE TORPEYđ¨â at the start of the article description. Note 2: A reader pointed out that my short description of a Ripple article from FT in Fridayâs issue should have said the 16 banks surveyed are not using XRP right now rather than saying they never plan to use XRP.
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Note: This week will be ad-free as I search for new sponsors. Feel free to shoot an email to email@kyletorpey.com if you know anyone interested.
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Bitcoin: Top banks suspend accounts of major Bitcoin exchanges in India - The Economic Times
The banks have sought additional collateral from promoters of these exchanges on borrowings and have capped cash withdrawals from the few operational a/cs.
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Op Ed: Hereâs What Paul Krugman Got Wrong in His Bitcoin Tweetstorm â Bitcoin Magazine
đ¨BY KYLE TORPEYđ¨ Like many other mainstream economists, Paul Krugman has long-shown a complete disdain for Bitcoin. In late 2013, he went as far as to write a piece titled âŚ
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Battle-Testing Lightning: Schools Start Contest to Secure Bitcoinâs Layer 2 - CoinDesk
While many see the Lightning Network as the main hope for bitcoinâs scaling issues, itâs unclear whether many developers are actually working to make that a reality.
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BitGo on Twitter: "The first 2MB bitcoin blocks were mined this weekend"
These record block sizes were made possible by transactions with numerous segwit inputs created on BitGo with super low fees.
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Zhaodong: Bitfinex and Tether Hold 3 Billion USD, USDT Soon Listed On Bigone | NEWS.8BTC.COM
The integrity of omni-based USDT has been questioned by the community along with its rising supply. On a recent weibo, Zhaodong, an early adopter of Bitcoin and aâwhaleâ, claimed that the UâŚ
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Avoiding Dystopia and Messariâs Secret, Optimistic Plan
If youâve followed me for any length of time, you probably know Iâve grown highly disillusioned with the current state of affairs in crypto. I thought I would enjoy the moon, but like many of the⌠Kyleâs note: I donât agree with this whole piece, but the bit about off-grid communities that only use bitcoin developing is interesting.
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Canada's Hydro Quebec unable to meet demand from digital currency miners | Reuters
Canadaâs largest utility, Hydro Quebec, is reviewing its commercial energy strategy after being inundated with demand from global digital currency miners rushing to the province to benefit from political stability and low energy prices.
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Nordea Imposes Bitcoin Ban Across All of Bank's Departments - Bloomberg
The biggest Nordic bank has told its employees not to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in a move that may lead the European Banking Federation to review its official stance on the products.
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The worldâs most valuable bitcoin startup just grabbed an ex-Twitter exec to make cryptocurrency more user-friendly, Business Insider - Business Insider Singapore
Business Insider - Tina Bhatnagar joins Coinbase with a mission to totally reform customer support at the growing cyrptocurrency exchange.. Read more at businessinsider.sg
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Bitfinex froze my account with over $1 million : bitfinex
Hi, Iâm an European guy under 30 and today Iâm very worried. I post from a new account for obvious reasons. I entered into the crypto-world as a⌠Kyleâs note: This is an unconfirmed story, but it illustrates the need for better privacy in bitcoin.
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Bitcoin â Opacity â Medium
Let us follow the logic of things from the beginning. Or, rather, from the end: modern times. We are, as I am writing these lines, witnessing a complete riot against some class of experts, in domainsâŚ
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Samourai Wallet on Twitter: "Excited to release a proof of concept app as part of ongoing R&D into alternative broadcasting methods to enhance censorship resistance."
PonyDirect can be used to send transactions to the bitcoin network via SMS or act as a SMS relay for others.
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How Nigerians Beat Bitcoin Scams - Bloomberg
The countryâs embrace of the cryptocurrency has led to some old-school precautions against fraud.
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What Is MUFG Coin? Japanâs Largest Bank To Open Cryptocurrency Exchange
The bank will also open an exchange to trade the cryptocurrency, called MUFG Coin, which will be pegged to the yen. Kyleâs note: This story was in the newsletter once or twice last week, but this is a more credible source to confirm it.
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Van Eck Associates CEO: Bitcoin is a true complement to gold
CNBCâs Bob Pisani speaks with Jan van Eck, Van Eck Associates CEO, about what he sees for the future for bitcoin ETFs and trading in the cryptocurrency.
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Vanguard chief: You will never see a bitcoin fund from us
Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley may think highly of blockchain technology, but he isnât planning on investing in bitcoin anytime soon.
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Goldman Sachs warns clients about cryptocurrencies
Goldman Sachs is warning its wealthiest clients that thereâs no doubt that the rise in bitcoinâs price (BTC) has pushed it into bubble territory. The firmâs Private Wealth Management division touched upon the cryptocurrency craze in a 108-page note titled â(Un)Steady as She Goes,â an annual outlook
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GVA Research CEO Garrity Sees Bitcoin Falling to $5,000 â Bloomberg
David Garrity, chief executive officer at GVA Research LLC, discusses the volatility in Bitcoin and his outlook for cryptocurrencies. He speaks on âBloomberg Daybreak: Asia.â (Source: Bloomberg) Kyleâs note: I agree with this guyâs assessment on regulatory risks, but the number of payments on the network is not a proper way to value bitcoin.
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BlackRock duo quit to launch cryptocurrency hedge fund - Financial News
The pair join a growing roster of executives to quit mainstream financial services for the fledgling sector
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Former UBS Banker Launches Crypto Fund, Seeks Swiss Approval - Bloomberg
(Machine translation provided by Google and reviewed by Bloomberg editors.)
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Bitcoin Has No Role Yet for Institutional Investors: Bernstein - Bloomberg
Taken on its own, Bitcoinâs eye-popping 1,400 percent rally last year would put most other investments to shame. But even such a monster gain might not be enough to put the cryptocurrency on the radar for institutional investors, according to Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd.
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Deutsche Bank discusses the correlation between the VIX and the price of bitcoin - Business Insider
Correlation relates to the fact that a low volatility environment encourages investors to move into riskier assets to get decent returns on their investments.
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Stapleton Capital's stock rises 130% after blockchain pivot - Business Insider
Stapleton Capital is changing its name to Blockchain Worldwide.
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Video: Survey shows bitcoin buyers are overwhelmingly young and male
CNBCâs Seema Mody reports results of a new survey which sheds light on who is buying the cryptocurrency.
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Bitcoin has officially abandoned its claims for fast transactions at low fees
Dealing with a congested network and increasingly higher transfer costs, Bitcoin has decided to drop its claims for fast transactions at low fees.
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Bitcoin: Crooks Drop Bitcoin for Monero Cryptocurrency | Fortune
Chainalysis says the proportion of bitcoin transactions related to âdark webâ sites has fallen from 30% to under 1%.
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Korean Crypto Exchange Korbit Halting Deposits from Non-Citizens - CoinDesk
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Korbit has barred non-citizens from depositing local currency â the Korean won â on its platform.
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Introducing Tina Bhatnagar â walking the talk on Customer Service
Improving customer service continues to be our #1 priority at Coinbase. Iâve been providing regular updates over the past couple of quarters on our progress, but I realize that updates are no solaceâŚ
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There Is Nothing Virtual About Bitcoinâs Energy Appetite - The New York Times
Creating a single token requires as much electricity as two yearsâ worth of consumption by an average American home. Some enthusiasts believe thatâs a problem.
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The founder of litecoin, a cryptocurrency that has gained 650% in 7 months, told us he's worried about all the scams in the nascent market - Business Insider
But the ex-Google and Coinbase engineer Charlie Lee still thinks bitcoin stands a chance.
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Economic Bootstrapping of the Lightning Network â David Moser â Medium
The Lightning network is on every Bitcoinerâs mind these days. Weâve been expecting it for years now, and despite the software not being officially released yet, itâs very exciting to hear that itâsâŚ
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Run your own mainnet Lightning Node â dougvk â Medium
With Lightningâs payment channels, Bitcoin has a chance to prove it can scale. I eagerly anticipated the release of the v1.0 Lightning specification. I wasnât motivated enough to run it, howeverâŚ
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Evrial Trojan Switches Bitcoin Addresses Copied to Windows Clipboard
A new information stealing Trojan called Evrial is being actively distributed in the wild. Like most infostealing Trojans, Evrial can steal browser cookies and stored credentials, but this Trojan also has the ability to monitor the Windows clipboard for certain text replace it with text received from the attackers.
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Growing blackmail scam demands payment in bitcoin
A chilling letter is being sent to men across the country, claiming to know about secret infidelities â and demanding payment in bitcoin.
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BitConnect promoters are still targeting naive investors in Indonesia
Despite shutting down its lending and exchange platform, BitConnect promoters are still looking for naive investors in Indonesia and other parts of Asia.
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Odyssey Market hacked
Hey guys, I took a break from things, but Iâm back and fighting the good fight once again. There were a couple of markets that launched during my absence so Iâve been having a look into them, Iâm currently running initial automated scans and will look further into each within the next few days.
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Canadian Research Body Pilots Ethereum in Transparency Push - CoinDesk
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC), a government initiative, is trialing the ethereum blockchain for recording government contracts.
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Huobi Is Launching a Token, But It's 'Not an ICO' - CoinDesk
Huobi, previously one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges in China, announced today that it will issue its own token based on the ethereum ERC-20 standard.
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NVIDIA Pressuring European Retailers to Avoid GPU Sales to Miners?
Per a new scoop from German site ComputerBase, popular graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA is reportedly pressuring European retailers to focus on selling graphics processing units (GPUs) to video gamers.
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Top Swiss cryptocurrency lawyer questions 'stupid' ICO structure | Reuters
One of the top lawyers in the booming cryptocurrency industry says the legal structure he helped set up to raise funds for new virtual currencies is âold, inflexible and stupidâ and may no longer be fit for purpose.
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Australia's financial regulator wants to go undercover on dark web | Australia news | The Guardian
Australian Securities and Investment Commission says it needs more powers to combat financial crime
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Korea to require cryptocurrency exchanges to share user data with banks
The government plans to require cryptocurrency exchanges to share usersâ transaction data with banks, in a potential move to impose taxes on the transactions, an official at financial authorities said on Jan. 21. Currently, financial authorities ban banks from offering virtual accounts, which are needed to sell or buy cryptocurrencies, to individual customers, the latest measure to help prevent speculative investmeâŚ
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China Moves to Crack Down on Digital Currency Pyramid Schemes - CoinDesk
Chinaâs public security ministry said on Friday that it will take aim at pyramid schemes in the country, including those that purportedly involve cryptocurrencies.
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Regulators are going through cryptocurrency projects with a 'fine tooth comb' - Business Insider
A statement by the SEC and CFTC emphasized the agencies would crackdown on any entity in the digital coin space that isnât compliant.
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Bitcoin Futures Cop Says It Will Remain on Beat During Shutdown - Bloomberg
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said it would keep tabs on Bitcoin futures trading and other markets during a government shutdown, even though it would be forced to halt many other normal activities.
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Brazil has more than twice Bitcoin investors than its stock market and treasuries combined â Crypto.BI
More than 1.4 million Brazilian tax IDs have been registered in the countryâs largest BTC exchanges Mercado Bitcoin and Bitcoin To You.
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I work for one of Canada's big banks and our organization was sent an email about cryptocurrency! I thought I would share. : CryptoCurrency
So after missing work for a couple of days, I log back into my computer and see an email from our Risk and Compliance Department. The bank I workâŚ
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Bulgarian Police Raids OneCoin Offices, âPonzi Schemeâ... | News | Cointelegraph
The OneCoin offices and other associated companies were raided by Bulgarian and EU police on Jan. 17, 18. | News | Cointelegraph
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Video: Moe Levin: Bitcoin is a religion
CNBCâs Michelle Caruso-Cabrera reports on the North American Bitcoin Conference and her conversations with the conferenceâs founder and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
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