Washington’s main concern about the rise of cryptocurrencies is to make sure they are not used for illicit activity, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday as he urged nations to join the United States in regulating them.

Kyle’s note: There are a bunch of other comments on bitcoin from governments around the world in the regulation section below.

Policymakers around the world may debate ways to deal with the volatility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but imposing global, across-the-board regulations on their trading won’t be easy, a senior Bank of Japan official said on Thursday.

In other countries, politicians express concern about the cryptocurrency craze, citing worries about security, regulation, volatility and a speculative bubble. Not in Switzerland.

The affluent Alpine country wanted “to be the crypto-nation”, Johann Schneider-Ammann, economics minister, told journalists as he arrived for a private crypto finance conference in St Moritz last week. Of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings — by which start-ups raise funds by selling tokens — four have used Switzerland as a base, according to PwC.

Weiss Ratings released their cryptocurrency ratings yesterday. In response, they received a lot of criticism on social media. And rightly so.

Just a cursory inspection shows that ‘Weiss’ has already been prosecuted for fraudulent, misleading statements, as well as engaging in insider…

“The fundamental assumption behind this test is wrong. Tether is issued mainly when the effective tether price at usdt exchanges becomes significantly higher than $1, for arbitrage. This happens mostly when btc corrects and everyone escapes into tether.”

Kyle’s note: I don’t want to comment on Tether, but this appears to be an interesting take. An audit of Tether is still needed though.

Abstract: In this piece, we explain the motivation behind the creation of the Lightning Network and why its scaling characteristics are superior to what we have today, potentially resulting in a transformational improvement. We describe some of the basic technical building blocks that make Lightning possible. We then examine some of its limitations, including the downsides of inferior security compared to transacting on-chain and why this makes Lightning potentially unsuitable for larger-value payments.

Announced today, the company, which was founded in 2013 as a way to democratize stock trading, said it plans to roll out bitcoin and ether trading services via its mobile apps next month. Not only does the company hope to attract cryptocurrency enthusiasts to its more traditional products, but it’s also launching the service to catch some of the momentum cryptocurrency has seen as of late.

Cryptocurrencies are making inroads into food commodity trading.

When travellers arrive at or depart from Brisbane Airport (BNE), they will soon experience an unprecedented digital currency airport experience.

BNE in partnership with a number of terminal retailers is combining its community vision with innovation by working with TravelbyBit to bring decentralised block chain enabled payments into its termi…

Kyle’s note: This is interesting because bitcoin makes sense for frequent travelers.

Although several Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have been proposed, they’re unlikely to win U.S. regulatory approval soon, said Tom Farley, who oversees the New York Stock Exchange.

TL; DR: We are releasing an early version of Strike, an API and dashboard that makes it easy to accept Lightning payments. Six months ago we released Starblocks, a virtual coffee shop that…

The blockchain company’s plan to create a global payments system for banks got swept up in the crypto craze.

Two U.S. financial regulators are increasing their agencies’ commitment to bringing closer scrutiny to the country’s cryptocurrency industry.

Bart Chilton, the former commissioner of the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is doubling down on his stated desire for a regulated market to foster the development of cryptocurrency trading.

The company that developed one of the most popular pieces of trading software is about to make it easier for professionals to bet on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Fundstrat Global Advisors Head of Research Tom Lee discusses Bitcoin and how to value cryptocurrencies on “What’d You Miss?” (Source: Bloomberg)

Bitcoin, infamous for its volatility, is standing strong in the face of the latest round of scrutiny cascading down from global leaders in Davos.

When a moderator at the World Economic Forum (WEF) asked Robert Shiller if he’s pro-bitcoin, the Yale economics professor asked if he could be half-pro-bitcoin. The Nobel Prize winner said he admires the technology, but thinks it has gone viral for reasons other than some underlying, fundamental value. “It looks selfish to me,” Shiller said during a…

BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink criticized Bitcoin and its peers but is bullish on the underlying technology.

John Kerry and Jamie Dimon have given Cointelegraph exclusive insight into cryptocurrency opinion at the World Economic Forum 2018… | News | Cointelegraph

With Bitcoin’s soaring value turning it into a trendy tech investment, companies are quickly trying to make buying the cryptocurrency more convenient.

Everyone from Floyd Mayweather to Paris Hilton is getting in on the cryptocurrency hype.

A popular middle school program has turned to a blockchain-fundraising platform to raise money.

reddit: the front page of the internet

Data security firm Guardtime and blockchain startup Metaco have jointly launched a new cryptocurrency asset management product.

Friction is increasing between some credit card companies and customers who want to use the cards to buy cryptocurrencies.

BitGo Inc., a closely held crypto-security firm, agreed to buy Bitcoin custodian Kingdom Trust as it seeks to attract as much as $20 billion that institutional investors could commit to digital currencies.

BTCC CEO Bobby Lee told BI: “I don’t touch altcoins, I don’t touch ICOs.”

reddit: the front page of the internet

With his expertise around cryptocurrency technology, Song’s addition is aimed to provide technical assistance to the firm’s investment research efforts, as well as build bridges between Blockchain Capital and crypto developers, according to a press release. He will also head upcoming programs to advance blockchain innovations.

Steve Wozniak ultimately got tired of his experiment with bitcoin.

Discover cardholders pose the question on Bitcoin forums every so often: Do any cryptocurrency exchanges accept their cards?

Digital money platform Uphold today announced it has received a $57.5 million investment from former Fed Reserve senior analyst and Ripple chief risk officer Greg Kidd.

Continuing on our promise to add more cryptocurrencies onto our platform, today we’re happy to announce that we are adding Litecoin to Zebpay. Litecoin is a peer-to-peer Internet currency that…

reddit: the front page of the internet

The lightning networks represents the first technological paradigm shift on the Bitcoin network in nearly half a decade. It was at the end of the BIP revolution that network traffic greatly…

So a popular Twitch streamer known as Athene is running a ponzi scam that will implode in 1 year. During the ICO he sold the coin for $0.50 each…

Trust no one.

Messaging app Telegram started out as a WhatsApp alternative, but it’s fast becoming a petri dish for cryptocurrency get-rich-quick schemes, propped up by dubious trading bots and bogus celebrity endorsements from Christopher Walken and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. That may be a problem as it heads toward a possible billion-dollar initial coin offering.

The suit has been brought by six former, disgruntled investors.

Kyle’s note: The word “extortion” was used by the editor. I’m not sure if it applies here.

Chinese factories are churning out drugs and simply posting them to users.

Malware that secretly mines Monero is becoming a real problem in the real world, with the number of different incidents growing with each week. For example, only this past week, three new attacks came to light.

The world’s largest container shipping company —A.P. Møller-Maersk— said it recovered from the NotPetya ransomware incident by reinstalling over 4,000 servers, 45,000 PCs, and 2500 applications over the course of ten days in late June and early July 2017.

A postal worker allegedly stole dozens of credit cards from his Long Island post office, using the tens of thousands of dollars he gained to purchase luxury items like designer clothes and a Maserati…

Late last week the police tracked down two bitcoin miners that were stolen from Eindhoven in a home in Vlijmen. A man was arrested for the possession of stolen property, the police announced in a statement on Wednesday. A bitcoin miner is a powerful computer used to approve global transactions in the bitcoin network. Owners who use their computers for bitcoin mining, are rewarded in the form of bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

UAB graduate student helping law enforcement track illegal activity on dark web

The Siacoin developers have floated the idea of soft-forking Sia to mitigate the profitability of Bitmain’s new A3 Sia mining hardware. The apparent goal? To protect the profitability of the Obelisk SC1 miner

Lawmakers in Wyoming have filed a bill that, if approved, would exempt some creators and sellers of blockchain tokens from securities regulations.

Venezuela’s announcement that it will soon launch its own virtual currency, “El Petro,” with the express idea of evading U.S. financial sanctions, set alarm

That’s how Mobius Network co-founder and CEO David Gobaud explains why his startup ran its initial coin offering (ICO) on the Stellar network instead of ethereum, the most popular blockchain for token sales.

South Korea and China have already clamped down on virtual currencies.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to consider clamping down on bitcoin as she raised concerns that cryptocurrencies are being used by criminals.

Stephen Poloz, governor of the Bank of Canada, called bitcoin trading “gambling”.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies must be regulated before they become large enough to disrupt the global economy, Philip Hammond has said.

SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty said he does not foresee a Lehman Brothers-like financial meltdown with Bitcoin at this point of time.

Russia’s Finance Ministry said on Thursday it was working on legislation to regulate cryptocurrency transactions without fully banning them or legalising digital FX as a means of payment in Russia.

The central-bank governor of Nigeria, where bitcoin trading grew the most in Africa last year, said investing in the cryptocurrency is a “gamble” and hinted it may have to be regulated.

Kyle’s note: Use Google Translate for this one.