Author: Sayan Mitra (Page 8)

Recently, there is multiple news on the scams happening across the world. Cryptocurrency is a hot property currently. There are a lot of scams and frauds associated with it. Multiple ways developed to steal the cryptocurrency. They are hacking, phishing, SIM jacking, scams, extortion, and many more. Fake websites, calls from impostors, too good to believe offers are also threats.  You need to have an approach to ensure maximum fund security. Check out the below ways for best results:

1. Your wallets should have a renowned origin

   There are a lot of businesses claiming to provide secured crypto wallets. Many companies are providing too good to believe offers for crypto-wallets. So, it is better to choose a crypto wallet from a reputed and well-known company.

2. Perform some research

   There is a range of different wallets available currently. There is a range of benefits too. Some are hardware, some are software and other types are also present. So, you need to check the things that suit you best before going for a wallet. Of course, security is definitely a major concern.

3. Better to keep your coins in a cold wallet

   It is advisable to keep your crypto coins in a hardware wallet. It prevents the risks of getting hacked or stolen by fraudsters and hackers. So, please keep a small number of your coins in the exchange or software wallet. Experts say that online wallets are more susceptible to fraud and scams.

4. Don’t keep all the funds in one place

   It is better to keep your cryptocurrencies in different places. Keep some in a hardware wallet. Keep some amount in the exchange for trading. If any malware attack happens, then you will not lose all your money. So, please don’t keep your funds in one place.

5. Keep the private keys safely

   Private keys are important for cryptocurrency. Moreover, you should not share your private key with anyone. So, make sure to have the private keys in a very safe place.

6. Create alternative storage for private keys

   There should be alternative storage for your private keys. Keep the private keys in a wallet (preferably hardware wallet) or cloud. If anyone’s service does not work, you have a backup in an emergency.

7. Keep strong passwords

   The wallet’s protection is very essential. Your password should be hard to guess. Therefore, lesser chances of hacking. Hackers use sophisticated tools to crack the passwords. Please avoid using common passwords.

8. Use secured networks

   Please use secured and private networks. You should use a secured network while trading with cryptocurrency. Please avoid public networks or Wifi, as hacking is a threat at any point in time. Also, use your personal computer to do such transactions.

9. Keep your investments private

   Keep your investments and private accounts a secret. The information related to your investments should be private. Avoid discussing this information with others.

10. Don’t get involved in huge trades

    Always try to conduct small trades. Avoid doing huge trades at once. Bigger trades means greater risks. So, make it small and simple.

These are the ways to keep it safe and secure. But you have to first choose the right wallet so that you could prevent hackers.

Chainlink and GitHub commits

Chainlink (LINK) is an Ethereum token, that works on the decentralized Chainlink network. The network helps to connect securely to external sources. It happens through smart contracts on Ethereum. The token gets connected to external data sources, API, and payment systems by the network.

GitHub is a platform that allows people to build software. The GitHub user count is over 50 million. It provides help with version control and collaboration between software. It allows its users to work on multiple projects from anywhere. The commits are basically the saved changes in GitHub. All the commits have a message associated with them. This message gives a description of the recently made changes. So, commit messages to capture the history of changes. So this provides the understanding of the status of completion to other users.

The increase in GitHub commits

An analysis by a team at Santiment feed shows the following results. Since mid-2020, the developers are working very hard on the Chainlink project. So, the team pointed out that due to developers’ work, the GitHub commits to keep on increasing with time. The team made significant observations relating to both events. They linked the price hike of Chainlink with the decreased activity in commits. As per the team, a small drop in activity of commits results in an increased price of Chainlink. So, the commits are directly related to the Chainlink token’s price in the market. The team managed to establish the relationship between the above.

The impact

Chainlink is now in the $21 support zone. Bitcoin is in the $30,000 to $32,000 price cap. Though Bitcoin is the king in the crypto world, it has its own challenges. Recently, Bitcoin prices dropped to $30,333. The drop seemed to be an attempt to print a double bottom that was around $28,800. The lowest price is an impact of the panics in the crypto market. When the reports of a $22 Bitcoin got sensationalized, the crypto market panicked. Due to this event, Bitcoin touched $28,800.

There is a lot of altcoins and cryptocurrencies are available in the market. But the Chainlink’s fate is getting linked to Bitcoin. On this Friday (Jan 29), many BTC futures and options will expire. Bitcoin price shall be heavily impacted. Due to this, Bitcoin will experience high volatility, impacting the change in price. So, there will be an expected change in the Chainlink token’s price. It would be interesting to see that Chainlink will reach a halt or continue to grow.

Conclusion

This week will see a lot of changes in the crypto world. The Crypto market will face the impacts of BTC expiry. Bitcoin will see a significant change in its price. Chainlink prices will be impacted. It will make the scene very clear to Chainlink’s investors to predict the future. It will show the future of Chainlink and where it is getting headed.

Howells seeking permission to dig up a landfill site

The South Wales Argus, said that James Howells has appealed again. He was appealing to the city council for digging a landfill site. The reason is to find his lost hard drive, which contains Bitcoins worth millions.

The reason

James Howells is an IT engineer and a resident of Newport. Long back in 2013, he carried out some cleaning activities. During that process, he threw the hardware that contains a lot of Bitcoins. He did this by mistake. In fact, he didn’t understand that immediately. When he finally got to know about his mistake, it was too late for him to do anything. He started taking steps to get back his hard drive. To find the lost hard drive, he has to dig the landfill site. He appealed to the Newport city council. But the landfill digging plea was rejected. As Bitcoin is trending recently, the Bitcoins he lost will be worth millions now.

City council’s past decision

The council, however, rejected the engineer’s all past appeals. The council is not giving permission to dig up the landfill site. Howells was trying to seeking counsel for a long time. He had tried multiple times. As per the city council, he was contacting them to retrieve his hard drive since 2014. The authorities mentioned the reasons also for rejecting the appeal. They said that this type of excavation task was not environmental friendly.

Howells’s offer

To move the authorities at the city council, Howells proposed an offer. He mentioned that he could donate one-fourth of his Bitcoins fortune. He reported that his missing device contains 7500 BTC. So, one-fourth of the fortune will be approximately $72 million. This is a huge amount that he is offering to the city council for the search. Howells said that these funds could help in this Covid situation. He is also aware of the environmental pollution this excavation will cause. In fact, he planned to spend part of his fortune to save this.

The IT Engineer spoke about his determination to find his lost Bitcoins. He said that there will be no guarantee the hard drive will definitely work. This is due to the environment it is in right now. He said that the device exterior might not be in good condition. But he believed that the disk inside will be in good condition. So, there is a higher possibility of recovering the coins. He still believed that there is a chance to recover his bitcoins. But he said that the longer he has to wait for it, the lesser is the chance to recover it.

Conclusion

Howells is doing almost everything to recover his Bitcoins. But the city council is reluctant to provide permission. They are concerned about the cost of this recovery process. As per the city council, it will be futile if the hard drive is not found after this exercise. Howells also mentioned that the funds will be escrowed if the mission is unsuccessful.

In this article, we will discuss how to send and receive cryptocurrencies. For sending or receiving cryptocurrency, the first thing you need is a cryptocurrency wallet. The next requirement is the public address of the recipient, whom we have to send money to. This is mostly very simple, just like scanning a QR code. Then we have to enter the amount we need to send. After that, we have to follow any wallet specific instructions, if any and click on the send button. Once the above process is complete, the transaction needs to settle on the blockchain. Let’s understand the process in detail below.

Transferring cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoins, Ethereum, etc get stored in cryptocurrency wallets. These wallets have different features and functionalities. Each coin also has its own set of wallet options. So, basically, the process depends upon the wallet and the type of cryptocurrency used. Let’s view the process in general.

1. One has to log into his cryptocurrency wallet.
2. After login, go to the send/receive page.
3. Please select the option of send or receive cryptocurrency. Please note that one can send and receive like-coins. For example, one can send or receive Bitcoin to Bitcoin. One can’t send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet.
4. To send: Please enter the public wallet address of the person you want to send money to. Next, enter the amount you want to send. Before hitting the send button, kindly double-check everything. It is important to note that there will some transaction fees. So, your wallet should have enough balance to pay for it. Make sure the public address you entered is correct before sending the coins. One can also write a note with the transaction. This will help the sender and the recipient to know about the transaction in the future. It is advisable to use a QR code instead of typing the public address manually.
5. To receive: For receiving cryptocurrency, one does not have to do anything. Once the person sends the cryptocurrency, it will get credited to the account. One does not have to follow any procedure for it. To receive cryptocurrency to his wallet, one has to share the public address of his wallet. It is better to share the QR code for the public address instead of sharing the link.

Few tips and tricks

1. While sending cryptocurrency to someone, please make a note of this point. It is better to send a very small amount to the new public address for the first time. Please don’t send a lot of cryptocurrency in the first go to a new address. If you send a test amount to a new address, it will help to know everything is right.
2. If you are sending coins through an exchange, you have to use the withdraw or deposit button on the exchange. Please follow the directions very carefully. Some exchanges have specific directions as well. For example, one has to write a note with the transaction or one can only send the whole number of coins. One may have to use authentication codes as per requirement.
3. To exchange one type of cryptocurrency for another, one can use a platform like Shapeshift. This is for the conversion of coins from one type to another. This is useful when one wants to send Bitcoin to an Ethereum wallet.

      4. Keep your private key safe and only with you.

Darkmarket

Darkmarket is a marketplace for the sale and purchase of illegal drugs. It also facilitates illegitimate activities. The transactions in Darkmarket happen through the Darknet. Bitcoin is the medium of exchange in Darkmarket. Bitcoin was always associated with the Darkmarket. But the owner of bitcoin is very difficult to trace.

The operation

German authorities seized the world’s largest Darkmarket place for drugs. Europol said that the operation was successful. This operation provided new dimensions to solve cybercrime. The operation was well co-ordinated by international agencies. The operation involved law enforcement agencies from multiple countries. The countries are Germany, Australia, Denmark, Moldava, the UK, and the United States. It got support from Europol as well. A cybercrime unit led the operation. A 34-year-old Australian citizen got arrested by the local law enforcement agency. The task force believes him to be the site’s mastermind. The main suspect declined to speak anything. He was under pre-trial detention. 3 Dutchmen, 3 Germans, and a Bulgarian provided the infrastructure for these activities. They got arrested in September 2019. They were on trial since October last year.

The department located and seized the site’s servers. He got arrested near the German-Danish border. The number of servers found in Moldava and Ukraine is 20. The expectation is that the data from the server will help to uncover more criminal networks. It will provide new leads to catch moderators, sellers, and buyers of the marketplace. Now, the focus is to understand the ways vendors are using new technologies. New technology like cryptocurrency got used for any illegal purposes.

The findings

The Darkmarket allowed its users to do a lot of illegal activities. It facilitated the sale and purchase of illegal drugs. It is a marketplace for counterfeit money, stolen credit, and debit card details. Computer malware, anonymous SIM cards also got sold here. It has 500,000 users and 2,400 active vendors. All the illicit items got sold and purchased through cryptocurrencies. So, it ranked up to 320,000 transactions. Payments made are through 4,650 bitcoins and 12,800 Monero. The estimated value is more than $170 million at present.

Bitcoin’s History

Bitcoin has a history of getting involved in illegal activities. Most of the transactions in the darknet happen through bitcoins. Illegal vendors on the Silk Road marketplace favored bitcoins. Silk Road was the largest darknet marketplace in the world for many years. It got shut down by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in 2013. The FBI seized 144,000 bitcoins from Silk Road. It was worth $3.6 million at that time.

The hope in future

Cryptocurrency is a growing industry currently. Many reputed investors are putting their money in it. So, law enforcement agencies are also getting active in this industry. Many believe that the involvement of law enforcement agencies is a positive sign. This shows that law agencies should make strict regulations for this industry. It will help to reduce criminal activities and streamline the legal framework.

Previous reports

The year 2020 was a fantastic year for cryptocurrency. There was a significant rise in the price of bitcoin in 2020. There was a lot of debate and news related to this. This attracted many investors to bitcoin. Bitcoin saw its highest recently. The virtual currency was worth more than $33,000. Many investors are putting more money into bitcoin. This is due to its increasing value since 2017.

However, recent reports are quite shocking related to bitcoin.

Prices drop

Bitcoin’s value saw a significant fall on Monday. After a remarkable new year surge in prices, this is beyond expectation. Bitcoin is always known for its highly volatile nature. Prices fell down by 17%. This is the highest drop the cryptocurrency saw since March last year. The losses are majorly small as the nature of Bitcoin is most volatile. Above all, the cryptocurrency experienced a 50% hike in its value only in December 2020. The digital currency had a superb start in the new year. It touched $34,000 USD on Saturday. It was an all-time high for digital currency.

Expert’s opinion

Adrian Lowcock is the head of personal investing in Willis Owen Ltd. He mentioned that this drop in the price of bitcoin is a reminder for everyone. Tough it is prevalent in the market for a decade, but it is still a relatively new asset. This new-age currency is yet to make its mark in the investment market. He also added that Bitcoin has to cross major hurdles to becoming a useful mainstream asset.

Louis Gave is the co-founder of Gavekal Research. He said that the fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin are more interesting than many things. He added that Nasdaq stocks, Chinese internet plays are dull in comparison to this.

Probable causes

It is very difficult to figure out the possible causes in this world of cryptocurrency. The value of cryptocurrency fluctuated generally due to its volatile nature. The price of Bitcoin surged higher than 300 percent last year. Many companies and investors started opting for Bitcoin as a valuable asset. It saw a lot of investment from retail and financial corporations over the past year. Many eminent personalities spoke in favor of Bitcoin. Also, many people believed that cryptocurrencies are the future of investment. Many companies were trying to expand their growth to popularize the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin was emerging as a mainstream asset.

Some people blamed the market’s supply constraints. Some said the money printing by central banks’ is an important factor. Others pointed out that cryptocurrency is yet to make a mark in the market. The indecisive risk-taking factor could also be one of the possible reasons.

Paul Hickey also gave his views. He is the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group. He pointed out that the link between the rise and fall of Bitcoin with the value of the dollar in the market. In addition, he said that the surge in the price of Bitcoin could be due to weaker dollar value. He mentioned that the last time dollar prices declined was in 2017. It was the same time when Bitcoin surged exponentially and got into mainstream.