Day: February 15, 2020

When Corporations Violate Privacy, They Do Concrete Harm

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Lindsey Barrett, a staff attorney at Georgetown Law, does not hold back when she sees bad actors in the tech space. She recently vehemently opposed the Sprint-T-Mobile merger in Slate, warning that “further consolidating an already anti-competitive sector” would make “it easier for those companies to gouge their customers.” Social media companies are making our lives a privacy hell, she says. And Democrats aren’t much better than Republicans when it comes to standing up to Big Tech.  Part of the Institute for Public Representation (IPR) Communications & Technology Clinic, Barrett…

BodyPainter Forkgirl Followed Twitch Rules. Twitch Still Banned Her

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Twitch has once again wrongly banned someone who was following the rules. Forkgirl claims she was banned despite never showing her chest before it’s covered up. If this is all true, then Twitch are still determined to be the messiest platform available online. Twitch is clearly determined to self-destruct at this point. They just can’t stop messing up their own rules. These days it’s hard to know who’s going to get hit next. Now they’ve gone and banned a body painter, despite claiming that bodypainting streams are fine. It’s almost…

Gamer-Friendly Microsoft is Missing the Obvious Official Xbox Emulator

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Backward compatibility is important to numerous people. So far only the Xbox One has any decent level of backward compatibility with previous generation consoles. Microsoft should release a commercially available software emulator of the original Xbox console. Backward compatibility is pretty important to a lot of people. It allows older games to remain archived, so we don’t lose access to any classics. Xbox is really the only console brand that is taking the practice seriously, at least so far that’s the case. On the Xbox One, you can play 360…

XRP Price Hits 7-Month High as BitMEX Users Reel From 60% Flash Crash

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BitMEX continues to field major criticism and even anger from traders who lost huge amounts of money in a flash crash involving altcoin XRP.  The crash, which occurred at 14.00 UTC on Feb. 13, saw XRP/USD fall 60% from $0.33 to just $0.13 — for two seconds. XRP crashes on BitMEX  In that time, traders complain, measures designed to prevent liquidations of positions failed to activate, and BitMEX automatically erased their entire balances. BitMEX is well known for offering trades with significant leverage. In the case of XRP, traders are…

From Crypto Self-Custody to Music Rights, This Mother-Daughter Dev Team Does It All

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Developer Cindy Zimmerman and her mother Judy Katzman are among the cryptocurrency community’s most quietly prolific builders. After learning about bitcoin in 2011, Katzman worked for the early exchange BitInstant and Zimmerman moved to Panama in 2012 to work with Erik Voorhees and the other founders behind the crypto exchange Coinapult. Because Zimmerman earned part of her salary in crypto, up to 50 percent at the peak, she quickly realized the need for cash on-and-off ramps. “There were a large amount of immigrants living in Panama that had to send…

Nintendo Switch Airport Lounges are a Moronic Idea; What’s the Point?

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Nintendo Switch lounges will be opening at select U.S. airports. The lounges will feature games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey. What’s the point of playing games at these lounges? Nintendo Switch is going to start showing up in airports. The gaming company is introducing “On The Go” pop-up airport lounges that allow travelers to play games while they wait for their flights. That idea seems like it would work out well for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, but not the Nintendo…

Bitcoin Price Will Close 3rd Best Month Ever if $10K Holds Until March

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Bitcoin (BTC) is having its third-best month in history, says the creator of a forecasting model that calls for a $100,000 price in 2021. In a tweet on Feb. 14, PlanB, the analyst behind the stock-to-flow model, said many were ignoring just how successful February has been for Bitcoin. February 2020 in top 3 BTC price months “Few people realize we are currently in the third best #bitcoin month ever,” he summarized. Attention this year has mainly focused on Bitcoin’s January gains. Year to date, BTC/USD has shot up over…

What Pushed Bitcoin Up 65% in 2 Months? Top Fund Manager Explains

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Since the middle of December, Bitcoin has been on an absolute tear higher, rallying from $6,400 to $10,550 earlier this week, per data from TradingView. This marks a surge of over 60%, meaning that the cryptocurrency outpaced a majority of other multi-billion-dollar assets save for Ethereum, XRP, and Tesla. This strong surge comes shortly after cryptocurrency investors expected BTC to drop off a cliff, meaning this uptrend has caught traders off guard, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of short position liquidations over recent weeks. Related…

Japan Uneased by Chinese CBDC, Plans on Digital Yen in ‘2 to 3’ Years

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China continues to pull ahead in the central bank digital currency race as more details on its secretive digital yuan project intermittently surface. As a result, more countries are beginning to worry about the potential implications. Over the past few weeks, a number of Japanese lawmakers have publicly expressed their preference for a CBDC controlled by the Bank of Japan. The general idea is to counter the soon-to-be-released digital yuan from neighbouring China and prevent it from disrupting the global economy. According to a senior ruling party lawmaker, the development…

Tax Rules Hit Brazilian Crypto Exchanges, Forcing Trading Platforms Acesso Bitcoin and Latoex Out of Business

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Tax regulations implemented even before dedicated legislation has been adopted have hit Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges. Digital asset brokers failing to comply with the new reporting requirements face fines and the stricter rules are hurting smaller platforms, which are shutting down due to dwindling trading volumes. Also read: Tax Agents ‘Confiscate’ Bitcoin From Criminal but Keep the Coins in His Wallet Exchanges Struggle With Compliance Costs and Diminishing Returns One of the affected exchanges, Acesso Bitcoin, points to the current situation created by the new regulations as the main reason for…