Month: May 2023

Watchdog sues SEC over FOIA access to docs on potential crypto conflict of interest

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Watchdog group Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR) has filed suit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to force the agency to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for access to communications between former SEC officials and their former and future employers.  EMPOWR claimed in its suit that the former SEC officials had a potential conflict of interest regarding cryptocurrency. The suit specifically mentioned former SEC Chair Jay Clayton, former enforcement division director Marc Berger and former director of corporate finance William Hinman. According to…

Researchers in Singapore design new ‘more efficient’ DAO scheme

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A team of researchers at the Singapore University of Social Sciences recently conducted an appraisal of existing decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) voting schemes to determine which was most efficient.  The researchers ultimately concluded that existing popular voting schemes each had their drawbacks and advantages and that a new paradigm combining what they considered to be the best features of each would be “more efficient” than the status quo. Dubbed “Voting Schemes in DAO Governance,” the team’s paper analyzes eight current techniques for DAO governance and assesses their perceived strengths and weaknesses.…

Meet ‘Dencun.’ Ethereum Developers Are Already Planning Next Hard Fork

Tim Beiko, the protocol support lead at the Ethereum Foundation, who conducts these bi-monthly meetings, opened the meeting with, “I’ll assume that, by default, we sort of keep this scope for Cancun and if anybody wants to change it going forward, just put something in the agenda.” (Dencun doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, and the developers themselves sometimes just say “Cancun.”) Source

DOJ Crypto Enforcer Says Blockchain Is Everywhere in Crime, Clashing With Industry’s Self-Perception

While scams like these often only damage a single victim at a time, it can still be big money. NCET, along with other agencies, booked upwards of $112,000,000 from busting six such U.S.-based scams. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates $3.31 billion was stolen from people in 2022 through investment fraud, with crypto-related scams accounting for more than a third (~$2.57 billion) of that figure. Worse than just money lost, the proliferation of confidence games – which require bad actors to cultivate long-term relationships and build trust with their…

The White House’s Bitcoin Mining Tax Undermines Itself

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In fact, many miners who were using abundant hydro power in the Yunnan or Sichuan provinces moved to Kazakhstan, which has a highly fossil-fueled power grid. Today, the U.S. composes roughly 30-40% of global Bitcoin mining (the best data we have comes from Cambridge University, but it’s somewhat dated and imprecise). The most popular other countries are, in rough order, China (yes, despite the ban, there’s about  17% of hashrate in China), Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Paraguay, Norway and Venezuela. We also know that Bitcoin mining directly finances the governments…

Bitcoin (BTC) Miner Marathon Digital (MARA) Shares Underperform Peers on New SEC Subpoena

Despite disappointing earnings and its fair share of operational difficulties, the CEO of Canadian Hut 8 Mining (HUT) Jaime Leverton reassured investors. The miner’s gigantic stack of bitcoin, at 9,133 BTC at the end of Q1, as well as its diversification into high-performance computing hosting, “positively” distinguish the firm “from pureplay digital asset miners” who will have greater exposure to increased competition in the space after the halving, Leverton said. Source

PEPE Token Continues Downward Spiral, Registers 60% Drop From All-Time High – Market Updates Bitcoin News

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The meme-based token pepe (PEPE) has experienced a 14.9% decline against the U.S. dollar over the last 24 hours, continuing its downward trend from the last five days. Thus far, PEPE has seen a 60% drop in value from its all-time high on May 5. Rival Meme Tokens Challenge PEPE’s Dominance as Meme Token’s Value Plummets Despite retaining its position as the third-largest meme token in terms of market capitalization, pepe (PEPE) has been losing value since May 5, when it hit $0.00000431 per unit. Its value has since plummeted…

IRS Providing Blockchain Analysis Tools to Ukraine for Targeting Crypto Sanctions Evaders

“We often see fundraising campaigns conducted with the use of cryptocurrency, as Russia believes in the possibility of circumventing sanctions by using virtual assets,” Yurii Vykhodets, police colonel of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, said. “The training is timely and provides a strong impetus for more effective work by the Cyber Police in this area.” Source