Italian Red Cross Launches Bitcoin Fundraiser To Combat COVID-19

The Italian Red Cross and the Colli Albani Committee are raising donations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fight the country’s coronavirus pandemic with the support of Helperbit, as announced on March 12.

Proceeds from the campaign will reportedly be used to set up a second-level advanced medical post for pre-triage of COVID-19 cases in the country, and it is expected to reach a goal of €10,000 to buy the necessary medical equipment for the infrastructure.

The remaining funds will be used to cover the fees of the medical staff that will be involved in the project.

Bruno Pietrosanti, president of the Colli Albani Committee, said that they need to ease the pressure on hospitalizations due to the increase in infected patients and the reduced number of places available in Italian hospitals:

On carrying out the initiative alongside Helperbit, a blockchain startup that offers a platform for charities, Pietrosanti added the following:

“We believe that an innovative fundraising tool like Bitcoin can help us find the necessary economic resources that are very difficult to obtain in this historical moment.”

The campaign is also supported by Young Srl, a Fintech startup that operates in the cryptocurrency sector to support community initiatives, and by Blockchain Education Network Italy, a non-profit organization that divulges information about Bitcoin and blockchain in Italian territory.

Andrea Ferrero, CEO of Young SRL, commented on the use of blockchain in this fundraiser:

“I strongly believe that blockchain technology is more effective and transparent to support this type of initiative. Young is a company that aims to create or exploit innovative models to improve existing procedures and we will always be at the forefront in supporting charitable projects, such as the Red Cross one.”

Emiliano Palermo, a representative from Blockchain Education Network Italy, highlighted the importance of these platforms, which offer “transparency” in donations, amid the emergency in the country.

As of press time, the death toll from coronavirus in Italy has passed 1,200, with more than 17,600 cases reported, according to official data.

Weekly News Overview: Cryptocurrency

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Bitcoin Under 1k Is Possible

Bitcoin dipped below $4000 today, for the first time since the depths of crypto winter — and one veteran market analyst believes it could have even further to fall.

Crypto markets have been in freefall following the announcement of travel bans yesterday between the U.S. and Europe, and ongoing volatility in all financial markets.

Veteran trader Peter Brandt — who is famous for correctly predicting the market crash from the all time high — today tweeted an answer that no one wanted to hear in response to an inquiry about the new ‘bottom’ for Bitcoin due to coronavirus.

Brandt said that if he looks at the Bitcoin chart “without bias” the new bottom is potentially “sub-$1,000”. That’s almost 80% below the current price, which is just under $5000.

Travel Bans Around The World Crippling Crypto

In the United States, President Trump announced new travel restrictions today in response to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The Commander in Chief signed a Presidential Proclamation suspending the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the U.S.

These countries include Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The United Kingdom is exempt.

Huobi Releases New Mobile App

Huobi Group is a global blockchain company founded by Leon Li in 2013. Currently, the crypto exchange has an accumulative turnover that exceeds USD $3 trillion and offers its services to users from more than 170 countries.

Huobi Group has officially announced the launch of its new mobile application, Huobi Lite. Per a March 10 announcement, the new app will allow anyone to trade major cryptocurrencies on Android and iOS without fees or commissions.

Robinhood Crypto And Stock Trading App Is Down For A Second Monday

After experiencing a major outage last week, major stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is troubled again.

Robinhood encountered another technical outage on Monday, causing its platform to halt trading services, according to a March 9 tweet by Robinhood’s support team.

The firm announced earlier on the day:

“Trading is currently down on Robinhood and we’re investigating the issue. We’re focused on getting back up and running as soon as possible and we’ll update the status page with the latest.”

Subsequently, Robinhood has partially restored trading, noting that they are working to get the platform back up and running fully. According to online reports, the platform was partly functional after just an hour of downtime.

COVID-19 Plagues Crypto Conference

There has been a rapid escalation of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak worldwide. Two major crypto conferences in the US have been affected by the epidemic so far.

“Bitcoin 2020”, originally scheduled for March 27 and 28 in San Francisco, has moved to Q3 of 2020. The Chamber of Digital Commerce also postponed next week’s “DC Blockchain Summit 2020” conference. The rescheduled dates are not yet confirmed, according to the announcements on March 6.

Robinhood Crypto And Stock Trading App Is Down For A Second Monday

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After experiencing a major outage last week, major stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is troubled again.

Robinhood encountered another technical outage on Monday, causing its platform to halt trading services, according to a March 9 tweet by Robinhood’s support team.

The firm announced earlier on the day:

Subsequently, Robinhood has partially restored trading, noting that they are working to get the platform back up and running fully. According to onlinereports, the platform was partly functional after just an hour of downtime.

As of press time, Robinhood app is still experiencing issues with equities, options and cryptocurrency trading, according to Robinhood’s status page. According to the website, Robinhood has already identified the issue and implemented necessary measures to fix the problem, while those trading services are experiencing “degraded performance.”

The latest outage on Robinhood follows a major technical problem that happened last week. As reported by Cointelegraph, the day-long outage on March 2 purportedly caused Robinhood users to miss out on the biggest one-day point gain in the Dow Jones history, with users apparently planning to start a legal class action against Robinhood.

According to a report by CNBC, a Robinhood client based in Florida filed a federal class lawsuit on March 4. The plaintiff, Travis Taaffe, reportedly alleges that Robinhood breached its contract by failing to “provide a functioning platform,” causing traders to be unable to transfer money while stock markets surged.

Jesse Eberle is a former bond broker at brokerage firm Tradition Securities & Derivatives, who was one of the Robinhood traders that suffered from the outage last week. He noted that the platform started the brokerage war when Robinhood launched zero-fee trading back in 2014. Eberle, who has been a Robinhood user for 20 months to date, predicted that the company will eventually lose the battle as people will shift to more reliable platforms.

While some reports claim that Robinhood founders said that they would compensate investors impacted by the outage on a case-by-case basis, the company’s customer agreement outlines that Robinhood will not be responsible for outages on the platform.

The 44-page document reads:

“Although considerable effort is expended to make the Website, App and other operational and communications channels available around the clock, Robinhood does not warrant that these channels will be available and error free every minute of the day. I agree that Robinhood will not be responsible for temporary interruptions in service due to maintenance, Website or App changes, or failures, nor shall Robinhood be liable for extended interruptions due to failures beyond our control, including but not limited to the failure of interconnecting and operating systems, computer viruses, forces of nature, labor disputes and armed conflicts.”

A group of Robinhood clients that were unhappy about the technical outage brought together to create a twitter account in response to the damaging downtime. As of press time, the account has amassed over 7,400 followers.

Weekly News Update: Cryptocurrency

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ICE Reveals Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has revealed the existence of a Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program (CIP) in the agency’s 2021 budget proposal.

The proposal states that the CIP seeks to identify unlicensed capital flows taking place across peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces, online forums, and darknet markets. The CIP was developed by ICE’s Bulk Cash Smuggling Center (BCSC).

Lloyd’s New Insurance Offering Covers Crypto Held in Hot Wallets

Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London now provides a new type of liability insurance policy to protect cryptocurrency in hot wallets that is lost by theft.

Lloyd’s new offering was developed by Lloyd’s syndicate Atrium together with crypto will-focused firm Coincover, with limits from as little as £1,000 ($1,275), Lloyd’s announced on March 2. The policy is also backed by an array of other Lloyd’s insurers, including TMK and Markel, all of whom are members of Lloyd’s Product Innovation Facility.

SC Rules In Favour Of Crypto Trading In India

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the curb on cryptocurrency trade in India put up by the RBI.

ETNow reported quoting:

“SC rules curb on crypto currency trade illegal,” the report said while adding that the order lifted ban on trading in virtual currency, cryptocurrency and bitcoins.

Bitcoin, the most valued cryptocurrency in the world, was down 0.39 per cent at $8,815. The market cap of the currency stood at $161 billion.

The Reserve Bank of India had virtually banned cryptocurrency trading in India as in a circular issued on April 6, 2018, it directed that all entities regulated by it shall not deal in virtual currencies or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling those.

Whistle-Blower Outs “Wolf Of Kyiv” For Bitcoin Scam

A whistle-blower has revealed the existence of a 200-employee Ukrainian Bitcoin (BTC) trading scam that netted $70 million in 2019.

The whistle-blower outed the scam by providing footage and internal company documents to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which reported the news on March 1.

The scam predominantly targets investors based in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom by using fake news articles advertised on Facebook and some mobile game platforms.

Bitfinex to Delist Nearly 50 Cryptocurrency Trading Pairs

Bitfinex, the 11th largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, will remove dozens of cryptocurrency trading pairs later this week.

According to a March 2 blog post, Bitfinex will remove 46 crypto trading pairs on Friday, March 6 due to low liquidity on the platform.

The cryptocurrency exchange noted that the delisting of the trading pairs is a common measure that is expected to improve liquidity on Bitfinex platform and lead to a “more streamlined and optimized trading experience for our users.”

Bitfinex to Delist Nearly 50 Cryptocurrency Trading Pairs

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Bitfinex, the 11th largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, will remove dozens of cryptocurrency trading pairs later this week.

According to a March 2 blog post, Bitfinex will remove 46 crypto trading pairs on Friday, March 6 due to low liquidity on the platform.

The majority of trading pairs that are planned to be removed on Friday include a wide list of altcoins trading against Ether (ETH), the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. That list includes about 30 trading pairs including altcoins like OKEx token (OKB), Verge (XVG) and Nucleus Vision (NCASH).

Another 16 trading pairs include altcoins trading against Bitcoin (BTC), including pairs like Hydro Protocol (HOT)/BTC and Medicalchain (MTN)/BTC. Other trading pairs include two altcoins traded against Dai (DAI): OmiseGO (OMG)/DAI, 0x (ZRX) /DAI, and one trading pair with Japanese Yen, XVG/JPY.

Bitfinex recommended users to cancel any open orders with the above trading pairs before March 6 10:00 AM UTC, noting that all remaining open orders will be automatically canceled by the system.

According to data on cryptocurrency tracking service CoinGecko, Bitfinex currently supports about 350 trading pairs on its platform. As of press time, Bitfinex’s daily trading volume accounts for about $118 million, according to data from Coin360.

Cointelegraph reached out to Bitfinex for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response. This story will be updated should they respond.

As reported by Cointelegraph, liquidity in cryptocurrency refers to the level of ease with which a crypto asset can be exchanged for cash without affecting the price of that asset. Delisting is a common measure for increasing liquidity for cryptocurrency exchanges. Back in 2019, Binance delisted about 30 trading pairs in a move to improve liquidity and user trading experience,

Whistle-Blower Outs “Wolf Of Kyiv” For Bitcoin Scam

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A whistle-blower has revealed the existence of a 200-employee Ukrainian Bitcoin (BTC) trading scam that netted $70 million in 2019.

The whistle-blower outed the scam by providing footage and internal company documents to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, which reported the news on March 1.

The scam predominantly targets investors based in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom by using fake news articles advertised on Facebook and some mobile game platforms.

The stories feature interviews with celebrities who purportedly made a killing by investing in crypto — including Gordon Ramsey, Hugh Jackman and Martin Lewis.

The whistle-blower claims that the scam is being perpetrated by Ukrainian company Milton Group from two floors of an office building in Kyiv. The offices are kitted with professional telephone and client management systems.

After responding to the ads, victims would be contacted by call-center workers promising extraordinary returns from cryptocurrencies, foreign currencies and commodities. Fake account statements detailing profits are used to entice further investment from the scam’s victims.

Jacob Keselman, the CEO of Milton Group stated that the allegations against it are “incorrect” in a phone interview with Dagens Nyheter. Keselman describes himself as “the wolf of Kyiv’’ on his Instagram profile.

The whistle-blower claims to have been a part of the scams “retention” team, where he was expected to make 300 calls each day.

He was tasked with “squeez[ing] the money” from clients until their “last cent,” and was remunerated on a commission basis.

The operation reportedly poses under many different business titles, including contacting victims under the guise of offering scam recovery services after they have already been duped. If receptive, victims are encouraged to install software on their computer that allegedly steals their online banking information.

The scam also impersonates national tax authorities, posting letters demanding that prospective victims settle fabricated tax debts.

The organization reportedly netted $70 million in 2019, and Dagens Nyheter noted that many victims have been duped out of their life savings.

Internal documents reportedly show employees gleefully recounting having “f***ed” investors, including a note on a customers’ account that states, “Getting f***ed every month for at least 1,000 EUR. Gets pension on the 20th/works every Tuesday.”

The Guardian contacted 16 British victims of the scam, who recounted receiving an onslaught of phone calls after responding to ads. A victim identified as Teresa stated:

“You get bombarded by all of these different companies. I don’t know if any of them are the same. They were calling all day, every day, all through the weekends […] Sometimes you’re on the phone to one company and the phone is buzzing with a call from another.”

Dagens Nyheter spoke to one 67-year-old Swedish victim who claimed that she can no longer pay her rent or buy food. Internal documents revealed her file, which contained a note stating, “Sold her home to pay, no money, crying.”

February saw the cybersecurity firm ThreatFabric identify several sophisticated Remote Access Trojans (RATs) targeting cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges.

The RATs include ‘Cerberus’, which targets Coinbase users by stealing 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) codes for the Google Authenticator app.

Iranian Cell Calls For The Use Of Cryptocurrency

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This week an Iranian general called for a unique way to bypass the sanctions on his country enforced by the United States.

Saeed Muhammad, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, called for Iran to use cryptocurrencies to evade the economic sanctions. According to the Telegram channel of Coinit.ir, a crypto news organization based in Iran, the general addressed a crowd on Feb. 26 (translated from Farsi):

“We are demanding the creation of a more sophisticated mechanism to bypass sanctions. To circumvent sanctions, we must develop solutions such as the exchange of products and the use of cryptocurrencies with our partnerships [in other countries].”

The people of Iran have seen the value of their currency drop significantly in the wake of the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, following the withdrawal of the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018.

Sanctions have effectively isolated Iran from foreign trade and investment and the use of cryptocurrencies has been on the rise ever since as a way to circumvent them. Bitcoin has been described in interviews as one of the only ways to get money in and out of the country.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s administration announced it would launch a national cryptocurrency back in 2018. More recently, Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade issued more than 1,000 cryptocurrency mining licenses to domestic operations.

Earler this week the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force added Iran to a blacklist of countries not complying with anti-terrorism financing requirements.

Explained: Confidential Transactions

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Confidential Transactions keep the amount and type of assets transferred visible only to participants in the transaction (and those they choose to reveal the blinding key to), while still cryptographically guaranteeing that no more coins can be spent than are available.

This goes a step beyond the usual privacy offered by Bitcoin’s blockchain, which relies purely on pseudonymous (but public) identities. This matters, because insufficient financial privacy can have serious security and privacy implications for both commercial and personal transactions. Without adequate protection, thieves can focus their efforts on high-value targets, competitors can learn business details, and negotiating positions can be undermined.

Confidential Transactions (CTs, the general idea of which was proposed by Adam Back on BitcoinTalk in 2013) aims to make the content of a transaction private — as Greg Maxwell explains in a 2017 talk, the amounts transacted are often more valuable to spies: if you wanted to spend 500 sats on a coffee but broke up a 1 BTC UTXO to do so, the barista would now know that you owned at least 0.999995 BTC (which could be problematic for your security if coins hit new highs in dollar value).

With CTs, both the receiver’s address and the amount transferred are hidden from any observers, in such a way that only parties to the transaction (and those they share it with) are aware of the value sent/received. For this to work, a cryptographic technique known as a Pedersen commitment is used.

I’m not a cryptographer, and it would be a waste of everyone’s time for me to try to explain how they work. I’d recommend this outstanding primer by ecurrencyhodler, or Maxwell’s initial investigation. Suffice it to say, a Pedersen commitment functions similarly to a regular commitment scheme, but allows for some mathematical manipulation that enables the verification of data without it being divulged.

Why is this important? Remember that, in order to work, the Bitcoin ledger needs to be balanced (inputs need to match outputs). That’s straightforward enough when every transaction is made public and nodes can verify it. Given that the purpose of Confidential Transactions is to redact amounts from the blockchain, however, a more creative approach is needed (the Pedersen commitments, paired with a few other tools) to ensure no one’s playing central bank and secretly printing off more money.

Crypto Appears On The Popular TV Show: The Simpsons

One of the newest episode of “The Simpsons” aired has just featured Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory as a guest star to explain cryptocurrencies and how a blockchain works.

In the song and dance predicts cryptocurrency to be the future money, the animated ledger states: “Each day I’m closer, to being the cash of the future. Not in your wallet, I’m in your computer!

At the end of Jim’s talk, there is a subliminal message on screen. It further explains how cryptocurrencies work, part of which says:

“Using the word “cryptocurrency” repeatedly while defining cryptocurrency makes it seem like we have a novice’s understanding of cryptocurrency. Well that is a total pile of cryptocurrency. In this system, rules are defined for the creation of additional units of cryptocurrency. They can be generated by fiat like traditional currency or just thrown around randomly or all given to LeBron.”

The crypto community welcomed the episode. Altcoin Daily account has commented:

“The Simpsons did it! Cryptocurrency explained to Lisa by the great Jim Parsons on #TheSimpsons! It’s the money of the future! Bullish!”

Some comments to the tweet also pointed out that the Simpsons has a reputation for predicting the future over the years. Ten years ago it showcased Donald Trump as the president of the U.S., and more recently guessed the Game of Thrones series finale.

Coinbase Pitches Crypto As A Solution For Racial Discrimination

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To mark Black History Month, Coinbase has launched an advertising campaign with the pitch that cryptocurrencies can help tackle racial injustice in the financial sector.

As part of the campaign, the exchange published a blog post on Feb. 13 with the results of a survey it conducted in the United States and United Kingdom.

The crux of Coinbase’s survey centers on the notion that blockchain and cryptocurrencies, as trustless technologies with pseudonymous functionality, would be more color-blind than traditional financial services.

Based on a sample of 5,126 respondents, Coinbase’s data appears to indicate that just one in three Black Americans perceive the financial system as equally accessible to people of all ethnicities.

Moreover, twice as many Black Americans reported that they had been negatively impacted by their race or gender within the traditional financial system — 48% as compared with 24% of White Americans.

This negative experience ostensibly translates into an increased receptivity to cryptocurrencies — 70% of Black Americans responded that they were interested in learning more about crypto, as compared with 42% of White Americans.

As one voice in support of crypto’s being equitable financial instrument, Coinbase cites Vernon Johnson, co-founder and chief technical officer of blockchain startup Yup.

“Many cryptocurrency transactions are pseudonymous and don’t require the disclosure of your real-world identity, which may ease some of the apprehensions about racial discrimination in Finance 1.0. It becomes much harder to perceive racial identity in a world where people’s real identities are obfuscated.”

Johnson adds that, with cryptocurrencies, access to financial services relies solely on individuals’ digital reputation and transaction history — dispensing with the need for in-person meetings or the disclosure of identity documents.

However, as Know Your Customer rules continue to be tightened across countries — Coinbase itself requires photo I.D. for registration — this hard and fast line between crypto and traditional finance when it comes to pseudonymity is arguably eroding.

Indeed, the crypto space itself is also prone to its own biases. As reported on Cointelegraph, the vast majority of Bitcoin community engagement is male and can often be tone-deaf regarding the lack of women taking part in the space. In 2018, only 3 of the 88 speakers at the North American Bitcoin Conference were women, while the conference after-party was held at a strip club.