Ripple Lead Developer Advises On Remote Work

Cryptographer and leading C++ software engineer at Ripple Nik Bougalis offers advice on remote work management to firms amid the coronavirus pandemic.

In a March 16 tweet, Bougalis offered his help to company managers looking to have their teams work remotely. His proposal comes as the ongoing epidemic resulted in a global push for remote work in an attempt to decrease the opportunities that the disease has to spread further.

The Atlantic wrote on March 13 that people have anticipated the rise in remote work since the personal computer was invented. Still, the outlet points out that remote work adoption has been slow so far, “but the next few months will be a very strange test” of this kind of work.

Bougalis explained that he has worked remotely for 20 years and is currently leading a team at Ripple that is both large and completely distributed. He wrote:

“If you’re new to remote work — especially as a manager — and have questions, please ask! I’ll try my best to answer and share my insights to help you and your team.”

One Twitter user asked how he can know if his employees are not taking more time than necessary to finish tasks when working remotely. Bougalis admitted that this is a common concern, but points to trust as the obvious solution and recommends:

“Remember, you hired your team for a reason — they are good at what they do and you trust them. Don’t micromanage your team now or assume that just because they’re not in the office they aren’t working. […] If productivity suffers when working remote, understand why. Employees not working hard is almost never the problem.”

Furthermore, Bougalis recommended managers use text-based communication software such as Slack and IRC since it makes messages less ephemeral than VOIP and allows for information to be absorbed at a later time.

XRPL Monitor, a Twitter profile dedicated to tracking large transfers of XRP, the crypto Ripple works with, reported that over 248 million XRP (worth over $35 million at press time) moved in large transactions over the last 24 hours. This is just one sign of panic in the cryptocurrency space that resurfaced amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bitcoin bull and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently said that investors lost confidence in Bitcoin (BTC). He said:

“[Bitcoin] was always a confidence game. All crypto is. And it appears global confidence in just about anything has evaporated.”

Italian Red Cross Launches Bitcoin Fundraiser To Combat COVID-19

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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.

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:

“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 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.

COVID-19 Plagues Crypto Conference

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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.

Bitcoin 2020 has assured all attendees that their tickets for the conference will automatically be valid for the rescheduled event. They have also asked all registered participants to wait until updated details are announced before requesting a refund.

With the Bitcoin halving in May fast approaching, Bitcoin 2020’s goal was to gather the top Bitcoin community speakers and supporters together in one place. They hoped to learn and discuss Blockchain technology’s upcoming milestones, and determine whether the technology’s current trajectory will allow it to reach its full potential, according to the post.

The DC Blockchain Summit is inviting both government officials and Blockchain industry influencers as keynote speakers. The event is organized by The Chamber of Digital Commerce, an organization that promotes the acceptance and use of digital assets and Blockchain-based technologies.

The Paris Blockchain conference, initially scheduled for the end of March has been rescheduled to the end of this year. A number of cryptocurrency-related conferences across Asia were also reportedly delayed due to the spread of the virus.

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.

SC Rules In Favour Of Crypto Trading In India

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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.

Regulated entities that were already providing such services were told to exit the relationship within three months. The RBI had earlier issued circulars cautioning users, holders and traders of virtual currencies, including bitcoins, regarding various risks associated in dealing with such virtual currencies. The April 6 circular was later challenged in the top court.

The Internet and Mobile Association of India, representing various cryptocurrency exchanges, had argued that trading in cryptocurrencies in the absence of a law banning those was a “legitimate” business activity under the Constitution. The RBI could not have denied them access to banking channels to carry on such business, it said.

The central bank defended in the Supreme Court its 2018 circular maintaining that it had constantly been unswerving in its disapproval to allowing any other payments systems and undermining the veracity of the banking system.

It contended that though there was no formal ban on cryptocurrencies under any law in presence in India, it had unswervingly been cautioning all those trading with virtual currencies of the risks integral to them.

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

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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.

“It is a new type of liability insurance policy with a dynamic limit that increases or decreases in line with the price changes of crypto assets. This means that the insured will always be indemnified for the underlying value of their managed asset even if this fluctuates over the policy period,” the announcement detailed.

Matthew Greaves, an underwriter at Atrium, noted an increasing demand for insurance for cryptocurrencies due to the popularity of such assets. David Janczewski, CEO of Coincover, commented:

“As the crypto-asset market heats up again at the start of 2020, a new wave of crypto-curious customers are standing by at the ready to jump in, having previously been put off by the lack of adequate protection against theft and loss. With this innovative new policy, we can remove these barriers and broaden the appeal of crypto.”

Lloyd’s is not new to cryptocurrency insurance. Back in August 2019, Lloyd’s began to insure the crypto custody platform Kingdom Trust.

Most recently, news broke that blockchain security firm and crypto wallet service BitGo was planning to provide crypto insurance through Lloyd’s. Within the partnership, Lloyd’s is set to insure up to $100 million of assets held by BitGo or BitGo Trust Company.

The Winklevoss’ Gemini Exchange also launched an insurance company to cover up to $200 million for its institutional-grade crypto custody service, Gemini Custody. This is reportedly the largest amount for any cryptocurrency custody service in the world.

ICE Reveals Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program

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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 BCSC has developed a Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program (CIP) which identifies unlicensed money services businesses in the form of independent cryptocurrency brokers’ use of peer-to-peer (P2P) sites, online forums and classified advertisements, and darknet markets (DNM) to engage in unlicensed money services businesses (MSB) activity.”

ICE states that “a large portion” unlicensed MSBs operating with cryptocurrency on darknet markets and P2P marketplaces are engaged in the laundering of narcotics proceeds.

The agency adds that it has increased its training and cyber analytics capabilities for “cyber investigations targeting darknet illicit marketplaces where fentanyl and chemical precursors are often sold.”

Darknet markets have been a target of numerous ICE enforcement actions in recent years, with ICE agents receiving “advanced darknet training” since at least September 2019.

ICE partnered with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in mid-2017 to conduct a year-long nationwide investigation targeting darknet vendors, leading to over 35 arrests. ICE also executed a week-long internationally coordinated action during October 2016.

The revelation of ICE’s Cryptocurrency Investigations Program amid increasing efforts to crack down on darknet activity globally.

On Feb. 25, the government-owned Austrian Institute of Technology announced it had partnered with French blockchain security company NIGMA Conseil to collaborate on blockchain forensics.

The companies are working to provide blockchain forensics services to governments and businesses, including dark web scraping and wallet clustering.