Category: Crypto

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US Court Rejected A Lawsuit Against Mt. Gox and Japanese Bank Mizuho Due To “Lack of Jurisdiction”

A district court in Pennsylvania, United States, granted the Japanese bank Mizuho, associated with the now-defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange, a motion to dismiss the case against it filed by Gregory Pearce, one of 24,000 users affected by the collapse of the trading platform in 2014. The reason for rejecting the lawsuit, also directed against Mark Karpeles, CEO of Mt. Gox, was “lack of jurisdiction.”

The closure of Mt. Gox in Japan, when it filed for bankruptcy in February 2014, is regarded as one of the most harmful events in the Bitcoin (BTC) history. Founded in 2009, this crypto exchange platform, Mt. Gox, came to have, just before declaring itself a victim of hacking and theft, 70% of all the BTC in existence, roughly 850,000 Bitcoin (BTC), at that time valued at $450 million.

“Submitted before this Court by Mizuho’s Motion to Dismiss for Demerits to Establish an Injunction and for Lack of Jurisdiction (Exhibit 11); Pierce’s Response in Opposition to that Motion to Dismiss (Exhibit 12), as well as Mizuho’s Memorandum of Response Law (Exhibit 13); and for the reasons set forth below, Mizuho’s Motion for Lack of Jurisdiction is Granted,” reads the decision of the District Court of the United States of America of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The US Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania decided against Gregory Pearce who filed a lawsuit against Mt. Gox and its associate, the Japanese bank Mizuho

“Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital cryptocurrency that can be used as money. It can be exchanged for traditional currencies such as the US dollar, or used to purchase goods and services. Unlike traditional fiat currencies, Bitcoin (BTC) is not backed by any government or verified by any bank, but each transaction is recorded in public, decentralized ledger called a blockchain,” said the District Court of the United States of America of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Among the latest incidents related to the Mt. Gox case, one of the most dramatic episodes in the short history of cryptos seems to have taken a positive turn, as the victims of the crypto exchange platform will get back their lost funds in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) somewhen in mid-2019.

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Lightning Network Has More Public Nodes Than Ripple, Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Blockchains

The adoption of Lightning Network, the Bitcoin (BTC) network of fast payment channels, is growing exponentially this year. Now, Lightning Network has more public nodes than Ripple, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC), taken separately. At the end of August, a Twitter user reviewed how Lightning Network has more public nodes than Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchains altogether. The tweet sparked controversy, as the user gave no proof of this claim.

Lightning Network surpassed Ripple, Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchains regarding public nodes

However, a recent investigation shows that the user’s assertion was not entirely true as the Lightning Network has more public nodes than Litecoin (LTC), Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) networks, but only if we take them separately and compare them with Bitcoin (BTC)’s Lightning Network.

While in the Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash blockchains it is free to run a network node, in Lightning Network (LN), on the other hand, each node involves a minimum electrical expense and some Satoshis that are blocked as a guarantee for creating channels. Despite this, the public nodes of LN in Bitcoin (BTC) amount to 2522 (with a 10% increase in the last 30 days), according to statistics of 1ML.

The number of public nodes of Litecoin (LTC) is 261, while Ripple has 789. On the other hand, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network is closer to LN with 2124.

Although these numbers are quite encouraging, it is difficult to determine precisely how many Lightning Network nodes currently exist

According to an article published recently, the number of nodes shown in the latest Lightning Network’s graphs could be wrong, due to several factors. The first of these is the node view as a node generates its network graph, which may be limited, but still uses it in its function. Therefore, it is possible that a node does not offer a view of the whole network.

Similarly, it is currently recommended that wallets execute their nodes privately. Thus these private nodes are not visible to the network graph and are not calculated in the statistics.

Lightning Network, which already has its first physical node available on the market, currently has about 12,000 channels, according to the 1ML report. The network capacity is now at 116.50 BTC or about $756,000 according to the current price of Bitcoin (BTC).

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Sberbank and The Bank of Russia Ensured Successful Conclusion of an Experimental ICO

The experimental regulatory platform set up by the Central Bank of Russia has completed an Initial Currency Offer (ICO) sponsored by Sberbank, according to some inside sources. Ivan Semagin, director of Financial Market Development at the Central Bank of Russia, revealed to the news agency TASS that, despite having met the goals of the ICO in the technical sense, there were some obstacles from the legal point of view, which he did not detail.

Sberbank was the primary investor in the recently concluded ICO

The experimental ICO was announced in April of this year and carried out together with Sberbank, Russia’s leading retail bank, and Russia’s National Liquidation Depositary. The initiative aims to encourage the country’s financial players to experiment with such a business model.

The issuing company of the ICO in question was Level One, a commercial promotion website, while the principal investor was the corporate arm of Sberbank, Sberbank CIB, and the NSD was the custodian of the operation.

Sberbank is very interested in crypto coins and announced in January of this year that it plans to open a cryptocurrency exchange for institutional investors through its subsidiary in Switzerland.

ICOs are a promising business model, while cryptocurrency is a “harmful scheme”

The announcement of the successful conclusion of the ICO was made during the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), held in Vladivostok, which is an event held annually to strengthen alliances between Eastern Russia and the Asia-Pacific region. Both Russian and Chinese officials, as well as various media and journalists, were present at the event.

Alexey Chekinkov, CEO of the Development Fund for the Far East and Baikal Region, stated that ICO can bring monetary prosperity as a business model but, on the other hand, he deemed Bitcoin (BTC) or cryptocurrency, in general, is “a harmful scheme that wastes a lot of electricity in vain.”

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Canadian City Affected By Ransomware Attack To Pay The Hackers To Regain Access To Computer Systems

The Canadian city of Midland, in Ontario, has suffered a ransomware attack on its computer systems earlier this month, which has left all the city’s documents encrypted. Now, the city’s officials decided to pay the ransom in Bitcoin (BTC).

According to a press release published by the Midland People’s Council, the authorities, together with a group of cybersecurity experts, are carrying out the payment in Bitcoin (BTC) to the group of cybercriminals to get back the control over the town’s computer systems.

The press release doesn’t specify how much Bitcoin (BTC) the authorities of Midland will pay. However, the officials affirm that the city has an insurance policy that is created explicitly for this kind of situations.

“Under the guidance of cybersecurity experts, we have begun the process of paying the ransom in exchange for the decryption keys. Although not ideal, it is in our best interest to get the system back online as quickly as possible. The people had previously secured an insurance policy to cover such circumstances. Deciphering efforts are underway,” state the Midland Town Council.

Canadian city affected by a ransomware attack decided to pay the cybercriminals in Bitcoin (BTC)

The ransomware attack occurred on September 1st at 2 AM and took over the computer systems throughout the city of Midland, in Ontario, for 48 hours. Then, the majority of the administrative services became limited, even though the hackers did not affect critical systems such as waste management and fire response services, which could have endangered human lives.

Similarly, authorities say that this ransomware attack demanding for Bitcoin (BTC) took them by surprise as they were just planning to implement infrastructure changes to improve their systems’ security by the end of 2018. However, thanks to this unfortunate experience, informational security become a priority for the officials of the Canadian city of Midland, in Ontario.

The ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly popular in the world, as according to a study by Sophos, a British IT security firm, the creators of SamSam ransomware managed to raise $6 million from ransomware attacks. Also, one of the most potent ransomware of 2017, WannaCry, generated multimillion-dollar losses across Europe.

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Sovereign (SOV), Marshall Islands National Cryptocurrency Project, Deemed Risky by The IMF

In a report released recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) presents several arguments against the Marshall Islands government’s decision to create and issue a legal tender cryptocurrency, Sovereign (SOV), which was introduced in February of this year through a law passed by that nation’s parliament.

The IMF’s Asia-Pacific Department dedicates the report to an economic diagnosis of the Marshall Islands, from which it concludes that it expects growth “to remain robust, at 2.5 percent in the fiscal year 2018 and about 1.5 percent in the medium term, driven by increased spending on infrastructure.”

However, the IMF report highlights a factor that it qualifies as risky. Namely, the creation of the Sovereign (SOV) cryptocurrency, approved by the Parliament of the Marshall Islands.

“Issuing a decentralized digital currency as a second legal tender would increase macroeconomic and financial integrity risks, and raises the risk of losing the last US Dollar intermediation banking relationship,” stated the IMF.

IMF considered the Marshall Islands national cryptocurrency, Sovereign (SOV), as risky

According to the report, the Marshall Islands economy is “extremely dependent on foreign aid,” citing constant climate change and natural disasters as causes. But the existence of a single bank, the Bank of the Marshall Islands (BMI) is highlighted by the IMF as the most significant vulnerability associated with the Sovereign (SOV) cryptocurrency.

In the “Protecting Financial Stability” section of the report, the IMF delves into the risks of issuing a decentralized digital currency. It points out that a foreign private company, Neema, an Israeli company, with limited experience in the financial sector will be in charge of the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) totaling 24 million SOV, and that it will receive half of this. This dual character of issuer and investor is risky, according to the IMF.

The monetary fund points out that the issuance of the Marshall Islands national cryptocurrency, the Sovereign (SOV), unless strong anti-money laundering measures and anti-terrorist financing guidelines (AML/CFT) are implemented, “will increase the already high risks of losing the last correspondent bank relationship linked to the US dollar.”

The distribution of 10% of the SOV total amount to the population, planned after the ICO, is seen by the IMF as a source of monetary instability. Since it is legal tender, according to the IMF, this monetary issuance can be harmful to the government itself and to the banks, if it is used, for example, to pay taxes and debts.

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