Author: Wed, 2019-11-06 00:35 BRUSSELS: The European Central Bank should consider issuing a public digital currency, an EU draft document said, after plans by Facebook to introduce a private one met with a hostile response from global regulators.
The social media firm said in June it planned to launch its Libra digital currency next year. But France and Germany said in
2019-11-05 21:11 | News | ArabNews
Author: Kevin Trublet| AFP ID: Sun, 2019-11-03 05:07 LONDON: The recent bust of a worldwide international paedophile ring using Bitcoin payments highlighted one of the key fears surrounding crypto-currencies — their use by criminals. Social networking giant Facebook is keen to get in on the act by launching a digital currency called Libra. But
2019-11-03 02:11 | News | ArabNews
Author: Sébastien RICCI | AFP ID: Sun, 2019-11-03 05:58 BEIJING: China has launched an ambitious effort to challenge the US dominance in blockchain technology, which it could use for everything from issuing digital money, to streamlining a raft of government services and tracking Communist Party loyalty. The technology received a crucial endorsement from President Xi
2019-11-03 02:11 | News | ArabNews
By Ralph Fucetola* “The modern central bank business model is being disrupted.” claims Saifedean Ammous, economics professor and author of The post Bitcoin And The Denationalization Of Money – OpEd appeared first on Eurasia Review .
2019-10-29 05:10 | 1, Business, Opinion | EurasiaReview
Author: Mon, 2019-10-28 04:17 BEIJING: China’s Parliament has passed a new law on cryptography as the country gears up to launch its own digital currency, state media reported late on Saturday.
China’s central bank set up a research team in 2014 to explore launching its own digital currency to cut the costs of circulating traditional paper money and boost policymakers’ control
2019-10-27 23:10 | News | ArabNews
How the world's largest social media company got into the questionable cryptocurrency market – and where it started to go wrong.
“Today,” began a Facebook announcement in June of this year, “we’re sharing plans for Calibra”. Calibra is a financial services company, owned wholly by Facebook, which will “let people access and participate in the Libra network ”. At the
2019-10-25 07:10 | News | NewStatesman
Trump Lifts Sanctions on Turkey, Citing Ceasefire Agreement, Republican Lawmakers Disrupt Closed-Door Impeachment Hearing, Trump's Lawyer Argues the President Can't Be Prosecuted for Murder, Death Toll in Chile Protests Rises to 18 as Human Rights Groups Allege Torture, Spain Removes Remains of Francisco Franco from National Mausoleum, Julian Assange Appears Frail and Confused in London Court Hearing, 39 Bodies Found in Tractor-Trailer in Southeast England, Honduran Woman's Lawsuit Claims Years of Sexual Assault by ICE Agent, Immigrant Worker Injured in
2019-10-24 12:10 | News | DemocracyNow
As cities turn to IoT to address long-standing urban problems, Andrew Lee, ESET Government Affairs Liaison discusses the risks of leaving cybersecurity behind at the planning phase. You’ve probably heard the term “smart cities” – that is, the idea that extensive use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to monitor energy, utilities and transportation infrastructure can lead to cost savings, reduction of environmental impact and faster fault resolution. The benefits are obvious. If a street lamp fails, and can tell
2019-10-24 07:10 | Expert Speak, Andrew Lee, ESET | ReviewCentralMe
Julia Conley, staff writer House Democrats challenged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on a number of issues Wednesday at a hearing focusing partially on the company's efforts to develop of cryptocurrency—putting Zuckerberg on the defensive regarding Facebook's position on the limits of free speech in political advertising, its labor practices, and critics' claims that the company supports housing discrimination.
2019-10-23 21:10 | News | CommonDreams
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies on Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he is expected to face questioning about the company's cryptocurrency Libra, among other issues. Zuckerberg has faced scrutiny before, including for Facebook's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A former mentor of Zuckerberg and longtime Silicon Valley investor, Roger McNamee, speaks out about the company's dismissal of Russian interference in the election. "They treated it like a PR problem, not a business issue," McNamee says.
2019-10-23 12:10 | News | DemocracyNow
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill as his company's actions face escalating criticism. The focus of today's House Financial Services Committee hearing is on Facebook's plan to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra that would reshape the world's financial system. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that her probe of Facebook for violating antitrust regulations is now backed by attorneys general from 47 states and territories. Facebook is also facing criticism from several Democratic
2019-10-23 12:10 | News | DemocracyNow
Issue #2: “What does Libra mean for open source investigators?” CryptOsint is a news round-up dedicated to covering who is using blockchain technology and how they’re doing it. Think of it as the intersection between open source investigations and the crypto world. Through CryptOsint, you will discover weekly content that will help you make sense... The post Sign Up For CryptOsint Today! appeared first on bellingcat .
2019-10-22 15:10 | Events, Resources, cryptocurrency | BellingCat
Hello! This week we examine the travails of Russian internet whizz kid Pavel Durov’s new cryptocurrency, Gram, which has been blocked by the U.S. regulator. We also look at Russia’s conflicting messages on climate change; the top officials summoned to testify at a $12 billion case against Russia in Paris; what Russia stands to gain […] The post Pavel Durov tangles with US regulators: the travails of Russian internet whizz kid new cryptocurrency appeared first on The
2019-10-18 23:10 | Weekly | TheBell
Hello! This week we examine the travails of Russian internet whizz kid Pavel Durov’s new cryptocurrency, Gram, which has been blocked by the U.S. regulator. We also look at Russia’s conflicting messages on climate change; the top officials summoned to testify at a $12 billion case against Russia in Paris; what Russia stands to gain […] The post Pavel Durov tangles with US regulators: the travails of Russian internet whizz kid new cryptocurrency appeared first on The
2019-10-18 23:10 | Weekly | TheBell
Author: AFP ID: Fri, 2019-10-18 06:52 WASHINGTON: Facebook should not launch its global digital currency Libra until proper regulations are in place to handle the potential risks, the Group of Seven said Thursday. And France’s Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire warned that a currency like Libra could undermine sovereign nations’ control over their exchange rates.
2019-10-18 03:10 | News | ArabNews
Author: Reuters ID: Fri, 2019-10-11 23:41 Facebook’s ambitious efforts to establish a global digital currency called Libra suffered severe setbacks on Friday, as major payment companies including Mastercard and Visa Inc. quit the group behind the project. The two companies announced they would leave the association Friday afternoon, as did eBay, Stripe and Latin American
2019-10-12 07:10 | News | ArabNews
The hearing comes after Chair Maxine Waters and committee Democrats sent a letter to Facebook calling on the company to suspend plans to launch the cryptocurrency, Libra. The post Mark Zuckerberg Buckles and Will Testify to Congress on Facebook’s Cryptocurrency appeared first on The Intercept .
2019-10-09 15:10 | Technology | TheIntercept
Trump Touts "Great and Unmatched Wisdom" as U.S. Abandons Kurdish Allies, State Dept. Orders Ambassador Gordon Sondland Not to Testify to Impeachment Inquiry, Federal Judge Rejects Trump's "Repugnant" Argument Against Turning Over Tax Records, Ecuador's President Moves Government From Capital as Anti-Austerity Protests Grow, Bolivia Rains Quell Fires After 10 Million Amazon Acres Burn, 700+ Arrested as Extinction Rebellion Protests Demand Climate Action, Swedish Climate Activist Greta Thunberg to Visit Standing Rock Reservation, Supreme Court Opens New Term with Justice
2019-10-08 12:10 | News | DemocracyNow
Author: Reuters ID: Sat, 2019-10-05 03:22 WASHINGTON: US payments processor PayPal Holdings Inc. said on Friday it was leaving Libra Association, the entity managing the Facebook-led effort to build global digital currency Libra, making it the first member to exit the group. PayPal said it would forgo any further participation in the group and would
2019-10-05 05:10 | News | ArabNews
House lawmakers are ratcheting up pressure on Facebook in an attempt to force chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to testify in the coming months about his company's plans to launch the Libra cryptocurrency.
2019-10-04 15:10 | News | WashingtonPost
Author: Tue, 2019-10-01 23:03 RUBAYA: In a small shack overlooking muddy pits hewn out of eastern Congo’s rolling green hills, a government official puts a barcoded tag on a sack of ore rich in tantalum, a rare metal widely used in smartphones.
With a handheld device linked to a server, the agent scans the barcode, uploading data including the sealed bag’s weight,
2019-10-01 20:10 | News | ArabNews
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg pledged in a private meeting with lawmakers that the company would not launch its controversial digital currency, called Libra, anywhere in the world until it receives approval from regulators in the United States.
2019-09-20 00:09 | News | WashingtonPost
Leading smartphone manufacturer, HTC and one of the world’s oldest and most established cryptocurrency, Bitcoin have announced the beginning of a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership to drive innovation and adoption of crypto technologies. HTC is known for pushing the boundaries of technology with cutting edge, futuristic smartphones, and they have done it again. HTC’s flagship EXODUS 1 smartphone is now the first phone that provides Bitcoin Cash (BCH) support without having to download a BCH wallet from an app store.
2019-09-17 06:09 | Cryptocurrency, News, Smartphones | ReviewCentralMe
The IMF, has been instrumental in helping destroying the economy of a myriad of countries, notably, and to start with, the new Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, Greece, Ukraine and lately Argentina, to mention just a few. Madame Christine Lagarde, as chief of the IMF had a heavy hand in the annihilation […]
2019-09-16 02:09 | Banks/Banking, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency | DissidentVoice
Author: AFP ID: Thu, 2019-09-12 08:41 PARIS: France warned Thursday it will block development of Facebook’s planned Libra cryptocurrency in Europe because it threatens the “monetary sovereignty” of governments. “I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil,” Le Maire said at the opening of
2019-09-12 08:09 | News | ArabNews
On my desk sit four containers of brain pills. Though they are made by four separate companies, they are similar enough in appearance and content to be almost interchangeable. The ingredients mention green tea extract and bacopa, B vitamins and black pepper extract. The names of the formulae— Alpha Brain , Gorilla Mind Smooth , Brain Force Plus , Dawn to Dusk —are displayed in clean, futuristic fonts. Three
2019-09-03 10:09 | Magazine, September 2019, Culture | NewRepublic
On my desk sit four containers of brain pills. Though they are made by four separate companies, they are similar enough in appearance and content to be almost interchangeable. The ingredients mention green tea extract and bacopa, B vitamins and black pepper extract. The names of the formulae— Alpha Brain , Gorilla Mind Smooth , Brain Force Plus , Dawn to Dusk —are displayed in clean, futuristic fonts. Three
2019-09-03 10:09 | Magazine, September 2019, Culture | NewRepublic
Author: Sun, 2019-09-01 22:03 LONDON: Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney has suggested that a virtual currency, modeled on Facebook’s Libra, could one day replace the dollar as king of the foreign exchange market.
The BoE chief aired vague proposals for a so-called “Synthetic Hegemonic Currency” at the recent Jackson Hole Symposium of central bankers.
Here is a brief assessment
2019-09-01 19:09 | News | ArabNews
Wed, 2019-08-21 01:00 JEDDAH: Fraudsters are trying to lure victims into investing in a “virtual currency” with false claims that it is linked to the Saudi riyal and will be used to finance key projects, the Saudi Ministry of Finance warned on Tuesday.
The website of a cryptocurrency company in Singapore is promoting what it calls the CryptoRiyal and SmartRiyal, using the Saudi emblem of two crossed swords and a
2019-08-20 22:08 | News | ArabNews
Terrorists have been tinkering with bitcoin as early as 2012 — but today, jihadi crowdfunding campaigns have been on the rise. Some think that since most of these campaigns haven’t raised significant funds, there isn’t much to worry about. I will explain why this is wrong. Terrorists’ early attempts at using cryptocurrencies were filled with... The post The Evolution Of Bitcoin In Terrorist Financing appeared first on bellingcat .
2019-08-09 16:08 | MENA, News, bitcoin | BellingCat
Denise Giusto Bilić, Security Researcher at ESET explains how internet-enabled Smart TVs have become a attractive target for cyberattacks and how cybercriminals can ruin more than your TV viewing experience by spying on users with the cameras and microphone or act as jumping-off points for attacks at other devices in home and corporate networks. With their high-resolution screens, cameras, microphones and innovative interfaces geared towards a better user experience, smart TVs have found their way into many homes. They have
2019-08-08 13:08 | Expert Speak, Televisions, cyberattacks | ReviewCentralMe
The Brexit Party wants us to believe that it’s a popular uprising against a closed establishment. These candidates are anything but.
“Yesterday”, the Brexit Party tweeted proudly this morning, “we announced 50 more high-calibre Prospective Parliamentary Candidates.
“These candidates will not stand for Mrs May’s treaty being repackaged,” it went on – although what a PPC not
2019-08-06 13:08 | News | NewStatesman
Android ransomware may be on the decline since 2017 – but recently, ESET researchers discovered a new ransomware family, Android/Filecoder.C. Using victims’ contact lists, it attempts to spread further via SMSes with malicious links. The new ransomware was seen distributed via porn-related topics on Reddit. The malicious profile used in the ransomware-distributing campaign was reported by ESET but is still active. For a short period of time, the campaign had also run on the “XDA developers” forum, a forum for
2019-07-31 12:07 | News, Security, Android/Filecoder.C. | ReviewCentralMe
Rain, a Bahrain-based cryptocurrency exchange has closed its $2.5 million seed round, it announced in a statement to MENAbytes. The round was co-led by BitMEX Ventures, the investment arm of the BitMEX, which is a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform and Kuwait-based cryptocurrency fund, Blockwater. Some other regional investors including Vision Ventures, 500 Startups (MENA), and Taibah Valley also […] The post Bahrain’s Rain closes $2.5 million seed round, becomes first licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the Middle East appeared first on
2019-07-31 07:07 | Investments, News, Startups | menabytes
Author: AFP ID: Tue, 2019-07-23 05:05 SAN FRANCISCO: Fraudsters are out to cash in on interest in Facebook-backed digital currency Libra, hawking bogus buying opportunities at online venues including the social network itself. Libra is to launch next year, overseen by an association based in Europe, but as with other hot topics it has been
2019-07-23 02:07 | News | ArabNews
Typically for
Silicon Valley, Facebook’s June announcement
of plans to launch a global, digital currency—Libra—spoke of empowering
billions of people, especially those without access to banking. Also typically,
skeptics were quick
to ask
whether anyone should actually trust the behemoth with such a tool. France’s
finance minister raised concerns
about privacy, money-laundering and terrorist use, and U.S. lawmakers
called on Facebook to cease all development of Libra. At hearings last week,
Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy criticized
the centralized nature of
2019-07-22 10:07 | Facebook, Currency, Politics | NewRepublic
What if tomorrow nobody but the United States would use the US-dollar? Every country, or society would use their own currency for internal and international trade, their own economy-based, non-fiat currency. It could be traditional currencies or new government controlled crypto-currencies, but a country’s own sovereign money. No longer the US-dollar. No longer the dollar’s […]
2019-07-19 06:07 | Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China, Cryptocurrency | DissidentVoice
Author: Fri, 2019-07-19 00:45 CHANTILLY: Top finance officials from the Group of Seven rich democracies are warning that cryptocurrencies such as Facebook’s Libra should not come into use before “serious regulatory and systemic concerns” are addressed.
The chairman’s concluding summary from the G7 meeting in Chantilly, France, says the officials agreed that so-called stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to real currencies — will
2019-07-18 21:07 | News | ArabNews
Author: AP ID: Thu, 2019-07-18 06:05 TEHRAN: Iranians feeling the squeeze from US sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic’s ailing economy are increasingly turning to such digital currencies as Bitcoin to make money, prompting alarm in and out of the country. In Iran, some government officials worry that the energy-hungry process of “mining” Bitcoin is abusing
2019-07-18 07:07 | News | ArabNews
Author: Wed, 2019-07-17 23:01 LONDON: After months of relative calm in cryptocurrency markets, bitcoin exploded back into life in April with its sharpest price jump in over a year — but few people could convincingly explain why.
The 20 percent leap focused investors’ attention on one of the enduring mysteries of cryptocurrencies: What moves the price of an emerging asset in an
2019-07-17 20:07 | News | ArabNews
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
Regarding plain speaking by ambassadors to Washington: when John Freeman was editor of the New Statesman in 1962 he described Richard Nixon, then bidding to become governor of California, as “a man of
2019-07-17 15:07 | News | NewStatesman
Author: Reuters ID: Wed, 2019-07-17 06:07 CHANTILLY, France: G7 finance ministers will have the growing powers of big digital firms in their sights when they meet on Wednesday outside Paris despite divisions about how best to tax them. France wants to use its presidency of the two-day meeting in the picturesque chateau town of Chantilly
2019-07-17 06:07 | News | ArabNews
Author: Kevin TRUBLET | AFP ID: Sun, 2019-07-14 02:08 LONDON: Facebook’s planned virtual unit Libra, already under heavy attack from US President Donald Trump and global regulators, faces skepticism among the wider cryptocurrency community as well. One theme — besides Brexit — dominated discussion among the movers and shakers from London’s financial technology or FinTech
2019-07-14 04:07 | News | ArabNews
Author: Reuters ID: Fri, 2019-07-12 05:52 WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Bitcoin, Facebook’s proposed Libra digital coin and other cryptocurrencies and demanded that companies seek a banking charter and make themselves subject to US and global regulations if they wanted to “become a bank.” “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and
2019-07-12 02:07 | News | ArabNews
In recent weeks, Facebook has created a new digital currency and the price of Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly. Has money itself always been an illusion?
It is difficult to know when humans first started securing or “encrypting” messages to hide them from unwanted readers; the practice must be almost as old as written language, although examples are sparse. We know, for
2019-07-10 14:07 | News | NewStatesman
Jessica Corbett, staff writer In a letter Tuesday, a coalition of 33 consumer, privacy, economic policy, and other groups called on congressional leaders and top federal regulators to impose a moratorium on Facebook's proposed cryptocurrency called Libra "until the profound questions raised by the proposal are addressed."
2019-07-02 15:07 | News | CommonDreams
After months of speculation, Facebook has finally lifted the lid on its plans for a global cryptocurrency. Facebook hopes Libra will be available to selected users as early as next year for use in transactions across the platform. As with conventional currencies, the company hopes you’ll want to use Libra to pay for online transactions, […]
2019-06-29 00:06 | Articles, bank of england, bitcoin | NovaraMedia
Payments can happen cheaply and easily without banks or credit card companies. This has now been demonstrated – not in the United States but in China. Unlike in the US, where numerous firms feast on fees from handling and processing payments, in China most money flows through mobile phones nearly for free. In 2018 these […]
2019-06-27 20:06 | Banks/Banking, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency | DissidentVoice