Security, regulation, and knowledge gaps: Bad crypto news of the week

Published at: Oct. 3, 2020

Bitcoin ends the week about 6 percent up, still beneath $11,000 but having set a record of 63 days above $10,000. Some traders are starting to find the digital coin’s stability boring. They’re looking for more excitement in altcoins and DeFi tokens. OMG network recently jumped more than 25 percent. 

Maybe the decline in mining will inject some excitement back into the coin. ChartBTC has pointed out that only 2.5 million coins remain for mining; half will be mined in the next four years.

Jack Dorsey, at least, still finds Bitcoin exciting. He sees a role for the coin and its blockchain technology in securing Twitter’s content. Decentralization, he argues, could ensure that content lasts forever. He’ll have to explain that move to Twitter’s users though. A survey has found big gaps in mainstream understanding of the cryptocurrency industry.

But plenty of people do get it. IoTeX, a connectivity company, has partnered with camera manufacturer Tenvis Technology to make an indoor security camera powered by the blockchain. Ucam uses a decentralized system with a private key to let users control all their own data. 

In Congress, the House of Representatives has passed an updated Consumer Safety Technology Act. The act includes regulations that define digital terms and require the Federal Trade Commission to report on the blockchain’s role in consumer protection. In Europe, the European Commission has taken another move towards giving its cryptocurrency industry a stronger legal foundation. The EC adopted a new digital finance package that includes its first legislation on crypto assets. 

If you’re looking to cash in on that progress, you can do worse than follow Tim Draper. The venture capitalist has described his crypto-portfolio. He holds Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Tezos, and Aragon. 

He didn’t mention whether he was holding any of the tokens on Kucoin. Analysts have now estimated that hackers might have taken almost $280 million during that hack. About $129 million worth of ERC20 tokens though, are now considered safe.

And if you’ve been wondering what happened to Didi Taihuttu and his Bitcoin family, they’re still doing fine, traveling the world and living on cryptocurrencies. That’s certainly not boring.

Finally, we chat with Ido Sadeh, Sögur’s, Founder and Chairman of the Board. Sögur is a digital coin built to provide a self-sustaining, democratic and global currency. It is modeled to incorporate the volatility crypto markets seek, while also using stabilization mechanisms to temper volatility risk when market conditions are fast-changing and unpredictable. 

Check out the audio version here: 

Joel Comm is an internet pioneer, New York Times best-selling author, futurist speaker and co-host of The Bad Crypto Podcast. That’s a fancy way of saying he writes words, says things and loves to play with cryptos.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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