Tether may currently be stable and may have seen its value return to be even with the US dollar, but this may not last long. The stablecoin held 94% of the stablecoin market at the beginning of 2018 – with only two other stablecoin competitors – and continues to lose ground. Now with eight serious stablecoins in the market, Tether’s market dominance lies at only 74% and could fall even further.
It seems like everyone wants to launch a stablecoin these days. There is the USDCoin from Circle, Paxos, TrueUSD and even Gemini Dollars. Even the Huobi exchange has gotten in on the fun, launching its HUSD stablecoin. On the surface, they appear to be solid as they’re backed by physical assets such as dollars or gold, but we have already witnessed how easily it is to see a stablecoin come unglued. Not too long ago, Tether saw its price break free from the US dollar, falling at one point to $94.
This past October, the co-founder of CoinCorner, Danny Scott, showed how easy it was for the stablecoins to not hold their value. He said at the time, “This is because they are openly traded on exchanges based on the supply and demand, meaning their price can fluctuate if people are willing to pay less or more for the currency. For example, GUSD (Gemini dollar) was pegged at $1 and actually hit $1.18. Similarly, USDT (Tether) which is pegged at $1 has fluctuated over time and is currently trading at $0.96. So do we think stablecoins are here to stay? Only time will tell, but for now we are not committing to them.”
Tether has had to deal with a series of issues that may have contributed to its decline among stablecoins. It has repeatedly refused to release audits of its holdings, stating that it would be too difficult (even though other stablecoins readily acknowledge that they can provide the data). Its new banking partner, Deltec out of Brazil, is facing an investigation for its possible involvement in a money-laundering scheme. There have also been concerns raised that the stablecoin was used to manipulate Bitcoin Core (BTC) prices last year.
The case for stablecoins is tenuous, at best. While all cryptocurrency options are still young and the industry needs to be developed, there isn’t much call for an option that can both show volatility on its own, as well as on the asset which backs it.
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We’ve all heard the lame excuses – cryptocurrency is only good for criminal activity, cryptocurrency is only useful for money laundering, cryptocurrency has no real purpose – in trying to derail crypto as a legitimate alternative to fiat. Of course, the statements need to always be taken with a grain of salt and the speaker needs to be identified. In every case, the person uttering the words was a definite fiat pundit who either didn’t understand crypto or who was too imbedded with fiat to be able to see the bigger picture. The truth has begun to surface, though, and none of those arguments stand up to scrutiny. Japan has just given us another good indication of the fallacy behind the arguments.
The Japan Times reports that, according to an “official police document,” the country has seen a total of 340,000 suspected cases of money laundering activity or abuse this year in all types of financial transactions. Of this amount, only 6,000 transactions were related to cryptocurrency. Quickly crunching numbers, that means that only about 2% of all the money-laundering activity was found in crypto.
6,000 is still a big number, for sure. However, given the fact that 334,000 cases of money laundering were recorded through fiat, it’s merely a drop in the bucket. Measures are already being undertaken to help reduce the number more, but the fact that money laundering can still be so prevalent in fiat after centuries of existence shows how difficult the activity is to control.
Japan is working diligently to provide better oversight of cryptocurrency entities and exchanges. It is introducing a number of measures that will help prevent tax evasion and control initial coin offerings (ICO) and the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), a self-regulatory entities overseeing crypto exchanges, has authority to patrol the industry, as well.
Any system anywhere in the world can be used positively or negatively – nothing can escape this, not even cryptocurrency. However, it has already shown itself to be a viable option and one that allows users to take back control of their own money. It is not “that thing that criminals use” or “an environmental disaster.” It is a legitimate type of currency that continues to be accepted by more and more merchants every day.
The post The fallacy of the “crypto’s only good for money laundering” argument appeared first on CoinGeek.
On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed in Florida’s Southern District against a group of cryptocurrency heavyweights alleging intentional fraud and market manipulation surrounding the recent Bitcoin Cash BCH update.
The civil suit filed by United American Corp. against multiple Bitmain related companies, Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Jihan Wu, Kraken, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancellor and Jason Cox alleges the group was involved in a scheme to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash in an effort to highjack the Bitcoin Cash network, resulting in a global capital meltdown of more than $4 billion and causing countless people irreparable harm.
Breaking News: Lawsuit links Bitmain, Ver camp to ‘premeditated takeover’ of Bitcoin Cash network
Some of the names are well known to the Bitcoin community while others have been background players. Let’s have a look at the who’s who in this landmark cryptocurrency lawsuit.
Bitmain Inc. – More commonly known as Bitcoin US, Bitcoin Inc. is an American corporation wholly owned by Bitmain Technologies Holding Company. With Bitmain Inc. being a USA corporation, it will be difficult for the larger company to claim the suit doesn’t belong in American courts.
Bitmain Technologies LTD. – Founded by Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu in 2013, Bitmain rose to prominence and then dominance in the bitcoin mining space with their ASIC cryptocurrency miners.
Bitmain Technologies Holding Company - The company filed for an initial public offering this past September 26 with the Hong Kong regulatory agency. That IPO has been in doubt of late with disastrous financials leaking and their reputation taking a beating during the hash war that triggered this lawsuit.
Saint Bitts LLC d/b/a Bitcoin.com – Bitcoin.com is one of the more controversial websites in the cryptocurrency industry. Bitcoin.com is probably responsible for onboarding more people to Bitcoin that any other site. They offer news, tools and even online gambling but after the 2017 BTC-BCH split, and their propensity for hyping up poorly planned and executed ICOs they’ve become more divisive in the past couple years.
Read the Court Filings from the BCH Manipulation lawsuit
Roger Ver – Known as the Bitcoin Jesus due to his early wiliness to invest and travel the world spreading the gospel of Bitcoin. He’s fallen from Grace particularly after the 2017 BTC-BCH fork. Ver would debate anyone and everyone, claiming BCH was the true Bitcoin and any chain that deviates from the Satoshi Whitepaper couldn’t claim to be Bitcoin. His decision to support the ABC instance during the hash war and his penchant for putting his promotional support behind pump and dump ICOs has left many of his disciples abandoning the faith. Ver denounced his American citizenship in 2014 and was once denied a USA visa as US immigration was unsure if he’d leave the country and he’d remain as an illegal immigrant. This case should offer US immigration sufficient grounds for a visitor’s visa.
Jihan Wu – He’s the public face of the Bitmain empire. A regular on the conference circuit and recipient of the lion’s share of both the praise and the scorn from the cryptocurrency community. He was the power broker during the 2017 battle for larger blocks in BTC, his mining pools held enough power to determine whether Blockstream’s Segregated Witness and the plan to leave BTC at 1MB blocks or if the big block battle would continue. Wu negotiated a split which created Bitcoin Cash BCH and took the big block supporters with him. He also played a major role in the Hash War, funding the controversial ABC instance and then arranging the mercenary miners to move over to the BCH chain. Like Ver, the split has left his reputation in tatters.
Payward Ventures Inc. d/b/a Kraken – Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange site that was funded by Roger Ver and operated by his high school friend Jesse Powell. The site was one of the more popular exchanges operating in the US, Canada, Japan and the EU. For a couple of years, it stood as the largest exchange in the industry before giving way to companies like Coinbase and Binance. This lawsuit isn’t the first time Kraken has faced scrutiny, earlier this year they were under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office who was on a fact-finding mission to see what if any measures exchanges took to protect their customers from market manipulations.
Jesse Powell – Powell, in addition to being Ver’s high school friend, is the CEO of Kraken. When the NYAG was conducting their investigation, Powell made a point not to cooperate and declared the investigation was hostile and bad for business. Unlike Ver who renounced his USA citizenship and left the country, Powell still resides in the US and could be forced to do the heavy lifting if Ver doesn’t return to answer the suit.
Amaury Sechet – Sechet is the lead developer for Bitcoin ABC and the self-proclaimed benevolent dictator of Bitcoin Cash BCH. The anarchist is a French national who is responsible for the contentious changes to the node software that ultimately caused the rift and eventual fork in the BCH chain.
Shammah Chancellor – Is a developer with Bitcoin ABC who works with Sechet.
Jason Cox – Along with Chancellor, works with Bitcoin ABC as a developer.
United American Corp. – The Florida-based company focuses on telecommunications applications, including BlockchainDomes, which are eco-friendly crypto mining facilities that use the generated heat to power green houses and grow food. In 2017, UAC moved heavily into the development and implementation of blockchain-related technologies. The company believes that the high-jacking of the Bitcoin Cash network could imperil its investments, as the changes brought by Bitmain and Ver’s group have altered the fundamental economics of the business.
The post Meet the players in the BCH Market Manipulation Lawsuit appeared first on CoinGeek.
The cryptocurrency world was rocked Thursday by the announcement of a huge lawsuit that was launched by United American Corp. (UAC) against a large number of Bitcoin Cash BCH supporters, including Bitmain and its co-founder Jihan Wu, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver, Amaury Séchet of Bitcoin ABC, the Kraken exchange and its CEO, Jesse Powell, as well as a few others. The lawsuit contends egregious amounts of fraud and market manipulation on the part of all defendants and could forever change how BCH is viewed, MarketWatch first reported. The lawsuit and all updates will be available on the www.bitcoincashlitigation.com website.
UAC points out in its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, that the group of individuals colluded to manipulate the BCH network and take control of its functions. The company asserts that BCH has become centralized, which violates “all accepted distributed and decentralized standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception.” The Florida-based blockchain company further asserts that Ver, Wu, et al worked in conjunction with the Chinese government in order to lead a hostile takeover of the cryptocurrency.
Breaking News: Lawsuit links Bitmain, Ver camp to ‘premeditated takeover’ of Bitcoin Cash network
The blockchain is meant to be a decentralized solution. To maintain this decentralization, the network operates on a consensus basis that prevents a single person or group from being able to control the majority of the hash, or mining power. If someone is able to control 51% of the network, they can effectively and autonomously decide the blockchain’s fate and this is what the defendants have been able to achieve.
Bitmain publicly acknowledged its support of Bitcoin ABC during the hash wars and launched efforts to force the BCH network to follow ABC during the hash wars. It rented hash power and even deployed 90,000 of its own mining rigs in favor of ABC mining operations, a move that can be seen as an attempt to centralize and control ABC. There were also speculations that Bitmain’s Jihan Wu was unloading BTC to fund the ABC mining operations, which, in turn, drove the prices of crypto down. Now, people are wondering if Wu is just cashing out amid the hash war.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice is also allegedly looking to get involved in the case against Bitmain and Ver’s group through the FBI Cybercrimes Division.
Roger Ver is a “crypto anarchist” and has also directed the mining operations of his Bitcoin.com mining pool to ABC. In addition,Bitcoin.com was a recipient of some of the hashing power that was rented by Bitmain in order to support ABC.
Ver has direct links to the Kraken crypto exchange through its founder, Jesse Powell. They are friends with a history that dates back to their high school days and Kraken was one of the first exchanges to show favoritism for ABC. It was also the first exchange to declare that ABC was offering the true version of BCH.
The lawsuit explains that Bitcoin ABC, the development and mining group that favored moving BCH away from its original design, has now forced changes on the blockchain without regard to what the community wanted. It introduced arbitrary checkpoints that can allow Bitcoin ABC to take over the network. UAC explains, “Combining this change with the hashing power of Bitcoin ABC backers amounts to centralization. They will be able to override any consensus reached by the rest of the network, forcing other to conform or create an unwanted hard fork.”
UAC also asserts that the entities were fundamental in directing hash power—including through the renting of additional mining equipment—during the BCH “hash wars” this month that saw them force the direction the BCH blockchain was headed. The action resulted in an unprecedented amount of hash being processed by Bitcoin ABC backers and further disintegrated the integrity of the BCH network.
UAC has been involved in blockchain innovation since 2017 and has invested more than $4 million in the space. It argues that the selfish manipulation of the blockchain is not consistent with BCH’s design, and that it has completely altered the “fundamental economics of the business.” In simple terms, it can be viewed as ordering a Filet Mignon in a restaurant and being delivered a burnt hamburger, while still paying for the Filet Mignon.
For a deeper narrative about the scheme, visit the Bitcoin Cash Litigation website.
The full filing can be found here.
The post Breaking down the United American lawsuit against Bitmain, Roger Ver, et al appeared first on CoinGeek.
Markets are down all across the globe. Wall Street has seen significant declines in its prices, futures trading was temporarily suspended and the general sentiment has been somewhat bleak. According to CoinMarketCap, even Bitcoin Core (BTC) is down, dropping 2.81% in the past 24 hours. In fact, all of the top five cryptocurrencies have seen declines of as much as 13%. In all of the chaos, though, there is a beacon that is shining bright. As of this writing, Bitcoin SV (BSV) has climbed 24.80%.
BSV now sits in the number five spot in the cryptocurrency rankings by market cap. Its current price sits at $110.94 and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. This makes BSV more valuable than Ether, which is trading at just $97.57. Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which includes the controversial Bitcoin ABC version of BCH following the hard fork earlier this month, has dropped by 18.32% in the same period and now sits in seventh place by market cap – below Tether.
One of the reasons BSV is gaining ground is because of miners. They have remained loyal to BSV and their loyalty is beginning to show signs of paying off. It has been a difficult road, but one that has been well worth it in order to continue to develop the only cryptocurrency that follows the original definition of what a digital currency should be.
BSV has seen increases of almost 40% over the past week. While it’s difficult to determine exactly why it continues to climb, there are educated conclusions that can be made. BCH was running solid when it was still being rightfully viewed as the original Bitcoin as defined by Satoshi. As soon as chatter began that there were discrepancies in the direction the blockchain would take, the wobbling began. That wobbling continued through the hard fork, leading to the unprecedented drops seen in the price of BCH.
BSV is moving forward with a model that will ensure that Bitcoin lives on. This is being recognized by crypto enthusiasts who are beginning to understand that BSV and its supporters were right all along. Of course, a lawsuit against everything Bitcoin ABC stood for doesn’t help BCH’s cause, either.
There’s no way to know whether or not this bullish trend will continue. However, things are certainly looking up for BSV.
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Malta is one of the first jurisdictions to embrace cryptocurrencies, providing a competitive environment for companies in the space, similar to the island’s iGaming industry. The E&S Group has been among the first legal services firms aiding startups and those exploring cryptocurrencies and blockchain for the first time.
“We started way back when there was nothing of all this,” E&S Group Director Dr. Christian Ellul said, referring to the present vibrancy of the cryptocurrency sector. “It was an unregulated environment, so we tried to help clients fit within the client regulations which were there. For example, ICOs, we structured as what we called reward-based crowdfunding events, to make sure we were compliant. Of course, now we have specific legislation just for that, which makes it easier and gives comfort to people who are investing, and even clients who feel, okay, they’re really getting like the Rolls Royce of treatment here.”
The firm has released its own token for availing of its services. “The last year, we’ve really focused on crypto and blockchain advisory. We’ve started assisting ICOs, in all their legal documents, all their legal work, now exchanges, OTC and all that, so we’re very much embedded in it. So we said, okay, what better way to do it than also have our token? So we have an ESTS token that connects to our services. People come pay our services apart from the main Bitcoin and alts,” Ellul said.
Holding such offerings was good in terms of public relations, according to Ellul, but also it showed that “we went through the process ourselves. We’re not just advising clients about something we don’t know about. We actually did it ourselves, in private placements, so I think that gives us the edge compared to others, because we really know what we’re doing.”
It makes sense, according to Ellul, to also provide assistance to those in iGaming. “There’s a nice relationship between gaming and crypto. Malta has been very well positioned because Malta regulated gaming a long time ago, it being a high-risk industry, and therefore, it’s a natural continuation to now regulate crypto, which is also seen as a high-risk industry. So then I think Malta really could bridge that gap by being the first in gaming and also among the first in crypto and blockchain,” he said.
The link between gaming and cryptocurrencies is evident in E&S Group’s clients’ activities. Ellul explained, “I think blockchain is useable for everyone in the world, and including gaming, but gaming tends to lend itself to blockchain. We have ICOs that are funding, for example, a gaming company. We have other gaming companies that want to start using cryptocurrencies, and that’s basically sandbox allocation rules by the MGA [Malta Gaming Association] now, so they really do link in well.”
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Bitmain, its co-founder Jihan Wu, along with his “team of conspirators” including Bitcoin.com CEO Roger Ver, ABC lead developer Amaury Sechet, Kraken and its CEO, Jesse Powell, will have a lot to answer for. On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida accusing the group of fraud and market manipulation, asserting that these people worked “with the knowledge and support of the Chinese government to stage a premeditated hostile takeover” of the Bitcoin Cash BCH network.
Florida-based blockchain company United American Corp. (UAC) is seeking an emergency injunctive relief, citing losses that stemmed from the Bitcoin Cash hard fork last November 15. On that day, a hash war was fought with miners voting between two competing implementations of the BCH protocol—Bitcoin SV and ABC. ABC took a temporary early lead due to an artificial burst from “rented” hash power subsidized by Ver’s Bitcoin.com, and some exchanges—Kraken in particular—prematurely listed the ABC token as Bitcoin Cash BCH.
Now the other shoe has dropped.
Lawyer Brian Miller of Akerman law firm, who heads the team of lawyers that handles the UAC litigation, said there was “a scheme by a tight network of individuals and organizations designed to co-opt the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, effectively hijacking the Bitcoin Cash network, centralizing the market and violating all accepted distributed and decentralized standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception.” The scheme, allegedly spearheaded by Bitmain and Ver’s camp, reportedly caused “a global capitalization meltdown of more than $4 billion and caused many American and Canadian coin holders to suffer financial damages.”
Also named in the UAC lawsuit were ABC developers Shammah Chancelor and Jason B. Cox.
Aside from the awarding of restitution and compensatory damages, the lawsuit also seeks to prevent ABC from continuing to implement checkpoints on the Bitcoin Cash network and other software implementations that will “prevent the resulting chains from being able to be re-merged. UAC also wants the court to require ABC “to return the blockchain to its previously decentralized form with the previous consensus rules.”
More importantly, UAC wants to prove that the ABC camp, which has “some of the biggest U.S.-based and international names and entities in the digital currency world” among its ranks, is being backed by the Chinese government, all in an effort “to centralize the Bitcoin Cash network resulting in Chinese entities now having established dominance over this important segment of the cryptocurrency market with proprietary software checkpoints and instituting other means of control over the system.”
Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, VP of Corporate Affairs for UAC, said, “We envision a future led by an open, democratic and collaborative community fostering innovation and freedom. No entity or group of entities should seek to seize control of this platform for their own narrow interests or create rules that inhibit new competition and future technological innovation. That’s what this lawsuit is about.”
Full filing can be found here.
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Miami, FL. – In a lawsuit filed on Thursday December 6th in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, United American Corp. a Florida Company, petitioned the court for emergency injunctive relief citing losses stemming directly from the Bitcoin Cash fork that began on November 15, 2018, and asserting that a team of conspirators involved in what many are calling the “Bitcoin Cash Civil War” worked with the knowledge and support of the Chinese government to stage a premeditated hostile takeover of this popular cryptocurrency platform.
The litigation, being handled by a team of attorneys led by Brian Miller, of the powerhouse Miami-based law firm Akerman, alleges there was “a scheme by a tight network of individuals and organizations designed to co-opt the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash, effectively hijacking the Bitcoin Cash network, centralizing the market and violating all accepted distributed and decentralized standards and protocols associated with Bitcoin since its inception.” It claims this scheme caused “a global capitalization meltdown of more than $4 billion and caused many American and Canadian coin holders to suffer financial damages.”
Since 2017 United American Corp. has moved heavily into the development and implementation of blockchain and blockchain technologies and invested in the deployment of over $4 million of infrastructure towards that end. Those investments can be greatly imperiled by changes in the Bitcoin Cash network brought about by the alleged scheme, changes that have altered the fundamental economics of the business.
The lawsuit moves against multiple defendants: Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Bitmain Inc. Bitmain Technologies LTD. Bitmain Technologies Holding Company, Jihan Wu, The Kraken LLC, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancelor and Jason Cox.
This legal action will seek to prove that specific key actors, including some of the biggest US-based and international names and entities in the digital currency world, have been operating with the support of the Chinese government to centralize the Bitcoin cash network resulting in Chinese entities now having established dominance over this important segment of the cryptocurrency market with proprietary software checkpoints and instituting other means of control over the system.
“We want the future of cryptocurrency in general and Bitcoin Cash in particular to live up to the tremendous potential of the Satoshi white paper’s original vision,” said Lawry Trevor-Deutsch, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for United American Corp. “We envision a future led by an open, democratic and collaborative community fostering innovation and freedom. No entity or group of entities should seek to seize control of this platform for their own narrow interests or create rules that inhibit new competition and future technological innovation. That’s what this lawsuit is about.”
For additional information on the alleged Bitcoin Cash takeover scheme click here.
Contact:
Maurizio Passariello
(305) 529-9916 office
(786) 285-6398 mobile
The post Business damaged by Bitcoin Cash civil war sues in U.S. Federal Court, action alleges takeover of cryptocurrency network by china-backed players appeared first on CoinGeek.
CoinGeek’s Becky Liggero caught up with White Company CEO Elizabeth White, who’s spreading merchant adoption with her various products.
Elizabeth White, with her White Company, makes it easier for merchants to accept cryptocurrencies for payment, even if they don’t know anything about the technology. With her White Market luxury store, she’s made it possible to acquire an assortment of luxury items, “from Pamp Suisse gold to Lamborghinis, to trips around the world, so anything your heart desires that you would like to spend your cryptocurrency on, we can facilitate.”
The White Company is doing everything cryptocurrency-related, from mining to having a stablecoin, and recently, they have just launched a reloadable debit card called the White Card. “[W]hat is exciting is we’ll be the first reloadable cryptocurrency debit card that will accept Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Cash [ABC], [BTC], Ethereum, and XLM,” White said.
She believes it is important to make blockchain technology as accessible as possible to foster adoption. This is why she prefers having users transact with email addresses, “compared to using an actual long blockchain hash or private keys, secure keys, storing them. And this will never move to masses till we actually are able to consolidate the process. So with our products, we have been able to transfer funds, quickly and easily, with three-second settlements, just with your e-mail address.”
Merchants can use White Label Solutions, which allows cryptocurrency payments to be settled in fiat, in the currency preferred by the seller. White said, “[T]hey can accept cryptocurrency, and the fees are much lower than, say, a Visa or a Mastercard. We’re actually only charging 0.1% for merchants to accept cryptocurrency and then convert directly into fiat and settle, where you have things with Visa and Mastercard that are 3%-7%, and if you’re a high-risk merchant, up to 11%… Merchants still accept that, but there are easier ways, and the future is to accept the cryptocurrency which allows them to give back to their employees, have better revenue and returns, and give back to their, maybe, stock owners or investors.”
Watch Elizabeth White’s presentation, Building a Two-Sided Network, at the CoinGeek Week Conference in London below.
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The number of MikroTik routers that have been affected by a malicious malware that mines privacy-centric cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) has risen to 415,000, according to security researchers.
The cryptojacking malware was first discovered in August. According to a Trustwave report, the malware attacked the MikroTik routers after their systems became vulnerable earlier this year in April. Initially, hackers had penetrated 175,000 routers and then expanded to Eastern Europe, where they attacked 25,000 more routers. The hackers were using Coinhive and 15 other malware to mine XMR.
Since it was discovered, Twitter user VriesHd and researchers from Bad Packets have been following the cryptojacking malware. In September, they reported the number of affected MikroTik routers have risen to 280,000. In his recent tweet, VriesHd explains that the numbers have doubled since the initial attacks.
Just three different ways to abuse vulnerable Mikrotik routers to try to mine cryptocurrencies. Total combined 415 thousand results. Many more ways active. pic.twitter.com/u01HEr2UQy
— Kira 2.0 (@VriesHd) December 2, 2018
According to VriesHd, the number is derived from checking three possible ways hackers could be abusing MikroTik, although the number could be higher since the data reflects IP addresses known to have been infected with cryptojacking scripts. He noted that it would not surprise him if the actual number totals to somewhere around 350,000 to 400,000.
The researcher further found that the hackers are no longer exclusively using Coinhive; they have been using other mining software like Omine and CoinImp to mine the privacy-centric cryptocurrency.
To protect themselves from the malware, Bad Packets Report security expert Troy MUrsch advises MikroTik router users to download the latest firmware version available for their device. This will prevent the malware from using their routers to mine cryptocurrencies.
VriesHD also points out that internet service providers (ISPs) can also be used to fight the spread of malware by forcing over-the-air updates to the routers.
Cryptojacking cases continue to rise with figures increasing by 500% this year. According to reports, Brazil is the leading country affected by the malicious malware. Research shows that Coinhive has hit the country over 81,000 times in October. India ranks second with 29,000 discovered incidents followed by Indonesia, which has more than 23,000 cryptojacking cases.
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