by : integritytoken Cryptocurrency

The hunt for Do Kwon

Now speaking of stuff that could crash the crypto market – Terra co-founder Do Kwan is reportedly on the run.

This is because Interpol issued a red notice for Do after he was charged by South Korean authorities for violating capital markets rules.

Do is also dealing with legal issues in other jurisdictions, now obviously this is all because of the collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin back in May.

Terra’s collapse caused around 60 billion dollars of direct losses and tens of billions of additional losses through its effects on crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

Now what’s interesting about Interpol’s red notice is that Do apparently isn’t on the official red notice list.

Decrypt asked Interpol why that was and it responded by saying that it quote does not comment on specific cases and individuals and that not all red notices are made public.

Interpol not including Do on its red notice list would make sense if Do was some high-profile political figure or businessman but Do is your standard crypto project founder.

Everyone knows who he is, what he looks like and that he’s wanted by authorities around the world.

What’s crazy is that Do took to Twitter to claim that he’s not hiding from authorities, specifically he said quote I am making zero effort to hide, I go on walks and to malls, no way none of crypto Twitter hasn’t run into me in the past couple of weeks.

This wording is admittedly vague as making zero effort to hide could be technically correct even if Do is actually hiding, he’s just not putting in the effort so to speak.

Then again I find it hard to believe Do could continue to use Twitter without getting scooped up by the authorities, surely Twitter works with Interpol.

What’s more is that Do denied claims that he recently tried to withdraw 67 million dollars of BTC from cryptocurrency exchanges OKX and Kucoin though called the reports misinformation and said that no funds related to the entities behind Terra have been frozen.

Terraform Labs later came out to claim that the case against Do Kwon is quote highly politicized, a spokesperson for the company told the Wall Street Journal that the South Korean courts are bowing to the social pressure of UST and Luna holders who saw their crypto holdings go to zero.

This begs the question of what exactly is going on here and the short answer is I don’t know, but it sure is one of those stories that seems to be getting weirder by the week.

by : integritytoken Cryptocurrency

FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried said this is a one time case compensation for a phishing attack and the firm won’t be “making a habit” of it.

In light of the most recent phishing attack, Sam Bankman-Fried, chief of FTX crypto exchange, has offered to help the victims. However, SBF has sternly advised users to take more precaution in the future and this is the last time the exchange will offer compensation.

Over the past few years, there has been a dramatic rise in crypto phishing attacks. This happens when someone sends an email with a malicious attachment. However, these attacks are becoming more and more sophisticated.

Recently, scammers have taken to impersonating the FTX website in order to intercept users’ login credentials and draining their accounts. The SBF team has been working around the clock to prevent this type of phishing, implementing security measures such as 2-factor authentication (2FA). Mr. Sam Bankman-Fried noted:

“We’ve mostly stamped out sites that try to phish users by masquerading as FTX. But we can’t fix fake sites impersonating *other* services. A few users accidentally registered at fake other sites, including 3 Commas.

They provided their FTX api keys to use the sites’ trading tools. Others users were probably phished through other methods. But one way or another, these users were exploited by third party attackers”.

 

The head of FTX said that people using fake versions of the site and entering their login information could be hazardous. This allows those illegitimate websites to access users’ FTX API keys. SBF said that right now, every cryptocurrency company is trying to address this problem on its own. However, he believes that this issue needs to be tackled by the entire industry collectively.

Although FTX has decided to compensate the affected users this time, it is unlikely that they will do so again in the future. SBF said:

We can’t compensate for users getting phished by fake versions of other companies in the space!

THIS IS A ONE-TIME THING AND WE WILL NOT DO THIS GOING FORWARD. THIS IS NOT A PRECEDENT. We will not making a habit of compensating for uses getting phished by fake versions of other companies!

In response to the recent phishing attack, FTX is offering $6 million in compensation to victims. If those who carried out the attack return 95% of what was stolen within 24 hours, FTX will drop any legal action against them.

by : integritytoken Cryptocurrency

What Is a Cryptocurrency Wallet?

You need a crypto wallet to store your digital cash if you want to buy, sell or trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. You can either choose “cold” wallets that are stored on devices not connected to the internet, or “hot” wallets which are kept on your computer or phone.

Crypto wallets protect the information you’ll need to show proof of your money. They safeguard your public and private keys, which are similar to username and passwords in the real world that can authorize transactions in the cryptocurrency world.

So, do you need to buy a separate crypto wallet? No, not always. Even though some investors would rather oversee their own wallets, custodial wallets are an option as well. With custodial wallets, the digital assets are stored in ones that the platforms keep an eye on. Some of these places even offer rewards or interest on cryptocurrencies depending on how long they’re kept there.

Custodial wallets have recovery methods in case you lose your login credentials, which can be helpful for beginners. Non-custodial wallets mean you’re in control, but if you forget your login information or get hacked,you could permanently lose access to your funds.

However, crypto exchanges also have their own security risks. They can be a magnet for hackers because of the high value they hold.

A crypto wallet is a digital storage device that allows users to access funds on a blockchain. Every wallet has a private and public key, which are strings of numbers and letters generated using cryptography.

The following are some of the most important components of a wallet.

A public key determines the address used to send crypto funds to the wallet and is generally open to view by anyone on the blockchain.

A private key is a code that is used to authenticate transactions and should not be shared with anybody else. Because the wallet manages this key using its software, you won’t have to enter it manually.

A recovery phrase, sometimes known as a seed phrase, is a series of 12 to 24 words that can be used to unlock your wallet if you lose access.

A password will be necessary to access your wallet. This is comparable to a password you may use to log into any other computer service, such as an email client.

Crypto wallets can be classified as hot or cold based on how they store your information.

To move money from one wallet to another, copy the recipient’s public key into your wallet’s send function. The wallet will “sign” the transaction with your private key after you press “send.”

Make sure you input the recipient’s public key accurately; once sent, those funds can’t be recovered.

Desktop, browser-based, and mobile software applications on internet-connected devices are referred to as hot wallets. Hot wallets may often perform additional tasks in addition to storage, such as connecting to blockchain apps.

While hot wallets are more quickly accessible, they might not be as secure since hackers could have an easier time reaching them.

Cold wallets are offline hardware storage solutions for your private keys. Although a piece of paper with your key written on it is technically a cold wallet, the term usually refers to a specific gadget that connects to your computer’s USB port.

It’s tempting to save your keys the old-fashioned way, but hardware wallets employ technological advancements that make saving, moving, and backing up your cryptocurrency easier. Cold wallets can’t be accessed online, but they do need safety precautions such as a safe to keep them from getting damaged, lost, or stolen.

You can buy hardware wallets from the companies that make them, or from some stores. Popular choices for hardware wallets are Safepal, Trezor and Ledger devices, which cost between $49.99 and $255.

For a mix of security and convenience, you may use both wallet types, keeping easy-access funds online to trade and earn interest while safeguarding more significant assets in your safe.

by : integritytoken Stablecoins

Is the end of privacy coins so close?

Now other cryptocurrencies that are likely to be volatile in the coming months are privacy coins.

That’s because it looks like major exchanges are slowly starting to delist them due to regulatory pressure with Hobie being the latest exchange to comply.

The people in power aren’t fans of privacy go figure.

Now you might be thinking that this is nothing new given that privacy coins have been delisted by cryptocurrency exchanges in the past for the same reason.

The difference is that all those exchanges were in heavily regulated jurisdictions such as Japan and South Korea.

Huobi’s delisting of Dash, decred pharaoh, monero, verge, zcash and horizon is significant because Huobi was what is commonly referred to as an offshore.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is based in Seychelles which is not nearly as strict as other places to put it lightly.

As such Hobie’s privacy coin de-listing could be a sign of more to come from other offshore exchanges.

The next in line to comply could be Kucoin given that it’s also based in Seychelles.

Note that this is just my speculation but it’s something to be aware of if you’re a fan of financial privacy.

Now luckily for Monero and most other privacy coins Huobi only accounted for a portion of their trading volume though a kucoin delisting would deal a bigger blow it’s one that most of these coins could probably survive.

However a Binance delisting is something that most privacy coins would probably not survive.

While Binance was able to justify listing these coins in the days when it didn’t have a global headquarters it’s going to be increasingly harder to justify going forward.

That’s because Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has been actively trying to secure numerous exchange licenses and office locations around the world.

There is a strong chance that these global regulators could point to privacy coins as an area of concern.

If this were the case then Binance would be in a bit of a pickle about what to do.

Now I’ll repeat that this is just my speculation but I find it hard to see how the cookie could crumble any other way with central bank digital currencies being rolled out across the world.

Governments want to make sure that their citizens do not have access to any alternatives.

BTC isn’t that big of a threat because every transaction can be easily tracked due to Bitcoin’s transparent blockchain.

This means that regulatory pressure can be easily applied when someone breaks ranks even if the transactions themselves can’t be stopped.

By contrast privacy coins particularly Monero’s XMR are next to impossible to trace.

Yes, this makes them prone to adoption by criminals for all sorts of illicit activity but it also makes privacy coins the only way to protect your financial freedom specifically your ability to purchase things without scrutiny.

Now as I’ve mentioned before financial privacy may not be all that important today but it could be very important tomorrow.

It will be of paramount importance once CDBC’s are rolled out that’s for sure.

It could quite literally be the difference between life and death in some contexts