Another 10 ATMs will be available in Brazilian territory by the end of November. Users will be able to exchange bitcoins, and 29 other cryptocurrencies, for reais in cash.

The bitcoin ATMs already arrived in the country of Samba and Bossa Nova, Brazil receives the month of November the premiere of the first of these ATMs in its territory. A milestone that draws attention if we consider that the nation has one of the largest and most active cryptocurrency markets in Latin America.

The installment of the ATM occurred earlier this month; you can find the machine in the lobby of the Sheraton WTC hotel in the populous city of São Paulo. This building is on Avenida “das Nações Unidas”, specifically at number 12.559 in the New District of Brooklyn. Because it is a hotel, there is the possibility that the cashier is available 24 hours a day.

The installation has been conducted by a US firm specialized in the cryptocurrency ATM market, Coin Cloud; that sells the ATMs manufactured by the Bitaccess BTM company. This year Coin Cloud decided to expand outside the North American continent, a territory where some 850 machines are active according to 2020 records.

Now the short-term commercial plans of Coin Cloud are in Brazil, where they expect that by the end of November there will be a total of 10 Bitcoin ATMs (BATM). Although, the company has not yet specified where it will locate the rest of the machines since August Coin Cloud promised that it was completing several deals in the main cities of Brazil.

Isabela Rossa, head of international business at Coin Cloud, highlighted that the firm hopes to be successful in the Brazilian market, noting that there is a cryptocurrency boom that can be useful. “As the Brazilian is already used to ATMs and QR Code, we do not doubt the adoption that this market will have here in Brazil,” he said for the media.

Coin Cloud ATMs allow both the purchase and sale of bitcoins in exchange for the official currency of Brazil in cash, the Brazilian real. 29 other cryptocurrencies can also be acquired, such as Ethereum’s ether, litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP.

Brazilians will be able to buy bitcoins on these machines for a minimum of 10 reais, a value that is equivalent to almost 2 US dollars. On the other hand, the minimum bitcoins they can exchange for reais or sell is 50 reais, about 9.29 US dollars. ATMs also have a purchase maximum of about 5,000 reais, which is almost 1,000 US dollars. If the client is interested in acquiring more money, they must fill out a form with their data and follow the steps of the anti-money laundering and KYC regulations.

Local media claim that although ATMs are a novelty for Bitcoin users in Brazil, there is concern that this service is too expensive. For example, the transaction fee at a Coin Cloud ATM can be 7 to 15% on the operation. A rate that is above other cryptocurrency exchanges that make life in the nation. However, it will be up to each user whether they use these devices or not.

While Brazil is joining the market for Bitcoin ATMs, these devices are proliferating worldwide. For October, a total of 11 thousand of these devices were reached around the world, the majority concentrated in the United States. However, Latin America is heading the front, and Colombia goes ahead with 59 ATMs. Panama, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Chile are other countries with a large presence of ATMs in their territory.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The developer received a sentence of 9 years in prison for committing 18 crimes. He used a BTC mixing service to try to hide where the money came from.

On November 9^th, former Microsoft programmer Volodymyr Kvashuk received a sentence of nine years in prison. He had covered up a plot to defraud the software company of more than USD 10 million. A court in Seattle, in the United States, issued the conviction after the 26-year-old man committed 18 federal crimes.

Between 2016 and 2018, Kvashuk worked first as a contractor and then as a direct employee. The engineer participated in the development of an online retail sales platform, which would use gift cards, according to the Justice Department.

Taking advantage of his access to trials, the developer stole the cards which he later resold on the Internet in exchange for Bitcoin (BTC). During the early days of the scam, Kvashuk used his e-mail account to steal USD 12,000.

Trying to get more money, the former programmer began to use the e-mail accounts of his co-workers. With this, he sought to hide his action and hold other developers responsible.

Every time Kvashuk obtained bitcoins, he used cryptocurrency mixing services to obfuscate and try to hide the origin of the funds entering his bank and investment accounts. He used the same modus operandi for more than seven months.

In that period, the engineer stole 2.8 million worth of BTC. On his tax return, he claimed that a relative had given them to him. With the money, he bought a home valued at USD 1.6 million and a Tesla car at USD 160,000.

Kvashuk first robbed Microsoft and then filed false tax returns. This is the first case of Bitcoin in the United States that has had a tax component, said Ryan Korner, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Bitcoin, Crime and Fund Tracing

The investigator stressed that the sentence shows that it is not possible to steal money through the Internet and think that Bitcoin will hide criminal behavior. What Korner said demystifies the argument that criminals can freely use Bitcoin to commit crimes undetected.

The developer will have to compensate Microsoft with USD 8.3 million as part of the sentence. The crimes that he committed include wire fraud, money laundering, aggravated identity theft, filing false tax returns, e-mail fraud, device access fraud, and access to a protected computer to commit fraud.

Prosecutor Brian Moran explained that “stealing from an employer is a very serious crime, but stealing and making your colleagues appear guilty is even worse.” To trace these crimes, the authorities “required sophisticated technological skills to investigate and prosecute.”

In April 2018, there was another case involving an engineer, co-workers, and the theft of bitcoins. Zhong Mo, an operations and maintenance engineer from China, went to prison after a failed hacking attempt at the company where he worked. Mo had already stolen 100 BTC from his employers.

By Alexander Salazar

It is unknown if a miner or group of them is generating 58% of the hash of the network. Until now there are no signs of any fraud.

The community that revolves around the altcoin Grin is on alert since the 2Miners pool warned about the risk that the network presents of suffering a 51% attack, that took place after noting that one entity or several of them manage more than half of the hashrate of the network. For that reason, the pool suspended payments and urged users to wait for “additional confirmations.”

According to statistics from the GrinScan website, 58.2% of the Grin network hashrate is generated by unknown groups. On Sunday, 2Miners warned about the situation, noting that a 51% attack was underway, although it could be a hasty signal because there is no fraud yet confirmed.

While it is still under investigation, which is the unknown entity or groups that are currently mining the cryptocurrency, the community remains on alert. If it is a 51% attack, a malicious group could delay the confirmation of new transactions that occur while they have network dominance, or worse, double-spend and defraud those who accept Grin.

Last year Grin recently captured the attention of members of the cryptocurrency community for its privacy-focused feature. The Argentine bitcoiner Franco Amati believes that it has the potential to compete with Monero. Although, its appreciation changed in the last hours; perhaps influenced by the alert issued from the 2Miners group.

In this regard, Amati said: “It is a shame because I once considered that it could have the potential to compete with Monero, but it has been with privacy problems for months, and now this is added.”

A 51% attack generally requires a large investment of money. For example, an attack of at least one hour on the Bitcoin network would cost an attacker about $ 717,873. Interestingly, the cost of attacking Grin is very small – it only takes $ 76 per hour to control at least 51% of the network’s hash rate, according to the crypto51 site.

This year 51% attacks happened, such as the one Ethereum Classic suffered in August. It suffered two attacks of this type in a week. At that time the accounting records were under manipulation, including the eras and replacement of the transaction. In this way, the attacker reached the possibility of spending twice the registered ETC in those blocks. In the case, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recommended that ETC developers follow in his footsteps and change the proof-of-stake protocol.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

On November 6, the number of Monero (XMR) transactions reached its all-time high.

The privacy of this cryptocurrency is one of the main attractions for its users.

On November 6, 21,287 transactions occurred in Monero (XMR). This is, so far, the maximum number of movements that this blockchain ever had in a single day.

This figure represents an increase of 227% in the number of daily transactions since January 1, 2020. In the last month, the price of XMR accompanied the increase in its use and it was with an increase of 17%, which positioned it as the second crypto asset with the highest appreciation in October.

This coin, launched in 2014, maintained a relatively constant number of transactions until mid-2016. That year, the adoption by a major darknet market, AlphaBay, significantly increased the use of Monero.

The reason for its adoption then and for its increasing use in underground markets is that, unlike what happens with other cryptocurrencies such as, for example, Bitcoin (BTC), transactions in XMR are not public. Only the sender and receiver can see the addresses in a trade and the amount traded.

Although AlphaBay closing in 2017, the number of transactions on Monero followed a mostly bullish trend since then. The increase in its use in these markets seems to be the main reason for the greater number of transactions.

Monero privacy attracts users and triggers government alarms

The privacy of this cryptocurrency is one of the main attractions for its users. This feature is also what puts Monero in the crosshairs of government regulators around the world.

For example, South Korea will ban the use of Monero, Dash (DASH), and Zcash (ZEC) on its territory. The reason for the ban is that the Financial Intelligence Unit of that Asian nation classifies them as “dark currencies” due to the difficulty in tracking their transactions.

Also, the US Internal Revenue Service (or IRS) is behind Monero. In September, it offered a reward of $ 625,000 for anyone who offers technology capable of tracking transactions in Monero.

A month after that, with no results in sight despite the magnitude of the reward offered, the IRS signed contracts with cryptocurrency analytics companies Chainalysis and Integra FEC to develop tools that allow for transaction tracking.

Increasing pressure from regulators was the reason why some centralized exchanges, ShapeShift, in this case, decided to remove Monero from their platforms.

The future of this cryptocurrency depends on its developers, most of whom remain anonymous. Besides, they are accompanied by a large community that is looking for ways to deal with censorship. They continuously pose possible attack scenarios to prepare their corresponding defensive strategies.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Bitcoin’s hash rate went from 111.8520 EH/s on November 8^th to 161.9267 EH/s on November 10^th. This movement represented a 42% increase in just 48 hours.

According to analysts, this growth in the Bitcoin hash rate could represent an adjustment in the difficulty of mining. This indicates that a significant adjustment of the difficulty will occur soon. Until a few days ago, it had shown a 16% drop, but the hash rate has fallen again.

Digital asset mining profitability results portal Coinwarz indicates that Bitcoin’s hash rate recently had a speed of 157.5 EH/s. This occurred after it briefly exceeded 160 EH/s. At the time of writing this article, the hash rate has dropped to 122.4194 EH/s.

Decrease in Hash Power Due to End of Rainy Season

There was a broad depreciation of reported hash power at the end of October, as the peak indicates. Various analysts attribute it to the end of the rainy season in the Sichuan mining center in China. Eighty percent of the China-based miners in China are located there. According to CoinShares, this group represents 54% of the world’s mining activity.

Thomas Heller, COO of the Bitcoin mining blog Hashr8, reported on October 26^th that about 22 EH/s of mining power had left the Bitcoin network. This event coincided with the end of the rainy season on the previous day.

Jason Deane, a current analyst at Quantum Economics, speculated on the recent growth of Bitcoin’s hash power. He said that this could mean that a large number of Chinese miners have completed their migration from Sichuan. Furthermore, it would be a sign that they have restored their operations in other local mining centers such as Xinjian and Inner Mongolia.

Increase in Bitcoin’s Difficulty

The sudden increase in mining activity may suggest that the network could be able to make another significant difficulty adjustment shortly.

The most recent significant adjustment in BTC mining difficulty occurred on November 3^rd. It is related to the migration of miners from Sichuan. This adjustment brought the mining difficulty down by 16%. This is the second-largest downward adjustment that Satoshi Nakamoto’s asset has recorded in its history.

This adjustment could end the paradise in meanwhich some miners had lived by benefiting from Bitcoin’s price rise and the drop in mining difficulty. The reason for this is that less difficulty leads to spending fewer resources, so there is higher income.

En+ Group Announces Launch of Crypto-Asset Mining Company

The Russian company En+ Group is the world’s largest hydroelectric power generator for the private sector. They announced their plans to launch a digital asset mining consortium in association with local company BitRiver.

That new firm seeks to focus on creating facilities that can support crypto mining, using of a relatively low carbon footprint.

This startup operates the largest data center, which provides a series of brokerage services for Bitcoin mining within the Russian Federation.

By Alexander Salazar

The British finance minister believes that stablecoins have the potential to transform money management. The issuance of a central bank digital currency would soon receive approval.

There could be a significant change in the handling of finances in the UK in the years to come. The finance ministry of that European country announced that they are preparing for greater regulation of stablecoins and private issuances of this type.

British finance minister Rishi Sunak said that the Bank of England and the Treasury Department are considering whether central banks can issue their own cryptocurrencies. With this, they are looking to develop a project that is a complement to cash.

On his Twitter account, the minister reported that a consultation process will serve to ensure that private currencies and stablecoins “meet the high standards that we expect from other payment methods.”

The official believes that cryptocurrencies have great potential and that it is a technology that could transform money management among the country’s citizens.

According to the official website of the national government, Sunak stressed that “new technologies could transform how people store and exchange their money, making payments cheaper and faster.”

The minister made it clear that the government will propose a regulatory approach for initiatives of this type. Its objective is to take advantage of the potential benefits of stablecoins (privately issued digital currencies) to guarantee a modicum of control.

They have already advanced the drafting of the rules but did not specify when they could disseminate them. Concerning the Bank of England’s research on central bank digital currencies, they only reported that they have advanced in their development.

The British government wants to establish a new working group in which FinTech (financial technology) companies take part. Sunak says that the UK would expand its “FinTech leadership”. However, other countries have already advanced projects of this type.

National Cryptocurrencies under Development

China, Bahamas, and Lithuania, among other countries, have already advanced and even activated projects on national digital currencies. This is an indication that the use of the so-called Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) awakens interest in international finance.

Concerning China, the country not only wants to become a reference in terms of national cryptocurrencies, with the creation of its “digital yuan”. President Xi Jinping has said on several occasions that the Asian nation should also take the lead in the development of blockchains.

The increase in the number of Bitcoin users in this country could be influencing the UK’s approach to this type of asset. Last July, the number of cryptocurrency buyers had risen by 42%, according to a study by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

In recent months, the relevance of cryptocurrencies has grown exponentially on a global scale. Many countries have become aware of this situation and have sought to implement the use and issuance of their national digital currencies.

By Alexander Salazar