Kate Winslet signed on to star in and produce Fake! (False!), A movie about OneCoin, based on an unpublished book by Jen McAdams and Douglas Thompson. McAdam, who was a victim of the OneCoin scheme, will also serve as a producer on the film.

We have always said that what happened to the Ponzi OneCoin scheme is like making a movie. But not just OneCoin, many stories related to crypto are, indeed, to take to the big screen, starting with the mystery of the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, to the most recent scandal, that of programmer and businessman John McAfee, imprisoned in Spain.

The fact is that seeing OneCoin in the movies will be a reality. The scam movie is on its way and starring none other than Titanic star Kate Winslet.

As reported by the Deadline outlet, Kate Winslet signed on to star in and produce Fake! (False!), A movie about OneCoin, based on an unpublished book by Jen McAdams and Douglas Thompson. McAdam, who was a victim of the OneCoin scheme, will also serve as a producer on the film.

Fake! will be written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, who directed The Report, a political drama based on the CIA report on post-9/11 torture, and wrote the 2011 pandemic film Contagion, which also starred in Winslet.

The film tells the real life story of Jen McAdam and her involvement in the OneCoin scheme. The book is currently being purchased from publishers for this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.

McAdams, who started a support group for OneCoin victims, told that they together with their friends and family invested and lost more than 250,000 euros ($ 298,800) before learning that their server was not a blockchain. and could not create crypto.

OneCoin was founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova in Bulgaria and followed the typical structure of a multi-level marketing scheme, but focused on cryptocurrency. It promised to be the next Bitcoin, even though it wasn’t backed by a blockchain or network.

Despite several warnings from experts in the crypto industry and government agencies, OneCoin continued to be popular, fostering an “us versus them” mentality. Here you can read how this scam was created:

How Ruja Ignatova forged the OneCoin scam

Even when there is a lawsuit open in the United States, OneCoin continues to operate in some countries, scamming more and more people. Ignatova was charged with wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering this year, but has been missing since 2017.

Her brother Konstantin Ignatova, a OneCoin executive, received charges of the same nature in March 2020 and his sentence has gotten postponed multiple times as he agreed at some point to testify against his sister. Investors have sued OneCoin for fraud claiming losses of up to $ 5 billion.This is undoubtedly one of the biggest crypto scams of all times.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Twenty-five projects participated in a survey evaluating their willingness to change the fee system. Ethereum miners have doubts about the mechanism for setting fees.

In recent days, nine mining projects participated in a community survey on the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 1559. However, eight of them had a negative impression of this new scheme, which aims to change the network’s fee system.

Last October 7^th, ConsenSys Product Manager Tim Beiko published a report with the survey results. He notes that seven of the nine mining projects participating in the consultation reject the implementation of the proposal, even if it were included in a future fork. They said this to express their doubts about how to establish a base rate.

EIP 1559 involves introducing a fixed network rate per block to deal with transitory congestion. In 2019, a group of developers that Vitalik Buterin headed introduced the proposal. The idea is to change the current transaction system, based on offers, for a base rate that adjusts to the demand of the network.

There would be a small tip in the new system to compensate the miner, while the fee burns to keep it stable and low. This aims to eliminate incentives that manipulate fees.

Beiko explains that a total of 25 Ethereum projects participated in the survey to measure the level of knowledge and acceptance of this proposal. Most of those projects were related to mining (36%), while those related to wallets and exchanges had low participation.

Doubts about Mechanisms for Setting Fees

According to Beiko, the miners that participated in the survey on EIP 1559 gave 8/9 (89%) of the negative responses. Among the reasons why this group was mostly against it are doubts about the possibilities of conspiracies to keep the base rate higher or lower.

Besides, they fear that the reduction of incentives for miners could increase the number of ASICs on the network. They are also uncertain about how miners could give users bigger tips.

Regarding this proposal, the respondents infer that the miners would have nothing to lose if they conspire to bring the base rate to 0. “If a group of miners agrees to execute a 51% attack, it would not have the same negative effects on users as on the total ecosystem,” they add.

Ethereum Projects: 10 for and 10 against the Proposal

Although the miners had a negative position, when including all the participants of the survey, the results change. Beiko says that 10 of the 25 projects in the survey had a positive impression of the proposal, five were neutral or did not have enough information, and 10 had a negative impression.

Among the positive aspects of the proposal, he mentions gas price predictability, the burning of Ether (ETH), lower rates, and the alignment of benefits across the network.

Another advantage that the respondents added is the reduction in high transaction fees and the possibilities of faster transactions for users. In this regard, Beiko makes it clear that EIP 1559 does not seek to reduce Ethereum fees, for which “it is necessary to make this idea explicit in future communications.”

Among the negative aspects that non-mining respondents saw in the proposal, they indicated difficulties in analyzing EIP 1559.

There were also general concerns about implementation issues and doubts about how tool developers can test their compliance with EIP standards.

By Alexander Salazar

Reports indicate that a total of 60 employees belonging to Coinbase submitted their resignation and accepted the salary compensation package offered by the CEO of the company.

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, who presented some statements in a post published on the company’s blog, confirmed by above resignation. Brian indicated that approximately 5% of workers accepted the severance package offered for those who did not feel similar to the apolitical vision of the company.

The departure of the employees took place due to the statements of Armstrong in a previous post, in which he indicated that Coinbase was a company that operated under an apolitical line.

 This would not take sides in the ideological discussions that took place in the different sectors. His stance was apparently quite radical, as he invited those who did not agree to resign and accept a substantial compensation package.

Employees Resign from Coinbase Following Armstrong Remarks

Armstrong’s original statements were cataloged by many members of the crypto ecosystem as very rigid, and among the criticisms stands out the one presented by the CEO of Twitter and Square, Armstrong said that the reaction from the people mentioned was quite respectful, and admitted feeling very happy with the fact that a good number of his work team decided to remain in respect with the apolitical vision under which the company should be governed.

Some additional clarifications

Additionally, Armstrong took space to clarify to the readers some aspects that were left to confusion after the issuance of the first statement, among which the following points stand out:

Cryptocurrencies are part of a political position: There is no disagreement with this since they emerge as financial alternatives in the face of certain economic conditions. Coinbase respects the ideological positions of its employees: Certain situations that affect the entire ecosystem, but the company’s commitment is not to take sides in activist movements beyond its mission-vision.

The emphasis is more than just creating profit: Part of the resolution is closely related to the vision of creating a more harmonious work environment to work with. This will allow employees to feel more at ease and consolidate all processes in a smoothly run that have a focused ideology.

Armstrong shared the following words:

“While making team members leave is never easy, I think we will emerge as a more aligned company from this. From time to time we need to rearticulate and clarify our cultural norms as we continue to climb.

I am excited to move forward as #OneCoinbase to pursue our vision of economic freedom for every person and business.”

By: Jenson Nuñez.

As bitcoin (BTC) becomes more accessible, conditions for the robustness and health of the Bitcoin network improve. This is one of the conclusions of the study Drivers of the value of Bitcoin, published last week by the Bitstamp exchange.

The report, which featured input from digital asset data provider for institutional investors, ByteTree, addresses the comparison between bitcoin and various asset categories, including stocks and gold. It also examines the risk characteristics of bitcoin and an alternative model to understand the value of that cryptocurrency.

ByteTree co-founder and chief investment officer, Charlie Morris, argues that the analysis of the price of an asset in the market does not only depend on its fundamental parameters, as external factors would also play a role.

 Morris notes that “bitcoin likes easy money,” referring to central banks’ “quantitative easing” (QE) policies in response to the global health crisis. These policies include low-interest rates and important fiat money issues, such as the dollar or euro.

To summarize this relationship of bitcoin versus QE policies, Morris argues that the following graph shows contrasts of the price of bitcoin with the joint balance sheet of four major central banks. They are the Federal Reserve (the FED) of the United States, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, and the People’s Bank of China.

Between April and June of this year, the balance sheets of these four major central banks increased by more than $ 4 trillion, from approximately $ 22.5 trillion to $ 27.6 trillion.

On the other hand, Bitcoin, along with the rest of the markets, registered a significant fall on March 12, although it later experienced a moderate recovery. At the end of July, bitcoin experienced a major rally, staying highly above $ 10,000 since that date.

A new institutional investment decision, Square’s purchase of $ 50 million in bitcoin, took the price above $ 11,000 this week.

Regarding the relationship between bitcoin and the US dollar, the report indicates that the Fed’s monetary policies have weakened the dollar, but that the influence of this fall is not so decisive in the price of bitcoin.

If the dollar falls, the report says, it is logical that the price of an asset in dollars should rise, or vice versa. “But this obvious fact has a small impact because the movements of the Forex market are small compared to those of the bitcoin market.”

The average volatility of the USDX index reflects the strength of the dollar against a basket of rival currencies, from 2015 to the present, which is 6%. According to the study, the average volatility of bitcoin in the same period is 60%.

There are two aspects that the report highlights: the relationship between bitcoin and the assets most associated with risk, and the relationship of the cryptocurrency with assets directly linked to social networks, on the other. About the risk, the study authors chose the relationship between stocks and bonds as an indicator of risk conditions, since the latter is traditionally more stable.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The investment in Bitcoin (BTC) of the Square Company, of Jack Dorsey, was made in a planned, fractional way and with special storage, protection, and accounting mechanisms.

The funds were stored in hardware wallets or offline, seeking greater security. As part of that effort, Square explained that it uses Subzero, its “solution backed by the hardware security module to protect Square’s bitcoin reserves.”

Square’s investment in Bitcoin is reinforced by several layers. In addition to shielding its storage, the company reinforced its investment with an insurance policy “against crimes to protect against internal or external theft of bitcoin both in online and offline wallets.”

Square opted for this theft insurance mechanism, considering that others only offer solutions to “the loss of assets in cold storage in specifically designated facilities and may not cover all cases of theft of privileged information.”

On accounting, Square assured that “since there is no limit on their useful life, cryptocurrencies are classified as intangible assets with an indefinite life” and their classification in the short or long term mainly depends on the temporary interest of the investment from the company.

In its particular case, Dorsey’s company stated that “the probable classification of the balance sheet will be ‘other non-current assets’, with a breakdown in the footnotes that indicate the value market at the end of the quarter.”

Buy 50 million dollars in bitcoin without affecting its price

As described in the document, the purchase of the bitcoins was executed with an average price of over 24 hours with low volatility expected in the market. The investment amount is in turn equivalent to 1% of the company’s total equity.

Square executed in that time a programmed series of small purchases through the liquidity provider they use for Cash App, their bitcoin exchange application.

The intention of using this mechanism was to “maintain the privacy of transactions”, in addition to avoiding artificially influencing the price of the pioneering cryptocurrency in the market with a massive purchase.

Although Square’s intention is not intended to affect the price of Bitcoin, its investment appears to fuel bullish spirits in the market. There is a price increase of more than 4% of BTC and the rest of the main cryptocurrencies.

Institutional investment in bitcoin is rising

This approach to investing in bitcoin shares the approach implemented weeks earlier by business intelligence firm MicroStrategy. Between August and September, this company invested more than 400 million dollars in bitcoin, as we have previously reviewed.

Michael Saylor, Founder, and CEO of the American Company explained that his company made fractional purchases to accumulate the total amount of 38,250 BTC. Saylor also cited the importance of not hitting the price with a big buy and cold storage of funds, just as Square is now.

In this regard, Jack Dorsey commented that even more important than the investment made by Square was to share how that process was. Thus, he said, “others can do the same.”

Square and development in Bitcoin

In the case of Square, the bet on Bitcoin goes far beyond investing part of its assets in the cryptocurrency. Since 2019, Dorsey’s company worries about the development of open-source initiatives associated with Bitcoin, something that brings a good reception in the bitcoin environment.

This year, the development of the Satoshi eye project is receiving aid and finances to create a service to monitor transactions that seek to improve security in the network of payment channels Lightning.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

This report is examining the case of Bitcoin (BTC), a digital currency that registered an increase this October 8, trading at about $10,733 per unit, with a notable increase of 1% in the last 24 hours.

It is evident that the increase was preceded by a fall and that had its lowest point at around 6:00 am (New York time) when the digital currency was trading at about $10,569. After hovering above $ 10,608 less than an hour ago, Bitcoin saw a steep rise that extends to press time.

This increase seems to react to recently published reports, in which various media echo the investment made by Jack Dorsey’s company, Square, which allocated around $50 million for the purchase of BTC funds.

Analysts suggest that an investment of this caliber by a reputable company generates a good impact on the digital currency ecosystem, creating stimulus of interest from other participants that come from a variety of more traditional sectors.

Despite the good evolution seen in the price of Bitcoin in the last hour, our actionable signals service shows indicators of a possible fall throughout the day. We recommend that readers take this information into account and make pertinent adjustments to avoid inconveniences in their commercial operations.

Major altcoins are slightly higher

This evolution seen in the price of Bitcoin was accompanied by a slight increase in most of the main digital currencies, which register small gains for this October 8.

Among the most notable increases are cases such as Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), and Monero (XRM), with gains of more than 1% in comparison to yesterday.

The cases of Tezos (XTZ) and EOS stand out, whose falls exceed 1% at the time of publication. Recall that the latter derived certain profit margins after the incorporation of Google Cloud within the group of block producers for its network.

Winning and losing cryptocurrencies

Regarding the currencies with the highest gains and falls of the day, we have the following cases:

With a 30% profit, Loom Network (LOOM) ranks first, followed by Elamachain (ELAMA) at 28% increase. Both little-known tokens with more than a year of operations, which together capitalize about $12 million in daily volume.

Among the main winners is also the Uniswap token (UNI), which registers gains of 20% in the last 24 hours, and is trading at about $ 3.08 at the time of publication.

The main loser of the day is BDCC, with more than 50% losses this October 8. It is a token that is part of a project whose main emphasis is the creation of a payment system, and it has been circulating in the markets since the beginning of last August, reaching its highest price in the first days of September ($11).

By: Jenson Nuñez.