Insurance Company in London Will Protect Cryptocurrencies Stored in Hot Wallets

Maria Rodríguez
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Insurance Company in London Will Protect Cryptocurrencies Stored in Hot Wallets

Lloyd’s of London will offer an insurance limit equivalent to USD 1,275. The company will not cover cryptocurrencies “voluntarily” sent to erroneous accounts.

With the use of cryptocurrencies, the increasing number of investors, and the robberies committed by hackers, some companies are working on projects to protect the identity of their customers, the information shared by them, and the money they invest and save on wallets in form of crypto assets.

To protect the inversion of crypto users, the insurance giant Lloyd’s of London now provides a new type of insurance policy to recover cryptocurrencies in hot wallets that are lost after suffering a theft. In this way, the company could also protect the cryptocurrencies of its users that are stored in online or hot wallets against theft or hacking. Until the moment, it is known that the insurance limit will be only for about 1,000 pounds sterling, equivalent to USD 1,275.

Coincover, a firm that started operating in 2018, will be the firm in charge of offering this service. It is a platform that could manage more than 130 cryptocurrencies and that has insurance plans against theft of crypto assets. Lloyd’s syndicate Atrium worked along with Coincover in this new offer for their clients. Other Lloyd’s insurers will support the policy, including TMK and Markel, which are members of Lloyd’s Product Innovation Facility.

“It is a new type of insurance policy with a dynamic limit that increases or decreases in line with the price changes of crypto assets. This means that the insured will always be indemnified for the underlying value of their managed asset even if this fluctuates during the policy period”, the announcement explained.

Digital Protection

Trevor Maynard, Head of Innovation at Lloyd’s of London, said that the British insurance company is the “natural home for insurance innovation due to the unique ability of unions to collaborate to secure new things”.

“As more money flows to the crypto asset market, the losses of hackers are increasing. However, cryptocurrency companies have found ways to protect their digital assets from theft”, Maynard added.

The Community Grows

According to David Janczewski, CEO of Coincover, a new wave of crypto-curious customers are ready to jump into the crypto world this 2020. This could happen since, as he said, the crypto-asset market heats up again at the beginning of the year.

He explained that the lack of adequate protection against theft and loss has discouraged some crypto-curious. “With this innovative new policy, we can remove these barriers and expand the appeal of crypto”, he commented.

This is not the first intend of Lloyd’s of London to protect cryptocurrencies stored in hot wallets. The digital asset trust company BitGo planned to provide crypto insurance through Lloyd’s.

The Gemini Exchange platform also launched an insurance company to cover up to USD 200 million for its institutional-grade crypto custody service, which is called Gemini Custody.

To sum up, Coincover added that the policy will not cover cryptocurrencies “voluntarily” sent to erroneous accounts so the firm would be very careful when analyzing the cases.

By María Rodríguez

Authorities in the United States Reject Blockchain ​​Voting Tool

Maria Rodríguez
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Authorities in the United States Reject Blockchain ​​Voting Tool

The solution was going to be presented to be used in upcoming state elections.

In recent investigations, Voatz, the application created in blockchain for the election of authorities in the United States of America, was declared to be very vulnerable to conduct real voting, according to what local media report. As planned, this tool was to be used in the coming elections in West Virginia.

According to a review published by NBC News, last Saturday, February 29th, some authorities denied the presence of the blockchain solution for the state’s primary elections. Hence, the news was also disclosed by Mac Warner, Secretary of State for the region. In his statements, Warner mentioned that all those people who are out of state or have a disability can use Democracy Live, an online system that allows these people with limitations to vote using their email. Besides, the secretary stressed that no citizen will use mobile apps for these elections, so Voatz was discarded.

In early 2019, the West Virginia region would have approved the introduction of legislative changes that would help implement digital voting systems throughout the state. Months after its legalization, the application of Voatz was successfully tested in a general election. Due to the results, the company would have won a contract with the authorities for its app to be used again in this year 2020, according to NBC sources.

Despite this authorization, the solution was rejected for the elections due to investigations that focused on identity security, inter alia. The results of these studies, conducted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), found that all internal processes of the application result to be very vulnerable to certain attacks that hackers can perform. This is something that seriously compromises the security of the elections. According to the investigation data revealed, if used Voatz, hackers could have access to the identities of the people who vote in the state and even alter the results.

Although this information was disclosed, DHS through its division of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that Voatz had not suffered any attack of this nature, reaffirming that the app worked without problems in the last year’s voting. Because of this, the company promised to continue strengthening its security system to give the app greater confidence for the future. Some representatives of Voatz also said they will pay special interest in the recommendations made by DHS.

On the other hand, it was known that one of the electoral auditors, who supervised the development of Voatz during the electoral process of 2019, argued that there is only one error on the app that cannot be exploited by hackers to damage the process so the system is not completely vulnerable.

Regarding more direct opinions on the use of these types of solutions, the Secretary of State General Counsel highlighted that the opinion of citizens should be taken into account regarding the confidence they have in the use of such technologies.

By María Rodríguez

Haitian Farmers Could Use a Blockchain Platform to Sell Their Crops

Maria Rodríguez
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Haitian Farmers Could Use a Blockchain Platform to Sell Their Crops

The system will allow farmers to have a history of transactions that will help them access loans and financial benefits.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is mainly derived from crop products such as cocoa and coffee. These are almost entirely what they offer to international markets. This is the reason why, to improve its sales and export processes, the country could be looking for technological solutions such as blockchain technology to manage and improve performance in cultivation and marketing matters.

According to information reviewed by sources linked to the agricultural sector in Haiti, the British startup company, Agriledger, which specializes in creating blockchain tools for agriculture-oriented economies, would be using its technology to develop a solution aimed at improving the supply chain in agricultural products for the Caribbean country.

The project would be focused on allowing these products to be commercialized in the international sector, opening a digital channel for the use of retailers and suppliers.

Besides, it is expected that the system also allows collecting vital information about the crop, for example, its germination time, its plow and its origin mainly. It will also add data that will be incorruptible during all the process of selling the product with the buyer. All this will be stored on the platform that will be after help to monitor all commercial channels.

The initiative has already been tested and even some producers have implemented the system to improve the way of marketing their products. Farmers can agree directly with the buyer the price and quantity per sale without the need for commercial intermediaries.

According to data about the platform, each farmer will have an identification number that will help them form a name within the market, according to Agriledger. This will allow them to have a direct window with international markets, as well as raising the prices of agricultural products and get better profits for the peasants.

The project also covers a whole chain of benefits that seeks to boost the sector and facilitate the commercial flow for the farmer. Among its main features is assigning a digital wallet, which can receive payments almost immediately. This will help the farmer to skip financial channels for sales in global markets.

The system will also allow them to tokenize the money obtained. Hence, they can have several options when purchasing raw materials, such as seeds or fertilizers.

One of the great benefits that the solution will offer is to register any transaction and commercialization made in a history that will allow the farmer to have a good reputation when applying for a monetary loan with the country’s financial institutions.

Besides, Agriledger is developing an improvement for the blockchain system, which will seek to offer a direct channel to request orders regardless of the country. This will support the commercial operations that are conducted between the buyer and the farmer.

Blockchain to Promote the Economy

Currently, Haiti still depends on humanitarian aid to support a large part of the basic needs of its citizens. Since the unfortunate earthquake that hit the island in 2010, the Caribbean country has been forced to promote all kinds of technological assistance to boost its economy.

The main promoter of these initiatives is the Central Bank of Haiti, which provides support so that these projects can be sustained and developed. Another promoter is Agriledger, which voluntarily seeks to be part of the economic uprising of the island.

Although several countries have incorporated similar solutions to improve processes in agriculture, researches related to this sector, such as the one of Gartner, indicate that concrete results are not yet obtained. However, other companies are working to improve this type of technological support around the world.

By María Rodríguez

Ransomware Attackers Have Risen about USD 144 Million in Bitcoin in 6 Years

Alexander Salazar
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Ransomware Attackers Have Risen about USD 144 Million in Bitcoin in 6 Years

According to the FBI, the Ryuk ransomware has allowed the attackers to raise USD 31.2 million. Compared to 2018, in 2019 there was an increase in this type of attack.

The US National Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently reported that the total amount of money that the victims of ransomware attacks have paid in the last six years amounts to USD 144.35 million. According to the FBI’s findings, the profits obtained from these attacks were sent to mixers and cryptocurrency exchanges.

The FBI special supervisory agent, Joel DeCapua, said that the victims of these attacks made payments between 2013 and 2019. He added that the number of ransomware attacks grew because the affected companies or organizations could submit insurance claim documents after making the payment.

In that sense, the FBI agent believes that many companies that contract an insurance policy prefer to defer the case if they are attacked with ransomware and do what their insurance company decides. It should be noted that the fact that ransomware payments are refundable has caused more bailouts to be paid.

DeCapua also stated that the total figure calculated for the last six years does not consider any other aspect related to the losses of the victims, but is only limited to payments made in bitcoins.

According to FBI statistics, Ryuk, a popular, notorious and sophisticated ransomware program, took most of the profits by accumulating in just one year the amount of USD 31.2 million, while Dharma generated USD 24.4 million in the course of three years.

Ransomware and Crypto-jacking Increase

The agent also explained that, in addition to ransomware attacks, there has been an increase in crypto jacking (malicious cryptocurrency mining) through the Internet, using increasingly sophisticated methods that make it difficult to detect it.

This information coincides with Kaspersky’s 2019 report, in which the firm indicates that the number of ransomware attacks increased in 2019, in contrast to 2018.

The South African city of Johannesburg was temporarily forced to deactivate all online channels after a ransomware attack was detected on the city’s network system. The cybercriminals sent e-mails demanding payments in BTC, which led officials to take action on the matter. However, they refused to accept the hackers’ demands.

Another attack occurred in the Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, where criminals hacked the city’s computer system and demanded that a ransom be paid in Bitcoin to decrypt the system.

In June 2019, cybercriminals infected computers and servers belonging to Rivera Beach, in Florida. From there, they blocked access to important information. The city officials collectively agreed to abide by the hackers’ demands to pay 65 BTC, equivalent to USD 573,000.

It was also reported that, in November 2019, the Mexican oil company Pemex was a victim of ransomware attacks. On this occasion, the criminals demanded payment of more than 500 BTC to stop the attack.

A British High Court recently ordered the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex to freeze any suspicious cryptocurrency accounts that recorded a 96 BTC payment. This order came after a victim of the attack filed a complaint that criminals infected their computer system with ransomware in 2019.

By Alexander Salazar

Revenues over EUR 10 Million per Year Is Now Possible in Catalonian Blockchain Companies

Alexander Salazar
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Revenues over EUR 10 Million per Year Is Now Possible in Catalonian Blockchain Companies

Some estimates of 2019 record revenues of about EUR 9 million per year. Catalan authorities closely monitor the constant growth of these companies.

It can be seen that the progress of companies that develop solutions in some blockchain or make use of them for their businesses or services continues in Catalonia, Spain. In terms of financial performance, it is believed at the Catalan Generalitat that these companies could record revenues of more than EUR 10,000,000 per year, being able to reach up to about EUR 60,000,000 within the next 5 years.

This is the opinion of the director of Digital Innovation from the Generalitat, Daniel Marco, as reviewed last February 27th by the Spanish newspaper ABC. The statements were made during his participation in a meeting where blockchains were discussed, held in Barcelona.

According to Marco, the development and use of blockchains in the Catalan territory are “very powerful”. The representative of the Catalan authority found it especially positive to see the increase in the number of companies related to blockchains, which doubledSE_DUPLICARON during the last year, according to records by the Generalitat itself. He also referred to last year’s revenues, which exceeded EUR 9,000,000.

The official considers that the use of blockchains for various areas provides a “source of empowerment and control over their own data.” In the same vein, he mentioned the possibility of users to verify the flow of transactions. It should be remembered that this is possible for any user, in the cases of public blockchains.

On the other hand, Marco highlighted the diversity that is covered by the development of blockchains in the Catalan community. In this regard, he said that there are not only companies dedicated to the development of distributed ledger technology (DLT). He explained that FinTech companies and consulting firms also use these types of platforms for the operation of their businesses or services.

Various Catalan Blockchain Initiatives

It was reported that the Catalan government has been making a sustained effort to approach initiatives with blockchain in recent years. It is worth mentioning that, through the Generalitat, funds have been given for an administrative process management program through a blockchain. Particularly, the organization seeks to improve the transparency and control of the information managed in the public administration.

It should be noted that the Generalitat has also promoted meetings aimed at encouraging developers to create solutions with blockchain technology. They have even expressed their intention to build an identity platform based on a blockchain.

Besides, the Generalitat approved the commercialization of electricity among households with a project based on the Ethereum blockchain. In general, the authorities of the Spanish locality have dedicated efforts to promote the development of blockchains in their territory, in both the public and private sectors.

To conclude, it can be said that the development and implementation of blockchain allow organizations to operate more efficiently and have better annual revenues. Developers can find in this technology an infinite number of applications through which they can put their knowledge and creativity to test.

By Alexander Salazar

No Correlation between Bitcoin’s Volatility and That of Oil and Gold

Alexander Salazar
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No Correlation between Bitcoin’s Volatility and That of Oil and Gold

Analysts determine that Bitcoin’s volatility is not related to that of other assets. Bitcoin is not as volatile as oil, but it is more volatile than gold.

Bitcoin does not correlate with other assets such as oil and gold in terms of its price volatility index. Some market analysts say that the price changes present in current assets and those of BTC are not necessarily linked to each other. In other words, Bitcoin’s price and volatility do not depend on those of other assets.

However, this fact does not mean that the price variations between BTC and other assets may not coincide at a certain point. Therefore, it is not discarded that the behaviors of these indices may be the same at certain times. However, they may also be different by chance.

This is the view of trader and analyst Luke Martin, who adds that different opinions about the correlation of Bitcoin with other assets will always be circulating. On his Twitter account, Martin states that neither the fall nor the rise in the stocks or prices of other assets necessarily affects those of Bitcoin.

Many responses to this comment by Martin were bullish, a term defining the attitude of those optimistic about the increase in Bitcoin’s price. Some said that the recent fall in the prices of the cryptocurrency anticipated a rapid upward trend in prices after the next reduction by half of the miners’ reward, estimated to occur on May 18th.

This bullish environment, in which many analysts maintain high expectations about the rise in the price after the halving, was reported last January. Many expect that by reducing the reward for each mined block from 12.5 BTC to 6.25, the price will rise due to the lower availability of BTC from that moment.

Oil Is More Volatile than BTC

Alex Kimani, a writer, and financial researcher, compared the data on the historical performance of oil with the current performance of this non-renewable resource. From this assessment, Kimani says that oil is currently more volatile than BTC; however, gold has had a better stock market performance than BTC since last year.

Last February 10th, the Index of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a type of crude oil that serves as a reference to establish the price of oil, marked a historical price volatility value of 105.3%. In contrast, the historical volatility of BTC is 42.3%, the lowest since last September, according to Skew Markets, provider of data on cryptocurrencies.

Considering that, the author notes that this does not indicate where the price will go in a long period of time. However, it shows the range of oscillation in which an asset varies its price concerning its standard price.

He adds that, late in January this year, the all-time volatility of the WTI index increased from 38.7% to 119.6%, while the S&P 500 index recorded an increase of 15.6% during the same time.

The all-time volatility of gold in early January this year doubled to 18%, before returning to 10% in early February. In other words, having reached its highest all-time volatility, gold is still considerably less volatile than Bitcoin, which proves that the most popular cryptocurrency is still the best option to invest.

By Alexander Salazar

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