Decentralized loan service, bZx, was hacked second time following a previous incident on Valentine’s Day, for a combined total of 3,581 ETH (currently worth nearly a million Dollars). The hacker took out loans then manipulated the price of the underlying cryptos in order to pay back less than they borrowed.
Chinese crypto exchange, FCoin, published a statement in which they announced the shutdown of their exchange. They admitted to a lack of funds worth up to $130 million. FCoin blamed the loss on a combination of data and decision errors. Analysis suggests the exchange’s issues go back to its founding in July of 2018.
Clifton Collins, an Irishman convicted of drug trafficking, claims that the private keys to 6,000 BTC worth $56 million were irretrievably lost. Collins claims that he split the amount up between several wallets, the private keys to which he concealed inside a fishing rod that had been either stolen or thrown away during confiscation. Whether or not his story is true, it seems the court is unable to access the coins.
1,500 BTC and 6,000 BCH were hacked from the founder of Dreamhost, Josh Jones. Jones originally posted the story of the hack on Reddit, in which he claimed to be the victim of a SIM swap hack, however his post was subsequently deleted. It’s disturbing that such an amount was stored in insecure wallets vulnerable to a known angle of attack.
Before we conclude, this week’s “Bitcoin quick question” is what is the Bitcoin halving event?
The Bitcoin halving event happens roughly every four years cutting the rewards given to Bitcoin miners in half.
The bitcoin mining reward initially started out at 50 Bitcoins with each mined block back in 2009. Every 210,000 blocks this reward is cut in half. The first halving happened in 2012, the second in 2016 and in May of this year the third halving will take place, reducing the mining reward to only 6.25 Bitcoins per each mined block. The halving was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto to keep Bitcoin’s inflation in check and since the halving basically cuts the supply of new Bitcoins in half, many believe this event will have a dramatic effect on Bitcoin’s price.
If you want to learn more about the upcoming halving event check out the link in the description.
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That’s what’s happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.
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I am curious about new Government tax laws. Is it true that the government has now passed a law that requires Bitcoin Miners AGENTS to deduct a sliding scale of taxes from investors earnings BEFORE the commissions are paid? This prepaid tax is being used to ask me to pay an additional amount BEFORE COMMISSIONS ARE PAID TO ME. The tax is indicated at around 12% of the earnings. I am wondering if this is actually a requirement before commissions can be paid or the agents ( dealers ) are breaking the law? If this cannot be verified does it appear I am being scammed?
Hi Bernard,
Well, I can’t answer without knowing what country you’re from. I would suggest searching your local financial news for any announcements of a new tax on Bitcoin mining. If there is such a newly-passed tax, then one would have to consider your existing contract with whatever service is requesting this 12% of your earnings. It all sounds rather murky so more info is required to assess the situation.