In an excellent primer below, the author describes a few common scams in the cryptocurrency market. As the stakes get higher and con artists get more sophisticated, so too will their tactics.
"The growth of the blockchain and cryptocurrency space has been undeniably exciting. Tech innovation and the fast paced new trading paradigm continues to attract big crowds, but this also includes a number of bad actors."
"Because of network latency—transactions can never be processed by everyone in the network at exactly the same time. Decentralized ledgers require that transactions be grouped together in 'blocks'. So the timestamp can be applied to transactions that occurred within the same general time frame rather than to each transaction individually."
"The security of the data you upload to Telegram’s Cloud overwhelmingly relies on the strength of your password since brute force attacks are easy with the hashing algorithm chosen. And the absence of digital signature allows your data to be modified without you or the recipient being able to tell."
"More importantly, when combined with Ristretto, the result is the fastest prime-order group ever, allowing faster implementations of complex zero-knowledge protocols."
Here's how "SMS Intercept" works in practice. *Anyone* walks into *any* retail cellular store in the world, tells an employee to move *your* number to a new SIM.
The employee *verifies* that person. Your SMSs now go to a new phone.
"The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency invited fintech companies on Tuesday to apply for special national charters, hours after the Treasury Department released a report advocating that step and others to spur innovation. The OCC’s move -- potentially letting online lenders, payments firms and certain cryptocurrency ventures operate without relying on a bank -- has long been opposed by the financial industry and state regulators."
I think there's too much emphasis on BTC/ETH/whatever ETFs, and not enough emphasis on making it easier for people to buy $5 to $100 in cryptocurrency via cards at corner stores. The former is better for pumping price, but the latter is much better for actual adoption.
— Vitalik Non-giver of Ether (@VitalikButerin) July 29, 2018
"However, the rally was not to last. It was met with an equally dramatic drop, falling to where the price for ETH currently sits around $460. The crypto market has begun to gain value after the recent drop with Ethereum maintaining its secondary position as the most influential cryptocurrency in the space."
"Whether it’s a store of value, a medium of exchange, unit of account, or something entirely different, Bitcoin is valuable because it is now unstoppable."
