Oil Crashes, Satoshi Speculations, and Earth Angel Scams: Bad Crypto News of the Week

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin. After languishing at around $6,700, the cryptocoin is up more than 6 percent over the last week to take it above $7,000. And the next halving is now less than three weeks away.

Changpeng Zhao is looking further ahead. He predicts that in a few months, as governments implement quantitative easing measures to stabilize coronavirus-hit economies, Bitcoin will rise. “Mathematics works, he told BlockDown 2020, a two-day virtual conference. “If you increase supply of the fiat currency and Bitcoin is a limited asset, mathematics will eventually work.” For crypto-ATM services like DigitalMint and LibertyX, that’s good news. They’ve been expanding their spread of Bitcoin cash machines. The movement of digital coins certainly looks better than that of oil. As a barrel of crude fell into negative territory for the first time, Bitcoin barely moved.

Not all the old stuff being dug up is worthless though. A 21-year-old post on the Cypherpunks mailing list has led to speculation that it was written by a young Satoshi Nakamoto. The post describes a form of e-cash, and mentions many of the issues that came to define Bitcoin.

There may be good news for anyone who lost money on their crypto trades this year. It’s complicated stuff but IRS virus relief might now mean that it’s easier to offset losses. And the virus could create new blockchain opportunities in its birthplace. A report on the response of China’s blockchain industry to COVID-19 suggests that monetary policies will push people towards digital coins. 

In the US, a federal judge has issued warrants for the arrest of David Schmidt and Robert Dunlap. Schmidt is a former Republican state senator in Washington. He and Dunlop are alleged to have sold Meta 1 tokens that they claimed were backed by $1 billion in fine art or $2 billion of gold. The SEC froze the cryptocurrency’s assets and charged the firm’s operators with fraud on the grounds that there were no tokens. The defendants, together with Nicole Bowdler, who claims to be “an Earth Angel” in touch with the angel Metatron, were charged with fraud.

Libra is hoping that the government will be more lenient towards its plans. The association has revised its white paper in an attempt to meet the demands of US regulators. At least two members of the House Financial Services Committee are not impressed. Outside the US, Facebook remains bullish on its digital coin. It’s looking for 50 new workers to add to its team of 5,000 to work on Calibra.

In Japan, one of the country’s largest advertising companies is planning to use the blockchain to reward people who comment on manga, even though those comments may include copyrighted material. And in Malaysia, police have arrested fourteen Chinese men for their involvement in an alleged Bitcoin scam. The men are said to have impersonated wealthy investors.

And finally, some good news. Enterprise blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric, is bringing trust to difficult but vital markets, like aerospace parts. A survey has found that it’s not all drugs on the crypto markets. Fifteen percent of digital spending goes on clothes and 14 percent is spent on food. All that clothes shopping must be giving people the munchies. And players of Upland spent $1,236 on Tier 3 Easter egg properties to raise money for NYC’s battle against the coronavirus. Uplandme, Inc. matched that spend to donate $2,500 to the NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund.

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