Mic Drop
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The Oslo Freedom Forum is this week, activists from around the world will be sharing their stories and learning about bitcoin, consider watching the livestream if you cannot make it.
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- EU wants to scan all your private messages
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- coincorner releases Bolt Card, a lightning payment card
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John-Henry takes a few minutes to explain why Yuval Noah Harari, a professor who works with the World Economic Forum, uses the terms "useless people" and "useless class" in public discourse so frequently.
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On January 12, 2022, the United States submitted a number of amendments to the IHR that will give away even more of our sovereignty and greatly empower the World Health Organization (WHO) to restrict YOUR health related rights and freedoms.
The 75th meeting of the World Health Assembly will be held in Geneva, Switzerland this May 22-28, 2022. The Assembly will vote on the amendments to the IHR. They are very likely to pass and be enacted into International law unless “We the People” stand up against this attack on our sovereignty.
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Wit vs UBH
in Topics
I expect most people here don't know, but back in March, the 9th circuit reversed Wit v UBH for, basically, no reason. All the law blogs were croggled: the decision of the court was both very short and just made no sense.
What's Wit vs UBH? A really important decision about a law suit against a health insurance company under a federal law called ERISA. ERISA is a consumer protection law that says if a company takes your money to provide you a financial service, they can't take advantage of the fact they have your money hostage to fleece you. It asserts the company has what's called a "fiduciary duty" – they have to behave in a trustworthy manner and do what they said they were going to do when you contract with them for a service. The Wit vs UBH suit argued that they had caught UBH, a health insurance company, making up standards of medical necessity for when they should have to pay for medical care that were in violation of widely agreed upon standards of care in medicine, and in some cases were hard or impossible for any patient to meet. All to get out of having to pay for health care services their members needed, leading to a bunch of people dying – it was a class action suit and some of the members of it were surviving family of the patients. The Wit case was particularly egregious because they found smoking-gun internal emails of doctors in the insurance company, UBH, saying to management, this is against medical standards, and we could probably be sued into oblivion if caught. There was no question what the plaintiffs alleged was actually going on, and everyone doing it knew it was criminal.
The ninth circuit ruled, nah, it's cool. Insurance companies don't need to actually, you know, pay for the healthcare they charged you premiums to cover, if they can invent an excuse. Any excuse really.
As a consequence, they just basically invalidated the whole of ERISA. Which doesn't just cover insurance – it covers all banking and investment companies too. Or did.
And by extension, they may have just knocked over consumer protection laws as a class.
Because what is anyone going to do about it? Appeal to the Supreme Court? The Supreme Court we have would love to destroy the principle of consumer protection laws.
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According to a statement issued by State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday, the United States is offering up to $15 million in rewards for information on the Russian-based Conti ransomware operation.
Any information that leads to the identification or location of the Conti group's leaders might reward you up to $10 million. In addition, any information leading to the arrest of anybody conspiring with the Conti group will be awarded $5 million.
The FBI estimates that more than 1,000 victims have paid the Conti group more than $150 million in ransomware payments, making its ransomware variant the most expensive ever documented. Just last month, the group had attacked the Government of Costa Rica and targeted at least five government agencies, including the Ministries of Finance, Science, and Technology
According to Price,
"In offering this reward, the United States demonstrates its commitment to protecting potential ransomware victims around the world from exploitation by cybercriminals."
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On Friday, a Federal Judge dismissed former President Donald Trump's case against Twitter, which sought to revoke his permanent suspension from the social media giant which had recently accepted Elon Musk’s (aka the Dogefather) offer of $44 billion offer to buy Twitter.
Mr Trump’s contentions which rested on his right to free speech under the first amendment were shot down by the judge who stated that it only applied to “governmental abridgements of speech, and not to alleged abridgements by private companies.”
Ironically, Mr Trump had declared just two weeks ago that he would not be coming back to the platform even if Mr Musk lifted the ban.
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Binance has reportedly stopped offering its crypto derivatives services in Spain as it awaits approval from the Spanish regulator, Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV).
Binance’s official Spain website has removed the derivatives option from its interface by removing the drop-down menu. However, the URLs for derivative services in Spain, including futures, battle, and derivative portal, are still active, according to Cointelegraph.
According to a local report, Binance would reintroduce the derivatives option only after gaining regulatory approval from the Bank of Spain in the form of a guarantee certificate (BdE).
https://cointelegraph.com/news/binance-reportedly-halts-crypto-derivatives-service-in-spain
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Instagram, the popular social media app owned by Meta Platforms, is set to launch its NFT integration pilot for the platform on Monday.
According to the report from CoinDesk, Instagram is planning non-fungible token (NFT) integrations for Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Flow. A small group of NFT enthusiasts from the United States will participate in the pilot. It's unclear whether Instagram will support NFTs from all four chains when it launches.
Unlike Twitter, Instagram will not charge its users a fee for displaying NFTs according to CoinDesk. Instagram will support widely used crypto wallets like MetaMask.
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Sony Electronics has partnered with Theta Labs to launch nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that can be viewed in mixed reality through Sony's Spatial Reality Display, a display that allows individuals to experience things in 3D without the use of typical 3D peripherals.
The Spatial Reality Display follows the viewer's eye movement and modifies the display accordingly, providing a 3D viewing experience. Sony and Theta will be releasing an NFT called The Tiki Guy which is a 3D Tiki Mask. There will only be ten of these NFTs produced. While the NFT drop is designed for 3D viewing, 2D versions will be available as well.
According to Nick Colsey, a Sony Electronics executive,
“Consumers can now enjoy a next-generation 3D experience without the need for 3D eyewear. Theta’s NFTs are just the latest way we can show our rapid adoption of metaverse-friendly technology.”
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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a $5.5 million settlement with NVIDIA over the company’s alleged failure to disclose that crypto mining was a significant contributor to its 2018 revenue. The company also agreed to a cease-and-desist order based on violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934's disclosure requirements.
According to the SEC, throughout the fiscal year 2018, the company failed to disclose that crypto mining was the primary driver of sales of its graphics processing units (GPUs) advertised and developed for gaming.
The SEC stated,
“NVIDIA’s omissions of material information about the growth of its gaming business were misleading given that NVIDIA did make statements about how other parts of the company’s business were driven by demand for crypto, creating the impression that the company’s gaming business was not significantly affected by crypto mining.”
The SEC contends that NVIDIA’s disclosure failures deprived investors of critical information to evaluate the company’s business in a key market.
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According to CNBC, Google is forming a web3 team that will build back-end services for developers operating blockchain applications.
Amit Zavery, Vice President of Google Cloud, reportedly informed his team in an email on Friday that the goal is to make the Google Cloud platform the first choice for Web3 developers while not being involved in the cryptocurrency wave directly.
His email as reported by CNBC read,
“While the world is still early in its embrace of Web3, it is a market that is already demonstrating tremendous potential with many customers asking us to increase our support for Web3 and Crypto-related technologies.”
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/145519/google-is-building-a-web3-focused-team/
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Julian Holguin, former executive at Billboard, was announced as the new CEO of Doodles. ‘Doodles’ is the popular community and PFP collection of 10,000 NFTs on Ethereum.
According to the tweet,
“Julian will work alongside the founders to expand Doodles IP throughout music, gaming, and entertainment, while deeply integrating culture into the product. In the coming weeks, we will introduce you to the next phase of Doodles — groundbreaking projects, transformative partnerships and a full reveal of our vision & roadmap.”
Holguin has previously worked at Billboard for ten years, serving as vice president of brand partnerships, senior vice president of revenue and partnerships, and, finally as president in 2021 before coming on board at Doodles.
https://decrypt.co/99660/ethereum-nft-collective-doodles-names-billboard-executive-new-ceo
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Blender.io, a crypto mixer, has been added to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control's list of businesses sanctioned for interacting with the North Korean-backed hacker group involved in Axie Infinity's Ronin Bridge attack.
According to the official press release, North Koreans allegedly used Blender.io to process $20.5 million of the nearly $620 million taken.
According to the report, Blender.io has handled the movement of almost $500 million in Bitcoin since its launch five years ago. Blender.io has also allowed money-laundering operations for the Russia-affiliated ransomware gang Conti. This follows widespread concern over the cryptocurrency industry's role in Russian sanctions evasion.
According to Andrew Fierman, Head of Sanctions Strategy at Chainalysis,
“While [Treasury] has targeted laundering services used by hackers, ransomware operators, and other illicit actors in recent months, this is the first designation of a mixer, indicating an advancement in their strategy to dismantle crypto money-laundering infrastructure.”
https://www.ft.com/content/795892b3-806b-4079-8bc9-6cf75dc074f4
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Not everything that is true can be proven. This discovery transformed infinity, changed the course of a world war and led to the modern computer.
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According to research from Coinbase, the worst of the crypto market's macro capitulation is over, with a bullish second half of 2022 arriving.
The exchange published a report which outlined several factors for its findings. Specifically, Ethereum's shift to proof-of-stake (PoS), which would reduce ETH supply and, ideally, make it a deflationary asset, is something bulls can anticipate, according to the report. Another factor might be the "commoditisation of Ethereum layer-2 networks," which would result in new L2 tokens and possibly a new crypto investment category.
The report also highlighted that incoming regulatory clarity in the US will ground confidence for investors.
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Argentina's central bank (BCRA) announced today that financial institutions cannot allow their consumers to conduct transactions using digital assets, only days after two Argentine private banks indicated that crypto trading will be available to their customers.
According to the BCRA statement, banks are barred from providing services for any digital assets that are not regulated by the central bank, and because no digital assets are currently regulated, the measure amounts to a de facto ban.
According to the statement,
“The measure ordered by the BCRA's board of directors seeks to mitigate the risks associated with transactions with these assets that could be generated for users of financial services and for the financial system as a whole.”
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As part of its aim to bring social media and news sites into ‘Web3’, Binance Holdings Ltd. has committed $500 million to Elon Musk's proposed buyout of Twitter Inc. The crypto exchange is among a dozen outside investors backing Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter, according to a filing published on Thursday.
Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao stated,
“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realise a new vision for Twitter. We hope to be able to play a role in bringing social media and web3 together and broadening the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology.”
Binance is forming an internal team to look into how blockchain can help Twitter and other social media platforms and has brought up BNB Chain (a blockchain that Binance helped to develop) to Musk and his team.
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The three co-founders of BitMEX crypto derivatives exchange, including former CEO Arthur Hayes, have been ordered to pay a total of $30 million in civil monetary penalties by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The order comes as a result of a suit lodged in October 2020 by the US regulator against the exchange and its executive team for facilitating the trading and processing of swaps without the necessary CFTC licensure in the US. In addition to failing to register with the CFTC, the firm failed to undertake adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer checks, according to the order.
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As a part of its goal to accumulate $10 billion in Bitcoin to back algorithmic stablecoin U.S. Terra (UST), the Luna Foundation Guard (a non-profit managing the reserves for the UST stablecoin) disclosed yesterday that it has purchased 37,863 BTC worth nearly $1.5 billion.
LFG now holds roughly a total of $3.5 billion worth of BTC in its reserves, making it the 7th largest BTC holder. LFG acquired the BTC via over-the-counter swaps with Genesis Trading and Three Arrows Capital. Of the $1.5 billion, $1 billion was an OTC swap with Genesis while the other $500 million was acquired from Three Arrows Capital.
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After an initial pump in prices following the announcement of a half-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, markets quickly tumbled as investors realised that a 0.5% interest rate hike was still rather high by historical standards. Moreover, there were concerns it may not still not be enough to stave off inflation.
The initial pump was a sign of relief from investors who had expected the hike to be much higher. Bitcoin fell 8% in under 24 hours, dipping below $36,000 before stabilising. The crypto market as a whole dropped 7% within the same time period, with Ethereum losing 7% from yesterday's price and the rest of the top 10 losing between 5% and 9%. The Dow Jones and Nasdaq fell 3.1% and 5%, respectively.
https://decrypt.co/99595/bitcoin-ethereum-continue-fall-losses-deepen-across-crypto-market
Financial leaders of 44 countries meet in El Salvador to discuss bitcoin
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