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The ASICs are set to be deployed in Blockstream facilities through the U.S. and Canada.

Ethereum, la criptomoneda con la segunda capitalización más grande del mercado, alcanzó un nuevo máximo histórico al alcanzar los USD 1.439,33 el 25 de enero. Es la primera vez que este activo digital supera el techo de los USD 1.400 desde el 13 de enero de 2018, y sus retornos acumulan un 76% en lo […]

Blockstream announced Wednesday that it bought $25 million worth of WhatsMiner Bitcoin mining equipment from MicroBT, a Shenzhen-based hardware manufacturer. 

“We’ve been extensively testing mining hardware since the launch of our mining hosting service in 2017, and right now, we’re confident saying there’s no better mining hardware on the market than MicroBT’s WhatsMiner miners,” Blockstream said in a statement.

Blockstream offers colocation services for clients, essentially outsourcing mining equipment and upkeep for their clients, allowing them to mine Bitcoin. Blockstream maintains 300-megawatt operations in North America and says they plan to grow “aggressively” throughout 2021, according to the statement. The company launched a mining pool in 2019.

The development comes amid broadening institutional interest in the mining space, as well as a high-demand market for mining hardware, as previously reported.

Earlier this week, the mining sector saw a long-lasting feud at the top of major manufacturer Bitmain come to a close, according to a statement from co-founder Jihan Wu. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The central bank doesn’t want to pull back asset purchases just yet, Powell said Wednesday.

DeFi’s innovation system is reminiscent of an art movement that passes ideas back and forth until lasting breakthroughs emerge.

Bitcoin’s price is going down for many reasons including traders who realized gains last year selling to pay their tax bills.

Today was the first time bitcoin traded below $30,000 since Jan. 21.

Central banks are taking their time when it comes to issuing digital currencies — but the results of a new survey from the Bank of International Settlements suggest they’re taking a keen interest in stablecoins.

The survey, published Wednesday, comes just over a year after the last major BIS study on the status of central banks’ work on digital currencies. Since then, per the survey’s authors, more central banks are moving in the direction of pilot programs and beyond initial experiments. That said, the time horizon for actually going online with CBDCs appears to remain distant, with some 60% of surveyed central banks still in the early stages. The BIS queried around 60 such institutions.

“Most central banks are now exploring the case for CBDCs in some way and, overall, the survey indicates a continuous move from purely conceptual research to experimentation and pilot projects. Yet despite these developments, a widespread roll out of CBDCs still seems some way off,” the report noted.

On the subject of stablecoins, the BIS survey indicated that two-thirds of surveyed central banks are focused on stablecoins, or digital currencies tied in some fashion to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar.  This work is focused on “studying the impact of stablecoins on monetary and financial stability.”

The report names in passing just one stablecoin issuer — Tether, which operates the USDT stablecoin — as well as Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency. On cryptocurrencies, per the report, “central banks continue to see these as niche products with no widespread use as a means of payment.”

As the report’s authors noted:

“Many cryptocurrencies experienced a surge in their values in 2020, true to their form as speculative assets. This increase was not matched by any change in the perceived usage in payments. Indeed, most central banks continue to see cryptocurrencies as niche products.”

The full report can be found here.

In addition to the central bank survey report, the BIS published remarks from Agustín Carstens, the institution’s general manager. Carstens argued that central banks should serve as issuers of digital currencies.

“If digital currencies are needed, central banks should be the ones to issue them,” Carstens said. “If they do, CBDCs could also play a catalytic role in innovation, spurring competition and efficiency in payments.”

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Bitcoin maximalists cried foul at the central banker’s prognostications.

The U.S. Department of Justice, the Bulgarian National Investigation Service, and the Bulgarian General Directorate Combating Organized Crime have worked together to disrupt “a sophisticated form of ransomware” called NetWalker, according to a DOJ statement on Wednesday. 

According to the statement, NetWalker operates as a so-called ransomware-as-service model that features developers and “affiliates.”  NetWalker ransomware attacks have victimized universities, companies, municipalities, hospitals, and even healthcare sectors operating during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the DOJ.

The new law enforcement actions include charges against Canadian national Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, who is alleged to have obtained $27.6 million via ransomware attacks using NetWalker. Officials also seized more than $450,000 in cryptocurrency that had been paid by victims of three separate attacks. And authorities in Bulgaria seized a “dark web hidden resource” used by NetWalker ransomware affiliates.

“We are striking back against the growing threat of ransomware by not only bringing criminal charges against the responsible actors, but also disrupting criminal online infrastructure and, wherever possible, recovering ransom payments extorted from victims,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicholas L. McQuaid in the statement.

According to the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, ransomware attacks grew 311% in 2020, reaching an estimated $350 million in cryptocurrency. 

© 2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.