Amazon on Monday denied a media report saying the e-commerce giant was looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year. Reuters reports: The report from London's City A.M. newspaper, citing an unnamed "insider," sent the world's biggest cryptocurrency up as much as 14.5% before it trimmed gains to last trade 6% higher at $37,684.04. "Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true," said a spokesperson from Amazon. "We remain focused on exploring what this could look like for customers shopping on Amazon." The company on July 22 posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead. In a statement to Ars Technica, the Amazon spokesperson added: "We're inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon. We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: A U.S. probe into Tether is homing in on whether executives behind the digital token committed bank fraud, a potential criminal case that would have broad implications for the cryptocurrency market. Tether's pivotal role in the crypto ecosystem is now well known because the token is widely used to trade Bitcoin. But the Justice Department investigation is focused on conduct that occurred years ago, when Tether was in its more nascent stages. Specifically, federal prosecutors are scrutinizing whether Tether concealed from banks that transactions were linked to crypto [...]. Criminal charges would mark one of the most significant developments in the U.S. government's crackdown on virtual currencies. That's because Tether is by far the most popular stablecoin -- tokens designed to be immune to wild price swings, making them ideal for buying and selling more volatile coins. The token's importance to the market is clear: Tethers in circulation are worth about $62 billion and they underpin more than half of all Bitcoin trades.

Federal prosecutors have been circling Tether since at least 2018. In recent months, they sent letters to individuals alerting them that they're targets of the investigation, one of the people said. The notices signal that a decision on whether to bring a case could be made soon, with senior Justice Department officials ultimately determining whether charges are warranted. A hallmark of Tether is that its creators have said each token is backed by one U.S. dollar, either through actual money or holdings that include commercial paper, corporate bonds and precious metals. That has triggered concerns that if lots of traders sold stable coins all at once, there could be a run on assets backstopping the tokens. Fitch Ratings has warned that such a scenario could destabilize short-term credit markets.

In the course of its years-long investigation, the Justice Department has examined whether traders used Tether tokens to illegally drive up Bitcoin during an epic rally for cryptocurrencies in 2017. While it's unclear whether Tether the company was a target of that earlier review, the current focus on bank fraud suggests prosecutors may have moved on from pursuing a case tied to market manipulation. [...] Tether has already drawn the ire of regulators. In February, Bitfinex and several Tether affiliates agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle claims from New York Attorney General Letitia James that the firms hid losses and lied that each token was supported by one U.S. dollar. The companies had no access to banking in 2017, making it impossible that they had reserves backing the tokens, James said. The firms settled without admitting or denying the allegations.

"Amazon is looking to add a digital currency and blockchain expert to its payments team," reports CNBC. According to a recent job posting, Amazon's payments acceptance and experience team is seeking to hire an "experienced product leader to develop Amazon's Digital Currency and Blockchain strategy and product roadmap."

"You will leverage your domain expertise in Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, Central Bank Digital Currencies and Cryptocurrency to develop the case for the capabilities which should be developed, drive overall vision and product strategy, and gain leadership buy-in and investment for new capabilities," according to the job posting, which was previously reported by Insider... An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: "We're inspired by the innovation happening in the cryptocurrency space and are exploring what this could look like on Amazon.

"We believe the future will be built on new technologies that enable modern, fast, and inexpensive payments, and hope to bring that future to Amazon customers as soon as possible.
UPDATE (7/26): While CNBC speculated the move meant that Amazon "could be taking a more serious look at cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin," Reuters reported the next day that Amazon had "denied a media report saying the e-commerce giant was looking to accept bitcoin payments by the end of the year."

But reports like CNBC's nonetheless caused a 17% spike in the price of Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg, which briefly boosted its price back above $40,000 (before dropping back down to $38,000...)

Payments services company Square will open a new business focused on creating an "open developer platform" to make it easier to provide non-custodial, decentralized financial services, CEO Jack Dorsey said Thursday in a series of tweets. From a report: The still to-be-named division's "primary focus" would be bitcoin, he added. The initiative, which will be led by Mike Brock, would feature "open roadmap, open development and open source," Dorsey tweeted. Brock heads the company's strategic development group. The new division will differ from Square Crypto in that Square will provide direction as well as funding for its work, Dorsey tweeted. Square Crypto is working on the Lightning Development Kit.

Electric-car maker Tesla will most likely restart accepting bitcoin as payments, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said at a conference on Wednesday. From a report: Musk's comments come after Tesla said in May it would stop accepting bitcoin for car purchases. "Tesla would resume accepting bitcoin, it is most likely" Musk said at the B Word conference, where Square's Jack Dorsey also took part. Musk said he personally owned bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin, apart from bitcoin that Tesla and SpaceX owned. Musk added that neither he nor any of his companies are selling any bitcoin. "If the price of bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I pump but i don't dump. I would like to see bitcoin succeed," he added.

Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. From a report: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The proposals could take two years to become law. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote. While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient.

Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender. The BBC reports: The proposals would make crypto-assets more traceable, the EU Commission said, and would help stop money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. The new rules would also prohibit providing anonymous crypto-asset wallets. The Commission argued that crypto-asset transfers should be subject to the same anti-money-laundering rules as wire transfers. "Given that virtual assets transfers are subject to similar money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks as wire funds transfers... it therefore appears logical to use the same legislative instrument to address these common issues," the Commission wrote.

While some crypto-asset service providers are already covered by anti-money-laundering rules, the new proposals would "extend these rules to the entire crypto-sector, obliging all service providers to conduct due diligence on their customers," the Commission explained. Under the proposals, a company transferring crypto-assets for a customer would be obliged to include their name, address, date of birth and account number, and the name of the recipient. To become law the proposals will need the agreement of member states and the European Parliament. The proposals could take two years to become law.

The price of bitcoin has come crashing below the $30,000 mark for the first time in a month. "At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $29,694.34," writes Paul Lilly via HotHardware. "That's down from around $31,000 yesterday, and less than half of where Bitcoin peaked at in April of this year, when it topped $60,000." From the report: Will it go back up? Probably, but for Bitcoin investors, there are definitely reasons to be cautious, outside of the normal volatility associated with cryptocurrencies. For one, China is cracking down on cryptocurrency in general. As such, crypto miners recently dumped a bunch of used GeForce RTX 3060 cards on eBay for relatively cheap (compared to what they had been selling for), as well as ASIC hardware, the latter of which is what Bitcoin miners use these days. But it's not just China.

Malaysian police recently seized and then steamrolled 1,069 ASIC mining rigs after discovering that miners had illegally tapped into a power grid to steal electricity for their operations. Talk about sending a strong message. In addition, six people were arrested, jailed, and fined (but hey, at least they weren't steamrolled). Tighter regulations in various territories could affect Bitcoin's value, too. For example, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said lawmakers must "act quickly" to construct and adopt new rules on stablecoins. "Bringing together regulators will enable us to assess the potential benefits of stablecoins while mitigating risks they could pose to users, markets, or the financial system," Yellen said in a statement. "In light of the rapid growth in digital assets, it is important for the agencies to collaborate on the regulation of this sector and the development of any recommendations for new authorities." It's worth noting that other cryptocurrencies are down too. Dogecoin is down more than 5 percent to $0.16, while Ethereum dropped more than 3 percent to $1,755.99. Just over two months ago it was at nearly $3,900.

Malaysian authorities seized 1,069 bitcoin mining rigs, laid them out in a parking lot at police headquarters, and used a steamroller to crush them, as part of a joint operation between law enforcement in the city of Miri and electric utility Sarawak Energy. CNBC reports: Assistant Commissioner of Police Hakemal Hawari told CNBC the crackdown came after miners allegedly stole $2 million worth of electricity siphoned from Sarawak Energy power lines. A video of the event posted last week by local Sarawak news outlet Dayak Daily has since gone viral on social media.

Acting on a tip, authorities on the island of Borneo confiscated the rigs in six separate raids between February and April. In total, police destroyed about $1.26 million of mining equipment. Police opted to crush the mining gear rather than sell it, in accordance with a court order. Other countries, like China, have taken a different route, reportedly auctioning off seized rigs. Hawari said that electricity theft by bitcoin miners led to three houses burning down in the city. The Miri police chief told CNBC that there are no other active mining operations underway currently. The report notes that crypto mining is not illegal in Malaysia, although "there are stringent laws around power use."

"The Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance estimates that Malaysia accounts for 3.44% of all the world's bitcoin miners, placing it in the top ten mining destinations on the planet."

"Well before China decided to kick out all of its bitcoin miners, they were already leaving in droves, and new data from Cambridge University shows they were likely headed to the United States," reports CNBC: The U.S. has fast become the new darling of the bitcoin mining world. It is the second-biggest mining destination on the planet, accounting for nearly 17% of all the world's bitcoin miners as of April 2021. That's a 151% increase from September 2020. "For the last 18 months, we've had a serious growth of mining infrastructure in the U.S.," said Darin Feinstein, founder of Blockcap and Core Scientific. "We've noticed a massive uptick in mining operations looking to relocate to North America, mostly in the U.S."

This dataset doesn't include the mass mining exodus out of China, which led to half the world's miners dropping offline, and experts tell CNBC that the U.S. share of the mining market is likely even bigger than the numbers indicate... "500,000 formerly Chinese miner rigs are looking for homes in the U.S," said Marathon Digital's Fred Thiel. "If they are deployed, it would mean North America would have closer to 40% of global hashrate by the end of 2022."

America's rising dominance is a simple case of luck meeting preparation. The U.S. has quietly been building up its hosting capacity for years... It also helps that the U.S. is also home to some of the cheapest sources of energy on the planet, many of which tend to be renewable. Because miners at scale compete in a low-margin industry, where their only variable cost is typically energy, they are incentivized to migrate to the world's cheapest sources of power.

Thiel expects most new miners relocating to North America to be powered by renewables, or gas that is offset by renewable energy credits. While Castle Island Ventures founding partner, Nic Carter, points out that U.S. mining isn't wholly renewable, he does say that miners here are much better about selecting renewables and buying offsets. "The migration is definitely a net positive overall," he said. "Hashrate moving to the U.S., Canada, and Russia will mean much lower carbon intensity."

"This week, a 22-year-old self-described Bitcoin millionaire introduced the Freedom Phone, a $499 device meant to be completely free from 'Big Tech's' censorship and influence," reports PC Magazine.

"But it turns out the same smartphone is actually from China, and probably just a cheap knock-off." The Freedom Phone comes from Erik Finman, who unveiled the device earlier this week. He claims the product has everything Trump supporters could dream of, including an "uncensorable" app store, preinstalled conservative-friendly apps including Parler and Rumble, and even its own anti-surveillance operating system called FreedomOS... However, The Daily Beast noticed the Freedom Phone looks strikingly similar to a budget smartphone device from a Chinese vendor called Umidigi. The device is called the Umidigi A9 pro, and you can actually buy it over on the Chinese e-commerce site AliExpress starting at $119. Finman later told The Daily Beast that the Freedom Phone was indeed sourced from Umidigi, a company that's based in Shenzhen, China...

An uncensorable app store opens the door for hackers and shady developers to circulate malware and data-collecting programs to users. We're also doubtful Freedom Phone has its own operating system if it can run apps such as Parler and Rumble, in addition to Signal, Telegram and Brave
The Daily Beast adds this anecdote: The Freedom Phone's "Freedom OS" operating system is based on Google's Android operating system, according to Finman. But during a livestream video promoting the phone, right-wing activist Anna Khait was confused by her fans' basic questions about the phone. "Is it an Android?" Khait said. "I'm not really sure. No, it's a Freedom Phone."
Gizmodo calls the phone's web site "radically vague on the details." There is no information about the phone's operating system, storage, camera, CPU, or RAM capabilities. It has a list of features, but there are no actual details about them. Instead, under each feature, there's merely a "Buy it now" button which redirects you to the site's shopping cart. The phone's hefty price, combined with the company's total lack of transparency, is ridiculous — essentially asking the buyer to cough up half a grand in exchange for, uh, something...!
But Gizmodo also shares a philosophical thought: Before we get into the specifics of why this device probably sucks, let me just say that the desire to have a phone that is dedicated to protecting your autonomy and privacy is a reasonable one — and should be encouraged. That said, I don't think the Freedom Phone provides that. Actually, aside from its overt partisan bent, it's impossible to tell what kind of device this is because Finman and his acolytes haven't provided any information about it...

The funny thing is, if Trump voters are looking for a way to get off the "Big Tech" grid, there's no need for them to buy this sketchy shit. There are actually entire subcultures within the phone industry dedicated to escaping the Android/iOS paradigm. You can wade into the de-Googled phone sector, for instance — where Android phones are sold that have ostensibly been refurbished to rid the devices of code that will "send your personal data" back to the tech giant. There's also the Linux-based Pinephone, which sells at a fraction of the Freedom Phone's cost (between $150 and $200), and is a favorite of those in the privacy community. All of these come with caveats, obviously, but the point is that there are much more transparent and affordable options than the Freedom Phone...

It'd be nice if Americans could actually come together around the issue of privacy since it's an area where — regardless of political party — we're all collectively getting screwed.

"Anthony Di Iorio, a co-founder of the Ethereum network, says he's done with the cryptocurrency world, partially because of personal safety concerns," reports Bloomberg, in a story shared by Slashdot reader tekram: Di Iorio, 48, has had a security team since 2017, with someone traveling with or meeting him wherever he goes. In coming weeks, he plans to sell Decentral Inc. [maker of Jaxx, a digital asset wallet], and refocus on philanthropy and other ventures not related to crypto. The Canadian expects to sever ties in time with other startups he is involved with, and doesn't plan on funding any more blockchain projects. "It's got a risk profile that I am not too enthused about," said Di Iorio, who declined to disclose his cryptocurrency holdings or net worth. "I don't feel necessarily safe in this space. If I was focused on larger problems, I think I'd be safer..."

He was also for a time chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange. In February 2018, Forbes estimated his net worth was as high as $1 billion. Ether's price has more than doubled since then.
Bloomberg points out that Di lorio's net worth was estimated in 2018 at $1 billion — and that since then Ether's price has more than doubled, with the token holding a total market capitalization around $225 billion (second only to bitcoin).

Bloomberg also notes that Di lorio is involved in Project Arrow, a company building a zero-emission self-driving car. Di Iorio plans to sell Decentral Inc for equity, not cryptocurrency, telling Bloomberg that "I want to diversify to not being a crypto guy, but being a guy tackling complex problems...

"I will incorporate crypto when needed, but a lot of times, it's not. It's really a small percentage of what the world needs."

The Guardian's UK/US site editor in the Asia Pacific timezone argues that China wants to undermine bitcoin because, behind the scenes, its reserve bank wants to set up its own digital currency — and then reboot the international financial system: The People's Bank of China aims to become the first major central bank to issue a central bank digital currency. While the PBOC's counterparts in the west have taken a more cautious approach, it has held trials in several major cities including Shenzhen, Chengdu, Shanghai and Hangzhou. The benefits of an e-currency are immense. As more and more transactions are made using a digital currency controlled centrally, the government gains more and more ability to monitor the economy and its people.

The rollout is also seen as part of Beijing's push to weaken the power of the U.S. dollar, and in turn that of the government in Washington... Alarm in western governments is such that the threat posed by the digital yuan, which could put China out of reach from international financial sanctions, for example, was discussed at last month's G7 meeting.
There's additional reasons for China's desire to replace bitcoin with its own currency, various experts tell the site. No central bank relishes the thought of a "parallel currency" — and there's also concerns about consumers being hurt by a lack of regulations, as well as the strain crypto-mining puts on the nation's electricity system. But the Guardian also adds that "The threat of an unregulated alternative monetary system emerging from blockchain technology is a clear and present danger to the Communist party, according to observers."

"Jim Cramer, a former hedge fund manager and CNN business expert, said the government in Beijing "believe it's a direct threat to the regime because... it is outside their control".

North America's largest crypto mine is six miles outside Rockdale, Texas, "a four-square-mile town that hosts a Walmart, one other grocery store, a handful of Mexican restaurants and a couple of pizza places," reports the Washington Post.

The miners took over an old Alcoa aluminum facility, creating a "fenced-off crypto compound" with more than 100,000 servers, stacked 20 feet high. "When the expansion is completed by the end of 2022, that number will have more than doubled," the Post reports, citing the company's CEO Chad Harris.

Texas has some of Ameria's cheapest energy prices. But what's really interesting is what happened last month when 94-degree temperatures strained the state's energy grid: Thanks to the way Texas power companies deal with large electricity customers like Whinstone, Harris's bitcoin mine...didn't suffer. Instead, the state's electricity operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), began to pay Whinstone — for having agreed to quit buying power amid heightened demand. That sort of arrangement has helped make the state one of the go-to locations for expanding crypto entrepreneurs the world over, despite its continued agonizing over power shortages. Indeed, Whinstone's new owners are undertaking a major expansion of its facility outside Rockdale, with the intention of doubling its capacity. When fully developed, the crypto mine here is expected to require 750 megawatts of power — enough to power more than 150,000 Texas homes during peak demand.

And it's not just Whinstone. More crypto farms want to move into the area as China, believed to be the nation with the most crypto miners, moves to restrict local bitcoin mining and trading by, among other limitations, ordering power companies not to sell them power. Shenzhen-based BIT Mining said in May that it plans to invest more than $25 million in a Texas data center, while Beijing-based server firm Bitmain is already modernizing the old aluminum plant across the street from Whinstone's Rockdale-area facility.

Rockdale's mayor, a bitcoin miner himself with a rack of computers in his home, says he's met with at least one other firm interested in locating here. Whinstone, which leases shelving on its campus to other crypto miners' servers, has been contacted by "several," the company's CEO said. It's not just happening near Rockdale. Peter Thiel-backed crypto mining firm Layer1 Technologies last year opened a plant near Pyote in West Texas (population 138 in the 2020 census). In February, Canada's Argo Blockchain announced plans to buy 320 acres of land in the same West Texas area within a year... "One good thing about crypto mining is it's adding flexibility to the system," said Peter Cramton, a former board member of ERCOT, the nonprofit that's charged with managing the state's wholesale energy market. "But the problem is it's consuming real resources, doing a function that has no value...."

Bitcoin mines of Whinstone's size may be capable of creating roughly 500 bitcoin per month, the company says. At today's bitcoin value of approximately $34,000, that's $17 million, helping to explain why Riot Blockchain, a publicly traded company, paid $80 million in May to acquire Whinstone.

CNN reports: As the bitcoin craze took off in 2017, a Long Island iced tea company sent its share price spiking as much as 380% merely by announcing a "pivot" to blockchain technology. Long Island Iced Tea Corp. even changed its name to Long Blockchain Corp. At the time, the episode underscored the excessive hype around the crypto space.

Now, regulators say the name change was at the heart of an illegal insider trading scheme.The Securities and Exchange Commission charged three people Friday with insider trading in advance of the announcement that sent Long Island Iced Tea Corp.'s stock price to the moon... December 21, 2017, Long Island Iced Tea Corp., until that point exclusively a soft drink maker, announced its makeover, describing the pivot to blockchain as a "once-in-a-generation opportunity."

Even though the company had no actual business tied to blockchain at the time, and no experience in the cryptocurrency space, its Nasdaq-listed share price skyrocketed and trading volume spiked by 1,000%.
But the company's leading shareholder had told a broker/stockholder who'd then tipped off a stock-trading friend (who within two hours of the announcement ended up with "$160,000 in illicit profits," the SEC said). CNN adds that all three have now been charged with insider trading.

"The SEC said Long Blockchain was delisted by the Nasdaq in February for allegedly making a 'series of public statements designed to mislead investors and to take advantage of the general investor interest in bitcoin and blockchain technology.'"

Bloomberg identifies a variety of cryptocurrency scams, including a "rug pull," where the creators of a new cryptocurrency suddenly cut and run.

"Old-fashioned Ponzi schemes, newly cryptodenominated, have swindled people out of billions too," Bloomberg adds. And a 35-year-old crypto trader living with his parents ("trading meme coins as a full-time job") also tells them about "honey pots," where a coin's creators see a spike in value — and then temporarily disable selling for other holders: It might sound like a joke, given the crypto meltdowns of late, but serious money is at stake here. Billions — real billions — are getting pilfered annually through a variety of cryptocurrency scams. The way things are going, this will only get worse. Back in the Wall Street Dark Ages — six, 12, 18 months ago — these sorts of shenanigans were mostly associated with shlocky brokerages like the one depicted in the 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street. In those halcyon days before GameStop, Dogecoin and the rest, schlubs on Long Island might pitch ridiculous over-the-counter stocks to the gullible...

Tokensniffer, aptly named for Shit Coins, claims to have tracked 42,071 tokens and 2,250 scams or hacks. That was as of June 16. More than 200 supposed stings were logged by users during the first two weeks of June alone... His website scrapes data about new meme tokens from popular social media channels and scans the source code... A "smell test" program searches for vulnerabilities. Clones of existing meme tokens are often a red flag. Most recent scams — the site flagged 450 in in one recent 30-day period — were honeypots. Those tend to be easier to spot because of their code, Tokensniffer's creator says. Rug pulls are more complicated.

Such supposed safeguards aside, people are getting scammed in growing numbers. So far this year, over $2.6 billion has been grabbed, according to Chainalysis, a New York-based blockchain researcher. That figure doesn't include a giant Ponzi scheme that just came to light in South Africa. Local authorities put the haul at $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin. Gob-smacking as all of this might sound, these numbers in fact represent a marked decline from 2019, when fraudsters walked away with an estimated $9 billion. But here's a key difference: the sheer number of people getting hoodwinked. With a few outsize exceptions, most crypto scams seem to be getting smaller. That's the good news. The bad news is that there are more of them, and more people are getting stung. From 2019 to 2020, the number of victims has jumped 48% to an estimated 7.3 million, a figure approaching the official population of Hong Kong. Between the last three months of 2020 and the first three months of 2021, the number of unique scams rose nearly 18%, to 1,335, according to Chainalysis...

Michael Burry, of "The Big Short"-fame, has been warning all of this could all go horribly wrong. An estimated 10,000 new coins have been minted this year. Who can say how many will turn out to be shams? So many Shit Coins are flying around out there, and prices can be so volatile, that many people can't even tell if they've been scammed... This much is sure: no one complains when they're making money. It's when people start losing money — and lately, many have been — that they scream they've been taken.
"A decade after Bitcoin was created, regulators are still grappling with how to police cryptocurrencies," Bloomberg adds, "when the whole point is that they operate without governments or central banks."

A Swedish man wanted by the United States for defrauding over 3,500 victims of more than $16 million has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, the Department of Justice said Thursday. CNBC reports: The DOJ says 47-year-old Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson ran an investment fraud scheme from 2011 until his arrest in Thailand in June 2019. He pleaded guilty in March. According to court documents, Karlsson encouraged victims to buy shares in a scheme called "Eastern Metal Securities" using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, promising "astronomical returns" tied to the price of gold. The funds paid by these victims were instead directed to Karlsson's personal bank accounts, where the money was put toward expensive homes, a racehorse, and a resort in Thailand. Karlsson has been ordered to forfeit this Thai resort and various other properties and accounts as part of the sentence.

Karlsson maintained the ruse, in part, by offering updates and account statements to victims. He also explained delayed payouts by falsely claiming to be working with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Karlsson's fraud targeted financially insecure investors, and the U.S. is seeking restitution on behalf of those victims. In addition to having to pay back $16,263,820, a restitution order is expected to be entered by the court within 90 days.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The fossil fuel power plant that a private equity firm revived to mine bitcoin is at it again. Not content to just pollute the atmosphere in pursuit of a volatile crypto asset with little real-world utility, this experiment in free marketeering is also dumping tens of millions of gallons of hot water into glacial Seneca Lake in upstate New York. "The lake is so warm you feel like you're in a hot tub," Abi Buddington, who lives near the Greenidge power plant, told NBC News. In the past, nearby residents weren't necessarily enamored with the idea of a pollution-spewing power plant warming their deep, cold water lake, but at least the electricity produced by the plant was powering their homes. Today, they're lucky if a small fraction does. Most of the time, the turbines are burning natural gas solely to mint profits for the private equity firm Atlas Holdings by mining bitcoin.

Atlas, the firm that bought Greenidge has been ramping up its bitcoin mining aspirations over the last year and a half, installing thousands of mining rigs that have produced over 1,100 bitcoin as of February 2021. The company has plans to install thousands more rigs, ultimately using 85 MW of the station's total 108 MW capacity. [...] The 12,000-year-old Seneca Lake is a sparkling specimen of the Finger Lakes region. It still boasts high water quality, clean enough to drink with just limited treatment. Its waters are home to a sizable lake trout population that's large enough to maintain the National Lake Trout Derby for 57 years running. The prized fish spawn in the rivers that feed the lake, and it's into one of those rivers -- the Keuka Lake Outlet, known to locals for its rainbow trout fishing -- that Greenidge dumps its heated water. Rainbow trout are highly sensitive to fluctuations in water temperature, with the fish happiest in the mid-50s. Because cold water holds more oxygen, as temps rise, fish become stressed. Above 70 F, rainbow trout stop growing and stressed individuals start dying. Experienced anglers don't bother fishing when water temps get to that point.

Greenidge has a permit to dump 135 million gallons of water per day into the Keuka Lake Outlet as hot as 108 F in the summer and 86 F in the winter. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation reports that over the last four years, the plant's daily maximum discharge temperatures have averaged 98 in summer and 70 in winter. That water eventually makes its way to Seneca Lake, where it can result in tropical surface temps and harmful algal blooms. Residents say lake temperatures are already up, though a full study won't be completed until 2023.

"A U.K. high court told Bitcoin.org it can no longer share the 2008 white paper that outlines what bitcoin is on its website," reports Business Insider, "delivering a victory to Craig Wright, a computer scientist who claimed he wrote the original document." Wright won the copyright-infringement case he brought by default, after the website's anonymous founder, known as Cobra, decided not to speak in his defense in the proceedings in London. The ruling on Monday means Bitcoin.org must take the document down from its website. It must also pay Wright £35,000 ($48,600) toward legal costs, as well as put a notice of the court's order on its website for six months, said Ontier, the law firm representing Wright...

"This is an important development in Dr Wright's quest to obtain judicial vindication of his copyright in his white paper," said Simon Cohen, a senior associate at London-based Ontier... The Australian computer scientist claimed to be the original author of the white paper that was published in 2008 and describes what bitcoin is and how it works. Ontier said Wright took Cobra to court in order to prevent supporters of assets such as Bitcoin Core from using the white paper to mis-represent those assets as bitcoin...

"I didn't turn up because I didn't want to expose my identity," Cobra told Insider in a tweet.
Cobra shared more philosophical thoughts on Twitter: All your fiat based assets are ultimately secured by the same legal system that today made it illegal for me to host the Bitcoin whitepaper because a notorious liar swore before a judge that he's Satoshi. A system where 'justice' depends on who's got the bigger wallet. I don't think you could get a better advertisement of *why* Bitcoin is necessary than what happened today. Rules enforced through cryptography are far more superior than rules based on whoever can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in court.
In later tweets he added: Sucks when you have billionaires determined to bury you in endless frivolous litigation... Normally it's the person who owes money who runs and hides, but I've repeatedly reached out to CSW to pay him his court ordered costs, and he doesn't seem to want to receive it. Perhaps he is running away from his money so he can make me in "contempt of court"?

A Los Angeles summer camp is offering children as young as 5 "a crash course in all things crypto," reports NBC News: In a sign of the bubbling enthusiasm for digital currencies, the Crypto Kids Camp began Monday in a warehouse in a busy port district. Over five days, the camp combines activities that would be common at any summer camp with a crash course in how to think about, buy and even mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies... The camp is part of a trend toward young adults and even children becoming immersed in cryptocurrency through online trading exchanges, school clubs, social media and other outlets. In Georgia, state lawmakers this year considered a bill to require high school students to take a course on personal finance including cryptocurrency...

Children attend the camp for a one-week session where each day they learn about a different emerging technology. Camp founder Najah Roberts has an acronym, BEASTMODE, to keep track of the breadth of material they cover: Blockchain, Evolution of money, Artificial intelligence, Security (cyber), Technology (virtual reality), Mining and machine learning, Online gaming, Drones and Engineering.

Campers this week included children from as far away as Texas and New Jersey, staying with parents in hotel rooms, she said. There's no minimum age to buy or hold an online token such as bitcoin, just as there isn't a minimum age to hold U.S. dollars and cents. Many cryptocurrency exchanges have a minimum age in their terms of service, often 18 years old, and enforce the requirement through banking-style know-your-customer rules, but not all exchanges do....

Eventually they want to encourage public schools to adopt similar programs, not just in Los Angeles but also nationwide. "We want to get it set up to the point where it's in each city," she said.
One 18-year-old said the camp taught them how to build a mining machine from scratch that helped them make $200.