In perhaps the first-of-its-kind case in Uttar Pradesh, probe agencies today said they have detected transactions of over Rs 8 lakhs in a crypto-currency (bitcoin) account, that was mentioned in the alleged extortion messages received by 22 MLAs of the state recently.
The state lawmakers, most of them from the ruling BJP, recently claimed to have received text or WhatsApp messages asking them to pay Rs 10 lakh in bitcoin otherwise their families will be eliminated.
"During the probe, a crypto-currency (bitcoin) account, mentioned in the threat messages to legislators, has been detected. Transactions of 1.60368338 bitcoins (Rs 8.16 lakh) were done in this account. And the entire amount was later transferred to some other account," STF sources said here today.
"A total of six transactions, between 6.46 PM on May 2 and 4 AM on May 18, were done in the crypto-currency e-wallet during which bitcoin was received and sent through different e-wallets. One transaction each was done on May 2, ..

MLA threat issue: SIT detects Rs 8 lakh transaction in bitcoin account

PTI Automatic

London police have seized half a million pounds ($667,000) worth of bitcoin from a prolific computer hacker in a case described as the first of its kind for the 188-year-old department.
Cybercrime detectives seized the bitcoin from Grant West, 26, who was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in prison Friday for attacking some 100 companies worldwide, largely using 'phishing' email scams to obtain the financial data.
Once he obtained the data, West would then sell the material to market places on the dark web and convert his profits into bitcoin.
The London Metropolitan police discovered evidence of cyberattacks on 17 major firms including Sainsbury's, Asda, the British Cardiovascular Society and the Finnish bitcoin exchange.
Officers also recovered a memory card containing approximately 78 million individual usernames and passwords.

London police seize bitcoin worth $667,000 from hacker

A mosque in East London has become the first in the UK to declare cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, halal and said it would accept donations in such a form, according to a media report today.
Cryptocurrency is a form of digital money that is designed to be secure and, in many cases, anonymous. It is a currency associated with the internet that uses cryptography, the process of converting legible information into an almost uncrackable code, to track purchases and transfers.
Religious advisers at the Masjid Ramadan in Dalston, east London, said the currency is halal, or acceptable in the eyes of Allah, if it is "transacted in a lawful manner".
"Any money or currency is neither halal  permissible  nor haram  impermissible. Guidance is about the value which it represents. If money is transacted in a lawful manner then it is halal," Zayd al Khair, a religious adviser at the mosque, told 'The Daily Telegraph'.
"We do not always know the source of cash donations, but we take these in good ...

London mosque become first to declare cryptocurrencies halal

Global technology giant HCL Technologies on Tuesday announced it has joined the Blockchain in Transportation Alliance (BiTA), an organisation dedicated to determine best practices and standards for Blockchain in the transportation industry.


HCL Technologies joins Blockchain in Transportation Alliance


IANS Automatic

HCL Technologies joins Blockchain in Transportation Alliance

Capital Market Automatic

Among the largest and most trusted cloud delivery platform, Akamai Technologies, Inc. and one of the world's leading financial groups, MUFG, on Tuesday announced plans to offer a new blockchain-based online payment network enabling next-generation payment transaction scale and responsiveness.This hyper-scale payment network, powered by an innovative and newly-developed blockchain architecture, is designed to be capable of processing more than one million transactions per second at latencies of less than two seconds per transaction.The underlying blockchain architecture is expected to be extensible to 10 million transactions per second.Transactions executed across the payment network will be accelerated and secured by Akamai's market-leading cloud security offerings.These capabilities will help provide material cost efficiencies and security enhancements to support digital payments at unparalleled scale."This new blockchain-based online payment system, built upon our cloud platform, ...

Akamai and MUFG announce blockchain-based payment network

ANI Automatic

bitcoins

Bitcoin prices have fallen 40 percent this year, hurting margins for miners

Why mining rig company Canaan is planning $2 bn IPO in wobbly bitcoin world

Reuters

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Bitcoins are worth less than half of what they were in December. Mining them is 60 percent less profitable than it was in 2017. Even retailers of hobbyist mining rigs say they are seeing fewer customers.

As bitcoin world wobbles, mining rig company plans $2 billion IPO

Reuters Automatic

The Gujarat Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has booked a Surat-based builder for allegedly extorting over Rs 155 crore in cash and  bitcoins from two persons, a senior official said today.
The builder, Shailesh Bhatt, was the complainant in a bitcoin extortion case.
The CID-Crime lodged a fresh FIR against Bhatt and about nine of his accomplices yesterday at Surat after new details emerged during the ongoing probe into the original case, Director General of Police, CID-Crime, Ashish Bhatia, told reporters in Gandhinagar.
Two persons, including Shailesh Bhatt's nephew Nikunj Bhatt and Dilip Kanani, were also arrested yesterday from Surat on charges of kidnapping and extorting bitcoins and cash at the builder's behest, he said.
After the arrest, the sleuths recovered 152 bitcoins (Rs 8.58 crore), which were in Kanani's wallet, Bhatia said.
Bhatt had earlier alleged that some Amreli policemen extorted "bitcoins worth Rs 9 crore" from him four months back.
While probing his ...

Guj bitcoin case: Complainant booked for kidnapping, extortion

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Noah Project will contribute to building a new crypto hub in Asia

It plans to create the world's first crypto City

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The source in the company said the July 20 date for hearing defeats the purpose since banks have to wind up their dealings by July 6, according to RBI's directions

Ahmedabad-based cryptocurrency firm may challenge RBI circular in SC

Business Standard

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is bullish on the Blockchain platform Ethereum, saying the technology could be the next Apple.


Blockchain platform is next Apple: Steve Wozniak


LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Moldova, a small, landlocked country in eastern Europe, imports three-quarters of its energy and has seen its energy prices rise by more than half in the past five years.

Cryptocurrency may light up renewable energy in Moldova

supreme court, sc

The court asked the Attorney General to assist the court in this matter

SC backs RBI, bars courts from taking up pleas related to cryptocurrency

A sessions court here today issued an arrest warrant against former Gujarat BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya in a bitcoin extortion case, in which several police officials have been taken into custody so far.
The case pertains to alleged extortion of the virtual currency worth crores from a Surat-based builder.
Additional sessions judge P J Tamakuwala allowed the state CID-Crime's plea for issuance of an arrest warrant under Section 70 of the CrPC.
The CID-Crime had issued two summonses against the ex-MLA directing him to appear before it under section 160 of CrPC, but the latter didn't oblige. The CID-Crime plea had said that Kotadiya has been evading arrest.
In its application, moved on May 14, the CID told the court that the former Dhari MLA need to be arrested as he allegedly played a significant role in the crime.
Several police officials, including Amreli district superintendent of police Jagdish Patel and an inspector of the local crime branch, were arrested in the case.
"Investigations .

Gujarat bitcoin case: Arrest warrant against ex-BJP MLA

The Ahmedabad city civil and sessions court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against former BJP MLA from Dhari, Nalin Kotadia, accused of Bitcoin extortion of a builder.


Non-bailable warrant issued against ex-BJP MLA Kotadia


The Supreme Court today barred all high courts from  entertaining any plea relating to an RBI circular prohibiting dealings in virtual currencies like the Bitcoin.
The apex court, which was hearing pleas seeking direction to the Centre to take emergent steps to restrain the sale and purchase of illegal crypto currencies or virtual currency like Bitcoins, also sought the assistance of Attorney General K K Venugopal in the matter.
Crypto currencies are "a stateless digital currency" in which encryption techniques are used for trading. These 'currencies' operate independently of a central bank like the RBI, "rendering it immune from government interference."
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud was informed by the counsel for petitioners, Siddharth Dalmia and Vijay Pal Dalmia, that the Reserve Bank of India had issued a circular on April 6 on the issue.
The lawyer said the RBI, through the circular, had directed the banks and financial ...

HCs not to entertain pleas on RBI circular on virtual currencies: SC

The Bitcoin network - one of the most popular cryptocurrencies - currently uses almost as much power as Ireland does, and could be consuming about 0.5 per cent of the world's total electricity by the end of this year, a study has found.
Bitcoin's burgeoning electricity demands have attracted almost as much attention as the cryptocurrency's wildly fluctuating value.
However, estimating exactly how much electricity the Bitcoin network uses, necessary for understanding its impact and implementing policy, remains a challenge.
"We've seen a lot of back-of-the-envelope calculations, but we need more scientific discussion on where this network is headed. Right now, the information available is pretty poor quality overall, so I'm hoping that people will use this paper as a foundation for more research," said economist and blockchain specialist Alex de Vries, who works at PwC in the Netherlands.
The estimates, based in economics, put the minimum current usage of the Bitcoin network at 2.55 ...

Bitcoin to use 0.5 per cent of world's electricity by year end

An expert involved with the money trade coin industry has said people continue to face problems converting crypto currencies into fiat currency or other crypto currencies because of existing firm government regulations."There was a time when money trade coin was seeing a bull-run during mid-January 2018. People made millions as profit by trading in MTCX (money trade coin exchange), but all of a sudden, we received letter from a financial institution that these transactions were not legitimate. Because of that letter, we stopped withdrawals and decided not to sell more coins," said Dr. Amit Lakhanpal.Saying that the money trade coin community is passing through a tough phase, Dr. Lakhanpal further said, "We (those involved with the industry) were forced to migrate to trading platforms where the rate of the coin depends on buyer and seller."Saying that the RBI notification is one among many reasons for this tough phase in MTCX, Dr. Lakhanpal, however, said, "We (have) managed to ...

Cryptocurrency industry facing tough phase in India-Expert

General view of Microsoft Corporation headquarters at Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. Photo: Reuters

Bing Ads will implement this change globally in June, with enforcement rolling out in late June to early July

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