Stefan Thomas really could have used a quantum computer this year.
The German-born programmer and crypto trader forgot the password to unlock his digital wallet, which contains 7002 bitcoin, now worth $265 million. Quantum computers, which will be several million times faster than traditional computers, could have easily helped him crack the code.
Though quantum computing is still very much in its infancy, governments and private-sector companies such as Microsoft and Google are working to make it a reality. Within a decade, quantum computers could be powerful enough to break the cryptographic security that protects cell phones, bank accounts, email addresses and — yes — bitcoin wallets.
Interactive Brokers — seen as the e-broker with some of the most sophisticated clientele — is slated to start trading cryptocurrencies on its platform in the coming months.
“Customers certainly are asking for [crypto trading] and we expect to be ready to offer it to them by the end of the summer,” Interactive Brokers Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy said Wednesday at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & FinTech Conference.
Investors, both retail and institutional, have poured into bitcoin and other digital assets in 2021. Bitcoin’s price has soared to above $34000 from the $9000 in June of 2020. The price of bitcoin has experienced wild volatility recently due to headlines on a China crackdown, Elon Musk and investors taking excessive risk.
U.S. investigators have recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency that Colonial Pipeline paid hackers last month to end a ransomware attack on its systems.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced Monday afternoon that the Department of Justice “found and recaptured the majority of the ransom” paid to the DarkSide network, the group responsible for the attack.
Paul Abbate, the deputy director of the FBI, said the bureau successfully seized the ransom funds from a bitcoin wallet that DarkSide used to collect Colonial Pipeline’s payment.
LONDON — An illegal bitcoin mine has been found by police in the U.K. who were looking for a cannabis farm.
The mine — located in an industrial unit on the outskirts of the English city of Birmingham — was stealing thousands of pounds worth of electricity from the mains supply, West Midlands Police said Thursday.
Police searched the unit in Sandwell on May 18 on the back of intelligence that led them to believe it was being used as a cannabis farm.
The price of bitcoin jumped about 4% Monday afternoon after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was having active discussions regarding the sustainability of the digital coin.
Bitcoin was trading around $38074, according to Coindesk, when at about 3:42 p.m. ET Musk posted on Twitter: “Spoke with North American Bitcoin miners. They committed to publish current & planned renewable usage & to ask miners WW to do so. Potentially promising.”
Within minutes, the price had shot up to more than $39500. Overall, the coin is up more than 17% in the last 24 hours.
Cryptocurrency mining operators, including a Huobi Mall and BTC.TOP, are suspending their China operations after Beijing stepped up its efforts to crack down on bitcoin mining and trading, sending the digital currency tumbling.
Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, hammering digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny of them.
A State Council committee led by Vice Premier Liu He announced the crackdown late on Friday — the first time the council has targeted virtual currency mining, a big business in China that accounts for as much as 70% of the world’s crypto supply. read more
Huobi Mall, part of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, said in a statement on Monday that it has suspended crypto-mining services to mainland Chinese clients, and will focus on overseas businesses.
Pediatrician, Medical Innovator, Educator — Dr. Jamie Wells, MD, FAAP — Director, Research Science Institute (RSI), Center for Excellence in Education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — Professor, Drexel University School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems.
Dr. Jamie L. Wells, MD, FAAP, is an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, where she has been involved in helping to spearhead the nation’s first-degree program focused on pediatric engineering, innovation, and medical advancement.
Dr. Wells is an award-winning Board-certified pediatrician with many years of experience caring for patients. With her BA with Honors from Yale, and her MD from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA, she has served as a Clinical Instructor/Attending at NYU Langone, Mt. Sinai-Beth Israel and St. Vincent’s Medical Centers in Manhattan.
Dr. Wells is on the leadership council of the Wistar Institute (the USA’s first independent biomedical research facility and certified cancer center), Ambassador of the Healthcare Global Blockchain Business Council, was a grant reviewer for the Susan G. Komen Community Grants Program, judged both the local, district and world robotics championships for Dean Kamen’s F.I.R.S.T. (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) nonprofit, as well as the Miss America’s Outstanding Teen scholarship competition (for which she is now a member of its Board of Directors), and is the Chair of the Yale Alumni Health Network (YAHN).
Join Aubrey de Grey and Vitalik Buterin on our fireside chat where they discuss and answer questions at the intersection of longevity and web3.
The AMA is hosted by VitaDAO — VitaDAO is the world’s first decentralized intellectual property collective.
Its mission is to extend the human lifespan by collectively financing and commercializing longevity therapeutics in an open and democratic manner.
VitaDAO and its members will own the intellectual property assets that result from the projects it supports. Members can contribute work or funds to join VitaDAO by purchasing or earning VITA tokens.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been billed as a major disruptor to finance. But digital currencies issued by governments might be even more radical—they may even threaten the future of traditional banking.
