Some highlights from The Year in Ethereum 2021 report by Evan Van Ness and Josh Stark.
Category: cryptocurrencies – Page 29
Tech companies continued to draw criticism for their roles in political and social scandals, most notably when whisteblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified to lawmakers. Undeterred, Facebook rebranded itself Meta and said it would now focus on building the metaverse. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down and likewise changed the name of his company Square to Block in a not-so-subtle nod to the blockchain.
Meanwhile, volatile cryptocurrencies set new records, their prices jumping and crashing on a tweet. NFTs, a once-obscure type of cryptoasset, went on an eye-watering tear as redditors pushed meme stocks skyward. It was also the year of ever-bigger AI. Machine learning models surpassed a trillion parameters, designed computer chips, and tackled practical problems in biology, math, and chemistry. Elsewhere, billionaires went to space, regular folks bought 3D printed houses, fusion power attracted billions in investment, gene editing trials hit their stride, and “flying car” companies hit the New York Stock Exchange.
For this year’s list of fascinating stories in tech and science, we sifted our Saturday posts and selected articles that looked back to where it all began, glanced ahead to what’s coming, or otherwise stood out from the chatter to stand the test of time.
The number of malware infections targeting Linux devices rose by 35% in 2021, most commonly to recruit IoT devices for DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
IoTs are typically under-powered “smart” devices running various Linux distributions and are limited to specific functionality. However, when their resources are combined into large groups, they can deliver massive DDoS attacks to even well-protected infrastructure.
Besides DDoS, Linux IoT devices are recruited to mine cryptocurrency, facilitate spam mail campaigns, serve as relays, act as command and control servers, or even act as entry points into corporate networks.
A congressman proposes a game-changing crypto bill, which could be a catalyst for the price of bitcoin, ethereum, bnb, solana, cardano, XRP.
The North Korean threat actor group known as ‘BlueNoroff’ has been spotted targeting cryptocurrency startups with malicious documents and fake MetaMask browser extensions.
The motive of this group is purely financial, but its sophistication in carrying out objectives has previously led researchers to conclude that this is a sub-group of the North Korean Lazarus gang.
Although BlueNoroff has been active for several years, its structure and operation have been shrouded by mystery.
Key point: For more information on the federal tax treatment of virtual currency transactions, see these FAQs on the IRS website.
How to report crypto gains and losses on your 2021 Form 1040.
Now for the meat of this column. Despite what the IRS says, let’s use the term cryptocurrency instead of virtual currency. Onward.
North Korean hackers continued hammering crypto investment firms and exchanges in 2021.
Allowing users to buy NFTs with fiat money.
Cryptocurrency might be illegal in China, but that doesn’t mean non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have to be.
China is planning to separate the infrastructure used for crypto from the one used to create NFTs so that its crackdown on cryptocurrencies doesn’t harm the country’s NFT industry, a report from South China Morning Post reveals.
To do this, China’s government-backed Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) is developing a new blockchain infrastructure project that allows individuals and businesses to develop and manage NFTS without using infrastructure developed for cryptocurrency.
Full Story:
China plans to separate the infrastructure used for crypto from the one used to create NFTs. Here’s why.
TABLE OF CONTENTS —————
0:00–21:02 : Introduction (Meaning of Life)
21:03–46:14 CHAPTER 1: Transhumanism and Life Extension.
TWITTER https://twitter.com/Transhumanian.
PATREON https://www.patreon.com/transhumania.
BITCOIN 14ZMLNppEdZCN4bu8FB1BwDaxbWteQKs8i.
ETHEREUM 0x1f89b261562C8D4C14aA01590EB42b2378572164
LITECOIN LdB94n8sTUXBto5ZKt82YhEsEmxomFGz3j.
#1 ) THE GENETIC PATHWAY
46:15–58:52 CHAPTER 2 : Biological Aging a. “Programmed Cell Death” Theory of Aging b. “Intercellular Competition” Theory of Aging c. “Antagonistic Pleiotropy” Theory of Aging.
#2 ) THE CYBERNETIC PATHWAY
58:53–1:12:26 CHAPTER 3 : Cyborgs.
North Korea has hacked USD 1.7B of crypto and views the loot as a ‘long-term investment’. Experts say that Pyongyang is going long on its take of tokens, rather than quickly trading them for cash.
North Korea’s crypto exchange attacks
According to Newsis and Chosun, the US federal government prosecutor issued statements saying that North Korean hackers have been “conspiring with other money-laundering criminals” to “steal crypto-assets” from at least “three digital asset exchanges” before “laundering the proceeds.”