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The FBI says that 2023 was a record year for cryptocurrency fraud, with total losses exceeding $5.6 billion, based on nearly 70,000 reports received through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

This marks a 45% increase in losses compared to the previous year, driven primarily by investment fraud, which accounted for 71% of the total cryptocurrency losses. Other types of fraud contributing to the statistics include tech support scams, call center fraud, and government impersonation.

The vast majority of the reported losses ($4.8 billion) were incurred by U.S. citizens, followed by Cayman Islands ($196M), Mexico ($127M), Canada ($72M), the UK ($59M), India ($44M), and Australia ($25M).

Crypto exchange Coinbase just announced that Hawaii residents can now use its platform to buy and sell digital assets.

In a statement, the largest US-based crypto exchange says its products and services are now available in The Aloha State after the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) Division of Financial Institutions (DFI) made regulatory changes that provided clarity for cryptocurrency firms.

A blockchain entrepreneur, a cinematographer, a polar adventurer and a robotics researcher plan to fly around Earth’s poles aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule by end of year, becoming the first humans to observe the ice caps and extreme polar environments from orbit, SpaceX announced Monday.

The historic flight, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will be commanded by Chun Wang, a wealthy bitcoin pioneer who founded f2pool and stakefish, “which are among the largest Bitcoin mining pools and Ethereum staking providers,” the crew’s website says.

“Wang aims to use the mission to highlight the crew’s explorational spirit, bring a sense of wonder and curiosity to the larger public and highlight how technology can help push the boundaries of exploration of Earth and through the mission’s research,” SpaceX said on its web site.

Discussion with Jeff Krehmer about his book Infinite Resources: How to sustainably develop the arctic, by supplying green hydrogen, fresh water and healthy food to the world, while mitigating the negative effects of anthropocentric climate change.

Links related to Infinite Resources:
The book Infinite Resources:
https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Resou?tag=lifeboatfound-20

Moon-shots program incubator:
https://foresightcac.com/earthtech205

Engage Jeff Krehmer:
www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-krehmer/

Home Page

Links:
Quora blog: https://spacefaringcivilization.quora
Amazon Author page: http://amazon.com/author/ronfriedman.
My Website: https://ronsfriedman.wordpress.com/

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Eyeball-scanning orbs are, apparently, not a dime a dozen — and now, a Sam Altman-backed crypto startup is running out of them.

As Semafor reports, the Altman-backed Worldcoin crypto startup, which uses bespoke metallic orbs to scan one’s iris and verify their identity, is running low on the spherical devices after giving out somewhere between 300 and 500 of them.

This news, as the site notes, has been confirmed by Alex Blania, the CEO of the Tools for Humanity startup that acts as Worldcoin’s parent firm.

Cybercriminals are selling custom Raspberry Pi software called ‘GEOBOX’ on Telegram, which allows inexperienced hackers to convert the mini-computers into anonymous cyberattack tools.

GEOBOX is sold on Telegram channels for a subscription of $80 per month or $700 for a lifetime license, payable in cryptocurrency.

Analysts at Resecurity discovered the tool during an investigation into a high-profile banking theft impacting a Fortune 100 company.

Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for his role in defrauding users of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan called the defense’s argument misleading, logically flawed, and speculative.


Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, struck an apologetic tone, saying he had made a series of “selfish” decisions while leading FTX and “threw it all away.”

“It haunts me every day,” he said in his statement.

Prosecutors had sought as much as 50 years, while Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued for no more than 6½ years. He was convicted on seven criminal counts in November and had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since.