WebProNews

Tag: Ethereum

  • How to Identify a Bitcoin or Ethereum Cloud Mining Scam

    How to Identify a Bitcoin or Ethereum Cloud Mining Scam

    Many providers are offering a chance to cloud mine Bitcoin. This is an essential alternative to mining with which an investor owns the equipment used for mining. Mining with your purchased equipment has become too expensive and too complex, and investors are turning towards cloud mining instead.

    This has led to some Bitcoin mining sites claiming they can provide you with more profit than they actually can. In some cases, there is outright fraud, after which investors end up without profits. However, there are ways to avoid these and work with reputable providers only.

    Do The Research Beforehand

    Online reviews can help you decide based on the experience of others who have used this service before. For example, you can choose between bitcoin mining sites found on Truely by going through their reviews and comparing and contrasting the services.

    This is a key part of the process of avoiding scams. If others have marked a certain provider as a fraud, chances are there’s a reason for it, and you should stay clear of such a site.

    Promising Profits

    Some providers promise profit if you use their services to mine bitcoin using a cloud structure. That’s usually a bad sign since no one can promise you how much the coins will be worth when you sell them. The cloud mining provider can only offer coins and the speed with which they are mined.

    In the long run, when we look at the last five years, the value of Bitcoin has grown, and therefore, it’s safe to say that this is an excellent investment to make, but no one can promise you how the market will unfold.

    Not Telling You What Kind of Equipment They’re Using

    When using the services of cloud-based Bitcoin mining sites, you don’t get to choose the equipment that they will use. The providers can only do that, and the investor only gets to choose the provider that they find to be trustworthy.

    That’s why the provider must be open and honest about the equipment and the team that maintains it. If they don’t provide this information, you shouldn’t try to purchase their services. That’s the info you need to make your call, and working without it means something is shady.

    Personal Data Shared with the Provider

    To set up an account for cloud mining, you’ll need to provide personal data. This includes your email, bank account, and e-wallet on which you can transfer the crypto coins once they are mined.

    It’s important to know whether the provider will share this data with a third party. Unfortunately, that’s what often happens in online advertising. In the best scenario, it’s annoying and, at worst, an invasion of privacy.

    Tax-Related Promises

    Some bitcoin mining sites promise that investing in their mining operation means you’ll be sheltered from your tax obligations. At first, one of the things that attracted investors to Bitcoin was that it wasn’t taxed the way traditional fiat currency was. However, this is no longer the case.

    Many governments are starting to track and tax the profits gained from cryptocurrency. This is also something a cloud mining provider can’t promise since it’s beyond their control. However, the chances are that taxation will become more common now when Bitcoin is a part of mainstream finance.

    The Ability to Sell the Contract

    This isn’t a scam but a piece of important information, and if the provider doesn’t offer that information to investors before they sign up, it may be considered a fraud. In addition, you need to know if you can sell the contract to another user if you don’t feel satisfied with it.

    Many providers don’t allow you to sell the contract, and that’s a better way to go than being vague about what kind of options you have down the line. Therefore, honesty and transparency are the most essential features in a cloud mining provider.

    Some Risks Are to Be Expected

    There are always risks involved in cloud mining Bitcoin and Ethereum. When you get the coins you’ve mined, there’s no way to know their value when they are sold. The value of cryptocurrencies has dipped and risen a few times by now.

    However, when you take the long view of things, the value of Bitcoin has grown over 8 times in the past five years. So it’s a safe bet to take as much as a bet can be safe when investing in cryptocurrencies and financial products in general. However, you should know that nothing is certain.

  • Norton 360 Upsets Customers By Installing a Cryptominer

    Norton 360 Upsets Customers By Installing a Cryptominer

    Norton 360 isn’t winning any popularity contests with its latest move, as the software is installing a cryptomining program on customers’ computers.

    Hackers often try to compromise computers in an effort to install crypto mining software and use networks of such devices for their own profit. In view of that, it’s surprising that one of the most popular security and antivirus packages is now installing crypto mining software of its own.

    First noticed by KrebsOnSecurity, Norton Crypto will mine Ethereum when the computer is idle, splitting profit between the user and Norton. The user will make 85%, while Norton keeps 15%.

    According to the company, the feature is opt-in, and users can turn it off if they change their mind. Unfortunately, some users are finding that opting out and removing Norton Crypto is easier said than done.

    Needless to say, borrowing a page from hackers’ playbooks and installing a cryptominer without making its intentions clear is not going over well with customers, and could lead to more than a few defections to other security suites.

  • United Wholesale Mortgage Will Accept Crypto By Year’s End

    United Wholesale Mortgage Will Accept Crypto By Year’s End

    United Wholesale Mortgage has announced it will accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency by year’s end.

    Cryptocurrencies are gaining mainstream traction, with multiple companies accepting them, or investigating the possibility. According to TheStreet, United Wholesale Mortgage plans to accept Bitcoin initially, with support for Ethereum and others coming later.

    “We’ve evaluated the feasibility, and we’re looking forward to being the first mortgage company in America to accept cryptocurrency to satisfy mortgage payments,” said CEO Mat Ishiba “That’s something that we’ve been working on, and we’re excited that hopefully, in Q3, we can actually execute on that before anyone in the country because we are a leader in technology and innovation.”

    “I think we’re starting with Bitcoin, but we’re looking at Ethereum and others,” Ishiba later added. “We’re going to walk before we run, but at the same time, we are definitely a leader in technology and innovation and we are always trying to be the best and the leader in everything we do.”

    The announcement is good news for crypto fans, and shows just how far the technology has entered the mainstream.

  • SpaceX Owns Bitcoin and Ethereum Jumps on News Musk Owns Some

    SpaceX Owns Bitcoin and Ethereum Jumps on News Musk Owns Some

    There were a number of revelations at The B Word conference, including that SpaceX owns Bitcoin and Elon Musk owns Ethereum.

    Elon Musk and his companies have had a complicated relationship with cryptocurrencies. Tesla made headlines when the company purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin in February, before announcing it would accept the crypto as payment in March. Just two months later, Tesla suspended purchases via Bitcoin as a result of the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining.

    There had been rumors Musk’s other company, SpaceX, had also purchased Bitcoin, with Anthony Scaramucci saying so in March.

    According to TheStreet, Musk has now confirmed the rumors at The B Word conference, saying: “I own Bitcoin, Tesla owns Bitcoin, SpaceX owns Bitcoin.”

    The International Business Times reports Musk also said he owns Ethereum crypto as well, driving the price up as much as 12% on the news.

  • Dogecoin Surges to New Heights

    Dogecoin Surges to New Heights

    Dogecoin continues its transition to a serious cryptocurrency, as it surged to an $18 billion market value.

    Dogecoin is unique among cryptocurrencies. It was originally created as a joke and, unlike most other currencies, has no limit on the amount of currency that can be mined.

    Amid a broader surge in cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin has soared to new heights. The currency has gained nearly 100% in the last two days. Even though it’s dropped since its peak, it still has a $16.3 billion market value at the time of writing.

    Dogecoin has received support from high-profile sources. Mark Cuban threw his weight behind the currency when he announced the Mavericks would accept it as payment, and Elon Musk has been a long-time proponent of Dogecoin.

    With bitcoin and Ethereum mining facing a finite future, perhaps Dogecoin will become the next big crypto. In this market, stranger things have happened.

  • Crypto Market Hits Record $2 Trillion Capitalization

    Crypto Market Hits Record $2 Trillion Capitalization

    The cryptocurrency market passed a major milestone Monday, passing $2 trillion market capitalization.

    The crypto market was boosted by bitcoin, which currently makes up over $1 trillion of the total market’s valuation. According to Reuters, analysts say that as long as bitcoin stays above $53,000, it will maintain its $1 trillion valuation. As of the time of writing, bitcoin was sitting comfortably at $58,739.

    Ethereum came in second-place, with a market capitalization of $244 billion. The cost of bitcoin has risen more than 100% this year alone, while Ethereum has risen almost 190%.

    At the same time, according to The Block, bitcoin mining has hit an all-new level of difficulty. As of April 1, “adjusted to 23.14 Trillion on 2:00 UTC time Friday, constituting a 5.82% jump compared to the record on March 20. The latest adjustment is the biggest in percentage terms since January 9, which signals a more considerable amount of bitcoin mining hardware has recently hit the market and subsequently plugged in.”

  • NVIDIA Shipped Driver That Unlocked RTX 3060 Ethereum Mining

    NVIDIA Shipped Driver That Unlocked RTX 3060 Ethereum Mining

    NVIDIA has confirmed it accidentally shipped a driver update that unlocked full-speed Ethereum mining on its RTX 3060 GPU.

    NVIDIA made headlines — and upset crypto miners — when it announced it would throttle its RTX 3060 GPU for Ethereum mining. Because of their high performance and programmability, GPUs are a popular choice for crypto mining. Unfortunately for the rest of the industry, miners have been snapping up GPUs so fast that NVIDIA has been struggling to keep up. As a result, its solution was to hobble the RTX 3060’s performance to 50% if it detects Ethereum mining.

    In a rather embarrassing mistake, the company has admitted a driver update inadvertently disabled the throttling, enabling full-speed performance.

    “A developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations,” an Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “The driver has been removed.”

    It’s unlikely NVIDIA will be able to pursue its plans with the RTX 3060. Even though the company has since pulled the driver, miners will be able to share the accidental version and make sure everyone who wants it has access. There is also no way to prevent users from continuing to use the driver.

    At least for now, it appears NVIDIA’s grand plan will have to wait until its next great GPU is released.

  • Ethereum Is Now Available on Amazon Managed Blockchain

    Ethereum Is Now Available on Amazon Managed Blockchain

    AWS has announced that Ethereum is now generally available on Amazon Managed Blockchain, providing a scalable, managed solution.

    Ethereum is second only to bitcoin, in terms of market capitalization, and enjoys widespread name recognition. Amazon’s support of Ethereum comes amid growing acceptance of blockchain solutions and cryptocurrency among mainstream institutions.

    AWS’ announcement is good news for Ethereum, making it easier for customers to build Ethereum-based applications, automate software upgrades and scale with demand.

    With this launch, AWS customers can easily provision Ethereum nodes in minutes and connect to the public Ethereum main network and test networks such as Rinkeby and Ropsten. With Amazon Managed Blockchain, customers get secure networking, encryption at rest and transport, secure access to the network via standard open-source Ethereum APIs, fast and reliable syncs to the Ethereum blockchain, and durable elastic storage for ledger data. Amazon Managed Blockchain monitors node health, replaces unhealthy nodes, and automates Ethereum software upgrades, improving the availability of customers’ Ethereum infrastructure. In addition to DeFi applications, customers building analytical products such as smart contract monitoring tools and fraud detection software can also benefit from this scalable, highly available, and fully managed Ethereum service on Amazon Managed Blockchain.

    The service is currently available in the US East (N. Virginia), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Seoul), Europe (Ireland), and Europe (London) regions.

  • NVIDIA Will Throttle RTX 3060 GPU For Cryptocurrency Mining

    NVIDIA Will Throttle RTX 3060 GPU For Cryptocurrency Mining

    NVIDIA has announced it will throttle the performance of its upcoming RTX 3060 GPU for Ethereum cryptocurrency mining.

    Graphics cards have increasingly found widespread adoption far beyond their intended target. Because of their programmable nature and high performance, GPUs are used in artificial intelligence, gene sequencing, cryptocurrency mining and more. The downside is that gamers are having a hard time getting their hands on the latest, greatest GPUs, especially with cryptocurrencies at all time highs.

    To alleviate the situation, NVIDIA is artificially throttling the performance of the RTX 3060 — solely for Ethereum cryptocurrency mining. The company says the GPU’s performance will reduce to roughly 50% when it detects mining activity. The company has no plans to limit the performance of existing GPUs.

    At the same time, NVIDIA is announcing the release of the NVIDIA CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor).

    CMP products — which don’t do graphics — are sold through authorized partners and optimized for the best mining performance and efficiency. They don’t meet the specifications required of a GeForce GPU and, thus, don’t impact the availability of GeForce GPUs to gamers.

    That last statement is of particular note, as any impact to GPU production would negate any benefit of discouraging miners from buying them.

  • PayPal Users Can Now Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency

    PayPal Users Can Now Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency

    PayPal has officially expanded its new service enabling users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency.

    PayPal announced in October that it was moving to support cryptocurrency, although it was only available to a limited number of users at the time. PayPal has now expanded the service to all eligible users, supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin within the PayPal digital wallet.

    When PayPal first made their announcement in October, it sparked a BitCoin rally that helped drive the cryptocurrency above $15,000. Today’s news will likely continue to drive the price up.

    “The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO, PayPal. “Our global reach, digital payments expertise, two-sided network, and rigorous security and compliance controls provide us with the opportunity, and the responsibility, to help facilitate the understanding, redemption and interoperability of these new instruments of exchange. We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”

    As part of the news, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted PayPal a first-of-its-kind conditional Bitlicense.

    “NYDFS’ approval today follows our June 2020 announcement for a new framework for a conditional Bitlicense to encourage, promote, and assist interested institutions to have a well-regulated way to access the New York virtual currency marketplace in a way that is both timely and protective of New York consumers, through partnerships with New York authorized virtual currency firms,” said Linda A. Lacewell, superintendent, NYDFS. “NYDFS will continue to encourage and support financial service providers to operate, grow, remain and expand in New York and work with innovators to enable them to germinate and test their ideas, for a dynamic and forward looking financial services sector, especially as we work to build New York back better in the midst of this pandemic.”

    The announcement is good news for PayPal, its customers and cryptocurrency adoption.