Author: Vickie Helm

When Iowa Attorney General Brenna Byrd filed a lawsuit against CoinFlip and Bitcoin Depot earlier this year, there were some astronomical voices calling this push for consumer protection “anti-cryptocurrency.” they are wrong. Cryptocurrency ATMs (physical kiosks where users can purchase cryptocurrencies) have become a means of fraud and need reform.Law enforcement, regulators, and consumer advocacy groups have all expressed concerns about these machines for years. Brian Schwalb of DC AG sued Athena Bitcoin in September. Pennsylvania AG Dave Sunday warned that BATM is a “magnet for scammers.” Arizona AG Chris Mays even posted “STOP” signs at some crypto ATM locations.…

The digital economy was once again caught by surprise on October 20 when Amazon Web Services suffered its second major outage of the year, devastating exchange platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood, as well as the analytics service Coinmarketcap. A second smaller outage occurred just 10 days later.According to Amazon’s initial report, the Oct. 20 outage was caused by a malfunction affecting one of the internal subsystems that manage the domain name service, causing connectivity issues across multiple services. This was due to a flaw in an update that ended up breaking Amazon’s critical US-East-1 region. It’s a massive hub…

The world of cryptocurrencies has always had a strange relationship with privacy. Cypherpunk dates back to the 1990s, when cryptographers and activists spread a manifesto for using encryption to defeat government surveillance, and privacy has been treated as almost sacrosanct ever since. Eric Hughes, one of the founders of the cypherpunk movement, wrote in 1993 that “cypherpunks don’t wait for governments to protect their freedom; they write code.” Another early cypherpunk, John Gilmore, wanted assurances that would keep even the NSA at bay, “by physics and mathematics, not by law.” This radical spirit gave birth to Bitcoin and inspired coins…

Cryptoassets have emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in global finance, presenting significant opportunities for both retail and institutional investors. With European revenues expected to grow by more than 30% each year, Europe is well placed to take full advantage of the growth in this dynamic sector, but it must embrace scrutiny and adapt quickly or risk being left behind.The recent adoption of the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) Regulation by the European Union (EU) is a significant step forward in supporting the acceptance of the crypto industry on the continent and has helped establish Europe as a…

If an AI system were to successfully attack or destroy the cryptography of a well-regarded blockchain, even in the field of white-hat research, all the panic selling of cryptocurrencies that had occurred up to that moment would be dwarfed. If quantum computers destroy blockchain, we might all just close up shop. The whole point of blockchain would be forever undermined.The good news is that there is a clearly defined technology roadmap to avoid this. Some protocols already implement it, although not enough. But why are so many people lacking?This is a real and immediate threat, and the crypto industry is…

Today’s “Crypto for Advisors” newsletter Kevin O’Leary, entrepreneur and investor Kevin O’Leary shares both his opinion and his paper on crypto investment, and how both have changed over time.MLTECH CEO Leo Mindyuk then answers questions about how daily investors can access these investments in “Ask An Expert to Experts.”- Sarah MortonRethinking Crypto Investing: Looking beyond digital assetsFrom garbage to money: Why code?In 2019, I made headlines by calling Bitcoin “garbage.” At the time, there were no regulations or oversights. It was chaos. The government was hostile and unsure of how to approach code. Now the scenery has completely changed.For days…

As a lifelong Democrat and former Virginia governor, I always believed that our party should be on the side of growth, innovation and economic opportunity. That’s why I’m worried that too many Democrats are on the sidelines or are getting in the way of one of the most transformative financial innovations of our time: blockchain and cryptocurrency.Blockchain and Crypto are already driving job creation nationwide, from data centers and fintech startups to cybersecurity companies and developers working on decentralized infrastructure. This technology means more jobs, higher wages, and more money in people’s pockets, especially in communities that have been left…

In recent months, the Secretary of the Currency (OCC) Federal Office has shown a more acceptable regulatory stance on national banks and federal savings associations (collectively known as banks) engaged in crypto assets activities. “I will continue to work diligently to ensure that regulations are effective and not overloaded while maintaining a strong federal banking system,” said the deputy chief of currency Rodney E. Hood earlier this year.On March 7th, the OCC officially began to begin a transition from a Biden-era approach to regulating banks’ crypto asset activities through the issuance of interpretations. Through this interpretation, the OCC has revoked…

Blockchain Analytics Firm Arkham Intelligence has launched a new tagging system on its platform, allowing users to track cryptocurrency transactions of influential people in the cryptocurrency space.The feature, announced in the X post, applies to people with over 100,000 followers on the microblog platform, labeling them as “key opinion leaders” or KOLS, and linking the associated wallet addresses.The new tag currently has 950 addresses. Among those identified are Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Crypto Antrepreneur Justin Sun, Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, Yomen Finance, Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje, and US President Donald Trump.

Virtually every bitcoiner might think they are excited by the concept of the US government obtaining BTC (and perhaps a basket of other crypto assets) and effectively ratifying it as a resultant global asset. But I count myself among a few holdouts where development is not considered positive for Bitcoin or the US government itself. There are eight reasons why you don’t support policies.What you can do is easily revertIf Bitcoiners want to sustain the reserve, they should want Trump to seek Congressional approval for the purchase (as is customary due to large spending). If it was done solely by…