The most important news of the cryptoindustry
1. Ethereum Developers postpone Constantinople Hard Fork
The release of Ethereum Constantinople Hard Fork developers has been rescheduled release due to a newly discovered vulnerability. It was detected by ChainSecurity, a smart contract audit firm and revealed in their blog post on January, 15. Constantinople upgrade will provide cheaper transaction fees for operations in Ethereum network. On the other side, there is an unexpected issue related to the possibility of reentrancy attacks due to some functions in smart contracts.
This vulnerability allows stealing ETH from a smart contract deployed in the network by repeatedly requesting funds from it while sending false data about actual ETH balance.
2. NZ Exchange Cryptopia Reports Hack With ‘Significant Losses’
On January 15, New Zealand exchange — Cryptopia posted a tweet that it had suspended service due to a major hack. According to their tweet, the hack happened on January 14, resulted in significant losses. Before an official disclosure, the NZ exchange notified about unscheduled maintenance. Cruptopia also reported that it had informed public authorities, including the New Zealand Police and High Tech Crimes Unit. Crypto community has met this news with a lot of skepticism.
3. BitMex Shutting Down Trading Accounts in the US and Quebec
BitMex, the Hong Kong-based Bitcoin trading platform with a current turnover of $928 billion, is shutting down trading accounts in the US and Canadian province of Quebec in the face of current crackdowns on unlicensed crypto exchanges.
The Canadian regulatory body recently informed, that BitMex is now operating illegally in Canada and is therefore not authorized to have activities in the province of Quebec. There has been no news to why BitMex is suspending trading accounts on their platform in the US, but it is assumed, the reasons for this are similar. However, the exchange was in fine form over the past 24-hours and still has almost a billion dollars worth of crypto-assets on their platform.
4. South Korea Changes Tax Policy for Blockchain Companies
The South Korean government informed that in order to enhance the growth of the market it would change tax policy for blockchain companies. The Research and Development (R&D) tax credit includes the blockchain industry. Due to these laws, blockchain enterprises will be able to save up to 40% for R&D expenses.
5. Winklevoss Twins’ Commitment to Bitcoin ETF
On January, 7 during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session Cameron Winklevoss mentioned that “Bitcoin is most likely the winner in the long term”.
His twin, Tyler Winklevoss, also believes that BTC has a bright future: “We believe bitcoin is better at being gold than gold. If we’re right, then over time the market cap of Bitcoin will surpass the ~7 trillion dollar market cap of gold.” Crypto brothers also specified that they “are committed as ever to making an ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) a reality!”
6. Twitch streamer received $73,000 worth Bitcoin donation
An Anonymous donation of 20 Bitcoins (worth approx. $73 000) has shocked Twitch streamer, Sick Nerd. He thought that someone was mocking him while he was streaming RuneScape to his 109,000 followers.
He was surprised as it was the largest donation he had ever received. He thanked his donator on Twitter, added that he will be responsible with this money.
