Fintech Radar
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Blockchain Fintech Firm, MicroMoney Starts a Private Presale for Early Birds - Markets Insider
SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MicroMoney, a global fintech blockchain company and lending services provider, announces a private presale for its...
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Blockchain Fintech Firm, MicroMoney Starts a Private Presale for Early Birds - PR Newswire (press release)
SINGAPORE, Sept. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Blockchain Fintech Firm, MicroMoney Starts a Private Presale for Early Birds. MicroMoney, the Singapore based...
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Two in Three Central Banks Experiment With Distributed Ledger Technology
Central banks aren't big fans of cryptocurrency but they appreciate the technology under the hood. An interesting concept.
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Roxxxy Sex Robot Faces Stiff Opposition in the United Kingdom
It is rather evident that the concept of sex robots will not go away anytime soon. However, opposition to this industry is growing every single month. One new campaign aims to outlaw robot sex dolls which can be programmed to resist advances. We discussed a similar topic not long ago, and it seems there are more and more arguments being voiced against such devices. Whether or not the latest campaign will be successful remains to be seen. Robot Sex Dolls Remain a Controversial Concept Everyone will readily agree programming a sex doll to have a specific personality is both creepy but somewhat intriguing. Like it or not, the technology is here to let people program a robot to their liking, even if that means they will only use this “tool” for carnal pleasures. There is nothing preventing people from writing their own software to do exactly that. Making it a “mainstream” solution will keep it out of the underground markets and out of the hands of less mentally stable individuals. Or that is the idea, at least. At the same time, we know of at least one manufacturer developing robot sex dolls capable of resisting advances. Many people feel such a development will only encourage rape, although the jury is still out on that one. It is certainly true making a sex robot play “hard to get” will have some consequences in one way or another. It is unclear why anyone would purposefully build such software to begin with, as it just sets a wrong example regardless of how you want to look at things. Katie Parker of the Schools Consent Project is a clear opponent of robot sex dolls. More specifically, she doesn’t like the Roxxxy sex doll one bit, due to its controversial software package. Considering how her organization is all about sexual consent, it is only to be expected that there would be a lot of opposition from that direction. Having a robot which can be programmed to cater to users’ darkest fantasies opens a proverbial Pandora’s Box. According to Parker, it is not an offense to own one of these robot sex dolls in the United Kingdom. Whether or not that situation will change in the future remains to be seen. Rest assured the UK government – as well as politicians all over the world – are taking notice of these new robots and how they can influence our society as a whole. Moreover, she claims dolls like these “normalize sexual violence”. That train of thought is pretty easy to follow, as a sex robot can never give actual consent like a human would. The main point of emphasis for Parker is how we are not dealing with a thinking and feeling human being here. Robots such as Roxxxy are very problematic, as the person “raping” the sex doll presumably wouldn’t feel remorse or be confronted with any repercussions whatsoever. Parker calls this type of robot a “distraction for criminal impulses which should probably be subject to psychiatric intervention.” For the time being, True Companion maintains that its doll is not intended to be programmed to participate in a rape scenario. Moreover, the company feels the allegations made by Parker and others are “pure conjecture”. Then again, it is doubtful such a sex robot would be successful in warding off a sexual assault in the first place. As with all robots, we can only hope that such devices promote happiness and the greater good rather than bring out the worst in humanity.
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Seedrs Return: Chili Sauces & Cooking Pastes Company Mr. Singh’s Launches Second Equity Funding Round
Just one year after launching its first Seedrs campaign, chili sauces and cooking pastes Company Mr. Singh’s has returned to the equity crowdfunding platfo
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Criminals Target CMS Systems to Deploy Malicious Monero Mining Tools
Cybercriminals all over the world have taken a liking to Bitcoin over the past few years. Up to this point, it remains unclear as to why that is, considering Bitcoin has no privacy or anonymity features whatsoever. However, it seems the tide is slowly turning and Monero is quickly becoming the new go-to cryptocurrency in this regard. Especially when it comes to mining Monero, criminals are coming up with increasingly crafty solutions. Malicious Cryptocurrency Mining Efforts Intensify Given the recent surge in Monero mining-related scripts on websites, it is not entirely surprising to see criminals take a keen interest in this new “industry”. More specifically, they are trying to come up with new ways to mine Monero using other people’s computing resources. Embedding a mining script on webpages has proven to be quite successful in this regard, and it looks as if we will see even more efforts like these in the near future. More specifically, a new report by IBM’s X-Force shows how the number of attacks related to delivering cryptocurrency mining tools on enterprise networks has increased. That is not a good sign by any means, as it shows criminals are looking for new ways to maliciously mine Monero. For now, the preferred attack vector involves infecting WordPress and Joomla servers with such mining scripts. There are actually multiple ways to infect sites with malicious cryptocurrency mining “tools”. Embedding Javascript on a hacked site is just one of the many ways to successfully achieve such goals. It has proven to be pretty lucrative over these past few weeks, although this is likely only the beginning. CMS platforms such as Joomla, WordPress and even JBoss lend themselves perfectly to the installation of such scripts. However, another method growing in popularity involves modifying image files. In some instances, the assailants will use steganography to embed cryptocurrency mining tools within image files. We have written about this concept in the past already and it appears this attack vector is only getting more popular. After all, no one would expect an image file to mine Monero on behalf of criminals, yet that is exactly what is happening these days. What is even more worrisome is how such Monero mining attacks often target manufacturing and financial services websites right now. Arts and entertainment is another popular sector in this regard. Surprisingly enough, the retail sector doesn’t suffer from such hacking attempts all that much. Considering how many images they host for products and services, one would expect things to turn out very differently. This doesn’t mean that trend will not change, though. Last but not least, the report shows how new versions of the Mirai botnet no longer support cryptocurrency mining features right now. That is one positive trend people need to pay a bit more attention to. This doesn’t mean Miria botnet software is no longer actively distributed, mind you. However, it shows things are changing in the world of cybercrime, and countering the new trends will not be easy.
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Nordic Countries Prepare to Integrate Alipay Functionality Soon
Sweden is seemingly the first country to make a big move with Alipay. Several merchants have launched the payment option through a local partner.
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Charlie Lee: China Won’t Ban Cryptocurrency Mining
To this day, there are still a lot of questions and uncertainties regarding the Bitcoin situation in China. While it is evident large exchanges will halt CNY trading, it remains to be seen if the mining sector will be affected as well. For now, it does not appear this will be the case, and Charlie Lee recently stated as much on Twitter. However, there is no official source either confirming or countering Lee’s tweet. Mining Cryptocurrency in China is Still Fine Given China’s stance on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency these days, it is not entirely surprising that there are a lot of questions remaining to be answered. More specifically, we know the exchanges in the country will effectively halt the trading of Bitcoin and other altcoins linked to the CNY market. That much is a given right now, although cryptocurrencies themselves can effectively be exchanged intermittently. The latter point confirms that China has no plans to outlaw Bitcoin by any means. One thing that remains a big mystery is whether or not cryptocurrency mining operations in the country will be affected in any significant manner. More specifically, there has been no official statement regarding the ban of mining operations, but the PBoC and Chinese government have not officially stated they will allow it to continue either. This vague stance regarding mining is quite troublesome when looking at the bigger picture in China. 1/ I have a trusted source that says that there's no truth to China banning mining or network. FYI, I haven't made any trades on this info. — Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) September 22, 2017 According to the above tweet by Charlie Lee, there currently are no plans to suspend cryptocurrency mining in the country. Although he claims to have a trusted source, it remains to be seen if this is actually the case. Most people are well aware that Chinese mining pools provide a lot of hashpower to the Bitcoin network right now. The same goes for Litecoin and a few other cryptocurrencies in existence today. If that support were to cease all of a sudden, things could get very dire for all affected currencies. There are multiple reasons why China wouldn’t ban cryptocurrency mining, though. First of all, the government is not cracking down on cryptocurrencies themselves. It simply wants to get a much tighter grasp on capital outflows involving CNY. Up to this point, buying and selling cryptocurrency was one way to successfully circumvent most limits in this regard. It was only a matter of time before the government started paying closer attention to this. Secondly, the Chinese government isn’t banning the exchange of cryptocurrencies either. Indeed, exchange users can still trade between different cryptocurrencies without any problem. This indicates there is plenty of reason to let people mine cryptocurrencies, although care must be taken to not attribute value to cryptos themselves. The latter are tradable only against other cryptocurrencies in China, but it is possible users would find ways to circumvent the “ban on fiat trading” using other methods. Assuming the mining of cryptocurrency is not prohibited in China, things will get pretty interesting moving forward. This shows the country will remain a big player in the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Moreover, it goes to show any negative repercussions of decisions made by the PBoC should be behind us from now on. The central bank played its final card and will have no other means of affecting cryptocurrency markets whatsoever. An interesting future lies ahead for cryptocurrency, though; that much is certain.