{"id":19053,"date":"2021-03-29T22:11:09","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T22:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=19053"},"modified":"2022-04-14T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T22:12:08","slug":"news-vanishing-nfts-free-keene-not-so-free-coinbase-wash-trading-litecoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/03\/29\/news-vanishing-nfts-free-keene-not-so-free-coinbase-wash-trading-litecoin\/","title":{"rendered":"News: vanishing NFTs, Free Keene not so free, Coinbase wash-trading Litecoin"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>I have printed copies of <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/libra\/\"><em>Libra Shrugged<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\"><em>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain<\/em><\/a> here \u2014 if you\u2019d like to get yourself copies of the books signed by the author, <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/11\/26\/get-signed-copies-of-libra-shrugged-and-attack-of-the-50-foot-blockchain\/\">go to this post and see how much to PayPal me.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>You can support my work by signing up for the Patreon \u2014 a few dollars every month ensures the continuing flow of delights. It really does help. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\"><i>Patreon<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>I added a $100\/month Corporate tier to the Patreon \u2014 you get early access to stories I&#8217;m working on, and the opportunity to ask your blockchain questions and have me answer! You get that on the other tiers too \u2014 but the number is bigger on this tier, and will look more impressive on your analyst newsletter expense account. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/join\/davidgerard\/checkout?rid=6951364\"><em>Patreon<\/em><\/a>]<\/li>\n<li>And tell your friends and colleagues to sign up for this newsletter by email! [<a href=\"#byemail\"><i>scroll down, or click here<\/i><\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Prole art threat<\/h3>\n<p>I&#8217;m an &#8220;is it art?&#8221; maximalist. NFTs <i>can<\/i> be used for creative artistic value \u2014 just as anything can. The creator and the buyers are playing a game together; there can be genuine appreciation and participation there. I&#8217;m not gonna tell &#8217;em they&#8217;re wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it may be art, but it can <i>also<\/i> be a reprehensible scam. The serious problems with the wider NFT market remain. And when the KLF burnt a million quid, they only set it on fire <i>once.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>If you think of the most absolutely inept and trash-tier way of performing any real-world function, then crypto will reliably not meet even that bar.<\/p>\n<p>The pictures for NFTs are often stored on the Interplanetary File System, or IPFS. Blockchain promoters talk like IPFS is some sort of bulletproof cloud storage that works by magic and unicorns.<\/p>\n<p>But functionally, IPFS works the same way as BitTorrent with magnet links \u2014 if nobody bothers seeding your file, there&#8217;s no file there. Nifty Gateway turn out not to bother to seed literally the files they sold, a few weeks later. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CheckMyNFT\/status\/1371633090318249984\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CheckMyNFT\/status\/1372253288863825925\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>How does the OpenSea NFT platform deal with copyright violations? They keep the unfortunate buyer&#8217;s money \u2014 and tell them they should have done their own research. (Story by Ben Munster.) [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/pkdj79\/peoples-expensive-nfts-keep-vanishing-this-is-why\"><i>Vice<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Beeple has made the wisest play in the NFT game \u2014 he got the $60 million in ether for his JPEG, and sold it for dollars <i>immediately.<\/i> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/tech\/annals-of-technology\/how-beeple-crashed-the-art-world\"><i>New Yorker<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"nl\" dir=\"ltr\">woopsie <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sAQBee0YJ5\">pic.twitter.com\/sAQBee0YJ5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kim Parker (@thatkimparker) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thatkimparker\/status\/1375980331740790788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>This is Radio Freedom<\/h3>\n<p>Activists from the Free Keene movement, who seek to turn Keene, New Hampshire into a Libertarian paradise, are being ground under the statist jackboot \u2014 just for using sound money on a website!<\/p>\n<p>Well, running a money transmission business \u2014 specifically, exchanging cryptocurrency for actual money \u2014 that wasn&#8217;t &#8220;licensed&#8221; by the bureaucratic oppressors who hate freedom. And something about opening bank accounts in the names of churches \u2014 &#8220;The Shire Free Church&#8221;, &#8220;The Crypto Church of NH&#8221;, &#8220;The Church of the Invisible Hand&#8221;, and &#8220;The Reformed Satanic Church&#8221; \u2014 and pretending that the money coming in was tax-deductible religious donations. The usual governmental overreach. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-nh\/pr\/six-charged-crimes-related-virtual-currency-exchange-business\"><i>Justice Department<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/new-hampshire\/concord-nh\/free-keene-activists-indicted-virtual-currency-charges\"><i>Patch<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nhd.56164\/gov.uscourts.nhd.56164.1.0.pdf\"><i>indictment<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/59736221\/united-states-v-freeman\/\"><i>case docket<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Ian Freeman (<a href=\"https:\/\/rationalwiki.org\/wiki\/Freeman_on_the_land\">On The Land?<\/a>) had $1.6 million worth of bitcoins, and $178,000 in a safe, when the FBI raided the house where the arrestees lived \u2014 which was owned by &#8220;Shire Free Church Monadnock.&#8221; The same house was raided by the FBI in 2016 \u2014 on an investigation into child pornography. Must be one of those coincidences. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sentinelsource.com\/news\/local\/fbi-conducts-investigations-in-keene-this-morning\/article_c617d24b-d5af-521a-a1ef-6bb4cafa3103.html\"><i>Keene Sentinel<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/ltR62\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unionleader.com\/news\/crime\/prosecutor-alleged-money-launderer-ian-freeman-holds-1-6-million-in-bitcoins\/article_f25e6c43-a0c5-5e2f-bec5-508a98fcc7d0.html\"><i>Union Leader<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210319225043\/https:\/\/www.unionleader.com\/news\/crime\/prosecutor-alleged-money-launderer-ian-freeman-holds-1-6-million-in-bitcoins\/article_f25e6c43-a0c5-5e2f-bec5-508a98fcc7d0.html\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>For those whose day isn&#8217;t complete without some cheering Cantwell News \u2014 you know who you are \u2014 this particular bunch are all ex-friends of Chris &#8220;The Crying Nazi&#8221; Cantwell, who moved to Keene specifically to join Free Keene. The recently-arrested activists now claim Cantwell was never part of Free Keene, but that&#8217;s completely false \u2014 they showed up as moral support to Cantwell&#8217;s recent trial on threats of rape, only to throw him under the bus when he was convicted. [<a href=\"https:\/\/manchesterinklink.com\/crying-nazi-appeals-conviction\/\"><i>Manchester Ink Link<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In my 2019 Foreign Policy piece on the ways neo-Nazis used Bitcoin, this bit at the end was about Cantwell: [<a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2019\/03\/19\/neo-nazis-banked-on-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-farright-christchurch\/\"><i>Foreign Policy<\/i><\/a><i>, 2019<\/i>]<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>One neo-Nazi podcaster found a credit card processor that was fine with the content of his show but said he was untouchable for another reason: He was considered a money laundering risk because he dealt in cryptocurrency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One story that didn&#8217;t get into that piece is how Cantwell got out of jail after the Unite The Right neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina in 2017 and bought up big into Bitcoin! &#8230; right at the December peak of the 2017 bubble. He lost so much money on Bitcoin that he had to sell his guns to pay his lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">every crypto vision of the future is trying to take a technology developed for hyperadversarial contexts and being like Let&#39;s build a society on this. like saying all transit should take place in armored tanks, or all interpersonal disputes should go through full legal discovery<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; stephanie (@isosteph) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/isosteph\/status\/1369773683783258115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 10, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Lie dream of a casino soul<\/h3>\n<p>Coinbase has had to pay a $6.5 million fine to the CFTC for allowing an unnamed employee to wash-trade Litecoin on the platform. On some days, the employee&#8217;s wash-trading was 99% of the Litecoin\/Bitcoin trading pair&#8217;s volume. Coinbase also operated two trading bots, &#8220;Hedger and Replicator,&#8221; which often matched each others&#8217; orders, and reported these matches to the market. [<a href=\"https:\/\/cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/PressReleases\/8369-21\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/media\/5796\/enfcoinbaseorder031921\/download\"><i>order<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF<\/i>]<\/p>\n<p>CFTC commissioner Dawn Stump issued an opinion that concurred with the stated facts, but disputes that the issue was within CFTC&#8217;s jurisdiction, and says that the reporting didn&#8217;t affect the market. This appears not to be the case \u2014 it did affect the markets that depended on Coinbase&#8217;s numbers. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/SpeechesTestimony\/stumpstatement031921#:~:text=The%20CFTC%20does%20not%20regulate%20Coinbase%20(or%20any%20other,for%20cash%20digital%20asset%20transactions).&amp;text=Coinbase%20is%20a%20cash%20market,regulatory%20authority%20under%20the%20CEA.\"><i>CFTC<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/newmoneyreview.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/22\/echoes-of-libor-in-coinbases-bitcoin-price-rigging\/\"><i>New Money Review<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase\u2019s direct listing public offering has been pushed back at least to April \u2014 no reason given, but doubtless <i>coincidental<\/i> with Coinbase getting caught letting an employee run wild wash-trading on the exchange. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloombergquint.com\/business\/coinbase-s-direct-listing-is-said-to-be-pushed-back-to-april\"><i>Bloomberg Quint<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>If Coinbase \u2014 one of the more regulated exchanges \u2014 did this, just think what the unregulated exchanges get up to.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg reports a CFTC probe into Binance, and whether the non-US exchange had US customers \u2014 attributed to unnamed &#8220;people familiar with the matter.&#8221; There doesn&#8217;t seem to be further news on this one as yet. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bnnbloomberg.ca\/binance-probed-by-cftc-over-whether-u-s-residents-made-trades-1.1576124\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Ben Delo and Arthur Hayes from BitMEX will be surrendering to US authorities to face the Department of Justice charges against them. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-03-15\/bitmex-founder-delo-surrenders-to-face-u-s-laundering-charges\"><i>Bloomberg<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ppogodin\/status\/1372077096441368578\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Bennett Tomlin summarises what Bitfinex\/Tether executives did before Bitfinex or Tether. [<a href=\"https:\/\/bennettftomlin.com\/2021\/03\/27\/before-bitfinex-and-tether\/\"><i>blog post<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Said differently &#8211; unfortunately Coinbase requires its customers to retain counsel to get customer service&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; David Silver (SILVER MILLER) (@dcsilver) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dcsilver\/status\/1376626212072751111?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 29, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Baby&#8217;s on fire<\/h3>\n<p>Alex de Vries (Digiconomist) has a study published in Joule on what the rising Bitcoin price means for the Bitcoin network&#8217;s energy consumption. He thinks the Bitcoin network could already ues as much energy as every other data centre in the world \u2014 with a carbon footprint the size of London. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/joule\/fulltext\/S2542-4351(21)00083-0\"><i>Joule<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCoin miners have basically added a province\u2019s worth of electricity consumption without adding a province\u2019s worth of economic output, so Bitcoin mining is actually a net drag on the economy as a whole,\u201d Tim Swanson told Al Jazeera. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/economy\/2021\/3\/17\/climate-concerns-to-crime-bitcoins-dark-side-draws-scrutiny\"><i>Al Jazeera<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In late 2017, Benjamin Reynolds of Control-Finance Ltd ran a Bitcoin investment scam in the UK. The CFTC, in association with the FCA, now have a $571 million default judgement against him. The hard part: finding him. [<a href=\"https:\/\/cftc.gov\/PressRoom\/PressReleases\/8371-21\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>New Bitcoin use case found! Selling fake insider trading tips on the dark web. [<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press-release\/2021-51\">SEC<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/litigation\/complaints\/2021\/comp-pr2021-51.pdf\">complaint<\/a>, PDF<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An entire generation (or maybe just a cargo cult on twitter\/reddit) read the inflation chapter of an econ textbook, panicked &amp; stopped before they read the rest. Maybe the fed should do some PSAs or something. Pay <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cullenroche?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@cullenroche<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheStalwart?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@TheStalwart<\/a> to do a youtube series.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Singer (@AdamSinger) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSinger\/status\/1376327709459107840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 29, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Be less Brenda<\/h3>\n<p>The Advertising Standards Authority (UK) has finally acted against an ad for Bitcoin \u2014 in this case, a Coinfloor ad running in local papers, featuring a woman buying bitcoins with a third of her pension. The complainant said the ad was:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ol>\n<li>misleading, because it failed to make clear the risks associated with Bitcoin investments, including loss of capital, and that neither Coinfloor Ltd nor the general Bitcoin market were regulated in the UK; and<\/li>\n<li>socially irresponsible, because it suggested that purchasing Bitcoin was a good or secure way to invest one\u2019s savings or pension.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The ASA upheld both objections. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.asa.org.uk\/rulings\/coinfloor-ltd-a20-1086982-coinfloor-ltd.html\"><i>ASA<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In 1955, a McDonald&#39;s hamburger cost $0.15. Today, they&#39;re worth $2.50 each.<\/p>\n<p>If you had bought 400,000 of them for just $60,000 and never sold, those burgers would be worth $1,000,000 today.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/investing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#investing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CFA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CFA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/compounders?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#compounders<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; abstractify \ud83d\udcda (@abstractify) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/abstractify\/status\/1373312221736996865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Carpe Diem<\/h3>\n<p>Facebook&#8217;s Diem applied for a money transmitter licence to FINMA, the Swiss regulator, in April 2020 \u2014 back when it was still called Libra. The application is still pending, nearly a year later. FINMA apparently has internal disagreements on whether to let Diem go forward \u2014 and they know they absolutely need this to be okay with regulators in the US and EU before they proceed. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.srf.ch\/audio\/echo-der-zeit\/facebook-waehrung-finma-vor-schwierigem-entscheid?partId=11956384\"><i>SRF<\/i><\/a><i>, audio in German; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ichunddu\/status\/1375877775324766209\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Weil, one of Libra\/Diem&#8217;s four founders, and co-author of the Libra white paper, has quit Facebook Financial. He&#8217;s moving to satellite surveillance startup Planet.com. &#8220;I&#8217;m beyond excited to be working on a non-zombie project,&#8221; Weil didn&#8217;t quite say. [<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kevinweil\/status\/1372535688848048131\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.planet.com\/pulse\/preparing-to-scale-planet-welcomes-kevin-weil-as-president-product-and-business\/\"><i>Planet<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m wondering how long before David Marcus gets bored running WhatsApp Pay and wanders off too. There&#8217;s still active contributions to the Diem GitHub repo, if only from Facebook staff. [<a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/diem\/diem\/commits\/main\"><i>GitHub<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The East Caribbean Central Bank is launching its <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/09\/11\/central-bank-digital-currency-bahamas-sand-dollar-eastern-caribbean-dcash\/\">DCash CBDC pilot<\/a> on 31 March. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eccb-centralbank.org\/news\/view\/eccb-governor-announces-dcash-public-launch\"><i>ECCB<\/i><\/a><i>, <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20210316202708\/https:\/\/www.eccb-centralbank.org\/news\/view\/eccb-governor-announces-dcash-public-launch\"><i>archive<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>The European Central bank has blogged on their plans for a digital euro! That is: no specific plans whatsoever, and repeated reassurances that they&#8217;re not about to replace cash, impose negative interest rates, or push out the commercial banks. And they don&#8217;t have a consumer use case as yet. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecb.europa.eu\/press\/blog\/date\/2021\/html\/ecb.blog210325~e22188c522.en.html\"><i>ECB<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Facebook&#39;s strategy for protecting their crypto projects from regulators is to rename the project and cycle out all the executives every 6 months so that no regulator can possibly remember if &quot;that Libra or Diem thing&quot; is still around<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kyle S. Gibson a Web5 CEO (@KyleSGibson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KyleSGibson\/status\/1372587080086343686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>ICO, ICO<\/h3>\n<p>Telegram&#8217;s ICO failed so hard that founder Pavel Durov ended up <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/05\/16\/telegram-most-russian-investors-accepting-72-payout-telegram-takes-500m-of-loans\/\">owing $500 million to investors<\/a> \u2014 specifically, the sort of investors who have <i>robust<\/i> ideas on how to deal with perceived shenanigans. &#8220;Pavel\u2019s got a smart team, I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll come up with something,&#8221; said one creditor.<\/p>\n<p>Durov announced in December that Telegram would start running advertising in public channels. [<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/durov\/142\"><i>Telegram<\/i><\/a>] Now Durov has announced a $1 billion bond issue. [<a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/durov\/155\"><i>Telegram<\/i><\/a>] He is delighted to share that he can finally pay back the guys who put money into the ICO, and that he will continue to enjoy the use of his limbs.<\/p>\n<p>SEC&#8217;s action against Ripple Labs, claiming XRP is a security, continues \u2014 and so far, they&#8217;re still sniping over what the case will cover:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">The SEC asks to strike Ripple&#8217;s Fourth Affirmative Defense, \u201cLack of Due Process and Fair Notice&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ripple complains that the SEC won&#8217;t submit documents in discovery on what it thinks of Bitcoin and Ethereum;<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Ripple executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen ask to quash the SEC subpoenas to look into their personal bank accounts;<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">and John Deaton, representing a group calling itself the XRP Holders, wishes to join the case on the grounds that the SEC has damaged the value of their XRP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Much of this will be dealt with in pleadings to be filed over April, May and June. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.courtlistener.com\/docket\/19857399\/securities-and-exchange-commission-v-ripple-labs-inc\/\"><i>Case docket, with linked PDFs<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Trailofbits has been fuzz-testing the compiler for Solidity \u2014 the language most blockchain smart contracts are written in \u2014 for bugs and vulnerabilities. [<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.trailofbits.com\/2021\/03\/23\/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-compiler-fuzzing-campaign\/\"><i>Trailofbits<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We do have proof that the FTC did, in fact, say \u201cButtcoin\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5eywXuXsO2\">https:\/\/t.co\/5eywXuXsO2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QaxYL9OfYg\">https:\/\/t.co\/QaxYL9OfYg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Buttcoin (@ButtCoin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ButtCoin\/status\/1374838107460136967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Things happen<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2021\/03\/05\/news-india-crypto-ban-north-korea-bitmex-execs-to-appear-ibm-blockchain-dead-more-mcafee-charges\/\">The crypto ban in India<\/a> looks set to go ahead, penalising miners and traders \u2014 &#8220;Officials are confident of getting the bill enacted into law as Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government holds a comfortable majority in parliament.&#8221; You&#8217;ll have six months to liquidate your holding. [<a href=\"https:\/\/reut.rs\/38DNdO6\"><i>Reuters<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Indian companies will have to disclose their crypto holdings in their profit-and-loss and balance sheets. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mca.gov.in\/Ministry\/pdf\/ScheduleIIIAmendmentNotification_24032021.pdf\"><i>Ministry of Corporate Affairs<\/i><\/a><i>, PDF; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.financemagnates.com\/cryptocurrency\/regulation\/india-mandates-public-and-private-firms-to-disclose-crypto-holdings\/\"><i>Finance Magnates<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>How&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2020\/05\/15\/news-9-billion-tethers-reddit-tokens-kik-is-doomed-singapore-joins-libra-chinas-cbdc\/\">Reddit&#8217;s subforum crypto token experiment<\/a> going? Well, \/r\/cryptocurrency is now pay-to-post \u2014 1000 MOON tokens a month, or $5. You can imagine my surprise at seeing the scheme end up being run as a scam to enrich local forum moderators. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Buttcoin\/comments\/mae3j2\/as_a_sign_of_the_times_rcc_is_now_charging_to\/\"><i>Reddit<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Visa moves to allow payment settlements using dollar-substitute stablecoin USDC, in a pilot programme with Anchorage and Crypto.com: &#8220;Visa has launched a pilot that allows Crypto.com to send USDC to Visa to settle a portion of its obligations for the Crypto.com Visa card program.&#8221; The size of the &#8220;portion&#8221; is not specified. Visa also tweeted some non-detail details. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.businesswire.com\/news\/home\/20210329005171\/en\/Visa-Becomes-First-Major-Payments-Network-to-Settle-Transactions-in-USD-Coin-USDC\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/reut.rs\/3rAS3SG\"><i>Reuters<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/terryangelos\/status\/1376539932588531714\"><i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Former SEC chair Jay Clayton has his first post-SEC crypto consulting gig \u2014 as an advisor to One River Digital Asset Management. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.prnewswire.com\/news-releases\/one-river-digital-asset-management-welcomes-jay-clayton-kevin-hassett-and-jon-orszag-to-newly-formed-academic-and-regulatory-advisory-council-301257503.html\"><i>press release<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I have digitized<br \/>your plums<br \/>and sold them<br \/>although, strictly speaking,<br \/>I sold a hash<br \/>of a URL<br \/>to a JSON file<br \/>describing your plums<br \/>in perpetuity<br \/>or, for as long as <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3jkcTOHQBo\">https:\/\/t.co\/3jkcTOHQBo<\/a> stays in business<br \/>the plums themselves? i burned them<br \/>forgive me<br \/>they made a lot of smoke<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Holmes (@ianholmes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ianholmes\/status\/1372256722081832961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Living on video<\/h3>\n<p>I did a ton of media on NFTs in the past month, including the BBC&#8217;s explainer: What are NFTs and why are some worth millions? &#8220;The same guys who&#8217;ve always been at it, trying to come up with a new form of worthless magic bean that they can sell for money.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-56371912\"><i>BBC<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Business Insider writes on NFTs, quoting me \u2014 and the Independent quotes Business Insider quoting me. [<a href=\"https:\/\/markets.businessinsider.com\/currencies\/news\/big-short-michael-burry-slams-nft-crypto-grifters-magic-beans-2021-3-1030214014\">Business Insider<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/big-short-michael-burry-nfts-b1818132.html\">Independent<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I went on the Coingeek Conversations podcast again, to talk about NFTs with Josh Petty, <i>a.k.a.<\/i> Elon Moist of Twetch. We ended up agreeing on most stuff \u2014 that you can definitely do good and fun things with NFTs, but the present mainstream market is awful. [<a href=\"https:\/\/coingeek.com\/josh-petty-and-david-gerard-nfts-new-opportunity-or-crypto-scam-video\/\"><i>Coingeek<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t yet know of anyone <i>busted<\/i> for money-laundering through NFTs, but it&#8217;s the obvious use case for objects of purely subjective value being traded in an art market at the speed of crypto. Crypto News has an article, with quotes from me. [<a href=\"https:\/\/cryptonews.com\/exclusives\/money-laundering-might-taint-nfts-too-prepare-for-tighter-co-9689.htm\"><i>Crypto News<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I was interviewed on NTD about NFTs: Expert Warns About NFT Digital Crypto Art. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ntd.com\/expert-warns-about-nft-digital-crypto-art_582455.html\"><i>NTD<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Kenny Schachter from Artnet writes about NFTs. He&#8217;s an art professor, and very much into the potential of NFTs, but he was great to talk to about this stuff. [<a href=\"https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/opinion\/kenny-schacher-revisits-the-theme-of-nft-art-1954109\"><i>Artnet<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t name it until it airs \u2014 they&#8217;re worried about their competition sniping them \u2014 but I recorded a segment this evening on NFTs for a TV show with quite a large and important audience. Should be out tomorrow, or maybe the day after.<\/p>\n<p>Someone sold a house for $3.3 million in bitcoins. I went on a TV segment about it, to explain what the heck a bitcoin is. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsy.com\/stories\/3-3-million-house-for-sale-among-first-to-accept-bitcoin\/\"><i>video<\/i><\/a><i>; <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/3-3-million-house-sale-190136002.html\"><i>transcript<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Sky News Arabia has a 28-minute bitcoin documentary, with me in \u2014 my bits are 15:19\u201315:34, 16:42\u201317:13 (holding up one book backwards) and 17:42\u201318:12. It&#8217;s all in Arabic, so I have no idea of its quality, but they&#8217;re part of the sane Sky News (UK), not the crazy one (Australia). I&#8217;m told the voiceover translations of my bits are accurate. [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CLHxSp_JOYU\"><i>YouTube<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>I talked about celebrity crypto scams on NTD \u2014 the Elon Musk scams on Twitter, and the Instagram influencer who conned his followers out of bitcoins. Had to use the laptop camera, but ehh, it gave usable results. My segment starts 17:34. [<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/hZ8DGBdd0ZM?t=1054\"><i>YouTube<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Not cryptocurrency related \u2014 that&#8217;s coming later, when we do the &#8220;Bitcoin Nazis&#8221; episode \u2014 but I&#8217;m on the podcast <i>I Don&#8217;t Speak German<\/i>, talking to a couple of antifa commies about Scott Alexander, author of the Intellectual Dark Web rationalist blog Slate Star Codex. <i>I Don&#8217;t Speak German<\/i> is mostly about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, and Slate Star Codex isn&#8217;t really that \u2014 but Scott Alexander is a massive and explicit fan of eugenics, &#8220;human biodiversity&#8221; (scientific racism), sterilising those he sees as unfit, and the neoreactionary movement, so that was close enough for our purposes. (For cites on all those claims, listen to the podcast.) It was a fun episode. Also appearing is Elizabeth Sandifer, author of <i>Neoreaction a Basilisk<\/i> (<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2rzfSOA\">UK<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2G78K0i\">US<\/a>)<i>,<\/i> and the person responsible for me starting <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\"><i>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.<\/i><\/a> [<a href=\"https:\/\/idontspeakgerman.libsyn.com\/82-scott-alexander-slate-star-codex-with-david-gerard-and-elizabeth-sandifer\"><i>I Don&#8217;t Speak German<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Hint for crypto video media: when sending a query, say who the hosts and all the guests are, and what the format is. The media arm of one crypto news site that&#8217;s definitely large enough to know better nearly (inadvertently) sprang an ambush live debate on me, until I questioned more closely. Don&#8217;t be the outlet that your prospective subjects warn each other about.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rare that a single tweet so perfectly encapsulates everything that makes my skin crawl about SF Bay Area&#39;s moneyed, whitebread techie monoculture. Truly the most cursed thing I have seen in recent memory. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8eCWPGlu1O\">https:\/\/t.co\/8eCWPGlu1O<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; KC (@KdotCdot) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KdotCdot\/status\/1372663203134459908?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 18, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Check out my technical analysis on the stuck boat, big breakout incoming. Should be unstuck any time now. Very bullish <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u2BknxUyqT\">pic.twitter.com\/u2BknxUyqT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; G. Kennedy Fuld Jr., CFA, MBA, ChEA, FRM (@MemberSee) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MemberSee\/status\/1375098873694334980?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 25, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pavel Durov is delighted to share that he can finally pay back the guys who put money into the Telegram ICO, and that he will continue to enjoy the use of his limbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1624,1355,2199,2185,2015,2197,568,38,1067,167,2195,288,2200,2198,1853,2196,1988,2085,657,1457,1984,1936,987,2193,2194,9,287,1334,1899,2153,6,1526,1184,2020,2192,2203,2181,1499,566,338,33,643,118,1096,39,171,2202,1865,354,339],"class_list":["post-19053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-anchorage","tag-arthur-hayes","tag-asa","tag-beeple","tag-ben-delo","tag-benjamin-reynolds","tag-binance","tag-bitfinex","tag-bitmex","tag-cftc","tag-christopher-cantwell","tag-coinbase","tag-coinfloor","tag-control-finance","tag-crypto-com","tag-dawn-stump","tag-dcash","tag-diem","tag-digiconomist","tag-ecb","tag-eccb","tag-facebook-financial","tag-finma","tag-free-keene","tag-ian-freeman","tag-ico","tag-india","tag-ipfs","tag-jay-clayton","tag-kevin-weil","tag-links","tag-litecoin","tag-neo-nazis","tag-nft","tag-nifty-gateway","tag-one-river","tag-opensea","tag-pavel-durov","tag-reddit","tag-ripple","tag-sec","tag-solidity","tag-switzerland","tag-telegram","tag-tether","tag-tim-swanson","tag-trailofbits","tag-usdc","tag-visa","tag-xrp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/ever-given-technical-analysis.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19053"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22552,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19053\/revisions\/22552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}