Cryptocurrency News Today: Shakepay, Monero, Petro, Bitcoin, Litecoin, and a Lot More

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Shakepay Launches Cryptocurrency Mobile Wallet In Private Beta (CoinJournal.net)
Montreal-based fintech startup Shakepay has announced the release of its digital wallet in private beta. The mobile app allows Canadian users to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, directly from their phones. Through the mobile app, Shakepay users can transact with one another, interact with the blockchain, and move in and out their funds easily. Funds are added to Shakepay mobile wallets via Interac e-transfers, and users can easily withdrawal their CAD by bank wire. The company plans to provide support for other conventional currencies in the near future. Crypto funds are non-custodial, stored on a user-generated private key on sign up, according to the company’s FAQ.

EC to Talk Cryptocurrency Regulation Next Week (Cryptovest.com)
Cryptocurrencies in Europe have never been in any serious danger. The markets are mostly left to their own devices, and each country determines what rules to impose on traders and exchanges. However, European Commission (EC) Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis has plans to discuss regulation at a roundtable event slated for next week. “Next week, on 26 February I will chair a high level roundtable on virtual currencies. The Commission has invited key authorities, including central banks and supervisors, as well as market players to share their insights. The aim is to look at long-term trends linked to virtual currencies, and examine if current regulation is fit for purpose,” he said during the ECOFIN press conference on Tuesday.

Bitcoin Price and Cryptocurrency Markets Recover (Investopedia.com)
Bitcoin prices and cryptocurrency markets have improved marginally in the last 24 hours. At 13:20 UTC, the price of a single bitcoin was $10,217.41, up 3.94% in the last 24 hours. Earlier this morning, it had dropped to a low of $9,676.90. South Koreans have buoyed the original cryptocurrency once again, and it is changing hands at a kimchi premium of $200 in exchanges there. But chances that bitcoin will sustain the current uptick in prices are low. Among the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash – both of which had sustained the biggest losses yesterday – recovered partially. Litecoin was up by 6.15% while Bitcoin Cash increased by 6.42% in its price in the last 24 hours. The overall market capitalization for cryptocurrencies was $453.2 billion at 13:52 UTC, up 5% in the last 24 hours.

Pixabay/Public Domain

Pixabay/Public Domain

L.A. Times Website Injected with Monero Cryptocurrency Mining Script (TechRepublic.com)
The cryptojacking attack appears to have persisted for weeks before being addressed, as it was configured to not max out CPU usage. Hackers injected it through an unsecured AWS S3 bucket. The Homicide Report, a website operated by the L.A. Times that lists people killed within in Los Angeles county over the last 12 months, was hacked to include a JavaScript miner for the Monero cryptocurrency. This attack, like many others, leveraged the Coinhive mining platform. While Coinhive is technically a legitimate operation, granting website owners the capability to mine cryptocurrency on the computers of end users, the number of illegitimate uses of the service seem to outweigh legitimate ones.

Georgia Becomes Latest State to Consider Bitcoin for Tax Payments (CoinDesk.com)
Two state senators in Georgia have proposed a bill that would allow citizens to pay their tax obligations in bitcoin, marking the second legislative effort of its kind to emerge this year. Public records show that the measure submitted on Feb. 21 by senators Michael Williams and Joshua McKoon would, if passed, tweak the rules governing the state’s Department of Revenue, letting it accept both bitcoin and other as-yet-to-be-defined cryptocurrencies. “The commissioner shall accept as valid payment for taxes and license fees any cryptocurrency, including but not limited to bitcoin, that uses an electronic peer-to-peer system,” the bill states. The proposed law largely tracks with one that is currently moving through the Arizona legislature.

Venezuelan President Asks Banks to Mine the National Cryptocurrency. Unions are Aghast. (Fortune.com)
Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is doubling down on his support for the Petro, encouraging the country’s banks to mine and use the recently-launched national cryptocurrency. That authorization has led to howls of protests from unions, which say Maduro is abusing his power. Servando Carbone, the national coordinator of the National Federation of Public Sector Workers, said the Bitcoin alternative “is an invention of the government to launder drug money”. Maduro has also reportedly ordered several state-owned companies, including an oil and natural gas company and aluminium and gold producers, to use the Petro for a percentage of their sales and purchases moving forward.






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