Coin News

Sometimes a hacker does something so brilliant, we can't help but marvel at it.

In this case, a hacker figured out how to control certain home networks to mine for a computer currency called Dogecoin, netting over half a billion dollars in a matter of months.

The hacker's exploits were documented by Dell's security team, which points out that the hacker used a competitor's computer storage product to do the dirty work. 

The Dell team traced the likely culprit to a German-speaking person who goes by the code-name of "Folio" on GitHub. (GitHub is a cloud service where developers post and share their software projects.).

Folio used a security flaw in a computer storage product called Synology, Dell says. Synology's computer storage product is easy to set up, so it has become popular with people who store a lot of songs, movies, and other multimedia files on their home networks.

In 2013, a security researcher discovered a flaw with the Synology product that let a hacker find, and ultimately control, these computer storage devices by searching for them on Google. 

The company fixed the vulnerably and released a patch. But between the time the researcher told the world about the flaw and the company patched it, the hacker named Folio went to work.

Folio discovered vulnerable computer storage boxes and put them to work to "mine" for Dogecoin. 

Dogecoin is a computer currency like Bitcoin and is created by "mining," which involves getting computers to answer a series of cryptographic questions to unlocks new coins. It takes a lot of computing power to answer these questions. People actually buy specially made computers to do it.

Or, if you are smart enough, you can string together a bunch of computers owned by other people and put them to work mining for you.

Folio was able to nab 500 million Dogecoin, equivalent to $620,496, finding most of the coins in January and February right before the patch was released, the researchers discovered.

The Dell team thinks this could be the most profitable illegal hacker mining operation of Dogecoin ever discovered.

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Dogecoin, for those who don't spend their time indulging in Internet meta-memes, may seem like harmless nerdery. But for one enterprising hacker, it's created a small fortune---at the price of annoying a lot of systems administrators.

The unknown hacker used data storage hubs to mine $200,000 in dogecoins in an event researchers called "unprecedented".

BitPagos says the $600k in funding will help it expand beyond Argentina to more Latin American markets.

Movies without bitcoin? Snore! Unfortunately the entire corpus of feature films lacks cryptocurrency. But imagine if this weren’t the case. Thankfully, I’ve rewritten the plots of some famous movies to account for bitcoin. How do things change? Marty McFly didn’t have a Coinbase wallet, and White Castle doesn’t accept bitcoin…But what if? Back to the Future Part II Without Bitcoin: In the future, Marty McFly purchases Grays Sports Almanac. Doc admonishes him for attempting to profit from time travel. Distracted by the police, Doc and Marty unwittingly leave the almanac in the reach of Biff Tannen, who was eavesdropping on their conversation. Biff snatches the discarded book and travels to 1955 in the DeLorean. He gives the almanac to his […]

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The US Government through the US Marshal office has now entered the Bitcoin ‘mixing’ service space, offering an unprecedented service that will “clean” the Bitcoins that were considered “illegal” and turn them into effectively “washed” Bitcoins. Visit this link to read more about the process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. After months of deliberation, the US Marshal office has been set with the task of selling the Bitcoins that were seized from an FBI bust in October 2013. Last year the infamous Dread Pirate Roberts, who ran the Free Marketplace online shopping Bazaar known as Silk Road, was captured by the notorious FBI, who also managed to capture the Silk Road servers and obtained […]

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As revealed today in a press release and via various social media platforms, Tigerdirect.ca is now accepting Bitcoin. TigerDirect.com first started accepting Bitcoin from American customers in January of 2014. Many international customers lamented the fact that all these websites claiming Bitcoin acceptance were only accepting American’s bitcoins: Bitcoin is an intrinsically international currency. TigerDirect […]

The post TigerDirect Opens Doors To Canadian Bitcoiners appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

When I first heard of Julia, she called me a bitch. Her voice was so clear, so loud, and so crisp. I was taken aback, (right away, I might add) Her words were so truthful; I felt angry, and sad. I thought I “got” bitcoin! It’s the future of finance! I should want to teach governments and give them a chance! How to deal with this chick, she challenges all that I know… Do I hate her, embrace her, or meet her and grow? Her Vines are mesmerizing, she speaks without fear. Her thoughts are so radical, with an odd kind of cheer. I reach out over Facebook and propose meeting up, She gets back to me quickly, and says, […]

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Today, music consumption is stronger than ever, but you probably would not be surprised that a great many consumers are turning to subscription-based platforms rather than actually purchasing songs or albums. The bulk of this consumption comes from streaming; companies like Spotify, Pandora and Rhapsody are leading this trend. However, there are many artists that are adding as many of these methods as they can, in order to give their fans more convenient and simple ways to get their hands on new music. Although most of these artists are embracing the use of Spotify and other streaming platforms, we have began witnessing what could be a monumental shift in how music is purchased online; allowing consumers to use Bitcoin to […]

The post Bitcoin is Revolutionizing How Consumers Buy Music appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Washington DC is practically a mythological place for many Bitcoiners. As the headquarters of the US federal government, the conspiracy theorists among us tend to view it as the center of a nebulous and all-powerful entity. While it may be the headquarters of the Federal Reserve, it’s easy to forget that the Beltway is a very real place for millions of people, and they have a lot of stories to share for all attending the upcoming Bitcoin in the Beltway conference. The District of Columbia is actually a very tiny municipality, and relatively few people live there. A substantial portion of those who do live well-below the poverty, while contractors and higher government workers tend to commute. While there are […]

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BitPagos, the company that is trying to help merchants in developing countries who wish to escape their local fiat currencies, has announced a new round of investments from the likes of Pantera Capital, Tim Draper, Barry Silbert, Boost Bitcoin Fund, and more. This merchant processing service first launched out of the Boost.vc startup incubator, and […]

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The popular technology retailer is now accepting bitcoin at its Canadian web portal.

A new brand of bitcoin ATM from Italy is tested and ready for shipping worldwide, says manufacturer Bit-Wallet.

I was recently introduced to a group of people who advocate a simple yet profound idea, “Follow Your Yes”. This is an idea that has changed my worldview in many ways. You see, I have spent many years of my life saying “no”. I rallied against the war, I testified against Big Brother, I gave angry speechenezs about ending the Federal Reserve Banking System. Basically, I raged against the police state through my activism yelling “NO” at the world. I spent so much time trying to stop something that I had failed to really start anything. Chicago End the Fed Rally, Lots of “stop this and “say no””: The realization that I was trapped by my Nos inspired me to […]

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Catherine: How long have you been interested in space? Jeff: I’ve been interested in space for as long as I can remember. My father flew fighter jets and worked on rockets early in his career. The Right Stuff was a favorite movie, as was Star Wars. Space fiction or space fact, it didn’t matter, I ate it up. Catherine: What does Dunvegan Space Systems do? Jeff: Dunvegan Space Systems is on a one-man mission to disrupt the spaceflight industry, through free market principles, bitcoin and engineering knowhow. My engineering background is software engineering in the Linux kernel and on the Internet. Networking. DSS’ aim is to bring networking to space. Although the latency will be measured in minutes not milliseconds, […]

The post An Interview With Jeff Garzik, Bitcoin in Space appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Colm Lyon, who speaks at Bitfin next month, sees bitcoin as a boon not a burden to the payments industry.

A global jurisdictional hub for bitcoin would experience an influx of new capital and businesses, and experience rapid growth.

The Bitcoin digital currency system is in danger of losing its credibility as an independent payment system because of the growing power of a group that runs some of the computers behind it.

With all the news lately of companies like DISH and Expedia accepting Bitcoin payments, PayPal looking to accept it as well I was able to contact Tyler Roye, the CEO and Co-Founder of eGifter, to get his thoughts on it. Things have been busy for eGifter as they were able to add Bitcoin payments back into […]

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Financial services are going digital, and that means big bang disruption is inevitable. What can investors and incumbents learn from over a hundred start ups already circling the waters, including Bitcoin, Square, Levelup, and Shopkick?

Como respuesta a la recompensa publicada por Olivier Janssens hace un mes, surge la primera propuesta de alternativa descentralizada a la Bitcoin Foundation. Project Ðouglas ha creado Eris, un programa basado en la cadena de bloques de Ethereum para decidir sobre las acciones a llevar a cabo por una asociación. El sistema permitirá la creación […]

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Kenneth Rogoff, the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University and former Chief Economist at the IMF, recently posed the question about the future of paper money. I reported the academic paper myself last month and the arguments he put forward for Cryptocoinsnews. At that time, I agreed […]

The post Cost of Paper Money: $200 Billion, Time to Phase Out and Introduce Bitcoin? appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

In recent weeks, Bitcoin has forged into new markets as DISH Network and Expedia have announced plans to accept Bitcoin. Soon, cryptocurrency will make a foray into yet another new field: cinema. Coined: the Cryptocurrency Documentary, Is Coming to a Theater Near You oined, the first full-length feature cryptocurrency documentary to achieve a theatrical release, will profile […]

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ACCESS aims to promote digital currency adoption and Singapore's position as a stable and reliable location for such businesses.

Apple is letting bitcoin back onto the iPhone. Over the weekend, Apple approved the first bitcoin wallet app since it announced, earlier this month, that it was going to change policy and permit bitcoin wallets in its App Store. Before then, it had been a rocky ride for folks who wanted to send and receive […]

It can be intensely refreshing to hear some level-headed analysis from an organization that crippled the early launch campaign for its new console through poor communication. Phil Spencer, Microsoft's new head of Xbox One, has over the last few months been working overtime to repair the damage done to his brand last year. Unlike the corporate speak that dominated Microsoft's press relations before, he's done a decent job of talking clearly and simply to his intended audience. Here he is talking to Polygon about why he thinks that by allowing consumers to buy the Xbox One without Kinect, there will ultimately be more Kinects on the market.