Bitcoin dipped more than 12% on Friday to below $36,000.
Bitcoin has surged past $65,000 to achieve a record-high price! This trend may continue in the wake of becoming the first cryptocurrency on the NYSE.
The Federal Reserve took its first step toward more seriously examining issuing a central bank digital currency, releasing a report on Thursday that examines the idea’s potential costs and benefits and opening the door for public comment.
In a long-awaited report, the Fed avoided taking sides and set out a list of arguments for and against a digital currency, and posed questions that will shape the debate.
“We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency in the United States,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said in a statement. Mr. Powell had previewed that a report would be forthcoming in May 2021.
Good telescope that I’ve used to learn the basics: https://amzn.to/35r1jAk.
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Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the smallest antenna ever made — built from DNA
Links:
https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2022/01/10/chemist…t-antenna/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-021-01355-5
Continue reading “Scientists Create Smallest Antenna Ever Out of DNA, But What For?” »
Russia’s central bank on Thursday proposed banning the use and mining of cryptocurrencies on Russian territory, citing threats to financial stability, citizens’ wellbeing and its monetary policy sovereignty.
The move is the latest in a global cryptocurrency crackdown as governments from Asia to the United States worry that privately operated and highly volatile digital currencies could undermine their control of financial and monetary systems.
Russia has argued for years against cryptocurrencies, saying they could be used in money laundering or to finance terrorism. It eventually gave them legal status in 2020 but banned their use as a means of payment.
Tech companies continued to draw criticism for their roles in political and social scandals, most notably when whisteblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified to lawmakers. Undeterred, Facebook rebranded itself Meta and said it would now focus on building the metaverse. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down and likewise changed the name of his company Square to Block in a not-so-subtle nod to the blockchain.
Meanwhile, volatile cryptocurrencies set new records, their prices jumping and crashing on a tweet. NFTs, a once-obscure type of cryptoasset, went on an eye-watering tear as redditors pushed meme stocks skyward. It was also the year of ever-bigger AI. Machine learning models surpassed a trillion parameters, designed computer chips, and tackled practical problems in biology, math, and chemistry. Elsewhere, billionaires went to space, regular folks bought 3D printed houses, fusion power attracted billions in investment, gene editing trials hit their stride, and “flying car” companies hit the New York Stock Exchange.
For this year’s list of fascinating stories in tech and science, we sifted our Saturday posts and selected articles that looked back to where it all began, glanced ahead to what’s coming, or otherwise stood out from the chatter to stand the test of time.
The number of malware infections targeting Linux devices rose by 35% in 2021, most commonly to recruit IoT devices for DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks.
IoTs are typically under-powered “smart” devices running various Linux distributions and are limited to specific functionality. However, when their resources are combined into large groups, they can deliver massive DDoS attacks to even well-protected infrastructure.
Besides DDoS, Linux IoT devices are recruited to mine cryptocurrency, facilitate spam mail campaigns, serve as relays, act as command and control servers, or even act as entry points into corporate networks.
A congressman proposes a game-changing crypto bill, which could be a catalyst for the price of bitcoin, ethereum, bnb, solana, cardano, XRP.
The North Korean threat actor group known as ‘BlueNoroff’ has been spotted targeting cryptocurrency startups with malicious documents and fake MetaMask browser extensions.
The motive of this group is purely financial, but its sophistication in carrying out objectives has previously led researchers to conclude that this is a sub-group of the North Korean Lazarus gang.
Although BlueNoroff has been active for several years, its structure and operation have been shrouded by mystery.
Key point: For more information on the federal tax treatment of virtual currency transactions, see these FAQs on the IRS website.
How to report crypto gains and losses on your 2021 Form 1040.
Now for the meat of this column. Despite what the IRS says, let’s use the term cryptocurrency instead of virtual currency. Onward.
