Cryptocurrency latest news – SEC Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before Congress on Bitcoin after Snook coin price drop

DATING APP SCAMS

Some scam operations have even started using dating apps to reel in potential targets.

In some reports, scammers would pose as a long-distance love interest sharing a hot new crypto opportunity.

About 20 percent of the money reportedly lost through dating scams in around the last year involved cryptocurrency.

GIVEAWAY SCAMS

Giveaway scams often pose as celebrities or well-known figures and ask victims to send Bitcoin, promising to send back a much larger amount.

Many giveaway scams are marketed over social media, attempting to connect through Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

For instance, victims reported sending more than $2million to scammers impersonating Elon Musk.

SCAMMERS WILL POSE AS AN AGENCY OR BUSINESS

As noted by Inverse, Many phishing scams will attempt to impersonate a government agency or business to get your attention.

Some reports to the FTC said victims were contacted by scammers pretending to be the Social Security Administration and asked to deposit money into Bitcoin ATMs.

Other victims lost money to scammers posing as the cryptocurrency company Coinbase.

CYRPTO SCAMS

The FTC reported that since October of 2020, nearly 7,000 people have reported losses of more than $80million in the US due to cryptocurrency scams.

That number is around 12 times, or 1,000 percent more than reported losses from the period a year earlier.

Here are some of the red flags that may signal a Bitcoin scam so you can protect your crypto wallet.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF HBAR?

Mt Jobson adds: “Hedera Hashgraph still has a long way to go in proving its concept. The usual warnings over risk and volatility applies here.”

Below we round up five risks of investing in cryptocurrencies.

• Consumer protection: Some investments advertising high returns based on cryptoassets may not be subject to regulation beyond anti-money laundering requirements. 
• Price volatility: Significant price volatility in cryptoassets, combined with the inherent difficulties of valuing cryptoassets reliably, places consumers at a high risk of losses.
• Product complexity: The complexity of some products and services relating to cryptoassets can make it hard for consumers to understand the risks. There is no guarantee that cryptoassets can be converted back into cash. Converting a cryptoasset back to cash depends on demand and supply existing in the market. 
• Charges and fees: Consumers should consider the impact of fees and charges on their investment which may be more than those for regulated investment products.  
• Marketing materials: Firms may overstate the returns of products or understate the risks involved.

HBAR CONTINUED

Myron Jobson, Personal Finance Campaigner, interactive investor, says that one of Hedra’s unique selling points is its purported energy efficiency credentials.

He told The Sun: “Unlike the Bitcoin network which uses more in one year as the country of Argentina, analysis by Cambridge University suggests, Hedra claims to be a low carbon footprint public ledger.”

“It is part of the InterWork Alliance’s (IWA) Sustainability Business Working Group which aims to aid global efforts on sustainability in the crypto space by in a number of ways, including standardizing carbon offsets.

“Proof-of-stake blockchains like Hedra inherently consumes energy to function – there is no getting around it.

“The effectiveness of carbon offset is difficult for the lay investor to gauge based on the publicly available information.

WHAT IS HBAR WORTH?

There is a total HBAR supply of 50billion units and according to Coinmarketcap almost 7billion were in circulation as of January 2021 – around 14% of the total supply.

There is a governing council for Hedrera and members include well-known companies like Google IBM and Boeing.

You can buy and sell HBAR on some cryptoexchanges ans is currently trading at $0.3987 at the time of writing.

HBAR’s up nearly 5% in the past 24 hours and down just over 10% from it’s all time high back in March of $0.4495.

WHAT IS HBAR CRYPTO?

Hashgraph is similar to a blockchain and was created in 2017 by American computer scientist Leemon Baird.

The Hedera Hashgraph system is a distributed ledger built on Hashgraph and was created by Baird along with Mance Harmon.

HBAR is the cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph.

The company itself expalins: “HBAR is the native, energy-efficient cryptocurrency of the Hedera public network.”

It claims to be the third generation public ledger after “Bitcoin pioneered decentralized infrastructure and Ethereum brought programmability”.

THE RISKS OF TEZOS CONTINUED

And particularly with Tezos, you should be aware of the legal trouble it has faced in the past.

This includes a dispute between president Johann Gevers and the Breitman’s over intellectual property rights and investors launching lawsuits against the company, alleging that its token was an unregistered security.  

As a result, the Tezos Foundation paid a $25million settlement to investors.

This was a big reason why the Tezos platform was not launched until 2018.

So keep that in mind, but Tezos will be an interesting bet to make given its unique proof-of-stake blockchain network.

RISKS OF TEZOS

Like with every cryptocurrency, you need to be cautious before investing. This is because the crypto space comes with extreme volatility – meaning you could lose a lot of money quickly.

For example, Tezos hit a high of $8.42 in May. But at end of the month, however, Tezos plummeted by nearly three times to under $3.

Also, cryptocurrencies can be filled with complexity, so you need to understand what you’re investing in.

Moreover, there’s scant regulation for crypto firms – meaning you’ll likely be without protection something goes wrong.

TEZOS CONTINUED

“The apparent growth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has helped to propel cryptos like Tezos from the niches of the cryptocurrency space,” Myron Jobson, a personal finance campaigner, and interactive investor told The Sun.

He adds that “more some investors have turned to other less established players like Tezos to experiment at lower costs.”

Another unique element of Tezos is its governance. Instead of relying on mining communities and development teams, Tezos aims to let its users help it make decisions.

“Users can actively participate by evaluating, proposing, or approving amendments to Tezos,” according to cryptocurrency.

Moreover, Tezos uses smart contracts with formal verifications, which helps boosts security and reliability.

WHAT IS TEZOS?

Founded by Kathleen and Arthur Breitman in 2014, Tezos operates as an open-source proof-of-stake blockchain network.

Specifically, it offers peer-to-peer transactions through its digital-linked token tezzie.

Tezos makes itself distinct from other major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum, which uses proof-of-work blockchain in a few key ways

According to Tezos, its proof-of-stake algorithm not only costs less but is also more eco-friendly.

IS TETHER STABLE?

The Tether cryptocurrency, which is also known as USDT, was officially launched as Realcoin in 2014, but has since changed its name.

It’s described as a “stablecoin;” a type of cryptocurrency that works to keep crypto values stable.

The price of Tether has indeed stayed stable after it hit a 2021 high in mid-April.

WILL PARAGUAY EMBRACE BITCOIN NEXT?

Congressman Rejala’s plans will allow crypto firms to finance their operations in Paraguay using digital currency, as well as remit dividends abroad and capitalize any crypto profits into local banks, ProactiveInvestments.com reports.

Rejala also said that the country’s low electricity, costs, and the fact it sources most of its power from renewable energy, is an advantage regarding concerns about the environmental impact of crypto mining.

Should the bill pass, Rejala previously suggested he’d seek to present another bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in 2021.

PARAGUAY MAY EMBRACE BITCOIN NEXT

Paraguay is viewed by many as the next likely candidate for Bitcoin adoption after El Salvador.

That belief comes, in part, as a response to local congressman Carlos Rejala drafting legislation to make the nation more attractive to the cryptocurrency market.

WHY HAS THE VALUE OF SOLANA GONE UP?

It’s not clear exactly why the value of Solana has risen recently, but a number of new projects and updates have launched in the past month.

Last week, Mango Markets, a Solana-powered decentralized exchange, announced a successful $70million crowdfund, for example.

WHAT IS SOLANA?

Solana is a challenger to Ethereum as a blockchain of choice for building decentralized applications.

It is similar to rivals like Cardano, but the project claims to offer a faster and more efficient alternative.

The idea and initial work of Solana began in 2017.

It didn’t officially launch until last year in March of 2020.

WHAT IS AN NFT?

An NFT is an asset purchased with online cryptocurrency.

Owning an NFT means possessing an original work posted to the internet, which can include memes, art, or photos.

NFTs digitize a piece of work and get stored on the blockchain and they cannot be replicated.

FINANCIAL RISKS OF ADOPTING BITCOIN IN EL SALVADOR, CONTINUED

The nation’s cryptocurrency rollout got off to a rocky start with Bitcoin plunging more than 10 percent, seeing its value drop from $52,5000 to $44,000 on its first day as El Salvador’s official currency.

But Bukele has argued that adopting Bitcoin will allow more Salvadorians, about 70 percent of whom don’t have bank accounts, into the formal economy. 

“Who’d be against something that helps the people and doesn’t do any harm?” he said of his critics.

“They’re probably politically motivated.”

FINANCIAL RISKS OF ADOPTING BITCOIN IN EL SALVADOR

Supporters of El Salvador’s decision have hailed the move as the progressive future of money.

Critics, however, have said it is little more than a publicity stunt by Bukele.

They say the move poses substantial financial risks to ordinary Salvadorians and their country, as cryptocurrency is an infamously volatile market.

HOW HAS ELON MUSK INFLUENCED CRYPTOCURRENCY, PART 2

Posting to his personal Twitter account, Musk wrote: “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

Bitcoin then started plummeting within minutes.

Other cryptocurrencies quickly followed, with several of the mainstream coins seeing a huge drop in value that day.

HOW HAS ELON MUSK INFLUENCED CRYPTOCURRENCY?

The first signs of trouble for the crypto market came in May, when Elon Musk released a statement saying Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for purchasing vehicles.

The Tesla founder has previously caused currencies to spike in value by mentioning them on Twitter or in press statements.

WHAT IS POLKADOT, PART 2

Jobson added, “To put this into context, developers have a choice from a variety of blockchains to build applications on – each with their own strengths and weaknesses that they have to mull over when deciding where to develop.”

“Polkadot aims to solve that problem by enabling interoperability between chains.”

WHAT IS POLKADOT?

The Polkadot project was founded in 2017, but the cryptocurrency launched in May last year.

It allows cross-chain transfers of any type of data or asset, not just tokens, making a number of blockchains interoperable with each other.

It is essentially an interchange and translator between multiple blockchains – most of which weren’t built to communicate with others, Myron Jobson, personal finance campaigner of Interactive Investor, told The Sun.

ALL ABOUT LITECOIN, CONTINUED

Litecoin uses blockchain technology for processing and recording transactions, like most cryptocurrencies.

While Litecoin is smaller, it is a quicker and cheaper alternative as compared to Bitcoin.

Currently, Bitcoin commands a market capitalization of more than $900 billion, while Litecoin’s sits under $12 billion.