Digest news - main events Bitcoin industry

Bitfinex
Out of doubt, the main event of the week was the breaking of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange kriptovalyutnoy Bitfinex. August 2 Exchange website was unavailable, and the administration reported critical problems of security and the cessation of all operations. A little later on Reddit forum it was reported that unknown hackers stole about 120 thousand. Bitcoins. This resulted in a further depreciation of cryptocurrency and panic in the markets. Since August 3, the volume of trading amounted to $ 331.3 mln., Twice the figure for the previous day.
Heated interest in the proceedings and ambiguous statements Bitfinex administration. Initially, it was announced that the loss of customers affected by the hacking, will be reimbursed, but on Friday, 5 August, it was reported that the losses will be socialized [ie distributed] between the balance in Bitcoin and active loans in BTCUSD, ie suffer all Exchange clients. This has caused a mixed reaction kriptovalyutnogo community, from extremely negative to positive. In particular, the Chinese investor and entrepreneur Chandler Guo said that in the short-term losses of distribution among all users can be an attractive solution, if Bitfinex reimburse these costs in the future.
Mysterious events all added Reddit anonymous user under the nickname rekcahxfb, offered to anyone who wants to get 1000 Bitcoins by simply pointing your Bitcoin addresses in comments to be published. At the same time the winner will be "randomly" selected from the list of addresses provided by users.

Community members immediately suggested that the author of the proposal is a hacker recently hacked Exchange Bitfinex. Such an idea is difficult to consider groundless, because nick anonymous read conversely as a bfxhacker.
Bitcoin and gambling
The growing popularity of Bitcoin makes sharks gambling around the world turned their attention to cryptocurrency. So, this week their lobby crushed another bastion. UK gambling commission (UKGC), which is the official organ of the regulation of gambling in the UK, allowed its licensees to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment. This decision was taken after talks with the regulator of the market participants. The results of the existing compromise was reflected in a new version of a set of licensing conditions and regulations of the gambling activity. These rules will take effect from 31 October 2016.
Apparently, the next target for the online casino will be the island of Malta, gambling whose administration has once again refused their licensees the right to accept Bitcoins. Chairman of the Maltese gaming Administration Joseph Kucera in his commentary noted that cryptocurrency really enjoy growing demand in the field of online casinos, however, this is due to the fact that financial institutions have professed a rather conservative approach and are not ready for effective cooperation with the casino, because They do not understand the characteristics of the industry.
Mergers, associations and reboot
It did not go this week without association of companies and organizations working in the field and cryptocurrency blokcheyna. The largest event in this series can be considered annexation kriptovalyutnyh known firms in the initiative called RSK Federation, represented by the Brazilian startup Rootstock. The association was created to support a platform for smart Rootstock contracts representing a Turing-complete virtual machine, backward compatibility with Ethereum and launched in test mode in May this year.
To combine their efforts and said the company LexisNexis Risk Solutions London and start Elliptic, have decided to jointly fight the legalization of illicit capital.
In turn, the media corporation Thomson Reuters included in R3 a consortium formed by the world's largest financial institutions in order to study and implement blokcheyn technology on the global financial markets. Thomson Reuters is the first media operators to join the consortium of 55 banks and other financial institutions.
The largest transaction of the week can be considered as a purchase kriptovalyutnoy payment system BitInvest Brazilian Bitcoin market Foxbit, which controls about 55% of the country kriptovalyutnogo market.
Interest is also called the statement of the famous network pirate Kim Dotcom, who reported on the restart file hosting Megaupload and an official announcement about the beginning of trading on the stock exchange Gatecoin, compromised by hackers in May this year.
Technologies
After hardforka cryptocurrency Ethereum and the launch of the new ETC token, many users are faced with the fact that their Ethereum-addresses are both types of tokens and a transaction may lead to loss of funds. Rectify the situation seems to have decided to try to developers ShapeShift exchange by creating a special service. Its use will cost the owners of addresses in 0.25% transferred coins. Most likely, the service will be popular, because the token ETC continues its way in the world. Thus, the largest in terms of volume of trading in China CHBTC ETH Exchange announced the launch of trading Ethereum Classic, a Chinese entrepreneur Guo Chandler, announced the attack on the 51% Ethereum Classic, made a 180-degree turn and now intends to send to have at its disposal the power to support the ETC.

The UK government first approved the use of public sector institutions, an independent platform for the deployment and cloud storage based on distributed technologies registries developed by startup Credits.
Brave browser team announced it has received $ 4.5 million initial funding from a number of leading venture capital firms, including Digital Currency Group, FF Angel, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera Capital and Foundation Capital. Currently in beta mode, the browser will have built-in advertising blocker, offers the user to see "harmless" advertising. Browser does not load a mobile device or PC, as well as lists for viewing ads micropayments in Bitcoins.
Launched a program to support upcoming kraudseyla decentralized platform content distribution DECENT. To reward members who have decided to take part in the promotion of ICO, DECENT team has reserved 1 million tokens DCT. incentive compensation program (Bounties Campaign) starts on August 3 and will last until the completion DECENT Software Sale.
A team of researchers test network Bitcoin BSafe announced plans to deploy a network node in various universities around the world. According to their plan, it will allow students and teachers to conduct more in-depth and high-quality experiments with cryptocurrency, as well as create a communication channel between educational institutions and developers of Bitcoin Core. Test BSafe network was launched in February this year and already has five nodes: three in Japan, one in Britain and one more in the United States at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. However, the plans go much further - in the words of co-founder BSafe Shinichiro Matsuo, until the end of the year the team plans to deploy 30 nodes in various educational institutions of the world. The long-term goal - to have at least three such university in each country.
An interesting statement was made in Donetsk, which announced the launch of an international organization DAO "Donbass". It is learned that the company plans to use Bitcoin and projects blokcheyne to circumvent the economic sanctions imposed on the unrecognized republic. Earlier, on August 4 in Donetsk held a press conference on the theme "cryptocurrency blokcheyn and technology as a tool for economic development." The event was held at the site of the Association "DNR Entrepreneurs". The conference was initiated by DAO (Autonomous Decentralized Organization) "Donbass" Moscow, a representative of which is in Donetsk LLC "Bitcoin-Donbass". The main goal of the organization is to introduce blokcheyn Bitcoin and technologies in the region. According to organizers, the conference has sparked interest from both government agencies and journalists, and by entrepreneurs from different fields - financial, legal, medical, metallurgy, IT and others.
Cryptocurrency and crime
Unfortunately, this month has not been without criminal incidents. So, continuing scandal surrounding social network Steemit. Recall that in the night of 14 July 15, decentralized social network was attacked Steemit: hacked about 260 accounts and stolen a little less than $ 85,000 in tokens and Steem Steem Dollars.
This event gave rise to a lot of speculation about who was behind the attack. Some people are even blamed the administration itself network. One of the most influential representatives of this group is the publication employee bravenewcoin.com Tone Weiss. For example, in «cryptocurrencycollectorsclub» group in the social network Facebook, he left a message in which he said that he considered Steemit «Ponzi scheme" and boycotting it. One of the users on the network, hiding under the name keirhsmih, responded to this accusation deployed by fasting, which resulted in 10 arguments in favor of what Steemit can not be considered a fraudulent scheme.
Another news came to us from the UK, where Ryan Kennedy was convicted, the former CEO kriptovalyutnoy Exchange MooPay (Moolah). He was found guilty of three rapes. All episodes were made between 2008 and 2015.
According to British media, Kennedy was accused in 14 cases of rape but was convicted only on three counts. After reviewing the case the jury sentenced him to 11 years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender. Noteworthy is the fact that the final verdict no charges of stealing $ 1.5 million. Contained in the case in February this year. It is not clear whether they were valid or removed entirely.
Miscellaneous
Also this week, an event that is difficult to attribute to any category, but nevertheless, they deserve mention.
Director and founder of the Moscow region farm "Kolionovo" Mikhail Shlyapnikov, known for its extraordinary decisions, activities moved to blokcheyn economy. The shape of the new economic architecture is two-tiered with the first level cryptocurrency own village - kolionov.
Despite an uncertain position of the Russian government towards cryptocurrency, Bitcoin-trading volume has broken all records in Russia last week. The total volume of transactions amounted to nearly 193.5 million rubles, the previous record was set on June 18 this year, when the weekly trading volume amounted to more than 190 million rubles.
American startup Cheaporn.net proposed a new way of using Bitcoin. It offers its customers the possibility to pay the access to all the major sites with pornographic videos of cryptocurrency. Members reddit site believe that the start would be the best cases Bitcoin use in the "adult industry".
But fans cryptocurrency not interested in "hot" videos and conducting their leisure time outdoors can play a game Takara. The application resembles a popular game Pokemon Go, but instead multgeroya players hunt for Bitcoins and tokens that represent the tickets, coupons, promotions companies, loyalty bonuses and more. This prize can be left with any other player, so-called "dropper".

This concludes the overview of the news in the past week and wants its visitors a pleasant and fruitful reading of the new week.