The global coronavirus lockdown has put a strain on Venezuela’s internet, which could logically make crypto participation difficult. As much of the world hunkers down in quarantine, people logically turn to internet-based services for work, as well as a way to pass the time. This mass movement has put significant stress on available data usage capacities in Venezuela, Movistar told Bloomberg for its March 27 article. A daughter company of Telefonica SA, Movistar is the nation’s main telecom provider. Global precautions cause global strain In an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, much of the globe presently …

As we enter the start of a new decade, the number of internet users has reached a truly astonishing level: Almost 4.5 billion people were active users as of January, encompassing 59% of the global population. With its growing influence on individual consumers and large economies alike, the internet has become a crucial part of our day-to-day lives. Moreover, acceptance of the World Wide Web is growing faster than ever with the rise of mobile technology. Many studies reveal to us an exciting revelation: The development of the web is driving acceptance of cryptocurrency. Digital-currency acceptance is projected to grow …

Major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier Ledger has warned its users about another phishing attack trying to steal their crypto — this one using a Google Chrome extension. In a March 5 tweet, the French crypto company specified that there is a fake extension on Google Chrome browser that attempts to steal users’ crypto by asking them to enter their 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. Ledger Live gets removed from the Chrome Web Store The phishing attack was reported by Catalin Cimpanu, a cybersecurity reporter at business technology news website ZDNet on March 4. According to Cimpanu, the malicious …

Brave, a major privacy-oriented rival of popular browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox, now automatically redirects users to check out archived versions of pages that were removed from the web. Starting from Feb. 25, Brave browser users can instantly access archived content of “missing” pages on the Internet via Wayback Machine integration on the Brave desktop browser. In order to unlock the new feature, Brave has partnered with popular nonprofit digital library The Internet Archive, or Archive.org. The new feature debuted on Brave browser version 1.4 and is only available on desktop for now. Archive.org revealed the development in a …

E-commerce giant Shopify has joined the Libra Association, a network of founding members supporting Facebook's stablecoin project Libra. Shopify, a major Canada-based digital commerce platform hosting more than one million merchants, will be collaborating on the establishment of a global payment network within the Libra Association, the firm officially announced on Feb. 21. The Libra Foundation has confirmed the news in a Facebook post, outlining that Shopify would be an “incredible partner in making widespread economic participation a reality.” Shopify believes that traditional financial system wasn’t built for Internet commerce In the announcement, Shopify claimed that its action to join …

North Korea’s internet use saw a 300% surge over the past three years, as the country’s regime has continued to rely on cryptocurrencies for various activities. Exploitation of crypto and blockchain technology is among the primary tactics for the country to generate revenue as well as transfer and use illicitly obtained funds, a new study says. Titled “How North Korea Revolutionized the Internet as a Tool for Rogue Regimes,” the study was released on Feb. 9 by Insikt Group, an intelligence arm of United States-based cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The report analyzed North Korean senior leadership’s internet activity between Jan. …

American blockchain and software development firm Orchid Labs has launched its privacy network alongside its native token OXT. According to a blog post on Dec. 16, Orchid’s digital currency OXT was immediately available for trading on major United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Pro. According to an announcement, OXT will be available in Coinbase’s supported jurisdictions, with the exception of New York State. Coinbase Pro started accepting OXT deposits on Dec. 13. OXT token allows one to buy and sell VPN services or provide bandwidth As previously reported, Orchid provides a decentralized virtual private network (VPN) for anonymous communication and virtual …

Privacy-oriented blockchain web browser Brave has seen its monthly active users (MAU) almost double from 5.5 million in 2018 to 10.4 million in 2019. At the same time, Brave’s daily active users (DAU) have tripled over the past year to reach 3.3 million, the firm announced Dec. 5. According to the company, the recent growth in MAU follows the release of Brave’s new version, Brave 1.0, on Nov. 13. According to the blog post, Brave expanded its MAU base from 8.7 million in October to over 10 million at the end of November. 12x increase in new publishers Alongside a …

China's Great Firewall, a tool used to ban Chinese citizens from using sites like Google and Facebook, has listed a major explorer for Ethereum’s (ETH) blockchain. According to data from non-profit monitoring organization GreatFire, China allegedly blocked one of the most popular ETH block browsers, Etherscan, in October 2019. As of Dec. 3, Etherscan’s domain remained inaccessible from IP addresses inside mainland China, as reported by crypto publication Coindesk on Dec. 3. Etherscan is aware of the block, firm’s CEO says While the Etherscan’s blockage was largely unnoticed, the firm’s CEO Matthew Tan reportedly said that Etherscan noticed the action …

The website for cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin has finally ceased operating, months after United States authorities indicted one of its founders for fraud. As MLM scam monitoring resource BehindMLM.com noted on Dec. 1, OneCoin.eu no longer returned a live result as of Nov. 30. “Legal investigation” offlines OneCoin.eu Upon investigation, a representative from EurID, the domain’s registry, confirmed to the publication that the website was offline due to the criminal proceedings against OneCoin. “The domain name is under legal investigation. Please further check our WHOIS for the status of the domain name,” a written response reads. The event marks the …

A group of hackers has launched a new cryptojacking campaign on Nov. 24, scanning as many as 59,000 IP networks to find Docker platforms that have API endpoints exposed online, business technology publication ZDNet reports Nov. 26. According to the report, the campaign is targeting vulnerable Docker instances in order to deploy crypto-malware to generate funds for the hacking group by mining Monero (XMR). The mass scanning issue was first discovered by American internet security firm Bad Packets LLC on Nov. 25. Troy Mursch, chief research officer and co-founder of Bad Packets LLC, said that exploit activity targeting exposed Docker …

When the internet was a fledgling technology, there was a lot of uncertainty. Some people thought it would amount to nothing. Clearly, they were wrong. Today, the internet is a massive, global necessity. The internet has enabled us to connect to each other around the globe, it allows us to purchase anything we want in one click, and it has given us access to all the content we could ever want. However, the internet also brought about many less-than-desirable developments. The internet enabled the government and big corporations to surveil us and exploit us for profit. The internet enabled a …