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UNICEF has a page where you can donate by in-browser cryptocurrency mining

UNICEF Australia's The HopePage allows you to donate by allowing cryptocurrency mining on your computer.
Image: unicef australia/screenshot

Taking control of one’s browser to mine cryptocurrency has a somewhat of a negative connotation, but UNICEF Australia is seemingly doing it for good.

The charity has launched something called The HopePage, which allows people to make a donation by keeping the webpage open and using your computer’s CPU to mine those digital dollars. It taps into an application by Coinhive, which mines Monero. 

SEE ALSO: In Mexico, this coding school gives returning immigrants a second chance

Each time you visit the page, you’ll have to confirm and select how much processing power (between 20 to 80 percent) you want to give over. 

“We wanted to leverage new emerging technologies to raise awareness about current humanitarian crises and raise funds to support children caught up in them,” Jennifer Tierney, UNICEF Australia’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, said in a statement.

“The HopePage allows Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page while they are online.”

Mining cryptocurrency for legitimate causes isn’t a new thing. In February, UNICEF asked gamers to install mining software Claymore to help support children affected by the Syrian Civil War.

Commercially, online media outlet Salon tested in-browser mining, also using Coinhive, but as a way of creating revenue outside of ads.

That effort came with a bunch of downsides, with critics decrying the effort as wasteful. Mining cryptocurrency is a power intensive exercise, and making your computer’s CPU work harder wears out your system. Of course, you can decide how much computing power The HopePage uses. 

“If you’re ever worried about power consumption, turn down the amount of processing power you’re donating,” explains the site’s instructions.

If it’s all too much of a worry, maybe you’re better off donating cold hard cash instead.

WATCH: It takes absolute precision to construct Earth’s largest telescope, which will peak into far-off alien worlds

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/04/30/unicef-australia-cryptocurrency-mining/

$200 million worth of cryptocurrency goes missing from BitGrail exchange

Some really shoddy coding may have been involved in this one.
Image:  TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Gettyimages

Another day, another high-profile cryptocurrency hack — though in this case, the details are even murkier than usual. 

Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail announced last Thursday that it’s missing 17 million Nano, a cryptocurrency worth $11.90 at the time the announcement was made. This means the total value of missing coins was around $202.3 million.

(The price of Nano has since dropped significantly; the coin is currently trading at about $10.15 according to CoinMarketCap). 

SEE ALSO: We spoke to the vigilante hackers who stole $85 million in ether to save it

In a notice on its website, BitGrail mentions “unauthorized transactions,” and says it has notified the authorities of the apparent hack. It also halted all withdrawals and deposits from the site. 

On the surface, this seems to be just another cryptocurrency theft, the likes of which we’ve seen plenty of in recent years. Just last month, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck said hackers had stolen $424 million worth of NEM coins from its reserves. 

The BitGrail hack is a bit more complicated. One day after the company’s announcement, the team behind Nano posted an announcement of its own, in which they claim that Francesco “The Bomber” Firano has contacted them and asked them to modify Nano’s ledger in order to cover the losses. But the Nano team claims there has been no technical issues with Nano’s underlying ledger. “The problems appear to be related to BitGrail’s software,” the announcement said. 

This is supported by a widely shared tweet by security researcher Tony Arcieri, who claims that BitGrail was hacked due to poorly implemented security. “The checks for whether you had a sufficient balance to withdraw were only implemented as client-side JavaScript,” he wrote; this implies that a hacker could’ve modified the code locally in order to trick the exchange that he had more coins than he actually had (note that the source for this is an anonymous comment posted on social media, and it hasn’t been verified as accurate). 

Furthermore, the Nano team said that there’s “reason to believe that Firano has been misleading the Nano Core Team and the community regarding the solvency of the BitGrail exchange for a significant period of time.”

Some reports on Twitter from BitGrail users confirm that something suspicious may have been going on on BitGrail for a while. According to some users, the exchange made it progressively harder for users to withdraw coins from the exchange, starting in December of last year. 

Firano fired back on Twitter, calling these accusations “unfounded,” and said the BitGrail team will be pressing charges against the Nano team due to “irresponsible behavior.”

Regardless of the outcome, it’s probably little comfort to people who’ve lost their funds. Shortly after its own hack, the Coincheck exchange announced it would restore all the stolen funds out of its own pocket; there has been no such announcement from BitGrail at this point. 

WATCH: Bye-bye, Bitcoin. It’s all about bananacoins.

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/02/12/200-million-cryptocurrency-hack-bitgrail-nano/

Bitcoin is down to $9,300, but news from India might not be as bad as it seems

Image: slavkoSereda/gettyimages

After several short-lived drops under $10,000, it looks like the price of Bitcoin finally yielded under pressure. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is currently trading at $8,947, down 11 percent in the last 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap. 

The trigger for the price drop is likely the news from India, where finance minister Arun Jaitley expressed a largely negative view towards cryptocurrencies in his 2018 budget speech. 

SEE ALSO: A little-known token may be fueling Bitcoin’s rise. Critics say it’s a scam.

“The Government does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto-assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system,” Jaitley said according to Fortune. 

The price of Bitcoin fell significantly from its December heights of around $20,000.

Image: coinmarketcap

Several outlets, including Fortune and Quartz, interpreted this as a country-wide ban on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, that’s impossible to deduct from this single quote, which merely states that the government is against two things: crypto-assets financing illegal activities, and crypto assets being used as part of the payment system. 

In other words, Bitcoin won’t soon become legal tender in India, but there’s nothing here about an outright ban. 

In fact, according to several outlets, Jaitley actually uttered a couple of positive words about cryptocurrencies in that same speech. According to Hindustan Times, he said the government “will explore the use of blockchain,” and Unocoin, a crypto exchange based in India, has an expanded version of that quote, in which Jaitley says the government will look into blockchain tech “proactively for ushering in digital economy.” 

The South Korean government recently introduced more stringent cryptocurrency trading rules, but stopped short of any sort of cryptocurrency ban. Like most governments, the Indian government does not appear to be happy with illegal use of cryptocurrencies, but we’ll have to wait for an official policy to draw any finial conclusions.  

Nevertheless, the markets reacted strongly. Top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap have all dropped double digits in the last 24 hours, with one notable exception: Ethereum. The cryptocurrency that’s also a platform for decentralized apps is currently trading at $1,133 and is actually up by 1.78 percent in the last 24 hours. 

Disclosure: The author of this text owns, or has recently owned, a number of cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH. 

WATCH: Bye-bye, Bitcoin. It’s all about bananacoins.

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/02/01/bitcoin-drops-below-9000/

Trader forced to transfer Bitcoin at gunpoint during first cryptocurrency heist

Stylized representation of Bitcoin, a digital currency.
Image: Getty Images/Collection Mix: Subjects RM

Police are appealing for witnesses following Britain’s first “Bitcoin heist,” in which a trader was held at gunpoint and ordered to transfer the cryptocurrency. 

SEE ALSO: Here’s what you need to know before you buy bitcoin

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police told Mashable that police are investigating the “aggravated burglary” which took place in a residential property in Moulsford, Oxfordshire, on 22 Jan. 

“Officers were called at about 9.40am to a report that offenders had entered a residential property off Reading Road and threatened the occupants. No one was seriously injured during the incident,” the spokesperson said. 

The Mail on Sunday spoke to residents of the village who were in a state shock: “For something like this to happen here is terrifying,” one villager said. “It’s a very quiet place and, although there is a lot of money round here, a digital currency heist is the last thing anyone would expect – particularly during the school run.” 

According to the Mail, a group of armed thieves broke into a house in the village and “forced a cyber-currency trader to transfer” funds in Bitcoin via his computer. The quantity transferred is not known. 

Mashable senior editor and cryptocurrency expert Stan Schroeder says this incident highlights potential problems that could arise with a cryptocurrency-fuelled future. 

“Doing your own banking on a decentralised, tamper-proof ledger is great if you want to circumvent banks, but on the other hand it’s easier to rob a physical person than a bank, especially if all their money is protected by a blockchain private key, which is typically a string of letters and numbers,” says Schroeder. 

“It’s possible that our decentralised, blockchain future will also include very centralised methods to protect one’s assets — i.e. institutions which can guard them with guns and manpower,” he continues. 

No arrests have been made but “initial enquiries suggest this may be a targeted incident,” said police. 

Police have appealed for anyone travelling through the village on the morning of 22 Jan. to send them their Dashcam or mobile phone footage.  

Anyone with information can call Thames Valley Police on the non-emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.  

WATCH: Bye-bye, Bitcoin. It’s all about bananacoins.

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/01/29/bitcoin-heist-uk/

Massive hack hits cryptocurrency exchange with $400-million loss

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hit hard Friday.

A hacker managed to funnel out 500 million NEM coins, a value of more than $424 million USD, one of the exchange’s co-founders said at a news conference in Tokyo Friday, according to Bloomberg. Japan’s Financial Services Agency is also investigating the theft.

SEE ALSO: Bye-bye, Bitcoin. It’s all about bananacoins.

Coincheck announced in an updating blog post that it had stopped trading of NEM and other coins as it dealt with the hack. Only Bitcoin services remained available on the exchange.

The NEM coin tanked precipitously because of the theft, but it’s already rebounding. 

Image: coinmarketcap

The hack is one of the biggest ever, almost matching the $500 million loss from the Mt. Gox exchange in 2014. When 850,000 bitcoin was taken from that Japanese exchange, it marked the end for the leading digital wallet and the company has since declared bankruptcy. 

For Coincheck, it’s now a matter of keeping other crypto-assets safe as they investigate  what happened.

WATCH: People are spending millions on virtual CryptoKitties

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/01/26/coincheck-nem-cryptocurrency-hack/

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