Earlier this year Canadian province Quebec turned out to be very attractive for miners due to its relatively cheap hydroelectric power. Yet from now Quebec is increasing costs, according to a moratorium issued today, June 8 read more
Russia has focused on developing regulations for mining hotels and data-centers. Preliminary requirements include a space not less than 100 sq meters, 24/7 service and a fire extinguishing system. The Russian Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Association is creating a committee in charge of the legitimate, taxing and technical bases in the mining sphere. In the first 5 months of 2018, the demand for mining hotels has multiplied by six times. And not surprisingly: mining in domestic conditions is becoming costlier and less comfortable: equipment needs oodles of electric power, and in response brings too much noise and heat irradiation. read more
Cryptocurrency miners and owners in Russia will be regulated under the Internal Revenue Code, as the Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Anatoly Aksakov, told the local news media Izvestia July 18. Individuals and legal entities will be taxed separately but in accordance to the existent Tax Code of Russia. Thus, physical people will be regulated under the conditions of the personal income tax, while entities – conforming to their form of business. Aksakov mentioned that in the future specific taxation schemes may appear if the government wishes so, but for now, no new laws will be introduced. Lawmakers are planning on passing the bill on cryptocurrency mining and holding during the Autumn session of the Duma. read more
Russia is doing its best to ignore or simply tear down innovations. In January this year, the State Duma made public a draft law concerning digital financial assets and basically put paid on them. The document contains noticeable white spots making the new law vague and ambiguous. Here are the fundamental points it affects: read more
Ebang Communication, a large Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer based in China, applied for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on June, 25.
Details on how much Eband is seeking to raise and what is the precise valuation of the company are still unknown. According to Ebang’s IPO application filing, they had earned $141 million in 2017 – almost 18 times more compared to 2016. The company is announcing the release of Bitcoin miners equipped with next-generation 7nm semiconductor chips, developed by Japanese tech conglomerate GMO and launched this spring.
For the first time, bitcoin mining projects have been added to the list of “unicorns” – a rating of privately owned companies valued over $1 billion.
Climbing up to the Top
Hurun Research Institute based in Shanghai published a report featuring 3 Chinese cryptocurrency companies: Bitmain is ranked 13th on the list since its value reached as much as 70 billion yuan (approximately $10.3 billion). Two other firms to be listed are Canaan Creative valued at $3 billion and Ebang worth circa $1.5 billion, which are at the 32nd and 53rd positions respectively.
A cryptocurrency mining malware had operated for 2 years not being noticed until now. The virus infected over a million computers in China and brought $2 million to its creators, according to a local news report.
Cybercriminals created and embedded the malware inside internet browser plug-ins they had previously developed for diverse purposes. The police of China’s Da Lan city arrested 20 suspects who had profited from mining on a large number of seized computers. Since minor cryptocurrencies require less power, the backend mining processes are quieter and are yet to be noticed by computer owners, which explains the longlasting crime's stealthiness.
Japanese leading tech company Sony is to patent 2 hardware approaches for facilitating and maintaining blockchains.
The two filings named "Electronic Node and Method for Maintaining a Distributed Ledger" and "Device and System" are uncovering that the organization is working on blockchain-related hardware concepts. Potentially, these devices will be included in a future product. Earlier, Sony has filed patent applications focused on blockchain use cases, such as education data management and security. read more
Iran has recognized crypto mining as a legal activity, making steps toward issuing its own cryptocurrency; the news prompted a rapid rise in Bitcoin’s price on local exchanges.
Cryptocurrency Mining Is a Lawful Activity
As indicated by a local media outlet IBENA associated to the Central Bank of Iran, Abolhassan Firouzabadi, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace said that digital money mining "has been accepted as an industry in the government."
Even though a final policy legislating for mining hasn’t been presented yet, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (ICT), the Central Bank and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance has come to consensus.
Honeyminer, a crypto mining application that gives clients the chance to earn bitcoin with laptops, is quickly gaining popularity.
Rapid Success
The app was launched in June, and its client base has reached 50,000 since then. A third of the new users are located in developing markets, and 5 percent hail from Africa, according to the company.
"We've stumbled into something that was far bigger and more international than we imagined." Honeyminer co-founder stated.