17 Users Hit by OpenSea Phishing Scheme

The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day

Feb. 21, 2022

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Welcome to The Node, President's Day edition.

Today's newsletter is shorter in honor of George Washington's birthday. Back to the usual programming tomorrow, Feb. 22. (Did you know the founding fathers used bitcoin? At least according to Alan Greenspan.)

Questions? Feedback? We'd love to hear from you – simply reply to this email.

–Daniel Kuhn

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

OPENSEA THEFT: A number of OpenSea users have fallen victim to what appeared to be a phishing attack on Sunday, according to the NFT marketplace and security company PeckShield. The attack may have utilized a fake email impersonating OpenSea representatives to get victims to interact with malicious code. Some 32 traders were thought to have lost $1.2 million in NFTs, though OpenSea has since revised their estimate to 17 attacked accounts. The attack does not appear active and more information is forthcoming, OpenSea said.

MINING: Georgia and Illinois are looking to introduce tax incentives for crypto mining. According to a bill introduced last week, Georgia legislators are proposing tax exemptions for the sale or use of electricity in crypto mining activities. An Illinois Senate bill introduced in late January is also looking to extend an existing tax incentive for data centers to crypto mining. Kentucky and Texas have also floated tax incentives to attract crypto mining capacity set adrift after last year's ban in China.

CRYPTO AT ITS BEST? Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin criticized the Canadian government's efforts to freeze protesters' bank accounts last week. Buterin, who grew up in Canada, told CoinDesk TV in Denver that "decentralized technology is there to make [it] more difficult" to cut off financial flows without due process. Elsewhere, a DAO led by a 10-year veteran of Cisco Systems' legal department is trying to raise $4 billion to buy the U.S. National Football League's Denver Broncos while Bob Diamond, once Lehman Brothers' "bargain hunter," is the man behind the "acquisition company" looking to take stablecoin issuer Circle public at $9 billion (twice the initial valuation).

EURO RULES: Russia is still tussling over how to regulate crypto, while Italy has published new anti-money laundering (AML) rules for crypto firms. The rules, approved in January, outline registration and reporting requirements for virtual asset service providers (VASP) that align with the European Union's fifth AML directive and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines for crypto firms.

BUSINESS LINES: IBM, the 110-year-old computing giant that dove head first into "enterprise blockchain" in 2016, is now carefully positioning its hardware security and cloud computing capabilities around the safekeeping of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Although crypto custody is a crowded field, the company will aim to leverage its existing reputation and relationships with banks and governments to serve as a "layer 0" as enterprises adopt public blockchains. Meanwhile, crypto exchange FTX.US is launching a new gaming business.

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What others are writing...

Off-Chain Signals

Georgia becomes latest US state to weigh tax incentives for bitcoin miners (The Block)
Brooklyn crypto consultant hog-tied, beaten during home invasion (NY Post)
We Need Answers About the CIA's Mass Surveillance (EFF)
Crypto and the state. Shouldn't we be talking about SHA-256? (Adam Tooze/Substack)
California lawmaker files bill to let state agencies accept bitcoin (The Block)
Intel Unveils New Bitcoin Mining Chip and 3,600-Watt Mining Rig (Decrypt)
Attorney who kept Ross Ulbricht in prison to lead DoJ crypto task force (Protos)
Everywhere in Blockchains | Patrick McGinty (The Baffler – longer read about "crypto" as a genre)
The metaverse will bring a further erosion of privacy (Cointelegraph)
Art Museums Leverage NFT Tech to Bring Masterpieces to the Blockchain (NFT Plaza)

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