New York Cyber Task Force Report Identifies Near-Term Cyber Defense Challenges, Calls for Increased Government and Private Industry Collaboration

SCOTT IKEDA·MARCH 4, 2021


A new report prepared by the New York Cyber Task Force examines the leading cyber defense challenges anticipated through 2025 and finds that coordination between government agencies and private business must be revamped in a dramatic way for the United States to be up to the task.

Titled “Enhancing Readiness for National Cyber Defense through Operational Collaboration,” the report finds that public-private coordination to curtail and remediate severe cyber defense crises is a vital leverage point going forward. The report looks at national defense through the lens of emerging technologies and opportunities for threat actors such as the rollout of 5G, expected geopolitical areas of competition and advances in AI and the Internet of Things (IoT).
A potential future face of cyber defense partnerships

The report sees the state of cyber defense changing very rapidly in the next few years due to these various technological developments rolling out and becoming a part of everyday life. Commissioned by the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) just after the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020, the central purpose of the report is to forecast “severe but plausible” threats that are likely to emerge by 2025.

The answer to this variety of emerging cyber defense challenges, at least according to the report, is the concept of “operational collaboration.” Made as simple as possible, this means the forging of new partnerships between government agencies and the private companies that run the internet’s infrastructure and various communications platforms for the purpose of cyber readiness.

That’s a concept that can make people nervous when stated broadly, but the report is careful to specify that these partnerships are meant for response to “severely disruptive” crisis threats. The central proposition is the formation of a new federal agency, the National Cyber Response Network (NCRN), which acts on what it calls National Cyber Crisis Contingencies (NCCC).

So what exactly are these contingencies? The report role-plays four imagined scenarios that serve as examples, all involving US rival nations that pose some sort of threat. One scenario sees Iran attacking US smart devices and the utilities used by forces deployed in support of Saudi Arabia. Another envisions China mounting a disruptive long-term campaign against US logistics using IoT and AI-based attacks. And a third sees North Korea escalating its cybercrime campaigns to directly attack cloud-based services used by US banks. The crisis contingencies addressed by this proposal involve some sort of national-level security threats against critical functions at a scale and duration that is more severe than the average attack.

“Big tech” sums up the private organizations that would be a part of the proposed NCRN. The agency is visualized as a network of nodes that loops in the relevant federal agencies as well as state and local entities and providers of critical infrastructure. The “digital service provider node” is where the private entities come in; the report’s flow chart identifies Amazon AWS, Microsoft, Google and AT&T as specific businesses that would be included. The NCRN’s primary directive would be integrating these disparate organizations and training their response teams to activate and coordinate during an NCCC response. This would include regular collaborative cyber security training and exercises centered on shared playbooks.

Recommendations for cyber defense

Among the handful of specific recommendations in the report that would allow for this new cyber defense network to begin assembling, the third – “Remove legal and procedural barriers to enhance response” – is the one most likely to give people pause. The report is somewhat vague in this area but does call for “emergency collaboration clauses” for the private industry security teams that ” … offer full protection from legal recourse for any information appropriately disclosed to better enable a timely response to a declared NCCC.” It also calls for increased local law enforcement access to federal-level intelligence during cyber attacks.

Another recommendation that could prove contentious and hard to manage, given general public attitudes toward the media and big tech, is “building trust and confidence” by engaging “traditional media organizations and reporters.” This proposal calls for “digital literacy programming” for the general public to identify misinformation, and “mechanisms for the public to flag and report disinformation during a cyber crisis.” The proposal also seeks to “Increase collaboration between governmental communications, traditional media, social media platforms and influencers though crisis co-creation of cyber crisis communications playbooks for media stakeholders and NCRN node operators,” and to ” … ensure that the government and media companies have appropriate active collaborative mechanisms to moderate content with stricter fact-checking, publishing criteria, and warnings of misinformation campaigns.”

The report’s section on “trusted information sources” also provides some interesting reading, addressing the reality that private organizations will be hesitant to transparently collaborate with the same government agencies that are regulating them. The researchers also see the media’s “competing priorities” as a potential barrier to use as an information outlet during a cyber defense crisi

Answer to the variety of emerging #cyberdefense challenges is the concept of 'operational collaboration' between public and private entities. #cybersecurity #respectdata

While the report is peppered with politically and socially contentious proposals, what might ultimately be the biggest barrier to this bold digital transformation is the cost. The report does not name any figures, but the level of cyber defense readiness it calls for would undoubtedly come with a huge bill to public funds in addition to substantially increased costs for various private stakeholders and their vendors.

Scott Ikeda

Senior Correspondent at CPO Magazine

Scott Ikeda is a technology futurist and writer for more than 15 years. He travels extensively throughout Asia and writes about the impact of technology on the communities he visits. Over the last 5 years, Scott has grown increasingly focused on the future landscape of big data, surveillance, cybersecurity and the right to privacy.

Hacktivists Attack Controversial Christian Conservative Social Media Site Gab, Leak 70 Gigabytes of Hacked Data Including Private Messages and Passwords


CYBER SECURITYNEWS·

SCOTT IKEDA·MARCH 10, 2021


When Donald Trump was banned from major social media platforms and conservative personalities cried foul over censorship measures earlier this year, a number migrated to Parler. When Parler suffered hosting difficulties and data breaches, some opted to move on to Gab instead. A hacktivist group calling itself “Distributed Denial of Secrets” has taken it upon itself to expose the sites users, dumping some 70 gigabytes of hacked data that includes highly sensitive personal information, messages and passwords.

The hacktivist group calls the breach “GabLeaks,” and it includes all (some 40 million) of Gab’s public and private posts minus any attached pictures or video. It also includes an unknown amount of both user and group passwords. The hacktivist group is not making the hacked data available to the general public, instead promising to share it selectively with journalists and academics who have characterized the data as a gold mine of research material regarding ” … everything surrounding January 6.”

Hackers attack heavily criticized platform, but ethical questions abound

Critics of Gab would likely take issue with the simple description of it as a “Christian conservative” platform. The first incident they would undoubtedly point to is the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting massacre in 2018. Gab was a favored hangout of the shooter, who posted neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic messages there prior to the attack. The service has also welcomed figures banned from other social media platforms, some of them open white supremacists.

Gab is unusual even among the sometimes fringe milieu of sites oriented to right-wing politics. The site itself does not openly promote extremist values, but is explicit about being an organization with religious values. However, its central selling point is that it rarely moderates content. The company spins this as a principled stand for free speech, but the practical result is that extremist ideologies banned from other platforms have tended to gather there.

Critics among extremism research communities say that this position has provided a unique opportunity for neo-Nazi and terrorist groups to publish content to and recruit from a more mainstream audience than they are usually limited to, and that situation was only exacerbated with the flood of new users in the wake of the Trump suspensions and Parler’s monthlong struggle to find hosting. The site has run into a number of problems in the past due to its permissiveness. Apple refused to host the Gab app in 2016 due to the presence of pornography and hate speech, and Google removed it from the Android app store after a few months for similar reasons. Stripe has banned it from its payment services due to adult content, and PayPal has done so due to hate speech.

Though there is ample evidence that the site is a hotbed for extremism, not all of its users are necessarily extremists or involved in matters “surrounding January 6” (referring to the storming of the US Capitol by protesters). The hacktivist group, which itself expresses some extremist sentiments, does not seem to be bothered by that possibility. Distributed Denial of Secrets added a note to the top of a chatlogs.txt file that contains the private conversations of all of the sites users that reads “F*** TRUMP. F*** COLONIZERS & CAPITALISTS. DEATH TO AMERIKKKA.” Founded in 2018, the group styles itself as a successor to WikiLeaks and was also recently behind the breach of law firm Jones Day (which represents the Chicago Police Department among other clients) and the mass scraping of Parler’s public posts. In January it published a terabyte of hacked data from ransomware victims collected from the dark web, and it was behind the 2020 BlueLeaks dump that shared 269 gigabytes of hacked law enforcement agency data (something that prompted the Department of Homeland Security to label it a “criminal hacker group”).

The lead hacktivist behind the action refers to themselves as “JaXpArO and My Little Anonymous Revival Project.” The username can be found as a poster on various hardware forums and discussion sites such as MacRumors making references to hacking, but it is unclear if there is a connection with the person responsible for the hacked data.

Andrew Barratt, Managing Principal of Solutions and Investigations at Coalfire, notes that wide-ranging document dumps such as this are becoming the new normal in hacktivist circles and that organizations should expect more free and immediate circulation of hacked data: “Hacktivism has been around since the birth of the internet with attacks on political parties around the world, as well as corporations that have fallen foul of their own transparency goals. In the old days a webpage would be defaced, or made to be self satire. Now denial of service attacks and data drops are the preferred weapon to get the attention of those in charge. It is definitely here to stay, in one evolved form or another.”
Gab hacked data appears to be almost complete compromise of the platform

It is unclear exactly how many of the platform’s personal and private group passwords were leaked by the hacktivists, but it appears that the personal account passwords were cryptographically hashed. Without knowing what hashing method was used, it is impossible to say how secure they are; the difficulty of breaking the encryption could range from trivial to nearly impossible. The hacked data includes hashed passwords for the accounts of Donald Trump, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and talk radio host Alex Jones. It is known that the private group passwords are not encrypted and were leaked in plaintext, something that is disclosed to Gab users before they create a new group.
'GabLeaks' includes all (some 40 million) of Gab's public and private posts minus any attached pictures or video, along with some amount of both user and group passwords. #cybersecurity #respectdataClick to Tweet

In a public blog post and comments to Wired magazine and other media outlets, a spokesperson for the controversial social media site confirmed that the breach was the result of an SQL injection that has since been patched and downplayed the amount of personal information among the hacked data. The spokesperson said that Gab does not collect highly sensitive pieces of personal information such as birth dates or telephone numbers. In a statement on Twitter confirming the breach, Gab CEO Andrew Torba referred to the hacktivists as “mentally ill demon hackers” and used a transphobic slur to describe them.

Scott Ikeda

Senior Correspondent at CPO Magazine

Scott Ikeda is a technology futurist and writer for more than 15 years. He travels extensively throughout Asia and writes about the impact of technology on the communities he visits. Over the last 5 years, Scott has grown increasingly focused on the future landscape of big data, surveillance, cybersecurity and the right to privacy.

West Bank refuge welcomes unfancied donkeys

Issued on: 09/03/2021 - 

Donkeys in a pen at the Safe Haven for Donkeys sanctuary in the West Bank town of Rujayb Jaafar 
Rujayb (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)






Rakan Silos rises early every Thursday and heads to a West Bank donkey shelter where he helps care for animals that still play an important role in daily Palestinian life.

Donkeys that did not attract a buyer at a weekly market in Nablus are brought to the shelter in nearby Rujayb, where Silos, a veterinarian, examines them "completely and free of charge".

The shelter is run by the British charity Safe Haven For Donkeys, established in 2000 to care for working donkeys in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Donkeys "work so hard for so little," but are often plagued by easily treatable conditions like overgrown hooves and bad teeth, the charity says.

Some Palestinians still rely on donkeys for transport and in agricultural work.

Silos, who trained at Al-Najah University in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said donkeys in Nablus are brushed and coddled, the way some in other cultures might treat a cherished horse.

On Thursdays, market day in Nablus, fully grown donkeys are popular sellers, but younger ones often go unsold and abandoned because buyers want animals at full strength rather than one that will take time and money to raise.

"We take care of them until they are adults," said Wael Salama, who also works at the shelter.

He explained that adoption is free but on the conditions that the donkey not be sold.

The refuge, the only one in the West Bank, has capacity to care for up to 200 donkeys, but also offers free treatment for farmers who bring their donkeys to the site.

© 2021 AFP

Raskin demands briefing from FBI on extremists infiltrating police, military


A top House Democrat, concerned that the FBI has not been candid about extremist efforts to infiltrate law enforcement and the military, is demanding an urgent briefing from the nation's top law-enforcement agency.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, chairman of the House Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, dispatched a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Tuesday with a deadline for action.

"I am deeply concerned that the bureau dismissed this threat last year and instead characterized the threat of white-supremacist infiltration of law enforcement as a hypothetical problem that has not materialized," wrote Raskin (D-Md.), who led a hearing on the problem last year. "For the above reasons, I am requesting a member briefing on this topic no later than March 26, 2021."

The new urgency comes in the wake of an ABC News report published Monday detailing a confidential FBI intelligence assessment of the problem of white supremacists and other right-wing extremists plotting to infiltrate police agencies and the military.MORE: White supremacists 'seek affiliation' with law enforcement to further their goals, internal FBI report warns

Based on investigations between 2016 and 2020, agents and analysts with the FBI's division in San Antonio concluded that extremists would "very likely seek affiliation with military and law enforcement entities in furtherance of" their ideologies, according to a confidential intelligence assessment issued late last month.

The document, obtained by ABC News, was distributed to law enforcement agencies both in Texas and elsewhere in the country. It focused on extremists inspired by the white-supremacist publication "Siege," which served as motivation for the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, among others.

The report was titled "Siege-Inspired Actors Very Likely Seek Military and Law Enforcement Affiliation, Increasing Risk of Tradecraft Proliferation and Color of Law Offenses in the FBI San Antonio Area of Responsibility."

The FBI told ABC News Wednesday that they had received Raskin's letter, but did not offer further comment.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Wray said that there are currently 2,000 domestic terrorism investigations, up from almost 1,000 when he first started in 2017.

"Whenever we've had the chance we've tried to emphasize that this is a top concern and remained so for the FBI," Wray said in his testimony. "The FBI will not tolerate agitators and extremists who plan or committed violence. Period. And that goes for violent extremists, of any stripe."

In an interview, Raskin told ABC News he believes that the vast majority of police and members of military do their jobs properly. However, he said he has become increasingly concerned in recent years by episodes that seem to point to a serious problem with extremist activity on the inside.

"The bureau failed to level with the American people," said Raskin, who led the impeachment of former President Donald Trump in response to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. "This is an emergency."© Brent Stirton/Getty Images Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.

Since the Jan. 6 attack, lawmakers and officials have increasingly focused on the issue of white supremacy and other types of violent extremism in the military and law enforcement. According to research by news organizations including The New York Times, at least 30 people with law enforcement training have been tied to the events of the insurrection, which left five dead, including a Capitol Hill police officer.© Brent Stirton/Getty Images

"As the world now knows, on Jan. 6, 2021, irrefutable proof of this threat materialized on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, when off-duty law enforcement officers participated in the violent insurrection against Congress," Raskin wrote in his letter to Wray. "Given the FBI's refusal just last year to admit that extremist police officers posed a serious threat to our Nation's security, I am now concerned that the Bureau lacks an adequate strategy to respond to this clear and present danger to public safety."

Conclusions in the FBI's Feb. 25 assessment were based on information from records and informants, some of whom had "excellent access," according to the document.MORE: The symbols of hate and far-right extremism on display in pro-Trump Capitol siege

"In the long term, FBI San Antonio assesses [racially motivated violent extremists] successfully entering military and law enforcement careers almost certainly will gain access to non-public tradecraft and information, enabling them to enhance operational security and develop new tactics in and beyond the FBI San Antonio" region," the report said.

The report's assessment is "based on evidence [extremists] expressed a desire to join the military and law enforcement primarily to obtain tradecraft to prepare for and initiate a collapse of society, specifically by engaging in violence against the US government and specified racial and ethnic groups," said the document. "Online peers encouraged them to seek these careers and [extremists] built relationships with associates seeking military employment, focusing on the associates' current and future martial skills."

In addition, the report says extremists are "likely to seek to exploit familial and social connections when pursuing military and law enforcement employment, reducing obstacles and increasing opportunities ... to acquire tradecraft."

The FBI publicly issued a similar warning in 2006, and in 2015 agents were instructed to modify methods and tactics because of the fear of infiltrators in their midst.

Ugly     Christian    Party
Opinion: Alberta budget carries a bitter message for the homeless

Jim Gurnett 

For 200 years, people have experienced an emotional boost singing, “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” So powerful was the song’s sentiment, it was banned in Union army camps during the U.S. Civil War, for fear soldiers would desert for home just hearing its message

.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Two camp residents share a hug after being evicted from the homeless camp near downtown Edmonton known as Camp Pekiwewin. Police and peace officers closed the camp down on November 12, 2020. The camp was on public land and had been occupied by over 200 people since July 2020.

For thousands of Edmontonians without housing of their own, and for tens of thousands in housing that is unsafe, insecure, inadequate, or unaffordable, the song carries a bitter message. The 2021-22 Alberta budget delivers a similar message.

Canadian and Albertan governments had a proud history for over four decades, investing in construction of non-market affordable housing for those unable to find housing in the open market. Homelessness was not an issue. But since 1993, that social commitment has been abandoned. The money in the new Alberta budget is shamefully inadequate and will guarantee that more people are denied the human right to decent housing. Housing is the foundation on which we build our lives. Relationships, health, employment, and mental well-being are more difficult without it.

The budget has a 22-per-cent cut to services for people who are homeless, from $248 million in the past year to $193 million. Even with that reduction, the government continues to see support for temporary emergency shelter as an answer to homelessness, in its support of large shelters that are unable to offer anything like a secure and dignified way to live.

The real solution to homelessness is to have housing. The budget documents themselves admit at least 11.4 per cent of Alberta households are in core housing need, unable to afford the housing they need. Yet there is only budget funding for 1,400 more units of public housing over the next three years, for all of Alberta, some of that for new construction and some of it to renovate existing housing in poor condition.

The City of Edmonton alone identifies a need for 50,000 units of affordable housing, and has an immediate goal of 2,500 units. This is not a frivolous matter. In Edmonton, over 25,000 households are spending over 50 per cent of their monthly income for housing. Many of these are families where the income is small, from sources such as minimum-wage jobs, so very little is left for other expenses. They live with the weight of “pay the rent or feed the children” hanging over them every day.

Years of failing to fund public housing have created a huge deficit. Only 24 per cent of the portfolio of public housing now meets the standard of being in good condition, and six per cent is in poor condition. This means housing built to be affordable for people with lower incomes is out of use because it cannot be used.

Some people have been able to avoid homelessness thanks to income supports, such as welfare and rent supplements, but the demand for rent support far outstrips the available funds and there is a quiet move to more strictly enforce the multitude of regulations for those receiving income support, so that people are losing allowances that let them meet shelter and other needs in a marginal way.

The budget ignores the need for supportive housing. Some people have challenges such as mental illness or disabilities and will not be able to remain housed unless they are in housing with specialized support services. Funding is needed for physical facilities and dedicated staff.

Year after year, governments have presented plans to end homelessness or to end chronic homelessness in 10 years or five years or three years but without a return to the commitment of governments of the post-war 20th century to fund affordable housing, this is rhetoric, not a plan. Parkland and back-alley camps and sidewalk lineups outside cavernous temporary shelters will be “home” for too many of our community.

Over a decade ago, a major review of housing in Alberta presented many recommendations. Few saw attention. Then in the summer of 2020, a hurried new review of affordable housing brought forward more recommendations. Now the government had hired consultants to decide what to do with that report. While the COVID-19 pandemic presents greater threats to people who are without housing or in inadequate housing, there are more months of delays ahead before any action is likely. The wholly inadequate commitment of Budget 2021-22 is all we can be certain of.

The voices of those who have the powerful benefits of adequate housing need to be raised to call for an Alberta budget that recognizes the need of homes for all.

Jim Gurnett has worked in senior positions with Edmonton Coalition on Housing and Homelessness, Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, and Bissell Centre, and now with Inner City Pastoral Ministry.

Opinion: Sub-categories of oil well abandonment are important

Bronwyn Eyre 

is Saskatchewan's Minister of Energy and Resources

In his article “Oil well cleanup too slow in Saskatchewan” (March 2), Sarath Peiris blurred important lines between abandoned, inactive and orphan wells and painted an imprecise picture of well remediation efforts in the province.

The oil and gas sector, like forestry and mining, is obligated to take into account future site closure liabilities. If every oil and gas company in Saskatchewan were to go out of business tomorrow, the total cleanup bill for their wells would be about $4 billion. But that liability, normally retired over decades, is offset by almost $13 billion in industry assets. The Saskatchewan oil and gas sector is also unique in that it pays for 90 per cent of the regulatory costs associated with site clean-ups.

In recent years, the Saskatchewan energy sector has also generated around $4 billion annually in new investment — which, in turn, generates royalties (almost $700 million last year) for hospitals and highways, social services and schools. That’s crucial context.

There are also important distinctions between inactive wells (about 40,000 in Saskatchewan), abandoned, or cleaned up wells (just under 40,000 since drilling began in the province), orphan wells (590), and who pays for what.

Inactive wells are marginal and not currently in production, but could eventually resume. For example, operators temporarily shut in up to 30 per cent of wells last year, simply to save costs. Marginal wells are also increasingly in demand for the production of lithium, used in electric cars.

Abandoned wells are plugged and cleaned up. In Saskatchewan, this is paid for not by the taxpayer, but by oil and gas companies. Even before the severe sector challenges of 2020, Saskatchewan had a strong abandonment record. In 2019, more than 2,000 wells were abandoned — an increase of 240 per cent since 2016.

Orphan wells are the result of company insolvency. In 2010, our government launched the Orphan Well Fund (OWF), which companies pay into. Since then, 669 orphan well sites have been cleaned up (at a cost, borne by the OWF, of $32.3 million). Going into COVID-19, the OWF had an unfunded liability (as in debts greater than assets) of zero. Saskatchewan has also collected $109 million in security deposits from energy companies, before they start drilling, to protect against future insolvency.

Our commitment remains clear: to ensure that every orphan well in Saskatchewan is cleaned up.

The Ministry of Energy and Resources has robust abandonment regulations in place and is currently in the process of further enhancing liability management programs. Since 2017, we have invested almost $3 million in enhancing regulation, including more staff, inspections, audit powers and penalty provisions to address liability for potential environmental damage. Our field workers run a 24/7 operation, and an anonymous, toll-free line is in place for people to contact the regulator with concerns.

The sub-categories of abandonment are technical, but important. The danger in not adequately detailing the distinctions is that confusion and clichés result.

Saskatchewan can be proud of the integrity of its abandonment and regulatory regimes, as well as its oil and gas sector, which employs more than 30,000 people.

Bronwyn Eyre is Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy and Resources.

Meteor over Vermont exploded so "violently," it shook buildings

Sophie Lewis 2 hrs ago

A fireball traveling at 42,000 miles per hour streaked across the night sky above Vermont on Sunday night, creating a spectacular light show. The meteor "fragmented so violently," it shook buildings across the state and produced a loud boom, NASA said.

© Jeremy LaClair / YouTube screen-shot-2021-03-10-at-9-31-48-am.png

NASA said on Facebook that over 100 eyewitnesses reported details of the meteor in Vermont around 5:38 p.m. ET. It first appeared about 52 miles above Mount Mansfield State Forest, moving 33 miles through the upper atmosphere, before burning up 33 miles above Beach Hill, in Orleans County.

It said the space rock was likely a fragment of an asteroid. It was so intense, it could be heard for miles, as it shook homes and cars.

"As the object penetrated deeper into the atmosphere, pressure built up on its front while a partial vacuum formed behind it. About 30 miles up, the pressure difference between front and back exceeded its structural strength," NASA Meteor Watch said. "The space rock fragmented violently, producing a pressure wave that rattled buildings and generated the sound heard by those near the trajectory."

Witnesses also reported tremors on the ground, which NASA attributed to a pressure difference.

"Such a pressure wave can also couple into the ground, causing minor 'tremors' that can be picked up by seismic instruments in the area; the wave itself can be detected by infrasound (low-frequency sound that can travel great distances) stations," the space agency said.

Three nearby stations reported that the meteor released the energy equivalent of 440 pounds of TNT. Based on its speed and distance, scientists estimate the object weighed about 10 pounds, with a diameter of 6 inches.

One witness noted on Facebook that it sounded like "big trucks crashing" while another described feeling the house shake and hearing a "quick higher pitch shrieking."

Another Facebook commenter said they were thrilled to witness such a rare event, saying it was "extremely bright and absolutely spectacular!"

"A nice little firework, courtesy of Mother Nature," NASA said.

LIKE THE OTHER METEORITES THAT LANDED THIS PAST WEEK SUCH AS IN GLOUCHESTER UK, THE CAME FROM AN ASTEROID

Asteroid twice the size of the CN Tower to make fastest ...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/biggest-fastest-known-asteroid-to-pass...

2021-03-06 · Asteroid 231937 was discovered on March 23, 2001, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program in New Mexico, according to NASA. It orbits the …

         

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ABOUT NEW BLOOM

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The Bitcoin Bubble Effect: Yes, We Are in a Very Early Stage

(Opinion)

Author: George Georgiev Last Updated Jan 31, 2021

Despite all the attention that Bitcoin saw following all those institutions discussing it and jumping aboard, we are very, very early on in crypto’s lifecycle.

The debate as to whether or not we are still very early on in the cryptocurrency space is one that’s been going on for quite some time. For some reason, a lot of people tend to tie it up to the current pricing of different cryptocurrencies – something, that in my opinion, has nothing to do with the bedrock of the conversation.

We’re in a bubble. Well, at least most of us are in a bubble. And I’m not talking about prices.

The Bitcoin Bubble

Whether you realize it or not, we’re in a bubble. Me, you, and everyone who has dedicated a large portion of their time to the crypto sphere. And no, this has nothing to do with prices.

We follow what’s going on – it’s our passion. We read the news, we debate on Crypto Twitter, we dive into DeFi, we ape into shitcoins with 0 prior research on the off chance that they can 100x in an instant (we’ve all done it at least once, let’s be honest.)

We’re excited that public companies are starting to put BTC on their balance sheets, and we’re also looking forward to the launch of Ethereum 2.0. We divide ourselves into factions – those who support nothing but Bitcoin, those who support everything but Bitcoin, and all those in between.

My point is – we are in this space. Like, truly in it. And this, at least for me, oftentimes makes me think that cryptocurrencies are going forward, that they are venturing deeper into the mainstream. But are they really?
“More and More People Ask Me About Bitcoin” Narrative

How many times have you seen your favorite Twitter influencer say that more and more people are asking them how to buy bitcoin? Honestly, I feel like this is something I read daily, but here’s my problem.

First of all, I don’t bite it. I’m a social guy, I’ve got a lot of friends, and I’m perhaps the only one who’s in crypto among my peers. And to be quite frank with you, most of the time, it’s me who starts the conversation on Bitcoin or other cryptos – not the other way around. But that may just be me.

Let’s assume, though, that all of it is true. Does this mean there are people who are looking to get into crypto? Not necessarily. I asked a friend the other day about his new Audi Q8 SUV – am I going to buy an Audi Q8? Not really, I’m just curious. There’s a huge gap between interest and action. Think about it this way – you’ve surely liked someone at some point in your life, and yet, we all know that it takes a stomach to go and talk to them. Perhaps this example is a bit far-fetched, but you get the point.

I was talking with a colleague of mine a week back about Bitcoin’s price and why is it that people are more interested in it when it’s at ATH – you know, the “buy high” heard mentality. He told me that he had at least 30 people ask him how to buy Bitcoin back in the Covid19 crash last March, and out of them, only one actually went ahead and bought it.

I know this is an anecdotal example, and the facts are coming below, but my point is that if we step aside from our bubble that is the crypto industry, we’ll quickly find out that the only thing that the overwhelming majority of people know about Bitcoin (let alone other projects) is its price.

Now. Facts. This post was inspired by a quiz I saw on Twitter.

Mr. Beast Asking his Followers About Crypto

In case you haven’t heard of MrBeast, he’s among the most popular YouTubers, and with over 52 million subscribers, his channel is one of the largest on the platform. I’m a fan of his – the videos he does are anything but generic, his content is fun, engaging, and he’s a representative of that new wave of entrepreneurs where giving back is just as important as earning. At least that’s the impression I’m left with after following him for a few years now.

I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw him putting Bitcoin in his bio just like Musk and Dorsey did.

Yesterday, while drinking my morning coffee, I stumbled upon a quiz of his:

“Do you hold any Bitcoin or other crypto? Retweet so we can get a larger sample size! I’m curious” – he asked.

Now, I didn’t see the results immediately, though I was sure that the majority of people would have said yes. After all, I assume that MrBeast’s primary audience consists of young people due to the nature of his content. And I’ve seen hundreds of quizzes in Crypto Twitter on the same subject, and it’s always the majority owning crypto.

This is how the results look like:



Out of more than half a million people, about 60% said they do not own crypto. I was honestly shocked at first, perhaps because I was so sure of the results being the other way around.


Let’s also see some other surveys. We reported back in 2020 that only 3.86% of UK’s general population holds crypto, according to an FCA survey. And the bulk of it owns less than 260 GBP worth of it. I know that it’s not necessary to own crypto to be aware of it, but still. Less than 4% sounds pretty low to me.

In any case, my point is that we are still very, very early on. In fact, we’re so early on that most of us can’t comprehend how early on we are. At least I can’t.
Final Thoughts

Is all of this good for crypto? I’d assume it is. After all, it’s a nascent industry, and Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Do we have much to offer? We sure do. GameStop, anybody? Is there a lot of work? There are years of work left ahead. Remember, centralized cryptocurrency exchanges are not the answer to what happened this week. And decentralized exchanges have a LONG way to go before they’re able to provide a simple-enough UX so that the average Joe can start using them. And of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg – there are plenty of merits behind decentralization.

I remain more eager than ever to see how it all pans out, and even if it turns out I’m wrong, it would surely have been an exciting journey.

About The Author

George Georgiev
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Georgi Georgiev is CryptoPotato's editor-in-chief and a seasoned writer with over two years of experience writing about blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Georgi's passion for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies bloomed in late 2016 and he hasn't looked back since. Crypto’s technological and economic implications are what interest him most, and he has one eye turned to the market whenever he’s not sleeping. Contact George: LinkedIn

Twitter Purge: Major Cryptocurrency Accounts Suspended (Updated)

Author: George Georgiev Last Updated Mar 10, 2021 

Twitter has suspended major cryptocurrency-related accounts en masse for no apparent reason as of yet.

In an interesting twist of events, Twitter, the social media platform spearheaded by Jack Dorsey, one of Bitcoin’s most influential proponents, has now suspended some major cryptocurrency-related accounts.

• Twitter has suspended numerous accounts that are related to cryptocurrencies.
• Some of the most popular ones include those of PlanB, the creator of the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow Model, Willy Woo, one of the most influential Bitcoin and crypto analysts, as well as Carl ‘The Moon’ Runefelt – an influential trader and crypto proponent.

• Others include the account of the self-proclaimed WSB Chairman, as well as that of well-known influencer Koroush AK.
• At the time of this writing, there’s no information as to why those accounts are being suspended.
• As a precaution against this, other influencers are now beginning to turn their account settings to private.
• Speaking on the matter was Loma, a cryptocurrency trader with over 100,000 followers, who said that his account is now private “cause Twitter bots and mass reporters (?)”
• This isn’t the first time a centralized content-sharing platform has censored crypto-related accounts for no apparent reason.
• Last year, YouTube was doing the same thing, suspending accounts and shadow-banning Bitcoin-related videos.
• This comes as somewhat of a surprise, though, because Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, is well-known for being one of Bitcoin’s most influential proponents.

UPDATE:

• PlanB’s account has been restored. He commented on the matter:

• Willy Woo’s account has also been restored but, at the time of this writing, his followers’ count is not fixed.

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