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The business benefits of using an open-source cloud – TechCentral

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Even before the pandemic led to increased remote work migration, many organisations were becoming increasingly reliant on cloud solutions to streamline systems and workflow. But as with any enterprise technology, implementing cloud solutions comes with questions about the best way for individual businesses to harness their benefits.

By now, were realising that using a single cloud vendor can lead to limitation and that a flexible, multi-vendor strategy is better for innovation. Although using a variety of cloud environments gives businesses the ability to adapt to changing business requirements, it also requires integration. Open source gives organisations an answer to this: It offers unmatched flexibility while also cutting the costs of software acquisition.

Open-source vs proprietary software conversations may lead one to believe that open source is the exception rather than the rule, but Linux, the open-source operating system that revolutionised data centre operations, enables almost all of the major public clouds being used today. It continues to power new cloud-native technologies.

Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform, has also become the industry standard for managing cloud-native workloads. It automates the deployment, scaling and management of application containers, and allows you to move workloads effortlessly between on-premise, private or public cloud infrastructure.

Its clear that open-source cloud shouldnt be treated as some kind of strange new tech. But what exactly are the business benefits of using an open-source cloud in a hybrid environment?

The public cloud is the best way for organisations to access IT resources that can easily be increased or decreased as needed, offering flexibility, scalability and cost savings (if used correctly). Internal private clouds, with their on-premises servers, give companies some of the benefits of the cloud with added security and without having to sacrifice control of their environment. To take advantage of the best of both the public and private cloud, many businesses implement hybrid cloud environments.

Historically, organisations have managed their public and private clouds separately, but an open-source hybrid cloud approach allows them to integrate these different environments into a single, comprehensive platform. This means on-premises services can have the same agility, functionalities and seamless experiences of a versatile public cloud.

The author, Danie Thom, says going the open-source route allows companies to gain independence and create custom solutions where they most need them

If businesses want the same flexibility from their on-premises data centres that they experience with the public cloud, they can no longer manage them in traditional and siloed ways. You must be prepared to adapt your technology, people and processes to gain any advantage. When computing demands fluctuate, businesses should be able to divert their workloads in a way that is both optimal for performance and usage costs. Open-source technology and methodologies enable this, and they mean that a business is less likely to be constrained by the functionalities of its cloud solution.

Compared to proprietary solutions that are rarely cross-compatible, open-source cloud infrastructure is also designed for interoperability, allowing different apps, servers or containers to work in harmony on different public cloud providers platforms. You could even duplicate your infrastructure from one cloud to another without a significant amount of modification, meaning less time wasted and increased productivity.

With the convergence of virtualisation (running multiple virtual machines on a single server) and containerisation (ways of running multiple applications on a single virtual machine) helping businesses run more by using fewer resources, open-source hybrid cloud approaches become even more beneficial. An open-source hybrid cloud platform allows you to containerise apps into their individual functions and develop and manage them all in one place regardless of what platform they come from. Theres no need to worry about the underlying tech: Open source gives you a portable, stable and secure way of running your applications. Developers also become more productive and operations more efficient.

Proprietary cloud solutions create vendor lock-in, often limiting businesses to standardised solutions that can result in walled software gardens and dependency on one providers suite of products or services. This limits a businesss options when they need added functionality, platform integration or simply want to change cloud providers. With an open-source cloud, youre never tied to functionalities or one particular platform, instead giving you the ability to choose from whichever cloud services best suit your needs.

Businesses that use open-source cloud services can also integrate them into one cohesive ecosystem and customise them to their specific needs. This allows them to use a vast ecosystem of technology and services creating a digital platform that fits their unique requirements, with secure, automated application runtimes. Rich integration, business process automation and automatic decisioning can be used to create immersive customer engagement anywhere.

We shouldnt be thinking about the cloud as the location of workloads and resources, but rather how we run them. The key to unlocking the power of the cloud is to treat it as an ecosystem, fostering interconnectedness, openness and standardisation across cloud architectures. An open-source cloud strategy is made for this as it increases code quality, flexibility and the availability of features, improves visibility over every layer of infrastructure, and gives businesses the ability to move between platforms.

Because of its interoperability, going the open-source route also doesnt have to mean businesses need to move away from their existing proprietary cloud architecture. Rather, it allows them to gain independence and create custom solutions where they most need them. With collaboration and openness being the future of software and the future of cloud, if businesses want to remain both integrated and innovative, an open-source cloud strategy is essential.

Simplify your companys digital transformation with Red Hats checklist for a successful hybrid cloud strategy. Find out more.

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S. Korean tech companies to strengthen cooperation for AI server chips – The Korea Herald

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

(123rf)

The Ministry of Science and ICT said five data center companies -- Naver Cloud, Douzone Bizon, Kakao Enterprise, NHN and KT -- and the Artificial Intelligence Industry Cluster Agency signed a memorandum of understanding with local server chip companies SK Telecom, Rebellions, FuriosaAI, and the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute to expand the use of locally developed artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors in data centers.

AI semiconductors have recently grown in demand from data center operators, which require the chips to efficiently process copious amounts of data.

The ICT ministry expects the global market for AI chips used in servers to reach $34.7 billion by 2030 from $3.5 billion last year.

Under the latest agreement, the companies will also cooperate in developing the chips, as well as pursue establishing a semiconductor testbed at an AI industrial complex in Gwangju, 329 kilometers south of Seoul.

The ministry said it will support the companies' move and that it hopes it will strengthen the country's semiconductor industry amid the recent global chip shortage.

SK Telecom, South Korea's leading wireless carrier, launched its AI chip for data center operations, the SAPEON X220, in November last year.

Separately, FusiosaAI, a startup that aims to launch its first semiconductor in the third quarter this year, drew 80 billion won ($70.6 million) in additional funding Tuesday from investors, including Naver. (Yonhap)

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An introduction to AWS IAM best practices – TechTarget

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

IT teams need to ensure that only known and trusted users can access their organization's vital applications and data.

Cloud users rely on services, like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), to secure and manage access across the vast portfolio of AWS services and resources -- and even federate a level of access control between AWS and local data center resources.

Let's take a closer look at AWS IAM, learn how it works and review best practices to help use resources securely.

AWS IAM is an Amazon cloud offering that manages access to compute, storage and other application services in the cloud. IAM's primary capability is access and permissions. It provides two essential functions that work together to establish basic security for enterprise resources:

IAM deals with four principle entities: users, groups, roles and policies. These entities detail who a user is and what that user is allowed to do within the environment:

IAM is fully interoperable with most compute, container, storage, database and other AWS cloud offerings. However, IAM is not fully compatible with all offerings on the platform, so it is best to check compatibility before implementing the service. For example, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) does not fully support resource-level permissions or authorization based on tags.

IT teams can manage and share a single business account between many different users -- each using unique credentials. Administrators can create policies to establish granular permissions and grant users access to different resources depending on their identity. Changes to IAM, such as creating or updating users, groups, roles and policies, take time because changes must be replicated to multiple servers globally. This means changes to IAM should not be critical or time dependent.

The common IAM process breaks down into four distinct phases:

IT teams can access AWS IAM four ways: AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), SDKs and APIs. Each technique is used for different purposes, but the underlying IAM service is the same. IT pros use the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI to make requests that are processed through IAM, while applications use the SDK or API.

IAM is essential to cloud security, but it also poses some complexity for inexperienced cloud administrators. Here are some best practices to enhance IAM effectiveness and help avoid common security mistakes.

Never use root credentials. A business might create a single AWS account with root credentials and then establish many different users and roles with other credentials. The root account should always be the most protected and secure entity within an AWS environment. Never use or share root credentials under any circumstances -- even for administrative activities.

Use groups for IAM policies. While it is possible and sometimes necessary to apply policies to individual users, it's better to apply group policies instead. For example, rather than managing policies for 10 individual HR staff members, put them into an HR group and apply a single HR policy to the entire group. This is faster and causes fewer oversights that compromise security. Groups also make it easier to move users as their jobs change.

Apply conditions to IAM policies. AWS users can apply conditions to policies that place additional stipulations on resource access. Conditions could include date and time limitations, IP source address ranges and require Secure Sockets Layer encryption. For example, conditions may specify that users must authenticate with MFA before they are allowed to terminate an EC2 instance. Conditions are not always necessary, but they add another layer of security for sensitive requests.

Use least privilege in IAM. The principle of least privilege gives users only the minimum access rights to do their job, and no more. Users and groups should be given only the minimum rights to accomplish necessary tasks.

Use MFA for better security. IAM supports multifactor authentication, which requires an additional credential based on a physical item that the user possesses. While MFA may not be appropriate for all cloud users, it is a useful addition for high-security users such as cloud administrators and senior business staff.

Use strong passwords. IAM allows cloud administrators to implement a custom password policy that can force stronger password selection -- such as longer strings with mixes of case, numerals and symbols -- and require regular password changes. Stronger passwords are more difficult to crack through systematic attempts and enhanced cloud security.

Use unique access keys. Access keys are used as credentials for applications. Keys act as the password for applications. Encrypt all keys that are embedded in an application and never use the same key for more than one application. It may be safer and more effective to set up an application to receive temporary credentials using IAM roles rather than using access keys.

Remove outdated IAM credentials. Locate and remove IAM passwords and keys that are idle to increase security. Principals that no longer use IAM, such as users that left the company or deprecated applications, no longer need credentials. Remove those credentials to prevent the principals from accessing the environment in the future.

Review IAM policies and permissions regularly. Business and security needs change over time. Establishing and applying policies is just a start. Review and update policies on a regular basis to ensure that the organization's security posture meets business and compliance demands. If a group no longer needs a specific resource, remove that resource from the group policy to prevent unwarranted access.

Monitor the AWS account. Log files are a primary source of security information that yield details about user access, actions, outcomes and resource status. AWS provides logging features in multiple AWS services, including Amazon CloudFront, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Config and Amazon Simple Storage Service. Cloud administrators should take advantage of every relevant log service to validate and maintain security in the AWS cloud.

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Modern Clouds Transition Of Storage Solutions From File To Block To Object – Influencive

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Remember when data was just a piece of information stored in a file on your computer? Occasionally, you or your employees would visit the same file to access the information and then get back to work. It was so simple, right?

Today, times have changed. Technology has evolved and so has the means of saving data. The age of data being stored locally on devices is in the past.

As the world steps into the age of digital transformation, we have innovated a new, modern solution for data storage.

To understand what we have now, we must first have an idea of what we had decades ago.

Data storage can have three different types, the first one being the file storage system. It is as simple as it sounds. All you need to do is give the content a file name, add metadata, and save it within subdirectories of directories.

The naming conventions are used to make it easier to trace the file back to the system and use it as required. What makes this type of storage system incompetent is its inability to provide ubiquitous access to data. Employees working remotely at distant locations do not have access to locally stored data.

IT administrators working over the system can easily specify the shortcomings of the system. Even though this is a type of storage that has been part of the industry since its infancy, leaders today want a centralized data storage solution for flexibility and accessibility. This is how the idea of a block storage structure came into the picture.

Instead of storing data as files, organizations shifted to a block storage system where the data would be divided into smaller chunks and then stored in blocks.

Most companies use centralized data servers hosted by third-party organizations to save their enterprise data.

Opting for providers helps to outsource the job of managing and storing data to third-party enterprises, freeing the organization from managing the tedious job themselves.

The operating system decides which data goes to which block, eliminating the need to add any metadata to the block. This is another way of storing files but it has its limitations.

Firstly, the storage is tied only to a single server at a time. Secondly, you are expected to pay for the block even if you arent using it.

This brings us to the third and the preferred form of storage, object-based storage.

As the name suggests, data is stored in isolated containers which are called objects. Each object has an identifier which makes accessing it from a pool of data simpler and faster. Furthermore, these objects can be saved either in the local storage space or in a remote server that is miles away from the organization.

With an object-based data storage system, you can add flexibility as well as scalability to the entire system. It keeps pace with the growth of data and, surprisingly, you only pay when you use the model. This is one of the reasons why object-based storage has gained tremendous attention.

Expanding on that, allow us to highlight the cloud-based solution, Tebi. Decentralization has been the need-of-the-hour as the limitations of the centralized solution have made themselves apparent. Tebi being a geo-distributed data centre facilitates ease of storage as well as ease of access.

Instead of having all your organizational data stored in a single location, the data is distributed across geographical locations and corresponding data centres.

This assures that your data is accessible by users across the globe without complications. It extracts the concept of object storage and applies it to the cluster of networks.

It is one of the leading solutions in the field of storage today and irrespective of what your organization is and how much data you produce, it will help you improve the scalability, reliability, and accessibility on a global level. Read more at bhtnews.com.

Published May 30th, 2021

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Bitcoin is greener than many — including Elon Musk — think it is – MarketWatch

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Its been three weeks since Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the electric-car company had dropped bitcoin as a payment option, citing concerns over the cryptocurrencys link to greater consumption of fossil fuels.

Since May 12, bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.86% has plunged by about a third, dragged down, in part, by criticism over its carbon footprint.

But the issue is not so simple.

Today Im joined by Alexander Benfield, a cryptocurrency analyst at Weiss Ratings. Instead of focusing on overall market dynamics, well talk about bitcoin and issues surrounding its energy consumption during the mining process.

The cryptocurrencys network relies on computers solving puzzles, which uses electricity. Annual power consumption of bitcoin mining is about 130 terawatt-hours, according to the University of Cambridge. To put that in perspective, the U.S. uses almost 4,000 terawatt-hours of electricity a year.

MarketWatch: A claim that bitcoin is an energy hog has been around for a while. How much merit is there to such a claim?

Benfield: That is a question with a multi-faceted answer. Yes, bitcoin does consume a lot of energy, but that does not necessarily translate into carbon emissions. Much of bitcoin mining uses renewable energy; depending on the source, that number ranges between 39%-73%, which is far higher than the percentage of renewable energy in the U.S. power grid. So even going by the low estimates, bitcoin is far more energy-conscious than the average industry. Additionally, a considerable amount of bitcoin mining actually uses excess energy that would otherwise be wasted in areas where it cant be exported to a nearby city infrastructure. For example, bitcoin miners in rural China use hydro-electric energy that would otherwise be wasted due to low local energy demand and the inability to transport that excess energy to an urban power grid.

MarketWatch: Some analysts say bitcoin is actually greener than many people think. What do they mean by that?

Benfield: Nic Carter has done some amazing research into this topic and is constantly trying to prove this point on television. (Carter is a general partner at Castle Island Ventures, a Cambridge, Mass.-based venture firm.) However, many critics dont care to listen. Cathie Wood recently took to Bloomberg to talk about potential ways of incorporating bitcoin mining into renewable energy providers power grids to capitalize on the intermittent periods when their excess energy is currently wasted. (Wood is CEO of active-ETF manager ARK Invest.) So perhaps bitcoin can actually help take advantage of much more wasted energy than was previously thought.

MarketWatch: So far, we have established that bitcoin is somewhat energy hungry. What is the purpose of all that energy expenditure?

Benfield: Bitcoins energy usage makes bitcoin more secure. The cost of attacking bitcoin rises along with the increase in the computational power and the energy consumed by those mining or securing the network.

MarketWatch: We hear a lot about the advent of cryptocurrencies that spend less energy than bitcoin does. What can you tell us about them?

Benfield: Many of the green cryptos are marketing their blockchain as energy efficient because this is better than saying that they have underdeveloped networks that nobody is using, validating or mining on. That being said, proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies are typically much more energy efficient and new projects will likely shift their attention toward proof of stake because of the energy benefits.

MarketWatch: Will bitcoin evolve and grow to surpass its hunger for energy? Whats next in store for the worlds most popular cryptocurrency?

Benfield: Much of bitcoins energy use to date has been for mining new coins and not the actual processing of transactions. After all the coins have been mined, energy usage is likely to come down, as the act of validating transactions uses far less energy than coin mining. There is also the possibility that scaling solutions and upgrades that have been in the works for years could help cut down on energy expenditure by offloading some transaction processing to layer 2s or sidechains. These sidechains or layer 2s would then checkpoint on the bitcoin blockchain, but similar to the lightning solution, individual transactions would be handled off the main chain and the summaries of those transactions would be stored on the main bitcoin blockchain during those checkpoints.

MarketWatch: Finally, is this energy issue big enough to jeopardize bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a store of value?

Benfield: No, at the end of the day the issue of bitcoins energy consumption boils down to whether the consumption is worth it. Bitcoins adopters will eventually need to demonstrate bitcoins societal value to the world to justify its energy footprint.

There you have it. After having this conversation with Alex, reviewing Nic Carters research (the link is above, I highly recommend you read it) and other papers on the topic, it seems that many of the issues concerning bitcoins carbon footprint may have been overblown or simply misrepresented.

Determining bitcoins effect on the environment requires a lot of big-picture thinking. It is easy to miss the forest for the trees, and easier still to rely on information that has been since debunked, simply because it favors ones cognitive bias.

The way I see it, cryptocurrencies arent going away, and by the looks of it, neither is bitcoin. Current market action looks like nothing out of the ordinary yet more volatile crypto action, the likes of which weve seen in the past. This slump is likely just a pause.

What do you think? Do you support the use of bitcoin or would you rather invest in one of the green cryptocurrencies? Which one?

Let me know in the comment section below.

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Bitcoin Price Volatility Reached Its Highest In A Year During May – Forbes

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Bitcoin volatility hit a 13-month high in May amid sharp fluctuations. (Photo illustration by Edward ... [+] Smith/Getty Images)

Bitcoin prices had a wild May, experiencing sharp gyrations while they lost close to half their value in a matter of weeks.

The digital currencys annualized 30-day volatility reached 116.62% on May 24, its highest since April 10, 2020, data provided by asset manager Blockforce Capital reveals.

This particular measure climbed to its loftiest reading in more than 13 months shortly after bitcoin made two separate attempts to break through the $30,000 level, CoinDesk data shows.

The digital asset fell to roughly $30,000 on May 19, and then after recovering to nearly $42,000 a few days later, it declined once again, dropping below $31,200, additional CoinDesk figures reveal.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

Bitcoin experienced some strength earlier in the month, approaching $60,000 on May 8 and trading near that price level for a few days.

However, the worlds most prominent digital currency encountered some inevitable volatility, breaking through the $50,000 and $40,000 levels, before making attempts on $30,000.

By the time it reached its intra-month low of approximately $30,200, it had declined more than 47% from its May high of more than $59,500.

Bull Market

While bitcoin did suffer some notable price declines last month, which helped fuel the digital assets volatility, these developments took place after the cryptocurrency experienced some very impressive gains.

The digital asset rose to nearly $65,000 in April, setting a fresh, all-time high more than triple the size of the prior high of nearly $20,000 reached during the 2017-2018 bull run.

Further, bitcoin rose to this latest high after bottoming out near $3,000 in late 2018, languishing during the so-called Crypto Winter, where digital asset prices suffered and industry projects struggled to get the funding they needed.

As for where the digital currency will go next, its anyones guess, but many market observers have been pointing out that this bull run is different from the last one, driven by separate set of circumstances.

Whereas the sharp price gains that bitcoin enjoyed in 2017 and early 2018 were attributed to variables like retail interest and particularly strong sentiment, institutional investors have been credited with playing a key role in the digital currencys upward movement during the current bull market.

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether and EOS.

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Bitcoin hits $38K as BTC price breaks above ‘line in the sand’ resistance – Cointelegraph

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $38,000 on June 2 as a long-awaited bout of volatility saw a critical bull level return.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingViewshowed BTC/USD finally beating resistance at $37,500 on June 2, going on to hit local highs of $38,090.

Questions were even being asked as to whether $30,000 would stay as support, with a potential further price dip set to take BTC to$20,000 or worse.

With the latest gains, however, the mood noticeably lifted.

"Important update: past week I showed the bearish pennant and what are the possible scenarios... We just made a new high, meaning BTC is doing 5 legs up in this current move and opening the gates for more upside," popular trader Crypto Ed tweeted in his latest update.

Crypto Ed was one of a number of traders calling for a bullish continuation for Bitcoin rather than a breakdown should $37,500 resistance be firmly quashed.

That level represents a "line in the sand" for bulls, Cointelegraph reported, and flipping it to support would open up the path to higher crux levels at $40,000 and $42,000.

Fellow trader Rekt Capital was cautious, arguing that the recovery needed "sustained" bullish activity to avoid defeat.

He highlighted a so-called "death cross" pattern looming on the weekly chart, which signals downside in the form of two moving averages the 50-week and the 200-week crossing over one another.

"A BTC Death Cross may or may not happen in the coming weeks. But that doesn't mean BTCcan't rebound from current levels before then," he told Twitter followers.

The move was significant for hodlers, who had watched as momentum failed to take Bitcoin higher than the lower end of its broad trading range with $30,000 as support.

At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at around $37,800, up 3.5% in the past 24 hours.

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Bitcoin hits $38K as BTC price breaks above 'line in the sand' resistance - Cointelegraph

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Bitcoin is headed toward its worst month since 2011; ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ author says that’s ‘great news’ – MarketWatch

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

Bitcoin prices are headed for their worst month since 2011 and one prominent investor says thats great news.

Bitcoin crashing. Great news, tweeted Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki on Sunday, saying it provides a good buying opportunity. When price hits $27,000 I may start buying again. Lot will depend upon global-macro environment. Remember the problem is not gold, silver, or Bitcoin. Problem are the incompetents in government, Fed & Wall Street. Remember gold was $300 in 2000.

In April, Kiyosaki predicted in an interview that bitcoins price would top $1 million in the next five years. Still, he said he prefers gold and silver as an investment, calling it Gods money.

Gold futures GC00, +0.03% are currently trading above $1,900, up 8% this month, while silver SI00, +0.36% is above $28, also up about 8% in May.

Kiyosaki is an outspoken critic of the Fed, the Treasury Department and the Biden administration, calling them losers and socialists, and predicting the demise of the dollar.

Crypto prices seesawed moderately over the Memorial Day weekend, avoiding the worst fears of some investors who predicted a bloody weekend of bearishness.

While bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.86% fell about 5% on Saturday, it rebounded Sunday and was up about 4% over the previous 24 hours, as of Sunday evening, trading in a range between $33,000 and $37,000. Ethereum ETHUSD, -0.93% prices similarly slid about 6% Saturday and recovered Sunday, up more than 5% over the previous 24 hours. Dogecoin DOGEUSD, +2.07% also bounced around Saturday and Sunday, and prices were last about even with Fridays end of session.

Cryptocurrencies trade 24 hours a day including Memorial Day on Monday and each days session ends at 5 p.m. Eastern.

But bitcoin is down more than 37% so far in May, the digital currencys worst monthly performance since September 2011. Bitcoin prices later bottomed out around $2 in October 2011.

Since its mid-April peak near $65,000, bitcoin has tumbled about 45%.

Despite a rough couple of months, bitcoin is still up 24% year to date, and up about 270% over the past year.

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Bitcoin is headed toward its worst month since 2011; 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' author says that's 'great news' - MarketWatch

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Wall Street struggles to sell Washington on Bitcoin for the masses – POLITICO

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

It's big. But Wall Street wants it to be even bigger. POLITICO's Kellie Mejdrich reports on an effort to open up access to Bitcoin investment.

In addition to pending fund proposals backed by Fidelity and Scaramuccis SkyBridge, One River Digital Asset Management is being advised by former SEC Chair Jay Clayton as it pitches a carbon neutral Bitcoin ETF. Clayton led the agency in the Trump era and didnt sign off on any of the cryptocurrency fund proposals during his tenure. While in office, Clayton highlighted concerns that cryptocurrency markets were ripe for fraud and manipulation and said that regulators had a host of issues to resolve before permitting ETFs.

The SEC, which is responsible for allowing the funds to launch, appears to be in no hurry to expand access to Bitcoin investments. The agencys new chair, Gary Gensler, has emerged in recent weeks as a clear crypto skeptic. That surprised some advocates who were hoping hed be more amenable to Bitcoin after teaching and researching digital finance at MIT.

Gensler has flagged fundamental concerns about the operations of the underlying cryptocurrency market that the ETFs want to track. He says exchanges that facilitate the buying and selling of digital currency arent adequately regulated and that market data is lacking.

Altogether, this has led to substantially less investor protection than in our traditional securities markets, and to correspondingly greater opportunities for fraud and manipulation, Gensler said in House testimony Wednesday.

Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange in the Financial District on March 23, 2021. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

Despite the growing industry enthusiasm, Wall Street is also split on the future of cryptocurrency. Some executives are dismissing the push to expand access even as their firms try to satisfy customer demand.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in House testimony Thursday that his company the nations largest bank was debating how to make it available in a safe way. But Dimon's personal advice? Stay away from it.

That does not mean the clients don't want it, Dimon said. It goes back to how you have to run a business. I don't smoke marijuana, but if you make it nationally legal I'm not going to stop our people from banking it.

One of Genslers colleagues is urging him to act. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a Republican on the agencys five-member board, said Genslers recent warnings conveyed the overly conservative approach that has typified the SEC in the crypto arena. She said the agency should move forward with approval of crypto funds on their merits.

Six applications are pending with the SEC to list cryptocurrency ETFs on stock exchanges run by the New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets. Wall Street titans are lining up to provide services for the funds, including Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street.

Hester Maria Peirce, a nominee to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testifies during a Senate Banking committee hearing on Capitol Hill on March 15, 2016. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Given the growth of the market and increased interest, the stakes are high as people compete to be the first approved," Peirce said.

By not bringing digital currency into the regulatory mainstream, Peirce and industry players say the SEC is allowing crypto activity to remain outside the purview of government watchdogs.

What that does is it allows the wild Wild West to continue, said Tom Quaadman, executive vice president of the U.S Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness.

Jan van Eck, the CEO of the $71 billion asset manager VanEck, said those who oppose Bitcoin ETFs like the one his firm is proposing "are effectively forcing investors into inferior fund structures and less regulated venues."

Critics of moving forward with the funds say the SEC needs to first address underlying risks in the cryptocurrency market.

The regulatory concerns about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets go far beyond ETF issues," said Joseph Cisewski, senior derivatives consultant and special counsel to the Wall Street reform group Better Markets. "The crypto exchanges operate almost entirely in the dark, and weve repeatedly seen how risks increase and evolve when they are allowed to develop in the cracks of our regulatory system.".

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle including staunch Bitcoin advocates are unconvinced or on the fence, indicating that the SEC will face political pressure to continue to slow-walk the issue.

The companies need to show their contribution to our economy, and in that sense, they really havent done well, Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said in an interview.

"I would caution the commission against prioritizing the review of cryptocurrency ETFs over fulfilling the legal directives of Congress," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), who leads SEC oversight in the House and wants the agency to finish rules languishing from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law.

Republican lawmakers who champion free markets and digital currency said in interviews that they too are taking time to study the issue before backing the efforts.

I'm not clear yet on exactly what we should do, said Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who in May launched the bipartisan Senate Financial Innovation Caucus to encourage policy development in crypto and other financial technologies.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who with Lummis serves on the Senate Banking Committee, said he's concerned about the accuracy of the underlying reference prices for the funds because crypto trading occurs on venues that arent regulated by the SEC.

Tillis said the fund applications have to be scrutinized, mainly from a consumer protection perspective.

We need to figure out how we deal with this, said Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), a member of the Banking Committee. Otherwise youre going to have a lot of people lose a lot of money."

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Bitcoin contends with biggest monthly drop on record – Fox Business

June 2, 2021 | Author: admin

FOX Business Ashley Webster breaks down Tuesdays market open.

Bitcoin was flirting with its biggest monthly decline on record as May comes to an end.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was on track to close down 36% for May at $36,509 per coin. A finish below $34,885 would cement the cryptocurrencys worst month on record.

Bitcoin prices came under pressure in May amid concerns the cryptocurrency market could face increased scrutiny from regulators both in the U.S. and abroad.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell this month floated the possibility that the central bank could create its own digital currency and was looking into ways to tighten regulation. The Internal Revenue Service said cryptocurrency transfers over $10,000 needed to be reported.

Meanwhile, Chinese regulators this month took a number of steps to limit the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They announced plans to crack down on bitcoin mining and trading behavior and the countrys banking association warned its members to refrain from transacting in digital currencies. China is working on its own digital currency, the digital yuan.

Talk of increased regulation comes as Tesla Inc. this month reversed its policy to accept bitcoin as payment for its vehicles, citing concerns over the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining.

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Bitcoin in April hit a record high of more than $63,500 per coin, fueled by the decision of a number of U.S. companies to begin investing in the cryptocurrency as a way to diversify their cash.

Business intelligence software provider MicroStrategy Inc. has invested more than $2.2 billion in bitcoin while Tesla has parked about $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency.

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