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StormForge Forecasts All-Weather Cloud – Forbes

A lightning strikes a building during a thunderstorm in Bangkok on April 23, 2021. (Photo by Mladen ... [+] ANTONOV / AFP) (Photo by MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Cloud computing takes a lot of engineering. It takes a lot of software engineering in the form of programming and code development, it takes a lot of backend engineering in the form of cloud datacenter management and maintenance and it takes a lot of engineering in terms of the actual process of deployment, if virtualized cloud Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications are going to stand any chance of survival in the real world once users get their hands on them.

All of that engineering creates what we could call a fairly complex cloud pattern and higher level weather system for the SaaS world to circulate in.

Knowing what the weather is going to be like in any given cloud instance once its sent spiraling up into the tornado of live use cases is tough to do. In order to try and weather the storm, software application development professionals (DEV) work with their operations system administration (OPS) counterparts inside so-called DevOps teams to try and pull off a safe flight.

But theres still a challenge, because even at the pre-flight stage, todays DevOps teams often configure cloud-native applications by using a trial-and-error approach thats labor-intensive and requires a deep level of Kubernetes management (a cloud container orchestration technology designed to build, deliver and scale working parts of cloud), so life is still pretty tough.

Cloud-native performance testing and resource optimization company StormForge is on a mission to help technology teams achieve cloud application performance and cost-efficiency without manual configuration or tuning and indeed without trial-and-error.

New functions in its platform toolset include the ability to automatically generate cloud instance optimization experiments and use new guided walkthroughs for setting up and running the experiments, speeding cloud-native development and deployments regardless of the level of in-house expertise.

The company claims that too many organizations are guestimating cloud provisioning with trial-and-error, which is not only ineffective, it results in applications that can cost twice as much to run as necessary and still risk poor performance. The result is bloated spending and cloud waste.

Airbnb, for example, recently published the results of its nine-month cloud efficiency journey in which it saw a US$63.5 million year-over-year decrease in hosting costs, which contributed to a 26 percent decline in its cost of revenue. This is not a small problem.

Kubernetes application performance optimization shouldnt require you to be a Kubernetes guru. With our newest capabilities, StormForge is making it easy to achieve cloud efficiency without requiring users to be experts on the inner workings of Kubernetes, said John Platt, VP of Machine Learning of StormForge. Theres no longer any reason for DevOps teams to choose between their application performance and cost-efficient provisioning.

The newest StormForge platform capabilities include the ability to generate optimization experiments by automatically scanning in-cluster resources (i.e. the amount of cloud power available in terms of memory, storage, application processing ability, Input/Output scope and other workings such as data analytics and AI-based functions), making it easy to optimize applications without requiring in-depth knowledge of underlying Kubernetes plumbing.

There are also guided walkthroughs of optimization experiment creation and execution, making optimization of applications faster and easier; improved customer onboarding experience built into the StormForge app, making it easier for customers to get started and reducing time to value; and a new user interface designed for faster innovation and to further improve ease of use and accessibility.

"StormForge is one of our primary tools for building efficient Kubernetes services. Auto-scanning for experiments and the updated UI considerably improve the cost and time spent in terms of management and operations of the product," said Prashanto Kochavara, director of product at Trilio, a cloud data protection company.

If StormForge hasnt quite pulled off the perfect all-weather cloud with its latest product and services updates, then surely some of these instance optimization experiments and guided walkthroughs will help.

Spoiler alert: there may be no perfect all-weather cloud in our lifetimes. The application surface for even the most contemporary cloud deployments appears to still be susceptible to fragility given the massively complex number of supporting and enabling technologies that constantly impact the global cloud-scape

Cloud remains more of a perfect storm that a perfect norm, the best we can do is to try and keep warm.

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StormForge Forecasts All-Weather Cloud - Forbes

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If You Invested $1,000 in Bitcoin 10 Years Ago, Here’s How Much You’d Have Today – The Motley Fool

If you think the stock market's rise has been impressive, wait until you see how Bitcoin has performed.

Bitcoin's rise has certainly been a remarkable one. In only 12 years, this cryptocurrency has gone from having no monetary value to surging above $60,000 for a brief period. And for investors who got in during the early days and have held on, the returns have been absolutely remarkable.

While we obviously can't go back in time, it can be fun to look at the amount of money made by those with the foresight to get in on the ground floor of successful investments.

So here's how much you would have if you had bought Bitcoin a decade ago, before most people had any idea what a cryptocurrency was.

At the start of May 2011, Bitcoin was trading for approximately $3.50 (that isn't a typo). So, $1,000 would have bought approximately 286 Bitcoins, not counting any transaction costs. As of April 27, 2021, Bitcoin trades for $54,680.

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That means 286 Bitcoins would be worth approximately $15.6 million today, assuming you held on to them for the past 10 years.

It's important to mention that the last sentence is a big assumption. If you had been fortunate enough to dip into your savings and buy a bunch of Bitcoins at $3.50 each, would you have been tempted to sell when the price first spiked to $100? What about when it first broke through $1,000? Or the first time it eclipsed $10,000? Many investors who got in during the early years of Bitcoin ended up selling at least some of their positions on the way up.

Speaking of the major milestones Bitcoin has hit over the years, here's a quick history of its prices.

If there's one key takeaway, it is that the digital currency has been very unpredictable. Bitcoin has seen two major peaks, not counting the current rise. And each time, it has retreated considerably and taken several years to eclipse the previous highs.

It's entirely possible that we'll see $100,000 Bitcoin in a matter of months or even sooner. But it's important to realize that $10,000 or less is also very possible. If you decide to buy Bitcoin at the current price level, do so with its volatile and unpredictable nature in mind.

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If You Invested $1,000 in Bitcoin 10 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today - The Motley Fool

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Elizabeth Warren: ‘There’s a real issue’ with environmental impact of bitcoin – Yahoo Finance

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has questions about cryptocurrency, including whether it takes advantage of smaller investors. The progressive senator also wonders whether bitcoin is too easy to steal.

The former presidential candidate has been pushing for government intervention on both of those fronts and, in a conversation with Yahoo Finance's editor-in-chief, Andy Serwer, this week, she raised another growing concern: the impact on the planet that has come with the rapid growth of cryptocurrency.

I also think with bitcoin, and with the other cryptocurrencies, I think there's a real issue about the environmental impact as well, this whole notion of how much energy is consumed just to keep the currency tracking going, said Warren, who's out with a new book, "Persist," which is billed as both a personal narrative and a call for "political transformation."

Compared to traditional currency, bitcoin has a relatively large carbon footprint because new bitcoin has to be "mined." Bitcoin "miners" receive bitcoin as a reward for verifying and recording transactions that require massive amounts of computing power which takes massive amounts of real life power.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questions Xavier Becerra, nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, during his Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., February 24, 2021. Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS

Crypto miners' energy needs have already disrupted the grid of an entire town, and consumption grows the more popular these currencies become.

You don't consume that kind of energy, in order to have money on deposit at a bank or a mutual fund, Warren told Yahoo Finance. In that sense, bitcoin is very different and in a 21st century, we're becoming a lot more sensitive to the worldwide impacts of the choices we make.

Warren spoke to Serwer in an episode of Influencers with Andy Serwer, a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment.

There have been different efforts to measure the environmental impacts of bitcoin. The electricity used to mine bitcoin each year exceeds the individual annual electricity consumption of Ukraine, Sweden, or Argentina, according to an ongoing study from the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School.

Story continues

Warren is far from alone in expressing concerns over bitcoin. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has worked to fund efforts at combating climate change, has also raised the alarm over the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to mankind, and so its not a great climate thing," Gates told Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times in February.

It's unclear whether governments around the world will enact regulations to mitigate these impacts, but the industry has taken some steps to regulate itself. In April, energy, cryptocurrency, and fintech leaders signed onto a "Crypto Climate Accord" seeking to have all of the world's blockchains powered by 100% renewables within four years. Meanwhile, payments company Square (SQ) has responded to the increasing public pressure by pledging to support greener bitcoin mining practices and to become a zero-net carbon contributor by 2030.

Still, even if bitcoin's environmental impacts are reduced, Warren will likely continue to have questions about the cryptocurrency. As she told CNBC in March, agreeing with a sentiment expressed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, "It's speculative in nature and going to end badly."

Ben Werschkul is a writer and producer for Yahoo Finance in Washington, DC.

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Elizabeth Warren: 'There's a real issue' with environmental impact of bitcoin - Yahoo Finance

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SEC Chairman Gary Gensler says more investor protections are needed for bitcoin and crypto markets – CNBC

The new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that more investor protections are needed in the markets for bitcoin and other crypto assets.

Chairman Gary Gensler said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" that he sees the attraction to bitcoin for traders but regulation is needed to prevent fraud and other issues.

"It's a digital, scarce store of value, but highly volatile," Gensler said, talking about bitcoin specifically. "And there's investors that want to trade that, and trade that for its volatility, in some cases just because it is lower correlation with other markets. I think that we need greater investor protection there."

Gensler later added that he believes bitcoin is a "speculative" store of value and that the SEC should be "technology neutral" when it comes to innovations in markets.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have boomed since late last year, fueled by increased institutional adoption for some of the more established coins and interest from retail traders.

Bitcoin was trading above $57,000 per coin on Friday after hovering under $10,000 a year ago, while dogecoin, a digital coin that started as a joke based on a meme with a shiba inu dog, was trading near its record high.

Gensler, who previously taught classes about blockchain and other financial technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there needed to be authority for a regulator to oversee the crypto exchanges, similar to the equity and futures markets. He said many of the crypto coins were trading like assets and should fall under the purview of the SEC.

"To the extent that something is a security, the SEC has a lot of authority. And a lot of crypto tokens I won't call them cryptocurrencies for this moment are indeed securities," he said.

Gensler also commented on social media's influence on financial markets.

"We need to update and freshen our rules to ensure that, while retail investors and any individual has First Amendment rights to speak and so forth, that they're not misleading the public, they're not manipulating the public, manipulating the markets," he said.

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Bitcoin (BTC USD) Cryptocurrency Price: Bank of England Warns of Full Losses – Bloomberg

Follow us @crypto for our full coverage.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey issued a stark warning to those investing in cryptocurrencies: Buy them only if youre prepared to lose all your money.

In response to a question about financial stability, Bailey said the central bank was well positioned to respond to any threats that might arise. However, he objected to the use of the phrase cryptocurrency and took the opportunity to push back on their growing popularity.

Im afraid crypto and currency are two words that dont go together for me, he said at a press conference Thursday. They have no intrinsic value.

Bailey has long been dismissive of the assets, and his comments follow yet another period of speculative excesses for a market Nouriel Roubini once described as the mother of all bubbles.

While in the past, trillions of dollars in stimulus by governments and central banks might have triggered a rush into gold for the inflation-wary and risky stocks for the intrepid, a deluge of cash this time round is flooding into the crypto market. Its even pushed up the price of digital tokens previously considered a joke, like Dogecoin.

Read More: Crypto Mania Sends Doge Soaring, Crashes Robinhood Token Trading

The BOE last month said it would join forces with the U.K. Treasury to weigh the potential creation of its own central bank digital currency, joining authorities from China to Sweden exploring the next big step in the future of money. If approved, the U.K.s digital currency would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replacing them, they said.

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Bitcoin (BTC USD) Cryptocurrency Price: Bank of England Warns of Full Losses - Bloomberg

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Marathon Miners Have Started Censoring Bitcoin Transactions; Here’s What That Means – CoinDesk

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) new mining pool has mined a bitcoin block that is fully compliant with U.S. regulations, meaning the company has started excluding transactions from entities it believes are sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury or have been involved in dark web activity.

The Marathon OFAC pool, which was first announced in late March, refrains from processing transactions from those listed on the U.S. Department of Treasurys Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN) to stay compliant with U.S. regulatory standards, according to the company.

Marathon said it is addressing a concern among many large funds and corporations that have expressed interest in purchasing bitcoin by marketing its mined bitcoin as OFAC-compliant. Marathon spokesman Jason Assad confirmed that the firms first OFAC pool block censored some transactions, but didnt specify which ones.

By excluding transactions between nefarious actors, we can provide investors and regulators with the peace of mind that the bitcoin we produce is clean, ethical and compliant with regulatory standards, Marathon said in a statement.

It should be noted that Marathon is mining compliant blocks of its own volition and that nothing in the current U.S. regulatory or legal code explicitly mandates that practice for miners.

The company uses DMGs Walletscore blockchain surveillance software to filter transactions, Assad told CoinDesk. The blacklist is based on information provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Office of Foreign Assets Control, databases of OFAC restricted cryptocurrency addresses, as well as other sources including the dark web, he said.

Iran, which is included on OFACs sanctions list, is a hotbed of bitcoin adoption, partly in response to the pressures sanctions place on its citizens. (Notably but unrelated, Irans government just said that only bitcoin produced in Iran is legal to trade.)

What are clean bitcoins?

The practice of censoring transactions, sanctioned or otherwise (put another way, excluding them from blocks because of the senders presumed identity), is a subject of heated debate within the Bitcoin community. Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin mining to facilitate permissionless and censorship resistant transfers of value, but initiatives like Marathons undermine that feature for no reason, critics say.

It is totally against the Bitcoin ethos as they are trying to make it a permissioned protocol instead of open for all, said Ben Carman, a Bitcoin Core and Suredbits developer.

He also said Marathons approach doesnt make sense. They are mining blocks that will not have the highest fee transactions, but (are) still on top of blocks with transactions they deem bad, giving them more security, he said.

Others also questioned the practicality of making a compliance claim.

Indeed, despite Marathons surveillance, transactions from a Russian dark web market, Hydra, were still processed in the clean block.

Further, shortly after Marathon blazoned the clean block on social media, bitcoiners from Iran and around the world began to send bitcoin to the address that received the Marathon clean block reward. The gesture was meant to display how easy it is to undermine Marathons initiative (and thus demonstrate how futile the chase is for clean coins).

Miners speaking to CoinDesk from other pools declined to go on the record about Marathon and its compliance push, but the sentiment was generally negative. One miner laughed at the notion, while another called it a manufactured issue.

The economics of a compliant bitcoin block

Marathon began directing its hashrate, or computer processing power, to the OFAC pool on May 1 and mined its first block on May 5, Bitcoin block 682170. That blocks transaction fee reward, 0.05 BTC (worth less than $3,000 at the time) is substantially less than the fees collected in the blocks before or after it (both of which were 0.31 BTC or ~$17,800). Block 682172 included 0.48 BTC for nearly $28,000.

BitMEX Researchs diagnosis notes that the block contained 0.00330944 BTC less transaction fees than expected. The block excluded a number of transactions that BitMEXs own hypothetical template would have included, which could indicate censorship, the post said.

Interestingly, it also included many transactions that BitMEXs model excluded because their fees were too low to be considered a priority. That could indicate out-of-band payments for the fee, BitMEX says, which are under-the-table payments that are not included in the payers transaction.

If Marathon is not receiving out-of-band fees, then so far its compliant blocks are netting significantly less in transaction fees. That portion of the block reward has become increasingly important for miner profits as bitcoins block subsidy has dwindled to its current rate of 6.25 BTC per block and demand for bitcoin has grown.

Marathons block occurred only a minute after the one before, which could explain the blocks lower fee reward and transaction count. Marathon, however, still used it to censor transactions that, for other miners, would have gone through.

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Downtown Josh Brown on bitcoin and wealth management – The Block Crypto

Episode 27 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Blocks Frank Chaparro and Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown.

Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop onApple,Spotify,Google Play,Stitcheror wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to [emailprotected]

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Wall Street is embracing crypto one headline-driving development at a time.

From Goldman Sachs to Morgan Stanley, major banks are moving from exploring the digital asset world to fully operating in it.

Goldman, for instance, announced Friday it would restart its market for non-deliverable forwards tied to bitcoin. Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman have said they will offer their wealthiest clients exposure to bitcoin. But one channel that has yet to fully embrace crypto is the independent wealth management market.

Josh Brown the brains behind the well-followed Reformed Broker blog is among the legion of wealth managers who have yet to start advising their clients to buy crypto.

The CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management joined The Scoop to talk about how financial advisors are examining the fast-growing $2 trillion market, why he is skeptical of non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance, and how Covid-19 turned the idea of risk on its head.

Here's a blurb from the show:

"The most concerning is that what weve just witnessed completely flipped the entire concept of risk on its head because weve just had the biggest risk in 100 years. We had Spanish Flu 2.0 in the modern era, like traveling three times faster than the 1918 version, right? Like the biggest risk you could think of, millions of people suddenly dropping dead from a global pandemic. It turned out to be one of the biggest opportunities. And you didnt have to wait three years or eight years like the Great Depression to figure that out. Literally. The stock market fell for 16 days and stopped. Think about that. So what even is risk anymore? What if I tell you the next thing is a nuclear bomb going off somewhere? Dow Jones might go up 50%."

2021 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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FBI: Knoxville man paid hitman in Bitcoin to kill his wife – WATE 6 On Your Side

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) A man is facing murder for hire charges after the FBI says he attempted to pay a would-be killer in Bitcoin to kill his wife.

According to the FBI Cyber Task Force, the British Broadcasting Corporation advised them that they had information about a threat to the life of Ann Replogle. FBI Knoxville advised the Knox County Sheriffs Office who conducted a welfare check.

The two law enforcement agencies met with Ann and her husband Nelson Paul Replogle who both said they could not think of anyone who would want to harm Ann.

The BBC was able to provide more information including details about the date and time of a veterinarians office visit that Ann would be taking her pet to, as well as the make, model and color of her vehicle.

Payment for the murder was made using virtual currency Bitcoin. The FBI was able to link Bitcoin account used to make the payment to the app CoinBase and subsequently to the IP address responsible for the transaction.

The FBI says CoinBase records revealed a transaction from a personal savings account belonging to Nelson Paul Replogle was used to pay the would-be killer.

A murder for hire guilty verdict carries with it a maximum 10 year sentence if no personal injury occurs and a fine of no more than $250,000.

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Metromile Will Embrace Bitcoin For Insurance Premium And Claim Payments – Forbes

Editorial Note: Forbes may earn a commission on sales made from partner links on this page, but that doesn't affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Auto insurance company Metromile soon will let policyholders pay premiums with cryptocurrency and even receive claim payouts in this red-hot form of digital currency.

San Francisco-based Metromile, which offers pay-per-mile insurance, says that it will roll out cryptocurrency capabilities later this year. Metromile spokesperson Rick Chen says a launch date hasnt been set for the cryptocurrency program.

Metromile says it will be the first insurer to both accept premiums and pay claims in cryptocurrency. Policyholders will be able to pick either cryptocurrency or old-fashioned dollars for premium and claim transactions.

Pay-per-mile insurance is a form of auto insurance that can lower rates for folks who dont drive a lot. Monthly bills are calculated using a base rate plus a per-mile rate for the month.

Massachusetts-based Premier Shield Insurance, an insurance agency, says it lets policyholders pay auto, home and business insurance premiums and agency fees with Bitcoin, up to a limit of $5,000. But Premier Shields Bitcoin program does not apply to claim payouts.

Metromile launched this option to support the increasing demand for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments from our customers. Weve planned to support Bitcoin for years, but it wasnt until recently that the technology and consumer adoption of Bitcoin was widespread enough for us to offer this, Chen says.

Metromile says it will buy $10 million of Bitcoin in the second quarter of this year to pave the way for cryptocurrency transactions. In a news release, the company says it believes allowing cryptocurrency payments will support its commitment to fairer insurance and promote financial resilience for policyholders as cryptocurrency becomes mainstream and a more significant portion of consumers assets.

Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency, a form of currency that people can buy, sell or exchange without the involvement of a bank. While Bitcoin is the best-known cryptocurrency, dating back to 2009, its now among more than 5,000 cryptocurrencies in circulation today. As of May 5, the global cryptocurrency market was valued at $2.4 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

In the news release, Metromile CEO Dan Preston says adding Bitcoin as a payment option is the next logical step for the digital insurance platform and its artificial intelligence-powered claims process. The company says it will collaborate with regulators to satisfy any concerns they have about Metromiles adoption of cryptocurrency.

Metromile currently offers coverage in eight states: Arizona, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. At the end of 2020, Metromile had 92,635 auto insurance policies in force, according to Chen.

The company plans to launch a U.S. expansion in the second half of 2021. Chen says Metromile policies will be available nationwide by the end of 2022.

In a recent report, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) says no NAIC committees or groups have taken any action or established a position on cryptocurrencies. The association says its staff will continue to monitor the evolution of cryptocurrencies and address this topic further. . . .

Kyle Schmitt, vice president of insurance intelligence at market research company J.D. Power, believes insurance regulators generally hold a non-positive view of cryptocurrency due to its price swings.

Accepting payments in Bitcoin is easy enough if they are immediately converted to dollars upon receipt, Schmitt says, but premiums paid in Bitcoin could be highly volatile.

Bob Hunter, director of insurance at the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America, says his stance on insurers dabbling in cryptocurrency would likely mirror Warren Buffetts overall position on cryptocurrency. The billionaire investor has sharply criticized cryptocurrency as a risky, worthless asset.

I would, as a regulator, not accept Bitcoin as backup for the business, says Hunter, former insurance commissioner in Texas. If consenting adults want to pay each other in the stuff, Id allow that. But Id want something more soliddollarsto be there behind the business in case of emergency.

Such backup funding is known in insurance circles as surplus. Its the amount by which an insurers assets exceed its liabilities. Furthermore, Hunter believes any insurer that transacts in cryptocurrency should keep a tidy sum of cash in its reserves. Insurers are supposed to set aside a portion of premiums in their reserve funds to cover future possible claims.

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Metromile Will Embrace Bitcoin For Insurance Premium And Claim Payments - Forbes

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FBI: Tennessee man paid hitman in Bitcoin to kill his wife – wreg.com

by: Robert Holder, Nexstar Media Wire

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) A man is facing murder for hire charges after the FBI says he attempted to pay a would-be killer in Bitcoin to kill his wife.

According to the FBI Cyber Task Force, the British Broadcasting Corporation advised them that they had information about a threat to the life of Ann Replogle. FBI Knoxville advised the Knox County Sheriffs Office who conducted a welfare check.

The two law enforcement agencies met with Ann and her husband Nelson Paul Replogle, who both said they could not think of anyone who would want to harm Ann.

The BBC was able to provide more information including details about the date and time of a veterinarians office visit that Ann would be taking her pet to, as well as the make, model and color of her vehicle.

Payment for the murder was made using virtual currency Bitcoin. The FBI was able to link Bitcoin account used to make the payment to the app CoinBase and subsequently to the IP address responsible for the transaction.

The FBI says CoinBase records revealed a transaction from a personal savings account belonging to Nelson Paul Replogle was used to pay the would-be killer.

Replogle was arrested on April 21 and is due back in court later this month, according to published reports.

A murder for hire guilty verdict carries with it a maximum 10 year sentence if no personal injury occurs and a fine of no more than $250,000.

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