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Bitcoin: What is the ‘death cross’ that heralds the sharp fall of this cryptocurrency? – Entrepreneur

January28, 20214 min read

For several weeks now, the price of Bitcoin has been a true roller coaster, with rapid rises, dizzying drops and unexpected turns. Yesterday, Wednesday, the price of the cryptocurrency was about to form the 'death cross' , a graph that could anticipate a sharp drop in its value .

In mid-March 2020, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) was around $ 5,000 and by December it was already at $ 19,000 . On January 7, 2021, the cryptocurrency reached $ 42,000 per unit , which is an increase of more than 800% in just ten months .

Just three days later, on January 11, BTC fell slightly below $ 30,000 , a loss close to 20% . Since then, its price has fluctuated between $ 31,000 and $ 35,000 , with peaks of up to $ 39,000 , but no more.

These fluctuations are reflected in the graphs of the cryptocurrency, whose lines were close to forming a figure known to presage upcoming devaluations .

It is a technical pattern that consists of the intersection of two lines , one formed by the 50-day moving average price and the other by the 200-day moving average price. Analysts see this chart as an indicator that a sharp decline is coming .

For example, the 'death cross' was observed at the beginning of the stock market crashes of 1929, 1938, 1974 and 2008, indicates Investopedia .

The variations of the Bitcoin gave rise to that almost a 'cross of the death' was formed in its graphs. This is because BTC's 50-day moving average fell from $ 37,616 to $ 33,342 , while the 200-day moving average rose from $ 28,647 to $ 33,218 .

The 'death cross' is a bad sign, yes, but it doesn't necessarily indicate a significant and steady depreciation over the long term . In fact, Bitcoin experienced this phenomenon in August 2020 and it took almost 2 months to recover.

The last cross of death was not the end of the world, but it caused a 15% setback. [Bitcoin] took 50 days to recover its price. From the current level [], a 15% decline would put Bitcoin at around $ 28,000 , commented experts from the company TradingShot cited by the Bitcoinist portal.

"In the last 24 hours, #Bitcoin has plunged more than $ 4,500 or about 15%. Less than a year ago, #Bitcoin was trading for less than $ 4,500," reads the cryptocurrency's official Twitter.

This week, the financial JP Morgan adjusted its predictions for Bitcoin and now they doubt that it will exceed $ 40,000 again , for two factors. The first is the possibility that investors will withdraw their earnings , anticipating a decline. The second are the so-called 'hodlers' , who are taking bitcoins out of the market to accumulate them, preventing other investors from buying them and injecting capital into the cryptocurrency.

If JP Morgan's projections are met and BTC does not return to its all-time high, it will not fall too much, according to specialists.

Konstantin Anissimov , CEO of cryptocurrency exchange operator CEX.IO, believes that long-term investor demand will prevent Bitcoin from falling below $ 31,500 , according to statements collected by the RT portal.

The expert even ventures to predict, not only the recovery of BTC , but another rise in its price this 2021.

"Demand is growing, while the production rate of the coin is quite low, which could see the coin rise to $ 50,000 by the end of the first quarter of this year," Anissimov predicted.

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Bitcoin: What is the 'death cross' that heralds the sharp fall of this cryptocurrency? - Entrepreneur

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Ethereums Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 – Yahoo Finance

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The Prizm Outlets mall, about a 40-minute drive south of Las Vegas on the California border, lost 95% of its value in six months. It may not be the last mall to do so.Formerly known as the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas, the Primm, Nevada mall was auctioned off on Wednesday at a final price of $1.525 million, compared with a $28.2 million appraisal in July, according to a person with knowledge of the results on commercial real estate auction site Ten-X. The buyer wasnt disclosed.Its the first auction of a property linked to the so-called CMBX 6, a commercial real estate credit derivatives index with heavy exposure to shopping centers and malls, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.We expect mall liquidations to continue: 31 of the 39 malls in CMBX 6 are currently impaired, said Dan McNamara, a principal at hedge fund MP Securitized Credit Partners, which has bet against CMBX 6 as part of its broader strategy.The property is currently 57.5% occupied with anchors H&M, Nike and Williams Sonoma, according to a report this month from its servicer, which collects payments from the mall for bondholders. The mall was closed on March 17 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and re-opened on June 1.Representatives from Prizm Outlets and Rialto Capital Management, the seller and servicer, both declined comment. A call to the malls marketing agent wasnt returned, while a representative for Ten-X confirmed the auction was completed and declined further comment.A loan on the property with an original balance of $73 million was bundled into a commercial mortgage backed security called COMM 2012-CR4 in October 2012, one of 48 loans packaged into the multi-loan transaction known as a conduit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That year, the property was valued at $125 million.While the AAA rated parts of the transaction have kept their grades so far, all rating tiers AA and below were downgraded several times by credit ratings firms, including a series of cuts by Moodys Investors Service in July.Miami-based Rialto foreclosed on the mall in 2018 and invested in upgrades and kept it open, according to servicer filings and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.In 2017, firms including Deutsche Bank AG and Morgan Stanley recommended betting against commercial real estate, and in particular malls and shopping centers, using indexes of commercial mortgage bonds, in a trade that became popular.Series 6 of the CMBX index, linked to debt issued in 2012, has outsized exposure to shopping malls, making it appealing to traders who want to bet against retail space. The short bet soured for a few years as malls were able to survive.But fortunes reversed amid the pandemics lockdown orders last year. People stayed home and shopped online, exacerbating an existing threat to brick-and-mortar stores, and even after many states allowed retailers to open up again, shopper traffic remained low.While there will surely be more mall casualties, there may also be some winners, market observers say.Retail outlets that are well positioned geographically or that have re-thought the customer experience will have the best opportunity for success forward from here, said Chris Sullivan, chief investment officer of the United Nations Federal Credit Union.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Ethereums Ether Cryptocurrency Sets New All-Time Price High Above $1,450 - Yahoo Finance

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Crypto Crime Fell Sharply to Only 0.3% of All Cryptocurrency Activity in 2020 Featured Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

A study by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis finds that cryptocurrency-related crime has fallen significantly. The criminal share of all crypto activity fell to just 0.34% in 2020. This contradicts recent statements by U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen and ECB President Christine Lagarde that cryptocurrencies are mostly used for illicit financing.

Chainalysis shared some findings from its 2021 Crypto Crime Report this week. While acknowledging that cryptocurrency remains appealing for criminals as well due primarily to its pseudonymous nature and the ease with which it allows users to send funds anywhere in the world instantly, the blockchain analytics firm detailed:

The good news is that cryptocurrency-related crime fell significantly in 2020 In 2020, the criminal share of all cryptocurrency activity fell to just 0.34%, or $10.0 billion in transaction volume.

In comparison, the firm explained that in 2019, criminal activity represented 2.1% of all cryptocurrency transaction volume, or roughly $21.4 billion worth of transfers. Last year, One reason the percentage of criminal activity fell is because overall economic activity nearly tripled between 2019 and 2020, the company noted.

Chainalysis noted that darknet markets were the second-largest crime category. It accounted for $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrency activity, which was an increase from $1.3 billion in the previous year. Ransomware accounted for just 7% of all funds received by criminal addresses, which was just under $350 million worth of cryptocurrency. While small, ransomware saw a 311% jump over 2019.

The findings by Chainalysis contradict the recent statements made by Joe Bidens pick for the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, and ECB President Christine Lagarde. Yellen said Tuesday that many cryptocurrencies are used mainly for illicit financing. Meanwhile, Lagarde said last week that bitcoin has conducted some funny business and some totally reprehensible money laundering activity.

Several people in the crypto industry have pointed out the error of their statements, including a well-known economist who called Lagardes statement outrageous. He emphasized, we all know that the vast majority of money laundering globally is conducted in fiat currencies, particularly in U.S. dollars and euros.

What do you think about the falling rate of crypto crime? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Crypto Crime Fell Sharply to Only 0.3% of All Cryptocurrency Activity in 2020 Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

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What’s the Best Cryptocurrency Stock? It Might Be CME Group – The Motley Fool

2020 was a seeming conundrum in financial markets. In the midst of the pandemic, many investors turned a tidy profit. In particular, owners of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had a banner year. Bitcoin increased over 300% in value. Congrats if you called it and got in ahead of the boom. And as cryptocurrencies are a scarce resource, there could be more long-term upside in crypto prices.

But I'm not here to make that call. Instead, I'm talking about stocks that will benefit from the long-term increase in usage of digital assets. And CME Group (NASDAQ:CME) could be the best business for investing in the trend.

Image source: Getty Images.

Cryptocurrency prices are not the best measure of how useful a digital currency actually is. Rather, they're a short-term measure of supply and demand. This is the case with any asset price in the short term, stocks included. Think back to your Econ 101 class: All resources are finite in supply, so changes in demand dictate the price of said resource. If demand exceeds supply, then prices go up; if demand dips below available supply, prices go down. Cryptocurrencies -- embodied by bitcoin -- were in very high demand in 2020 relative to the limited supply of digital coins in actual circulation. (Of note, most bitcoins in existence are not actually in circulation, as explained by fellow Fool.com contributor Sean Williams.) In 2018, it was the opposite situation.

Data by YCharts.

But these wild fluctuations in price don't exactly measure digital money's (and the underlying blockchain technology's) usefulness -- that is to say, how many (or how few in this case) consumers and businesses are using bitcoin in their daily activities. For many investors, myself included at the moment, a lack of utility makes cryptocurrencies a hard pass after their epic run in the last year.

But is there a way to bet on the long-term growth in acceptance of digital currency (the true measure of any currency's worth as a storage of value) without needing to worry about wild swings in cryptocurrency prices themselves? Yes, and I think the ticket is CME Group.

CME Group is the world's largest marketplace of derivatives contracts -- options and futures (a pre-agreed-upon price for delivery of an asset at a future date) for a long list of things from company stock to commodities like oil and agricultural products to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. While derivatives have a bad rap in some investors' minds (thanks to the wild speculation they can help enable), contracts like options and futures have been in use for centuries as a way for people and organizations to manage risk and from which to discover information about expectations within the economy.

By and large, it's for this risk mitigation that options and futures contracts are used. And CME is an efficient and very profitable facilitator of risk transference. The marketplace generated free cash flow (revenue minus cash operating expenses and capital expenditures) of $1.77 billion on revenue of $3.73 billion through the first nine months of 2020 -- an incredible margin of 47%. The company has a nearly two-decade-long track record paying a steadily rising quarterly dividend (currently $0.85 per share each quarter in 2020, yielding 1.8% at Friday's prices) and often pays a special dividend at the end of the year to distribute excess cash. For 2020, the one-time special dividend was $2.50 per share, boosting the stock's effective annual yield to 3.1%.

But what's all this to cryptocurrency? CME launched futures contracts on bitcoin in 2017, expanded the market to include bitcoin futures options in early 2020, and will add a new cryptocurrency marketplace via Ether futures (a unit of Ethereum, the second-largest crypto behind bitcoin) in February 2021. Derivatives contracts on the two largest crypto assets are a big deal if you believe adoption of digital currency will increase over time. Derivatives can help make a market for an asset more stable and could encourage businesses and organizations to accept their use. And CME earns a small fee every time a contract is traded.

For example, let's say a retailer wants to begin accepting bitcoin or Ethereum as a form of payment from customers, but it needs to report financial results and pay its bills (including taxes) in U.S. dollars. Derivatives can help it hedge against loss from possible declines in crypto prices on the revenue it collects. CME is helping make such risk mitigation possible, and adding legitimacy for bitcoin and Ethereum as a form of payment along the way.

By expanding its steadily growing marketplace into digital assets, CME Group could benefit from continual adoption of cryptocurrencies in the economy -- not just yielding its growth from how many investors want to buy or trade the digital currencies themselves at any given point in time. Over the long term, this could be an important area of growth for CME if digital assets like bitcoin and Ethereum gain momentum as a form of payment and blockchain technology finds other areas of use.

It would be a mistake to draw a hard comparison between the current phenomenon occurring with bitcoin prices and bubbles in the past (like, say, the tech bubble of the late 1990s). However, a current lack of mainstream adoption of digital assets gives me pause before investing directly in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That isn't to say there isn't actual use of cryptocurrency in the economy -- and I think there's a very high chance adoption will continue to expand in the decades to come. But if you want to bet digital currency usefulness will increase over time, I think CME Group is a great place to start.

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What's the Best Cryptocurrency Stock? It Might Be CME Group - The Motley Fool

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How to invest in cryptocurrency (without losing your shirt) – MoneySense

Upfront, I should disclose I personally started to dabble in this asset class for the first time in the autumn of 2020, having sat out the first iteration of bitcoin mania in 2017. But this time, growing institutional acceptance seems to have brought back an even stronger wave of enthusiasm and euphoria, buoyed in part over the frustration of minuscule interest rates and inflationary forces unleashed by endless money printing by central banks in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

For me, the impetus this time around was the Profits Unlimited newsletter, edited by Paul Mampilly. I have found Mampilly so insightful with his recommendationsit was he who first twigged me to the actively managedARK ETFsthat focus on the innovation economythat I decided to take a flyer on two of his suggestions for how investors could buy trusts that track the price of bitcoin and ethereum, which trade over-the-counter.

Rather than suggest pure native exposure, which involves setting up complicated wallets that hold pure crypto and other minutiae, he felt it was easier for casual investors accustomed to buying stocks online to use trusts like Grayscale, which trade over-the-counter on U.S. stock exchanges, but are available to most Canadian investors. These trusts roughly track the price of the crypto they target, but often trade at a discount or a premium to the actual price of the native currency.

Mampilly suggests taking an equal-weight approach to more speculative investments, so my first try was to put several thousand dollars into each of theGrayscale Bitcoin Trust(GBTC/OTC) andGrayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE/OTC). I hold these in non-registered TD Direct Investing accounts.

I soon experienced just how volatile these can be. ETHE quickly doubled butpreferring not to trigger taxable gainsI stood pat, only to watch it plunge below my original cost. Still, I kept holding and continued researching the field, and it eventually reached the level it is right now, well above cost.

I next realized I wanted to hold these experimental positions in registered portfolios (RRSPs and TFSAs) so that the next time I got a double or tripleif indeed they materialized rather than comparable lossesI could book the gains with no immediate tax consequences. I soon discovered the closed-end funds of Toronto-based3iQ Digital Asset Management. First, I tried The Bitcoin Fund [QBTC/TSX], just before the new year, in time to experience a quick triple. This time, I was quick to take partial profits, seeing as there were no tax consequences. Many advisors suggest getting back your cost base, which I did; then you can sit back and watch it run, playing with the houses money.

My third experiment was inspired when Mampilly started to recommend his readers move from the ethereum-tracking ETHE trust to actual native ethereum, or ETH. He suggested buying actual native crypto from places like Coinbase and Robinhoodconvenient for his mostly American subscribers, but less so for Canadians.

I discovered that Canadian company Wealthsimple had launched a way to buy native bitcoin and ethereum:Wealthsimple Crypto. Since I now had some bitcoin through the registered 3iQ funds, I put a few thousand into Wealthsimple Cryptos ETH. This is conveniently accessed as a mobile app and is easy to fund from Canadian financial institutions. However, I soon learned there was not yet a way to hold these two Wealthsimple cryptos in registered accounts, so I was back to the taxable dilemma. Soon enough, I learned that 3iQ not only had a bitcoin fund but also an ethereum fundThe Ether Fund [QETH.U/TSX], which was a way to again hold ethereum, like the Bitcoin Fund, in registered accounts.

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How to invest in cryptocurrency (without losing your shirt) - MoneySense

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Police Chief Demands Holes In Encryption Because Some Cops Decided To Participate In The DC Insurrection – Techdirt

from the sure,-make-this-all-about-us-when-it's-really-just-about-you dept

As more evidence comes to light showing a disturbing amount of law enforcement participation in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, police departments around the nation are finally being forced to face something they've ignored for far too long.

The law enforcement officers who participated in the insurrection attacked officers attempting to defend the building, or, at the very least, did nothing to discourage the lawless actions occurring all around them. The officers that went to DC and engaged in a riot aren't an anomaly. They've been part of law enforcement for as long as law enforcement has existed: bigots with a penchant for violence and a thirst for power.

These officers are finally beginning to be rooted out, but only because they did things no one can ignore. Hundreds of participants produced hundreds of recordings, turning their own celebration of their attempted election-thwarting into the evidence needed to identify them and charge them with federal crimes. Posts made to social media platforms provided more evidence, tying incriminating statements to location data to place off-duty cops on the scene.

Now that agencies are finally confronting their in-house white supremacist/militia problem, they're asking for everyone to be made less secure so they can handle the problem that's been hiding in plain sight for years.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo -- who presides over an agency with more than its share of bad cops -- was asked what officials like himself are doing to confront this problem. In response, Chief Acevedo asked for Congress to do him -- and other law enforcement agencies -- a favor:

Acevedo... said anonymous online platforms on the dark web are making such [internal] investigations impossible, even for departments with sufficient resources. He expects the move away from public platforms like Facebook and Twitter to grow rapidly in response to the FBI arrests of those who rioted at the Capitol.

This month, Acevedo was asked by the House Oversight and Reform Committee to explain what actions police chiefs are taking, and responded by asking for help. For years, law enforcement officials have asked for passage of a federal law that would require such platforms to have a back door that law enforcement can access if they have a legitimate investigative need and a court order to gain entry.

Then he blamed social media platforms for his own inability to police his police, calling them out as the real lawbreakers here:

Congresss failure to act has enabled industry giants to flaunt the law and operate with impunity, Acevedo wrote in response.

First off, if the bad cops are shifting to "dark web" platforms in response to their own opsec failures during the January 6th riot, mandating backdoors that affect "industry giants" isn't going to make it any easier to track down cops who've moved on to "darker" web services.

Second, law enforcement agencies' continuous failure to hold officers accountable or to perform rigorous background checks should not be used as leverage to make services and devices less secure for millions of Americans. Citizens have already had to watch their tax dollars pay the salaries of brutal thugs whose loyalty to each other often supersedes their sworn duties as public servants. They don't need to be punished further just so it's a little easier for cops to perform the occasional internal investigation.

Finally, the encryption offered by device makers and communications platforms also protects cops -- not just from accountability, as Acevedo implies here -- but from malicious hackers and criminals who would love access to cops' devices, communications, and sensitive files. A backdoor for bad cops is a backdoor for good cops -- and a backdoor that strips a layer of security away from everyone who uses these devices and services.

The ugliness that permeates law enforcement needs to be rooted out. But the security of millions of Americans shouldn't be weakened just because those policing the police haven't done much of this policing for decades. They've had open access to evidence for years and rarely used it. Now that their sins are too big to ignore until the next news cycle hits shouldn't be the impetus for backdoor mandates.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyones attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

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Filed Under: art acevedo, backdoors, encryption, going dark, insurrection, washington dc

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Police Chief Demands Holes In Encryption Because Some Cops Decided To Participate In The DC Insurrection - Techdirt

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Houston Police Chief Tries To Blame Encryption for Failure To Uncover Far-Right Cops – Reason

Several police officers were among the mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol on January 6, a fact that has prompted some serious questions for law enforcement agencies about what they're doing to tackle the far-right presence in their departments. An article in Monday's Washington Post discusses how police might work to recognize problematic recruits before they're hired, and how to make it easier to discipline officers who express violent political attitudesa challenge as cop-friendly arbitrators often intervene and force law enforcement agencies keep them on board.

Deep down in the Post story, the debate takes a comically absurdist twist. A former Houston police officer was among those charged with joining the violent mob at the Capitol. With the problem at his doorstep, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, who is also president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, decided to blameencryption:

Acevedo also said anonymous online platforms on the "dark web" are making such investigations impossible, even for departments with sufficient resources. He expects the move away from public platforms like Facebook and Twitter to grow rapidly in response to the FBI arrests of those who rioted at the Capitol.

This month, Acevedo was asked by the House Oversight and Reform Committee to explain what actions police chiefs are taking, and responded by asking for help. For years, law enforcement officials have asked for passage of a federal law that would require such platforms to have a "back door" that law enforcement can access if they have "a legitimate investigative need and a court order" to gain entry.

"Congress's failure to act has enabled industry giants to flaunt the law and operate with impunity," Acevedo wrote in response.

Destroying encryptionand yes, mandatory backdoors would utterly destroy encryptionhas been a pet cause of the U.S. Department of Justice for years. The invocation of the "dark web" as a boogeyman has been a constant recently too. Usually those who have demanded encryption back doors have insisted that it was necessary to fight child trafficking and terrorism.

It feels a bit desperate to invoke encryption as a reason why police departments don't know they've got some dangerous officers, particularly whenlet's be frankthese guys weren't being all that secretive. As the Brennan Center for Justice notes, "These officers' racist activities are often known within their departments, but only result in disciplinary action or termination if they trigger public scandals."

Meanwhile, Acevedo has inadvertently revealed that people are right to worry that law enforcement would abuse encryption backdoors. Police leaders have traditionally insisted that they need these to make sure tech platforms and communication tools comply with legal warrants. But Acevedo is talking about using backdoors to investigate potential or current police officers without any specific connection to criminal activity. This isn't crimefighting; it's domestic surveillance. This is precisely why backdoors are dangerous. Worse yet: The whole premise of these investigations is that there are abusive, authoritarian cops out there who can't be trusted. This is supposed to be a reason to give officers more access topeople's communications?

It's absolutely disheartening to see coverage of encrypted communications that suggests apps like Signal or Telegram are problems because they do not (and cannot) police content, therefore allowing extremists to communicate with each other. A tool can be used for good reasons or bad. We don't throw away hammers and move back into caves because they can also be used to beat somebody to death.

To reiterate for the umpteenth time, encryption protects us from criminals, hackers, and authoritarian governments. What Acevedo proposes won't help fight crime. It would actually make us more likely to be victims of crime. And that doesn't even get into what happens when some of our more violent governments across the world start using the backdoors precisely the way Acevedo describes, but against citizens trying to organize for more freedom, not just to cancel an election whose outcome they didn't like.

We shouldn't be surprised Acevedo that doesn't know what his cops are up to. For years, right under his nose, corrupt narcotics officers have been involved in a racket that involved falsifying records, which culminated in 2019 in a botched raid where officers killed a couple. As Reason's Jacob Sullum noted just this week, Acevedo is still trying to defend some of the officers involved and maintaining that there are not systemic problems in his department. What good would backdoors be to a man who refuses to acknowledge the evidence that's already in front of him?

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Houston Police Chief Tries To Blame Encryption for Failure To Uncover Far-Right Cops - Reason

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EU warned of ‘slippery slope’ with new encryption plans Just now – Siliconrepublic.com

ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota are sounding the alarm over a resolution adopted by the Council of the European Union.

A group of encrypted service providers has penned an open letter to EU lawmakers to denounce plans to alter encryption rules in Europe.

ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota, which provide email and data storage products, said the stance recently taken by the Council of the European Union will undermine security for Europeans.

In December, the Council adopted a resolution on encryption with the slogan security through encryption and security despite encryption, which had been anticipated but still came in for criticism.

The Council said that encryption is necessary for protecting fundamental rights and the digital security of governments, industry and society but also argued for law enforcement having the ability to exercise their lawful powers, both online and offline protecting our societies and citizens.

It is seeking to create some balance between encryption for users but also access for authorities when necessary. However, the open letter from the four companies said the language used in the resolution could be interpreted as stipulating backdoors into encrypted communications.

The resolution makes a fundamental misunderstanding: encryption is an absolute, data is either encrypted or it isnt, users have privacy or they dont, the letter reads.

The desire to give law enforcement more tools to fight crime is obviously understandable. But the proposals are the digital equivalent of giving law enforcement a key to every citizens home and might begin a slippery slope towards greater violations of personal privacy.

While the resolution adopted by the Council is not legally binding, it could open up opportunities for the Commission to prepare proposals for possible legislation.

This is not the first time weve seen anti-encryption rhetoric emanating from some parts of Europe, and I doubt it will be the last. But that does not mean we should be complacent, Andy Yen, chief executive of ProtonMail, said.

The difference this time is that the Council has taken a more subtle approach and avoided explicitly using words like ban or backdoor. But make no mistake, this is the intention. Its important that steps are taken now to prevent these proposals going too far and keep Europeans rights to privacy intact.

Encrypted and secure communications have garnered a lot of attention of late after the backlash against WhatsApps latest update. The furore saw swathes of sign-ups for alternative encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and Telegram. WhatsApps update has since been pushed back to May.

The letter from ProtonMail, Threema, Tresorit and Tutanota has been issued to coincide with Data Privacy Day, a campaigning initiative by the National Cybersecurity Alliance, a group of tech and finance firms.

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EU warned of 'slippery slope' with new encryption plans Just now - Siliconrepublic.com

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PSA: Telegram Chats Arent End-to-End Encrypted by Default – How-To Geek

Arthur_Shevtsov/Shutterstock.com

Telegram and Signal are widely popular privacy-focused messaging apps. However, the two apps have some big differences: While all messages sent via Signal are always end-to-end encrypted by default, Telegram messages arent. End-to-end encryption is an optional feature in Telegram.

End-to-end encryption means that only the sender and the receiver of a message can see its contents. Not even the company running the server in the middle of the conversations can see the contents of the communications.

With Signal, all conversations are always end-to-end encrypted: The Signal Foundation cant see the contents of the messages.

With Telegram, the company in charge of Telegram is technically capable of seeing the contents of the messages on its servers.

There is still some encryption in Telegram, of course: Encryption is used to transmit messages between your Telegram app, Telegrams servers, and the other persons Telegram app. Your internet service provider, network operator, and any third parties snooping on your internet activity cant see the contents of your communications. (Thats a big improvement from traditional SMS, which lets your cellular provider see all your messages!)

If Telegrams servers were hacked at some point in the future, for example, the attackers could see the contents of peoples Telegram conversations. However, if Signals servers were hacked, the attackers couldnt see the conversations.

Telegram and Signal are very different in this way. Telegram is much more of a traditional messaging application. It syncs your chats between your devices and stores them in the cloud. If you dont care about end-to-end encryption, thats fineand Telegrams features can definitely be convenient.

But if you are sending sensitive informationor if you just want to ensure that your conversations arent being snooped onyou should use end-to-end encryption.

You dont have to switch to Signal to use end-to-end encryption. Its built right into Telegram. Its just an optional feature that most people arent aware of.

In Telegram, only secret chats are encrypted. To use Telegrams end-to-end encryption, you have to start a secret chat by tapping the persons name, the More or menu button, and Start Secret Chat.

Secret chats appear separately from non-secret chats in Telegrams chat list. For secret chats, Telegram shows the persons name in green next to a green padlock icon. If youre already talking to someone, youll see two separate conversations in your list.

In a secret chat, you can also enable a self-destruct timer for messages, ensuring that theyll be deleted after a given amount of time. (Of course, the person youre talking to can always take a screenshot of your conversation to preserve it if they want to.)

RELATED: How to Start an Encrypted Secret Chat in Telegram

Because of the end-to-end encryption, secret chats dont sync between the Telegram app on multiple devices. A secret chat on one device stays on that device. So if you start a secret chat on your phone, you cant continue that same secret chat on a tablet or computer. It stays on your phone.

Signal was designed from the ground up for end-to-end encryption, so it can optionally sync end-to-end encryption between your devices. Signal lets you link the app on your phone to another device like a Windows PC, Mac, or iPad. You can carry on your conversations between multiple devices without sacrificing end-to-end encryption, as you would have to do with Telegram.

Telegram offers huge group chats with up to 200,000 people in a channel. However, in Telegram, only one-on-one conversations can be end-to-end encrypted with the secret chats feature.

Signal only supports up to 1000 people in a group chat.However, those group chats are always end-to-end encrypted. If you want end-to-end encrypted group chats with three or more people, Signal is the app to choose.

In other words, Telegrams group chats are ideal for big public channels with thousands of people, while Signals group chat feature is ideal for private conversations with a smaller number of people.

Telegram is undoubtedly a polished messaging app with a slick interface. Its great that it offers the option to have a secret chat with end-to-end encryption, too.

However, if you really care about end-to-end encryption, you should use Signal instead. In Signal, encryption isnt an optional featureits built into every single conversation that you have. All of Signals featuresincluding message sync between devices and group chatswork with end-to-end encryption.

That ease of use is very helpful for getting people on board with secure, private chats. If you want to have end-to-end encrypted conversations with your friends, family members, or coworkers, its much easier for them to use Signal. The end-to-end encryption just works in all conversations, and you wont have to explain the difference between secret chats and non-secret chats to them, as you would with Telegram.

So which is better, Signal or Telegram? Well, theyre different. As of the start of 2021, Telegram clearly has a shinier, more polished interface, with prettier stickers and chat backgrounds. Its also ideal for big public channels, making it almost a sort of social network.

However, if youre looking for end-to-end encryption so that the company operating the chat app cant see your messages (and they cant be accessed by hackers who breach the companys servers), Signal is the best option.

Thankfully, Telegram at least offers end-to-end encryption as an option. If you ever need to transmit sensitive information (say, financial details), you can switch over to a secret chat for that.

RELATED: Signal vs. Telegram: Which Is the Best Chat App?

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PSA: Telegram Chats Arent End-to-End Encrypted by Default - How-To Geek

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The hardware encryption market is expected to be valued at USD 262 million in 2020 and reach USD 313 million by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 3.6% -…

Some of the factors such as an increase in the penetration of internet users and the growing adoption of digital content are the drivers for the growth of the hardware encryption market. Hardware encryption market for inline network encryptor product to share the largest market share in 2019

New York, Jan. 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Hardware Encryption Market by Product Type, Application and Region - Forecast to 2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p04603855/?utm_source=GNW The inline network encryptor segment accounted for the largest size of the hardware encryption market in 2019.The commercialization of the internet of things has led to surged demand for inline network encryptor globally.

Moreover, the increase in digital content has led to the growth in the procurement of inline network encryptors for the encryption of data at various levels.

Hardware encryption market for consumer electronics application to share the largest market share in 2019The hardware encryption market for consumer electronics application is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period considering the demand for security and safety of data which is stored in these devices and is even sent to others. Encryption has enabled a sense of satisfaction for the customers as their data is stored at various levels of encryption.

APAC region is accounted for the largest share in 2020 and further in the forecast period.The hardware encryption market in APAC region is projected to share the largest market share during the forecast period.The highest CAGR is because of the huge population, which is technology-savvy and is demanding encryption enabled products.

The numerous electronics and semiconductor manufacturing companies in the region create demand for these products for their internal applications and for installing hardware encryption in their products.

Breakdown of the profile of primary participants: By Company Type: Tier 1 60 %, Tier 2 25%, and Tier 3 15% By Designation: C-level Executives 50%, Directors - 30%, and Others -20% By Region: APAC 40 %, NA 25%, Europe 20%, and RoW 15%

The major players profiled in this report include: Western Digital Corp. (US) Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (South Korea) Micron Technology Inc. (US) NetApp (US) Kingston Technology Corp. (US) Seagate Technology PLC (Ireland) KIOXIA (Japan) Kanguru Solutions (US) Intel (US), WinMagic Inc. (US) Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. (US) Thales e-Security (US) Mcafee (US) Broadcom (US) IBM (US)

Research CoverageThe study segments the hardware encryption market report into architecture type (FPGA and ASIC), by product type (External HDD, Internal HDD, SSD, Inline network encryptor and USB flash drive) and by application (consumer electronics, IT & Telecom, transportation, healthcare, aerospace and defense and others) The study also provides market size for various segments regarding global regions.

Reasons to buy the report

The report would help the market leaders/new entrants in this market in the following ways:1. This report segments the hardware encryption market comprehensively provides the closest approximations of the overall market size and those of the subsegments across different applications and regions.2. The report provides a detailed analysis of the hardware encryption market with the help of competitive leadership mapping, including crucial companies in the market and their relations in the ecosystem.3. The report helps stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provide them information on the key market drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.4. This report would help stakeholders understand their competitors better and gain insights to enhance their position in the business. The competitive landscape section includes the competitor ecosystem, product developments, partnerships, and mergers & acquisitions in the hardware encryption market.

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p04603855/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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