Sanjay Singh, 40, has been jailed after stealing £32,000 ($44,000) worth of electricity to mine Bitcoin at two sites in Leicestershire, England, per Leicestershire Live.

“He was in the business to make money from his Bitcoin enterprise but was not honest enough to meet the cost of running the machines required to run the operation,” reportedly said Andrew Baxter of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Singh has been sentenced to 13 months and two weeks in prison after being charged with two counts of abstracting electricity.

He was due to stand trial in court on October 11 but pleaded guilty to both offenses.

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How did Singh do it?
Singh was first detected when a power provider reportedly opened an investigation into a fault that was caused by his mining activity overloading the system.

The investigation showed that Singh’s premises had been tampered with, resulting in Singh reportedly cheating the provider out of thousands of pounds worth of electricity.


That took place in an industrial unit near Coalville, but while the investigation was ongoing, Singh reportedly repeated the same offense at a local nightclub.

“As well as the dishonesty involved, the way Singh approached both premises left wires dangerously exposed, which put people at risk of serious harm,” Baxter added.

Bitcoin mining and electricity consumption
It is well-documented that Bitcoin mining consumes immense levels of electricity.

According to Cambridge University, the Bitcoin network consumes approximately 100 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year. This means that the Bitcoin network consumes more electricity per year than most of the world’s countries. more information

Bitcoin (BTC) price rises to a high of $58,488 today but falls below the $57,000 resistance, with buyers struggling to keep the BTC price above the $57,000 high.

Since October 11, the uptrend has stalled below the recent high. Buyers and sellers are engaged in a price battle as the cryptocurrency pushes towards the previous highs.

On the upside, a break above the $57,000 high will guarantee a rally above the $60,000 psychological price level. Consequently, if buyers fail to hold above the $57,000 high, Bitcoin will fall back to the breakout level at the $52,000 support. However, if the support at $52,000 is broken, the price will continue to fall to the low at $48,000. Meanwhile, the BTC price is fluctuating below and above the high of $57,000. Moreover, the cryptocurrency is trading in the overbought region of the market.

Bitcoin indicator reading
BTC/USD is at level 68 on the Relative Strength Index for period 14, indicating that Bitcoin is approaching the overbought region of the market. The cryptocurrency is considered overbought when it reaches the level of 70. Logically, the scope for an upward rally is limited. Similarly, the BTC price is above the 80% area of the daily stochastic, which confirms that bitcoin is overbought. Therefore, an upside move is doubtful.

BTCUSD(_Daily_Chart)_-_OCT.14.png
Technical indicators:
Major Resistance Levels - $65,000 and $70,000


Major Support Levels - $50,000 and $45,000

What is the next direction for BTC/USD?
On the 4-hour chart, the BTC price is in a gentle uptrend. The uptrend will continue as long as the trendline remains unbroken. For example, if the price tests the trend line, it will bounce and start rising again. At other times, price will break the trend line and close below it. This suggests that the market will soon reverse. Currently, the price bars are above the moving averages and the trend line.more information

According to a tweet from the CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, cryptocurrency miners are staying on the "bull side" even after the mining crackdown in mainland China. According to on-chain data provided, a number of miners are progressively recovering, with the U.S. overtaking China in network hashrate in addition to the absence of selling pressure coming from their wallets.

$BTC miners are on the bull side now.

Despite China's Crypto Ban, miners including those who were in China are holding $BTC in mining wallets.

There's no significant miner outflow compared to early this year, and hashrate recovers from US miners.https://t.co/6JwXJN9izW pic.twitter.com/Ilhb2EJBA0

— Ki Young Ju 주기영 (@ki_young_ju) October 13, 2021
Previously, no link shorteningday reported that miners have "moved" to the U.S., with a significant hashrate increase coming from the country after complete destruction of the industry in mainland China. With a recovered hashrate, miners' wallets face accelerated inflows of various cryptocurrencies. Though wallets show a recovered inflow rate, the outflows seem to be nonexistent in the current market conditions.

Why are miners holding?
The main reason for the absence of selling pressure from miners may lie in the overall market sentiment and the most recent Bitcoin movements. Spikes in miners' position index have been correlating with strong and volatile Bitcoin movements.

The most recent sell-off coming from miners was observed back in January 2021, when Bitcoin formed the first spike in the new bullrun. After the sell-off took place, BTC retraced by 25% and recovered the previous price only in February.source

Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has once again sparked a backlash from the crypto community over his statements on Bitcoin.

Speaking at an Institute of International Finance event on Monday, Dimon called Bitcoin “worthless,” stressing, however, that JPM clients "disagree" and that even though JPM can't custody Bitcoin, it can give its clients “legitimate, as-clean-as-possible access" to crypto.

Yet it was Dimon's questioning of Bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap that caused the real ire.

'Bitcoin Is Worthless' but 'Clients Disagree': JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon
Despite a 17% rise in the price of Bitcoin over the past week, one crypto bear remains unenthused. “I personally think Bitcoin is worthless,” said Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, during the ann...

News
Business
Liam J. Kelly
Oct 12, 2021
3 min read 
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of the world’s first cryptocurrency, capped the number of Bitcoins at 21 million, meaning there will only ever be 21 million coins in existence.

Bitcoin's limited supply is viewed as an advantage compared to fiat currencies, as it keeps the cryptocurrency scarce, theoretically ensuring that its value holds steady over the years. It's for this reason that Bitcoin is often framed as "digital gold," a store-of-value investment.

“I'll just challenge the group to one other thing: how do you know it ends at 21 million?” asked Dimon. “You all read the algorithms? You guys all believe that? I don't know, I've always been a skeptic of stuff like that.”

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded directly in a tweet.

“Yes, I read it. And then I wrote it (coding up our own Bitcoin node) to make sure I understood it."

Yes, I read it.

And then I wrote it (coding up our own Bitcoin node) to make sure I understood it. https://t.co/yg46xyvkMq

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) October 11, 2021

Armstrong went on to say that “CEOs without a science/engineering background are going to be at a disadvantage in the coming decades,” because “software is eating the world, changing every industry.”

“Luckily, the tools to learn it are available online for free, and are getting better and better. It's accessible to almost anyone, if they are willing to power through it, and at least learn the basics,” he added.more information

CEO and founder of Starwood Capital Group, US billionaire Barry Sternlicht has told CNBC’s Squawk Box anchor Andrew Sorkin that he believes gold to be “kind of worthless”, that’s why he holds Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, he does not seem a BTC maximalist and says that Bitcoin has no real purpose, in his view.

"Gold is kind of worthless", Sternlicht explains why he owns Bitcoin
The billionaire said that he trusts Bitcoin as a store of value, because it has a finite supple. Whereas the US and other countries of the West are “printing money now to the end of time”. Besides, he added that Bitcoin is something that can be traded globally.

However, he does not believe that the flagship cryptocurrency has any specific purpose rather than be used as a store of value.

As for gold, he claimed that this precious metal “is kind of worthless, although, it does have some industrial use-cases. Here, Sternlich said that he disagrees with the JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who recently called Bitcoin worthless.

"Gold is kind of worthless," says Barry Sternlicht. "The reason I own #bitcoin is because the U.S. government and every government in western hemisphere is printing money now to the end of time and this is a finite amount of something and it can be traded globally." pic.twitter.com/72zYQTjF0y

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) October 13, 2021source

By the end of next year, at least five countries will have accepted bitcoin as legal tender, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex has predicted. He cited three key reasons why he arrived at this conclusion. “Developing countries will jump into crypto in 2022,” he said.

More Countries Will Adopt Bitcoin as Legal Tender
The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex, Alex Hoeptner, has predicted that developing countries will lead the way in bitcoin adoption. He detailed last week:

My prediction is that by the end of next year, we’ll have at least five countries that accept bitcoin as legal tender. All of them will be developing countries. Here’s why I think developing countries will jump into crypto in 2022.

The CEO offered three main factors driving the adoption of bitcoin in developing countries and why he came up with this prediction.

The first is remittances. Remittances made up 23% of El Salvador’s GDP in 2020, Hoeptner described. Citing data from the World Bank, he added that low and middle-income countries receive about 75% of total global remittances and $540 billion in remittances reached low and middle income countries in 2020.

“This money has got to find a way home somehow,” he said. “But the current system of remittances – led by money service providers like Western Union – is ripping people off by charging them an average of 10% just to send money home the next business day.”

The second factor is inflation. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts inflation for developed countries in 2021 at 2.4% and 5.4% for developing countries.

He explained that people seek alternatives to fiat currencies during inflation crises. For example, he said: “As inflation climbed well above 15% this year in Turkey, crypto adoption surged. Turkey responded by quickly banning the use of crypto for goods and services, but inflation is now at 19.25%.”

Hoeptner noted:

Bitcoin fixes this, with its capped supply of 21 million. And developed countries – and/or their people – are noticing.


The third factor is politics. He explained that many politicians or rulers “are skilled and savvy, and have an interest in positioning themselves as progressive, populist, and new age thinkers.”

He opined, “Over the next year, and as El Salvador works out the kinks in its rollout, savvy politicians will be thinking of how they can take a similar path, and how it might benefit both them and their constituents,” elaborating:

What El Salvador did is take the first leap of faith, making similar moves by other countries much easier to consider.

However, the CEO cautioned: “Any failings by these leaders in the implementation phase may hurt wider adoption of cryptocurrencies in general. That’s the dangerous dilemma that lies ahead.”source

Oxygen, a DeFi prime brokerage service built on Solana and powered by Serum’s on-chain infrastructure, announced today it has signed a strategic agreement under which Kudelski Security, a division of the Kudelski Group in Switzerland, will provide security assessment and architecture support for the platform.

Going forward, Kudelski will conduct a series of reviews and audits of Oxygen’s protocol functionality and interfaces. Further, Kudelski will have an ongoing collaboration with Oxygen to assess future enhancements, changes, or additions to Oxygen’s protocols.

“Institutions and individual investors have a right to expect that they can trust the quality, reliability, and stability of the Oxygen ecosystem. For Oxygen, this partnership provides transparency, promotes absolute confidence that the protocol does precisely what it promises and demonstrates its security; all based on a thorough assessment by a leading global expert in cybersecurity.”
– Viktor Mangazeev, Co-Founder of Oxygen

Audit Focus
The Kudelski Security team will perform a source code assessment, architecture review, and architecture verification of the Oxygen.org finance system.

Firstly, special attention will be focused on the contracts mechanism, finance logic, yields, borrowing, lending, and leverage mechanisms, as well as other related funds safety considerations

Verification analyses will confirm that formulas, cryptographic/mathematic, etc. in the software faithfully implement the specified intent of the protocol. Testing will also include dynamic examination of key financial risk scenarios such as edge situations, liquidity events, and more.

“I’m very excited to be working with Oxygen on this series of engagements. It is important to show strategic leadership in promoting cybersecurity. Comparable traditional businesses have years of audits and tests, and the emerging ecosystems must put their best foot forward to build the trust of users and environmental partners.”
– Scott Carlson, Head of Blockchain Security for Kudelski Security

Oxygen is built on the growing and liquid Serum ecosystem; which leverages an on-chain orderbook to match borrowers and lenders to provide fair rates. It is made possible by the massive throughput and ultra-low costs of the scalable Solana blockchain. Solana currently processes up to 50,000 transactions per second; each one costs just $0.00001 with plans to further scale these capabilities.source

US-based Poloniex exchange has just tweeted that its Dogecoin market has been temporarily disabled for maintenance.

The support team promised to re-enable it as soon as possible and update the tweet thread.

8303_0
Earlier this week, the exchange has already suspended operations on their BCH, BCHSV, ETC and other markets for the same reason.

The exchange team has still not re-enabled BRG trading.source