Ransom Where?

What you need to know today in crypto and beyond

June 4, 2021

Sponsored By:

Welcome to The Node.

If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.

Questions? Feedback? We'd love to hear from you! Simply reply to this email.

-Daniel Kuhn

Today's must-reads

Top Shelf

HEART BROKEN: Coinbase retail users can now sell, buy and store dogecoin on the exchange, the company said yesterday in a blog post, and to stir interest it is running a $1.2 million dogecoin giveaway promotion. Doge traded downwards, but so did most other cryptocurrencies after Elon Musk tweeted an emoji associated with breakups and the bitcoin hashtag.

SWINGING SINGAPORE: Alibaba and Google are among the 300 firms to apply for Singapore's payments and crypto exchange licenses. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) unveiled a comprehensive regulatory framework for companies handling activities relating to digital assets and is now working to speed up the application process.

RANSOM WHERE? A top U.S. lawmaker wants answers from firms that decided to pay out cryptocurrency to cyber-ransomers, concerned the action sets a “dangerous precedent.” U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) sent letters to Colonial Pipeline and CNA Financial asking for documentation outlining how these victims decided to pay the perpetrators and any communications they had with the attackers or government agencies. She set a June 17 deadline.

DIVERSIFIED DAOS: DAO-led DeFi projects are preparing for the next crypto winter by selling off governance tokens and diversifying their treasuries. CoinDesk’s Brady Dale dives deep. “My goal would be a lot of these treasuries are relatively diversified so they have income to sustain operations,” Accelerated Capital said. “Hopefully, we get them all sorted out before the next bear market.”

BLOCKCHAIN BANK: JPMorgan Chase is on the hunt for six crypto-savvy candidates to fill a growing number of digital asset crossover jobs. The planned compliance, regulatory affairs and payments positions appear to stretch beyond JPMorgan’s Onyx blockchain project, an effort mostly concerned with wholesale banking.

–D.K.

A message from Nexo

Your digital assets deserve a savings account in their BEST INTEREST. Leading crypto lender Nexo treats you, your crypto and your fiat to industry-best Crypto & Fiat services, featuring:

* Up to 12% interest on digital assets, paid out daily!

* Yields available on BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP, XLM, EOS, TRX, LINK, BNB, PAXG, USDT, USDC, TUSD, PAX, DAI, HUSD, GBP and EUR.

* No minimum or maximum limits on funds deposited, offering infinite opportunities to earn.

* #ZeroFees on all transactions.

* Military-grade wallet security and top-tier insurance on all custodial assets with SOC 2 Type 2 certified crypto custodian BitGo.

Get started at nexo.io

“Bitcoin’s killer app is as a clearing layer for everything else.”

–Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover.”

A message from CoinDesk

CoinDesk's new reward token soft-launched at Consensus 2021, but $DESK lives on. Attendees can still cash in at the $DESK store, or hodl and accumulate. Join the Telegram group for announcements and airdrops.

What others are writing...

Off-Chain Signals

–D.K.

A message from Masterworks

Tired of Dogecoin and Meme Stocks? Give art a shot. Contemporary art prices crushed S&P 500 returns by 174% over the last 25 years. For the first time, this billionaire asset class is open to everyone, thanks to Masterworks. Invest in multi-million dollar, SEC-qualified works by artists like Banksy, Basquiat and KAWS. Node Subscribers can skip their 27,000 person waitlist today.

* See disclaimer

Putting the news in perspective

The Takeaway

The Ransom-Ware

“I am extremely concerned that the decision to pay international criminal actors sets a dangerous precedent that will put an even bigger target on the back of critical infrastructure going forward.”

– U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), in letters to Colonial Pipeline and CNA Financial, pressing them to explain why they paid off ransomware attackers.

Or, as Rudyard Kipling might have put it...

It is always a temptation to crooks in far-off nations
To hack into a corporate and to say: –
"All your data is now ours, it’s as good as behind bars
Unless you pay us sats to go away."

And that is called asking for bitcoin,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the bitcoin
And then you'll get rid of the bane!

It is always a temptation for a lazy corporation,
To poorly guard its systems and to say: –

"Our employee just got phished, now our stakeholders are miffed.
We will therefore pay you sats to go away."

And that is called paying the bitcoin;

But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid them the bitcoin
You never get rid of the bane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of corporations,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;

So when firms are conscripted to pay up or stay encrypted,
Perhaps we should require them to say: –

"We never pay anyone bitcoin,
Even if our data is lost;

For the name of that game is extortion and pain,
And the nation that plays it is toast!"

Now, for serious reading on this deadly serious topic, see CoinDesk’s recent news coverage…

...a variety of informed perspectives from our opinion section….

….and listen to this podcast:

As a chaser, here’s a fun musical rendition of Kipling’s “The Dane-Geld”:

Have a good weekend folks.

–Marc Hochstein, executive editor, CoinDesk

Sponsored Content

SmartKey: Blockchain of Things Will Revolutionize City Living

The cryptocurrency movement has never been so sprawling, reaching every corner of the planet.

Crypto State by CoinDesk aims to connect with local communities to explore this movement of financial disruption and how it trickles down to every corner of the globe, from DeFi investment opportunities to alternative ways to transact and store wealth.

We're making virtual stops with audiences in Nigeria, the Middle East and Southeast Asia this year. Register for the Crypto State virtual tour.

The Chaser...

ATTENTION: Scammers have been sending fraudulent emails with links to sites disguised to look like coindesk.com. If you are in doubt about a link, type https://www.coindesk.com directly into your browser; do not copy and paste. Remember, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

The Node

A newsletter from CoinDesk

See Previous Editions

Copyright © 2021 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.

250 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10003, USA

You can manage your preferences here or unsubscribe from all CoinDesk email.