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Cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, have gained significant traction in recent years as a decentralized form of digital currency that offers potential for financial freedom and innovation. With growing mainstream acceptance, it becomes crucial for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to explore the top Bitcoin-friendly countries where the legal status of Bitcoin is favorable and opportunities abound. This article will delve into the legal landscape tobuy Bitcoin with a debit cardin five countries that have emerged as havens for cryptocurrency enthusiasts: The United States, Japan, Switzerland, Malta and Singapore.

Country 1: United States

As the world's largest economy and a global financial hub, the United States has played a significant role in the adoption of Bitcoin. In the U.S., the legal status of Bitcoin is determined at the federal level, and it is recognized as property by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This means that Bitcoin transactions are subject to capital gains tax, and businesses that accept Bitcoin as payment are required to report it as income.

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However, despite the regulatory framework, the U.S. has witnessed a growing adoption of Bitcoin by businesses and consumers. Many major companies accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. Moreover, several states, such as Wyoming and New York, have enacted favorable regulations to attract Bitcoin-related businesses, making them popular destinations for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Country 2: Japan

Japan has a unique history with Bitcoin, having experienced a major cryptocurrency exchange hack in 2014 that led to regulatory reforms. Since then, Japan has become one of the most Bitcoin-friendly countries in the world. In April 2017, Japan recognized Bitcoin as a legal payment method, providing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges to operate.

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) has established a licensing system for cryptocurrency exchanges, ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. This has helped create a robust and regulated cryptocurrency ecosystem in Japan, with several major exchanges operating in the country. Additionally, Japan has witnessed the growing acceptance of Bitcoin among consumers, with many retailers and businesses accepting Bitcoin as payment.

Country 3: Switzerland

Switzerland has gained a reputation as a global hub for blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses thanks to its progressive approach to regulation. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) classifies cryptocurrencies as assets, and their regulation focuses on anti-money laundering (AML) and securities laws.

Switzerland has also implemented a favorable tax treatment for cryptocurrencies, making it attractive for Bitcoin investors. Bitcoin transactions in Switzerland are exempt from value-added tax (VAT), and capital gains tax is only applicable if Bitcoin is held as a business asset. This has encouraged the growth of a vibrant ecosystem of Bitcoin and blockchain companies in Switzerland, with the city of Zug, also known as "Crypto Valley," becoming a hub for blockchain innovation.

Country 4: Malta

Malta has emerged as a pro-cryptocurrency destination, aiming to become a global hub for blockchain and cryptocurrency businesses. Malta has enacted a comprehensive regulatory framework known as the Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Act, which provides a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges, wallet providers and initial coin offerings (ICOs).

The VFA Act establishes a clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies, promoting transparency, investor protection and business innovation. Malta's favorable regulatory environment, along with its efforts to attract cryptocurrency businesses through tax incentives and grants, has led to the establishment of a vibrant cryptocurrency ecosystem in the country. Many major cryptocurrency exchanges have set up operations in Malta.

Country 5: Singapore

Singapore has emerged as a leading financial and technological hub in Asia, and it has also embraced Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In Singapore, the regulatory approach towards cryptocurrencies is pro-business and innovation friendly. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has implemented a robust licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers, known as the Payment Services Act (PSA).

Under the PSA, cryptocurrency exchanges and wallet providers are required to obtain a license to operate in Singapore, ensuring compliance with AML and KYC regulations. Singapore has also implemented a Goods and Services Tax (GST) exemption for cryptocurrencies, making it more attractive for businesses and consumers to use Bitcoin for transactions.

Singapore has witnessed growing adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with many businesses accepting Bitcoin as payment. The country has also seen the emergence of blockchain and cryptocurrency start-ups, supported by government initiatives to promote innovation in the fintech sector.

Conclusion

As the popularity and acceptance of Bitcoin continue to grow, it becomes crucial for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to be aware of the legal landscape in different countries. Whether it's the business-friendly environment of the U.S., the progressive regulations of Japan, the blockchain innovation in Switzerland, the comprehensive framework in Malta or the fintech hub of Singapore, these countries provide attractive options for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to explore and thrive in the world of Bitcoin.

If you're a cryptocurrency enthusiast looking for Bitcoin-friendly countries to explore, these five countries should be on your radar. From regulatory frameworks to tax treatment to business opportunities, these countries offer favorable environments for Bitcoin adoption and innovation.

Lee Enterprises newsroom and editorial were not involved in the creation of this content.

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Exploring the top Bitcoin-friendly countries for cryptocurrency ... - Missoulian

What is cryptocurrency mining?

Cryptocurrency mining is the competitive process that verifies and adds new transactions to the blockchain, which is a digital transaction record.

As cryptocurrency is a decentralised network that lacks any central governing authority, cryptocurrencyuses the proof-of-workmethod to verify the accuracy of new transactions.

Proof-of-work is a form of cryptographic proof in which one party proves to a verifier that a certain amount of a specific computational effort has been expended.

The miner whocompletes the highest volume of transactionsis rewarded with some amount of currency and/or transaction fees.

If a miner is able to successfully add a block to the blockchain, they will receive 6.25 bitcoins as a reward. Although the reward amount is cut in half roughly every four years, or every 210,000 blocks, cryptocurrency mining still yields fairly lucrative rewards.

The two most popular cryptocurrencies in circulation today are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

As of March, Bitcoin traded at around US$24,300, making 6.25 bitcoins worth a staggering US$152,000.

The proof-of-work concept in cryptomining incentivisesminers to ramp up their operations as quickly as possible, often irrespective of the energy source, so as to outdo their competitors.

As more bitcoin miners join the mining network, the difficulty of the computational problem increases, and the amount of electricity needed to win the race increases exponentially too.

Bitcoin, the worlds most widely-traded cryptocurrency, consumes101 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, comparable to the power consumption of Kazahstan with a population size of 19 million.

Producing that energy emits some56 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. This is comparable to the emissions of Peru, making crypto a significant air polluter.

Using the social cost of carbon, a common metric to gauge the financialdamage caused by the greenhouse gas, the researchers who looked at the number of bitcoins mined daily between 2016 and 2021, calculated the climate cost of Bitcoin.

On average, they found that for each dollar in bitcoin valuecreated, the process resulted in 35 cents in global climate damage or 35 per cent of its market value. In contrast, the climate damage caused bybeef accounts for 33 per cent of its market value, while damages from gasoline produced from crude oil were 41 per cent.

On the other hand, the cryptocurrency ethereumimplemented amajor network upgradein 2022 that completely changes how the blockchain verifies transactions, mints new coins and secures its network. Called proof-of-stake, this system has reduced ethereums energy consumption by more than 99per cent.

A proof-of-stake network like Ethereum secures itself via staked cryptocurrency. Instead of expending computing energy to solve a puzzle, the nodes validating new transactions stake their own value as collateral. These nodes then run efficiently and honestly to avoid losing that collateral.

Deng Xin, associate professor ofbanking andfinance at Singapores Nanyang Technological University, said that in response to growing environmental concerns, the blockchain community has been actively integrating ecological considerations and embracing more sustainable consensus mechanisms such as Ethereum.

Cryptocurrency mining alsoproduces electronic waste.As the equipment used for cryptomining is highly specialised, the hardware becomes obsolete within just a year and a halfbeforeit becomes e-waste, saysAlex de Vries, a digital currencies researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

A single Bitcoin transaction creates about 275 grams of e-waste, which equates to 1.68 iPhone 12 devices, according to Digiconomist, a site that examines the unintended consequences of digital trends.

What are countries in Asia doing to mitigate cryptocurrencys climate impact?

Deng said that the introduction of the DAME tax in the US is likely to prompt the departure of Bitcoin miners, driving them to seek more favourable jurisdictions given their sensitivity to cost.

A likely destination for Americas Bitcoin minerscould be Asia, which is leading the way in cryptocurrency regulations.

Attitudes towards the regulation of cryptocurrency vary greatly across Asia. In the most extreme of cases, developing Asian countries such as China and Bangladesh have banned cryptocurrency altogether.

Some countries, such asKazakhstan, have adopted punitive measures similar to those implemented by the US.To discourage energy overconsumption, the central government implemented a 1 tenge(0.002 US cents) electricity rate surcharge, about a 4per cent increase in total energy costs, on registered crypto miners last month. To further regulate the demand for power, state-owned Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company routinely restricts energy supply to cryptomining companies.

Ben Charoenwong, assistant professor in finance at the National University of Singapore Business School, says thatcountries in Asia which are mostly emergingeconomies may have a harder time adopting such punitive measures because of enforcement issues.

I have heard plenty of anecdotesof miners simply tapping into electricpoles, effectively stealing the electricity. These miners, unlike those in America, will notworry about energy prices. Likewise, going after them fortaxes would also be difficult, he said.

As such, other countries like Uzbekistan have adopted a carrot-and-stick approach.

The Central Asian country haslegalised crypto-mining powered by solar energy, and has implemented a new federal income tax exemption that will benefit miners who install solar panels.

At the same time, the government in Uzebekistan has also levied steeper electricity rates on miners who choose not to make the switch to renewable energy, while imposing surcharges during the busiest hours of the day. Miners using non-rewewable energy are also required to foot double theelectricity tariff ofthose using solar energy.

Meanwhile, countries with a surplus of renewable energy such as Japan, have said that they will divert excess renewable energy across the grid to distributed data centresthat power cryptocurrency mining operations, curtailing energy wastage.

Encouraging miners participation in carbon offsetting programs could also provide another avenue for mitigating their environmental effects, saidDeng.

Countries can also allow cryptocurrency miners to issue green bonds to help miners transition from using energy from unsustainable sources to more sustainable sources, said Charoenwong.

On the other end of the spectrum, cryptocurrency mining is currently not being regulated in land-scarce Asian countries like Singapore. This is because the local conditions are not favourable for cryptocurrency mining.

[Singapores] relatively high land, labour and electricity costs, coupled with our hot tropical climate, make it expensive to operate cryptocurrency mining, saidenvironment ministerGrace Fuinparliamentin 2021.

What does the future hold for crypto-mining?

Charoenwongconcluded that all proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are at risk of future developments, such as technological transitions arising from pressures exerted by environmental groups and support from the open-source communities behind these decentralised cryptocurrencies to make the switch.

Hence, the energy discussion may become moot one day, just like how it was wiped out with Ethereums migration from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

So in some sense, the issue of mining may solve itself just from the incentive of actors in the own economies to develop new solutions even without much government intervention, he said.

A caveat, however, is that this transition is likely to take time given that the majority of Bitcoin miners,who collectively mine 900 new bitcoins per day (worth over US$20 million),still prefer the existing proof-of-work concept. As such, to the extent that the cryptocurrency activity generates a negative externality to the public, we should consider taxes or other schemes to correct the externality, he said.

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Explainer: What is cryptocurrency mining and how does it hurt the ... - Eco-Business

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Best Cryptocurrency To Hold In 2023? Ripple (XRP), HedgeUp ... - Analytics Insight

The notorious cryptojacking group tracked as 8220 Gang has been spotted weaponizing a six-year-old security flaw in Oracle WebLogic servers to ensnare vulnerable instances into a botnet and distribute cryptocurrency mining malware.

The flaw in question is CVE-2017-3506 (CVSS score: 7.4), which, when successfully exploited, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary commands remotely.

"This allows attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive data or compromise the entire system," Trend Micro researcher Sunil Bharti said in a report published this week.

8220 Gang, first documented by Cisco Talos in late 2018, is so named for its original use of port 8220 for command-and-control (C2) network communications.

"8220 Gang identifies targets via scanning for misconfigured or vulnerable hosts on the public internet," SentinelOne noted last year. "8220 Gang is known to make use of SSH brute force attacks post-infection for the purposes of lateral movement inside a compromised network."

Earlier this year, Sydig detailed attacks mounted by the "low-skill" crimeware group between November 2022 and January 2023 that aim to breach vulnerable Oracle WebLogic and Apache web servers and deploy a cryptocurrency miner.

It has also been observed making use of an off-the-shelf malware downloader known as PureCrypter as well as a crypter codenamed ScrubCrypt to conceal the miner payload and evade detection by security software.

In the latest attack chain documented by Trend Micro, the Oracle WebLogic Server vulnerability is leveraged to deliver a PowerShell payload, which is then used to create another obfuscated PowerShell script in memory.

This newly created PowerShell script disables Windows Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) detection and launches a Windows binary that subsequently reaches out to a remote server to retrieve a "meticulously obfuscated" payload.

The intermediate DLL file, for its part, is configured to download a cryptocurrency miner from one of the three C2 servers 179.43.155[.]202, work.letmaker[.]top, and su-94.letmaker[.]top using TCP ports 9090, 9091, or 9092.

Trend Micro said recent attacks have also entailed the misuse of a legitimate Linux tool called lwp-download to save arbitrary files on the compromised host.

"lwp-download is a Linux utility present in a number of platforms by default, and 8220 Gang making this a part of any malware routine can affect a number of services even if it were reused more than once," Bharti said.

"Considering the threat actor's tendency to reuse tools for different campaigns and abuse legitimate tools as part of the arsenal, organizations' security teams might be challenged to find other detection and blocking solutions to fend off attacks that abuse this utility."

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8220 Gang Exploiting Oracle WebLogic Flaw to Hijack Servers and Mine Cryptocurrency - The Hacker News

Over the past 24 hours, Cosmos Hub's ATOM/USD price has fallen 3.57% to $10.54. This continues its negative trend over the past week where it has experienced a 5.0% loss, moving from $11.07 to its current price.

The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Cosmos Hub over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.

The trading volume for the coin has fallen 36.0% over the past week which is opposite, directionally, with the overall circulating supply of the coin, which has increased 0.02%. This brings the circulating supply to 292.59 million. According to our data, the current market cap ranking for ATOM is #23 at $3.08 billion.

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