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Telegram might be forced to put its global cryptocurrency plans on ice – MIT Technology Review

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has just halted Telegram's massiveand massively hyped$2 billion digital tokensale.

Those halcyon days: In early 2018, exuberant investors poured billions of dollars into Telegrams ambitious plan to launch a global cryptocurrency network. In return, they got rights to digital tokens that Telegram, a messaging app with 300 million monthly users, promised would be useful on its future network. That was slated to launch by October 31 of this year.

The news: That initial exuberance has turned to uncertainty. According to the SEC, Telegram Group and a subsidiary company called TON Issuer Inc. conducted an illegal sale of unregistered securities in the US. The defendants sold 2.9 billion digital tokens, called Grams, to 171 investors around the world, raising $1.7 billion. Since $425 million worth was sold in the US, the SEC, which is supposed to look out for US investors, was paying attention.

Since the planned network hasnt yet launched, and the tokens cant be used for anything yet, they are subject to the same kinds of strict regulations that govern stocks and bonds, says the SEC. That means they should have been registered with the agency, and Telegram should have provided investors with information about its business operations, financial condition, management, and risk factors. We have repeatedly stated that issuers cannot avoid the federal securities laws just by labeling their product a cryptocurrency or a digital token, Steven Peikin, co-director of the SECs division of enforcement, said in a statement.

What now? According to Bloomberg, the company is evaluating ways to resolve the agencys concerns, and in fact been in talks with the SEC for 18 months. The company said it was surprised and disappointed by the lawsuit, and now it may delay the launch of its network.

The takeaway: The SEC is not done cleaning up the mess created by the initial coin offering boom of 2017 and early 2018. Its lawsuit against Telegram comes just two weeks after it settled with Block.One, which had raised $4 billion via its own token sale before launching the EOS blockchain network in 2018.

Its not clear why Block.One, which had to pay a $24 million penalty, didnt get as harsh a penalty as Telegram (though it could be that Block.One was more cooperative with the SEC). But the bottom line is what Peikin said: calling something a cryptocurrency doesnt exempt it from existing laws.

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Telegram might be forced to put its global cryptocurrency plans on ice - MIT Technology Review

Mastering Emotions and Managing Risk in Cryptocurrency Trading – Coindesk

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

When it comes to trading, there are several steps you can take in order to reduce your exposure to the market extremes of price volatility.

A combination of both technical and fundamental analysis can be used to determine thetrue worth of a company or asset, securing a greater chance of success with a particular investment while reducing your risk along the way.

But for that, you need a plan.

Developing a successful risk management plan is paramount in minimizing unexpected outcomes, translating into an overall reduction in your losses.

A successful risk management plan should also run parallel to your crypto trading journal records, working in conjunction to curb poor trading behavior while simultaneously justifying your fundamental expectations.

Sometimes temptation leads to poor choices and it is no more on display than a market driven by fear and greed.

By reducing harmful or negative trading habits, one can hope to increase profit without putting too much on the table.

A key component of a successful risk management plan is determining what kind of trader you are and where your skills currently lie:

From these personas you can draw a rough idea on where you currently sit in terms of your trading mentality. The idea is to identify what habits are forcing you to lose out and which habits are guiding you to profit.

Try to remain stoic and reasoned, removing emotion from the psychological aspect of trading while relying solely on the information in front of you such as the price, volume, news and trend.

No matter how tempting or promising a particular trade opportunity may appear it is never a good idea to place all of your worth on the line.

Generally, a spread of one particular type of asset class (as well as a generous mix of different asset classes within your portfolio) is an ample measure in reducing your exposure to larger price moves within a particular industry/market.

The volatility of the cryptocurrency market means that any trade, even a seemingly perfect trade, can collapse and result in a significant loss. Therefore, it is recommended that you start investing in 5 or more different coins.

Also remember to take advantage of an exchanges stop-loss feature and use it to your benefit when you are away from trading manually such as times of rest or at work.

Time and again new traders fail to incorporate an adequate exit strategy, often arriving back at their computer to find their beloved basket of crypto have dropped 20 percent and a new trend has developed to the downside. This act not only reduces your risk but allows for greater control over your losses.

Finally, it can be tempting to use a buy and hold strategy where you invest in a coin and refuse to sell for an extended period of time. This passive approach is often tempting to new traders due to its simplicity and is often falsely associated with reducing ones risk.

However, youll unlikely amount to any significant wins by playing it too safe, so dive in, take on the adequate risk and ensure you have a plan mapped out because trading crypto can be a fun and profitable endeavour when executed correctly.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

See-saw image via Shutterstock

Originally posted here:

Mastering Emotions and Managing Risk in Cryptocurrency Trading - Coindesk

Europol: Bitcoin is the still the dark webs favorite cryptocurrency – The Next Web

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Bitcoin BTC is still very much the dark webs favorite cryptocurrency, but those looking to cover their tracks are slowly learning to useprivacy-focused alternatives.

While we have previously reported a small shift towards more privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Bitcoin still remains the currency of choice for both legitimate and criminal use, reports Europol with its latest assessment of internet-based organised crime.

Europol notes that Bitcoins prevalence in the underground economy is a consequence of its familiarity within the customer base, particularly in dark web markets.

In particular, ransomware campaigns have continued to feature Bitcoin almost exclusively. Europol highlighted these attacks as the most prominent cybercrime it tackles.

Hard Fork has previously reported on numerous ransomware attacks thatve demanded Bitcoin to restore encrypted files.

Still, authorities say there has been a more pronounced shift towards more privacy-orientated cryptocurrencies, and expects this trend to continue as criminals become more security aware.

The main developments regarding this trend are on the Darknet [sic] markets, several of which also accept Monero, or in some cases exclusively trade in it, Europol added.

Join us inAmsterdamon October 15-17 to discuss blockchainandcryptocurrencywith leading experts.

Published October 14, 2019 12:45 UTC

Theres A New Question On Your 1040 As IRS Gets Serious About Cryptocurrency – Forbes

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

internet banking network and cryptocurrency concept. Man hand using credit card for trade cryptocurrency.

Days after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released two new pieces of guidance for taxpayers who engage in transactions involving virtual currency, the IRS announced another compliance measure: a checkbox on form 1040. The checkbox, which appears on the early release draft of the form 1040, asks taxpayers about financial interests in virtual currency.

The checkbox appears on the second early release draft of the 2019 Form 1040, Schedule 1, Additional Income and Adjustments to Income (downloads as a PDF). The checkbox is at the top of Schedule 1, which is used for reporting income or adjustments to income that cant be entered directly on the front page of form 1040:

KPE

The question is:

At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?

If youre wondering why that sounds familiar, the wording closely parallels the verbiage on Schedule B, Part III, concerning offshore accounts.

KPE

That question appears at the bottom of the Schedule. It asks:

At any time during 2018, did you have a financial interest in or signature authority over a financial account (such as a bank account, securities account, or brokerage account) located in a foreign country?

The similarities arent surprising. You may recall that Ive suggested (here and here) that the strategy the IRS is using to pursue cryptocurrency is reminiscent of how the agency chased down offshore accounts.

However, Im not overly keen on the location of the cryptocurrency question. As noted, taxpayers who file Schedule 1 to report income or adjustments to income that cant be entered directly on Form 1040 should check the appropriate box to answer the virtual currency question. But taxpayers who dont have to file Schedule 1 for any other purpose may not be aware that they need to file Schedule 1 to answer to this question if it applies to them. Yes, tax software interviews will likely catch it - but what if they dont? Or what if taxpayers are completing the form by hand? Or if tax preparers dont think to ask?

I think its something that IRS will need to address. The IRS will accept Schedule 1 comments via email at WI.1040.Comments@IRS.gov for a 30-day comment period beginning October 11, 2019. The IRS cannot respond individually to each comment received, but all feedback will be considered.

Why does the location of the checkbox matter? Compliance. The checkbox is ostensibly on the form to remind taxpayers to report their cryptocurrency transactions. But those tax professionals like me who have seen the response to the checkbox on Schedule B know that this is also an easy way to hold those who dont check the box - even by accident - accountable. The IRS can and has taken the position that willfully failing to check the box related to offshores interests can form the basis for criminal prosecution. Failing to check the box by accident can still result in headaches and penalties. I fully expect a similar result on the cryptocurrency side.

If youre looking for more information on cryptocurrency, you can read more about the recent guidance here. You can find out more about the taxation of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoinhere. And you can get up to date about how the IRS is targeting non-compliance through a variety of efforts, ranging from taxpayer education to audits to criminal investigations here.

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Theres A New Question On Your 1040 As IRS Gets Serious About Cryptocurrency - Forbes

Mapped: Cryptocurrency Regulations Around the World – Visual Capitalist

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Following the unprecedented cryptocurrency boom in 2017, investors and governments alike could no longer ignore the growth of decentralized finance.

The world has become increasingly fascinated with cryptocurrencies and the ways they are enabling greater access, such as being able to send funds to remote places or securing capital for small businesses.

To aid this, cryptocurrency regulations are being slowly introduced into global financial markets. Regulations help to monitor these emerging digital currencies, and to allow for clearer guidelines and a measure of security.

Todays graphic from ComplyAdvantage maps out major regulatory cryptocurrency and exchange landscapes around the world, showing how sentiments towards digital currencies are evolving.

To do this, ComplyAdvantage measured cryptocurrency regulatory environments using their own Light-to-Tight scale, based on the following criteria:

Which jurisdictions have the strictest and most relaxed regulations for cryptocurrencies?

Global attitudes towards the rise of cryptocurrencies have shifted greatly over the past few years. While the term cryptocurrency is a bit of a misnomer, some countries do consider digital currencies legal tender, with many viewing cryptocurrencies as commodities.

Below is a table of the major countries that are pursuing cryptocurrency regulations:

Sources: ComplyAdvantage, HedgeTrade, CoinDesk

Japan has one of the most progressive regulatory climates for cryptocurrencies, widely considering bitcoin as legal tender and passing a law in mid-2017 recognizing cryptocurrencies as legal property. In late 2018, Japan also approved self-regulation for the crypto industry.

By contrast, China currently has one of the most restrictive environments in the world for cryptocurrency. China banned bitcoin transactions in 2013, as well as ICOs and crypto exchanges in 2017though many have found workarounds through sites not yet firewalled.

Cryptocurrency and exchange regulations in the EU are determined by individual member states, and are considered legal across the bloc.

Digital currency offers great promise, through its ability to reach people and businesses in remote and marginalized regions.

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of IMF

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Switzerland has one of the most open climates for cryptocurrencies and exchanges in Europe. In 2016, the city of Zug, known as Crypto Valley, started accepting bitcoin as payment for city fees. Swiss Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann announced his goal in 2018 to make Switzerland the worlds first crypto-nation.

Both Canada and the U.S. take a similar approach to cryptocurrency legislation at the federal level, as both countries view cryptocurrencies as securities. However, provincial and state regulations differ widely in their taxation requirements of profits from crypto investments.

Regulations throughout Latin and South America run the full legislative spectrum.

Cryptocurrencys journey is the story of a technology rapidly outpacing the laws that govern it.

Governments around the world are keenly aware of this problem. Members of the G20 published a request in June 2019 for a global regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies to be implemented to better manage the benefits and challenges that cryptocurrencies bring.

Regulation for both cryptocurrencies and crypto exchanges is essential for the future of digital financebringing legitimacy to the digital financial market, and making it more attractive for new businesses, established banks, and investors worldwide to more easily conduct business within this emerging ecosystem.

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Mapped: Cryptocurrency Regulations Around the World - Visual Capitalist

North Korean Hackers Tried to Infect macOS Systems with Fake Cryptocurrency App – Security Boulevard

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

A hacking collective called the Lazarus Group has been trying to compromise MacOS systems in an elaborate scam involving cryptocurrency software and a realistic-looking website.

Lazarus Group, a gang of hackers believed to be sponsored by North Korea, tried to penetrate Apple computers running macOS by tricking users into downloading a cryptocurrency application from a seemingly legit website.

The software would, of course, contain malware, infecting the computer and giving users complete remote access. Its one thing to exploit an existing vulnerability, but when users give the attackers full access via regular channels, the intrusion can be more extensive.

The attackers created a cryptocurrency-trading application, hosted on GitHub to give it more credibility, and built a good-enough website to promote it. Once the user installs the software and grants it administrative privileges, the hackers have a backdoor into the OS.

Its not every day we get a new macOS malware specimen to tear apart, especially one written by a reasonably sophisticated APT group, said Jamfs Principal Security Researcher Patrick Wardle, the researcher who caught the malware. Do you have to worry about getting infected? Probably not, unless youre an employee working at a crypto-currency exchange.

In an interview with Forbes, Patrick Wardle said the attack wasnt necessarily geared toward regular users. Attackers sent the infected software to cryptocurrency exchanges for review, with the hope of compromising essential systems.

The Lazarus Group and other hacking groups based or sponsored by North Korea have been operating for years, and the United States has issued a few advisories over time regarding their continuous attacks.

Bitcoin Will Break Out Again in November, Suggests Cryptocurrency Trader – BeInCrypto

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Fractals are repetitive patterns in which the price of an asset within a period of time acts similarly as it did in a previous period, which is not necessarily of the same length. While these movements are not always identical, they always share numerous similarities, most often the ratios between different proportions of the movements.

These recurring patterns have very often been used to make predictions about the price in the future date, assuming that the price will act similarly.

Long-time trader and analyst @cryptopicasso noted a possible repetitive pattern in the price movement of Bitcoin in March and October 2019.

Besides the direction and magnitude of price movement, these patterns possibly have the same relationship between the 100- and 200-period moving averages (MA).

However, the current move is developing at a potentially faster rate, since the chart uses the hourly time-frame as opposed to the four-hour in the March movement.

Lets look at both these movements in more detail and determine how similar they actually are.

On February 9, the Bitcoin price began an upward move from a low of $3422. This was followed by a bullish cross between the 100- and 200-period MA on February 18.

The price created an ascending support line, which was touched three times before the price broke down.

Afterward, the price increased to validate the previous support as resistance, a very common movement after a breakdown.

But, instead of decreasing, it began a rapid increase above $5000. This movement continued until June 24, when the price reached a high of $13,764, marking an increase of roughly 400%

The price began an upward move after reaching a low of $7798 on October 7.

This was followed by a bullish cross between the 100- and 200-period MAs on October 10.

The price created an ascending support line and validated it three times.

If the price acts in the same manner as in March, it will break down from the support line, validate it, and continue its upward movement.

Unlike the previous period, a bearish cross transpired between the MAs, as mentioned above, on October 15.

While we could see an initial pump above $9000 similar to that at the beginning of April, we do not believe the price will continue its increase for a long period, similar to previously when it eventually reached a high of $13,764 on June 26.

The reason for doing so is the current trading pattern and wave count.

While we could see an extended wave four up to the resistance line at $9200, we do not think a breakout is likely before the price finishes one more downward wave.

Do you think the fractal will prove correct, or will it be invalidated? Let us know in the comments below.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images are courtesy of Shutterstock, TradingView.

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Bitcoin Will Break Out Again in November, Suggests Cryptocurrency Trader - BeInCrypto

Another partner abandons Facebooks cryptocurrency – Marketplace.org

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Facebook announced its ambitions to create a new digital currency last summer, with 28 companies pledging their support and cash. But in just a few months, more than a half dozen have changed their minds.

Booking Holdings, the travel company behind Priceline and Kayak, dropped out of the Geneva-based Libra Association, following a similar move by Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe, PayPal and others in the last couple of weeks.

The association is hosting a meeting in Geneva this week to plan next steps. Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications for the group, said in an emailed statement that although the makeup of the Association members may grow and change over time, the design principle of Libras governance and technology, along with the open nature of this project ensures the Libra payment network will remain resilient.

Companies involved with Libra are facing increased pressure from global regulators, including an investigation in the European Union, said Eleanor Fox, a professor of trade regulation at New York University School of Law.

Perhaps the companies realize that being part of this group would entail a huge amount more regulation. And it will, Fox said.

In the United States, members of Congress and the Treasury Department have warned Libra and its partners they would be subject to stringent regulation.

Its pretty clear, said Avivah Litan of the message being sent by regulators. Litan is a vice president and analyst at Gartner, a research and advisory firm. They said that if you go forward with this, were going to regulate your activities with Libra and all your other activities much more closely. So it wasnt even subtle.

But Litan said the tougher oversight, and even the headlines of companies dropping out, is more an optics problem than a real danger for the Libra Association. There are still big names like Uber, Lyft, Vodafone and Spotify on board.

Obviously, the U.S. is a big market, and that market may be cut off to Libra in the short run, Litan said. But its a big global market. And the fastest areas of growth are actually in Africa. Thats where all the growth is happening.

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Another partner abandons Facebooks cryptocurrency - Marketplace.org

SEC puts a stop to Telegram’s cryptocurrency plans in the US – Engadget

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

The agency says Telegram didn't register the offering with its office, and since it sees Grams as securities, it's accusing the company of violating the Securities Act of 1933. It's not clear how this restraining order would affect Gram's launch as a whole. Former SEC attorney Zachary Fallon told Bloomberg that it could also complicate the company's ability to sell tokens in other countries. But even if it doesn't prevent Telegram from launching outside the US, it could still cause huge issues for the company. The New York Times reported back in August that Telegram promised investors it would deliver Grams by October 31st or return their money.

The SEC Division of Enforcement's Co-Director Stephanie Avakian said:

"Our emergency action today is intended to prevent Telegram from flooding the US markets with digital tokens that we allege were unlawfully sold. We allege that the defendants have failed to provide investors with information regarding Grams and Telegram's business operations, financial condition, risk factors, and management that the securities laws require."

The agency also stressed that companies can't avoid federal securities laws just by labeling their products a cryptocurrency or a digital token.

SEC puts a stop to Telegram's cryptocurrency plans in the US - Engadget

Alert: IRS Releases Long-Awaited Guidance on Taxation of Cryptocurrency Transactions – JD Supra

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Updated: May 25, 2018:

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Alert: IRS Releases Long-Awaited Guidance on Taxation of Cryptocurrency Transactions - JD Supra

The New Guidance on Cryptocurrency – Accountingweb.com

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

This publication consists of two components: Rev. Rul.2019-24, and 43 frequently asked questions which pertain to cryptocurrency held as a capital asset. IR-2019-167 is designed to supplement Notice 2014-21. In addition to discussing how basic tax principles apply to cryptocurrency, Notice 2014-21 included answers to numerous frequently asked questions.

The FAQs included in IR-2019-167 provide a more thorough treatment on the taxation of cryptocurrency as investment property. In this post, we will discuss the basic contributions made by IR-2019-167 to the taxation of cryptocurrency. As we will see, the new Revenue Ruling clarifies issues related to two novel developments in the cryptocurrency world; and the FAQs answer multiple complex hypothetical scenarios involving the sale or acquisition of cryptocurrency as investment property.

In the cryptocurrency space, the term hard fork refers to the creation of a new digital token as a consequence of the splitting of an existing digital token into two separate currencies. The newly created digital token is then logged separately on an entirely new electronic ledger (or blockchain). A hard fork itself doesnt necessarily result in the delivery of new digital tokens to cryptocurrency holders, only the creation of a new token on a new ledger. Whats more, the term airdrop refers to the delivery of digital tokens to multiple cryptocurrency holders. An airdrop can follow a hard fork.

Revenue Ruling 2019-24 provide analyses and conclusions to two separate hypothetical scenarios, one scenario involves a hard fork, and the second involves a hard fork followed by an airdrop. In the first scenario, a hard fork occurs and a new digital token is created when an existing token is split.

However, the taxpayer doesnt receive any new tokens. The IRS conclusion is that the taxpayer doesnt have taxable income as a consequence of the hard fork because no additional tokens were received. In the second scenario, a hard fork is followed by the receipt of a certain quantity of the newly created digital currency.

The IRS conclusion is that the taxpayer has taxable income equal to the fair market value of the digital tokens received. Essentially, these two scenarios are a couple of relatively straightforward questions pertaining to the definition of gross income. But, even though they are conceptually simple, they involve new developments in the cryptocurrency space, and so the guidance is useful.

As mentioned, the frequently asked questions component of IR-2019-167 contains a total of 43 questions and answers. These questions range from the very simple to the complex. The IRS is trying to proactively tackle all conceivable scenarios involving the sale or acquisition of cryptocurrency.

This effort is meant to aid cryptocurrency investors as they plan ahead for the possible consequences of gains. The IRS references preexisting material when it makes sense to do so. For instance, the IRS provides a reference to its manual, Publication 544, on the disposition of assets.

The questions begin on the simpler side; the first question is the simplest what is virtual currency? and then the questions gradually increase in complexity. Those who intend to speculate in cryptocurrency will find answer to basically every conceivable hypothetical scenario. The IRS provides an answer on the question of the taxability of cryptocurrency transfers from one digital wallet to another, for example; the IRS also addresses the issue of the tax basis of cryptocurrency received as a bona fide gift.

Publication IR-2019-167 has been a very anticipated document. Investors in the cryptocurrency space have been waiting for additional guidance so that they can be adequately prepared when tax time rolls around. Practitioners have also been seeking counsel on the tax implications of novel cryptocurrency developments (such as a hard fork).

The two components Rev. Rul. 2019-24 and the 43 FAQs do quite a lot to provide clarification and help cryptocurrency investors get a grip on the possible tax consequences of their cryptocurrency investments. Of course, cryptocurrency investors should be sure to consult with an accountant prior to filing their return whenever they have cryptocurrency capital gains.

An accountant is necessary to ensure that the liability is calculated properly. And, in cases involving back cryptocurrency tax debt, a tax attorney may be necessary to resolve cryptocurrency tax debt in an optimal manner.

The IRS Offers Cryptocurrency Guidance

Why Bitcoin Owners Should Worry About the IRS

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The New Guidance on Cryptocurrency - Accountingweb.com

The issuer of a star cryptocurrency is being sued for $1.4trn – The Economist

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

LAUNCHED AS REALCOIN in July 2014, Tether aimed to become a more reliable alternative to Bitcoin, the best-known cryptocurrency. With a $4.1bn market capitalisation, it is now the fifth-largest virtual currency. But its efforts to gain investors trust have fallen short. On October 6th a group filed a class-action lawsuit in New York, accusing Tether of being part-fraud, part-pump-and-dump, and part-money laundering. They call for truly startling damages: more than $1.4trn.

In response to The Economists queries, Tethers general counsel said that the lawsuit is meritless and the plaintiffs complaint is rife with errors. The firm has not used Tethers to manipulate any market, he added, and operates in full conformity with applicable laws.

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In 2014 Tether adopted its current moniker, which made its selling point explicit. With dollar reserves that it said matched Tethers one-to-one, it was one of the first stablecoinsdigital currencies that seek to avoid price swings by pegging their value to the greenback. That made it a useful unit of exchange. Many crypto-trading platforms struggle to secure banking services, and thus dollars, because lenders worry about shady transactions. Punters find it easier and quicker to trade Bitcoins in Tether, and it is the most popular crypto currency pair (see chart).

But Tether is also opaque. When and why it mints coins is unclear. Its general counsel says: We issue Tethers when customers want them, full stop. In China, where crypto-exchanges are illegal, buyers can swap wads of cash for Tethers, says Philip Gradwell of Chainalysis, a blockchain-analysis firm. Tethers reserves have not been independently audited. It hired Friedman, an accountancy firm, in 2017. In 2018 the firms parted ways. Later that year Tethers general counsel told Bloomberg that an audit cannot be obtained, citing risk aversion among potential auditors.

And yet its influence on crypto-markets is large. TokenAnalyst, a data-provider, says that Bitcoin prices track issuances of Tethers. On days when new Tethers are minted, the price of Bitcoin, which can be bought with them, rises 70% of the time.

The class action alleges that Tether and Bitfinex, a crypto-exchange that shares the same managers and owners, manipulated markets and raked in profits. In 2017 and 2018, it claims, Tether issued extraordinary amounts of unbacked coins to flood Bitfinex, propping up demand for Bitcoin and creating the largest bubble in human history. Bitcoin prices rose 19-fold between January 1st and December 17th 2017, to more than $19,000 a coin, before falling below $4,000 at the end of 2018. The boom-and-bust, the complaint alleges, destroyed some $265bn in Bitcoin wealth.

Tethers general counsel is adamant that the currency is fully backed. For years, when the firm said reserves it meant hard cash. Yet in March, under criminal probes by Americas Department of Justice, its futures-market watchdog and New Yorks attorney-general, it said that reserves from time to time may include other assets. A month later its lawyer said in court that Tether was then only 74% backed by cash and cash equivalents.

None of this seems to deter crypto-traders. That may be because Tether is the main provider of liquidity to crypto-markets, accounting for 96% of trading volume in stablecoins. It would be hard to replace. Since April Tethers market capitalisation has more than doubled. In September it launched a new stablecoinpegged to the offshore Chinese yuan.

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The issuer of a star cryptocurrency is being sued for $1.4trn - The Economist

The Climate Change Solution Scientists Have Been Overlooking – Mother Jones

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Overpopulation is a major contributor to climate change, but according to new research, a solution is lying in plain sight: increased access toeffective contraceptives.

Global climate change represents a grave threat to the future of human welfare and our natural environment, write doctors John Bongaarts and Rgine Sitruk-Ware of the Population Council in New York in an article published Tuesday in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. The contentious ongoing policy debate about potential interventions focuses on switching to renewable energy sources and increasing energy use efficiency. But given the urgency of the problem and the lack of political will, other approaches to limit greenhouse gas emissions should be given higher priority. Improving access to effective contraception is one such policy that has thus far been largely ignored by the international climate community.

The authors claim that improved access to contraception could slow population growth and thereby reduce long-term greenhouse gas emissions globally by 40 percent or more. Bongaarts and Sitruk-Ware write that many married womenmore than half in some countrieswho do not wish to become pregnant still fail to use contraception due to barriers to access, high costs, and social stigma. Consequently, there are about 99 million unintended pregnancies worldwide each year. By 2100, Earths population is expected to reach 10.9 billion people. (The current population is about 7.7 billion.)

As Paul Ehrlich, author ofThe Population Bomb, toldMother Jones in 2010, overpopulation, combined with overconsumption, is the elephant in the room in climate discussions. We dont talk about overpopulation because of real fears from the pastof racism, eugenics, colonialism, forced sterilization, forced family planning, plus the fears from some of contraception, abortion, and sex. We dont really talk about overconsumption because of ignorance about the economics of overpopulation and the true ecological limits of Earth.

Bongaarts and Sitruk-Ware recommend that governments worldwide increase access to contraceptives by investing in family planning programs. They also encouragethe research and development of new forms of contraception, and they suggest combatting social opposition to birth control through media campaigns.

Wider distribution of contraceptives already on the market through greater investment in voluntary but underfunded family planning programmes is sufficient to raise contraceptive use substantially, they write. This in turn would have a profound positive impact on human welfare, the climate and the environment.

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The Climate Change Solution Scientists Have Been Overlooking - Mother Jones

Eugenics: The Scientific Scandal That Helped Hitler Murder 300,000 Disabled People – Newsweek

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Eugenics is a concept often associated with the horrors of Nazi Germany. But, as disability rights activist Adam Pearson explores in a new documentary series, the ideology had its roots in 19th century Britainand still affects people alive today.

Known as the "father of eugenics," British Victorian scientist and statistician Sir Francis Galton developed the since debunked theory that individuals deemed "superior" according to factors such as their race or class could be socially engineered. Those regarded as biologically inferior and "feeble-minded" should, meanwhile, be prevented from having children, he argued.

Cherry picking the theories of his cousin Charles Darwin, who pioneered the theory of evolution, Galton developed a ranking of humansfor instance placing Australian Aborigines one "grade" below Africans.

In the decades that followed, these ideas have inspired horrifying policies from the murder of thousands of disabled people in Nazi Germany, to the sterilization of tens of thousands of people in the U.S. in the early 20th century.

Newsweek asked Pearson, a presenter and anti-bullying campaigner, what he learned while filming BBC Four's Eugenics: Science's Greatest Scandal Pearson alongside science journalist Angela Saini.

Were theories related to eugenics dark from the start, or did they come from a place of genuine scientific curiosity and later misused?

Everything comes from a place of curiosity, and science is a weapon of great power for change. The extent to which change happens, and more significantly, how it is allowed to happen, all comes down to those people who are wielding it. In this instance, the power was in that hands of well-thought of men whoin what we now know to be misusewas left to go unchallenged.

What are some policies that were influenced by or based on the theories of eugenics?

One of the big ones, as pertains to disability, was The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913. Whilst the act wasn't used until 1919, due to us [Britain] being at war, what it meant was that individuals whom were deemed "imbeciles" on grounds of both intellect and morality, could be segregated from society and literally locked away in an asylum. The number involved and the loss of freedom, with the benefit of retrospection, is truly shocking and heart breaking.

What were the most shocking things that you learned while filming this program?

We went to one of the earliest of examples of these asylums in Leeds [U.K.], a place called Meanwood Park. Mark Davis [a photographer and archivist] who I met was fascinated by the whole place and has kept loads of archives from its history.

If you add up the amount of years served by its 35 longest-serving inmateswho had committed no crime other than being disabledit comes to just under 2,000 years. Truly heartbreaking.

Do any moments from filming the program stand out to you?

There was no one moment in particular, but there was an overwhelming sense of "this would have been me." Had I been born in those times I'd definitely been sent to one of these asylums, or even worse taken to a Nazi Aktion T4 camp and executed as one the 300,000 disabled people murdered under Hitler's regime.

As a disability rights activist, how did learning about eugenics and creating this documentary make you feel?

I've honestly been all over the spectrum of emotions. I've felt seething anger, great sorrow and even mild heartbreak. I interviewed a man called Harvey Waterman [a man in his eighties] who was kept in one of these asylums, a place called St. Lawrence's [in Caterham, Surrey, U.K.]

As a journalist and activist, I'm no stranger to pain, but this is the only interview where I have to take a break halfway through. I pretended to need to toilet and had to take time to pull myself together. Though, more importantly, I felt inspired and hopeful. Having met several other activists, alongside medical professions and scientists, I believe the weapons of science are now in safer hands.

How much did you know about the history of eugenics before you started filming? Do you think it is a topic there is enough awareness of?

I knew the term, as should everyone, though I was unaware of the extent of how well respected it was. Even Winston Churchill [British Prime Minister during the World War II] was a heavy endorser of eugenics and what it stood for.

Are people still suffering from the effects of the ideology? I believe you met a woman who was sterilized?

Yes, Elena [Gorolova]. She was sterilized due to medical complications during child birththat was the medical answer. However, there are a disproportionate number of Roma Gypsy women from her country of Czechia who this has happened to.

She set up a campaign group and after years of fighting for justice politicians, finally passed a bill in order to compensate them. It just proves that while the term eugenics has been laid to rest, eugenic thinking is still alive, well and thriving in society.

Amid a divisive political climate which saw white supremacists rally in Charlottesville in 2017, do you worry that the theories of eugenics will drawn upon once again?

I do, but by the same token I like to think that we have learned enough from the past to be able to halt such propaganda and eugenic thinking as and when it arises.

Moving forward, how can we avoid ideas reminiscent of eugenics becoming widespreadparticularly as scientists make breakthroughs in fields like genetics and so-called human enhancement?

We have a whole area of science called bioethics, whose sole job is to ensure that this whole "designer baby" debate doesn't happen, and that science and medicine are always used for the betterment of patients, not to make a master society.

What do you want viewers to take away from the documentary?

That eugenics has a history and that it affects all of us. It isn't just a disabled issue, or Jewish issue. It's a humanity issue. I want people to watch this and feel the weight of the issue like Angela and I did. If this documentary makes you feel highly uncomfortable then good, it should.

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Eugenics: The Scientific Scandal That Helped Hitler Murder 300,000 Disabled People - Newsweek

What’s on TV tonight: The Met investigates London’s drugs gangs, and celebrities head to the First Dates Hotel – iNews

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

CultureTVPlus: a third season of Young Sheldon begins, and Catherine the Great is pining for her lover

Thursday, 10th October 2019, 15:51 pm

PICK OF THE DAY

The Met: Policing London

Deadly stabbings and shootings almost seem to be a daily occurrence in Englands capital, with a dramatic rise in the murders of under-25s in 2018 the year during which this excellent blue-light series was filmed. The programme begins with the distressing phone call made by 22-year-old youth worker Kobi Nelson after he was fatally stabbed. DNA from the crime scene matches that of a known 20-year-old and indicated that Nelsons killing might be related to drugs gangs. Five weeks later, Kelvin Odunuyi is shot dead at a cinema in Wood Green, leaving DCI Luke Marks and his team to determine whether it was connected to the earlier murder.

Young Sheldon

Inside Prison: Britain Behind Bars

This eye-opening docuseries lifting the lid on life behind bars focuses on HMP Isle of Wight, a specialist prison housing many sex offenders and paedophiles. Intelligence has been gathered that a USB stick containing child pornography is doing the rounds, so the officers launch a search. But finding such a small item in a vast prison is no easy task. The staff are also seen trying to combat the increasingly creative ways to smuggle drugs into the jail, from letters sprayed with a spice solution to hollowed-out chess pieces.

Celebrity First Dates Hotel For SU2C

Eugenics: Sciences Greatest Scandal

Eugenics did not die with the Nazis, argue science journalist Angela Saini and disability campaigner Adam Pearson in the second part of their penetrating look at the idea that, for the betterment of the human race, some people shouldnt be allowed to reproduce. Programmes of selective breeding to weed out disability and the mass sterilisation of the poor in so-called third world countries have continued, while emerging science such as gene editing could be leading to a new era of eugenics.

Catherine The Great

Helen Mirrens Russian empress is pining for her lover, Major General Potemkin (the man after whom the mutinous battleship was named), but he is away fighting the Turks a suddenly topical plot development given a certain US politicians late-night tweets. War, war, war! All I want to do is talk about sex, complains Catherine, as Paul Kaye joins the cast as a murderous peasant with radical views.

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What's on TV tonight: The Met investigates London's drugs gangs, and celebrities head to the First Dates Hotel - iNews

Selling Babies, Trading Wives – By THOMAS P. FARNER – The SandPaper

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Until November 1912, 48-year-old Elizabeth Kite was a little-known, European-educated social worker from Philadelphia who was working for the state of New Jersey. On the 25th, the Los Angeles Times along with papers across the country ran SELL BABIES IN NEW JERSEY. Report Charges People Also Exchange Wives in Mosquito State.

A report charging people in the Pine section of New Jersey with exchanging wives and selling babies for small sums of money lies on the desk of Gov. Wilson. The report was prepared by Miss Elizabeth Kite, investigator for the State Department of Charities and Corrections.

The Daily Record, a Long Branch, N.J., paper, investigated.

Elizabeth Kite ... has been making a study of conditions in New Jersey relating to degeneracy and feeble mindedness as existing in The Pines including sections of Burlington, Atlantic and Ocean counties.

Miss Kite has spent three years among the people of this District, and her report made to the state commissioner of charities ... maintains that the low type of people of The Pines think nothing of trading their wives and selling their children. Substantiation of her statements can be had by a number of recent cases which have been investigated. Wives are traded and children are sold, according to the society, for small sums of money and for liquor.

Kites report, which was published in October 1913, did give an example.

Only a few years ago a notorious Piney bearing a perverted Huguenot name died in his cabin in the heart of the pines at the age of ninety-eight.

Four years before his death he was found one day returning to his shack after a prolonged absence. Questioned as to where he had been, he said he had gotten tired o the gal he had been livin with too giddy he said shaking his head, too giddy fer me, so I took her down shore an traded her. Did pretty well, too got this old hoss and this here keg orum.

Such conditions are common today in the Pines and many another Piney can be found whose ancestry could be traced back to some off-shoot of a rigid, highly respectable, intelligent family which in other branches, has furnished us some of our best citizens.

Kite, who was a supporter of the new science of eugenics, felt many of the people living in the Pines were the descendants of what she called outcasts from society, deserters from the British Army, criminals and a product of inbreeding, and had become a unique society. She even blamed the French.

Prince Joseph Bonaparte held his miniature court at Bordentown, many were the revels and hunting parties in the Pines which were indulged in by the members of his suite. All these revelers came back, leaving a train of nameless offspring to complicate still further the mixed social problem of the pines, so that today, in tracing the ancestry of any particular group, one runs up continually against the impossibility of proving exact ancestry.

Gov. Woodrow Wilson had just been elected president. As a lame duck, he awaited his inauguration and for the most part remained silent. But the newspapers of the day did not. The Trenton Times of Dec. 26, 1912, declared, Marrying and intermarrying into defective and often imbecile families, the stock has dropped lower in the human scale with each succeeding generation until the State, now finds that it has numbers of small communities scattered through the pines in which practically every inhabitant shows signs of degeneracy. Science, in fact, brands them as a people lost irrevocably to society and civilization. Neither education nor religious influence can aid a people, the scientists say, whose defective adult minds are capable of no greater mental perception than those of children of 9 or 10 years.

Children of this stock, science says and this is the most serious phase of the problem from any viewpoint are doomed by the law of heredity to become a menace to the community and a burden to the State.

The paper focused on the perceived condition of the children, saying, It is the pitiable cases of the children of these Pineys that opened the eyes of the Department of Charities and Corrections to the need for immediate steps to remedy as far as possible the conditions that now exist. Often deserted by their parents, frequently living more like wild animals than human beings, sometimes throughout the summer months wearing little or no covering for their bodies, and suffering in winter from lack of proper clothing, the lot of these children is desperate beyond the power of narration. Efforts made to help them by placing some of these children in good homes in different parts of the state, to be brought up under the intelligent, loving care of foster parents, has shown a pitiable failure of such charitable effort.

Kite in her report wasnt so kind.

The general opinion current regarding the Piney and his class, has been that he is what he is from environment, that surrounded with other conditions and given a chance he would come out all right. That he is a problem, that his presence tends to lower standards of living among the normal people who come in contact with him, is a universally recognized fact, but until recently it has been confidently hoped that through education and the opening up of the Pines, he would eventually become a normal citizen. But the real Piney has no inclination to labor, submitting to every privation in order to avoid it. Lazy, lustful and cunning, he is a degenerate creature who has learned to provide for himself the bare necessities of life without entering into lifes stimulating struggle. Like the degenerate relative of the crab that ages ago gave up a free roving life and, gluing its head to a rock, built a wall of defence around itself, spending the rest of its life kicking food into its mouth and enjoying the functionings of reproduction, the Piney and all the rest of his type have become barnacles upon our civilization.

By March 1913, Wilson was in Washington, but the progressive urban newspapers still had their cause. The Philadelphia Record stated, After spending millions of dollars in corrective measures and worrying a hundred years with the economic problems presented by the criminally degenerate element of the inhabitants of the pine belt, including parts of Burlington, Monmouth and Ocean counties, New Jersey is now seeking a method of halting the spread of this defective race.

It is as cruel for the State to permit these children of degenerate parentage to remain at large as it would be to neglect those suffering from some terrible malady, says Miss Kite. Many of the children are imbeciles, and the conditions in which they live are often horrifying.

To support the claims, the Record presented, One woman has three husbands, all living, bearing children to each, while her present husband has had two previous wives, also living. According to the remarkable story of another woman, she grew tired of her man, and finding no other way to get rid of him, she got the aid of a negro in hanging him to a tree when he was drunk. His death appears on the county records as a suicide.

In another case, a girl of sixteen married an old man of sixty-eight. The bait the old fellow offered was that when he died, which looked like an early prospect, she would get his pension. What his four or five other wives the department has since discovered would have said about the pension arrangement was not considered.

To be sure, the urban newspaper had to point out, Strangely enough, some of the worst examples of this degenerate race are found near the splendid winter resorts springing up in the pines. It is only a step from Browns-Mills-in-the-Pines, where wealth and fashion of Philadelphia and New York winters, into communities of little groups of huts where humanity has touched its lowest level. And the wonderful fertility of this sandy soil, as demonstrated where Italian immigrants have grubbed out the pine stumps and planted truck crops, shows what the Pineys could have done.

The paper quoted Kite as saying, When the State finds a way of eliminating this degeneracy and is courageous enough to put it into effect, we shall have gone a long way toward settling the criminal problem. In this investigation we find we are dealing with crime and degeneracy as a heredity disease. The present criminal element among the Pineys can scarcely be held personally responsible for their short-comings. The department is seeking facts and uncovering these unsavory conditions only that it may aid where immediate aid is needed and, in the hope, that it will open a way to stamp out such conditions in the future.

What did Kite mean by stamp out? What did the progressive science of eugenics have in mind for the Jersey Pine Barrens?

Next Week: The governor visits the Pines.

tpfcjf@comcast.net

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Selling Babies, Trading Wives - By THOMAS P. FARNER - The SandPaper

Artificial Wombs Could Help Save Millions of Premature Babies Within the Next Decade – News18

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Dutch scientists are on the verge of a breakthrough. They predict that within a decade, they will be able to create a working prototype of an artificial womb, something that could save the lives of millions of babies who die due to the premature births.

Researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology in Netherlands have been given a 2.6m grant to work on the development of a prototype for artificial wombs that could be used in clinics. Artificial wombs could help reduce complications and even save a prematurely born baby's life by acting as a replacement womb that could allow the fetus to complete full gestation period.

The external womb does so by simulating conditions naturally present withing a womb using a faux placenta that is connected to the fetus's umbilical chord.

Why is this important?

According to accepted norms, any birth that occurs before the 37th week of pregnancy is considered premature. At present, about a million babies across the world die because of premature of birth, The Guardian reported. Even the ones who survive incur a range of medical difficulties and disabilities.

As per data collected by Tommy's, a UK-based not-for profit organisation that funds prenatal and neonatal research, babies born at 22 weeks of gestation have just a 10 percent chance of surviving. However, in just two weeks of added gestation, chances of survival shoot up to 6- percent.

External, artificial wombs could be extremely useful in such cases as they could provide almost perfect natural, womb-like conditions and allow a fetus to get adequate oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical chord. Unlike current incubation methods that deliver oxygen and nutrients directly to the organs like the lungs which may not have the full capacity to handle the treatment, the newer system would allow fetuses to grow its organs under natural conditions.

Research into the idea has been ongoing. In 2017, a team of researchers from Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in US successfully tested an artificial womb meant to carry premature births on a lamb feotus.

Why is it controversial?

While the implication of artificial wombs in terms of prenatal care could be miraculous, critics have already raised alarm bells over what this could mean for women's rights. Some feminist thinkers, as Professor Julien S. Murphy of the University of Southern Maine wrote in her book 'Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics' wrote, have raised concerns about how birthing outside of the human body, or ectogenesis, will affect the perception of women. Some even fear that deleting the need for women's bodies from the reproductive process could lead to women becoming obsolete. It would also impact abortion rights and the global women's movement to reclaim control over their bodies.

Strides in ectogenesis could also open up a minefield of political and ethical complications. While medical science is still a long way from completely growing babies from petri dishes, the possibility raises concerns about reproductive rights and genetic engineering.

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Artificial Wombs Could Help Save Millions of Premature Babies Within the Next Decade - News18

WIRED25: Stories of People Who Are Racing to Save Us – WIRED

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Galperin and her team focus on protecting the activists, dissidents, lawyers, journalists, and civilians who find themselves in an increasingly lopsided conflict with entities that hack, surveil, and sabotage themor better yet, equipping them to protect themselves. I think that empowering people to confront power is good, she says. Thats how change happens.

In part, Galperin aims to create tools that level the playing field for surveillance victims. In its first months, for instance, the Threat Labs tiny team of three full-time staffers has been building a device to detect a common form of police surveillance: fake LTE cell towers that trick phones into connecting to them, enabling police to pinpoint the location and track the identities of protesters and other surveillance targets.

The Threat Lab also does detective work to expose perpetrators of state-sponsored surveillance. For years, even before the teams creation, Galperin and fellow EFF researcher Cooper Quintin investigated a hacking operation that planted spyware on the computers of journalists and opposition figures in Kazakhstan. Working with the mobile security firm Lookout, Galperins team found that some of the same toolsperhaps made by the same for-hire hackerswere being used in a massive campaign to spy on civilian targets in Lebanon. At one point during that investigation, the EFF had a researcher walk the streets of Beirut with a smartphone to find the Wi-Fi network theyd linked with the hackers. The researcher discovered it was emanating from inside the headquarters of the Lebanese General Security Directorate.

The EFF had a researcher walk the streets of Beirut with a smartphone to find the hackers Wi-Fi network. It was emanating from inside the headquarters of the Lebanese General Security Directorate.

Galperins own obsession is the scourge known as spouseware, or stalkerware: hidden apps installed on a smartphone by someone with physical access to the deviceoften a domestic abuserthat let them spy on the phones owner. Since early 2018, Galperin has offered her services as a kind of first responder, security consultant, and therapist for stalkerware victims.

But Galperin wasnt satisfied with the scale of that hands-on approach. So she began shaming and pressuring the antivirus industry, which has long neglected stalkerware, to take it far more seriously. Several companies have since pledged to catalog and eradicate the apps just as thoroughly as they do traditional malware. Stalkerware is considered beneath the interest of most security researchers, Galperin says. Changing norms takes time. But it starts with someone standing up and saying This is not OK, this is not acceptablethis is spying.

Galperin, who has silvery-violet hair and a cyberpunk aesthetic, got her start as a systems administrator, attending security conferences and being treated, she says, like some hackers girlfriend who looks after Solaris boxes. In 2007 she joined the EFF, where her first job was to answer the 50-plus calls and emails that came in every day from people seeking help. The organization had recently filed a lawsuit against AT&T for aiding warrantless NSA spying, and Galperin was flooded with messages from people who had been targeted for surveillance. Her desk became a kind of security crisis hotline.

According to Danny OBrien, Galperins former boss at the EFF, the experience gave her a strong sense of the victims perspectivesomething thats often overlooked by the cybersecurity research community, which tends to focus more on sexy new hacking techniques than on the people who suffer from their use. Eva isnt afraid to plot out the consequences of hackers actions, OBrien says, to stare those consequences down until the problem is solved.

Shes also good at plotting out, and maximizing, the consequences of her own actions. Galperin says she has no illusions that she or her small team alone can tip the balance of security for vulnerable people worldwide. But in line with the EFFs longtime tactic of choosing cases that can set legal precedents, she says she chooses projects that promise to have cascading effects, that will force the industry to change its priorities or inspire other researchers. You figure out the place where you need to push, she says, not just to help the people you help every day, the individuals, but to change the game. To change the system. Andy Greenberg

FOUNDER & CEO / Rigetti Computing

In 2013, Chad Rigetti became aware that the field of quantum computing was entering a kind of adolescence. Sketched out in the 1990s, the technology was supposed to leapfrog conventional computing by tapping into the weird physics of subatomic particles. For years, researchers had been held up by the devilish unreliability of qubits, the devices needed to perform quantum manipulations on data. But now, finally, they were finding new ways to tame them. It was black magic, and then a framework emerged, Rigetti says. You could start to see all the pieces coming together. Thats when he quit his job at IBM and struck out on his own. Six years later, in labs stocked with steampunky equipment and liquid helium, Rigetti Computing is manufacturing small quantum processors.

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WIRED25: Stories of People Who Are Racing to Save Us - WIRED

What will the world look like in 50 years? – Quartz

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

Companies that reject shareholder primacythat prioritize the needs of society, community, consumers, and employees above shareholder valueand those that fully understand the social and environmental impacts of their entire supply chain, irrespective of product or industry, will be the ones to thrive.

To define the characteristics of those companies: They will demonstrate emotional intelligence, flexibility, and the ability to adapt to complex, quickly-shifting conditions, work forces, and social movements. The companies that develop innovative products and services designed to protect people from climate impacts (sea-level rise, extreme heat, disaster) will prosper as well. Examples are companies that make cooling vests for outdoor workers, police officers, and firefighters; flood-response companies; design firms that build resilient structures capable of floating or adapting to rising waters; even private extraction companies like those being used by oil and gas entities to extract personnel from harmful situations like political conflicts, violence, or natural disasters.Further, companies with a majority of women on their boards and executive teams will outperform competitors and lead in their industry. In fact, I would venture that the numbers of men will flip to a women-led majority in most everything in the next 50 years.

Finally, given the increase in both the types of risk and the size of risk exposures such as hurricane, drought, extreme heat, and floods, property and casualty industry will finally transform. Along with reinsurance companies, they will offer individual policies that pay quickly based on a metric such as wind speed or sustained temperature.

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What will the world look like in 50 years? - Quartz

5 Reasons Why Lex Luthor Is Smarter Than The Green Goblin (And 5 Ways Norman Osborn Is Smarter) – CBR – Comic Book Resources

Posted on October 16, 2019 by Danzig

In both the corporate and supervillain worlds, Lex Luthor and Norman Osborn are at the top of their games in their respective universes. Not content to bedeviling just Superman and Spider-Man, both antagonists have threatened and nearly completed world domination, requiring either the Justice League or the Avengers to put an end to their nefarious schemes.

Their successes are due in no small part to the nature of their characters: ambitious, calculating and ruthless. However, the one trait that sets them apart from other supervillains is their genius-level intelligence, which begs the question: Who is smarter, Lex Luthor or Norman Osborn?

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A man of guts and vision, Norman Osborn founded Oscorp with Mendel Stromm, having financed the lions share of the investment himself. Aside from that, Osborn ran the business end of the company while also contributing to the research in genetics that would eventually give him his augmented strength, reflexes, and healing factor.

Osborns raw intellect also helped develop his vast array of Goblin-themed weapons, including his infamous glider. However, his actions as the Green Goblin led to the combination of Stromms death, his loss of public image, and insanity. This was enough to lead to Oscorps downfall, but Norman was smart enough toset up a dummy corporation under an assumed name to ensure his grandsons legacy.

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Lex Luthors business acumen is unparalleled in the DC Universe, as LexCorps net worth and diversification portfolio dwarf any other companys, including Wayne Enterprises. Originally founded as a scientific research firm with a specialty in aeronautics, LexCorp has grown in scope and reach, with subsidiaries in all areas of the world and domains as varied as private security, weapons manufacturing, and computer software.

This success is due in no small part to its CEO, Lex Luthor himself. Aside from his formidable business knowledge and instinct, Luthor is not above breaking the law to ensure his companys growth and a robust bottom line.

Although Norman Osborn holds degrees in mechanical engineering and chemistry, its genetic engineering that he excels at, as that is what gave him the formula for his Green Goblin serum. Although heavily aided in this endeavor by his mentor Dr. Mendel Stromm, Normans scientific contributions and willingness to serve as a test subject were the key factors in granting him his enhanced strength, agility and resilience.

As if this feat were not impressive enough, Norman also designed his own weaponssome deceptively simple as the razor bats, and some requiring intricate knowledge of engineering and physics, like his sparkle-blasts and glider.

In his early appearances, most of Supermans adversaries were mad scientists, and Lex Luthor was chief amongst them. Modern incarnations of the character have often depicted Lex as a wealthy captain of industry, but his aptitude for scientific research, particularly in the technological field, has not diminished.

Aside from funding cutting-edge research, Luthor personally engages in advanced weapons development, reverse engineering of alien tech, and the search for alternative (usually kryptonite-powered) energy sources. In some continuities, Luthor is even responsible for creating some of the Man of Steels most deadly enemies, like the kryptonite-powered Metallo. His most recognizable accomplishment is the creation of his battlesuit, allowing him to go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel andcementing him as an evil scientific genius extraordinaire.

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Aside from his intellectual prowess in science and business, Norman Osborn is also no slouch in the strategy department. With considerable resources at his disposal and the patience of a slow-burning wick, Osborn is capable of crafting intricate long and short term plans designed to bring an unsuspecting opponent to their knees.

Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the immediate events following his 'death' at the end of the Gwen Stacy affair. Allowing Spider-Man to believe he was gone for good, Osborn went about orchestrating the systematic destruction of his foe by faking Aunt May's death, absconding Peter and MJ's baby, and perhaps most unforgivably (to both Spidey and his readers), perpetrating the Clone Saga.

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A formidable intellect like Lex Luthor's also breeds a formidable ego. A master strategist, whether he's planning a corporate takeover or his latest attack on Superman, Luthor walks with a grandiose swagger and self-assuredness that matches his considerable IQ. Ever the opportunist, Luthor is even smart enough to use his reputation for being smart to his advantage; his expertise on something is rarely questioned, and if so, his clout and considerable connections will usually silence his adversary for him. For Luthor, intelligence and intimidation go hand-in-hand, and he's not above using the former to ensure the latter to fulfill his aims.

Norman Osborn's ambition has often gone far beyond making Peter Parker's life miserable. Following the events of Secret Invasion and the dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D., Osborn used his considerable influence to lobby for the creation of a new American defense program, with himself at its head. Now director of H.A.M.M.E.R., Osborn used his considerable resources and intelligence to further his own political agenda.

No fool, his first act was to try to neutralize his predecessor, Tony Stark. Next, he tried to gain access to all metahuman civilian identities gathered duringCivil War. When that didn't pan out, he resorted to restructuring the Avengers with members of the former-villains-turned hero superteam, the Thunderbolts, all in an ingeniously evil plan to give him almost unlimited power.

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Of all Lex Luthor's accomplishments, perhaps the greatest was becoming Presidentof the United States. His massive ego bruised by the sheer adulation Metropolis and the world gave Superman, Luthor decided to put his formidable intellect and resources to use and procure himself the presidency. Aside from winning the most powerful seat in world governance, Luthor had the foresight to leave LexCorp in the hands of Talia Al Ghul, a similarly intelligent and devious individual.

Once in office, Luthor coordinated the defense of the Earth during the Our Worlds at War storyline, including the risky but brilliant idea of siccing a mind-controlled Doomsday on Imperiex.

Having achieved a position of extensive power and influence by being appointed the new director of H.A.M.M.E.R., Osborn did not rest on his laurels. Instead, he called together several of the most powerful supervillains in the Marvel Universe together to form the Cabal, a dark mirror of the Illuminati and a secret group of heroes who got together to covertly discuss and enact unofficial policies in the superhero world. In this act, Osborn exhibited intelligent foresight, as now there would be nothing to stop him and his cadre of nefarious contemporaries from doing whatever they wished.

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If Lex Luthor is Supermans greatest enemy, then a strong argument can be made for Brainiac being the second. A superior intellect that roams the universe amassing data on countless worlds and miniaturizing whole cities for cataloging and storage, Brainiacs digitized intelligence contains galactic repositories of knowledge, which he has used in schemes against Superman for decades.

In many continuities, Luthor has sought out Brainiac and merged with him, creating a completely new entity. This fusion of an already genius-level intellect with an inter-galactic database created an extremely deadly and ruthless adversary whose intelligence and cunning were second to none.

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5 Reasons Why Lex Luthor Is Smarter Than The Green Goblin (And 5 Ways Norman Osborn Is Smarter) - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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