Daily Archives: August 22, 2017

Violations Of The Fourth Amendment And Other Concerns About Amendments To New Jersey’s Animal Cruelty Statute – JD Supra (press release)

Posted: August 22, 2017 at 11:38 pm

In New Jersey, yet another bill amending the animal cruelty statute (S1640) was recently passed into law. The amendments [e]stablish . . . requirements concerning necessary care of dogs, domestic companion animals, and service animals, and for tethering of dogs.

Many of the other provisions requiring necessary care to a companion animal are reasonable if the laws are appropriately enforced by professional law officers, who have sought guidance from individuals with expertise in animal health, care, and handling. Unfortunately this is not the case in New Jersey, where the animal cruelty statute is improperly enforced.

This makes the following provision extremely problematic and of concern to companion animal owners and their attorneys in the State:

any humane law enforcement officer or agent of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or county society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, certified animal control officer, or other State or local law enforcement officer may immediately enter onto private property where a dog, domestic companion animal, or service animal is located and take physical custody of the animal, if the officer or agent has reasonable suspicion to believe that the animal is at risk of imminent harm due to a violation of this act.

While an earlier provision requires a showing of probable cause before a court of competent jurisdiction could issue a subpoena permitting law enforcement to enter private property and seize an animal, this latter provision impermissibly violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

A district court case provides clarity of rights under the Fourth Amendment:

In Badillo v. Amato, Case No. 13-1553, slip op. (D.N.J. Jan. 28, 2014) the Court denied then Monmouth County SPCA Chief Amatos motion to dismiss, in relevant part, Badillos allegation that Amato violated his right to be free from illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. In this case, Badillo, a priest of the Santeria religion was issued nine municipal court summons for animal animal abuse and neglect after Amato went around to the back of . . . [Badillos house, opened the gate and let himself in the fenced backyard without permission or a warrant and began taking pictures . . . Case No. 13-1553, slip op., at p. 3 (D.N.J. Jan. 28, 2014).

As the Court explained, finding that the Complaint sufficiently pleaded Fourth Amendment violations by Amato to survive a motion to dismiss, the Fourth Amendment provides:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and persons or things to be seized. Id., at p. 8 (quoting U.S. Const. amend. IV.)

The Court reaffirmed that not only is the home sacrosanct but that protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment extend not only to a persons home, but also to the curtilage surrounding the property. Id., at p. 8-9 (citing Estate of Smith v. Maraso, 318 F.3d 497, 518-519 (3d Cir. 2003).

It appears that the foregoing provision of the newly amended animal cruelty statute, permitting entry to private property based on merely reasonable suspicion and in the absence of a court order would violate the Fourth Amendment.

Additional concerns about these amendments, previously discussed, remain included in the final adopted law.

For example, a person may not keep a dog (or other domestic companion animal) in an animal crate or carrier for transport, exhibition, show, contest, training or similar event if the top of the head of the dog touches the ceiling of the animal carrier or crate when the dog is in a normal standing position. There are many acceptable, safe dog carriers that permit dogs to stand, turn around and lie down comfortably, but the top of their head would touch the ceiling of the crate.

The public must be adequately informed about this new requirementthat does nothing to provide for the welfare of dogs transported in dog carriersso they are not victims of animal cruelty citations issued by over zealous agents and officers of the NJ or County SPCAs. As noted in the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation 2000 report on Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at least one County society (Warren) routinely stopped vehicles with horse trailers for proof that a Coggins test certificate was available as required by the NJ Department of Agriculture. As the report concluded:

Not only is the absence of a certificate not cruelty, but SPCA personnel lack the expertise to know whether the horse described in the certificate, such as a Bay or Chestnut [which are specific horse colors and patterns], is in fact the horse being transported.

It would not be unprecedented if humane officers decided to target people traveling with dogs throughout the state, and started pulling over and issuing summons related to the size the their dog carriers.

Dog owners beware!

[View source.]

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Plan would designate sheriffs as ICE contractors in bid to bypass Fourth Amendment court decisions – ABA Journal

Posted: at 11:38 pm

Immigration Law

Posted August 21, 2017, 11:44 am CDT

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Several sheriffs told the New York Times about the legal maneuver in which sheriffs would become ICE contractors, and the jails would be paid a daily fee to hold immigrants believed to be in the country illegally until ICE takes custody.

ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez told the Times that the agency was exploring a number of options to address sheriffs concerns, and no final decision has been made.

The Times explains the Fourth Amendment issue. Sheriffs enforce criminal law, and they cant make immigration arrests because they are civil in nature. Because of that difference, judges have found that holding immigrants who have paid bail or served their sentence is an unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Florida, told the newspaper that he came up with the reasoning supporting the idea and presented it to ICE. Its a seamless transition, said Gualtieri, who is also a lawyer.

Gualtieri said he was told that the plan would be rolled out through a pilot program in Florida before it is expanded nationwide.

Omar Jadwat, the director of the American Civil Liberties Unions immigrants rights project, didnt think the plan would satisfy judges. Its a kind of window dressing on the same practice, he told the Times. It doesnt really change the legal analysis.

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‘The Gun Guy’: Radio host Guy Relford defends 2nd amendment from Carmel office – Current in Carmel

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Guy Relford practices gun law in Carmel and is the host of The Gun Guy radio show on WIBC. (Submitted photo)

Carmel attorney Guy Relford has truly earned his nickname, The Gun Guy.

Relforc teaches firearms safety classes and hosts a radio show on WIBC called The Gun Guy. His law firm focuses on gun law cases. He literally wrote the book on gun safety. Hes the author of Gun Safety and Cleaning for Dummies.

Relford, a longtime Carmel resident and Carmel High School graduate, started his law firm in the Carmel Arts & Design District six years ago. He had worked for two decades doing global litigation for Dow Chemical but discovered changes at his job would require moving to Michigan. He loved Carmel and didnt want to move, so he took an early retirement and thought about his next move.

Relford has always been interested in guns. Hes been a certified firearms instructor for 25 years, so he decided to dedicate his career to helping others understand gun rights.

I was already self-educated on Second Amendment law, and so I thought Id dedicate my practice to that, he said.

Relford handles criminal and civil cases. In criminal cases, he often defenses clients accused of a gun crime but whom he believes was legally exercising Second Amendment rights. Cases range from firearm possession to self defense.

Guy Relford takes aim. He is a firearms instructor, attorney and radio show host. (Submitted photo)

If I think all they were doing is exercising their Constitutional right, then I defend them, he said.

Relford also handles civil cases, such as incidents where clients sue an employer or a municipal government. For example, an employer might place a ban on firearms legally locked out of sight in a vehicle, and Relford might defend a gun owner who works at that business. He said hes sued several city governments that have tried to pass laws that unconstitutionally restrict the Second Amendment.

But Relford said hes no extremist. Hes a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and said additional gun laws are largely unnecessary, but he doesnt defend all gun owners at all times. Gun safety is important to him, which is why he started his second business, Tactical Firearms Training.

I dont think people realize how serious most gun owners take safety, he said. Are there irresponsible gun owners? Sure, but there are irresponsible drivers on the road. In fact, I get as angry as anyone about irresponsible gun owners, especially since I wrote a book about gun safety.

Relford said some dangerous people simply shouldnt have guns, but he said there are already enough laws. Inevitably, he said some gun laws could make people less safe because only criminals would have guns.

I always say there are no gun-free zones, he said. There are areas where you can have a gun and there are areas where only criminals have guns because they arent following the gun-free zones law. Even in an airport or a courthouse where they have metal detectors, the air marshals and police officers still have guns. So there are no gun-free zones.

Relford said people often ask him about gun issues, such as if its OK to shoot a coyote if its in your yard. He said in most cases its not worth the risk of a charge of criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, which could be a felony. People ask him about stories in the news, such as the Fishers convenience store clerk who pointed a gun at a shoplifter in July. In that case, Relford said its not smart to commit a felony in order to prevent someone from committing a misdemeanor crime.

Relford is a frequent guest on local talk shows, such as Chicks on the Right and Tony Katz on WIBC radio. After some successful appearances, he was given his own show that airs from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturdays on WIBC.

I cant give legal advice on the radio, but I can tell you what the law is, he said.

State Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel, has been a guest on his radio show and said he really respects Relford.

The great thing Ive noticed is that he wont guess when it comes to the law, he said. He wont make something up on the fly. Hell look into it and report back later. But hes really knowledgeable and has a great sense of humor.

Tony Katz, a radio host on WIBC, said that Relford is a great resource for information.

Great gun knowledge, great legal knowledge, and a demeanor that begs good conversation and avoids the kind of vitriol that ends a conversation before it starts, Katz said. Its good have people like him around. Its also way safer.

Relford said hes never had to fire a gun in self defense, but hes been in scary situations where hes been glad to have a gun.

I have a fire extinguisher in my kitchen, he said. I dont think my kitchen is going to catch on fire, but I still feel safer having it there.

The four rules

According to Guy Relford, there are Four Rules of safe gun handling.

1. Treat every gun as if it is loaded.

2. Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

3. Always keep your finger (and anything else) away from the trigger until your sights are on the target and you are ready to shoot.

4. Always be sure of your target and anything aligned with your target (in front or in back) before you pull the trigger.

Gun storage

Always store every gun so that it is inaccessible to anyone who is not trained or authorized to handle your firearm. This doesnt mean hidden, or on a high shelf or the top of the armoire. It means locked up. There are quick-open gun safes that allow gun owners to access a firearm in a second or two but still keep the gun inaccessible to others, particularly young children.

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Is advocating suicide a crime under the First Amendment? – OUPblog (blog)

Posted: at 11:37 pm

Two different cases raising similar issues about advocating suicide may shape US policy for years to come. In Massachusetts, Michelle Carter was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for urging her friend Conrad Roy not to abandon his plan to kill himself by inhaling carbon monoxide: Get back in that car! she texted, and he did. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has already ruled that prosecuting her for involuntary manslaughter was permissible, even though she was not on the scene. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was careful to insist that its holding did not criminalize assisting the suicide of a person with a terminal illness:

It is important to articulate what this case is not about. It is not about a person seeking to ameliorate the anguish of someone coping with a terminal illness and questioning the value of life. Nor is it about a person offering support, comfort and even assistance to a mature adult who, confronted with such circumstances, has decided to end his or her life.

And now the case of Final Exit v. Minnesota is before the Supreme Court, with Final Exit asking the Supreme Court to take the case and overturn its conviction for assisting the suicide of Doreen Dunn on First Amendment grounds. Notably, no individual was convicted in that case: the medical director was given use immunity to testify against the organization, which was found guilty of the crime, and was fined $30,000.

Final Exit was convicted under an interpretation of the assisted suicide law first outlined in a different case, Minnesota v. Melchert-Dinkel. In that case, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that advising or encouraging an individual to commit suicide was protected First Amendment activity, but assisting suicide, including enabling suicide by instructing a specific person how to do it, could be criminalized. Mr. Melchert-Dinkel struck a deal with prosecutors, and therefore never appealed his conviction.

Final Exit has asked the Supreme Court whether Minnesotas criminal prohibition of speech that enables a suicide violates the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to accept the case.

Both the Carter case and the Final Exit case involve the issue of the limits of criminalizing speech, and in both cases, the defendants foresaw and even intended that the people with whom they were communicating would die. There are several noteworthy distinctions between the two cases. In the first place, Conrad Roys competence to make the decision to die was (at least on the face of the court decisions) far more questionable than that of Ms. Dunn in Minnesota. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court put great emphasis on his vulnerability and fragility. Relatedly, and crucially, Conrad Roy was wavering, and Michelle Carter put her thumbindeed, her entire fiston the pro-suicide scale. First amendment purists might say this makes no difference, and indeed criminalizing her speech constitutes viewpoint discrimination, the worst kind of First Amendment violation. Criminal lawyers, on the other hand, might argue that Roys ambivalence provides support for the contention that Ms. Carter caused his suicide. Final Exit argues that they did not coerce or pressure Ms. Deen; they provided information and comfort and support, but not persuasion.

Whether suicide or assisted suicide, this issue is not only about speech, but also fundamentally about individual agency. Promoting the agency of competent individuals is good, even if they make decisions that we would not make. Overriding a persons will, whether by keeping him or her tethered to a life-support machine or haranguing him to get back in the car and die, is different from assisting him or her to implement a decision made thoughtfully and carefully.

Given Justice Gorsuchs interest in and familiarity with the assisted suicide, and his announcement of his perspective through books and articles, it will be interesting to see whether the Court accepts the Final Exit case. Michelle Carters lawyers have promised to appeal on the issue of whether her texts and communications with Conrad Roy constituted protected speech, although the 2016 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision appears to have largely foreclosed that avenue of appeal. As more states legalize assisted suicide, this issue will continue to recur, and these early rulings have the potential to shape policy around the country.

Featured image credit: Lady Justice by jessica45. CC0 public domain via Pixabay.

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Letter First Amendment is a fundamental building block of our society – Petoskey News-Review

Posted: at 11:37 pm

First Amendment is a fundamental building block of our society

Editor:

In a letter recently published in your paper, a writer indicates that she wont lose sleep if a Christian must bake a cake or a church is denied participation in a government grant program. I disagree. Both examples are taken from court cases focused on religious liberty and First Amendment freedoms in this country. In addition to affirming the free exercise of religion, the rights outlined in the First Amendment serve as fundamental building blocks of our society and a protection against government censorship and punishment. Combined with other ideals contained in our countrys founding documents, such as the truth that we are all created equal, the rights contained in the First Amendment provide protections for minority groups and demand that we reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and hatred in all forms. In the current state of our country, I cant think of anything more important.

Jon Terry

Petoskey

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Bitcoin Skeptic Mark Cuban to Invest in Cryptocurrency …

Posted: at 11:35 pm

Mark Cuban wants in on the cryptocurrency boom even if it turns out hes right that bitcoin is in a bubble.

Cuban is investing in 1confirmation, a fund that plans to raise $20 million to invest in blockchain-based companies, the tech billionaire said in an interview. Venture capital firm Runa Capital is among other investors, and its technical advisors include Andreessen Horowitz board partner Balaji S. Srinivasan and programming language JavaScript founder Brendan Eich.

I have always looked at blockchain as a foundation platform from which great applications can be built, Cuban said in an Aug. 19 email response to questions. Hopefully we can find a few.

Runa Capital principal Nick Tomaino was an early employee at digital currency exchange Coinbase Inc. and runs the cryptocurrency-focused blog The Control. They plan to differentiate 1confirmation from the slew of digital currency hedge funds that have sprung up recently by taking a page from the venture-capital play book.

Rather than investing in digital tokens through initial coin offerings or in the secondary market,1confirmation plans to invest from $100,000 to $500,000 in early stage companies before their ICO, and help those companies develop their product. Once the startup is ready to issue an ICO, the fund hopes to negotiate a discounted price.

Its a more cautious approach to the frenzy that has consumed the space this year, with startups raising hundreds of millions of dollars in days, or even minutes, with little real business applications besides a white paper and a website. Startups had raised $1.8 billion in ICOs as of last week, according to Coindesk.

The fund will focus investments in projects that help developers build decentralized applications, rather than those aimed at end users, on the belief that the sector isnt mature enough for blockchain applications to be adopted on a mass scale.

A number of funds focused on blockchain companies and their tokens have opened in the past year as bitcoins price more than tripled and cryptocurrencies market capitalization surpassed $100 billion. Polychain Capital, founded by another Coinbase alum, Blockchain Capital and Pantera Capital are some examples.

Cuban, who is a majority owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and star of startup investing theme show Shark Tank, tweeted in June that bitcoin was in a bubble, causing the cryptocurrency to drop in price. Cuban says thats beside the point given the developing underlying technology.

1Confirmation would be Cubans second foray into cryptocurrencies as he also plans to invest in tokens sold by his portfolio company Unikrn. Cuban says he plans to invest on a third crypto-related project in the future, as well as potentially buying crypto currencies, which he doesnt currently own.

Its hard to establish any intrinsic value for bitcoin or any of the the cryptocurrencies. Ifeveryone continues to tell their grandparents, cousins and co-workers to buy,the price can go a lot higher as there is a definable, finite amount, but if the number of buyers dry up or there are a few massive sellers we could see under $1,000 again, Cuban said. None of this has anything to do with the applications that can be built with blockchain. The question is whether great companies can be financed and built and I think the answer is yes.

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Mark Cuban backs new $20 million cryptocurrency venture fund – CNBC

Posted: at 11:35 pm

Onetime bitcoin skeptic Mark Cuban is warming to the digital currency world.

The billionaire is backing a new venture capital fund for cryptocurrency-related investments called 1confirmation. Founded by Nick Tomaino, former business development manager at Coinbase, the fund plans to raise $20 million, according to a Monday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"It's an interesting space that I [want] to get involved with and learn more" about, Cuban said in an email to CNBC Tuesday. He did not specify the size of his investment.

Cuban's opinion on digital currencies has changed fairly recently. In an Aug. 14 tweet, the Dallas Mavericks owner admitted he "might have to finally buy some" bitcoin, contrasting with a June tweet that said he thought bitcoin was in a "bubble."

"Bias should be up because of finite supply. Until crypto or US politics intrude, and they will," he added in another tweet on Aug. 14.

In late June, Cuban said he planned to participate in an initial coin offering by Unikrn, an online esports betting site in which he holds a stake.

Earlier that month, Cuban tweeted that he didn't know when or by how much the price of bitcoin, which has soared in value this year, would correct. He did acknowledge then that the blockchain technology backing bitcoin had value and that it "will be at the core of most transactions in the future. Healthcare, finance etc all will use it."

IBM announced Tuesday that it will work with major food companies such as Wal-Mart, Unilever, Tyson Foods, Dole and Kroger to "identify new areas where the global supply chain can benefit from blockchain."

However, bitcoin's surge and a rush of funds into initial coin offerings have attracted more investment attention.

Bitcoin has quadrupled in value this year and hit a record last Thursday of $4,522.13 with a market capitalization of about $74 billion, according to CoinDesk. Initial coin offerings, which are fundraising events used by cryptocurrency-related start-ups, have raised $1.37 billion so far this year, CoinDesk data showed.

Source: CoinDesk

The launch of the 1confirmation fund comes amid increased fundraising for cryptocurrency-related businesses.

On Aug. 10, digital currency storage and exchange company Coinbase announced it raised $100 million in private equity funding led by Dropbox investor IVP. That marks the largest single traditional funding round for a public blockchain or cryptocurrency start-up, according to CoinDesk.

Other participants in 1confirmation include Brendan Eich, creator of the JavaScript computer programming language; Balaji Srinivasan, board partner at technology venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and David Vorick, who is building a blockchain-based cloud storage system called Sia. The fund's founder, Tomaino, is also a principal at venture fund Runa Capital.

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank," which features Mark Cuban as a panelist.

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Asus Debuts Specialized Motherboard for Cryptocurrency Miners – CoinDesk

Posted: at 11:35 pm

Computer hardware maker Asus hasrevealed a new motherboard with features geared specifically toward cryptocurrency miners.

Dubbed the B250 Mining Expert, the board was debuted over the weekend by Asus'Republic of Gamers, the Taiwan-based manufacturer's high-end gaming brand.

And while the product'srelease date and price aren't known yet, it nonetheless represents the latest signal that the mainstream hardware industry is expanding its cryptocurrency footprint.Further, theannouncement comes months after Asusbegan rolling outGPUsdesigned specifically with crypto-miners in mind aimed to take full advantage of the digital "gold rush" now taking place.

The B250 Mining Expert motherboard itself boasts a total of 19 PCI-Express expansion slots, compared to the 12, eight or six slots featured oncompetitors' products.

The idea is that cryptocurrency miners who use computing power (and lots of electricity) toadd new transactions to a blockchain, receivingnewly minted coins as a reward want to run as a many graphics cards as possible. The forthcoming board, according to the specs that are circulating, has roughly the capacity of two to three regular-sized motherboards.

The 19 expansion slots are split into threegroups, each containing 24 dedicated pins. This allows the mining rig to be connected to three power supply units at once, stabilizing the rig for multi-GPU usage. The board also boasts a variety of features likely toappeal to miners, such as live visual statistics.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, other major GPU makers like Nvidia and AMD have moved in recent months to capitalize on the spike indemand for products that can be used for mining.

Earlier this month,Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang issued bullish statements on the prospects for his firm's entry into the mining space, suggesting that it could be a long-term revenue driver.

"Cryptocurrency and blockchain are here to stay," he said.

ProductimageviaAsus

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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A Very Dumb Mistake Costs Cryptocurrency Investors Big Time – WIRED

Posted: at 11:35 pm

The digital financial services developer Enigma prides itself on ultra-secure products . The company's Catalyst platform protects financial info with a cutting-edge combination of blockchain-inspired privacy technology and cryptography. So it comes as no small surprise that on Monday, scammers took over the company's website, mailing lists, and Slack accounts by exploiting some extremely basic security mistakes Enigma had made. The blunders also facilitated a scam that ultimately cost Enigma supporters almost $500,000.

Enigma has planned an Initial Coin Offering for September 11an unregulated cryptocurrency fund-raising campaign that startups use when they want to raise capital for their company without going through the process of working with an established financial institution or venture capital fund. (The SEC has promised to clamp down on these ICOs , but so far is in the exploratory phase.)

Tom Simonite

Regulators Warn Cryptocurrency Startup Fundraisers to Play By the Rules

Gabriel Nicholas

Ethereum Is Coding's New Wild West

Brian Barrett

Security News This Week: Two Huge Cryptocurrency Heists Cost Investors Millions

With the ICO in mind, scammers compromised official Enigma channels to create a sense of legitimacy and urgency. The plot proved easy to pull off. At least one of the passwords protecting the Enigma accounts, which included a Slack account with administrative privileges, had previously leaked, and reports indicate that the accounts weren't protected by two-factor authentication.

The hackers began defacing the company's main site and Slack accounts, and pushed a special "pre-sale" ahead of the ICO, directing money toward their own cryptocurrency wallet. They also went rogue on the company's mailing lists. Many users realized that the push was a scam, but the hustle did tempt some interested backers into sending 1,492 coins in the cryptocurrency Ethereum, which converts to almost $495,000.

Enigma said in a statement on Monday that its community fund-raiser, also called a crowd sale, was always set definitively for September 11, and emphasized that its secure servers had not been hacked. But a spokesperson confirmed that the scammers compromised account passwords using various methods. And in response to the incident, the company says it is adding strong, random passwords and two-factor authentication for each account, plus implementing robust password changing and better system compartmentalization. "Weve moved up a number of critical security steps and taken additional measures to protect the community going forward," says Tor Bair, Enigma's head of marketing and growth. "Were now very well aware of the potential threats and are taking no chances."

Though honest mistakes can happen at any growing organization, the Enigma community grappled with the implications of the incident on Monday, wondering how a specialized cryptography company could only now be realizing the need for stringent account hygiene. "This will go down in crypto history as one of the stupidest moments ever. We need a meme," one Reddit user wrote. Some Redditors even claimed that they used the breached credential repository Have I Been Pwned to determine that the Enigma accounts scammers accessed reused a previously exposed account password from CEO Guy Zyskind. But Zyskind told WIRED that none of the breached Enigma accounts relied on reused passwords.

While the Enigma team worked to restore secure Slack service, the community's discussion moved to secure messaging app Telegram. "No word on honoring those who were scammed b/c of y'all negligence and poor security? Speaks volumes," a user called Jay wrote in the open chatroom. Many users indicated support for Enigma, though, and seemed satisfied with the company's remediation efforts.

"Hacking accounts that do not have dual-factor authentication enabled and other best in class security measures is a trivial hack for most dedicated attackers," says Chris Pierson, the general counsel and chief security officer of the payment platform Viewpost. "To the public it looks as if the company has been hacked, and provides a significant amount of negative press about the companys security and privacy responsibilities."

Enigma said on Monday evening that it is working to mitigate the damage. We're actively investigating the scam attempt and the parties involved with multiple partners, including vigilant members of our community, other companies in our space, and exchanges, Bair says.

Since they are unregulated by the governmentfor now, anywayICOs have perks that make them appealing to cryptocurrency companies, but by their nature they are also less predictable than standard fund-raising avenues. In mid July, scammers stole roughly $7 million from supporters during the ICO of the cryptocurrency management platform CoinDash. A few days later, hackers stole $32 million in Ethereum (though much of it was later recovered) by exploiting a vulnerability in a crypto product called Parity Wallet.

"The news of the attack is certainly not surprising," says Eric Klonowski, a senior advanced threat research analyst at the internet security firm Webroot. "Investors were ready to part with their money at a moments notice, and the attacker was prepared to capitalize.... That said, recent core cryptocurrency heists are all a result of third-party vulnerabilities and their handling of investments, and not in the cryptography or implementation itself."

With the September 11 ICO still rapidly approaching, at least Enigma has some time to get its first-line security right.

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Estonia wants to launch its own cryptocurrency – The Hill

Posted: at 11:35 pm

Estonia is considering taking advantage of the cryptocurrency hype to do an initial coin offering (ICO) for its own country.

Kaspar Korjus, a representative for the Baltic country, wrote that if investors showed enough interest, Estonia would issue its own cryptocurrency to raise funds.

Estoniaalready has an e-residency program where anyone in the world can become a digital resident of the country, allowing them to open a business there. It sees issuing a coin as the next step in advancing its economy and expanding its global presence.

Major investors have taken notice, too. Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, major Silicon Valley venture capital firms, invested in Filecoins record breaking ICO earlier in the month.

Its unclear how an "estcoin" would differ from other cryptocurrencies that already exist, though.

By using our APIs, companies and even other countries could accept these same tokens as payment, Korjus wrote. It will also be possible to build more functions on top of the estcoins and use them for more purposes, such as smart contracts and notary services.

Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency, is already capable of handling smart contracts and powering notary services. Rootstock allows Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, to do the same things.

A hypothetical estcoins fate being tied to a country, would also undermine its appeal to many in its community who are drawn to cryptocurrencies because there usually is no central authority to trust.

Bitcoin, for example, is decentralized and not reliant on any single hub of activity. Its not based on any single set of servers nor does it require trust in any country or institution, like "estcoin" likely would.

Korjus did not immediately respond to request for comment on this, however, Ethereums developer, Vitalik Buterin, consulted the country on the proposed coin and spoke favorably of it.

An ICO within the e-Residency ecosystem would create a strong incentive alignment between e-residents and this fund, and beyond the economic aspect makes the e-residents feel like more of a community since there are more things they can do together, says Buterin.

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