<h2>&#8220;Seriously?&#8221;</h2>
Elon Musk is talking cryptocurrency. The real Elon Musk, not one of those <a href="https://futurism.com/ethereum-twitter-scam-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter scammers</a>.
On Tuesday, Tesla&#8217;s CEO sat down for a <a href="https://ark-invest.com/research/podcast/elon-musk-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener">podcast interview</a> with ARK Invest, a tech investment firm. In addition to chatting about electric vehicles and self-driving cars, the interviewers decided to throw Musk an &#8220;off-topic&#8221; question about cryptocurrencies.
After an initially incredulous response — &#8220;Crypto, seriously?&#8221; — Musk went on to elaborate on his thoughts about crypto and Bitcoin in particular — and while he sees the value in both, don&#8217;t expect Tesla to get involved in the space any time soon.
<h2>Pros and Cons</h2>
During the interview, Musk admitted that he thinks &#8220;the Bitcoin structure is quite brilliant&#8221; and that there might be &#8220;some merit to Ethereum as well and maybe some others.&#8221;
He went on to discuss the uses of the cryptocurrency with ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood, who noted that &#8220;there were $1.3 trillion worth of transactions in bitcoin, and we don&#8217;t see it here because it&#8217;s not for pizza or Coke.&#8221;
&#8220;It might be for coke,&#8221; Musk deadpanned, in an apparent drug joke, prompting laughs from his interviewers.
&#8220;We figure it&#8217;s business-to-business in Africa where it is prohibitively expensive to convert from one nation&#8217;s currency to another,&#8221; Wood continued. &#8220;It really is very important. It&#8217;s money over IP for them. It&#8217;s free transmission of money, and that&#8217;s really important to opening up the world.&#8221;
&#8220;It bypasses currency controls,&#8221; Musk said. &#8220;Paper money is going away, and crypto is a far better way to transfer value than pieces of paper, that&#8217;s for sure. That has its pros and cons.&#8221;
<h2>Tesla Coin</h2>
As for whether Tesla would ever get involved in crypto, Musk doesn&#8217;t see that happening any time soon.
His company&#8217;s primary goal is to &#8220;accelerate the advent of sustainable energy,&#8221; according to Musk, and as he noted during the interview, mining cryptocurrencies is computationally energy intensive.
&#8220;I&#8217;m not sure it would be a good use for Tesla resources to get involved in crypto,&#8221; he concluded.
&#8220;Just to clarify,&#8221; ARK Invest analyst Tasha Keeney asked later, &#8220;Tesla&#8217;s not going to start selling bitcoin anytime soon?&#8221;
&#8220;No, we&#8217;re not,&#8221; Musk replied.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/elon-musk-calls-bitcoin-brilliant-better-than-paper-money-for-value-transfer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk Calls Bitcoin ‘Brilliant,’ Better Than Paper Money for Value Transfer</a> [CoinDesk]
More on crypto: <a href="https://futurism.com/ethereum-twitter-scam-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fake Elon Musks Clutter Twitter With Crypto Scams</a>

The CEO answers questions about Tesla's future with crypto.

Elon Musk: Bitcoin is "brilliant" and "paper money is going away"

Muskcoin

Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared his thoughts on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies during a podcast interview with ARK Invest.

Elon Musk: Bitcoin Is “Brilliant” And “Paper Money Is Going Away”

Tesla's CEO talked crypto during a new interview.

<h2>JPM Coin</h2>
It&#8217;s been a long time coming — but it still feels surprising.
New York-based investment bank JP Morgan Chase is launching the first-ever major cryptocurrency backed by a U.S. bank. The digital token, dubbed &#8220;JPM Coin,&#8221; will be used to &#8220;instantly settle payments between clients,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/jp-morgan-is-rolling-out-the-first-us-bank-backed-cryptocurrency-to-transform-payments--.html">CNBC reports</a>.
The announcement comes as a substantial change of tune for JP Morgan Chase. Its CEO Jamie Dimon famously called Bitcoin a &#8220;fraud&#8221; in 2017 before <a href="https://futurism.com/j-p-morgan-chase-ceo-regrets-calling-bitcoin-fraud">changing his mind</a> the following year.
<h2>Speedy Transactions</h2>
The new token will initially run on top of JP Morgan Chase&#8217;s Quorom platform, its own take on popular blockchain platform Ethereum, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/jpmorgan-moving-its-in-house-crypto-to-real-world-trials-report">according to Coindesk</a>.
Each JPM Coin will be worth a single U.S. dollar, like other so-called <a href="https://futurism.com/sponsored-stable-coins-future-crypto-economy">stablecoins</a>. JP Morgan Chase clients will deposit their fiat currency in exchange for JPM Coins, and after settling the transaction, the coins will be returned in the form of U.S. dollars.
Wire transfer systems, including networks like Swift, are clunky — they can take long periods to complete and verify, especially when making payments internationally.
Blockchain technology has the potential, according to JP Morgan Chase, to speed things up considerably.
<h2>Mixed Reactions</h2>
&#8220;The first bullet in any war is always the most important, and it looks like this could be the first move in a broader adoption of blockchain and digital currencies by large institutions,&#8221; London hedge fund Prime Factor Capital co-founder Adam Grimsley <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-14/jpmorgan-to-use-cryptocurrency-for-payments-business-cnbc-says?utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_content=crypto&amp;utm_medium=social">told Bloomberg</a>.
But not everybody is convinced that it&#8217;s as groundbreaking as JP Morgan Chase wants us to think. Technology reporter for the New York Times Nathaniel Popper argued it might be &#8220;less useful, because it can&#8217;t move anywhere beyond the walls of JPMorgan,&#8221; in <a href="https://twitter.com/nathanielpopper/status/1096102644605571072">a tweet</a>.
Editor&#8217;s note: This post originally misspelled the name of the CEO of JP Morgan Chase. It has been updated. 
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/jp-morgan-is-rolling-out-the-first-us-bank-backed-cryptocurrency-to-transform-payments--.html">JP Morgan is rolling out the first US bank-backed cryptocurrency to transform payments business</a> [CNBC]
More on JP Morgan Chase: <a href="https://futurism.com/j-p-morgan-chase-ceo-regrets-calling-bitcoin-fraud">J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Says He Regrets Calling Bitcoin a Fraud</a>

The new token will run on top of JP Morgan Chase's Quorom platform, its own take on Ethereum.

The first major U.S. bank just launched a cryptocurrency

JPM Coin

JP Morgan Chase is launching the first ever major U.S. bank approved cryptocurrency called "JPM Coin."

The First Major U.S. Bank Just Launched a Cryptocurrency

A couple of years ago, its CEO called Bitcoin a "fraud."

<h2>Abstract Investments</h2>
A cryptocurrency investment firm called Digital Currency Group <a href="https://insights.dcg.co/introducing-metaverse-ventures-f82fc09a5f83">just launched a new fund</a>, Metaverse Ventures, which will focus solely on simulated products in a virtual reality world called Decentraland.
In case you missed it, Futurism <a href="https://futurism.com/virtual-real-estate">previously reported on Decentraland&#8217;s fundraising efforts</a>, where people and companies paid exorbitant amounts of money for a plot of virtual land in what&#8217;s being marketed as a <a href="https://decentraland.org/">virtual reality megamall-meets-amusement park</a>, all of which runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
<h2>Third Life</h2>
According to Digital Currency Group&#8217;s announcement, Metaverse Ventures already made two key investments.
The first is in <a href="https://www.vegascity.org/">Vegas City</a>, a district that takes up about one-twelfth of Decentraland&#8217;s entire virtual map and is currently allotting space to VR game developers.
The other investment is into a <a href="https://www.artie.com/">startup called Artie</a>, which plans to develop AI-driven avatars for Decentraland visitors.
<h2>Breaking Ground</h2>
What remains unclear is just how much of its resources Digital Currency Group has put into Metaverse Ventures for Decentraland investments. If Decentraland lives up to the hype, it could become a successful marketplace that will reward early investors several times over.
But so far, Decentraland isn&#8217;t open to visitors, and its success depends on people widely embracing two technologies — virtual reality and blockchain decentralization — that <a href="https://futurism.com/tech-research-investigated-43-blockchain-startups">tend to get stuck at roadblocks</a> as people try to <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/goldman-sachs-cryptocurrency">move them into mass markets</a>.
But if <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/trade-commodities-blockchain">these investments</a> are any indicator of Decentraland&#8217;s potential, you could soon find us hanging out in virtual Vegas.
READ MORE: <a href="https://insights.dcg.co/introducing-metaverse-ventures-f82fc09a5f83">Introducing Metaverse Ventures</a> [Digital Currency Group]
More on blockchain investments: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/blockchain-city-nevada-desert-gigafactory">A Millionaire is Building a Blockchain Utopia in the Nevada Desert</a>

It's going to corner the market of people who regularly use VR and blockchain tech and...

A new VC fund is bankrolling virtual products in a simulated world

Decentraland

Digital Currency Group's new branch, Metaverse Ventures, will invest exclusively in Decentraland startups that develop products for the VR blockchain world.

A New VC Fund Is Bankrolling Virtual Products in a Simulated World

It's already started to invest.

<h2>Highs and Lows</h2>
Bitcoin had a good run, peaking at <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/900-20000-bitcoins-historic-2017-price-run-revisited">almost $20,000</a> in 2017. The draw isn&#8217;t just that you could have become a millionaire if you bought at the right time; it&#8217;s also that you can &#8220;mine&#8221; cryptocurrency on your own computer, as if you were summoning wealth from the digital nether.
To cash in on that public interest, this week a startup called Coinmine announced the Coinmine One, a $799 plug-and-play crypto mining device that looks like a Mac crossed with a space heater. It&#8217;s an elegant shade of white, and you control it with a smartphone.
The Coinmine One immediately attracted fawning media attention. Fortune <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/11/14/coinmine-crypto-mining/">praised its</a> &#8220;attractive design with an Apple-style aesthetic.&#8221; The LA Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-coinmine-launch-20181114-story.html">dubbed it</a> a &#8220;consumer-friendly gateway&#8221; to mining and Fast Company <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90267739/coinmine-one-now-you-can-mine-ethereum-from-the-comfort-of-your-home">called it</a> as a &#8220;more accessible entry point&#8221; to the same. Highsnobiety <a href="https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/coinmine-one-cryptomining/">compared it to</a> a &#8220;sleek gaming system thanks to the sleek rectangular profile.&#8221;
&#8220;Coinmine One is for everyone,&#8221; co-founder and CEO Farb Nivi told Futurism. &#8220;You don&#8217;t have to be a crypto expert, or a hardware and software expert.&#8221;
Coinemine has some pretty legit financial backing, as well: investors from Coinbase and other &#8220;notable cryptocurrency advocates&#8221; supported the venture, which called the Coinmine One the &#8220;first plug-in device, mobile app and operating system&#8221; <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/coinmine-launches-to-make-crypto-easy-backed-by-industry-titans-300750160.html?tc=eml_cleartime">in a press release</a>. It&#8217;ll even set up a wallet for you and store your mined crypto on its own servers.
Sounds great. Too bad it&#8217;s extremely unlikely to make you a significant amount of money — if you even manage to break even.
<h2>Thin Margins</h2>
The major problem: Coinmine&#8217;s specs are middling. It uses less power than a PlayStation 4 at 120 watts, and its GPU — mining is usually demanding on your graphics card — is an AMD Radeon RX570, a card you&#8217;d find in a college student&#8217;s entry-level gaming tower.
It also takes cheap electricity to make a profit in mining right now. We plugged Coinmine One&#8217;s power consumption, hashrates — that&#8217;s the speed of mining calculations, basically — and average cost of electricity in the U.S. into a mining calculator called CryptoCompare.
There&#8217;s good news and bad news. The good: you&#8217;ll make a profit at today&#8217;s value of Ethereum. The bad: it comes out to <a href="https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/eth?HashingPower=29&amp;HashingUnit=MH%2Fs&amp;PowerConsumption=120&amp;CostPerkWh=0.12&amp;MiningPoolFee=0">about $1.37 a month</a> — not even enough for a cup of coffee. You&#8217;d make even less in Monero, at <a href="https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr?HashingPower=800&amp;HashingUnit=H%2Fs&amp;PowerConsumption=120&amp;CostPerkWh=0.12&amp;MiningPoolFee=0">just $0.70 a month</a>. And you&#8217;d actually <a href="https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/etc?HashingPower=29&amp;HashingUnit=MH%2Fs&amp;PowerConsumption=120&amp;CostPerkWh=0.12&amp;MiningPoolFee=0">lose $1.53 each month</a> on Ethereum Classic, once you factored in your electric bill.
In other words, according to CryptoCompare — and other calculators we used as a reality check — it would take you more than 45 years of mining Ethereum to pay off the $799 you paid for the Coinmine One. And that&#8217;s if you ignored taxes and assumed not only that prices will hold steady for the entire period but that technological progress would freeze, meaning other people&#8217;s computers would never get any faster.
Oh, and did we mention that Coinmine is taking a five percent cut?
Coinemine CEO Nivi, though, was unphased by all this.
&#8220;Because we built the operating system ourselves, we can update you automatically when new promising networks launch,&#8221; he said Nivi in response to questions from Futurism. &#8220;So you can be one of the first to power new networks and earn their crypto before they are even on exchanges.&#8221;
Of course, that&#8217;s based on a number of assumptions — that there&#8217;ll be a next hot coin that&#8217;ll spike in price, for instance, and that Coinmine, and you, will anticipate it correctly.
And that&#8217;s without getting into yet another catch: even if a hot new alt coin comes to market, and miners across the globe are revving their engines, you&#8217;ll have to wait for your Coinmine One to officially support it. As of right now, it only supports Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero and Zcash, with support for other cryptos &#8220;coming soon,&#8221; according to Coinmine&#8217;s <a href="https://coinmine.com/">official website</a>.
And in any case, if there&#8217;s a hot new altcoin that you think will eventually rise in price, it seems like you&#8217;d be far better off buying $799 worth of it up front, instead of spending years mining it.
<h2>Walled Gardens</h2>
Does the Coinmine take a lot of fussing, sweat and tears out of the crypto mining process? Likely. The company&#8217;s custom operating system, MineOS, will probably make the process as easy as ever.
The whole thing is reminiscent of Apple: a beautifully-crafted walled garden experience that you&#8217;re gonna have to pay extra for.
Neither the Coinmine One nor any other mining hardware will guarantee you a profit. In fact, you&#8217;re almost guaranteed to lose money at today&#8217;s rates — unless you have access to a hydropower dam in mainland China and a warehouse full of graphics cards.
At the end of the day, it might be beautifully-designed — but in practice, without a red-hot crypto market, the Coinmine One is an over-engineered space heater.

The media loved the Coinmine One. But if you do the math, it'd be an awful purchase.

This $799 home crypto mining machine is a terrible investment

Beautiful Space Heater

Coinmine One is launching a beautifully designed plug-and-play crypto miner. But is it really worth $799?

This $799 Home Crypto Mining Machine is a Terrible Investment

At today's rates, it would take 45 years to pay for itself.

<h2>Going Dutch</h2>
If I ordered a Rembrandt, would you want some?
That&#8217;s the idea behind blockchain startup Mattereum, which wants to tokenize purchases and investments so that ordinary people can buy tiny shares of real estate, art, or almost any other goods. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/11/mattereum-perhaps-the-worlds-weirdest-and-most-daring-startup-intends-to-own-literally-everything/">TechCrunch </a><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/11/mattereum-perhaps-the-worlds-weirdest-and-most-daring-startup-intends-to-own-literally-everything/">reports</a> that in a flashy bid to showcase the concept, the company has purchased a $9 million Stradivarius violin that it has already opened up to investments on its platform.
<h2>Monopoly Money</h2>
A blockchain is a distributed network in which all members’ computers are used to independently verify transactions or other activity, preventing any one party from having too much power and <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptocurrency-51-percent-attack">hopefully</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptocurrency-hacks-shaking-investors-faith-coinrail">improving</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/etherscan-hack-security-vulnerability">security</a>. The core idea holds promise, but the industry has courted <a href="https://futurism.com/blockchain-future-pros-cons">hype</a> and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d6dee2ae-a76d-11e8-8ecf-a7ae1beff35b">scams</a> that have made it hard for the public to get a good grasp on what it is and how it works.
To tokenize something basically means to buy and sell shares of that object, usually via the cryptocurrencies that people generate and trade on blockchain networks. But Mattereum wants to be the platform people use to bring blockchain transactions and marketplaces to the real, physical world.
For instance, people who invest in that part of that violin would be able to stipulate rules, TechCrunch reported, such as requiring a certain number of performances per year in that investor’s country.
<h2>Good Luck</h2>
Mattereum isn’t the first to try to <a href="https://futurism.com/tokens-will-become-the-foundation-of-a-new-digital-economy">tokenize the entire economy</a>. The big challenge — at which most blockchain startups have failed — is to convince people that decentralizing actually provides an advantage.
Last year, <a href="https://www.recode.net/2017/6/20/15839626/disparity-between-urban-rural-internet-access-major-economies">Recode reported</a> that 23 to 28 percent of Americans don’t have reliable internet service in their homes — and that’s still way better than most other countries. That’s to say there are bigger fish to fry before we can put everything on a digital blockchain and declare the economy revolutionized.
READ MORE: <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/11/mattereum-perhaps-the-worlds-weirdest-and-most-daring-startup-intends-to-own-literally-everything/">Mattereum, perhaps the world’s weirdest and most daring startup, intends to own literally everything.</a> [TechCrunch]
More on tokens: <a href="https://futurism.com/venezuela-cryptocurrency-petro-blockchain">Venezuela’s Oil-Backed Cryptocurrency is Giving Blockchain a Bad Name</a>

Violins have become too centralized, am I right?

Why a blockchain startup bought this $9 million Stradivarius violin

Golden Fiddle

Mattereum wants to tokenize the whole economy and become the platform that brings digital smart contracts to tangible investments.

Why a Blockchain Startup Bought This $9 Million Stradivarius Violin

Mattereum wants to tokenize the real world.

Sure, Elon Musk tweets a lot. Probably <a href="https://futurism.com/sec-musk-subpoena-tesla-tweets">more than he should</a> (at least <a href="https://futurism.com/sec-lawsuit-elon-musk-highlights">without a lawyer present</a>).
But have you noticed just how many Elon Musks there are on Twitter? <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=users&amp;vertical=default&amp;q=from%3Aelon%20OR%20from%3Amusk&amp;src=typd&amp;lang=en">A lot</a>.
The controversial billionaire has been the target of countless scams and schemes that often use bots to rope not-so-diligent users into believing it&#8217;s him. Fake Elon Musks have been roaming Twitter for years now, some of them with handles that only slightly deviate from the real thing by a letter (like @elonmsuk), while others don&#8217;t try nearly as hard (they use Elon&#8217;s photo and user name, but with a <a href="https://twitter.com/SergeantBorrin1/status/1048103040933384192">completely different handle</a>).
The problem is a lot of users peruse the replies and often extremely long threads of the verified Elon Musk&#8217;s tweets. Chances are that many of them will fall for &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/SergeantBorrin1/status/1048103040933384192">official ETH and BTC giveaways</a>.&#8221; A phishing scam that <a href="https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/money-nothing-cryptocurrency-giveaways-net-thousands-scammers-0">works like this</a>:
<ol>
<li>Twitter users are reeled in — a tiny &#8220;donation&#8221; (usually an infinitesimally small amount in an obscure cryptocurrency) that will get me a huge payout in return? Yes, please.</li>
<li>That &#8220;donation&#8221; comes with sensitive information like credentials for cryptocurrency wallets.</li>
<li>The &#8220;giveaway&#8221; they get in return for that donation will often include coin mining malware that installs itself on the victim&#8217;s computer.</li>
<li>In some instances, hackers are able to steal cryptocurrencies from the victim&#8217;s wallets outright.</li>
</ol>
The scheme is so common, it&#8217;s even caught the attention of the real Elon himself.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! Mad skillz …
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016032769082716161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Twitter decided to crack down on these scammers. Back in July, it started <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-is-locking-accounts-called-elon-musk-to-fight-crypto-scams-2018-7">locking any accounts</a> that used the display name &#8220;Elon Musk.&#8221; But the scammers are staying one step ahead of Twitter. Every day, they are finding new ways to stay ahead of the curve, sometimes with amusing results. The scammers&#8217; latest ruse involves altering the Elon Musk avatar in bizarre (and hilarious) ways to circumvent Twitter&#8217;s algorithms, as Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/vogon/status/1048019587344678912">@vogon points out</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
lmfao the ethereum scammers are using some sort of content-aware scale thing to mess up elon musk&#39;s avatar a bit to keep from getting caught now
I&#39;m dying <a href="https://t.co/SFbFWpirkH">pic.twitter.com/SFbFWpirkH</a>
&mdash; fin FAANG foom (@vogon) <a href="https://twitter.com/vogon/status/1048019587344678912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Granted, we don&#8217;t actually know if Twitter is using algorithms like this to scan for duplicates and fake accounts. The scammers are likely trying to come out ahead, and preempt Twitter&#8217;s future actions. It also wouldn&#8217;t be in Twitter&#8217;s best interest to announce its actions to the world if it is scanning avatars for fake accounts.
Facebook <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/12/managing-your-identity-on-facebook-with-face-recognition-technology/">tried something similar in December last year,</a> catching fake accounts using facial recognition. Things didn&#8217;t go all that well — users <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2018/04/19/facebook-growing-use-facial-recognition-raises-privacy-concerns/526937002/">accused the platform</a> of using personal facial data without consent, and eventually Facebook admitted this technique was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/when-a-stranger-takes-your-face-facebooks-failed-crackdown-on-fake-accounts/2018/05/04/d3318838-4f1a-11e8-af46-b1d6dc0d9bfe_story.html?utm_term=.3ea9fef49aa8">completely ineffective</a>.
For now, it seems, the scammers are still kicking around. To find some, just (carefully) go through any replies to the real Elon Musk&#8217;s recent tweets.
Dissatisfied with Twitter&#8217;s ineffective ways to ban the scammers, Musk took matters into his own hands. As <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/elon-musk-asks-dogecoin-creator-to-help-fight-crypto-scam-bots-on-twitter">Coin Telegraph</a> reports, he even <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1041572165898792961">asked</a> Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer to &#8220;help get rid of the annoying scam spammers.&#8221; Notably absent of this conversation: Twitter itself.
In truth, Ethereum scammers are small fish for Twitter, but it doesn&#8217;t seem to be able to get rid of them. How can a platform of a third of a billion users be <a href="https://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/disinformation-fake-news-and-influence-campaigns-on-twitter">trusted to delete misleading information</a> if it can&#8217;t even address that?
This doesn&#8217;t bode well for the impending midterm elections. Once equipped with targeted misinformation and countless fake Twitter accounts, foreign forces such as the Russian <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/4/11/17224294/reddit-russia-internet-research-agency">Internet Research Agency</a> will likely have an incredibly easy time spreading politically charged &#8220;fake news&#8221; on Twitter.
More on Twitter&#8217;s election problem: <a href="https://futurism.com/explaining-decisions-twitter-jack">Explaining Its Decisions Isn’t Going To Make Twitter Better</a>

Make a "donation" for a big crypto kickback? Don't buy it.

Fake Elon Musks clutter Twitter with crypto scams

Scammer Alert

Twitter scams are running amok, and the platform can't shut them down. That's not great news for users, for Elon Musk, or for the midterms.

Fake Elon Musks Clutter Twitter with Crypto Scams

The scammers stay one step ahead of the platform, which isn't great news for the midterms.

The full-length trailer for the first blockchain-funded, blockchain-distributed, and blockchain-focused documentary, Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain, is here. Directed by filmmaker Alex Winter, produced by <a href="https://www.futurismstudios.com/">Futurism Studios</a> and SingularDTV, and narrated by Rosario Dawson, Trust Machine is a far-reaching documentary film on the worldwide growth of the decentralization movement.
<iframe style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FFuturismStudios%2Fvideos%2F720912118289397%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560" width="560"></iframe>
“In Downloaded and Deep Web, we’ve seen Alex [Winter] bringing a sharp, journalistic mind to internet phenomena that are about to change everyday lives – even before people realize what’s going on,” says Kim Jackson, President and Founder of SingularDTV.
“For Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain, he once again has his finger on the pulse of a technology that is poised to create a seismic shift, bringing transparency to areas that might not have benefited from accountability before. As producers, we are committed to empowering bold filmmakers like Alex [Winter] to explore and discover.”
<figure id="attachment_140424" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-140424 size-large" src="https://wordpress.futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Trust-Machine-Poster-1200x675.png" alt="" width="1200" height="675" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Trust Machine</figcaption></figure>
The film features interviews from many of the most respected technologists and visionaries in <a href="https://futurism.com/blockchain-future-pros-cons/">the blockchain industry</a>, including world-renowned “hactivist and expert” Lauri Love, Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin, billionaire investor Tim Draper, musical artist Imogen Heap, and more.
Geoff Clark, President of Futurism Studios, touches upon the importance of this documentary and why it will have a significant impact on audiences around the world: “As the first-ever film about blockchain, I think it’s imperative for people to understand the real-life human impacts this technology is having on society.”
“The film showcases a diverse group of thought leaders, pioneers in blockchain, and even the critics coming together to explain what the future may hold regarding this unproven technology. Much like the application of the internet, blockchain technology has the potential to reach all corners of our lives. Right now there is a disconnect between the world and blockchain, and we’re hoping this film will bridge that gap.”
Want to learn more about the future of blockchain technology? Check out screeners in <a href="https://www.cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/trust-machine.html?d=20181026">New York City at Cinema Village</a> on October 26, 2018, and in <a href="https://www.laemmle.com/films/44214">Los Angeles at The Laemmle Santa Monica </a>on November 16, 2018.
<hr />
Want a chance to win tickets to the premiere? 
SingularDTV presents a Futurism Studios release of “TRUST MACHINE: THE STORY OF BLOCKCHAIN on Friday October 26th, and to celebrate we are giving away twelve sets of tickets to our fans! The winners, selected at random, will receive one of two potential ticket prizes.
Here&#8217;s how to enter:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Follow Trust Machine <a href="https://www.instagram.com/trustmachinefilm/">on Instagram</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Like our photo on Instagram</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Tag three friends on our contest photo to enter </li>
</ol>
Contest begins at 5:00 PM EST on October 22, 2018. Deadline to enter is 11:59 PM EST on October 24, 2018. We will announce the winners on October 25th, and contact them with all necessary details.  
<a href="https://futurism.com/contest-rules">Contest rules here. </a>
<hr />
Trust Machine was produced by Kim Jackson of SingularDTV, Geoff Clark of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FuturismStudios/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Futurism Studios</a> and Alex Winter of Trouper Productions, with Zach LeBeau, Arie Levy-Cohen, Alex Klokus, and Joseph Lubin as Executive Producers.
Disclosure: Futurism Studios is owned by Futurism Media, and as such, Futurism’s editorial team may indirectly benefit from the success of this film. Futurism’s editorial team was not involved in the production of the film or this post.

The much-anticipated trailer is finally here.

What even is blockchain? Trust Machine, a new documentary, has answers

What Even Is Blockchain? Trust Machine, a New Documentary, Has Answers

The story of blockchain is almost here. Watch the exclusive trailer now.

The world of crypto can be wild and unpredictable. After all, it originally drew a following from those looking to escape overreaching financial institutions and governments. But now, <a href="https://futurism.com/judge-icos-securities-law/">a recent court ruling</a> might give a federal agency the power to rein in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum — should it decide to use it.
No, the government isn&#8217;t coming to take your Bitcoin. This is an early step that will likely be challenged. If it sticks, it could initially tank markets, but it may also help crypto investors distinguish crypto scams from gold mines.
Quick refresher: the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing Maksim Zaslavskiy, who launched two cryptocurrencies that the U.S. government suspects may have been fraudulent. Zaslavskiy tried to have the case dismissed, arguing that cryptocurrency was outside the SEC&#8217;s purview.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie, who was presiding over the case, <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nyed.409850/gov.uscourts.nyed.409850.37.0.pdf">disagreed</a>. On Tuesday, he denied the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that there&#8217;s basis for interpreting cryptocurrency as a security, which means it would fall under the SEC&#8217;s purview. As of this article&#8217;s publication, the case is slated to go to trial.
It&#8217;s not surprising that the SEC pursued this particular case, <a href="https://lgst.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/werbach/">Kevin Werbach</a>, a professor of legal studies and business ethics who specializes in blockchain and internet policy at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told Futurism. In fact, he says, there are a number of (likely) fraudulent cases in which SEC involvement is a matter of common sense.
“The SEC has clearly stated on many occasions that cryptocurrencies can be treated as securities,” Werbach told Futurism. “There is no serious disagreement among experts that a transaction designed entirely to raise funds from passive, profit-seeking investors using a cryptocurrency is subject to SEC regulation. I would have been shocked if the Zaslavskiy case came out any other way.”
<q class="pullquote">”I would have been shocked if the Zaslavskiy case came out any other way.”</q>
But Werbach (and many others in the crypto community) are more interested in whether or not the SEC will use the precedent set by Tuesday’s ruling to investigate cryptocurrencies that aren’t fraudulent at all but merely failed to register with the SEC.
Depending on how this individual case turns out, though, experts could infer the kinds of cases the SEC might bring next. If the court rules in favor of the government, that would bring decentralized, digital currencies under the same laws as any other form of currency or wealth, meaning the U.S. government would have more power than ever to investigate and regulate them.
We don&#8217;t yet know what the commission intends to do — the SEC told Futurism that it would not comment on the recent ruling or its legal implications.
But it might play it safe, only bringing lawsuits it&#8217;s pretty sure fall within its legal wheelhouse. “The SEC has limited resources and doesn’t want to spook the market unnecessarily. This court decision strengthens the SEC’s hand,” Werbach said.
Some crypto investors have predicted that Dearie&#8217;s decision will lead to a slump in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-tourists-flee-as-bitcoin-slump-drags-on-1536744602">already-falling prices</a> of cryptocurrencies. But others see this ruling as a <a href="https://twitter.com/mdudas/status/1039565363502034944">step in the right direction</a>. This could prevent the ever-growing number of crypto scams, but it also threatens to take away the sort of freedoms that spurred the creation of cryptocurrencies in the first place.
&#8220;Anything that cleans up the industry and protects investors from bad actors is a good thing as it paves the way for more legitimate activity,&#8221; Jeff Bussgang, a general partner at VC firm Flybridge Capital, told Futurism. &#8220;The industry is begging for regulators to provide clarity in order to thrive.&#8221;
Werbach noted that each case is different; Dearie’s precedent may not always apply to every case about cryptocurrencies. He, understandably, declined to speculate on whether or not we would see the SEC investigate these non-fraudulent cases.
It&#8217;s not clear how this case will affect the future of cryptocurrencies, volatile as they are. Investors will likely face some turbulence as the more anti-government crypto folks divest. But in the long run, this sort of regulatory oversight will likely protect investors and may even bring some much-needed stability to the fluctuating markets.
Additional reporting for this article provided by <a href="https://futurism.com/author/jonc/">Jon Christian</a>.
More on cryptocurrency regulation: <a href="https://futurism.com/new-york-attorney-general-inquiry-cryptocurrency-practices/">New York’s Attorney General Begins Inquiry Into Cryptocurrency Practices</a>

Depending on how this case turns out, experts could infer the kinds of cases the SEC might bring next.

Here's what one judge's decision means for the future of cryptocurrencies

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A U.S. judge ruled that cryptocurrencies fall under SEC securities law. Here's how crypto investors and lawyers are taking the news.

Here’s What One Judge’s Decision Means for the Future of Cryptocurrencies

A judge decided a case should stay in court. Experts think this could give regulators an in to regulating crypto.

EXPLORING THE BLOCK. One of the main draws of a blockchain is that it&#8217;s a public record. Anyone, anywhere, can look at every cryptocurrency transaction on the blockchain — unlike the transactions made via traditional financial institutions, the information isn&#8217;t secreted away in a server somewhere.
To access this data, users often turn to websites called BlockExplorers, which allow them to search transactions, view recent trends, or even look up the activity of a specific crypto account. Etherscan is one of the most popular BlockExplorers for the Ethereum blockchain, and on Monday, it was the <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywkw9j/etherscan-l337-hack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">target of hack</a> that, while seemingly harmless, could have had repercussions for the entire crypto market.
THE &#8220;ELITE&#8221; HACK. The hack itself wasn&#8217;t exactly revolutionary — the hacker simply added a pop-up to the site displaying “1337,” decades&#8217; old hacker lingo for &#8220;you&#8217;ve been hacked.&#8221; Etherscan users took to Twitter to warn other of the hack, and later on Monday, the Etherscan team posted an update on the situation <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/etherscan/comments/91832m/1337_popup_appearing_on_etherscan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">via Reddit</a>.
Turns out, all the hacker had to do to get their pop-up to appear was leave a <a href="https://prnt.sc/k9z9om" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comment</a> on the site. The company quickly disabled the comments, then developed and tested a patch to address the vulnerability. They confirmed that the &#8220;hack&#8221; didn&#8217;t compromise the funds of any Etherscan users.
WORST-CASE SCENARIO. In reality, the hack probably couldn&#8217;t have directly compromised the funds of any Etherscan users — the site doesn&#8217;t include a digital wallet service, meaning it doesn&#8217;t actually &#8220;hold&#8221; any cryptocurrencies.
However, had the hacker taken a different approach, they could have caused much bigger waves in the crypto community. &#8220;They could alter the prices shown on graphs, maybe cause a buy/sell,” security researcher Scott Helme told Motherboard. “I&#8217;m sure that tampering with the values could impact people.”
The crypto sphere is already riddled with bad actors, and each additional scam, scheme, or hack has the potential to further <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptocurrency-hacks-shaking-investors-faith-coinrail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shake investors&#8217; confidence</a> in it. It might not have been the hacker&#8217;s intention, but by drawing the Etherscan team&#8217;s attention to this security vulnerability, they may have prevented a future hack that could have had a much more significant, and much more negative, impact on the world of cryptocurrencies.
READ MORE: <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywkw9j/etherscan-l337-hack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">An Incredibly Simple Hack Had the Potential to Manipulate Cryptocurrency Markets</a> [Motherboard]
More on crypto hacks: <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptocurrency-hacks-shaking-investors-faith-coinrail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Recent Cryptocurrency Hacks Are Shaking Investors’ Faith</a>

They did it by just commenting on the site.

Hacker exposes security vulnerability in popular cryptocurrency site Etherscan

By adding a seemingly harmless pop up to popular BlockExplorer site Etherscan, a hacker may have prevented a far more nefarious hack from taking place.

Hacker Exposes Security Vulnerability in Popular Cryptocurrency Site Etherscan

The "elite" hacker could have done a lot more damage.

Don&#8217;t get your ticket from a scalper. Go to the blockchain instead.
The music festival OUR Music Festival (OMF) is moving sales of its entry tickets, VIP upgrades, grub, and drinks to the blockchain.
Yes, I can hear your eyes rolling already. But hear me out, this is an application of the technology that actually makes sense. If it catches on, it might do away with scalping altogether.
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ArdaSzneVwA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Created by producer and DJ Justin Blau (3LAU), the event will take place at San Francisco&#8217;s Civic Center Plaza in October, with headliners that include Zedd, a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/08/08/the-worlds-highest-paid-djs-2017/#58e5342d389e">big name</a> in the EDM world. Blau partnered with the &#8220;world&#8217;s first blockchain entertainment studio&#8221; <a href="https://singulardtv.com/">SingularDTV</a> to make it all happen.
Here&#8217;s how it works. OMF is launching a publicly available token after the inaugural festival in October — the creatively-named OMF Token. Details of the current sale of these tokens have not yet been released.
Instead of going out and buying tickets from scalpers like a sap, fans are able to:
<ul>
<li>buy tokens using their hard-earned cash</li>
<li>use the tokens to buy tickets to the festival</li>
<li>give feedback as to what they liked or didn&#8217;t like after the fact, and suggest performers they&#8217;d like to see in the future</li>
<li>get more tokens for providing this feedback, effectively gaining a small discount on future concert tickets, merch, food, and drinks</li>
</ul>
Blau refers to this process as &#8220;decentralizing the festival business&#8221; in a <a href="https://youtu.be/ArdaSzneVwA">flashy video</a>, overlaid with some fresh EDM beats. And it makes sense — at least on paper. Think of tokens as stocks — each festival goer holds a degree of influence over future events by buying into OMF&#8217;s token system.
It&#8217;s been a long time coming; the ticket sale industry is more than ripe for an update. Companies like StubHub and Ticketmaster have allowed rogue actors to take <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mgxqb8/the-man-who-broke-ticketmaster">full advantage of illegal ticket sales</a> over the years. Ticket bots have ruined online ticket sales by making them <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/05/everyone-wants-concert-tickets-but-no-one-is-getting-them.html">unaffordable, or completely unattainable</a>.
Blockchain technology, based on the smart contract <a href="https://futurism.com/ethereum-is-posed-to-become-the-global-blockchain/">Ethereum</a> platform, could improve the situation in a number of ways. It could make the sales of counterfeit tickets impossible by permanently tying the original ticket holder&#8217;s identity to their ticket, regardless of how many times the ticket changes hands. Each ticket gets linked to the actual buyer, in most cases using a unique identifier or credit card — <a href="https://www.psfk.com/2017/10/blockchain-changing-concert-ticket-sales.html">even a picture of their face</a> could be used as verification.
The system wouldn&#8217;t stop you from selling your ticket, if you want to. But since each ticket is tied to someone&#8217;s identity, they&#8217;ll know exactly who the scalpers are.
That&#8217;s all well and good, but there are a number of significant hurdles to overcome before blockchain technology will rule the ticket sale industry. One big one? There&#8217;s still a substantial <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/21/whats-holding-blockchain-back-from-large-scale-adoption/#491826602309">lack of knowledge</a> surrounding blockchain technology in the mainstream. Chances are, your run-of-the-mill EDM fan won&#8217;t understand all the inner-workings of this platform, let alone an Ethereum wallet.
And even if a fan knows what they are getting themselves into, there&#8217;s no guarantee that the OMF Token will retain any real-life value once it launches as a cryptocurrency. <a href="https://boingboing.net/2018/06/19/the-value-of-cryptokitties-has.html">Just ask the owners</a> of imaginary internet cats called <a href="https://futurism.com/cryptokitties-euthereum-bitcoin-value-beanie-babies/">&#8220;CryptoKitties&#8221;</a>.
Any application of blockchain technology, in the real or virtual world, relies on a critical mass of people betting on it. And without enough enthusiasm or education, all the EDM DJs in the world won&#8217;t be able to draw enough people in to make blockchain concerts financially feasible.
So, just in case OMF Token doesn&#8217;t take off, sales will also be allowed to happen in <a href="https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmR6NjmvEGvM2Mojp2MRYmnk1a1ivcE5W3h8grtRvbpNy3/">fiat (real world) currency as well</a>. The festival organizers even give this feature a fancy name: &#8220;hybrid blockchain ticketing system.&#8221; But that could end up screwing with their plans by making ticket sales vulnerable to the kind of illegal activity they were trying stop in the first place.
Blau&#8217;s OMF is a creative solution to a decades-old problem. But to get there, people will have to play along. And, for now, that&#8217;s far from a guarantee.

But if the token doesn't take off, you can pay for it in fiat currency, too.

A major EDM festival is selling tickets on the blockchain

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