Blockchain Accelerator India – Synthesis cerypto February 5th

Vlad Nistor publishes updates on Coinflux client funds

Coinflux Romanian exchange CEO Vlad Nistor has published an update on the situation of client funds. They are currently blocked by the payment processor Mistertango on the order of the Lithuanian authorities.

Nistor said his trial is scheduled for June 15, 2020 and is expected to take about three weeks. After the legal action is completed, the situation of the client funds will be clarified and the withdrawals will be processed.

Vlad Nistor was arrested in December 2018, being accused of deception by US authorities. Since then, Coinflux exchange activity has been suspended and customers’ funds frozen.

Mike Novogratz: XRP will have bad results this year

In a conference held in Florida last week, Mike Novogratz argued that XRP will continue to have poor results this year. In his opinion, the problem is that Ripple owns too much of XRP, which lowers investor confidence.

The total amount of XRP in circulation is 100 billion tokens. Ripple owned 80 billion, of which it gradually sold to the current level of 56 billion Xrp. Of these, 48.9 billion are in the pipeline and the company cannot reach them.

Novogratz has associated XRP with the situation in which a company continually sells its shares.

For their part, a Ripple representative told Coindesk:

“XRP is a digital asset. It is not similar to shares because it does not offer any participation in Ripple or any other company. Second, XRP has legitimate payment utility. Companies like MoneyGram, Bitso and others use XRP in production through RippleNet. “

In 2019, XRP lost 46.3 percent of its value. At the Orlando conference, Novogratz suggested that the trend could continue:

“XRP dropped significantly last year. I think it will have a similar performance this year and it’s just because of the offer. “

XRP is currently trading at $ 0.27 and has risen 27% this year.

District Blockchain and blockchain accelerator for start-ups in India

Telangana State Government’s “Blockchain District” now has a dedicated accelerator for Blockchain startups

The Indian state of Telangana has launched a blockchain accelerator, in collaboration with Tech Mahindra. The selected startups will support innovative ideas and will be guided by experts from the Telangana government, Tech Mahindra, the Advanced Calculation Center of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and IIIT Hyderabad.

“T-Block Accelerator” is the inaugural acceleration program for the newly created Telangana Blockchain district. IBC Media, an innovation management company, will manage the accelerator.

Local news site The Hindu Business Line reported:

“About 25 startups will be included in the accelerator program. Of these, five will be selected for the next mentoring phase. ”

The program will last four months and support the efforts of start-ups to obtain investments to develop their projects.

Lazarus Group managed to steal $ 7 million from the DragonEx exchange in Singapore

The North Korean hacking team Lazarus Group targeted multiple crypto exchanges last year, according to Chainalysis. One of the attacks involved creating a realistic trading website and bot, which was offered to DragonEx exchange employees.

In March 2019, hackers stole about $ 7 million in various cryptocurrencies from the platform. Lazarus Group used a sophisticated phishing attack by creating a realistic website and social media presence for a fake company called WFC Proof. The alleged company created Worldbit-bot, a trading bot that was then offered to DragonEx employees.

Although the software resembled a real trading bot, it contained malware that could hijack the infected computer. Finally, the software was installed on a machine that contained the private keys of DragonEx’s online wallet, allowing hackers to steal the funds.