The crypto industry in the Philippines – Crypto synthesis 28 February

OKEx and Bitfinex, victims of DDoS attacks. OKEx and Bitfinex crypto exchanges suffered multiple denial-of-service (DdoS) attacks yesterday. It is not yet clear whether the attacks are connected, although the OKEx CEO blamed the competitors on his personal Weibo page.

The first platform affected was OKEx, and the attack diverted up to 200 gigabytes per second of traffic. This put pressure on OKEx systems, slowing transaction processing.

Several hours later, the attack was resumed and this time it also affected Bitfinex. The new DDoS attack on OKEx diverted 400 gigabytes per second of traffic, twice as much as the previous one.

The Bitfinex status page shows that the attack on the exchange lasted an hour. The activity on the platform was seriously affected and the volume dropped to near zero. Bitfinex was forced to stay activity during the attack.

Currently, activity has returned to normal on both platforms. Crypto analysts have stressed that the attack is likely to have been coordinated, given the similarities.

The head of the authority that manages the crypto industry in the Philippines, accused of corruption

Raul Lambino, administrator of the Authority for the Economic Zone of Cagayan (CEZA), is accused of corruption. CEZA is the special economic zone that authorizes cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the Philippines. In short, the head of the authority that manages the crypto industry in the Philippines.

On February 20, The Manila Times published a report by the National Information Coordination Agency (NICA). Apparently, Lambino has an unexplained wealth of tens of millions of dollars.

The allegations are that Lambino charges $ 200,000 from each cryptocurrency company that requests to operate in the Philippines. Of this amount, only $ 3,000 is recorded as receipts for these taxes.

Given that there are 25 cryptocurrency companies operating within the CEZA administration, the report suggests that Lambino received at least $ 4.8 million from them. Also, many companies transferred 10% of their shares to corrupt CEZA officials.

The NICA report claims that the Philippine crypto and gambling industry is paying Lambino a weekly tax of $ 98,000 in total. The administrator would have used these funds to fund election campaigns for various family members and to live in luxurious conditions.

In the mid-Philippines elections, Lambino’s son, Mark, was elected provincial deputy governor, while his wife, Marilyn, became mayor of Mangaldan.

Kaspersky Lab is launching a blockchain voting system called Polys

Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has launched a new type of blockchain-based voting machine. Called Polys, the system has been developed since November 2017 to be an efficient and safe way to vote online.

Roman Aleshkin, project manager for Polys, explained the advantages of the system:

“Our Polys platform allows for remote elections through the e-voting system. It eliminates the disadvantages of traditional will systems and can increase participation of young people in elections ”.

Voters using Polys will be issued unique QR codes or tokens that can be scanned on new voting machines.

In crypto terms, the choices that work with this system would work as distributed technology.

The vote will be encrypted, the voter’s identity is verified and the person can then confirm that their vote has been recorded on the blockchain.

This method reduces the risk of fraud and eliminates the need for many voting centers, reducing the costs of elections.

The Hong Kong government is distributing $ 9 billion to residents

The Hong Kong government has announced a $ 9 billion airdrop for the region’s 7 million residents. From a global perspective, this can be seen as a desperate move to stimulate the local economy. It could also be a new government effort to stop the protests.

Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said:

“We have decided to grant HK 10,000 to permanent residents of Hong Kong over 18 years of age, in order to encourage and stimulate local consumption on the one hand and to relieve the financial burden of people on the other. “.

With 7 million people meeting these criteria, the airdrop will total about 70 billion HK (almost 9 billion USD). The plan is part of a package to stimulate the economy in total value of over $ 15 billion. Other stages of the plan include helping poor families with one month’s free rent for public housing and helping struggling businesses with lower taxes and subsidized electricity.

The main reason given for the need to stimulate the local economy is the coronavirus epidemic.

This “gave a severe blow to Hong Kong’s economic activities and sentiment,” according to Chan. The pandemic originating in mainland China has disrupted many supply chains worldwide. It has also severely affected the Hong Kong tourism industry, and the government’s plan includes specific measures to address this.