Social Media Blockchain Steem Issues MOBILE WALLET WARS
$1.3 Million Payout To Steemit Users
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teemit users had countless reasons to celebrate this most recent Independence Day Weekend thanks to a special reward. On July 4, the fast-growing social media site Steemit distributed digital currency payouts worth approximately $1.3 million, or 10% of Steem’s current market cap, to its user base. Early adopters and significant contributors were rewarded for facilitating a highly efficient and collaborative community of members interested in a multitude of subjects such as politics, gardening, and entertainment. This unbelievable multimilliondollar payout details an historic milestone in the phenomenal growth of Steemit, a decentralized social media platform, now in its third month of operation. Regarding the distribution over the
busy holiday weekend, Steemit CEO Ned Scott spoke about how it was the first of its kind in the cryptocurrency world and highlighted a crucial moment for Steemit. “This was an opportunity for us to thank our growing community, to reward them for building a sustainable ecosystem that’s much more than the sum of its parts. Yesterday, more than $1.3 million worth of the Steem supply was distributed into the wallets of thousands of users across the world. From every corner, users have been drawn to Steemit because the system actually rewards thoughtful comments, unlike Reddit or Twitter. The community and the blockchain together power a system that gets better and better every day.” Half of the $1.3 million supply of Steem was distributed in Steem Dollars, which is basically a form of Steem
By: Steven Anderson
worth roughly one US dollar, and half in Steem Power, a vesting currency that supercharges voting power via the platform. “Because it’s based entirely on a blockchain, Steemit shows what social media can look like without censorship. Everything we see on Steemit.com comes from the open source Steem blockchain, so the entire network is replicable on any front-end application. Attempts at censorship can be proven by anyone with a blockchain explorer or another front-end application built on the Steem, so users can feel free to post how they really feel. This freedom is what empowers the Steemit community, and it’s one of the major ways we’re different from centralized, controlling and manipulative social media networks,” said Scott.
Is a Former Secret Service Agent Behind More Bitcoin Thefts? By: Steven Anderson
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t’s the kind of thing that Tom Clancy might well have written about at some point, but this is no techno-thriller in the making. Former Secret Service agent Shaun Bridges was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to laundering $800,000 in bitcoin after the U.S. government busted the Silk Road marketplace. However, new reports suggest that he may have stolen even more than that. One case suggests that he used a private cryptogenic key to steal an additional $700,000 in bitcoin from a Secret Service account. What’s even more disturbing is that the government was advised to move
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Payment Quarterly | Q3 2016
said funds three months prior to the theft. The documents do not outright accuse Bridges of stealing these funds. It does, however, state that he was the only individual definitively known to have had access to the account. Prior to starting his 71 month term in prison, Bridges was arrested a second time after he attempted to flee the country. He was found with a bag containing corporate records for three offshore accounts, a passport, and a bulletproof vest. It’s a tangled mess, and it’s going to take a lot of time to get it all sorted out. The question, of course, is why Bridges had extended access to an account full
of a currency whose primary focus is anonymity. This is also one of the biggest problems with crypto-currency in general; while it’s useful as a speculative investment property— heavily speculative—and it can also have value as a regular currency, it’s also developing an odd tendency to draw some less-than-savory elements of society. Strange, yes, but we have to remember that bitcoin is no different from any other tool, from a screwdriver to a shotgun. Each has its place, and just because it can be improperly and dangerously used doesn’t mean we should get rid of it altogether.