Weekly crypto news roundup

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2019 is securely in the history books, and 2020 is ready to bring a lot of positive change for the cryptocurrency and blockchain spaces. Regulation, perceptions and laws continue to migrate toward wider acceptance, even if the transition seems slow, and this year is going to be a pivotal shift for how crypto is received. Going from 2019 to 2020 means out with the old, in with the new, and this week, the transformation week between the two years, is helping to make that happen.

Despite crypto having been received well in Australia, an executive with the Reserve Bank of Australia sees BTC as a non-practical alternative to fiat. Anthony Richards admits that he has dabbled in BTC, but he doesn’t believe it can take the place of regular currency. He’s correct, as crypto was never meant to replace fiat, and alternatives such as BTC and ETH are not carrying the digital currency torch the way it had been intended.

Google recently banned MetaMask, an ETH wallet and decentralized web browser from the Play Store and Apple appears to be ready to follow suit. It updated its App Store policy and might force apps that offer decentralized app (DApp) browsing capabilities to pull their products. This includes the Coinbase DApp browser, which contains a MetaMask component, and the possibility isn’t sitting well with anyone. The reason Google and Apple are giving for the removal of MetaMask is because it includes a crypto mining function; however, MetaMask has already denied that assertion. For Coinbase users, the only alternative would be to use the desktop version of the Coinbase Wallet.

South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb is having to dig deep into its pockets to cover a massive tax bill. The country’s National Tax Service is looking for just under $69 million from the company in the form of foreign customers’ withholding taxes on gains made from crypto investments. The tax bill comes as Vidente, the exchange’s largest shareholder, acquired just over 34% of the exchange’s parent company. Bithumb and Vidente are prepared to pay the bill to stay on the government’s good side, but will contest the legitimacy of the claim, as well.

Bitcoin SV (BSV) continues to gain strength on a number of levels. Most notably, it has recently become attractive to more crypto miners, with several new pools joining the mix recently. One of the reasons for the switch is because trends are showing that mining BSV is more profitable than mining BTC. This became more pronounced after the Quasar upgrade last year, and will grow even more with the Genesis upgrade next month.

If letting an employee go for any reason results in bad blood, it’s a good idea to upgrade protocols and security measures to ensure the former employee can’t look for retribution. One startup out of France learned this lesson the hard way after a former employee, disgruntled at being let go for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, broke into the company’s network and stole 182 BTC—around $1.3 million. Knowing how the system worked, he was able to sidestep security measures that would have sounded the alarm, but someone still noticed the sudden massive loss in holdings and contacted the authorities. The theft was traced to the former employee, who will now have to answer for his actions in front of a judge.