Russian blockchain token named in false Tunisian digital currency report pumps, then dumps

Despite government-issued digital currencies being all the rage these days, the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) has quickly refuted claims that it had launched its own version with the help of a foreign company .

A statement published on Monday said the BCT denied “all these allegations and unfounded information.”

The statement clarifies that the BCT is currently exploring all existing payment alternatives, but insists this is “still in the phase of reflection.”

However, the BCT did admit that it is considering a central bank digital currency (CBDC), as it claims to be exploring “all existing alternatives,” but it does not have immediate plans for the “E-dinar” to go live.

“The bank is studying the opportunities and risks inherent in these new technologies, particularly in terms of cybersecurity and financial stability,” the statement reads.

Finally, the statement confirms that the “BCT has not engaged, in any relationship , of any kind, with a national or foreign provider with the aim of creating any digital currency .”

Throughout all of this, Universa Blockchain token attracts serious attention

Rumors about Tunisia’s state -issued digital currency surfaced recently , after Russian news agency TASS reported that it had launched a test version of its “E-dinar,” issued by Universa Blockchain, a platform created by Russian developers.

The price of Universa Blockchain’s token, Universa, underwent a pump that lasted several days during the surfacing of these reports. In the wake of this debunking, it’s price dumped.

It’s currently trading at $0.002976 per token, down over 50-percent in the past day.

One possible explanation for the increased volume (and price) is that keen-eyed speculators saw the erroneous reports and immediately looked to capitalize on the news. After all, “buy the rumor, sell the news,” is a popular adage for cryptocurrency traders.

The bank’s denial comes after the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve rendered central bank digital currencies pointless.

However, Dutch bank ING and IBM recently speculated that central bank digital currencies were on their way, and would become a part of our financial future — likely given that China is reportedly readying to launch its own state-run digital currency.

Pornhub gets in bed with Verge cryptocurrency to offer anonymous payments

Big dogs like Valve , Stripe , and Reddit are all pulling the plug on cryptocurrency payments for the time being, but there is a new force gearing up to fill up the gap: Pornhub – and you won’t believe who they’re partnering up with.

The adult entertainment titan has announced it will now accept payments in anonymous cryptocurrency Verge (XVG). This means now you now have the option to pay for your premium subscription without leaving any trails.

“ Here at Pornhub, we’re all about convenience and security, which makes cryptocurrency an attractive form of payment for us,” VP Corey Price told Hard Fork. “We’ve been looking at crypto for quite some time and, while overall adoption is relatively low, we think it has gained enough steam for us to penetrate the market.”

“This partnership represents an enormous market with a global reach that will compete with fiat currencies,” said Verge founder and lead developer Justin Sunerok. “It’s huge for Verge and we’re extremely excited to finally be able to announce it.”

The pornography giant said it has been running trials with the payment system internally and testing has gone without any hiccups so far.

What makes the news particularly intriguing is that it also reveals Pornhub as the mysterious partner Verge has been teasing for almost a month now. Indeed, the cryptocurrency startup came under fire after earlier in March it asked its users to donate $3 million worth of XVG to reveal a “potential partnership.”

“ In line with our mission to empower people to bring blockchain transactions into everyday life, we are thrilled to announce efforts to establish the largest cryptocurrency collaboration to hit the market,” the fundraising appeal read. “ Help us accelerate this crowdfunding effort and reach our target goal.”

The announcement was slated to land on March 26, but Verge eventually postponed the announcement for April 16 – and then one more time for today, April 17. Despite these delays and a healthy dose of skepticism from the larger cryptocurrency community, the partnership is finally official.

In a Medium post from earlier today, Verge said the $3 million it raised from its community will go towards integrating their technology into the Pornhub payment gateway system, marketing, as well as hardware wallet integrations for Ledger and Trezor (even though Ledger says it is not aware of such plans).

Porn and crypto

Pornhub is not the only adult entertainment company to toy around with blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Webcam platform CamSoda recently teased an interactive platform that makes your sex toys vibrate harder when the price of Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum soars; it also has plans to launch its own blockchain to let customers exchange nudes and get paid for it.

Unlike CamSoda though, Pornhub has actually partnered with a company that has a working product. Still, the decision to use Verge is an unusual one given its questionable record.

Back in March, Verge got its social media accounts breached after hackers were able to exploit leaked Yahoo databases to access the personal accounts of Sunerok. More recently, Verge was forced to hard fork its blockchain after attackers were able to exploit a bug in its system to perform a 51 percent attack on its network.

Prior to that, reports suggested that Verge might be suffering from a vulnerability that exposes its users’ IP addresses, though the claims were never properly confirmed.

“ As with penetrating any industry, there are inherent risks associated,” Price told us. “Nonetheless, we are excited to take this next step to keep current with our community’s payment preferences and offer them this viable alternative.”

Pornhub adds that the cryptocurrency integration will also land on partner sites like Brazzers and Nutaku, which focuses on sex-themed games. Price says that the company intends to continue experimenting with blockchain-powered payments in the future, adding that the functionality will eventually make its way to more services and products.

Meanwhile, those curious can find out more about the Verge collaboration on Pornhub here – it is absolutely SFW by the way.

Verge coin’s own Twitter account is not verified but its imposter’s is

It seems Twitter is incapable of putting an end to the rampant cryptocurrency scams on its platforms.

Just last week, we reported on Twitter’s ‘blue badge’ profile scams in the cryptocurrency space that have been going on unchecked for two months at least.

Now, we’ve discovered that while Verge currency’s official Twitter account itself is unverified, there’s an imposter prowling around with a verified Twitter handle in its name.

The problem with Twitter verified profiles is that the account only loses the verified status when the username is changed — the account holders can still change their name and remain verified.

This gives scammers the leverage to keep changing their name and scam unsuspecting users who have not checked the username.

Take our guy in case, @seifsbei for example — they might be Verge Currency now, but a few moments ago, they were Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin himself, giving away ETH in the reply section of Vitalik “Not giving away ETH” Buterin ‘s tweet.

Verge has had a tough go of it lately— the last thing they need right now is a scam going around in their name. It got its Twitter account hacked back in March and the hackers managed to scam some of its followers out of their XVG. It also suffered a 51% attack two weeks ago in which more than 250,000 Verge coins were stolen.

Verge may have hoped things would get better in light of its recent partnership with Pornhub — only to have their coin’s market price go down following the announcement.

Twitter better get their game straight on controlling these verified profile scams on their platform — at least for Verge’s sake, if not for the unsuspecting users on its platform that end up losing their money to these scams.