Moonday Mornings: Teen gets 10 years for Bitcoin extortion bomb threats

If you’re a big-time hodler you may have had your eyes glued to cryptocurrency prices over the weekend.

If you did, here’s a helpful list of the top news from the industry from over the weekend that you might have missed – and we don’t mention Bitcoin’s price, not even once.

1. Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee of defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, is extending the deadline for creditors to lodge their claims. Claimants affected by the Mt. Gox collapse are located all over the world, and it would seem all cases have to be logged in Japan. The extended deadline should serve to give a bit more time to those currently trying to get back their lost funds.

2. The Norwegian government is making it even harder for cryptocurrency miners to turn a profit. From 2019 onwards, cryptocurrency miners will have to pay the full, standard rate of tax on their electricity supply. Currently miners have been paying just 2.8 percent of the standard rate.

3. An American-Israeli teenager has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for sending hoax bomb threats to schools, hospitals, police stations, and Jewish centers. The perpetrator had been threatening to send a bomb unless the target paid him in Bitcoin (BTC). Court documents report that he earned 184 BTC (worth over $650,000 at the time of writing). Earlier this month, another miscreant was apprehended for threatening to send a bomb to Miami airport after the FBI wouldn’t help them recover their stolen cryptocurrency.

4. As some countries – like France – are coming down hard on Bitcoin tax, Germany is taking a different tact and is wanting to use the enemies weapons against them. The country wants to use Blockchain to fight tax evasion. How it will do this remains unclear, however, estimates suggest the German economy has lost over $63 billion to tax evasion schemes. So any impact might be seen as positive.

5. Hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor is warning buyers to be vigilant against the rise in fake Trezor One wallets. The fake wallet could pose a huge risk to users’ funds. Hardware wallets tend to be favored by those storing large amounts of cryptocurrency, so it makes sense that these devices be targeted by scammers. Trezor recommend buying its devices directly or from authorized resellers.

6. Gab, the micro-blogging platform favored by the alt-right, is moving to Bitcoin payments as it has been denied access to conventional banking platforms. Founder, Andrew Torba, states the company will be integrating BitPay as soon as possible. Although this is likely to be temporary as every other service has banned them already.

It’s been another week of bad news for tax fraudsters, cryptocurrency miners, and hodlers. But at least those affected by the Mt. Gox collapse have a little more time to lodge their claims.