The Daily: US Presidential Candidate Accepts Bitcoin, Kickico Hacked - $7.7M Stolen

US presidential candidate, Andrew Yang (D), has announced that his campaign for the 2020 election is now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Also in the Daily, Chinese social network, Tianya, is about to issue a native token, and the Kickico project has been hacked – resulting in the loss of $7.7 million USD worth of tokens due to a security breach of its smart contract.

Also read: Twitter Blocks Bots Mimicking Musk, Coinvault Hackers Sentenced

Yang 2020 Campaign Accepts Bitcoin and Any ERC20

US Democrat Andrew Yang’s campaign is now accepting donations in Bitcoin Core (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies for the 2020 US presidential election. Yang announced the news on Twitter calling on his supporters to “build the future together.”

The announcement released by his team to “our crypto donors” reads: “We currently accept Bitcoin and anything on the ERC20 standard.” It also comes with instructions on how to donate cryptocurrency and notes that the maximum for individual donations is set at the fiat equivalent of $2,500.

Yang believes in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, and has already declared that he sees them as a potential catalyst for socio-political change. He has also previously stated on social media that a “smart government” should embrace cryptocurrency technology:

During a Facebook AMA I was asked about crypto and blockchain. I think the technology has massive potential to create a more transparent society. A smart government would embrace this and work with it. I would do that.

Chinese Social Network Tianya to Issue Native Token

Tianya Club, one of the most popular social networks and online forums in the People’s Republic, has announced it will launch its native Tianya Token (TYT) on August 8. According to a post published on its blog, TYT will be the only means of accounting in its blockchain-based community ecosystem. Tianya.cn is among the most visited websites in China, ranking in the top 20 of the Chinese Internet.

The number of tokens that the company is planning to release is limited to 90 billion. The users of the platform will receive TYT awards based on their contribution to the community. The coin will be used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment underpinning various transactions and payments within the community.

Tianya also plans to keep 20% of the new tokens for team incentives, ecological development investments, and operation promotion – depending on the needs of the community. The other 80% will be used for community rewards, incentives for users to participate in content creation and community governance, and rewards to original content creators and independent contributors.

Kickico Hacked, Coins Worth $7.7M Stolen

Kickico, an ICO project based on the Ethereum protocol, has admitted experiencing a security breach in which the attackers gained access to the account of the KICK smart contract. The company announced that its team has been notified about the hack by victims who reported that they were not able to find tokens worth $800,000 USD in their wallets.

According to an investigation launched probing the hack, the total amount of stolen funds is 70,000,000 KICK – equal to $7.7 million USD at the exchange rate at time of the announcement. Kickico claims that it has already restored full control over the smart contract and promises to return all stolen Kickcoins to their holders.

Providing more details about the attack, the company explains that the hackers gained access to the private key of the owner of the Kickcoin smart contract. They also attempted to hide their activities by employing methods used by the contract in integration with the Bancor network. Earlier this month, the decentralized exchange was also breached, as news.Bitcoin.com reported.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section below.

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