TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. Trump’s top cop, Attorney General William Barr says encryption is dangerous. Bitfinex counters New York Attorney General jurisdiction claims. ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin sued. Wasabi wallet denounces Samourai harassment campaign against BTC devs who point out tech flaws. IEA touches Bitcoin power consumption issue, and the first approved blockchain real estate-backed bond is to be issued in Germany.



Trump’s Top Cop William Barr is Against Encryption

Trump’s top cop, US Attorney General William Barr, declared the rise of encryption measures in modern devices and software is putting US citizens at serious risk. Barr said that “the status quo is exceptionally dangerous, it is unacceptable and only getting worse,” at a cybersecurity conference held in New York. “It’s time for the United States to stop debating whether to address it and start talking about how to address it,” in a push for tech companies to allow crypto backdoors in their software for law enforcement access.

Bitfinex Counters New York AG Statements on Jurisdiction Claims

The latest legal battle between Bitfinex and the New York Attorney General rages on, now discussing jurisdiction. Bitfinex claims the AG has made some misleading statements about customers being served with Tether loans in New York. The exchange declared the real customers were foreign entities who used their facilities in New York. “OAG tries to confuse matters by referring to isolated instances where Respondents’ foreign customers have shareholders or other personnel in New York. But in those circumstances, Respondents’ counterparties are the foreign entities,” Bitfinex stated.

Consensys CEO Sued by Former Employee

Joseph Lubin, an Ethereum co-founder and CEO of ConsenSys, a blockchain company, is being sued by a former employee. Harrison Hines, CEO of a startup called Token Foundry, is suing Lubin for breach of contract, among other charges, and is seeking more than $13 million. The document states: “This is an action for breach of contract, conversion, quantum merit, unjust enrichment, fraud, declaratory judgment and unpaid profits arising from the defendants’ acts in connection with the business known as Token Foundry.”

Wasabi Wallet Developer Denounces Samourai ‘Harassment’ Campaign of BTC Devs

In a blog published on his medium account, the lead developer of Wasabi Wallet, Adam Ficsor, denounced what he called a “harassment” campaign by Samourai, another BTC wallet, to any BTC developer who raises a concern against their technical flaws. Greg Maxwell, Luke Dash, Jr., Nicolas Dorier, and Warren Togami, known BTC developers, had been victims of this campaign, according to the Medium post. Earlier this week, Samourai devs denounced the existence of a “deanonymizing” malicious entity in Wasabi’s CoinJoin implementation.

IEA Refers to Bitcoin Energy Use

The International Energy Agency referred to the perceived Bitcoin power consumption problem in an article by Geroge Kamiya, a digital energy analyst. Kamiya explains that while the Bitcoin power problem is real, there is still much to analyze and learn about the measuring methods to calculate valid data. “Sensational predictions about bitcoin consuming the entire world’s electricity – and, by itself, leading our world to beyond 2°C – would appear just that…sensational,” he stated, while encouraging monitoring.

First Approved Blockchain Real Estate-Backed Bond to be Issued in Germany

The German regulator BaFin green lighted the issuance of a real estate-backed bond that will let customers from anywhere in the world put their money into such tokenized assets. The company behind this initiative, Fundament, will issue these bonds on the Ethereum network as popular ERC-20 tokens. Fundament will also have to comply with KYC and AML requirements, but with this move, anyone will be able to invest in real estate indirectly with amounts as low as 100 euros.

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