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Cybercriminals are increasingly moving away from bitcoin as their preferred digital currency in favor of lesser-known cryptocurrencies because of prolonged transaction delays, surging transaction costs and general market volatility, experts tell CyberScoop.
Although cybercriminals have been slowly moving away from bitcoin for months, researchers say a noticeable shift towards alternative coins — such as Monero, Dash and ZCash — occurred when bitcoin's value skyrocketed over $19,000 for one bitcoin in mid-December. The price has drastically fluctuated between $12,000 and roughly $19,000 since then.
"Many cybercriminals emulate the operational best practices of legitimate businesses in order to minimize their overhead costs and maximize returns, and in the case of high transaction costs with bitcoin, it makes perfect sense to look at other coins with smaller overheads," said Richard Henderson, a global security strategist with endpoint cybersecurity firm Absolute.
(Score: 4, Disagree) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday January 06 2018, @03:19AM
Short reply: government budgets don't work like your household budget. Nor like corporations. Government budgets that are sovereign in their own currency creation work differently from government budgets that aren't (e.g. state governments, EU member states). Government debt denominated in the sovereign currency is very different from government debt denominated in foreign currencies.
Read a macroeconomics textbook. Yes, all governments will eventually collapse... Yes. But worrying about debt in the way you're framing it just doesn't take into account the way money creation and dynamics work with sovereign governments in the real world.
As for the digital currencies... Maybe one or more will eventually stabilize. But right now they are better seen as volatile investment vehicles. I sincerely doubt Bitcoin is ever going to be the answer, even if we settle on a digital currency decades into the future. And the scarcity thing in Bitcoin right now is a positive for investors but will eventually cause major deflation which is an economic disaster long-term if it were actually adopted as primary currency.