This Week in Bitcoin: Amazon Wants to Track You and TD Ameritrade Plants a Flag

Over the past few days we learned about how Amazon wants to track your bitcoin transactions, why TD Ameritrade planted its flag in the blockchain, and even how close to reality are flying cars. These stories and many more were covered in this week’s daily editions of Bitcoin in Brief.

Also Read: Cryptocurrency Mining Accounted for 10% of AMD’s Overall Revenue in Q1 2018

Snatching Blockchain, Tracking Bitcoin

On Monday we reported that online retail giant, Amazon, has obtained a bitcoin tracking patent. The company thinks that by collecting data from multiple sources and finding a correlation with transactions it can link a specific bitcoin address with a shipping address, an IP, an email, a bank account, or a social media profile. And the patent specifically notes that police forces may be interested in receiving such data.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s main brick-and-mortar competitor, Walmart, has gotten its own blockchain patents. The company plans a vendor payment sharing system that will automatically process payments for products and services, and encrypt the transactions on a blockchain.

Wary Giants, Eager Dwarfs

When highly centralized political entities try to limit the spread of a popular product or technology it is no surprise that nearby locations will try to capitalize on such an opportunity. On Tuesday we reported about how this is seen now with bitcoin, with places like Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore and even Crimea jumping in while China, Russia, and the European Union get left behind. The next day we reported that the tiny nation of San Marino also wants to take a part of the blockchain action.

Crypto Leakers, Hackers and Rappers

On Wednesday it was revealed that Wikileaks has switched its store to Canada’s Coinpayments and that its publishing arm has expanded its own bitcoin and privacy system. The organization also attacked its former service provider: “Coinbase has become an unreliable and even dangerous service, subject to arbitrary, non-transparent actions as it merged with the US banking sector and started to provide information on its customers to the US government. It has become everything that Bitcoin was designed to stop.” Additionally covered were Snoop Dogg to perform at an upcoming Ripple event, hackers blackmailing governments, a new crypto VC from by Andreessen Horowitz, and the vote against restoring Parity’s lost ethers.

Big Money Wears Big Horns

The main focus on Thursday was on comments by John Pfeffer, an hedge fund manager that predicts the price bitcoin could rise to no less than $90,000 in the next couple of years, and potentially as high as $700,000. “When I think about the displacement argument, I start with gold. It’s kind of silly – we are a space-faring, digital society and we’re still using a yellow metal as our non-sovereign store of value. At some point we’re going to come up with a better technology for that and bitcoin is the first candidate. We’ll see if it works,” Pfeffer said. We also reported that the Chicago Board Options Exchange wants to lower the minimum increment on its bitcoin futures contracts.

First Ad in the Blockchain

On Friday we reported about an alleged pump and dump scheme by a group of crypto influencers. A whistleblower says he was invited to join the group’s Telegram channel where he saw their supposedly incriminating messages. According to the screenshots, members of the group discussed how much cryptocurrency would be needed to control 25% of the trading volume, how long it should be held, and when it should be dumped. Additionally covered is how TD Ameritrade claimed to have become the first company to embed an advertisement in the bitcoin blockchain. According to Denise Karkos, Chief Marketing Officer at TD Ameritrade, there is “no expectation beyond creating a little buzz for the brand” and enjoying the process.

Fork-o-Mania and Flying Cars

Finally, flying cars were featured on Saturday’s weekend edition of Bitcoin in Brief. The retro-futurist transports are promised to debut at an upcoming blockchain conference in Dubai. We also reported why Binance boss CZ has decided to take a stand against mainstream media journalists that write about bitcoin without ever owning a coin or completing a transaction.

This Week in Bitcoin Podcast

To make sure you didn’t miss any big bitcoin news this week, listen to the following podcast:

What other stories everyone in the bitcoin world must have read this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

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