Bittrex bans North Korea/ Syria/Crimea/Iran/Cuba with their new terms of service announcement.

Sounds like another instance for the continued development of decentralized exchanges.

There has been yet another U.S. bill signed recently and like many of the others, this one is claiming to help prevent terrorism.
More specifically, according to this new bill in the case of cryptocurrencies, providing finance services like cryptocurrency exchanges to countries like North Korea, Syria, Iran, and the area of Crimea will be in violation.

To be fair, Bittrex is not the only exchange making these types of changes to their Terms of Use agreements, Poloniex, Bitfinex and other U.S. based exchanges I’m sure will be making the necessary changes in order to fall in line with the newly signed U.S. bill.
Unfortunately for citizens of Cuba, even though they are not listed specifically in the new bill, the U.S. still has a number of embargoes against it and I’m guessing that’s why Bittrex is playing it safe and eliminating them as users as well.

As I said earlier in this video, for those who dislike the fact that these exchanges are placing limitations on their respective user bases, might I remind you that decentralized exchanges do exist and are being improved upon every day. The way these function are much more in line with the core philosophies that initiated the creation of cryptocurrencies in the first place. No centralized authority, true peer-to-peer transactions.
I’ve created a number of videos that speak more on this matter so feel free to explore this channel and check those out.

Did you know that your computer could quite possibly be mining cryptocurrencies without your permission?

There are web browser widgets that are commonly used by a whole bunch of websites. These widgets can be pretty easy for a hacker to change a bit of the code that would enable your computer’s CPU or GPU output and use it to mine cryptocurrencies that would then be sent to the hackers wallet.
Although this isn’t exactly brand new news, here are some great tips you can use that will save your computer from these guys, firstly, don’t rely on adblockers as your only line of defense against in-browser mining,
There are a couple browser extensions you can use that block these javascript miners:

• MinerBlock
• No Coin
  and as always, avoid using public wifi when you can, but if you must use it, make sure to also be using a VPN.

If you’re looking for a country that won’t be taxing you for using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, start heading to Germany.

The U.S. labels cryptocurrencies as property, and when a transaction occurs that involves property, a capital gains tax can be applied. However with Germany, when cryptocurrencies are used to pay for goods or services, a version of the VAT, or value added tax will be applied to the price of Bitcoin at the time of the transaction. Also, the act of converting cryptocurrencies to fiat or vice versa will not be taxed, and the same can be said for miners who receive block rewards.