Bitcoin Hacker: Everything That Happened In Cryptocurrency This Week

Welcome to Lifehacker’s weekly round up of all things Bitcoin, altcoin and cryptocurrency. It’s been an insane week for Bitcoin, with the kind of dip that sent holders into a panic not seen since… well, since the last dip. It’s been messy and, for some, it’s been brutal.

Here’s the big news in Bitcoin this week.

Bitcoin’s price has fluctuated greatly throughout the week, climbing early in the week back above the USD$13,000 mark. It now sits just above USD$11,000 at time of writing.

Have you heard about the new altcoin sweeping the globe? Banana Coin is the world’s first blockchain option for ‘investing in the production of organic bananas’. The Ethereum based coin is tied to the price of 1kg of bananas on the international market. There’s always money in the banana coin.

Big news for Australian cryptocurrency – the ATO are coming after your hard-earned crypto cash, beginning a crackdown to ensure that you won’t be dodging your tax responsibilities. In reality, this will mean you need to keep track of all your cryptocurrency funds in Australian dollars, when and who you trade them to.

AUSTRAC – Australia’s financial intelligence agency – are updating their anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws which will see cryptocurrency exchanges come under the microscope. The changes are to be enforced from April 3 and will mean the exchanges are required to comply with the AML/CTF standards already imposed on other businesses such as police checks and reporting suspicious activity.

A boost for Ethereum, with Canada trialing use of the blockchain to enhance Government transparency. When your Prime Minister is Justin Trudeau, how can you want more transparency? The man is a beautiful, honest legend.

anyone use #bitcoin? send me some love and some money… #kiddingnotkidding pic.twitter.com/bJ50Ad1Gto

— PM Justin Trudeau (@PMJTrudeau) December 8, 2015

Note: This is not really the PM

There are now several blockchain-based projects that aim to stop illegal tuna fishing, because of course there are.

Late in the week, news broke that Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, had been sitting on a Bitcoin goldmine since 2014. Accepting payment in Bitcoin for his album Animal Ambition, when one Bitcoin was worth USD$662, means he’s now about $7 million richer. The rapper has become inspiration for hodlers everywhere, but he didn’t even remember that until a TMZ report brought it to attention.

Lastly, this Dogecoin video made me really, really happy this week. Doge Stop Me Now.

See you next week, LifeHodlers.

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Bitcoin Hacker is our weekly roundup of the big news in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. If there’s anything you particularly want to hear about this week, let us know in the comments.