Imagine Receiving a $3.4B Fine

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and here comes the future.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 💸Paying a $3.4B Fine
• 🎒DeFi Language Lesson
• 🧩️Answer To Thursday Quiz
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

IMAGINE PAYING A $3.4B FINE

We wrote a lot about DeFi scammers.

Today, let's talk about how, sometimes, justice comes knocking on their door.

So, there's this guy. He's believed to have scammed 23,000 US citizens.

And that's only in the USA. The number increases when you take into consideration people from other places.

So, the law enforcement agencies caught him. And a verdict has already been announced. And it's not just a regular verdict.

The news broke out that a a judge imposed a $3.4 billion penalty in a Bitcoin-related fraud lawsuit.

With numbers like these, we're entering the BILLION territory. With a "B."

Such numbers were presented as a gift by Texas District Court Judge Lee Yeakel, who presided over a case involving a deceitful scheme revolving around Bitcoin.

So, who's the culprit?

A South African national, Cornelius Johannes Steynberg .

And what he did was creating and orchestrating a multilevel marketing scheme.

During this operation, he successfully lured out Bitcoin from unsuspecting victims into n unregistered commodity pool.

Well, as Nelly Furtado said it, all good things come to an end (In this case, good in his eyes).

Now's he's gonna pay a $1.73 billion to compensate the victims and another $1.73 billion as a civil monetary penalty.

A penalty of such size sets a new record. Well, congrats mr. Steynberg.

TL;DR: Bitcoin scammer ordered to pay $3.4B fine. A penalty of such size sets a new record when it comes to fraudulent Bitcoin schemes.

DeFi SLANG

It's Friday after all. Let's have some lighthearted content. Let's talk about words.

For example. Most of us have heard the word 'Hackathon.' But how many of us really know what it is?

Literal translation: "Hacker marathon," derived from the English words hacker and marathon. Obviously.

The main goal of a hackathon is to create a fully functional working version of a product within a given theme or criteria.

For participants, a hackathon provides an excellent chance to showcase their skills, find like-minded individuals, test themselves in stressful conditions, and win a cash prize.

The competition can last from several hours to several days and can be held in-person or online.

In the crypto sphere, hackathons typically help projects expand their technological infrastructure by creating in-demand products.

In addition to prize money, winners often receive enticing offers to participate in further developments.

Cool and historical fact about blockchain-related hackathons:

One of the earliest and most influential blockchain hackathons was the 2014 Bitcoin Expo Hackathon in Toronto, Canada.

This event showcased the potential of blockchain technology and served as a catalyst for the growth of the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, inspiring many developers to work on innovative projects and solutions.

A prominent example could be "CryptoKitties." One of the most popular games released on Ethereum. And... It was born during a hackathon, back in 2017.

ANSWER TO YESTERDAY'S QUIZ

So, yesterday we asked you what's a Gwei.

And, as expected, most of you found a gwei out of this situation.

The right answer was 'The smallest unit of Ether in the Ethereum network.' It's used as a denomination to calculate gas fees. Even if you didn't know... Now you do!

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• New Data Suggests that Almost 50% of Millennials in Major Countries Own Crypto. 46% to be more precise.
• Ex-SPAC CFO Sentenced to 3 Years for Swiping $5M to Trade Crypto and Meme Stocks. He will have to forfeit $5.1 million and pay an additional $5.1 million in restitution.
• KuCoin Reveals that User Linked to Alleged Memecoin Scams is Its Customer. But, for now, they're not taking actions.