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Apr 08 2021

A Day in the Life of Indie Filmmaker Jordyn Romero

Whether you’re raising funds for a creative project or a new business idea, running your own crowdfunding campaign is no easy feat. It takes a healthy dose of passion, discipline, and commitment to bring your ideas and concepts to life, and get your backer community excited about them. Ever wondered what a day in the life of a creative entrepreneur on Indiegogo is like? We’re here to give you an exclusive glimpse into 24 hours of their day.

Juggling film production and a crowdfunding campaign can be challenging, so we’re always inspired when we encounter someone who can do it all. Meet California-based indie filmmaker Jordyn Romero who is in Sri Lanka, filming on location right now. Together with producer Leah de Leon, they are running a campaign to fund their documentary We Are Like Waves — a film that adapts the true story of Sanu, one of the first professional female surfers in Sri Lanka.

This documentary film explores and captures the struggles and breakthroughs of Sanu in an industry dominated by the culture of patriarchy:

“We Are Like Waves is an intimate, powerful story that the world needs now. This story will shed light on the continued push for gender equality in the sport of surfing, and demonstrates how surfing can be used as a tool for women’s empowerment. Not only is Sanu a role model for the young girls in her village, but through the screen, she will become a role model for girls and women. We aim to create a platform for deeper discussions around gender norms, beauty standards, and family expectations within the context of surfing. This story is not just Sanu’s, it is the story of many female surfers around the world.“

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Your contribution to their campaign will allow Jordyn and Leah to conclude filming and finish their movie, getting this must-see story out to screens everywhere, in a world where the stories of women of color are missing some real representation.

Read on to see how Jordyn spends 24 hours in her day, working as an indie filmmaker on location in Sri Lanka Then scroll down for a brief Q&A to get to know her better, learn more about We Are Like Waves, and get inspired!

7 A.M. Wake up and make a glass of warm lemon water. Then I read the daily excerpt from “The Daily Stoic” and I journal. Sometimes it’s a few pages, but other days it’s just some bullet points of gratitude.

8 A.M. I go on a nice walk. I like to bring a cup of tea and listen to a podcast. Everyday I try to mix it up too and find new paths in my neighborhood.

9 A.M. I eat a light breakfast. I call it breakfast #1 and it’s typically a bowl of fruit. Then, I check my calendar, email, and social media. I have a work journal where I write down my To-Do’s.

10 A.M. This is when I start doing the creative part of my work. It’s when I’m most motivated and in flow. Most of the time, I am writing and editing my film. Sometimes I am creating pitch materials for future films, updating my website, or other graphic work.

12 P.M. Begin to shift towards business-minded tasks and away from creative ones — unless the flow is still going. I try to ride that as long as I can. This means taking calls and meetings, posting on Instagram, and more email.

1 P.M. I eat lunch at this time, and continue doing business tasks!

4 P.M. Always have an afternoon adventure. Sometimes I go surfing, take a hike, do a workout class, or hangout with friends (weird to think about with COVID). This is the most important time of the day to me. I’ve never accepted the burnout mentality, and so I embrace this time to have fun and enjoy every single day.

7 P.M. Dinner time! I have really gotten into cooking lately — everything from curries to grilling. Typically with a good playlist and eating outside if it’s warm enough.

8 P.M. Love to have a cup of tea. My friend blends her own loose leaf tea, and I love it. Sometimes I watch some TV, or have a good read. Other times, I have a creative boost and will lean into that and work a little more.

9 P.M. Around this time, I start to get ready for bed. I’m definitely someone who needs 9-10 hours a night. It’s prioritized because I literally cannot perform with any less.

Now that you’ve gotten a glimpse of what her day is like running a crowdfunding campaign for a film, get more inspiration in our exclusive Q&A with Jordyn!

INDIEGOGO: How and why did you and Leah become documentary filmmakers? Was it something you always intended for yourselves?

JORDYN ROMERO: I came to filmmaking because of my passion for the outdoors. I grew up making ski edits of my friends and I with a GoPro Hero 4. I went to Chapman University for college which ranks as one of the top film schools in the country – I came in undeclared. I will never forget one night in the dorms I rented the most beautiful surf film, and knew that I wanted to make one like it one day. The next week, I applied to the documentary program with those ski films and have never looked back since. Today, I continue with my passion — redefining and amplifying diverse women on screen in the outdoor industry.

INDIEGOGO: What makes your Indiegogo project unique?

JORDYN: Our Indiegogo is unique because We Are Like Waves has already been shot and is nearly finished. After confirming that I was going to make this film, I was in Sri Lanka two months later. This wasn’t nearly enough time to raise money to fund the film, instead I took out a personal loan and self-funded the trip. It was a huge risk, but I was confident in the story and knew that we would be able to raise money after production to pay back the loan and cover post-production costs. We are so thankful that we didn’t wait to raise money to go, because just a week after we finished shooting, the world shut down.

INDIEGOGO: How did you come across this project and Sanu’s life story?

JORDYN: I found the story through a podcast that featured one of the co-founders of Sea Sisters Sri Lanka, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching local women how to swim and surf. After listening to the episode, I learned that in Sri Lanka there is a cultural mindset that surfing is not meant for girls. Fathers are afraid of what might happen to their daughters, women are taught to stay close to home and they never learn. The stories and social issues shared on the podcast just stuck with me. I reached out to Sea Sisters in an Instagram message and two months later, the film was in full production on the South Coast of Sri Lanka.

INDIEGOGO: What’s your biggest piece of advice for women who want to make movies or have a career in the film industry?

JORDYN: It’s amazing to think about everything you’ve ever watched in your life. I bet almost everything has been made by a man. This means that the entire point of view was through a male’s lens. Nothing wrong with that, but imagine how those stories could be told if through the female lens? How would you see things differently? How would our world be different? Your voice matters and what you have to say matters.

INDIEGOGO: What tools would you recommend to anyone starting their own crowdfunding campaign or project?

JORDYN: The success of our crowdfunding campaign came from our strong email campaigns. Canva was another great tool to build beautiful and engaging content to promote our campaign on social media, Instagram stories in particular. Tools like Slack, Google Drive and UNUM were used often for communication, organization, and social media planning (obsessed with our instagram feed). And of course, Facetime. Leah (Producer) and I would spend so much time cheering each other on – spending a lot of time together even though we can’t “be together” in the pandemic.

INDIEGOGO: What’s next for you and Leah after this campaign fundraising round?

JORDYN: Next it’s time to finish the film! We’re at the rough cut stage of the film – so we are really, really close. After we hit picture lock, the film will be scored, colored, sound mixed. We’ll have a polished film and the best part can begin – film festivals and screenings! We will have a year long film festival tour and a small California film tour, hitting our favorite places along the coast, building community and sharing this story with the world.

Want to help Jordyn and Leah complete their film We Are Like Waves? Donate to their Indiegogo campaign page or follow them on Instagram.

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Mar 26 2021

New Advanced Android Malware Posing as “System Update”

Another week, and another major mobile security risk. A few weeks ago, Zimperium zLabs researchers disclosed unsecured cloud configurations exposing information in thousands of legitimate iOS and Android apps (you can read more about it in our blog). This week, zLabs is warning Android users about a sophisticated new malicious app.

The new malware disguises itself as a System Update application, and is stealing data, messages, images and taking control of Android phones. Once in control, hackers can record audio and phone calls, take photos, review browser history, access WhatsApp messages, and more (a complete list is below).

The “System Update” app was identified by zLabs researchers who noticed an Android application being detected by the z9 malware engine powering zIPS on-device detection. Following an investigation, we discovered it to be a sophisticated spyware campaign with complex capabilities. We also confirmed with Google that the app was not and has never been on Google Play.

In this blog, we will:

Cover the capabilities of the spyware;
Discuss the techniques used to collect and store data; and
Show the communication with the C&C server to exfiltrate stolen data.

What can the malware do?

The mobile application poses a threat to Android devices by functioning as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that receives and executes commands to collect and exfiltrate a wide range of data and perform a wide range of malicious actions, such as:

Stealing instant messenger messages;
Stealing instant messenger database files (if root is available);
Inspecting the default browser’s bookmarks and searches;
Inspecting the bookmark and search history from Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Samsung Internet Browser;
Searching for files with specific extensions (including .pdf, .doc, .docx, and .xls, .xlsx);
Inspecting the clipboard data;
Inspecting the content of the notifications;
Recording audio;
Recording phone calls;
Periodically take pictures (either through the front or back cameras);
Listing of the installed applications;
Stealing images and videos;
Monitoring the GPS location;
Stealing SMS messages;
Stealing phone contacts;
Stealing call logs;
Exfiltrating device information (e.g., installed applications, device name, storage stats); and
Concealing its presence by hiding the icon from the device’s drawer/menu.

How does the malware work?

Upon installation (from a third party store, not Google Play Store), the device gets registered with the Firebase Command and Control (C&C) with details such as the presence or absence of WhatsApp, battery percentage, storage stats, the token received from the Firebase messaging service, and the type of internet connection.

Options to update the mentioned device information exist as “update” and “refreshAllData,” the difference being, in “update,” the device information alone is being collected and sent to C&C, whereas in “refreshAllData,” a new Firebase token is also generated and exfiltrated.

The spyware’s functionality and data exfiltration are triggered under multiple conditions, such as a new contact added, new SMS received or, a new application installed by making use of Android’s contentObserver and Broadcast receivers.

Commands received through the Firebase messaging service initiate actions such as recording of audio from the microphone and exfiltration of data such as SMS messages. The Firebase communication is only used to issue the commands, and a dedicated C&C server is used to collect the stolen data by using a POST request.

Figure 1: Code to parse and execute the commands from Firebase C&C (refer to IOCs)

The spyware is looking for any activity of interest, such as a phone call, to immediately record the conversation, collect the updated call log, and then upload the contents to the C&C server as an encrypted ZIP file. Determined to leave no traces of its malicious actions, the spyware deletes the files as soon as it receives a “success” response from the C&C server on successfully receiving the uploaded files.

Figure 2: Broadcast receiver declaration in AndroidManifest.xml

The collected data is organized into several folders inside the spyware’s private storage, located at: “/data/data/com.update.system.important/files/files/system/FOLDER_NAME” where the “FOLDER_NAME” is specified as shown in the following image.

Figure 3: Names of folders for storing stolen data in the app’s private directory

Along with the command “re” for recording the audio from the microphone, the parameters received are “from_time” and “to_time,” which is used to schedule an OneTimeWorkRequest job to perform the intended malicious activity. Such usage of job scheduling can be affected by battery optimizations applied on applications by the Android OS, due to which, the spyware requests permission to ignore battery optimizations and function unhindered.

Figure 4: Scheduling a job using parameters from the Firebase C&C

Figure 5: Code to prevent battery optimizations on the spyware application

Being very concerned about the freshness of the data, the spyware doesn’t use data collected before a fixed period.

For example, location data is collected either from the GPS or the network (whichever is the more recent) and if this most recent value is more than 5 minutes in the past, it decides to collect and store the location data all over again. The same applies to photos taken using the device’s camera, and the value is set to 40 minutes.

Figure 6: Code to capture a picture using the camera if last taken is at least 40 mins ago

The spyware abuses the device’s Accessibility Services (gained from social engineering by asking users to enable accessibility services) to collect conversations and message details from WhatsApp by scraping the content on the screen after detecting the package name of the top window matches WhatsApp (“com.whatsapp”). The collected data is stored within an SQLite database with a model, as seen in the images below.

Figures 7: The database models for storing data from Whatsapp

In addition to collecting the messages using the Accessibility Services, if root access is available, the spyware steals the WhatsApp database files by copying them from WhatsApp’s private storage.

Figure 8: The six files that get copied from the WhatsApp database if root is available

The spyware actively steals the clipboard data by registering clipboard listeners in just the same way as it spies on SMS, GPS location, contacts, call logs, and notifications. The listeners, observers, and broadcasted intents are used to trigger actions such as recording a phone call and collecting the thumbnails of newly captured images/videos by the victim.

Figure 9: Code to steal data from the clipboard

The Android device’s storage is searched for files smaller than 30MB and having file extensions from the list of “interesting” types (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx) to be copied to the private directory of the application and encrypted as a folder before exfiltration to the C&C server.

Figure 10: Code to search for files with specific extension and size less than 30MB

An aggressive capability of the spyware is to access and steal the contents cached and stored in the external storage. In an attempt to not exfiltrate all the images/videos, which can usually be quite large, the spyware steals the thumbnails which are much smaller in size. This would also significantly reduce the bandwidth consumption and avoid showing any sign of data exfiltration over the internet (assisting in evading detection). When the victim is using Wi-Fi, all the stolen data from all the folders are sent to the C&C, whereas when the victim is using a mobile data connection, only a specific set of data is sent to C&C, as seen in Figure 12.

Figure 11, 12: The code to collect thumbnails, and make a list of folders to upload from a mobile data connection

Apart from the various types of personal data stolen from the victim, the spyware wants more private data such as the victim’s bookmarks and search history from popular browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and the Samsung Internet Browser.

Figure 13: The content providers to query bookmarks and searches made by the victim

To identify the victim’s device name, the spyware tries to compare the information collected from the device’s “Build.DEVICE” and “Build.MODEL” with a list of hardcoded values amounting to a total of 112 device names such as seen below.

Figure 14: Snippet of code to identify the device by matching with a list of 112 devices

The spyware creates a notification if the device’s screen is off when it receives a command using the Firebase messaging service, as shown in the below images. The “Searching for update..” is not a legitimate notification from the operating system, but the spyware.

Figure 15, 16: The Fake notification and communication with the C&C server

The spyware is capable of performing a wide range of malicious activities to spy on the victim while posing as a “System Update” application. It exhibits a rarely seen before feature, stealing thumbnails of videos and images, in addition to the usage of a combination of Firebase and a dedicated Command & Control server for receiving commands and exfiltrate data.

IOCs

Spyware applications:

96de80ed5ff6ac9faa1b3a2b0d67cee8259fda9f6ad79841c341b1c3087e4c92

6301e2673e7495ebdfd34fe51792e97c0ac01221a53219424973d851e7a2ac93

C&C servers:

hxxps://mypro-b3435.firebaseio.com

hxxps://licences.website/backendNew/public/api/

To learn more

To learn more about how Zimperium detects and prevents malware from disrupting enterprises globally, contact us.

Zimperium zIPS, powered by Zimperium’s machine learning-based engine, z9, detects this malware. Additionally, zIPS with Samsung Knox enables immediate and automated mitigation capabilities.

New Advanced Android Malware Posing as “System Update”

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Mar 20 2021

A year into the pandemic: How Argentina’s economy struggled while its crypto ecosystem flourished

The year 2020 will go down in history as the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and the way it affected the Argentine economy. But it is also true that Argentina has been dragging along economic problems for decades, with high fiscal pressure, devaluation of the national currency (the Argentine peso), restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency, etc.

Beyond that, events have occurred that have to do with attempts to regulate the crypto ecosystem, in addition to those linked to private companies and the adoption of cryptocurrencies. The following is a summary of the events that marked the last year and the opinions of various people who lived it from inside the ecosystem.

First quarter of 2020

Second quarter of 2020

Third quarter of 2020

A Paxful survey finds that Argentines believe investing in cryptocurrency is the most effective way to save

Fourth quarter of 2020

Attempts at regulation

There have been two initiatives at the national level in Argentina and one at the provincial level (in the province of Misiones) that are related to attempts to regulate cryptocurrencies.

In the Chamber of Deputies, a bill from Everybody’s Front was formally presented with the signature of 15 national deputies. This initiative, under file 6055-D-2020, has as its summary title: Integral Regulatory Framework Applicable to Civil and Commercial Transactions and Operations of Crypto Assets.

On the other hand, from the opposition, Argentine deputy Ignacio Torres of the Together for Change front also has in his hands a project on cryptocurrencies, but it has not yet been formally presented to Congress. This legislator, a representative of the district of Chubut, is holding a series of meetings and consultations on the subject with different sectors.

These projects have also been the focus of controversy and criticism from various sectors of the Argentine cryptosphere.

In addition, in the province of Misiones, Provincial Deputy Roque Gervasoni of the Front for the Renewal of Concord presented a project in the Chamber of Deputies. Registered under file D-55787/20, it is a bill that, in theory, also proposes to regulate the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The initiative has another peculiarity, which is that it provides for the creation of an exchange.

Rodolfo Andragnes, president of Bitcoin Argentina, said:

“A very relevant issue in November was the national law projects that emerged to regulate crypto assets, which were highly criticized by us.”

Pedro Rey Puma, OKEx community manager for Latin America, observed: “We must highlight the exposure of the two bills presented to the UIF and the Congress, although I think they need changes, and I adhere to the general dissatisfaction of the community.”

“I also believe that a positive aspect is the legitimization of cryptocurrencies by government officials, because if a favorable regulation is achieved, it will be a huge opportunity for the country to lead the innovation and the creation of services based on this technology. Otherwise, this activity will be taken to informality.”

Bitcoin’s price rose, and adoption grew

It was a very interesting year in terms of the price of Bitcoin (BTC), especially in its last few weeks. Bitcoin reached another historic high, something that hadn’t happened since 2017. It shouldn’t be forgotten either that it was a year where there was another halving, which many think was decisive for the price.

Andragnes said that in Argentina, during 2020, new projects appeared, while others were consolidated. “Not only have the exchanges seen exponential growth of users, multiplying by three or five times their volumes, but those companies that offered services such as digital certifications or developments on blockchain have also noticed growth,” he highlighted.

Ivan Tello, co-founder of Decrypto, expressed that the most important thing about 2020 in the crypto ecosystem was adoption:

“COVID and quarantine taught us that everything is virtual. Shopping at the supermarket or mall is now virtual. Procedures and even birthdays were virtual, but also savings, investment and money are virtual.”

On the other hand, he estimated that before “the trap” and prohibition of buying dollars in Argentina, investors and traditional savers discovered the possibility of being able to continue buying “virtual dollars” in the form of the stablecoins, which in many cases are the door to the crypto world. “Then they discover all the solutions that this new world brings to them,” he remarked. “More and more people are losing their fear of the virtual, of the intangible.”

But he also highlighted “the Halving (reduction in emission) of Bitcoin,” saying: “It happened in a year where all the central banks went out to issue and counterfeit their currency without any support, and it made evident the cracks in the system and how the perfect storm only favors Bitcoin to keep increasing its price.”

According to Gabriel Vago, CEO of ArgenBTC, 2020 was undoubtedly the best year for the crypto ecosystem in Argentina. “The different circumstances that occurred throughout the year — between, the exchange rate gap, the quarantine lockdown and the unstoppable rise in the price of Bitcoin since March — prepared a perfect scenario for hundreds of thousands of Argentines to join the crypto world,” he highlighted.

Emiliano Limia, public relations manager at Buenbit, said that the most important thing was the exponential growth of users. “The reasons behind this generalised growth are mainly related to the complex economic context the country is going through. Crypto assets gained ground as a form of savings in the context of the devaluation of the Argentine peso and restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency.”

In particular, he stated that the adoption of Dai became popular: “As it is a stablecoin, which has a price linked to the U.S. dollar, many Argentines turned to acquiring it. The reason is that in Argentina, there is a maximum quota of up to 200 dollars per month, and this is combined with interest rates in low-yielding Argentine pesos and a historical preference of Argentines for the dollar. So, for new users, DAI works as a good gateway to the ecosystem. In fact, MakerDAO, the organization that created this stablecoin, assures in its official blog that DAI has become the most popular crypto in Argentina by exchange volumes, even ahead of Bitcoin, due to concerns about hyperinflation.”

On the other hand, he talked about the increase in Bitcoin’s price. “It caught the attention of the press and of many people who had not yet entered the ecosystem, and who now notice that the asset is consolidating,” he said.

For economist Nicolas Litvinoff, director of Estudinero, the most important events of 2020 had to do with two things: operations and access.

“On the side of fundamentals, easy access to the purchase of Bitcoin was the big news,” he said. “The access ramp benefited from the development and implementation of P2P operations but monitored and guaranteed by exchanges or multi-currency platforms. The proposals of Airtm, Uphold and now Binance — that an Argentinean can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum or other assets with a transfer in pesos and the other person can send the crypto — is a model of operation that facilitates the access to crypto assets. Peer-to-peer opens the door for millions of people to the world of crypto assets.”

He added: “From the point of view of prices, the consolidation of Bitcoin as a safeguard against inflation, and the possibility of accessing stablecoins linked to the dollar as a safeguard against inflation, is good news. Beyond the price increase, Bitcoin has shown that it is an excellent refuge of value, especially for countries with a high degree of financial repression or regulation, like ours.”

For Matías Part, chief operating officer of Crypto Rocket and CR Academia, there were a series of internal and external factors that helped to put cryptocurrencies on the map in a definitive way.

“When the previous government regulated the exchange rate trap in September 2019, there was a great uncertainty that was immediately solved by the ecosystem,” he said. “The local exchanges already had DAI listed and the (misnamed) Crypto Dollar emerged.”

“Then, with the change of government, the economic crisis deepened, making people want to support themselves as best they could by buying DAIs without restrictions and with Argentine pesos.”

Rey Puma observed: “I think one of the most important things is the increased adoption of Bitcoin, DAI and USDT because of the overall growth in digital payments due to the pandemic.”

“Many people opted for traditional mobile peso wallets and others started using crypto wallets or custodial apps from exchanges for the first time,” he added.

For Rey Puma, another important thing that happened is that the population was to a greater extent exposed to the fact that Bitcoin can be an alternative to the peso or the dollar to safeguard value, “since in just a couple of months Bitcoin went from being worth 1 million to 3 million pesos.”

This provoked a great growth in new users, and OKEX also noticed it. Rey Puma confirmed that Argentina became one of the countries with the most movement in Latin America.

For Marcos Zocaro, a tax consultant, “Despite the fact that these were not very fortunate events (or measures) for the direction of the Argentine economy, the growing exchange restrictions and the depreciation of the national currency were the trigger for an adoption of cryptocurrencies as we had not seen before.”

“The crypto ecosystem received new users and investors who were discovering the technology as they tried to find some way to dollarize their savings, bypassing (legally) existing restrictions,” he added. “And this boom also generated the emergence of new local crypto ventures and the arrival of important players (among which are the main exchanges worldwide).”

Bitcoin halving

In addition to highlighting many events globally, Abraham Cobos, “crypto catalyst” of Bitso, spoke of Bitcoin’s halving: “On May 11, for the third time in its history, the reward for each mined block was halved. This went down from 12.5 to 6.25 Bitcoin for every block processed (every 10 minutes). When Bitcoin first appeared in 2009, its emission per block was 50 BTC, and then successively halved every 210,000 blocks for four years, resulting in 25 BTC in 2012 and 12.5 BTC in 2016.”

“The halving phenomenon reminds us that Bitcoin is an extremely scarce resource and that its supply is increasingly limited,” he said.

Decentralized finance

Decentralized finance is an international phenomenon, and Argentina has also seen momentum and different developments in this particular sector.

For Juan Manuel Domínguez, director of STO Managers, 2020 was as chaotic as it was interesting for the crypto ecosystem: “The acceleration in interest from people not directly related to the industry, ordinary people who had already heard about it at some point from a friend or family member, and are finally deciding to take the first step even at a higher rate than was the case in 2017.”

In this sense, he highlighted the further development of new applications with more user-friendly interfaces that has been taking place, partly as a result of the intense growth of DeFi platforms that emerged this year. “This plays a significant role in favoring the adoption by users who are just starting out in the industry,” he said.

Part stated: “After the first quarter came the boom of DeFi, with yields of between 5% and 8% per year, which ended up discouraging the FCI and fixed terms.”

On the other hand, he also highlighted the price of BTC surpassing a new all-time high:

“I think that we must also highlight the great work of the community and the exchanges that during this year understood that we must educate the population in a correct way and took care of giving webinars and organizing ATP events. Clearly, it is a year that is hinged in every way.”

A “Crypto Valley”

For Alan Boryszanski, chief financial officer of Lemon Cash, one of the most outstanding milestones in the ecosystem of Argentina was the creation of what he calls “the first Crypto Valley of LATAM” in San Martin de los Andes in the province of Neuquen. It “became a pioneer city that works as a technological testing ground for companies, startups, entrepreneurs, academics and organizations,” he explained.

“With more than 600 merchants that accept digital assets as a form of payment, Crypto Valley has a direct relationship with the Chamber of Commerce of the city and has the support of the local Ministry of Tourism,” he added. “In addition, it contributes to financial inclusion thanks to webinar cycles and research agreements with different universities in the country. The Crypto Valley condenses many changes that happened in 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic, the currency trap and the tax increases, which forced the massive adoption of cryptocurrencies as a value reserve.”

A year into the pandemic: How Argentina\’s economy struggled while its crypto ecosystem flourished

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Mar 15 2021

#StopAsianHate: Indiegogo Stands Against AAPI Hate Crimes and Discrimination

Over the last year, there has been a sharp increase in hate crimes and racist attacks against Asians and Pacific Islanders. Through December 2020, Stop AAPI Hate received more than 2,800 reports of racism and discrimination, and that figure fails to account for the attacks that have taken place since the beginning of the year.

Attacks like the murder of Vichar Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old immigrant from Thailand who was violently killed in San Francisco, the slashing of Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old man who was disfigured on the NYC Subway, and thousands of other racially motivated incidents against Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Indiegogo condemns these attacks, which are targeted in particular at our senior citizens. We reject bigotry, hatred, and racism in all forms, and stand in solidarity with Stop AAPI Hate and the AAPI community.

“Indiegogo’s mission is to elevate a diverse global community of inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs, and all the backers that support them. We strive to be a birthplace for ideas and innovations that bring a positive change in the world, and we cannot do that effectively without ensuring that all people are safe and all voices are heard.” —Andy Yang, Indiegogo CEO

We acknowledge the existence of structural racism and the ways in which it has poisoned all aspects of our society. We work to educate our internal team and the rest of Indiegogo community on fighting white supremacy and discrimination toward Asians and Pacific Islanders, and increase Asian representation in the crowdfunding community. We commit to creating and sharing anti-racism resources and content, and strive to end the Model Minority Myth as it fails to take into the account the true history and struggles of the Asian and Pacific Islander community. To start, we will be donating 100% of the revenue raised from our March 15, 2021 newsletter to Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that works to bring justice and raise awareness of the many issues facing the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

There are a number of ways to get educated, get involved, and be an ally for justice. Below are some resources to get started.

Asian-American Creators and Entrepreneurs To Support

Organizations to Support and How to Donate

Stop AAPI Hate

“In response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center on March 19, 2020. The center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Our approach recognizes that in order to effectively address anti-Asian racism we must work to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.”

Donate to Stop AAPI Hate

AAPI Community Fund (GoFundMe)

“Together, it is our responsibility to condemn these violent acts and create lasting social change. We must amplify AAPI voices and find ways to uplift, empower, and protect the AAPI community. The Support the AAPI Community Fund aims to do just that, addressing the urgent issues that face the AAPI community as well as broader, systemic problems. With the donations received through the Fund, GoFundMe.org will issue grants to trusted AAPI organizations working to rectify the racial inequalities in our society.”

Donate to the AAPI Community Fund

#HATEISAVIRUS Movement

“Hate Is A Virus is a nonprofit community of mobilizers and amplifiers that exists to dismantle racism and hate. We started as a movement in April 2020 in response to the rise in hate crimes against AAPI due to the pandemic. Over that past year, we raised $30k+ to help a host of essential, BIPOC community organizations across the nation such as (Act to Change, Kollaboration, Laos in the House, Arts Administrators of Color) and ran two virtual educational events featuring guests like Sandra Oh, Baron Davis, Apolo Ohno, Mirai Nagasu, and more. This year, Hate Is A Virus continues to amplify, educate and activate AAPI to stand for justice and equality in solidarity with other communities.”

Donate to the #HATEISAVIRUS Movement

Stand Against Hatred Campaign: Asian Americans Advancing Justice

“Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. The affiliation’s members are: Advancing Justice – AAJC (Washington, D.C.), Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, Advancing Justice – Atlanta, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus (San Francisco), and Advancing Justice – Chicago.”

Report incidents to the Stand Against Hatred Campaign

Social Media Posts, Articles, and Literature We Found Educational

Treating Yellow Peril: Resources to Address Coronavirus Racism compiled by Dr. Oliver Chang

Eva Chen’s LIVE conversation with @cathyyan @amandangocnguyen and @heymichellelee

Asian Pacific American (APA) reading list compiled by Asian & Middle Eastern Studies Librarian Casey Lee

Hypebae: Nine initiatives standing up to anti-Asian violence

Harper’s Bazaar: What is the #StopAsianHate Campaign?

A crowdsourced map detailing where and when anti-Asian racism has taken place based on user-submitted reports

Asian American Feminist Collective Zine: Care in the Time of Coronavirus Issue

We will continue adding to this list of resources and links regularly. We are also putting out a call for submissions for stories and campaigns we can amplify and share on our social media channels and blog. If you have a story or valuable resource you’d like us to share, we hope you’ll leave us a comment on FB, Instagram, and Twitter, or send us a note. We’re in this fight to stop Asian hate together.

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Mar 12 2021

Explaining Bitcoin’s Rise From $6k to $56k in a Single Year

One year ago — on March 12th, 2020 — bitcoin was trading at $6,131 per coin. It had been valued at more than $12,000 in June 2019. But markets everywhere were in a bit of a panic last March, and stocks were trading near the lowest level of the year. BTC sold off during the initial crash, just like almost everything else.

But it was pretty clear to me this would ultimately prove to be a great BTC buying opportunity. Because I knew how the Federal government and Federal Reserve were going to react. They were going to print and spend gobs of money, which would almost certainly drive further adoption of bitcoin.

Here’s what I wrote last March in “Bitcoin Was Made For Times Like These,” discussing the $6 trillion stimulus package. Bitcoin was trading at around $6,642 at the time.

I don’t see anything that can stop the money-printing tsunami that is coming. There’s too much debt in the system, too little savings and too little income with the economy being basically shuttered over COVID-19…

Bitcoin was created as a response to reckless government spending, bailouts and money printing. Despite incredible odds against the experiment working, it caught on.

Bitcoin’s purpose is to serve as a decentralized alternative to the existing fiat money system. I believe we’re about to see exactly why this is an important and worthy goal.

I finished that article by citing something I wrote in January 2019.

Bitcoin is in a fantastic place today. The world simply doesn’t understand what it is yet. It’s a monetary revolution in the making, and most people are still eyeing it like it’s a strange, speculative toy.

The general public will come to understand bitcoin with time and, unfortunately, this will accelerate as more financial crises arrive to sharpen its attention.

A Spike In Realization, Then Price

The broader public is finally starting to understand the bitcoin story. Why it was created. What it is trying to accomplish. And the implications all of that holds.

They are beginning to realize this due to the bloated state of our financial system. The debt, money printing, unfunded liabilities, etc. It has become too glaring to ignore. This is ultimately what’s driving bitcoin — and the broader crypto market — higher.

When so many people come to such a dramatic realization at once and want to hedge themselves against inflation and fiat issues, you get the sort of price action we’ve seen in bitcoin over the last year. Combine it with an institutional bitcoin investor boom and the halving that cut new BTC supply in half last spring, and you get explosive growth.

Sure, some new crypto buyers are just in it for a short-term trade. But savvier ones will stick around for the long run — especially the new institutional investors that are flocking in. So I believe this bull run still has significant upside. Sure, there will be gnarly corrections. But the fundamentals driving adoption aren’t going away anytime soon.

Stimulus Unending

The COVID-19 crisis was the catalyst for this current splurge in debt and stimulus. But I think if it wasn’t that, it would have been something else. America was already running $1T+ deficits in 2019, with $122T+ unfunded government liabilities. We were already well on our way to Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) before this all began, as I noted back in November 2019.

COVID moved up the monetary timetable significantly. And the response has been staggering so far. I suspect support/stimulus packages will continue and even increase over coming years. They cannot stop at this point. We need ultra-low interest rates, huge government spending and money printing just to maintain the status quo. There’s simply too much debt in the system.

If the Fed Funds rate rose from 0.25% to 3-4% (lower than the roughly 5% long-term average), the financial world would implode. We saw what happened in 2018 when the Fed tried to raise rates. Disaster. Companies and governments would start to drown in the interest costs alone.

Our nation’s financial situation is also dire at the personal level. More than half of Americans have less than $1,000 savings today. That number was as high as 70% before COVID in 2019! All the stimulus has actually helped increase personal savings. It’s “working” — but people in the U.S. will continue to require significant government benefits going forward to keep the economy afloat.

Further, I believe the U.S. will eventually move to a Universal Basic Income (UBI) model, where everyone is guaranteed a certain level of income. We’ve completed three rounds of stimulus checks now. I expect more will follow, then eventually UBI.

The nation will become increasingly dependent on government largesse. And as the late economist Milton Friendman said “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

But Where’s The Inflation?

I do believe we will eventually see troubling levels of inflation. In fact, one could argue that we already have fairly high real inflation. Take a look at the research of Dr. John Williams — founder of ShadowStats — who calculates inflation using the old (official) Consumer Price Index (CPI) methodologies from 1990 and 1980. Using those methods, he comes up with alternate readings of around 5% to 8.5% real inflation, respectively. Needless to say the new, “modern” way inflation is calculated happens to make it look a lot lower than it used to.

Here’s what Williams’ alternate inflation measure looks like (in blue) compared to the official number (in red).

This “real inflation is higher than reported” notion is (slowly and reluctantly) becoming more widely appreciated. It’s now being discussed by major analysts such as Michael Every, Head of Financial Research in the Asia-Pacific region for Rabobank (Rabobank is a giant Dutch financial firm, one of the 30 largest in the world).

Every recently discussed some ways in which official inflation statistics are manipulated in “Inflation Is Being ‘Hidden’ Because Belief In Our Whole Fantasy System Is Collapsing.” Here’s an excerpt.

“…is inflation being ‘hidden’? If so, let’s not forget US CPI has long had ‘hedonic adjustments’ that presume goods such as clothing and books get “cheaper” as their price goes up because they are “better”; and since 1999 it has used a geometric not arithmetic mean to assume when beef goes up, consumers buy chicken, so inflation stays lower overall. Would they want to actively hide inflation though?“

To me, it seems clear that inflation is already a fairly serious problem — and that it’s likely to get worse over time. However… it is important to remember that the dollar remains the world’s reserve currency. And a LOT of people and nations around the world still rely on it for commerce and as a reserve asset.

So as we “debase” our money by printing and spending more, any “pain” is shared by everyone who holds dollars around the world. As a result, I believe MMT and debt monetization are actually going to work pretty well for a while. For a time, it will seem as if we are printing our way to prosperity. And those calling for an imminent dollar collapse will likely continue to be disappointed for many years to come. Eventually it seems likely that other countries will begin to shift away from the dollar as it is slowly debased, but these things take a long time to play out.

Importantly, inflation could still get rather nasty over the next few years. I could easily see prices increasing more than 10% annually within a few years. That sort of inflation can quickly wipe out a big chunk of savings (and debt, which is more the goal).

This environment — rising inflation/prices combined with ultra-low interest rates and the resulting lack of yields — will continue to create demand for alternative assets like bitcoin, for the next decade I’d guess. And whenever inflation gets truly serious, bitcoin will likely go parabolic once again.

Some of us cranks have been ranting about this stuff for years. But for the average investor, realization is just now dawning. Many more are still in denial. But eventually everyone will have their own private epiphany. When they do, I suspect many will wish they had held onto some BTC. It’s shaping up to be the hedge to own for the next decade plus.

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