Colleagues, Sirin
Labs, CryptoKitties
and HTC have all announced plans to
launch smartphones with Blockchain
capabilities on-board. Some of these phones will have DAPPS and allow offline
storage of cryptocurrencies which is a key step toward improved crypto
security. This leads to two critical questions. First, will the smartphone
market leaders Apple and Samsung follow suit and pre-integrate Blockchain into
future versions of their smartphones? And second, what will be the number and
breadth of cryptocurrencies which can be managed by these phones – this includes
wallet, trading-exchange and perhaps even pre-integrated mining capabilities? We
know that the HTC Exodus phone will be enabled to manage both Bitcoin and Ethereum. An excellent start. The other
key player here is Google Android. If the Sirin, CryptoKitties and HTC phones
gain market traction the Cryptocurrency
Academy predicts that other Android device-based vendors will heavily lobby
Google for Blockchain capabilities integrated on-board with Android.
Collectively, this move could be a major catalyst for cryptocurrency adoption
during the next 12-24 months. Send us your
comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Our mission is to provide Training and Certification programs to enable Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and FinTech traders and investors worldwide to achieve their career goals.
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018
PowerGhost cryptojacking malware poses a new threat which jeopardizes legitimate cryptocurrency mining
Colleagues, crypto mining remains one of the
weakest links in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and in turn a high priority target for cyber
criminals. Although not as numerous as personal computers and laptops,
corporate servers and workstations typically far more computing power which
makes them such attractive targets to cryptojackers. PowerGhost, recently reported by Kaspersky Lab’s is a fileless malware which injects a one-line PowerShell script is run that downloads the miner’s body and
immediately launches it without writing it to the hard drive. This malware has
been detected in third world countries including Tukey, India, Brazil and
Columbia. Malware like PowerGhost
is especially a threat to cloud-based computing environments. Now that the prevalence of the problem has
been observed and noted, service providers may wish to extend capabilities they
already have to find and flag this content. Bottom line: Cyber criminals relentlessly
exploit the weakest point in any ecosystem. Given the meteoric growth of the
cryptocurrency ecosystem all participants needs to be equally relentless in keeping
their OS and application software up-to-date and installing patches as soon as
they are released. Send us your comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Will a central bank cryptocurrency enable Iran to evade US economic sanctions?
Colleagues, with US economic sanctions to take effect in August
2018 Iran’s government is renewing its quest to establish its own
cryptocurrency backed by the country’s fiat currency – the “Rial”. This plan is being led by the government’s Science
and Technology Department in coordination with the Central Bank of Iran. This move is not unexpected as Iran’s economy struggles and the
pressure from US sanctions mounts. Two broader questions emerge. First, will other rogue nation-states such as North
Korea, Syria, Sudan, and Venezuela seek to implement their own cryptocurrencies
… and with what backing? We do know that Venezuela
intends to back their cryptocurrency with the price of crude oil. And second,
are we seeing the bifurcation of the global cryptocurrency
ecosystem into legitimate first world and underground thirdworld currencies … each with their distinct exchanges and protocols? The Cryptocurrency Academy believes
this assume is valid and that the next 24-36 months will in fact witness two
parallel crypto ecosystems develop. Send us your comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Friday, July 27, 2018
What impact will BitGo’s Predictive UTXO Management have on crypto transaction fees?
Colleagues, transaction
fees have been a major stumbling block for cryptocurrency traders and investors
alike during the past 2-3 years. As trading volumes increase historical data
suggest that transaction fees rise accordingly. BitcoinCharts
Transaction Fee Historical chart clearly shows that fees reached about $58 in
late December 2017, however, fees have fallen back to around $1 as of July
2018. With the launch of BitGo’s predictive
UTXO (unspent
transaction output) management solution the open issue is whether lowering
transaction fees – especially during peaks in trading volumes – will lead to
increased transaction levels? Yes, UTXO early adopters like Civic and Bitstamp fully expect that the answer will
be a resounding “yes”. The bigger challenge will come from the largest Bitcoin
exchanges Binance, OKEx, Huobi, UpBit, BitFinex and BitHumb? The bottom
line: In the near-term (12-24 months) the Cryptocurrency Academy
predicts that crypto traders with high transaction volumes of low-medium BTC
value (e.g. under 100 BTC) are the likely beneficiaries. By contrast,
institutional crypto investors will lower transaction volumes of over 1000 BTC
will see far less benefit. Send us your
comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Does AMD’s Q2 Revenue Drop in GPUs Portend a Decline in Industry-wide Crypto Mining?
Colleagues, although AMD’s
primary competitors are Intel and NVidia, its 3% decline in sales of GPUs for
crypto miners is cause for concern. Yes, crypto mining sales account for only
6% of AMD’s total revenue. Nonetheless, the question remains: Is this revenue
miss a one quarter aberration, is AMD losing market share to other crypto ASIC
miners or is the crypto mining segment as a whole facing a slowdown? And what
is the overall health of Bitmain,
DragonMint, Titan V (NVidia) and Avalon?
We do know that crypto mining in aggregate is highly correlated to price fluctuations
in Bitcoin which reached an all-time high of $19,009 on December 18, 2017 and
now has struggled to reach $8405 today. Other key factors in crypto ASIC mining
demand include the price of Altcoins such as Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin,
along with the cost of electricity in China and Central Asia. Ultimately we
need to examine the supply-demand ratio for ASIC mining rigs. Bottom line:
While overall demand for cryptocurrency continues to expand at what point does
the supply of available crypto tokens become limited? Send us your
comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
How exposed are traders and investors to Crypto Exchange Fraud?
Colleagues, while
cryptocurrency fraud is nothing new, the vast proliferation of exchanges, ICOs
and investment funds should send a strong signal to traders and investors
alike: Exercise extreme caution and perform 360 degree due diligence before you
invest. Yes, many exchanges, ICOs and funds are legitimate. Nonetheless, the
recent arrest of Jon Montroll by U.S. authorities in
connection with crypto exchange site WeExchange
and securities investment platform BitFunder
and crypto exchange site WeExchange raise even more red flags. Some of the most
common fraudulent tactics taken by crypto criminals include ICOs with no real
coins (e.g. HoweyCoins),
pump and dump strategies, pyramid and Ponzi schemes and crypto exchanges with
questionable track records … at best. The Cryptocurrency Academy offers two
baseline recommendations. First, for traders do not deposit personal funds that
you are not prepared to loose. Stay with the established top-tier exchanges
like CEX.io, Kraken,
Coinbase, CoinMama, GDAX (CoinBase Pro) and Paxful. For institutional investors, use trusted
investment firms and banks who will perform the due diligence for you – at a
cost – however, also provide a much higher level of security and confidence.
The growing list of players here include JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs as well as
professionally managed crypto funds from the likes of Fidelity, Vanguard and
Charles Schwab. Send us your
comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
How effective will the Honeyminer App pool allow the masses to earn Bitcoin through their laptops?
Colleagues, yes many cryptocurrency mining pools tap into end-users’ servers, desktops and laptops allowing them to earn currency when their GPUs are not in use. Enter the Honeyminer App pool. This app concentrates on GPU-intensive currencies such as Zcash, Monero, Ethereum Classic and Ethereum. The Honeyminer App value proposition is simple for those with little investment capital: Earn Bitcoin by outsourcing your GPU as a means of generating incremental income (aka “crypto mining for the common man”). And Honeyminer Pro (currently on wait list status only) will allow owners of professional mining systems to participate as well. Based upon block size thee app rotates its mining activity between different currencies every 10 minutes. So how does Honeyminer compare to the top rated crypto mining pool including EasyMiner, MultiMiner, BFGMiner, CGMner and BitMiner? The Cryptocurrency Academy believes the answer lies in the array of cryptos being mined and the number of cryptos that can be earned. Send us your comments today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Is the Future of Crypto Exchanges in the Cloud? Consider the Huobi Cloud
Colleagues, according CryptoCoinCharts Huobi is the
world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency exchange. Known as the “Huobi
Blockchain Plus Industry Alliance" over the past few months the
cryptocurrency exchange giant has been making efforts to build stronger
networks for the Blockchain industry. The Huobi Cloud comprises of four approaches,
including exchange, operational, OTC, and eco-system solutions. Bottom
line: Will Binance, Bitfinex and HitBTC
follow in Huobi’s path? Our view at the Cryptocurrency Academy is only after
the Huobi Cloud exchange is stress-tested for transaction speed, the integrity
of smart contracts and especially security will the crypto “Big Three” adopt
cloud-based exchange solutions. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Friday, July 20, 2018
Will Dark DAO attacks undermine Blockchain delegated “proof of stake” voting and threaten Cryptocurrencies?
Colleagues, decentralized autonomous organization (aka
“Dark
DAO”) is a clear and present danger to the integrity of Blockchain voting. In
an effort to formalize software decision-making process using smart contracts,
Blockchain initiatives such as Decred, Tron, Polkadot, Tezos and EOS have
used this technique to manage the governance of their code. Dark DAO strategies seek to manipulate the voting
process. Low voter turnout gives Dark DAO cyber criminals the upper hand by
allowing them to control the decision-making process. Bottom line: Dark DAO
places power in the hands of the few which then seek to dominate voter
participation. Thus, not only does Dark DAO effect Blockchains, but potentially undermines
the cryptocurrencies on which they are based. Mitigation strategies appear
questionable at best. More to come on this crucial subject. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Has Cryptojacking become the method of choice among cyber criminals?
Colleagues, some 32%
of cyber-attacks as of mid-2018 are attributable to crypto mining malware
as compared to only 7% of attacks coming from more traditional ransomware.
These figures come from SkyBox
Security’s 2018 Mid-Year Vulnerability Threat Report. Some analysts believe
this shift is due to 1) The dramatic increase in global crypto mining activity,
and 2) A trend for victims of ransomware attacks to simply refuse to pay the
price – financial or other – demanded by the attacks. Some 21% of cryptojacking
attacks are due to the cyber criminals targeting Cisco routers, including the VPNFilter,
ASA and Smart Install. How can the top tier mining companies such as Bitmain, Hut
8, Bitfury Mines, Genesis Mining Enigma, Bcause LLC and GigaWatt mitigate this pervasive
threat? Start by closely implementing any and all patches - and related tactics
- from the Cisco
Security Advisories (or other router vendors such as Juniper and Huawei). Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Blackrock to explore Blockchain and Cryptocurrency sphere – No surprise here
Colleagues, the Cryptocurrency Academy predicted last month that we would see several
large commercial banks and asset management firms will actively participate in
the global Blockchain and Cryptocurrency arenas during the next 24-36 months. Since
then have seen Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan – not to
mention MasterCard - state their intentions to do just that.
Without question adoption of Blockchain-based distributed ledger technology increase transaction speed while
reducing OPEX is a de facto no-brainer for financial institutions. This will
take time and R&D investment and more than a few such entities have filed
Blockchain patent applications. We have also seen the steady rise in third
party cryptocurrency Custodial Services. For many the next step is the
establishment of crypto trading and investing services. Blackrock CEO Larry Fink is on record as saying that none of Blackrock’s institutional clients have “sought crypto exposure”. That is, for
now. We expect that to change in the near future. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Monday, July 16, 2018
Can Robinhood Effectively Compete Against the Top-Rate Crypto Trading Apps?
Colleagues, Coinbase, Bitworth, CryptoTrax, Zapo, Delta (aka
“CoinDash”), Enjin, BTC.com and Investing.com-Cryptocurrency are among the most popular mobile apps
available on both iOS and Android. These apps are commonly used by “millennial”
crypto traders rather than institutional crypto investors. These apps are
commonly viewed as “most popular” based upon 1) The number of cryptocurrencies
they are equipped to trade, and 2) The market cap of the crypto assets they can
trade (see CoinMarket Cap). Enter Robinhood. With much marketing fanfare
the Robinhood app was
designed with millennials in mind and began offering Bitcoin and Ethereum (the crypto
assets with the largest market caps) earlier this year. Last week Robinhood
announced that it would now trade Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. Bottom line
two-fold question: 1) Can Robinhood – despite the number of crypto assets it
can trade compete against the more established apps, and 2) Just how many
mobile trading apps does the global crypto sphere really need? The Cryptocurrency
Academy predicts a pending shakeout and consolidation of crypto trading apps
over the coming 24-36 months. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Friday, July 13, 2018
The Battle to capture Institutions for Crypto Custody Services Heats Up
Colleagues, firms such as BitGo, Ledger, Coinbase and Madison Trust are all vying for institutional clients for their
Cryptocurrency Custody services. Custodian services catering to large
institutions is a growing and vital element of the broader cryptocurrency
ecosystem. Such competition is one more indicator that crypto assets are
crossing the chasm from individual traders to corporate and heavy weight
institutions. For example, Madison Trust offers both Directed and Self-Directed
IRA instruments for RIAs. Registered Investment Advisors are required to
annually register with the SEC and disclose any conflicts of interest they have
regarding the transactions they execute for their clients. A key data point is the Charles Schwab RIA Benchmarking Study which show
steady grow in custodian services. While this study is rather conventional,
what is really needed is a comparable benchmarking study of crypto assets under
custodial management. The Cryptocurrency Academy fully expects crypto assets to
comprise an increasingly higher percent of all assets under RIA management. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Thursday, July 12, 2018
Are we approaching an Era of Regulatory Approval of Crypto Investments in the Global Equity Markets?
Colleagues, South Korea and the UK are
recognized as nations which are rapidly adopting cryptocurrencies along with a
push toward strengthened regulatory environments. During mid-late July of a
number of South Korean political parties are expected to propose legislation focused
on regulating cryptocurrencies, ICOs and Blockchain-based investing.
Concurrently, the UK is moving toward public companies with equities which can tokenized
and issued within a fully compliant custody, settlement and clearing systems.
Two small firms - 20|30 and Nivaura – are providing distributed ledger
and corporate equity issuance. So how do these trends bode for the rest of the
first-world cryptocurrency arena? The Crytocurrency Academy
assumes that government regulators in the US, China, Russia and beyond are
closely monitoring these developments. Moreover, if and when these programs transition
from pilot to mass adoption other nations will closely follow. Share a comment
visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Do Blockchain Firewalls Represent the Next Generation of Internet Security?
Colleagues, amid the fanfare of R3’s recent launch of the first Blockchain-based
firewall the fundamental question is
whether Corda
Enterprise does in fact represent a new era
of improved network and Internet security? Corda states it is able to limit communication between
Blockchain nodes operating in different environments, and with different
informational needs from their network. in any Blockchain architecture each
node uses point-to-point messaging to communicate with other peer nodes. It
would be naïve to deploy the Blockchain node in the DMZ with a public IP address. By targeting specific nodes, an attacker can influence how
consensuses are reached and possibly even halt the Blockchain operation. To
provide additional security to the Blockchain nodes. One technique is to filter
network traffic, thus implementing a firewall for Blockchain applications. Cisco projects they can provide access control functionality which
can effectively mitigate flooding attacks from multiple sources at
simultaneously. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Are we seeing the emergence of a dualistic world order for Crypto Exchanges?
Colleagues, as if the crypto universe
needs another twenty-five exchanges. Well the Philippine government appears to
foresee economic growth and the opportunity to compete with the US, China, the
Ukraine, India and South Korea. Formation of the special economic zone recently
approved by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) to serve both purposes. Bottom line
questions: 1) Just how many crypto exchanges does the world need? and, 2) Can
the Philippines financial and regulatory environment attract top-tier
exchanges? The Cryptocurrency Academy is pro-competition, yet we question the
ever-increasing number of exchanges around the globe … when in fact the five
largest exchanges manage some 75% of all crypto transactions (see Crypto
Coin Charts). We see
the emergence of a dualistic crypto exchange world order whereby the 5-10
largest exchanges control the majority of “first-world” transactions in a
reasonably secure and transparent manner. And in contrast, a multitude of
micro- and/or specialty- exchanges process transactions for the “darker” side of
the crypto world with little regulation and appeal to traders who seek to keep
their transactions away from public scrutiny. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Monday, July 9, 2018
Bittrex & Invest.com: Does the Cryptocurrency World Need Yet Another Trading Exchange Platform?
Colleagues, US-based Bittrex and invest.com, a fintech startup based
in London plan to launch a new EU-focused crypto trading platform. Skeptics abound
as these same two firms had a false start earlier this year with the Zodiac exchange that was aimed at the retail
market. The exchange in question has yet to be launched and information online
regarding the platform has been sketchy at best. According
to Crypto
Coin Charts the five largest exchanges based upon overall
trading volume are: Binance, BitFinex, HitBTC, Houbi and Coinbase
GDAX. In aggregate these exchanges process some 75%
of all cryptocurrency transactions worldwide. From a macro perspective the
crypto segment is still in its infancy and the need for innovation is great.
The Cryptocurrency
Academy believes that a bona fide next gen platform
which can manage multiple currencies with a high degree of security, speed and usability
is needed. Bottom line question: Is the crypto world better off improving
existing exchanges or developing new “purpose-built” exchanges? You make the
call. Post a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Is the new Ethos Universal Crypto Wallet truly Universal, Convenient and Secure?
Colleagues, the Cryptocurrency Academy
applauds the introduction of the Ethos Universal Wallet. The goal of a wallet which enables
traders and investors alike to manage all their cryptocurrencies and tokens
from one mobile device is a noble endeavor. This wallet was initially launched
on Android with plans to introduce an iOS version in
the near future (date – to be determined. Universality, security and
convenience are three critical success factors for any crypto wallet. With new
cryptocurrencies and next gen versions of existing currencies continuously
coming to market only time will tell just how universal this wallet really is. A
mobile app-based wallet surely is convenient. However, the fact that this is a software-based
wallet raises significant security concerns in comparison to hardware wallets,
particularly the Ledger Nano S, Trezor Bitcoin and the KeepKey wallets. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Friday, July 6, 2018
Are We Approaching an Era Where Cryptocurrency Transactions Can Increasing Be Tracked?
Colleagues, money laundering, illicit
drug transactions and nation-states seeking to side-step trade sanctions have all
sought refuge via the use of cryptocurrencies. However, the emerging crypto
world order may in fact be an era in which such transactions can in fact be
tracked. The cyber security struggle between good and evil is playing out
before our eyes as central banks (e.g. US
Federal Reserve) and
regulatory entities (e.g. the US SEC) seek the upper hand against crypto cyber criminals. Firms such
as CipherTrace, Chainanalysis and Bitfury are introducing tools designed to gain
insight into crypto transactions. Bottom line question: Which side of the
crypto privacy vs. transparency ecosystem will succeed? The Cryptocurrency
Academy predicts that
not unlike other cybercrime and warfare, this will be a long-term dilemma
whereby each side develops new technologies and tactics that the other will
thwart or mitigate. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Thursday, July 5, 2018
The BetterHash Crypto Protocol Seeks to Pre-Empt Highly Centralized Stratum Mining
Colleagues, this is a follow-up to our recent post about
alternative Bitcoin mining protocols. Well Bitcoin core developer Matt Corallo has officially launched BetterHash which
offer a decentralized alternative to Stratum the most common BTC and
much more centralized protocol used by AntPool and Bitmain. The goal is to give miners more control over block templates
and help mitigate the risk of a government ordering a locally-operated mining
pool to censor transactions. Moreover, BetterHash’s sub rosa plan appears to be
to prevent Stratum in general, and Bitmain in particular, from achieving a 51%
majority stake in BTC mining. So how well will BetterHash be accepted and
potentially pre-empt Stratum-Bitmain’s control over BTC mining? You make the call. Share a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Can a $2m Incentive Help Buglab Enhance Cryptocurrency Exchange Security?
Colleagues, the Coincheck, Bitgrail, Coinsecure and Coinrail cryptocurrency exchanges have all fallen
victim to cybercrime thefts in 2018 alone. So what can be done to increase
exchange security and bolster both crypto trader and investor confidence? Well,
our friends at Buglab holding a hacking
contest to uncover vulnerabilities in their platforms with a $2m BGL token
prize. They are an Ethereum-based platform which helps exchanges around the
globe resolve security weaknesses in digital solutions such as web apps, DAPPS,
smart contracts and IoT. Major software and IT vendors such as Google, Apple
and Microsoft commonly hold such security bake-offs to stress-test the
integrity of their solutions. Crypto exchanges are often believed to be the
weakest link in the emerging cryptocurrency ecosystem. The key question is
which bugs can be identified combined with strong mitigation techniques? Share a comment
visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
Monday, July 2, 2018
Is Bitcoin a “Buy” at $5,000? Mohamed El-Erian at Allianz Thinks So
Colleagues, despite today’s BTC gains it
is a fair to say that when Mohamed El-Erian speaks people listen. Without doubt El-Erian is among the
elite financial minds in the US, if not the world. The former PIMCO CEO,
El-Erian believes that cryptocurrencies should be viewed more like commodities
rather than sovereign bank currencies. What El-Erian did not say is as
important as what he did say. He did not join the chorus of Bitcoin evangelists
such as Jeet Singh and Tim Draper who predict than the crypto asset will reach
stratospheric levels of $50K and $250k respectively. Bottom line: For long-term
investors the Cryptocurrency Academy recommends that cryptocurrencies should
comprise no more than 5% of your portfolio. Yet for some 20-something crypto
addicts Bitcoin and Altcoins may in
fact comprise a much higher percent of their assets. We stand by our previous
claim that Blockchain technology-focused firms represent a far more tenable
investment alternative. Post a comment visit us today! Lawrence – Cryptocurrency
Academy (https://cryptocurrencyacademy.blogspot.com/)
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