We usually associate the cryptocurrency
environment with advanced security measures to secure financial resources.
There are even companies that offer cryptocurrency holders advanced methods of
securing their wealth through military technology. Nevertheless, the problem of
theft is not a foreign topic in the cryptocurrency community.
The graph above shows the size of
cryptocurrency theft over a period of 3 years. Different colors indicate
different cases of cryptocurrency theft, while the black line shows the number
of recorded incidents.
Almost all cases of cryptocurrency theft
fall into one of the three theft categories. The categories mentioned are:
Exchange attacks, attacks on individuals, DeFi exploits.
Exchange attacks
At this point, thieves have stolen
billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency by attacking exchange wallets. Many
companies, including such large and respected companies as Bitpoint, Binance,
DragonEx, have been the subject of keen interest from hackers. The question
arises as to how hackers managed to break through such advanced security. One
of the most common methods used by hackers is social engineering. A hacker
typically tries to trick employees of a particular cryptocurrency security company’s
customers into downloading special malware that will give them access to one or
more accounts. If the attacker is sufficiently determined, he will wait for
months or even longer, observing patterns of money inflows and outflows so that
he can sense the right moment to steal as much money as possible. What does
this look like in practice? In one
particularly audacious case, hackers set up a fake company, complete with
website, social media presence and executive resumes. On the fake website, the hackers posted that
they had created an automated trading bot and sent out several messages to
employees of the companies/exchanges asking them to download and try a free
trial version. At least one of the recipients was tempted by the offer. As it
later turned out, the “free trial” included malware that helped
hackers obtain the keys to private cryptocurrency wallets of several users.
Immediately after gaining access to these accounts, the hackers began siphoning
funds from these wallets. Hacking activity is a major threat for exchanges.
Illegal
organisations, or other illegal cryptocurrency entities, are groups transacting
with cryptocurrency whose activities do not necessarily rise to the level of
criminality, but are nevertheless considered risky due to activities balancing
on the edge of legality or reputational risk. One example of such entities are
implicitly sex-related sites such as RubRatings. The site in question allows
massage therapists to publish advertisements encouraging clients to use their
sexual services and includes Bitcoin as a payment option. While services
offered by the said website are as a rule legal, the RubRatings website implies
the availability of sexual services and the site itself is listed as a human
trafficking intermediary, therefore the RubRatings organisation, can be
categorised as illegal.
Domestic Extremism and Racial Hatred
Another
example relates to the organisations and public figures associated with
domestic extremism and racial hatred. Many of these organisations accept
donations in the form of cryptocurrencies, and it can be expected that more
will follow, as with the current interest in cryptocurrencies, organisations
will continue to move away from conventional payment. Examples confirming this
trend are publications such as the Daily Stormer, as well as the work of public
figures such as Nick Fuentes. Extremist rhetoric itself is generally not illegal
in most jurisdictions, but many of these groups have been linked to incidents
involving outright violence. Examples of such incidents include: The 2017 Unite
the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia or the 2021 riot in front of the
US Capitol. In the latter case, Chainalysis found that several people with
alt-right views, including some associated with the rally immediately preceding
the riot, had received large donations in bitcoin one month earlier.
Due to its
membership in the Netherlands Polish Chamber of Commerce, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI
KG LEGAL will take part in the Business Mission for Organic Producers from the
Netherlands to Poland organized on 26-27 October 2021.
Together
with the Netherlands Embassy, the Netherlands Polish Chamber of Commerce
participates in an incoming mission for organic producers from the Netherlands.
The NPCC will be responsible for a tailor made matchmaking program for incoming
companies.
The new EU
Green Deal strategy, which aims to increase the area of organic farming in the
EU to 25% of agricultural land by 2030, is a huge boost for this sector. In
Poland, with the current share of 3.5% organic farming area, reaching the 10%
ceiling by 2030 means tripling the current state.
On the
other hand with 38 mln inhabitants Poland is a big market and with increasing
knowledge and demand for good quality food, sales of organic products in Poland
are steadily growing. Next to retail chains focused on eco certified products
only, also shelfs of regular retail chains are being filled with products
labeled with the EU green leaf. Also bottom up initiatives like bio trade fairs
are more common and with well-developed delivery system in Poland also
omni-channel solutions are very popular in this sector.
More and more often, foreign clients of
KIEŁTYKA GŁADKOWSKI KG LEGAL take part in online hearings as a part of civil
lawsuits. This also applies to foreign witnesses in commercial proceedings
conducted for foreign clients and settled by the Polish civil courts.
The widespread use of remote (online)
questioning of witnesses results from a temporary change in the Polish civil
procedure, which adapted the practice of conducting court cases in the
realities of the pandemic. The proliferation of the practice of questioning
witnesses has created the standard practice of summoning foreign witnesses in
writing by document, which the Polish court delivers by conventional mail to
the witness’ address and summons the witness to participate in the online
hearing. The court in such a letter explains in great detail to the witness how
and when the witness is to connect to the court online.
Due to the fact that the court informs the
foreign witness in great detail about how the foreign witness is to connect
online with the Polish court using a computer, KIELTYKA GLADKOWSKI KG LEGAL
presents below the full content of the Polish Court’s summons and instructions.
It may turn out to be very helpful for
foreign readers doing business in Poland, because this type of summons is very
standard and is used in a very similar way by all Polish common courts.
The summons begins with the designation of
the court by which the summons is issued. Full text of the summons together
with instructions on the consequences of failure to appear online is presented
below:
Changes in the procedure in the Polish civil and administrative court proceedings under the Acts of May 14, 2020 and May 28, 2021 on the amendment of certain acts in the field of protective measures in connection with the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The epidemic caused by the Covid-19 virus has
significantly introduced changes in the search for safe solutions for
people-to-people contact. These changes also affected the courts and the mode
of court hearings, in order to ensure the greatest possible safety for the
parties to the proceedings and court employees. In this situation, the best way
to limit direct contact was the possibility of using electronic communication
methods.
Legal basis
Amendment to the Polish Act of March 2, 2020
on special solutions related to the prevention, counteraction and combating of
COVID-19, other infectious diseases and the emergencies caused by them,
implemented by two acts of May 14, 2020 and May 28, 2021, allowed for the
possibility of holding court hearings in Polish courts with using means of
distance communication. The change resulting directly from article 15 zzs1
of the Polish Act of 2 March 2020 allowed for the possibility of participating
in a remote hearing from a place other than the court, because until now the Polish
Code of Civil Procedure allowed for the possibility of conducting a remote
hearing, but the persons participating in it had to be present in the court
building. Pursuant to article 15zzs1 point 1 of the Polish Act of 2
March 2020, during the period of the epidemic threat or epidemic state
announced due to COVID-19 and within one year of the last of them being
recalled in cases examined under the provisions of the Polish Code of Civil
Procedure, court hearings or open sessions are held with the use of technical
devices enabling them to be carried out at a distance with the simultaneous
direct transmission of image and sound, except that the people participating in them
do not have to be in the court building, unless holding a hearing or a public
hearing without the use of the above devices causes excessive health risk to
the participants.[1]
