Author: Fin Strathern

Circle hopes new cross-chain USDC protocol will reduce exploits

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/circle-hopes-new-cross-chain-usdc-protocol-will-reduce-exploits/

Circle, creators of the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has launched a mainnet protocol enabling users to transfer USDC between the Ethereum and Avalanche blockchains.

The cross-chain bridge is different from other bridges in that, instead of locking tokens sent to its contract, it completely burns coins on the sending chain and then mints new ones on the receiving chain.

In the past, Avalanche users with USDC on Ethereum would need to deposit the tokens with a Circle-approved partner or use a third-party bridge to transfer between the blockchains.

Circle says that its new Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) removed the need for USDC bridges.

Developers at Circle want CCTP to fix the issue of “fragmentation” within the web3 space. As it stands, there are a number of unofficial USDC tokens operating on multiple networks due to them being bridged from one network to another.

The CCTP offers an official, standardised method to transfer coins between networks, making USDC less confusing to use and shrinking the supply of unofficial tokens over time.

Circle says that many of the most popular cross-chain protocols have already agreed to make full use of CCTP moving forward. These include protocols like MetaMask, Wormhole, Celer, and Hyperlane.

Joao Reginatto, Circle’s vice president of product, said the new protocol will improve liquidity and capital efficiency within the decentralised finance ecosystem:

“With CCTP, developers can simplify the user experience and their users can trust that they are always transacting with a highly liquid, safe and fungible asset in native USDC.”

USDC is the second most popular fiat-backed stablecoin in the crypto space after Tether. Circle says each USDC token is backed one-to-one to the US Dollar in its reserves.

In recent years, web3 users have lost billions of dollars of USDC to decentralised finance (DeFi) and cross-chain bridge hacks.

Bridge hacks often result from hackers discovering how to withdraw coins locked in bridge contracts. Some developers in the space have even said cross-chain bridges will never be secure.

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Solana adds emissions tracker to boost blockchain’s transparency

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/solana-adds-emissions-tracker-to-boost-blockchains-transparency/

Layer-1 blockchain network Solana has launched a real-time tracking dashboard with data platform Trycarbonara to measure on-chain carbon emissions.

The Solana Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to growing and decentralising the network, said the update makes it the first “major smart-contract blockchain” to provide real-time measures of its carbon emissions.

The organisation added that it hopes its steps will incentivise other blockchains to be more transparent about their carbon emissions.

“The Solana Foundation hopes to set a new standard for measuring emissions in blockchain by publishing this data,” it said.

Found on the Solana Climate website, the new dashboard displays data including the network’s total node count, total carbon emissions by average and marginal use, and total megawatt-hours.

As well as a number of other indicators, the dashboard also features charts to allow for comparison between Solana’s carbon output and other activities that produce emissions.

The dashboard says that burning one gallon of gasoline was the equivalent of executing 140,417 transactions on the Solana blockchain.

The foundation has made the data behind the real-time dashboard open-source, adding that its carbon footprint is modelled on that of the Dell PowerEdge R940.

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Bank of England, BIS complete distributed ledger settlements pilot

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/bank-of-england-bis-complete-distributed-ledger-settlements-pilot/

The Bank of England and Bank for International Settlements (BIS) have completed a joint pilot testing a distributed ledger technology-based settlements system between institutions.

The UK central bank plans to take lessons from the project and apply them to its real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.

BIS has also published a 44-page report on the project. Titled Project Meridian, it was carried out with the Bank of England at the BIS innovation hub in London.

The document says the banks were able to buy houses in England and Wales via a synchronisation network that utilises distributed ledger technology (DLT).

According to the report, the method of sending messages between the synchronisation network and RTGS system could be extended to other asset classes “relatively easily”.

The report is also clear that this settlement system could benefit central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stating that:

“Synchronisation can provide a catalyst for innovation in wholesale payments and support the emergence of new payments infrastructures that settle using central bank money.”

Project Meridian does outline a number of potential issues in using such a system, however. The document specifies the difficulties network operators would face in implementing identity verification.

It also highlights that synchronisation services would only be available during RTGS service hours.

There is also a host of legal issues, such as where the final point of irrevocability of the settlement would be drawn and how to digitally represent asset ownership.

In March this year, the BIS announced it had completed Project Icebreaker, another pilot looking at international retail and remittance use cases for CBDCs.

The project saw participation from the central banks of Norway, Sweden, and Israel.

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Trump’s second NFT series sells out on day one

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/trumps-second-nft-series-sells-out-on-day-one/

Another non-fungible token (NFT) collection licensing the name and likeness of former US President Donald Trump has sold out, one day after launching on 18 April.

The second of its kind, the ‘Trump Digital Trading Cards Series 2’ collection features 47.000 NFTs that were originally priced at $99 each, netting the former President a cool $4.65 million.

On the secondary reseller market, the collection has reached 890 Ether in trading volume since launching.

Despite using Trump’s “name, likeness, and image” under a paid licence, the NFTs are not owned or managed by the former president or any of his companies.

Purchasers of the collectibles are promised a ticket to attend Trump’s Gala Dinner in South Florida if they buy 47 trading cards with fiat currency, or 100 if paying in crypto.

On a website dedicated to the Trump NFT series, it reads:

“These are personal digital collectibles or ‘trading cards’ that you can collect, accumulate, trade, etc. Think of them like traditional baseball or basketball cards but stored digitally so you never have to worry about physical damage.”

Buyers could purchase the NFTs through either a credit card or with Wrapped Ether (wEth), and were able to create an NFT wallet with Torus at checkout to store the collectible if needed.

Designed by artist Clark Mitchell, the NFTs are minted using the Polygon blockchain network and developers claim each card featuring an autograph is digitally hand-signed by Trump himself.

The website did state in its FAQ that “these Digital Trading Cards are not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign”.

In March, former president Trump was indicted on more than 30 charges of alleged business fraud by a Manhattan grand jury.

The event caused the price of Trump’s first NFT series, released last December, to surge by around 50% before slowly losing value again.

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BNB Chain flags 191 crypto projects as high-risk in ‘red alarm’ list

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/bnb-chain-flags-191-crypto-projects-as-high-risk-in-red-alarm-list/

BNB Chain, the blockchain network of crypto exchange Binance, has updated its red alarm list with 191 new projects and decentralised applications (DApps) it considers to be high-risk.

The red alarm list is updated every Friday, warning users of projects and DApps on the blockchain that the developers consider to be risky investments.

Judgements are made based on an assessment of each project or DApps’ smart contract.

BNB Chain said that the 191 new projects added to the list are expected of issuing fake tokens, having high tax fees, or websites and social media URLs that don’t work.

Examples of some projects deemed risky by BNB Chain on its red alarm list.

BNB Chain said in an announcement: “Make sure to review our weekly Red Alarm list to familiarize yourself with suspicious actors on our network.”

The blockchain stressed that its alert is not investment advice and does not definitively represent the risk level of any project or DApps. The list is designed to help users conduct their own research before making any investment decisions.

BNB Chain also offers a risk scanner where users can scan any project on the blockchain for risks.

Three of the projects in the red alarm list, CycGo, Piston, and Shorter Finance, are labelled as having potentially been funded by assets from the now-sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

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Ripple launches crypto liquidity service for businesses

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/ripple-launches-crypto-liquidity-service-for-businesses/

San Francisco-based fintech firm Ripple has launched a liquidity solution to act as a bridge between crypto and fiat currency for businesses.

The Ripple Liquidity Hub launched 13 April following a successful pilot last year.

“Liquidity Hub is publicly available to provide businesses with a simple, seamless way to manage their modern crypto liquidity needs,” the firm said.

The hub is a stand-alone solution operating separately from Ripple’s cross-border payments service called on-demand liquidity (ODL).

Built for enterprises, the hub will offer digital assets from sources across the market, be it crypto exchanges or trading desks.

When an enterprise customer needs liquidity, it sources the funds from deep pools ranging from US dollars to Bitcoin, Ether, or Litecoin. Ethereum Classic and Bitcoin Cash are also available as part of the service.

Ripple’s own token, XRP, is not mentioned in the product launch. The token has been a key component of many of its liquidity products and services in the past, particularly with cross-border services.

XRP was also mentioned as one of the available assets in the hub’s pilot phase in 2022. Its lack of mention may be a consequence of the fintech’s ongoing legal exchange with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ripple said that its liquidity solution can drastically reduce operational costs for high-volume transactions through optimised crypto pricing and liquidity across asset pairings.

The hub also removes the need to pre-finance any positions to source liquidity or execute transactions. Ripple added that the service will lock in optimum prices for digital assets, protecting companies from market fluctuations and price swings.

Ripple has become a popular service provider in the fintech space for its liquidity and cross-border payment solutions. The firm’s ODL solution is used by a number of banks around the globe to bring cryptocurrencies into their remittance services.

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CoFund tokenises luxury Bali hotel using Tokeny

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/cofund-tokenises-luxury-bali-hotel-using-tokeny/

Tokeny, a tokenisation infrastructure provider, has partnered with CoFund, an Ethereum real-estate tokenisation marketplace, to tokenise a luxury hotel in Indonesia.

The $10 million hotel sits on the island resort of Bali, and will be tokenised using ERC-3643 security tokens on the Polygon network.

Luxembourg-based Tokeny said that investors will be able to buy a piece of the hotel through a minimum investment of $1,000.

Luc Falempin, CEO of Tokeny, said: “Simple ERC-20 tokens and NFTs don’t meet compliance needs. Our technology platform leverages the ERC-3643 token standard to ensure our partners can enforce compliance, even on a permissionless blockchain.”

Tokeny’s infrastructure gives issuers access to fully auditable and immutable capitalisation tables of securitised tokens on the blockchain. The company also supports real-time transfers and distribution of tokens to investors.

Giri Kayogiswara, CEO of CoFund, said: “With Tokeny’s proven platform, we can create a secure and accessible real estate investment market that meets the needs of all types of investors while ensuring compliance. This collaboration takes us one step closer to realising our vision of a global real estate investment market.”

In February, Tokeny made possible the launch of a tokenised venture capital fund for Spanish business podcast Emprendeduros.

Investors were able to partake in private equity placements through a minimum purchase of 500 euros.

Last January, Tokeny bagged a 5 million euro investment led by Inveniam, Apex, and K20 Fund.

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SushiSwap suffers $3.3m exploit as it addresses US subpoena

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/sushiswap-suffers-3-3m-exploit-as-it-addresses-us-subpoena/

Decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol SushiSwap has suffered a smart contract bug that allowed for more than $3 million of funds to be siphoned in an exploit.

The hack should only impact users who swapped crypto on the protocol within the past four days, according to DefiLlama developer 0xngmi.

Blockchain security teams from Peckshield and CertiK Alert first posted about the bug on 9 April, stating that it had affected the approval function of SushiSwap’s Router Processor 2 contract.

This smart contract collates trade liquidity from a number of sources to determine the best price for swapping crypto.

Peckshield said the approval bug caused losses of at least $3.3 million in funds.

Jared Grey, lead developer at SushiSwap, advised users to refuse permissions for all contracts on the protocol.

A list of contracts with different blockchains that need to be refused was created on GitHub in response.

Grey said: “Sushi’s RouteProcessor2 contract has an approval bug; please revoke approval ASAP. We’re working with security teams to mitigate the issue.”

Following first reports of the incident, Grey confirmed via Twitter that a “large portion” of affected funds had been recovered using white hat security methods.

“We’ve confirmed recovery of more than 300ETH from CoffeeBabe of Sifu’s stolen funds. We’re in contact with Lido’s team regarding 700 more ETH,” he tweeted.

SushiSwap made news over the weekend when Grey and his team commented on the protocol’s March-issued subpoena from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

He said: “The SEC’s investigation is a non-public, fact-finding inquiry trying to determine whether there have been any violations of the federal securities laws.”

“To the best of our knowledge, the SEC has not (as of this writing) made any conclusions that anyone affiliated with Sushi has violated United States federal securities laws.”

Grey and the SushiSwap team say they are cooperating with the court order.

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Three quarters of rug pulls happened on BNB Chain in Q1 2023

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/three-quarters-of-rug-pulls-happened-on-bnb-chain-in-q1-2023/

Of all the rug pull scams carried out across the crypto ecosystem in the first quarter of 2023, almost three quarters occurred on Binance’s BNB Chain, according to a report from Immunefi.

The blockchain security firm’s latest report, ‘Crypto Losses in Q1 2023’, looked at the different kind of crypto hacks, scams, and exploits that took place in the first three months of the year.

It found that 73.3% of rug pull scams, where developers attract investor money for a project then suddenly shut down or disappear with the raised funds, happened on BNB Chain in this period.

The report also found that Ethereum and BNB Chain were the most notable targets for hackers, with 68.8% of total losses coming from these two networks.

BNB Chain, the crypto exchange Binance’s layer-1 blockchain network, made up 41.3% of these total losses.

In the report, Immunefi tech lead Adrian Hetman suggested that the reason for so many rug pulls on BNB Chain could be due to developers forking open-source code:

“BNB Chain still has a serious issue with developers using forked code. Its community lacks a security-first approach and attracts many users looking for a quick way to earn money. That’s why we continue to see the biggest number of exploits and rug pulls in this ecosystem,” Hetman said.

Although BNB Chain attracted so many rug pulls, Immunefi noted that this type of scam is a smaller problem for the crypto space than hacks and exploits, which result in far greater financial losses.

The report found hacks to be the “predominant cause” of losses in the first quarter of 2023, while rug pulls and other scams or frauds made up only 4.3% of total losses.

A number of high-profile scams hit the news cycle in Q1 2023, taking with them millions of dollars from decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols.

In March, lending protocol Euler lost more than $195 million in a flash loan attack, the largest crypto exploit in 2023 to date. The month prior, on 1 February, another DeFi lending protocol BonqDAO suffered an oracle hack that manipulated the price of a token, resulting in an estimated $120 million loss.

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Huobi partners with Gala Games for web3 gaming integration

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/04/huobi-partners-with-gala-games-for-web3-gaming-integration/

Huobi Global, a cryptocurrency exchange, has declared a strategic partnership with Gala Games, a blockchain-based play-to-earn gaming platform. 

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global has entered into a strategic partnership with blockchain-based gaming platform Gala Games.

Founded in China, the now Seychelles-based exchange said the partnership will enable both companies to develop for the Web3 ecosystem.

Huobi and Gala plan to invest in and list projects on Gala’s platform.

Gala Games is a play-to-earn blockchain gaming platform that lets developers create games where players earn crypto or utilise non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to buy and sell in-game items.

Unlike traditional games, once purchased these items belong to the player, not the game’s creator, and cannot be modified or removed without the player’s permission.

Huobi is looking to advance its Web3 objectives through the partnership. Integrating it’s services with Gala’s layer-1 blockchain will improve the gaming platform’s underlying technology.

Jason Brink, president of blockchain at Gala Games, said the integration of its layer-1 network into major exchanges like Huobi is a major step towards achieving mass adoption and usability.

Huobi Global is currently seeking a licence in Hong Kong as new regulatory measures are under consideration by the Chinese special administrative region. The licence would let the crypto exchange offer its services to retail clients.

Huobi has also made clear it plans to expand its services outside of Hong Kong with the launch of a Visa crypto-to-fiat debit card.

The card will be available to Huobi customers in the European Economic Area in the second quarter of 2023.

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China to improve national blockchain standards by 2025

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/china-to-improve-national-blockchain-standards-by-2025/

China plans to improve its standards for blockchain technology development by 2025, according to the country’s fintech watchdog, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The update comes from guidelines published in a draft post on the ministry’s website that also asks for public opinion on blockchain development.

Chinese state departments have been actively developing blockchain technologies and solutions for the fintech industry for several years, in spite of the country’s harsh stance on cryptocurrency.

The ministry said it plans to finalise its decisions on blockchain standards and design this year, leaving a deadline of 28 April for the public to give feedback and provide input on the draft.

Progress in blockchain standards fits into China’s goal of reaching a number of technological developments by 2025, part of the country’s fourteenth Five-Year Plan.

Digital industry makes up a key part of the plan, with blockchain being a sector the government wants to develop alongside fields like electric components, software, and communications equipment.

In February, China unveiled plans for a new blockchain research and innovation centre in Beijing. The centre aims to foster cooperation between Chinese businesses and universities to research blockchain technology and advance the sector.

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Coinbase wants inflation-pegged flatcoins on layer-2 ‘Base’ network

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/coinbase-wants-inflation-pegged-flatcoins-on-layer-2-base-network/

US crypto exchange Coinbase wants inflation-pegged “flatcoins” to be one of four “critical” innovations it hopes to see on its newly launched layer-2 network, Base.

The company also wants developers to explore an on-chain reputation system, an on-chain limit order book (LOB) exchange, and tools to improve safety in decentralised finance (DeFi).

Coinbase announced the four areas in a ‘Request for Builders’ post, published a month after launching Base – a network secured by Ethereum and running on another layer-2, Optimism.

The trading platform believes that an inflation-pegged flatcoin is “now more important than ever” given recent crises in the banking sector and that such a stablecoin would be resistant to poor monetary policy from central banks.

Coinbase described flatcoins as “stablecoins that track the rate of inflation, enabling users to have stability in purchasing power while also having resiliency from the economic uncertainty caused by the legacy financial system”.

Unlike most stablecoins which are pegged to national currencies such as the US dollar, flatcoins would be pegged to the cost of living, tracked through a consumer price index and inflation data.

Coinbase also outlined its interest in an on-chain reputation system, which it believes will play an important role in building “on-chain trust” between network users.

Essentially like a credit score or ranking system, this protocol would allow users to better understand the reputation of those they interact with on the network.

It could also require users to meet certain criteria before interacting with specific DeFi applications.

Coinbase described that this “could look like a FICO or Google page rank type score on ENS names, ratings/reviews for merchants, and other measures that help build trust on-chain”.

The trading platform said it will be important to ensure users’ privacy and autonomy are preserved with any measures that implement a reputation system.

For its third innovation, Coinbase said that an on-chain limit order book exchange could work as a more advanced exchange that removes counterparty risk via self-custody.

Limit order books are a list of orders for a given asset that allow users to buy or sell with a restriction on the price ceiling or floor that the user wants to trade at.

Coinbase thinks that having this on-chain would provide institutions and professional traders with a new means to execute digital asset trading strategies in a manner not dissimilar to the traditional financial system.

The company said: “The high throughput of Base opens up significant new opportunities for designing new mechanisms for spot trading, limit orders, options, perpetuals, and more.”

The final area of focus, according to Coinbase, is around making the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem safer for users and developers on its layer-2 network.

The last area for innovation identified by Coinbase concerns making the DeFi ecosystem a safer place for both users and developers.

The exchange hopes to realise this by building tools that protect against vulnerabilities in smart contracts.

It sees stronger auditing and self-service security tools as the key to reducing security threats.

To help support these innovations, Coinbase has launched its Base Ecosystem Fund, helping early-stage projects to build on Base. The network already supports more than 30 blockchains, according to Base.

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Chainalysis: Crypto scammers adapt to match market conditions

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/chainalysis-crypto-scammers-adapt-to-match-market-conditions/

Crypto scammers are finding ways to adapt to the bear market despite revenue from scams halving last year, according to research from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

A crypto crime webinar hosted by the company explained how scammers tend to shift their tactics as market conditions change.

Such tactics have allowed some scammers to continue to thrive, even though overall revenue from crypto scams fell by 46% in 2022.

Eric Jardine, cybercrime research lead at Chainalysis, explained:

“One of the new innovations in this year’s report was sub-classing scams into types. And there, what we discovered was that not all scams behaved the same way in the context of the bear market.“

Although high-profile investment scams like the Terra collapse drove rational investors away from the space in 2022, scammers adopted new strategies as the dust settled.

Romance scams, which rely more on emotional manipulation than financial promise, increased as investment scams declined.

Giveaway scams also spiked in this period, capitalising on victims’ greed and hopes of a quick win.

Jardine explained the scammers behaviour as such:

“It’s suggestive here that there is an adaptation on the part of the scammers and market conditions make investment scams unlikely to be profitable; they may be substituting their tactics toward other scams that play on different emotional sense.“

Chainalysis data suggests that when investment scams become ineffective and start to decrease, romance and giveaway scams rise.

As Jardine put it, scammers do not try to “play the same script over and over”, but instead change their scams to match conditions in the market.

The webinar also highlighted the Hyperverse multilevel marketing scam. One of the top scams of the year, it accounted for 22% of the $5.9 billion lost to scams in 2022, stealing roughly $1.3 billion from would-be investors.

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Crypto exchange Bitget invests $30m in multi-chain wallet BitKeep

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/crypto-exchange-bitget-invests-30m-in-multi-chain-wallet-bitkeep/

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bitget has invested $30 million (£24.4m) into multi-chain wallet BitKeep to improve stability and security on its exchange.

The deal, which sees Bitget become the controlling shareholder of BitKeep, brings the wallet start-up’s valuation to $300 million (£244m).

Gracy Chen, managing director at Bitget, said: “Being one of the most trusted crypto exchanges with a $300 million user protection fund, we know how much security and reliability mean to cryptocurrency users and are confident that the integration of our native solutions in this domain into BitKeep’s framework will bolster its image as an attractive wallet.”

BitKeep is a self-custody wallet with a global userbase but a central focus in the Asia-Pacific region.

As well as providing access to DeFi protocols and NFTs, the wallet is able to process cross-chain swaps of digital assets between different blockchain networks in-application.

Bitget said the investment will give the wallet “access to the exchange’s proven technology and security capabilities in the exchange domain, thus helping it improve the stability and security of its services.”

Moka Han, chief operating officer at BitKeep, said: “The investment deal implies not only financial but also technical support, which will be provided to us by a professional team along with the experience necessary for product growth and market expansion. We are excited about this partnership and the potential it has to provide our users.”

BitKeep says it has more than eight million users and supports 250,000 cryptocurrencies across 80 blockchains.

Founded in 2018, the company raised $15 million (£12.2m) at a $100 million (£81m) valuation in 2022 through a funding round led by Dragonfly Ventures

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Bitcoin ATM maker declares all user data compromised after exploit

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/bitcoin-atm-maker-declares-all-user-data-compromised-after-exploit/

A Bitcoin ATM manufacturer has shut down its cloud services due to a security issue that let an attacker access customers’ hot wallets and steal private information.

Prague-based company General Bytes issued a warning on 18 March saying that the hacker had remotely uploaded a Java application to its terminals, hoping to steal user information and funds stored in hot wallets.

The company has sold more than 15,000 Bitcoin ATMs to buyers in nearly 150 countries around the globe, according to its website.

General Bytes founder, Karel Kyovsky, said the hack gave the perpetrator the ability to access the company’s database, decrypt API keys used to access hot wallet and exchange funds, and even download passwords and turn off two-factor authentication.

“We’ve concluded multiple security audits since 2021, and none of them identified this vulnerability,” Kyovsky said.

The company has not disclosed how much cryptocurrency was stolen by the hacker, but it has released details of 41 wallet addresses that were used in the attack.

On-chain analysis from Blockchair shows that one of these wallets has a balance of 56 Bitcoin after more than 30 deposits were sent to it during the attack.

In response, General Bytes has advised Bitcoin ATM operators to install a standalone server and released patches for their own Crypto Application Server, which is used to manage ATMs.

“Please keep your CAS behind a firewall and VPN. Terminals should also connect to CAS via VPN,” Kyovsky said.

“Additionally consider all your user’s passwords, and API keys to exchanges and hot wallets to be compromised. Please invalidate them and generate new keys & password.”

The compromise is not the first that has befallen General Bytes.

Last September, its servers suffered a zero-day attack that let hackers takeover as default administrators and adjust settings to transfer funds to their own addresses.

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Ethereum Shanghai hard fork set to launch 12 April

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/ethereum-shanghai-hard-fork-set-to-launch-12-april/

Ethereum’s much anticipated Shanghai hard fork is set to go live on 12 April, bringing several upgrades that complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake consensus.

The mainnet upgrade includes five Ethereum Improvement Proposals, most notable of which is EIP-4985, enabling staked Ether to be withdrawn on the Beacon Chain.

This will finalise Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Ethereum core developers announced the target deadline during the All Core Developers Execution Layer #157 call. The specific date – 10:27:35pm UTC on 12 April, or epoch 620,9536 – will now be confirmed by developers on GitHub.

The Shanghai fork was initially planned for March, but it was pushed back two weeks by developers earlier this month.

After the upgrade, network validators will benefit from automatic rewards payments at periodic intervals in withdrawal addresses. Stakers will also be able to exit positions in their entirety and reclaim the full staked balance.

Data from Etherscan shows that the Ethereum PoS contract has taken on more than 17.7 million Ether, worth nearly $31.5 billion (£25.9bn) at the time of publication.

Ethereum’s PoS transition began last September when the Merge replaced miners with validators and added ETH staking.

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Security firm Halborn warns 280 blockchains of ‘zero-day’ exploits

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/security-firm-halborn-warns-280-blockchains-of-zero-day-exploits/

Web3 security firm Halborn has found that more than 280 blockchain networks are vulnerable to “zero-day” exploits that could put upwards of £20 billion worth of crypto at risk.

A zero-day vulnerability is one which is discovered by attackers but remains unknown to the network and its developers. Halborn said that blockchains like Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Zcash were all found to be at risk.

The most serious of these vulnerabilities, which Halborn has named “Rab13s”, relates to peer-to-peer (p2p) communications. It would allow attackers to “craft consensus messages and send them to individual nodes to take them offline”.

Attackers could then crawl the network peers using getaddr message and attack unpatched nodes.

Halborn first discovered Rab13s on Dogecoin’s codebase in March 2022, having been contracted by the network to look for “any vulnerabilities that could affect the security of the blockchain”.

It said it found multiple critical and exploitable vulnerabilities, which it currently believes affect more than 280 other networks and that billions of pounds worth of cryptocurrencies are at risk.

Due to the simplicity of p2p messaging mechanisms, the Rab13s vulnerability has an increased likelihood of being used.

The exploit could ultimately expose a given blockchain to a 51% attack, where the attacker controls the majority of the network’s hash rate or tokens and can take the blockchain offline.

Other zero-day vulnerabilities Halborn found would let attackers crash blockchain nodes via Remote Procedure Call (RPC) requests, a protocol for communicating between programmes.

However the likelihood of RPC-related attacks are lower because they require valid credentials to initiate the exploit.

“Due to codebase differences between the networks not all the vulnerabilities are exploitable on all the networks, but at least one of them may be exploitable on each network,” Halborn added.

The company said it has developed an exploit kit for Rab13s, including a proof-of-concept with configurable parameters to demonstrate how it works on different networks.

Further technical details of the exploit will not be made publicly available due to their severity, Halborn said.

It has made a “good faith effort” to contact all affected parties to help them remediate the vulnerabilities.

Halborn said that Dogecoin, Zcash, and Litecoin have already implemented patches for the discovered exploits, but hundreds of networks remain that are still exposed.

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SWIFT progresses CBDC project after strong pilot results

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/swift-progresses-cbdc-project-after-strong-pilot-results/

Global banking system SWIFT is moving to the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) testing after positive results in the pilot stages.

The interbank network said its project to connect different nations’ CBDCs with one another offers “clear potential and value” in a statement on 9 March.

Lewis Sun, global head of domestic and emerging payments at HSBC, said: “While interest in CBDCs is growing, so is the risk of fragmentation as a widening range of technologies and standards is being experimented with.”

He added that the SWIFT project aims to bring about “faster, cheaper and more secure cross-border payments.”

The project, which includes banks such as the Royal Bank of Canada and Banque de France, will now move on to test applications of CBDCs, such as trade finance and securities settlements.

Over a period of 12 weeks, SWIFT says it successfully simulated close to 5,000 transactions between two different blockchains and existing fiat payment systems. More than 18 financial institutions participated in the project.

“Overall, the results of the sandbox testing found that SWIFT’s experimental interlinking solution can meet the needs of central and commercial banks for CBDCs interoperability, ensuring CBDCs can be successfully used in cross-border payments.”

SWIFT also said that there was a “strong degree of alignment” amongst participating institutions as to the future implementation of any CBDC collaboration.

The OMFIF Digital Monetary Institute expects a quarter of central banks to develop a CBDC solution within the next few years.

Countries like Nigeria and the Bahamas have already issued digitised versions of their national currency, and governments such as the UK and European Union are exploring the technology.

More than 110 central banks around the world are researching the use cases for CBDCs.

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Binance updates proof-of-reserves to $63bn with 11 new tokens

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/binance-updates-proof-of-reserves-to-63bn-with-11-new-tokens/

Leading crypto exchange Binance has added 11 tokens to its proof-of-reserves (PoR) report, claiming it now holds $63 billion (£53bn).

The company began publishing its reserves in late 2022 following the collapse of rival exchange FTX in a bid to increase transparency.

According to the update, Binance now holds 24 assets in its proof-of-reserves system. The 11 added tokens included Dogecoin, 1inch Network, Mask Network, Enjin Coin, WazirX, The Graph, Chromia, Curve DAO Token, PowerPool, Hashflow, and SSV.network. These results have not yet been audited by any accounting firms.

Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin and Ether are the two largest assets on Binance’s reserves report, with a respective $12 billion (£10.14bn) and $6.85 billion (£5.8bn) in net customer balances.

Binance claims these assets are backed up with a reserve ratio of 101.53% for Bitcoin and 101.61% for Ether.

Despite the supposed transparency, financial experts have pointed out the limitations of public reserves.

Users remain unclear as to Binance’s use of collateralisation and leverage, while the absence of a proof-of-liabilities report makes any stated reserves largely futile.

Binance says that its reserves system “uses Merkle trees to add up on-chain data, so that users can rest easy knowing that their assets are held for them 1:1 in our custody.”

The exchange also updated its proof-of-reserves in February, implementing ZK-SNARKs, zero-knowledge protocols designed to “increase the privacy and security of user data during the verification process.”

In December last year, the former accounting firm of Donald Trump, Mazars, ceased working with Binance and removed its audit of the exchange’s proof-of-reserves from its website.

Mazars had said prior to its withdrawal from the crypto space that Binance’s Bitcoin assets were “fully collateralised” at the time.

The accounting firm conceded that its methodology was based on “agreed-upon procedures” and did not comprise a financial audit. The inspection was also limited solely to Bitcoin.

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Tornado Cash sequel, Privacy Pools, aims to please US regulators

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/tornado-cash-sequel-privacy-pools-aims-to-please-us-regulators/

An ex-developer of Tornado Cash, the sanctioned crypto mixer that makes crypto assets harder to track, is working on a new platform that hopes to solve the service’s ties to illicit activity.

Ameen Soleimani believes that Privacy Pools, the working name for his new Ethereum mixer launched on GitHub, will nudge US regulators to reconsider their stance on privacy mixers.

In a lengthy Twitter thread, Soleimani discussed what he says as the “critical flaw” with Tornado Cash: that regular, law-abiding users have no way of distancing themselves from criminal enterprises.

Privacy Pools plans to solve this by allowing depositors and withdrawers to opt out of an anonymity set containing an address tied to stolen or laundered assets.

It does this through zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, ensuring the maintained privacy of the user.

“Users have the option to help regulators isolate illicit funds, without revealing their entire transaction history.”

“With privacy pools, just because someone deposits into the same smart contract as you, it doesn’t mean they can also force you into sharing an anonymity set with them. It’s your choice.”

Soleimani provided a demonstration of how Privacy Pools is used:

Although a demo version is already live, the developer says the protocol remains at an “experimental” stage as it is yet to be audited, but that it is “pretty close” to being ready.

Soleimani said he wants Privacy Pools to empower the crypto space “to defend against hackers abusing the anonymity sets of honest users without requiring blanket regulation or sacrificing on crypto ideals.”

He also said he wants blockchain analysts like Chainalysis and TRM Labs to trace back deposits so that users of the tool can avoid creating their own exclusion lists manually.

Ultimately, Soleimani wants the protocol to “start a conversation” with US regulators on the benefits of on-chain privacy tools and how they can co-exist separately from illicit activity through ZK proofs.

In August last year, the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned ETH and USDC addresses tied to Tornado Cash after a series of reported hacks by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

Authorities believe it used the mixer to hide the stolen funds and maintain anonymity.

Days later, Tornado Cash’s creator, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands and faces multiple money laundering charges. He will remain in custody until his next hearing in April.

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Moscow Credit Bank issues on-chain guarantee in Chinese yuan

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/moscow-credit-bank-issues-onchain-guarantee-in-chinese-yuan/

Moscow Credit Bank, a commercial Russian bank, has issued the country’s first blockchain-based guarantee to use Chinese yuan as currency.

The transaction was made using Russia’s national blockchain network, Masterchain, which is built to transfer digital assets between the country’s institutions. The guarantee was for more than 100 million yuan (£12m).

In a statement from Moscow Credit Bank (MCB), it said: The advantage of a digital bank guarantee is that the beneficiary does not need to wait for the paper version and make a separate request to the bank to confirm the authenticity of the issued document.”

“A ready-made bank guarantee, which is agreed upon by three interested parties, is displayed in the system on the Masterchain blockchain platform. It cannot be faked or lost.”

A bank guarantee is a form of financial protection offered by lending institutions. It consists of a contractual agreement where the bank agrees to take on financial responsibility for a specific transaction in case the customer fails to meet its obligations.

Such guarantees are commonplace in international trade transactions where there is a need for added security and reliability in the deliverance of payments or goods.

Natalya Bahova, director of international and structured finance at MCB, said: “This is the first digital bank guarantee in the market, which was issued in yuan, through the Masterchain system. Most foreign trade contracts are serviced in Chinese currency, and the demand for payments in yuan is only growing.

“This is a logical step for the market, we will see more examples of this in the near future. The decision will be especially relevant for large groups of companies that have many subsidiaries that accept bank guarantees in large quantities and on a regular basis.”

Amidst Russia’s unclear stance on cryptocurrency, the central bank is planning to launch its first consumer pilot of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in April.

The digital ruble will be adopted by 13 banks and a number of merchants as part of the trial.

Originally scheduled for 2024, the pilot has been moved forward in light of economic sanctions impacting Russia’s use of the SWIFT payments system, as well as Putin’s take on the matter.

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Visa and Mastercard delay new crypto partnerships

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/03/visa-and-mastercard-delay-new-crypto-partnerships/

Visa and Mastercard, the United States’ two largest payment processors, have delayed the launch of new crypto partnerships as bankruptcies and increased regulatory scrutiny continue to affect the industry.

The move, first reported by Reuters, comes after a period of improved cooperation between traditional payment firms and crypto companies.

Both Visa and Mastercard have been exploring using stablecoins like USD Coin for payments and transaction settlements in recent months.

Now the companies plan to hold off on launching certain crypto-based products and services until market conditions improve and regulation becomes more clear.

The collapse and bankruptcies of major digital asset firms like FTX, Three Arrows Capital, Celsius, and more are said to be the cause behind the decision.

A Visa spokesperson said: “Recent high-profile failures in the crypto sector are an important reminder that we have a long way to go before crypto becomes a part of mainstream payments and financial services.”

Cuy Sheffield, head of product at Visa, tweeted that the report from Reuters was “inaccurate” and that Visa was continuing “to partner with crypto companies to improve fiat on and off ramps as well as progress on our product roadmap to build new products that can facilitate stablecoin payments in a secure, compliant, and convenient way.”

Sheffield continued: “Despite the challenges and uncertainty in the crypto ecosystem, our view has not changed that fiat backed digital currencies running on public blockchains have the potential to play an important role in the payments ecosystem.”

Both Visa and Mastercard made a splash on the crypto scene when they partnered with crypto exchange Binance to launch fiat-linked crypto payment cards in 2020.

Since then, each company has worked on numerous partnerships within the crypto sector to spur adoption and contribute to web3 development.

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Lido Finance adds staking limit after 150k ETH staked in one day

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/lido-finance-adds-staking-limit-after-150k-eth-staked-in-one-day/

Liquidity staking protocol Lido Finance activated safety features to limit staking after more than 150,000 Ether was staked on the platform in a single day.

The decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol is popular amongst the crypto community as a tool to stake digital assets like Ether (ETH) without having to lock them away.

When Lido users deposit Ether, the tool issues a liquid version of their tokens back to them called staked Ether (stETH), rewarding users for each day they hold the liquid tokens in their wallets.

Lido tweeted on 25 February that hitting this staking milestone of 150,000 ETH activated a “dynamic mechanism” called the staking rate limit.

Explaining the feature, Lido said: “[The feature] is a mechanism to respond to large inflows of stake and address possible side-effects such as rewards dilution, without needing to pause stake deposits explicitly.”

“It works by decreasing how much total stETH can be minted at any one time based on recent deposits (sliding 24h window), and then replenishing this capacity on a block-by-block basis. Due to the rate of recovery, most users are unlikely to be affected.”

In a guide going further in-depth, Lido said that a safety valve feature would limit the amount of staked Ether that can be minted during high inflows.

“This means it is only possible to submit this much Ether to the Lido staking contracts within a 24-hour timeframe,” it said.

Lido added that the new staking rate limit mechanism would impact “all parties who may try to mint stETH, regardless of approach.“

On-chain analysis from Lookonchain noticed that the 150,100 ETH came from a single user, TRON founder Justin Sun, split between four deposits.

Lido Finance’s website says that more than $9 billion in ETH has been staked on the protocol since it launched.

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Coinbase is launching its own layer-2 network, called ‘Base’

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/coinbase-is-launching-its-own-layer-2-network-called-base/

US crypto exchange Coinbase is launching its own Ethereum layer-2 network, called Base.

The NASDAQ-listed company says the new network will provide a low-cost and developer-friendly environment for creating decentralised apps (DApps).

Base has been designed as a bridge to onboard users into the crypto economy, providing access to other layer-1 blockchains like Solana and making it interoperable with other networks.

The network will also serve as the “onchain home” of Coinbase, providing access to the company’s products and tools while featuring easy on-ramps for fiat currencies.

There are no plans to issue a new token for Base, it will use ETH as its native gas token.

Base will be built on the “OP Stack” used by Optimism, with plans to start of highly centralised and gradually decentralise over time.

Coinbase says that Base will be “fully open source and freely available” and that the company will join the OP Stack dev team to “ensure it’s a public good available to everyone.”

Reacting to the announcement on Twitter, members of the crypto community have been largely bullish on the news.

With well over 100 million verified users and partnerships with quarter of a million companies across the globe, Coinbase has a huge platform from which to on-board customers into blockchain and web3.

Ryan Sean Adams, creator of the Bankless Show podcast, pointed out:

“If Coinbase converts 20% of its 110m verified users to Layer 2 users in the coming years, this alone will 10x the total number of crypto native users.”

Sebastien Guillemot, co-founder of dcSpark, said that Coinbase’s decision to build on a layer-2 rather than a sidechain was the right move, considering that almost all crypto transactions occur on Ethereum layer-2s in 2023.

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Chain Reaction to build cryptographic chips with fresh $70m

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/chain-reaction-to-build-cryptographic-chips-with-fresh-70m/

Chain Reaction, an Israeli startup designing semiconductors for blockchain and privacy hardware, has emerged from stealth following a $70 million (£58m) Series C funding round.

The Tel Aviv-based firm’s specialty chips and related architecture are designed to support cryptographic processes, most notably in the breakthrough field of homomorphic encryption, an approach to privacy that encrypts data as it is used.

Morgan Creek Digital led this third round, taking the company’s total raised capital to $115 million (£95m), with participation from Hanaco Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners, KCK Capital, and others.

While a semiconductor company emerging from stealth with $115 million for a ground-breaking new technology may come as a surprise, the history of its two co-founders helps to explain its substantial backing.

CEO Alan Webman is the former co-founder of Mellanox, acquired by Nvidia for $7 billion in 2020, and CTO Oren Yokev has decades of experience as a leader of cyber and then tech within the Israeli government.

Webman said the Chain Reaction chip will support full homomorphic encryption, allowing users to work on data while keeping the chip encrypted:

“We think our solution will make homomorphic encryption viable. We have unique architecture and we also understand the limitations on compute and memory among processors today. We have the solution needed to make it possible.”

The company plans to use the funding to expand its team. Currently sat at 100 employees, with backgrounds at Nvidia, Mellanox, and even Israeli intel, the company will need to grow to begin getting its products to market this quarter.

Initial products will include the company’s current blockchain chip, Electrum, which is designed to accelerate hashing processes and cryptocurrency mining.

A second product comes in the form of a cloud data infrastructure solution designed to run privacy enhancing technologies.

Mark Yusko, CEO and CIO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, said: “We fully expect Chain Reaction’s blockchain products will become the new industry standard in blockchain compute infrastructure, laying the foundation for all future sustainable blockchain technologies”

“Blockchain is the key to securing democracy, decentralisation, and freedom, but it is compute intensive. Chain Reaction’s products will shore up the value of predominant blockchain technologies and revolutionise use-cases for blockchain technologies in the not-so-distant future.”

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Bosch partners with Fetch.ai on $100m web3 foundation

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/bosch-partners-with-fetch-ai-on-100m-web3-foundation/

Global electronics company Bosch is collaborating with Fetch.ai, an AI-focused crypto protocol, to create a $100 million (£83m) web3 grant programme.

The Fetch.ai Foundation will aim to increase industry adoption of technologies relating to artificial intelligence, web3, and the Internet of Things (IoT). It plans to fund research and development into decentralised technology and practical use cases with real-world benefits.

The $100 million will be distributed in grants to fund long-term projects to build web3 solutions and services in areas such as mobility, industry, and consumer markets.

Bosch and Fetch.ai will lead the foundation’s management board, selecting companies to partner with over a three-year period. Other industry participants are expected to join the board over time.

“Bosch will help us fast track web3 adoption in the industry and encourage other industry players to join us in this journey,” Fetch.ai founder Humayun Sheikh said.

“More industry applications will also bring new business opportunities for the existing tech entrepreneurs in the Fetch.ai ecosystem.”

Fetch.ai is a Cambridge-based AI firm that runs a decentralised machine learning network which Bosch have utilised in the past.

Bosch, which operate a range of IoT solutions, has said one of its strategic objectives is to invest more in the development of AI products and web3 technology.

Peter Busch, chairperson of the Fetch.ai Foundation, said: “Bosch as one of the worldwide leaders in industrial engineering and mobility solutions sees the huge need for smarter technologies and governance to cope with the challenges coming with ever more connected ecosystems regarding safety/security, privacy, and data ownership.”

Bosch and Fetch.ai’s partnership dates back to 2021 when the two companies launched a blockchain network designed to take advantage of AI and IoT.

The new grant foundation comes as AI-focused cryptocurrencies have become more popular amongst both traders and investors.

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Hong Kong sells $102m of tokenised green bonds

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/hong-kong-sells-102m-of-tokenised-green-bonds/

The Hong Kong government has issued 800 million HKD ($102m) in tokenised green bonds as part of its Green Bond Programme.

The programme is part of a government initiative designed to promote sustainability within the city’s finance and bond markets.

The bonds were underwritten by four banks and priced at a yield of 4.05%.

According to the announcement, the platform used Goldman Sachs’ tokenisation protocol, GS DAP, for the bond.

GS DAP uses a private blockchain network to settle security tokens representing the beneficial interests of bonds and cash tokens representing claims on the Hong Kong dollar. 

Tokenisation refers to the use of blockchain technology to create digital tokens which issuers can use to make issuing and trading securities more transparent and efficient.

The move towards digitally settling bonds on private blockchain networks marks a major shift from traditional finance, which typically requires manual verification and paperwork.

Paul Chan, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, believes the successful issuance of tokenised green bonds is an important milestone for the city.

“Hong Kong has been actively promoting the application of innovative technologies in the financial sector, actively exploring new concepts and technologies to improve the efficiency, transparency, and security of financial transactions,” he said.

The issuance of tokenised green bonds highlights the increased adoption of blockchain technology in traditional finance and leads the way for further development of sustainable finance practices around the globe.

Hong Kong’s government has seemed focused on its commitment to developing digital asset infrastructure in recent months.

In December 2022, the city launched two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for cryptocurrency futures, raising more than $70 million prior to debuting.

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Binance, Huobi freeze $1.4m of crypto tied to North Korean hackers

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/binance-huobi-freeze-1-4m-of-crypto-tied-to-north-korean-hackers/

Crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi have frozen accounts linked to a $100 million (£83m) hack carried out by Lazarus Group, a hacking group located in North Korea, in June 2022.

Close to $1.4 million (£1.17m) of crypto was frozen across both exchanges that were originally stolen last year in an attack on the Harmony Horizon cross-chain bridge.

The accounts were identified following an investigation by blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, according to a 14 February report from the company. It remains unclear what coins or tokens were frozen.

Elliptic said it warned Binance and Huobi of the accounts, which each exchange then swiftly took down:

“The stolen funds remained dormant until recently, when our investigators began to see them funneled through complex chains of transactions, to exchanges. By promptly notifying these platforms about these illicit deposits, they were able to suspend these accounts and freeze funds.”

The Lazarus Group used Tornado Cash, a decentralised crypto ‘tumbler’ that makes crypto assets harder to track, to obscure the trail leading back to its original theft from Harmony Horizon.

Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in August 2022 after claims it had facilitated the laundering of $7 billion (£5.8bn) of stolen cryptocurrency.

Despite Lazarus Group’s attempts, Elliptic were able to trace all of the stolen funds sent through the tumbler to their new addresses.

Simone Maini, CEO at Elliptic, said its investigation demonstrates the crypto industry is against crypto becoming a “haven” for illicit activity:

 “Today, money laundering was detected and stolen funds linked to North Korea were frozen, in real time. As an industry we have the power and responsibility to prevent digital assets becoming a haven for money launderers and sanctions evaders, and ensure that they are a force for good.”

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation determined the Lazarus Group responsible for the Harmony bridge attack on 24 January.

A week prior, Binance and Huobi worked together to freeze and recover 121 Bitcoin linked to the Harmony attack.

Since Lazarus Group began focusing on cryptocurrency in 2017, the organisation has stolen more than $2 billion (£1.66bn) of crypto, according to Elliptic estimates.

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Jump Crypto finds infinite token vulnerability on Binance BNB Chain

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/jump-crypto-finds-infinite-token-vulnerability-on-binance-bnb-chain/

Web3 infrastructure firm Jump Crypto has alerted Binance to a vulnerability in the BNB Beacon Chain that would have allowed for an infinite mint of tokens.

The issue was reported privately to the BNB team on 8 February and patched within 24 hours, according to a blog post from 10 February. The post said that, if exploited, the vulnerability could have led to a “large loss of funds”.

The vulnerability would have allowed for an attacker to make a malicious transfer, resulting in designated addresses receiving a far greater sum of BNB tokens than were initially sent.

Jump Crypto explained: “Bugs that allow infinite minting of native assets are some of the most critical vulnerabilities in web3. As such, this finding is proof that we all must stay vigilant and collaborate to elevate security assurances across all projects.“

According to the report, the BNB Chain is made up of two blockchains: the Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Smart Chain, based on an Ethereum fork, and the Beacon Chain, built with Tendermint and Cosmos SDK.

However, the Beacon Chain uses a BNB fork with a number of changes specific to Binance. Jump Crypto said: “It deviates from the Cosmos SDK upstream in several ways, motivating us to take extra care in reviewing the differences.”

Jump Crypto recently initiated an industry-wide research drive aimed at unearthing and correcting web3 vulnerabilities across projects through coordinated cooperation.

The BNB team patched the issue using overflow-resistant arithmetic methods for the SDK coin type. The fix could result in a golang panic and a transaction failure if the coin calculation overflows.

Binance CEO, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, thanked the Jump Crypto team publicly on Twitter following their report of the bug.

BNB Chain is the native blockchain behind the world’s most popular crypto exchange, Binance.

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Coincover raises $30m to bolster digital asset security

https://www.blockchaintechnology-news.com/2023/02/coincover-raises-30m-to-bolster-digital-asset-security/

London-based digital asset protection firm Coincover has secured $30 million (£25m) in a funding round led by Foundation Capital with additional investment from CMT Digital.

The company plans to use the funds to scale its operations, increase recruitment, and develop new products that strengthen the security of the cryptocurrency space.

Coincover launched in 2019 with the goal of improving trust within the digital asset sector. It already works with more than 300 business from across the crypto ecosystem, including exchanges, wallets, hedge funds, offices, banks, and digital asset custodians.

As Coincover sees it, cyber risks and human error threaten the future of the digital asset industry, but it believes it has a comprehensive solution to help protect businesses.

The company’s range of protection products aim to not only reduce the risk of transferring and storing cryptocurrency but also change perceptions surrounding digital assets and improve industry confidence.

Speaking on the new funding, Coincover co-founder and CEO David Janczewski said: “At Coincover, we’re proud to prevent users from losing access to their cryptocurrency, whether that be through a mistake or the misfortune of being targeted by malicious online hackers.”

“Through this new funding, we can supercharge our service for all existing and future customers – building a better and more mature digital asset ecosystem in the process.”

Despite a difficult past year for crypto, projects in the web3 space have continued to raise substantial amounts of capital as they look to innovate and revitalise the sector.

Charles Moldow, general partner at Foundation Capital, touched on this point: “After a tumultuous year for digital assets, investing in Coincover was a no-brainer. The brand offers assurance in a fast-paced market.”

“This new funding will accelerate recruitment, product updates, and partnerships to safeguard the crypto ecosystem. With $3 billion stolen in hacks last year and 2023 set to see the arrival of crypto regulation, the opportunity is vast.” 

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