Monat: Dezember 2020

Vitalik Buterin is the creator of the Ethereum protocol .

Vitalik Buterin, a little genius

Vitaly Dmitriyevich Buterin known as “ Vitalik ” was born in Kolomna, Russia , on January 31, 1994. Very young, he reveals himself to be exceptionally intelligent . At the age of four, he was already able to create complex tables in Excel. At seven, he wrote an encyclopedia on rabbits.

But it is mathematics and computer science that fascinates young Vitalik. He notably won the bronze medal at the 2012 International Computer Science Olympics.

He began to take an interest in distributed ledgers while playing video games. More precisely, it is with the massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft that he realizes the weaknesses of centralized systems . He then reflected on the notion of decentralization .

Vitalik discovered Bitcoin in 2011 thanks to his father. After a short stint at the University of Waterloo , he decided to leave everything to devote himself full time to cryptocurrencies .

The design of Ethereum

In the same year, he co-founded the famous Crypto Engine Magazine with Romanian coder Mihai Alisie . That same year, he began to design his own cryptocurrency, Ethereum . Bitcoin’s scripting language seemed too limited to him: he decided to create a blockchain platform with more extensive possibilities .

Several years of travel and various experiences followed for Vitalik Buterin. For example, he spends some time with a community of crypto-anarchist coders .

In 2014 , Vitalik Buterin published the whitepaper of Ethereum , his blockchain platform functioning in proof of work like Bitcoin, but based on an account system and not on UTXO. Likewise, Solidity , Ethereum’s programming language, is Turing-complete , which makes it possible to create recursive loops and therefore to program complex transactions that can be automated – smart contracts .

Since the creation of Ethereum, Vitalik has become a recognized and respected figure in the cryptosphere and in scientific circles. His innovative ideas and his global vision of human and computer networks fuel many debates.

He has also received several awards , such as the Thiel Fellowship Award and the World Technology Award in the IT Software category in 2014. The young prodigy even met Vladimir Poutine at the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg in 2017.

„Bitcoin significa confiar más en un algoritmo SHA256 que en el Tesoro de los Estados Unidos“, dijo Blockfolio.

Los criptojugadores se apresuraron a responder a la noticia de que los hackers habían violado el Departamento del Tesoro de los Estados Unidos.

Según un informe de Reuters, un „sofisticado grupo de hackers“ respaldado por un gobierno extranjero – supuestamente Rusia, según tres personas familiarizadas con la investigación – fue capaz de violar el Departamento del Tesoro de EE.UU., así como la Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones e Información, o NTIA, con el Departamento de Comercio.

El incidente ocurrió menos de un mes después de que Donald Trump despidiera al jefe de seguridad cibernética del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional, Chris Krebs. Sin embargo, Reuters declaró que los hackers habían estado monitoreando los correos electrónicos del personal de la NTIA que se ejecutaban en el Office 365 de Microsoft „durante meses“. Otras agencias gubernamentales también pueden haber sido violadas, pero las fuentes no proporcionaron detalles adicionales.

En respuesta al ataque a una agencia gubernamental tan poderosa, los criptógrafos señalaron las ventajas de Bitcoin (BTC).

„Bitcoin nunca es hackeado“, dijo el jefe de negocios del Kraken, Dan Held, en Twitter. El toro de Bitcoin Anthony „Pomp“ Pompliano se hizo eco del sentimiento de Held, diciendo „Bitcoin nunca ha sido hackeado“.

Blockfolio apuntó a la ciberseguridad de la NTIA, implicando que la agencia usó algoritmos anticuados para su seguridad criptográfica:

No está claro si algún fondo ha sido comprometido como resultado de la violación. En el momento de la publicación, la piratería parece limitarse a la información potencialmente robada de los correos electrónicos de las agencias gubernamentales.

„Bromas sobre ellos“, dijo el fundador y CEO de MyCrypto, Taylor Monahan. „El tesoro ya ha sido hackeado por actores internos“. La declaración puede reflejar que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos imprimirá más dinero en 2020 que en casi toda la existencia del país.

The Russian central bank wants to use the digital rouble to help companies by making financial intermediaries superfluous.

Russia’s digital rouble is expected to lower business costs, but could also reduce the profits of commercial banks, says Elvira Nabiullina, the chairwoman of the Bank of Russia.

At a meeting of „Opora Russia“, a non-governmental Crypto Revolt review organisation of small and medium-sized enterprises, Nabiullina said on 3 December that a digital rouble could reduce the profits of commercial banks through commissions and transaction fees.

She also said that a digital central bank currency was a natural development for rationalising financial services:

„This is a natural step in the development of the financial system: financial intermediaries should put a burden on the economy and make money with new products and services instead of benefiting from their monopoly and the lack of alternatives. We believe that small and medium-sized enterprises should definitely benefit“.
She also mentioned a number of advantages of a digital rouble. These include, for example, more secure and faster payments. „We are now thinking about several models where the digital rouble can exist, where the interaction between customers, the central bank and commercial banks is organised in different ways, but these benefits remain in all models. These are fast, reliable and secure payments,“ she said.

In October 2020, Nabiullina claimed that a digital rouble could not provide the same level of anonymity as cash. However, she said the Bank of Russia wanted to strengthen the privacy of users. Shortly before, Russia’s central bank had officially published its CBDC plans on 13 October. According to the bank, a digital rouble could soon be used as an additional form of money besides cash.

A última vez que houve tantos usuários mensais ativos, Bitcoin estava saindo de outra corrida de touro de férias.

Cerca de 19,6 milhões de endereços Bitcoin

Cerca de 19,6 milhões de endereços Bitcoin enviados ou recebidos pela BTC durante o mês de novembro.

De acordo com o provedor de dados Glassnode, esse é o terceiro número mais alto de sempre em um único mês, após janeiro de 2018 (19,67 milhões) e dezembro de 2017 (21,64 milhões).

Não é surpresa que os números de endereços ativos tenham se alinhado aproximadamente com o preço do crypto Trader nos últimos anos. À medida que o preço sobe, o interesse pelo comércio sobe, ou vice-versa.

O rally Bitcoin (e o anterior de alto nível, em termos de preço) do final de 2017 e sua queda posterior no início de 2018 gerou uma enorme quantidade de imprensa para Bitcoin. Para o mês de dezembro de 2017, o número de novos endereços disparou para mais de 17 milhões.

Se esse número parece elevado, é porque a maioria dos endereços Bitcoin

Se esse número parece elevado, é porque a maioria dos endereços Bitcoin (agora são mais de 740 milhões, no total, de acordo com a Glassnode) não contém realmente nenhum Bitcoin e, portanto, não estão ativos.

Quase 19,6 milhões de endereços #Bitcoin estavam ativos em novembro, enviando ou recebendo $BTC. Esse é o terceiro valor mais alto da história da Bitcoin – só superou em dezembro de 2017 e janeiro de 2018.

Os números de endereços ativos começaram a subir no início deste ano, quando o preço da Bitcoin começou a subir. Em 9 de novembro, o número de endereços ativos para o dia foi de 1,18 milhões.

O preço da Bitcoin recentemente bateu seu recorde anterior e está em torno de $19.000 por moeda.

 

Cybercriminals may prefer a different cryptomeda in the coming months.

Cryptoma-related fraud and theft will likely grow in the post-COVID-19 world, according to a new report from Kaspersky Lab’s cyber security and antivirus provider.

Securelist, Kaspersky’s cyber threat research arm, has published a report on cyber threats to financial organizations, predicting some specific types of financial attacks that are likely to occur in 2021.

Securelist predicted that a wave of poverty fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic will inevitably lead to „more people resorting to crime, including cybercrime“. This could also mean an increase in Bitcoin-related crime (BTC).

According to Kaspersky’s research arm, Bitcoin is probably the most attractive asset for cyber crime because it is the most popular digital asset. The report says:

„We can see some savings breaking and local currencies plummeting, which would make Bitcoin theft much more attractive. We should expect more fraud, mainly targeting BTC, because this crypto currency is the most popular. ”

Securelist researchers have also suggested that online criminals could switch to more privacy-focused digital assets such as Monero (XMR). According to the company, this change would occur due to the increased „technical capacity to monitor, dishonimize and seize BTC“. The Securelist post says:

„[…] We should expect cybercriminals to switch to cryptomorphic traffic to charge victims. There is a reason to believe that they can switch to other currencies with enhanced privacy, such as Monero, to use them first as a currency of transition and then convert the funds to any other cryptomime of choice, including BTC. ”

As previously published by the Cointelegraph, crypto-related crimes declined significantly in 2020, although some cryptographic sectors (such as DeFi) have become new hotbeds of criminal activity. According to a report by the VPN firm Atlas VPN, crypto and blockchain-related hacks are likely to continue to decline in 2021.

Federal Police attempt to criminalize encryption by claiming ‚privacy‘ is a pretext for crimes

Federal Police say company offers solution with encryption and ‚privacy‘ as pretext to make it harder to monitor criminal activities

According to exclusive information shared with Cointelegraph, a Federal Police investigation involving different types of crimes, identifies as condescending to crimes the provision of services and technologies that support cryptography and accept cryptographic assets as means of payment.

According to the understanding of the Federal Police in the case, tools that allow privacy are a „pretext“ for promoting technologies that ensure that criminals can commit crimes without being monitored and thus punished.

Cypherpunk Holdings becomes ninth largest public holder of Bitcoin

According to the source of the information, who exercised his right to privacy and asked for his name to be withheld, what caught his attention was the fact that in the investigation in question, the legitimate actions of the companies were identified as ‚criminal complacency‘. In the understanding of this case, the company acting with cryptographic devices and assets would be assisting criminals in their illegal activities.

There is no indication of direct crime in the sale of cryptography. There is the suggestion, by the investigative organ (Federal Police) that: (i) to sell devices with strong cryptography and (ii) to encourage payment in bitcoins is to use privacy as a pretext. In fact, what is done is to help criminals commit crimes,‘ reported the source.

In the document in question, the agency assumes that companies that accept Bitcoin payments use privacy as a pretext to make it difficult for the authorities to monitor criminal activities.

This understanding by the agency revives misunderstandings about the criminalization of cryptography. According to the reasoning exposed in the investigation, the person responsible for the sale of an encryption software knows or at least strongly suspects that its ‚customers‘ are criminals who make use of encryption for illegal purposes. Thus, by making this technology available to the market, they take the risk of this result.