Day: August 17, 2017

Early Twitter investor Naval Ravikant currently in talks with Blockchain-powered platforms to create an alternative for Twitter.

The post Presearch Uses Ethereum Blockchain and AI to Challenge Google on Its Own Turf appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Attacks in Paris and Brussels have European regulators eyeing Bitcoin and its anonymous nature.

Disgraced Secret Service Agent who embezzled confiscated Silk Road Bitcoin has now admitted he stole more than he originally admitted to.

More often than not, people wonder where all of these new ransomware threats keep coming from. One answer is a PHP open-source project called “Ransomware” which can be accessed through GitHub. It is a popular project and one that has been active since early 2016. Researchers believe this GitHub project was developed by an Indonesian hacker who is also a member of two large hacking crews. It seems the open-source code presented in this repository has been identified in a few other ransomware types discovered over the past twelve months.

PHP Ransomware Project is Still Going Strong

You may not have heard of the PHP Ransomware Project. The project has been around for over a year, but no one would expect code on GitHub to spawn as many different malware creations as it has. Its code has now been discovered in a number of variations of malware released since early 2016.

Not all of those ransomware strains were developed by the same person who created the PHP project in the first place. Instead, individuals accessed this code freely through Github and used it to build their own projects accordingly. It is pretty common to see ransomware developers take code from existing projects, but less common for a particular GitHub repository to be designed specifically for that purpose.

Researchers successfully identified a few critical ransomware types using this repo’s source code. JapanLocker was the first, which made a bit of an impact last July. Lalabitch, released in July of this year, was another malware variant which made use of this particular repo’s source code. Last but not least, EV Ransomware is the latest strain of its kind to make use of the code. We may very well see new types based on the PHP Ransomware repository in the future. For now, though, most of the activity has subsided.

Since the source code for all three ransomware projects was made publicly available, it is impossible to tell who is behind these individual developments. It is certainly possible the alleged creator of this GitHub repo is the person responsible for at least one version of the ransomware, but there is no hard evidence to back that up. One thing is for sure: none of the three aforementioned ransomware types has a decryption mechanism, which is concerning to security experts.

Ransomware is designed in such a way that it forces victims to pay a ransom — often in Bitcoin — in order to have their encrypted files decrypted. Without a decryption mechanism in place, that becomes impossible, regardless of whether or not victims pay the demanded sum.  Unfortunately, this has slowly become a new trend in ransomware, as we have seen a few versions which do not include any decryption capability whatsoever. This does not mean their code does not have encryption capabilities, but rather the code is so buggy that it becomes nearly impossible to get files decrypted easily.

All of this goes to show that web-based ransomware is an emerging trend. Making source code of existing ransomware projects freely accessible will create a lot of new problems for computer users. Especially in the web-based ransomware department, that could prove quite problematic. Malicious software capable of attacking websites, for example, is currently quite unusual, but is expected to become a more popular trend over the next few years. We can only hope for better decryption mechanisms when that time comes.

Technology giant Xerox wants to patent a way to securely revise electronic documents that uses blockchain, public records show.

The post Blockchain and Bitstamp Customers Can Now Use Ether appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bank of Canada research consultant proposes a financial system that uses the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as the standard currency instead of the fiat currencies.

Trading one of the many ERC20 tokens can be quite problematic. It is difficult to find exchanges supporting most of these tokens. Even platforms such as Bittrex have not listed the vast majority of them, for obvious reasons. A lot of vetting needs to occur first and foremost. Thankfully, there now is a way to trade ERC20 tokens without having to rely on exchanges.

A Different way to Trade ERC20 Tokens

This entirely new concept is a mixture of using the 0x protocol and MetaMask trading. Combining these two platforms into one creation allows for trustless trading of ERC20 tokens without relying on an exchange or trading platform. In fact, one can trade any ERC20 token over the counter in exchange for any other currency. This is a decentralized way of trading ERC20 tokens which will certainly make a big difference in the world of cryptocurrency.

The 0x trading protocol is quite an interesting development. It is mainly designed to facilitate the trading of tokens created on the Ethereum blockchain. Considering that there is no shortage of such tokens these days, it makes a lot of sense to slowly gravitate toward a decentralized OTC trading protocol. 0x, which went live around 24 hours ago, aims to provide that functionality to users the world over. It remains to be seen how it will be received by the community.

Various Ethereum-based projects have already confirmed they will be compatible with the 0x protocol moving forward. That list includes Augur, Aragon, Chronobank, and Melonport, to name a few. However, the opportunities are virtually limitless, as a post on Reddit shows how easy it can be to create an OTC market for ERC20 tokens. Although these offerings are still fairly limited in scope, there is a lot of potential there. It will be interesting to see how many people wish to combine 0x with Metamask for decentralized exchange features moving forward.

0x is a protocol rather than a graphical user interface, so someone will need to come up with a convenient GUI. Using Metamask makes a lot of sense here, although it is not the only available solution by any means. There is no central party when using 0x as everything is decentralized and trustless. According to the developers, there is no way this protocol can be hacked. Rest assured that someone will certainly give it a try regardless.

The 0x protocol can support any digital asset adhering to the ERC20 standard. A new token standard is currently in development, and it will be interesting to see if the protocol will support the new type as well. There does not appear to be any official commitment at present, but the token was only recently released. Transaction fees are denominated in ZRX, the native 0x token.

It will be interesting to see how this protocol evolves over the coming weeks and months. It has a lot of potential to further decentralize the way we think about exchanging ERC20 tokens on a global scale. Since most exchanges often wait weeks, if not months, to list new tokens, an over-the-counter solution would certainly be useful. The 0x protocol may prove to be a valuable ally in this regard.

Bitcoin wallet startup Blockchain is expanding its service to support ether, the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network.

Egypt’s first Bitcoin exchange prepares to launch this September, as the Egyptian pound continues its fall.