Day: September 26, 2017

The exchange platform, EXMO, has announced that they will be holding an ICO to attract additional investments to further develop their platform. They have over 4 years of trading experience already and have seen exponential growth in trading volumes ever since their launch in 2013. They have great ideas to make their platform even better and trafficked. The main goal is to add margin trading to their platform.

An ICO to Improve Their Already Existing Product

Too often, we see ICOs being held for products that do not even exist. That is why it is so refreshing and exciting to see an ICO like EXMO’s raising funds to continue building their platform. Their platform already has over 650,000 registered users, and all of these users will benefit from the margin trading funds from the ICO will add. If the ICO is successful, it means that the platform will be able to provide the capital and liquidity needed for margin trading.

Details of the Upcoming ICO and EXMO Coin

The ICO is set to launch on October 30th and will last until November 30th. Any and all interested parties will be able to immediately purchase their token EXMO Coin (EXO). While the funds will be used to fund margin trading and improve the overall quality of the platform for everyone, token holders need to be incentivized for investing in the platform. To do this, the EXMO team will take 50% of the revenue from margin trading and distribute it among token holders in the form of dividends.

One of the biggest things going in favor of this ICO is that it is being issued by an already thriving and profitable business. While many other ICOs have a whitepaper and promises of future riches, they often do not have much in the way of a tangible or usable product yet.

Investors will receive EXMO Coins in the form of tokens. The value of the tokens themselves correlates to other currency exchange rates on the EXMO platform itself, and EXMO guarantees token buyout.

The EXMO team is also doing things a little different with the funds themselves. Half of the funds from the ICO will go directly put into the growth of financial indicators on the exchange itself. This is good news for any of its users and investors alike.

Following the crowdsale if contributors do not want to hold onto their tokens and receive the aforementioned dividend, they will be able to exchange the token right on the trading platform itself. The trading pairs will be as follows: EXO/BTC, EXO/ETH, EXO/USD, EXO/EUR. This is a fairly comprehensive amount of trading pairs, especially considering that once funds are in USD or BTC they can essentially be traded for any number of various fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Here is their official website: https://exmo.com/

Check out their crowdsale details here: http://ico.exmo.com/

This is a sponsored post and does not reflect the views or opinions of any The Merkle employees. This is not trading or investment advice, always conduct your own independent research.

London, September 2017. BIP175 Pay-to-Contract protocol went into draft status earlier this month and is an implementation of the work on homomorphic payment addresses and the pay-to-contract protocol by Ijah Gerhardt and Timo Hanke in 2012. The new BIP can potentially open up Bitcoin to use cases not previously achievable on the public Bitcoin blockchain. … Continue reading CommerceBlock Introduces BIP175

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Today people are looking for security and privacy when they are in an Internet environment. The situation has changed and now people are beginning to look after these topics.

Is there any solution?

Thanks to the boom of blockchain technology,  we have new ways to protect ourselves such as a decentralized VPN network where no intermediary is needed and moreover our data will be completely protected

A project by a Lithuanian team is called Mysterium network. Developers are creating a VPN network where their users will either be bandwidth providers or VPN customers. Users who provide their bandwidth network will be rewarded by a token its name is Myst. Contraty to this, users who use the VPN service will pay the providers (users). The team of developers are working to meet its goals in time.

Alpha version of the network has already been released. We can mention the successful ICO of May this year. The famous face of the project is Robertas Višinskis. A man who has years of experience in the field of technological startups. Marta Kuzmickajte, was recently hired and will assist greatly and others.

Network aims to be a global marketplace and involve all participants across the world. The user base of this project is very extensive and everyone is impatiently waiting for the news that developers publish on their blog.

Token Myst is traded on two exchanges, Bittrex and Liqui. This project is also interested in the wider public, and this affects the price of the Myst token, which has risen in recent days. So we are able to participate in the success of this project by buying on the exchange.
Current levels are still underestimated, and traders are expecting to attack the levels on which Myst moved after a successful ICO. Specifically, the range 0.0008 – 0.0009 Myst / Btc and then on all time high around 0.0016.

In the long run, this investment seems to be profitable, as the demand for VPN clients is constantly growing not only from Asia but also from the Western world and people who want to actively participate in this network are getting more and more involved.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

A new white paper, co-authored by ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, seeks to tackle challenges in the fast-moving market for initial coin offerings.

Quantum computing has become a booming industry over the past few years. Although a lot of research still has yet to be conducted, there have been some interesting breakthroughs already. Researchers at the University of Tokyo have come up with a loop-based quantum computing technique to allow smaller hardware to perform millions of calculations in quick succession.

A Different Quantum Computing Solution

It is evident that the way we think about quantum computing may be in need of revision. More specifically, most people envision a quantum computer as a large machine drawing a ton of electricity to complete tasks. While that may still be the reality in a few years, University of Tokyo researchers have come up with a different solution. Their loop-based technique performs a much larger number of calculations in a more efficient manner.

By using multiple pulses of light, each of which carries information, the researchers were able to achieve more calculations in the same amount of time as before. They utilized a new technique allowing the pulses of light to go around in a loop circuit indefinitely. This circuit performs multiple tasks and can even switch from one task to another rapidly as the pulses are manipulated. This is a pretty interesting breakthrough that will change the future of quantum computing as a whole.

While this concept is pretty interesting, it is not something one can perform with existing hardware, by the looks of things. Rather, the researchers will need to develop the necessary hardware, although it is unclear how long this process will take. The team’s first objective was to solve all problems which could potentially occur. That has been successful so far, with the exception of correcting calculation errors. Rest assured this last hurdle will be overcome regardless.

Having a single circuit play the role of many different systems which make up the quantum computer of the future is a breakthrough that shouldn’t be ignored whatsoever. Whether or not this will lead to smaller quantum computers in the future remains to be seen. One can’t deny the prospect is pretty significant regardless, even though it remains to be seen how the hardware will perform. Just because something seemingly works on paper and has been tested in a controlled environment once doesn’t mean the success can be replicated per se.

The current expectation is that a single circuit of this type will be able to process over 1 million qubits. That would be a substantial accomplishment, to say the least, as current forms of quantum computing hardware – such as those using superconducting circuits – can only process a few dozen qubits simultaneously.  All of this goes to show the new technology has a lot of expectations to live up to, although it remains to be seen how the circuit will perform in the future.

Quantum computers may come in many different shapes and sizes, for all we know. The use of loop-based quantum computing will certainly shake things up quite a bit, assuming the researchers can effectively deliver on their promises. For the time being, there is no official timeline for development, but rest assured a lot of people will be waiting to see if such a large amount of computing power can be obtained from one single circuit.

Could the European Central Bank regulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? According to its president – no

SMEs are the cornerstone of economic development. Could the Blockchain lending platforms be a solution to secure their loan repayment?

A former principal at Fortress Investment Group is reportedly moving to establish a $500 million hedge fund focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Ransomware developers have to come up with new tricks and features every now and then. That is much easier said than done, however. InfinityLock is one of those malware types that offers some degree of innovation, although it may not be overly successful in the end. More specifically, it doesn’t encrypt files in the background, but rather issues commands using a command prompt window. Despite the visual improvement, the malware strain itself can be decrypted with relative ease.

InfinityLock has a Unique Lockscreen but Poses no Threat

Ransomware concoctions such as InfinityLock raise more questions than answers right now. Its source code is based on a decryptable ransomware family, which means it poses no legitimate threat whatsoever. It is baffling why anyone would like to reuse such code in the first place, as it serves no real purpose.  Then again, not all victims are aware as to which types of malware can be decrypted without paying money.

That doesn’t mean InfinityLock has no unique features, though. In fact, it does something we haven’t seen any other type of ransomware do so far, although that doesn’t mean it is worth paying much attention to. As most people are well aware, every type of ransomware has its own type of lock screen. In most cases, said lockscreen is used to inform victims that their files were encrypted and what they must do to restore file access.

InfinityLock, on the other hand, offers some visual improvements in this regard. Rather than displaying a bland and static message, the developers found a way to make people think the lock screen actually performs specific commands to encrypt files. It’s an unusual development, to say the least. Uneducated victims may think a hacker has worked their “magic” through this fake Windows command prompt window, although that is not the case whatsoever.

Do not be mistaken in thinking this malware is completely harmless, though. It will still encrypt all files on your computer and append a custom extension to every file in the process. However, as it can be decrypted free of charge, there is nothing to actually worry about whatsoever. It is unclear which malware it is based on exactly, but anyone who gets infected by InfinityLock should be more than capable of decrypting their files without making any sort of payment whatsoever.

Moreover, it does not appear the ransomware even asks for a Bitcoin payment in the first place. There is no indication of InfinityLock demanding any form of money when the encryption process is completed, which is even more surprising these days. After all, one has come to expect a demand for either Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. All of this adds to the mystery of InfinityLock as a whole, and specifically what purpose it may serve in the end. Right now, that is still a big uncertainty, to say the least.

All things considered, using a fake Windows Command Prompt is pretty significant, albeit rather useless in the case of InfinityLock. Some developers continue to struggle when it comes to keeping their creations relevant, which forces them to explore less prominent features such as lockscreen updates. Luckily, it doesn’t appear InfinityLock is being distributed on a large scale right now. The world of ransomware never ceases to amaze; that much is certain.

There has always been a certain degree of curiosity surrounding the Dash project. Many users often like to refer to the currency’s instamine, which has been addressed by the Dash team several times. A new discussion revolves around how Dash creator Evan Duffield allegedly holds a “master private key” which can invalidate some network features and potentially roll back transactions. These are some serious allegations, although it does appear there is some truth to the matter.

A Dash Private Master Key is Troublesome

Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will recall how the Dash ecosystem had a big issue a few weeks ago. More specifically, the developers were notified about a potential bug which would wreak havoc upon the ecosystem. As a result, the Dash developers quickly disabled the InstantSend feature, which allows users to create anonymous transactions. Considering how this service is provided by masternodes, a lot of people questioned how the developers could effectively “turn off” the feature without introducing a client update or network fork.

Although this episode showed the Dash developers have some degree of centralized control over the network and its features, it begs the question as to what else they might be capable of. Speculation is one’s worst enemy in this regard, as it is pretty difficult to back up some of the more ludicrous claims people have tended to make. However, the Dash Github repository talks about “sporks”, which seemingly provide people such as Evan Duffield with a lot more control than others have realized to this very day.

We advise readers to check out the Github repository and information on the sporks concept themselves. One particular line in the code seemingly allows a person to “reprocess 24 hours of blocks to resolve any issues.” While this doesn’t necessarily mean nefarious activity can or will take place, it is evident this wording leaves a lot of room for speculation. One Reddit user claims that this means the team can roll back 24 hours worth of transactions, although it is nearly impossible to prove or deny that allegation right now.

Considering how these features were introduced by Evan Duffield, it is not surprising that some cryptocurrency community members are effectively labeling him responsible for this “centralized control” over Dash. While it is true the current governance model isn’t completely decentralized by any means, there is still a big difference between being able to make modifications to protect the network and having a “master private key.” Such possibilities will always raise a lot of (valid) questions from the cryptocurrency community as a whole, though.

Gregory Maxwell once commented on Dash as follows:

“The other cryptographically-private altcoin that people talk about is Dash… but it’s not cryptographically private at all. I had a slide about this that was just “Dash LOL”. It’s snake oil. I’m beside myself about it, personally. What they have is a system like coinjoin, they nominate nodes based on proof of stake to be coinjoin masters, and then they have done this insecurely many times in the past I have no idea if the current version is secure. It’s not on the same level as zcash or monero; maybe it’s better than doing nothing, I don’t know. LOL, right?”

If there is any truth to such a “master private key”, things would not look great for Dash. For the time being, this is mostly speculation, even though there is a precedent to back up such claims. Disabling some network functionality on a whim without any intervention by the community, a client upgrade or a network fork is pretty worrisome, even if it were done to protect the network as a whole. Sporks are an intriguing development in the world of cryptocurrency regardless. The current Dash roadmap plans to let masternodes control sporks, which will be a positive change overall.

Volume quadruples on P2P exchanges as Chinese Bitcoin holders seek new ways to withdraw and use their cryptocurrencies.

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