The International Data Corporation (IDC) has released the Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide. It is estimated that total blockchain spending in 2018 will be USD 1.5 billion, double the 2017 total. Further, the IDC calculates the compound annual growth rate of the blockchain industry is 73.2%, with nearly USD 3 billion of blockchain spending in …
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has released the Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide. It is estimated that total blockchain spending in 2018 will be USD 1.5 billion, double the 2017 total. Further, the IDC calculates the compound annual growth rate of the blockchain industry is 73.2%, with nearly USD 3 billion of blockchain spending in 2019, USD 5 billion in 2020, over USD 8 billion in 2021, and USD 11.7 billion in 2022.
IDC’s research manager of the Customer Insights and Analysis Team, Stacey Soohoo, says, “Enthusiasm for blockchain continues to be universally shared across regions as businesses and organizations alike continue to explore the technology’s potential business application.”
Indeed, a plethora of businesses, organizations, banks, and governments have been embracing blockchain technology. Blockchain technology provides immutable and transparent databases, which builds trust, helps get rid of fraud, and makes it easier to notice inefficiencies and remove them. Blockchain technology is already in widespread use to make supply chains stronger and shorter, in addition to being used by many financial institutions to facilitate cross-border payments.
IDC’s program vice president of the Customer Insights and Analysis Team, Jessica Goepfert, says, “We continue to see the greatest spending and growth for blockchain around lot lineage and asset and goods management. Highly visible scandals combined with complex supply chains and incomplete information set the stage for investments and projects in these areas. End to end, the stakeholders have a vested interest in solving these issues. Manufacturers want to ensure products arrive where they are supposed to arrive. Retailers and wholesalers seek assurance around the validity and quality of the products they are selling. And consumers are demanding greater transparency from providers.”
The United States is projected to lead the world with 36% of total blockchain spending through 2022, followed by Western Europe and China. Throughout the entire world, the growth of the blockchain industry is expected to be phenomenal.
Driven by rapid adoption in the banking industry, the financial sector is projected to spend USD 552 million in 2018 on blockchain. The distribution and services sector is projected to spend USD 379 million in 2018, followed by the manufacturing and resources sector at USD 334 million.
Maltese regulators have told blockchain companies to wait for a public announcement from the agency before filing a request for approvals and authorizations
Maltese regulators have told blockchain companies to wait for a public announcement from the agency before filing a request for approvals and authorizations
CointelegraphCME Report: Bitcoin Futures Average Daily Volume up 93% in Second QuarterCointelegraphBitcoin (BTC) futures average daily volume (ADV) at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) increased by 93 percent in the second quarter over the first qu…
CME Report: Bitcoin Futures Average Daily Volume up 93% in Second Quarter Cointelegraph Bitcoin (BTC) futures average daily volume (ADV) at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) increased by 93 percent in the second quarter over the first quarter of 2018, the company revealed in a tweet July 20. CME also stated that the rate of open ...
CME revealed that Bitcoin futures average daily volume grew by 93 percent in Q2 over the previous quarter in 2018, while open interest is up 58 percent
CME revealed that Bitcoin futures average daily volume grew by 93 percent in Q2 over the previous quarter in 2018, while open interest is up 58 percent
Former presidential bodyguard George Sax has a new task on his hands: protecting Bitcoin for the British cryptocurrency corporation Blockchain Ltd. Since Blockchain Ltd’s founding in 2011, the business has raised USD 70 million in equity capital and manages over 26 million digital wallets spanning 140 countries. Sax’s employment history boasts experience both as a former special …
Former presidential bodyguard George Sax has a new task on his hands: protecting Bitcoin for the British cryptocurrency corporation Blockchain Ltd.
Since Blockchain Ltd’s founding in 2011, the business has raised USD 70 million in equity capital and manages over 26 million digital wallets spanning 140 countries.
Sax’s employment history boasts experience both as a former special agent and a senior US Secret Service official, previously holding responsibility for the Secret Service’s Office of Investigations. In 2016, he also managed security for the presidential campaign.
Blockchain Ltd’s co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Smith described his company as ”one of the top targets in the world” for such security threats, given the company’s expansive portfolio. He detailed several specifics of Sax’s job, listing securing infrastructure, data centers, and operations as primary requirements. With Sax’s help, he plans to create the ”next generation of security”.
While the growing cryptocurrency industry still remains relatively in its infancy, concerns continue to increase over the vulnerability of exchanges to cyber attacks and hacking. The peer-to-peer nature of blockchain-backed cryptocurrency transactions means that once assets are unlawfully taken, it is nearly impossible to recover the funds.
In May this year, a reported USD 1 billion in cryptocurrency was reported as stolen globally since the start of 2017, according to data compiled by blockchain security company CipherTrace. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is reported to have opened 24 investigations into cryptocurrency businesses in this period also.
Sax’s high-profile employment is one of the first of its kind, with many similar sure to follow as the industry expands.
The US state of Texas and oil seem completely synonymous, with even a long-running TV series based around the black stuff, but now it seems there’s another money spinner in town; crypto mining. It seems that more and more Texans are taking to small-scale home-operated crypto mining according to the Dallas Morning News, and leaving …
It seems that more and more Texans are taking to small-scale home-operated crypto mining according to the Dallas Morning News, and leaving the oil for the big boys. One of these is Stanley Edgar who shares his typical Texas home with his 32-year-old son Brandon, Brandon’s girlfriend and the couple’s children.
The Edgars are part of the Lone Star State’s growing number of small crypto miners prepared to spend thousands of dollars to make their fortunes in search of Bitcoin and its cousins. To such a degree that apparently the Edgar household now uses four times the electricity of a regular Texas home in the quest for crypto, due to the hardware and power required to make it all happen.
Son Brandon lives in the hope of future riches, even if it means blowing up his wife’s vacuum cleaner and short-circuiting his power around the house:
“It’s kind of like buying penny stocks,” he says, “You hope it hits the moon.”
This is base level mining, the real frontiersmen of the industry. The Edgars run seven rigs in their home with 35 graphics cards churning out the power, costing tens of thousands of dollars, with even a 3D printer doing its stuff in their garage.
The Edgars are new to mining, having only become involved in cryptocurrency six months ago when son Brandon advertised a graphics card online and was duly amazed to see the huge price it attracted. The rest is now history for the typical Texan household.
Such activities have attracted quite a following in Dallas, and the Edgars are certainly not alone in their desire to turn power into money. Last month, both enthusiasts such as the Edgars and IT professionals started the Dallas Cryptomining Meetup.
The first meeting attracted 19-year-old Grant Pellet who has created his own cryptocurrency called CryptoRescue. “I like to take risks,” he said.
Such risks are clearly paying off for some. According to recent figures, cryptocurrency mining comprises 114 nations globally which offered the market a profitability of USD 4.1 billion by the end of 2017. Add to that, profits acquired from the sale of mining machines, which is approximated to reach some USD 3 to USD 4 billion, and mining appears to have all the makings of a thriving cryptocurrency industry.
It’s hardly surprising that the Edgars have had their heads turned and have set up a factory all of their own. It may be a while though until they get the returns they need to pay for all that gear.
It’s hard work running a business. It almost makes you ache for a simpler time when all you had to worry about was shoplifters stealing your goods. Now you’ve got confidential data, trade secrets, and, of course, plenty of money at stake. We’ve taken a look at the top five threats keeping cybersecurity experts awake […]
It’s hard work running a business. It almost makes you ache for a simpler time when all you had to worry about was shoplifters stealing your goods. Now you’ve got confidential data, trade secrets, and, of course, plenty of money at stake.
We’ve taken a look at the top five threats keeping cybersecurity experts awake at night. But new research from RiskIQ brings even more bad news that you probably don’t want to hear. Check out these five fierce facts about cybercrime below.
5. The Global Attack Surface Is Big – Really Big
To give you an idea of the capability of RiskIQ, the company analyzes over two billion HTTP requests every day. They deploy web crawling infrastructure that checks terabytes of passive DNS data, millions of SSL certificates, and monitor mobile apps to see how large the scope of an attack surface really is. In other words, how much of an opportunity is there for hackers to break in?
Over a two-week period, they analyzed over three million new domains and 77 million hosts that could all be potential targets for a hacker. Since many modern websites share the same frameworks, plugins, and third-party apps, the hacker’s job is even easier. Just as we can create websites faster and easier, so can hackers come up with malicious code to infiltrate them all.
And one of the largest vectors is content management systems (CMS) like WordPress. In fact, RiskIQ found that over 13,000 WordPress plugins were among Alexa’s most-visited sites. And some 3,390 of them showed critical vulnerabilities running at least one weak web component.
4. Hackers Probably Know More About Your Attack Surface Than You Do
How confident are you in your IT department? How certain are you that you track and monitor 100 percent of your internet assets? Because RiskIQ research found that at least 30 percent of companies have more internet assets than they thought.
This could be due to shadow IT, M&As, or a simple lack of organization. Shadow IT occurs when an IT department outsources for a time and fails to include all internet assets in the company security program. If this happens over a period of time, it becomes an easy vector for a hacker, since these assets remain unpatched and don’t pass security frameworks.
Mergers with other companies often lead to this, as the list of assets is frequently incomplete and sometimes chaotic. Internet assets include elements such as domain names, certificates, hosts, and apps.
3. Sometimes Things Are Out of Your Control
Despite your best efforts to protect your customers’ data, sometimes things are outside of your control. Just think about the MyEtherWallet phishing attack. Social engineering is on the rise, and hackers are getting more and more innovative. Their main tactic? Impersonating your company.
This could either be through a website, email, or social media page. These are all common ways of tricking customers and employees into giving away key information and installing malware.
In Q1 of 2018 alone, RiskIQ identified more than 25,000 phishing domains posing as almost 300 brands. 40 percent of them were in the financial services industry. The best way to combat phishing? Educate your customers, educate your employees, and be ready to take impostor sites down as soon as possible.
2. The Mobile Attack Surface Is Scary
We tend to think of the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store as the only mobile app stores available. In actual fact, there are plenty more. A host of affiliate stores serve the Android market, and they can present a wealth of opportunities for bad actors to replace legitimate apps with fake ones.
RiskIQ found an incredible 21,948 blacklisted mobile apps, equating roughly to 1.5 percent of all new apps. Almost all of these apps claimed READ_SMS permission, allowing them to intercept messages that could circumvent 2FA.
Users should always download apps from the primary app stores and be extremely careful when researching the apps they download. If it doesn’t look legit and it’s asking for too much information, it’s probably best to avoid.
1. Cryptocurrency Miners Are Out of Control
We’ve already heard about cryptojacking and botnet miners steadily feeding off our CPUs. But these latest stats are enough to make your eyes bleed. More than 50,000 websites have been running Coinhive over the last twelve months (whether knowingly or otherwise).
There is now an average of 495 new hosts that run cryptocurrency miners every week. And even worse than that? Many of the crypto mining scripts found have been active for over 160 days already, meaning companies have failed to detect them.
The Takeaway
Cybercrime is no laughing matter. In fact, it’s spiraling out of control. Defensive methods are no longer sufficient. Companies wanting to keep ahead of the hackers will have to be more proactive in taking stock of and monitoring their assets. Or watch them fall apart piece by piece.
Europe Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country. United Kingdom UK to target carbon emissions with eco-digital company: The port city of Liverpool is striving to reduce its carbon footprint through blockchain technology …
Welcome to our weekly roundup of all important blockchain and cryptocurrency news from around the world. Follow the latest developments in the cryptocurrency space continent by continent, country by country.
Liverpool has set the goal of becoming the first carbon-positive major country in the world and the latest deal with the eco-digital company will help to counteract its carbon footprint by over 110%, thus providing a valuable milestone for the future of global conservation projects.
The Poseidon Foundation monitors the carbon impacts of products and services in an area. Liverpool’s significant carbon footprint is a cause of concern for the City Council which is keen to reduce these emissions as early as possible. Poseidon’s technology ensures that conservation projects such as the ones undertaken by Liverpool are provided automatic support. It is also working with universities, colleges and businesses with educational message regarding more environmentally secure future.
According to a news report back in May, the Masjid Ramadan, built by Turkish Cypriots, had decided to accept Ethereum to carry out essential repairs. Leaders at the mosque had made the decision to accept zakat, the annual donation made by all Muslims on accumulated wealth. The mosque set a target of GBP 10,000 and the overall positive response has seen more than GBP 13,983 donated from around the world.
Mosque chairman Erik Gurney was pleased to announce the successful donation drive using cryptocurrencies. He said:
“Many people at the mosque were initially skeptical about us accepting this new money, but the fact we received four times more in cryptocurrency donations shows how important it is to be open to these new digital currencies.”
The mosque followed regulatory protocol by ensuring the donations were transferred to the bank’s hard wallet before finally converting them into pound sterlings.
Lufthansa has announced the project in collaboration with SAP, the world’s largest ERP system that is also interested in blockchain technology. The three main challenges in the event include the Traveller Challenge, Airline Challenge and Supplier Challenge. The challenges are looking to seek innovative blockchain solutions.
Thorsten Dirks, an executive board member of the airline said:
“We look forward to discussing innovative solutions and initiating experiments together with our partner SAP at the Aviation Blockchain Challenge. By combining our aviation industry expertise with the blockchain technology of a world market leader, we are creating the ideal worldwide framework for addressing blockchain entrepreneurs with an affinity for travel and mobility.”
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has also announced that it is partnering with an AI company to develop pilotless vehicles using blockchain technology.
Russia
Universities announce new blockchain courses:Russian universities have announced new courses in blockchain technology in their current curriculum. Voronzeh State University, Don State Technical University and Novosibirsk State University have announced that these courses will be available in the fall semester.
The VSU will particularly offer a new major called ‘Models and methods for analyzing the digital economy’. The other university DSTU will offer two master’s programs in the space: ‘Intellectual systems based on blockchain technologies’ and ‘Digital accounting and management’.
Russia is aiming to become one of the blockchain centers in the world with English courses also being offered for expat students.
The list was compiled by the Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain. Most of these companies have been approved by regulators and include a diverse range of startups from cryptocurrency mining companies to ICOs.
The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) of Bulgaria will help the government in safeguarding against the threat of illegal activities like money laundering and fraud connected to cryptocurrencies. The move comes after Bulgaria seized a record BTC 213,510 in May worth around USD 1.4 billion from reportedly criminal elements. The government has also initiated a crackdown against reputable cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken.
The signs were erected by a local crypto group called Paraleni Polis, a Prague-based anti-bank, pro-crypto organization that has its own crypto hub and cafe. The giant Batman-esque sign was lit up and drew attention from a lot of people in the Eastern European nation.
Malta has long sought to become a global hub in blockchain development and has engaged Binance with the innovative project of a decentralized bank. Binance will have a 5% stake in the new bank along with other anchor investors, with a USD 155 million initial valuation.
Cryptography inspires all types of people to create. One such creator is Eric Anderson, the founder of a decentralized privacy platform called Promether. He and his team are currently building a secure messaging system called Contact to run on top of this platform. Eric, known as “Eijah” in the hacker community, left his role as […]
Cryptography inspires all types of people to create. One such creator is Eric Anderson, the founder of a decentralized privacy platform called Promether. He and his team are currently building a secure messaging system called Contact to run on top of this platform. Eric, known as “Eijah” in the hacker community, left his role as both a security portfolio manager for American Express and a lead developer for Rockstar Games to pursue a wholly different agenda. His motivation – frustration with inadequate technological solutions – led him to hack Blu-ray encryption before founding both Promether and a proto-concept project called Demonsaw.
Eric’s approach to life, though it seems unconventional, echos a common feeling: when we get too complacent, we get bored. Eric gets bored easily, making his tendency to move rapidly from one singular focus to the next a hallmark of his life. He’s jumped from one pursuit to the next, but the one constant throughout has been a decision to sacrifice a work-life balance in order to fully devote himself to the task at hand. “Sacrifice is required for success,” he tells me.
Eric celebrating after winning the San Francisco BEF Pitch Competition
From Spanish to C++
Part of Eric’s strong motivation seems rooted in a fear of stagnation. He continually describes his life as striving for the next level of challenge. In college, this need for mastery led him to learn four different languages while pursuing a BA in Spanish. “I quickly got bored of learning how many ways I could say apple in different languages.” It was the structure of language that interested him. The grammar, syntax, and rules of language learning bridged his transition into learning programming languages, starting with C and followed by C++.
Eventually, Eric decided to pursue a master’s degree in computer science, and in spite of his social sciences background, he tested into a program at Arizona State University. Eric started working with American Express while he was still in school and accepted a full-time role with them after graduation.
Though he enjoyed the company, Eric started to feel stunted in his role within it. He felt he wasn’t growing because his work limited him to the most basic aspects of being a developer. If there was a pyramid of devs by skill set, Eric was at the bottom, stating: “Programmers for American Express weren’t real programmers or security experts. They were basically faking it; they were pretending to be master-level experts when they in reality did very little. I wasn’t getting enough programming experience or being challenged. At the top of the pyramid, the only people that were mastering what they were doing were game developers and hackers.”
Becoming a Hacker
Lack of fulfillment at work meant Eric came home to tinker with things, experimenting on electronics projects, playing Xbox, and looking for things to do. During this free time, Eric heard about a peripheral drive for his Xbox that would allow him to watch HD Blu-ray DVDs using his Xbox drive, and he purchased it. He also found out that the drive should be compatible with his desktop computer, allowing him to also watch HD-DVDs by adding a Toshiba driver.
After he bought that extra driver, he had all the software and hardware legally needed to watch HD disks on either his Xbox or computer – or so he thought. “I’d done everything right, and bought everything legally, but when I went to use the software to watch movies on the computer, it suddenly down-resed from 1080p to 480p.” Eric was upset, as from his perspective, he’d followed the rules only to be punished because of the age of his monitor.
To truly experience the full story of Eric’s hack, Episode 16 of Darknet Diaries features an interview with Eric, much of it in his own words. In the episode, Eric describes feeling powerless and deciding to take things into his own hands: “Sometimes it falls on us to just decide we’re going to change the world, to decide that we’re going to take a stand, to decide that we’re fed up…” It was this breaking point that sparked his long journey to eventually breaking Blu-ray encryption.
A secret hacker group reached out to him after the hack, transforming a hack that had started with personal frustration into a unifier with others with similar mindsets. That outreach was what brought him into the fold of the larger hacker community at DEF CON, where he’s spoken for the last five years. Each year, Eric addresses hackers on the importance of privacy and security, emphasizing the idea of rejecting the status quo and circumventing authorities in the name of our privacy and freedom by hacking around the problems.
Lessons in File Sharing
After several successful years as a game developer for Activision and Rockstar Games, Eric’s built this passion for privacy and security into Demonsaw and Promether. (He worked on Guitar Hero 5 and 6, Max Pain 3, Grand Theft Auto 5 and 6, and Red Dead Redemption 2.)
In 2013, Eric thought he’d spend a month working on a better file sharing architecture. In his words, “There’s nothing that allows you to share files without any fear of being logged or surveilled by a network architecture; that is totally wrong.” A month became 10 months working on the testnet. In 2014, Eric launched a program called Demonsaw, a decentralized, secure and anonymous file sharing app that circumnavigates DMCA notices and protects privacy. His big lesson from Demonsaw was that interfaces have to be simple for people to want to use a product. “I’m not a user interface developer, and the Demonsaw interface was atrocious.”
Today, Eric is working on a privacy solution he’s wrapped in a more sexy sell for average consumers who are often unaware or uninterested in their security and privacy. Eric is working on Promether, a privacy network, with a decentralized secure messaging app as its first milestone.
Eric briefly partnered with controversial crypto leader John McAfee last year, describing the outcome as a learning experience. “His vision is no longer accurate and I wouldn’t conform to his thinking, but I learned from him; mostly I learned what not to do.”
“I’ve followed my passion for privacy; what I’m doing isn’t about financial reward, but rather about creating security combined with usability.” Eric is designing Promether to offer a simple interface for general users with advanced features for people seeking the highest security and privacy standards. “Privacy doesn’t sell, and no one wants to pay for it,” he says. “People understand convenience.” Therefore, Eric is creating a project bringing advanced privacy tucked into a convenient and intuitive interface.
“Companies, like programmers, are lazy, preferring a straight line over a Merkle tree.” Eric and his project Promether promise something different, and the outcome awaits.
Coinbase has reportedly attracted a $20 bln hedge fund on its custody service, shortly after denying its own report of being approved for trading securities by the SEC
Coinbase has reportedly attracted a $20 bln hedge fund on its custody service, shortly after denying its own report of being approved for trading securities by the SEC
Interdealer broker TP Icap, one of the world’s largest institutions within the financial, energy, and commodities markets, is about to approach virtual currencies. It has set up a working group for the purpose of analyzing the best way to enter the burgeoning market and ecosystem. In 2017, the company had a revenue of $1.76 billion. TP Icap…
Interdealer broker TP Icap, one of the world’s largest institutions within the financial, energy, and commodities markets, is about to approach virtual currencies. It has set up a working group for the purpose of analyzing the best way to enter the burgeoning market and ecosystem. In 2017, the company had a revenue of $1.76 billion.
TP Icap Sets Up Working Group to Examine Approach to Cryptocurrencies
The working group was set up under John Phizackerley, former CEO and a veteran executive within the financial industry, including roles at Lehman Brothers and Nomura. Leadership, however, recently changed as Phizackerley was let go earlier this month as shares crashed by more than a third due to rising costs over the Brexit ordeal.
The company has appointed Nicolas Bretau, the former group’s head of global broking, as CEO. He will now be heading the cryptocurrency working group, which has taken on some of TP Icap’s most senior executives to examine the company’s approach to the new asset class and volatile market, reports the Financial News.
TP Icap results from a merger between Tullet Prebon and Icap’s hybrid voice broking and information business in an all-share deal valued at about £1.1 billion. While waiting for regulatory approval to create TP Icap, Tullet Prebon, now TP Icap, agreed to distribute Brave New Coin (BNC) digital currency data. The Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) is a proprietary BNC product. The interdealer broker also offers spot prices for more than digital currencies, with regular updates.
The financial industry is still finding its way to deal with the cryptocurrency disruption. Some companies have taken quicker and deeper steps into what others would call an abyss.
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, one of TP Icap’s institutional clients, has been frequently vocal about the “fraud” Bitcoin is. His most recent comments against the cryptocurrency with the most market dominance, 45.3% as of Friday, was last month. Dimon called for caution over Bitcoin: “Just beware”. While Bitcoin holds the hearts of a wide number of virtual currency enthusiasts, it does not represent the whole market nor the underlying technology.
BlackRock, the 10th-largest hedge fund by assets under management, set up a working group earlier this week to look into cryptocurrencies and blockchain. CEO Larry Fink said that the company is “a big student of blockchain,” but that its client base does not currently hold an interest in investing in cryptocurrencies. In 2017, Fink said that cryptocurrencies were largely speculative and highlight money laundering levels.
