The activation of Bitcoin’s (BTC) Taproot upgrade is moving forward as official Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) were submitted for review on Jan. 24. Even though Taproot is often hyped up for its privacy improvements, its true impact is likely to be very minor. What is Taproot? Taproot is the name given to a proposal coined by former Blockstream CTO Gregory Maxwell in January 2018. The actual implementation was later developed by a team of Bitcoin contributors led by Pieter Wuille. Taproot is a proposal that enhances Bitcoin’s scripts, a set of instructions attached to each transaction that explains how the …

Will Bitcoin have to update its infrastructure to become quantum resistant? While quantum computers are not a threat to Bitcoin at the moment, the oldest cryptocurrency might need an upgrade in the future. Bitcoin uses two security schemes, the hashing function used in the block creation and the ECDSA algorithm used for signatures. The latter is more vulnerable to risks posed by quantum computers, and it might require an additional layer of protection in the future. Back in 2017, Andreas Antonopoulos said that we should be ready for a major upgrade in Bitcoin when it becomes clear that quantum computers …

The Monero Research Lab (MRL) has released Triptych in a Jan. 6 paper proposing trustless logarithmic-size ring signatures. As Monero’s core anonymity mechanism, research aimed at decreasing their size could improve the coin’s privacy significantly. Monero (XMR) is a privacy coin that uses several distinct mechanisms to obfuscate parts of a transaction. The primary line of defense against transaction tracing comes from ring signatures. These work by aggregating a sender’s true coins with a set of decoys, picked semi-randomly from other points in the blockchain. There are currently 10 decoys added by default to any transaction, an amount that has …

Samsung SDS, the IT arm of tech giant Samsung, has integrated QEDIT’s zero-knowledge proof solution (ZKP) to its Nexledger blockchain. By applying ZKP, Samsung SDS intends to provide a higher level of privacy for users of its enterprise blockchain platform Nexledger, QEDIT said in a press release on Nov. 14. To apply the technology, Samsung SDS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli privacy-enhancing technology provider QEDIT in Seoul. According to the announcement, the agreement was signed by Jeanie Hong, senior VP at Samsung SDS’ blockchain division, and Jonathan Rouach, CEO and co-founder of QEDIT. Based on ZCP cryptography, …

The blockchain community should immediately begin working on three issues to prevent being overtaken by quantum computers, a cryptography expert says. Xinxin Fan, head of cryptography at privacy- and IoT-focused blockchain platform IoTeX, published an article in The International Business Times on Nov. 7, calling on the blockchain community to stay up to date about the progress being made on quantum computers. While reiterating that short-term developments in quantum computing are “modest,” Fan argued that blockchains will have to keep pace to avoid being overtaken by quantum computers as the technology grows and improves. As such, Fan outlined three major …

The CEO of Binance claims that a newly open-sourced solution for wallet providers and custodians is “far superior” to multi-sig security and will reshape the industry. In a tweet published on Nov. 6, Changpeng Zhao linked to a new open-source release from Binance, declaring: “I believe TSS (threshold signatures scheme) will reshape the landscape for wallets and custodian services. It is far superior to multi-sig.” Unlike multi-sig, TSS is implemented off-chain Binance has today released an open-source implementation of its Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) library for Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA): in layman’s terms, a new cryptographic protocol for …

The Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress in China has passed a new law regulating cryptography on Oct. 26 that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2020, reports local news outlet CCTV. Per the report, the new regulatory framework aims to set standards for the application of cryptography and the management of passwords. The new regulatory framework establishes the role of a central cryptographic agency meant to lead public cryptographic work, creating guidelines and policies for the industry. Implicit cryptocurrency regulation The draft of the law was published on May 7 by a Chinese news outlet. The text …

London-based decentralized communication startup New Vector has raised $8.5 million to drive adoption for Matrix, a major alternative messaging protocol. Slack rival Riot.IM The Matrix protocol, which enables secure communication via end-to-end encrypted messaging applications such as Riot.IM, an alternative to WhatsApp, Telegram or Slack, will continue scaling and growing its network with the newly raised funds, New Vector announced on Oct. 10. Investors of the New Vector’s Series A funding round included London-based European seed fund Firstminute Capital, cloud computing and Software as a service (SaaS)-focused Notion Capital and enterprise software venture firm Dawn Capital, the firm said. As …

Israeli cybersecurity startup GK8 has reportedly developed the world’s first offline system for transacting cryptocurrencies. The new system uses GK8’s proprietary cryptographic techniques that enable instant blockchain transactions of digital assets without any need for an internet connection, Israeli business news publication Globes reported on Sept. 18. The company raised $4 million in a funding round led by Discount Capital, a venture arm of one of Israel’s three largest banks, Discount Bank, and Marius Nacht, a co-founder of cybersecurity giant Checkpoint. Other investors reportedly included EdenBlock, iAngels, IDEAL-HLS, StratX and the Israel Innovation Authority. As reported by Globes, GK8’s new …

Disclaimer Sept. 6 8:23 p.m. UTC: This article previously read that the NSA was working to develop a cryptocurrency, as the source alluded to quantum resistant “crypto.” It has since been amended to correctly report the development of new cryptography technology. The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) is allegedly working to develop quantum-resistant cryptography. The claim was made in a tweet by Bloomberg Technology reporter William Turton on Sept. 4, who was in attendance at the Billington CyberSecurity 10th annual summit in Washington D.C. Turton’s tweet gives only a hint at the agency’s apparent plans, with reference to the …

The organizer of a Bitcoin (BTC) programming boot camp has published a multisignature (multisig) user interface (UI) proof-of-concept for both hardware wallets and full nodes. Justin Moon published a quick guide to using the prototype UI on Twitter on Aug. 28, together with the full software code on GitHub. Lowering entry barriers for Bitcoin Wallets that are protected by multisig technology require more than one private key to access the wallet and are thus thought to be much less vulnerable to security breaches, given that no single party possesses all the information necessary to decrypt them. Moon’s step-by-step guide to …

A cryptocurrency firm heckled at the Black Hat hackers’ conference is suing the event organizers for failing to protect it from the audience’s barbs. Crown Sterling — which some attendees have characterized as “a piece of snake-oil cyber marketing” — filed its complaint with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on Aug. 22. Hackers accuse firm of “suing over booing” At Black Hat, Crown Sterling had presented its development of what it dubs “quantum AI encryption technology” — a purportedly more robust “five-dimensional encryption” that draws on research into occult numerology and AI-composed music, …