"Blockchain" and "distributed ledger technology." Many of us have been guilty of confusing these two terms and using them interchangeably. But even though their meanings overlap in a number of areas, and even though they've both reached similar levels of public notoriety since the 2017 cryptocurrency bull market, they aren't quite identical. Yes, they both generally refer to a record of information that's distributed across a network, and yes, they both foster a greater degree of transparency and openness than had been enabled by earlier, centralized databases or digital records. But this is where the analogies end, since blockchains and …

There’s a novelty in finding new ways to communicate through coded conversations and secret languages. How is this being implemented for good — or otherwise — on blockchains? Since its beginnings, blockchain technology has led to many movements, including the formation of a unique crypto community. This blockchain community is forming its own lexicon (including a more formal vocabulary that industry opinion-makers are creating and debating and Twitter-based crypto slang like hashtagging Lambos and Bitcoin whales.) There is also another language that has developed, the one in blockchain platforms themselves — developed through a “glitch” in the blockchain system — …

The non-custodial crypto wallet solution ZenGo has created an open source project that purportedly provides proof-of-concept (PoC) for its ability to support social media giant Facebook’s virtual currency Libra, according to an official announcement by ZenGo on July 2. According to the announcement, this proof-of-concept project shows that it is possible to perform Libra transactions on the Libra testnet blockchain. However, the findings are limited, as the report cautions: “Obviously, this experiment is only based on a testnet and we will have to explore further once Libra makes its mainnet available. Additionally, there is no user interface in this PoC …

Blockstream CEO Adam Back — inventor of the hashcash proof-of-work (PoW) system later used in bitcoin’s (BTC) mining algorithm — says that “bitcoin time” seems to be running faster than the so-dubbed “internet time” of the early dotcom era. Back made his remarks during a panel at the Bitcoin 2019 conference in San Francisco on June 26. Following a discussion of hashcash’s inception as well as various early electronic money inventions such as digicash, Back noted that bitcoin had broken through with Satoshi’s decentralized vision and his solution to counter hyperinflation by fixing the coin’s supply curve. “Bitcoin has come …

The major selling point of blockchain and its applications is that cryptographically secured distributed ledgers are virtually “unbreakable” under normal circumstances, given the current state of computational technology. Its validity, however, is heavily dependent on the “state of technology” assumption. Should a paradigmatic shift in computing occur, contemporary blockchain-based systems may become vulnerable to threats not accounted for in their design. But how urgent is the threat of this happening any time soon? The strides that physicists have been making for the last three decades toward building an operational quantum computer could soon contribute to such a shift. As the …

Yannick Sierra, security engineering and architecture manager for Apple, opened up the cryptography session at the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and presented the CryptoKit with these words: Welcome to the bitcoin session! (Laughter in the room). Kidding — welcome to Cryptography and Your Apps session! This opening quote ended up being the only reference to cryptocurrencies or blockchain throughout the entire presentation of CryptoKit — Apple’s new framework for app developers designed to simplify building security-enhancing cryptographic functionality. Sierra’s joke was likely in recognition of how eagerly the crypto community anticipated the event, as well as the launch of …

Apple will target cryptographic developer tools at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2019, the company revealed in the event program for June 5. During a session scheduled for Wednesday at the ongoing event, titled “Cryptography and your Apps,” Apple will unveil a new tool dubbed “CryptoKit,” which will debut as an update in iOS 13. CryptoKit will focus primarily on developers, allowing them to build in more security functionality for apps with better support. “System frameworks encrypt both data at rest and data in transit in a transparent way for you. This functionality is available by simply setting an …

The recently reintroduced Token Taxonomy Act (TTA) will create a de minimis tax exemption for crypto transactions under $600, according to the executive director of Coin Center, Jerry Brito, at Consensus 2019 on May 13. The de minimis tax exemption stipulates that if a crypto owner experiences a capital gain up to $600 of crypto, then that owner is not required to report the gain to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the United States’ tax authority. Brito notes that this situation parallels how small gains on foreign currencies were treated prior to a de minimis proviso that was introduced in …

Crypto securities company Curv has partnered with insurance company Munich Re to obtain $50 million in coverage, according to a Curv press release on May 10. This new insurance is designed to cover any cases in which a bad actor was able to gain access to either Curv or the customer’s shares, both of which would be needed in order to sign off on an illicit transaction. As is stated in the press release: “Even in an extreme scenario where both networks’ shares were somehow simultaneously compromised and a transaction were initiated outside of the corporate policy, Curv’s insurance would …

Filecoin owner Protocol Labs is collaborating with the Ethereum Foundation to develop a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF). The company announced the partnership in a blog post on April 19. VDFs are a relatively new cryptographic primitive that can protect systems relying on the generation of (pseudo) random values from manipulation strategies or attack. Examples of everyday use cases include picking a lottery winner on the blockchain, as VDFs could help stop miners from intervening with a block hash to win the jackpot. Dan Boneh, one of the researchers who introduced the concept in a paper last June, explained that VDFs …

Switzerland-based blockchain and cybersecurity firm WISeKey has launched a new blockchain-powered digital identity solution to protect Internet of Things (IoT) devices and their data. The news was announced in a WISeKey press release on March 29. WISeKey focuses on secure authentication and identification solutions for people and smart objects by implementing a cryptographic tool called Root of Trust (RoT). WISeKey IoT claims to have an install base of over 1.5 billion secure microchips across “virtually all IoT sectors” — from connected carts and smart cities to drones and crypto tokens. RoT, the press release claims, is currently embedded in 4 …

Curv, a digital asset startup headquartered in the United States, has raised $6.5 million to launch a cloud-based digital asset wallet for financial institutions that does not use private keys, a company press release published on Feb. 26 reveals. According to the statement, the seed round was led by digital asset investment company Digital Currency Group and Israeli cybersecurity company Team8. The round also included participation from Monex Group, Flybridge Capital, Jump Capital and Liberty City Ventures. The funds will reportedly be used to create an institutional digital wallet that allows institutions and enterprises to securely use digital assets and …