The pandemic has forced many companies to move their operations online. It has also brought the question of online voting to the forefront of conversation in the United States, which is facing an election year. According to a June 7 paper from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Michigan, Democracy Live’s popular online voting platform, OmniBallot, is vulnerable to vote manipulation. Many states have tried OmniBallot, which uses Amazon Web Services to lock in votes, but it has faced security issues. A more decentralized online voting is part of the solution to protect ballots, the researchers …

Cryptocurrency-powered web browser Brave is partnering with the Korean pop group BTS and Rush Gaming to provide a limited edition release of its browser for residents of Japan. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on June 5 that the Brave Browser and BTS — AKA the Bangtan Boys — have developed a browser exclusively for users in Japan. This is the first known collaboration between a privacy-based browser like Brave and a K-pop boy band. According to the Nikkei, the two aim to find a new touchpoint between idols and fans. Users of the limited edition browser can earn points by watching …

On June 8, Chainalysis announced support for privacy coins Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH) making it easy for the law enforcement to track them. Calling Dash a privacy coin is a misnomer The company claims that it can trace the vast majority of Zcash and Dash transactions due to the fact that most users do not use privacy-enhancing features. When it comes to Dash, Chainalysis goes as far as to say that calling it ‘privacy coins’ is a misnomer, it concludes: “In fact, independent wallet softwares provide more advanced forms of CoinJoin that are being used with major cryptocurrencies not …

Voice, the social media platform by EOSIO creator Block.one, announced that it will launch on July 4. According to a Tweet posted by Voice Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salah Zalatimo on June 6, the social media platform will be available to readers on U.S. Independence Day, with only registered users able to publish content or engage online. “We had been building towards a big reveal this fall,” said Zalatimo, “but, we simply can't wait any longer. We need to take social back from big tech NOW.” The platform had been in beta testing since Feb. 14. The CEO said registration …

In an effort to keep citizens safe, state authorities have rapidly implemented various emergency plans to curb the spread of COVID-19. In South Korea, the movements of infected citizens are being broadcasted via public text message. In Israel, the government has approved a law to track smartphones belonging to those suspected of being infected. In the United States, the government is in talks with Google and Facebook to access location data, and in the United Kingdom, data giant Palantir is merging data for the National Health Service to inform the nation’s response. The extent to which governments can leverage technology …

Crypto-powered privacy-focused web browser Brave has come under fire for automatically filling an affiliate link into its address bar when a user attempts to access the website for leading crypto exchange Binance and its United States-based subsidiary Binance.US. Brave’s co-founder and chief executive, Brendan Eich, has acknowledged the “mistake,” pledging that the error will soon be corrected to remove the automatic completion of its affiliate link after the situation gained traction on crypto Twitter. “Brave default autocompletes verbatim Binance.us in the address bar to add an affiliate code. We are a Binance affiliate, we refer users via the opt-in trading …

Cryptocurrency payment platform, Crypto.com, announced on June 2 that it is one of the first fintech companies to receive ISO/IEC 27701:2019 privacy certification, following a number of third-party audits. According to the announcement, the “Gold standard” certification aims to strengthen the company’s strategy — “Defense in Depth”. It outlines policy implementation guidelines for data protection with regard to personally identifiable information, or PII, within the organization. The certification was granted by SGS, a leading inspection verification and certification firm that has over 2,600 offices worldwide. Strengthening the company’s risk and security policies Speaking with Cointelegraph, Jason Lau, Chief Information Security …

Zoom, the video conference app whose popularity has rocketed on the back of the global lockdown, won’t be encrypting calls for free users. This way, the company hopes to create space for collaboration with the FBI and other authorities, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said during a June 2 conference call. According to Yuan, Zoom’s end-to-end encryption service, which is currently under development, will be available exclusively for corporate clients to prevent bad actors from using the app: “Free users for sure we don’t want to give that because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement …

Blockchains reached a feverish level of hype following the ICO mania of 2017. Peddled as the panacea to the world’s ills, many of such promises ill-intentioned, initial coin offerings raised enormous sums of funds within minutes as the public’s focus shifted to the wild world of cryptocurrencies. Once the hype faded, the emerging narrative surrounded enterprise blockchains and the vast potential of the nascent technology to lead businesses into the next generation of the internet. However, much of the original vision of blockchain technology and crypto was lost amid the hysteria. Consortium-backed chains, enterprise blockchain research projects and delegated proof-of-stake …

A paper published on May 29 by Ferenc Béres and a team of primarily Hungary-based researchers analyzed the Ethereum blockchain to find out how easily its transactions can be de-anonymized. The research, which has not yet been subjected to peer review, focused on several Ethereum-specific features that overall make the network easier to track than competitors like Bitcoin (BTC). The researchers noted that Ethereum’s account model, contrasted with Bitcoin’s Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model, already makes it less private due to the practice of wallet reuse: “The account-based model reinforces address-reuse on the protocol level. This behavior practically makes the …

According to a claim by Harvard Business Review, blockchain will do to banks what the internet did to the media. When it comes to the banks and financial organizations of today, blockchain has the potential to solve a host of problems. Blockchain technology possesses nearly all the attractive characteristics needed by a reliable technology involving money. It is safe, secure, decentralized, transparent and relatively cheaper. Blockchain’s potential in financial services is significant and has several applications, spanning payments, capital markets, trade services, investment and wealth management as well as securities and commodities exchanges. Blockchain technology is tipped to be one …

Fledgling Ethereum anonymization protocol Tornado.cash has launched completely immutable smart contracts — rendering the protocol “unstoppable” from May 21. While the project has extolled the virtues of immutability and declared that “code is law,” many within the Ethereum (ETH) community are advising against depositing funds into the protocol. Tornado.cash opts for complete immutability Tornado notes that “[t]here are pros and cons” to its dedication to immutability, declaring heightened decentralization and the inability for smart contracts to be altered as positive virtues of the protocol. However, the developers concede that “the tornado.cash team is also not able to protect the users …