Swiss blockchain startup, Nym Technologies, has invited the general public to take part in the next phase of its mixnet platform’s user testing on April 8. The privacy infrastructure promises advanced protection against mass-surveillance, and comes at a time when governments globally are expanding their powers in the name of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The good mixer Users are initially invited to run mix-nodes on the Nym testnet. A global network of mix-nodes will form the mixnet, which acts to irreversibly hide patterns and metadata in internet traffic by mixing data packets with those of other users. Nym claims that, …

Nonprofit cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center has appealed to the community to develop tech-based responses to the COVID-19 pandemic that protect civil liberties and privacy. In a post published on April 8, the center’s director of research, Peter Van Valkenburgh, surveyed recent proposals from the Zcash Foundation for Private Contact Tracing Protocols, as well as progress with Decentralized Identifiers by Microsoft Research. “It's our duty as a community of technologists to be vigilant against the imposition of tracing and identity technologies that could, long term, jeopardize our autonomy and privacy,” Van Valkenburgh wrote. Resisting state overreach Coin Center warns against …

Lately, it seems that most major national banks are toying with the notion of a national digital currency. France is conducting tests of its own now, and it could pave the way for a digital euro. What will France’s experiments involve, and how will they affect the crypto ecosystem? Here’s what is known so far. According to a document it published on March 30, the Bank of France is on the hunt for a central bank digital currency that can ease interbank settlements. To find one, the institution has called on Europe’s finest, inviting applicants — institutional or otherwise — …

The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest global crisis since the events that sparked the creation of Bitcoin (BTC) in 2008, and is one that will also have long-lasting effects on the economy. World governments are taking unprecedented measures to cope with the economic fallout of the virus, namely through the third coronavirus relief bill, which was approved by the United States Congress earlier this month and constitutes the biggest stimulus package in the country’s history at $2.2 trillion. During the negotiations for the third emergency bill, one of the drafts submitted by House Democrats — the first version of the …

Genobank, a blockchain project seeking to offer consumers ownership and control over their DNA data, is preparing to launch an app on EOS-based blockchain platform Telos to assist people in accessing anonymous coronavirus testing. According to a recent announcement from the Telos Foundation, the app will also allow users to share that information with healthcare organizations. The open-source app, Agerona, stores the test data on the Telos blockchain, with Genobank to introduce a token that enables information sharing. The app is expected to launch this month. Privacy concerns could hinder health efforts Some authorities have expressed concern that undocumented workers …

Experts suggest that blockchain technology could have been a better solution for handling coronavirus-related data in Russia. Moscow’s COVID-19 App is pulled from Google Play On March 25, an app called “Social monitoring” appeared in Google Play store. According to the app’s description, it was designed for social monitoring as well as for providing access to emergency services. Users soon noticed that the app required many sensitive permissions, including geolocation, bluetooth pairing, biometric data, and calls. Notably, the data was also being openly transmitted without encryption. The backlash against the app led to a 1-star rating on Google Play by …

Bitstamp, one of the longest-running active cryptocurrency exchanges, is considering launching a batch of new crypto asset listings. Curiously, Bitstamp is contemplating support for Zcash (ZEC), despite an increasing number of exchanges seeking to distance themselves from privacy coins due to associated regulatory risks. Bitfinex considers first new listings in 3 years On March 31, Bitstamp announced it is “actively exploring” support for seven crypto assets, including two stablecoins and one privacy coin. The prospective listings comprise Basic Attention Token (BAT), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Paxos Standard (PAX), 0x (ZRX), USD Coin (USDC), and Zcash. Exchanges abandon privacy …

Even with all the looming uncertainty surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic, system security needs to remain at the forefront of companies’ planning. Businesses around the world are shutting down under local, state or national decrees as COVID-19 fears bring caution regarding public gatherings. Unsurprisingly, hackers have used the unprecedented opportunity of chaos and panic to probe weaknesses in information technology systems. One of those systems happened to be the United States Department of Health and Human Services, making the act even more egregious, considering the circumstances. But the problem extends beyond hackers and threats to companies and individuals. During times …

Recent changes to Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in iOS may have killed burner wallets for iPhone users. Burner wallets are non-custodial wallets that store a user's private key in the browser’s local storage. A change made by Apple to Safari’s Webkit engine meant to enhance user privacy may jeopardize this model. This change will cap “the expiry of client-side cookies to seven days”. This implies that burner wallets will be destroyed after that short period. Although burner wallets were never intended for long-term storage of cryptocurrency, some users choose not to follow this rule. Exception to the rule Fortunately, there …

The cryptocurrency industry was initially headlined as anonymous digital cash. While experts were keen to point out that this was not exactly the case, Bitcoin (BTC) found initial popularity in darknet markets such as Silk Road, where merchants sold illegal goods ranging from light drugs to, allegedly, hitman services. Founded in 2011, Silk Road thrived for the next two years until the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. Authorities later revealed that completely free blockchain explorers aided their investigative efforts. Bitcoin’s transaction ledger is completely open for the public to view. What the blockchain does lack is …

Nik Bougalis, a cryptographer, software engineer and lead of the C++ team at Ripple, has published a proposed method for enhancing the privacy of transactions on the XRP ledger. In his Github post on March 30, Bougalis focused on the destination tags that are assigned to transactions made between wallets provided by exchanges or third-party providers — also known as hosted wallets. Bougalis argued that these destination tags present a potential privacy risk for users, which could be overcome through his proposed system of “blinded tags.” Blinded Tags Any transaction made between hosted wallets on the XRP ledger involves two …

While Telegram isn’t giving up its ongoing legal battle with United States regulators to launch its TON blockchain project, some online perpetrators are taking advantage of the messenger’s popularity to expose millions of user records of third-party versions of Telegram app. Per an investigation by cybersecurity firm Comparitech and security researcher Bob Diachenko, at least 42 million Iranian “Telegram” usernames and phone numbers were leaked via unofficial Iranian-made versions of Telegram, while real Telegram is banned in the country. 42 million Iranians that are willing to use the banned messenger got their data exposed According to a March 30 report …