The developers of privacy-centric cryptocurrency Grin (GRIN) have hit back at the fundamental claims of an article purporting to have “broken” the coin’s privacy model. In a Medium blog post published on Nov. 19, Grin core dev Daniel Lehnberg argued that the so-called breakage did not go beyond the already-acknowledged privacy limitations of the coin’s protocol and relied on a passive attack vector that would be insufficient to glean actionable data. Some basics of Grin’s protocol Lehnberg’s post does not consist of a point-by-point takedown of the original article, which was published yesterday by Ivan Bogatyy, a researcher at United …

Mimblewimble, a privacy-focused blockchain protocol, is allegedly not private at all. According to an expert at blockchain research firm Dragonfly Research, Mimblewimble's privacy is fundamentally flawed, which he reportedly proved by discovering the exact addresses of senders and recipients for 96% transactions of Mimblewimble’s privacy-centric coin Grin (GRIN). Ivan Bogatyy, a researcher at United States-based Dragonfly Capital Partners, published a Medium post on Nov. 18 in which he claimed that he was able to break Grin’s purported privacy while spending just $60 per week on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Mimblewimble should no longer be treated as an alternative to Zcash …

International payment network Visa is working on a blockchain-based system for joint policy-compliant computation of large-scale private data. Visa Research — the research and development arm of Visa that focuses on data analytics, security and payment innovation — released a paper describing a blockchain-powered system for policy-compliant computing. The system is dubbed LucidiTEE, where TEE stands for trusted execution environments. Joint processing of large data sets with higher transparency The system is aimed at building applications that process large data sets and are intended for serving a large number of users, without knowing in advance what users would participate and …

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, …

Bitcoin (BTC) price could “crash to zero” in the event of mass adoption by institutions, an industry expert has warned. Speaking at Cointelegraph’s ongoing BlockShow conference on Nov. 14, Dr. Pavel Kravchenko, CEO and co-founder at Distributed Lab and author of “Blockchain and Decentralized Systems,” revealed a rare bearish stance on the increasing institutional interest in Bitcoin. Kravchenko: BTC will go to zero with censorship Kravchenko was sitting on a panel focusing on blockchain projects and their associated cryptocurrency tokens: “Creating token value — are monetary gains hindering blockchain innovation?” He summarized: “Bitcoin is censorship resistant money, the first in …

Privacy-centric coin Grin received an anonymous 50 Bitcoin (BTC) donation to its General Fund on Nov. 11, sparking a bizarre rumor that the generous soul behind it was Satoshi. The donation, announced the same day by Grin on Twitter, was made via crypto exchange Coinbase by a donor who expressly wished to remain anonymous, according to a Nov. 11 forum post by Grin dev Daniel Lehnberg. “Work freely” without dependency Lehnberg has revealed that he briefly interacted with the donor. While upholding his/her/their desired anonymity, he nonetheless shared some of the donor(s)’ edited remarks, including reported statements such as: “Our …

Electric Coin Company (ECC) has donated the Zcash trademark to the Zcash Foundation. ECC created and launched the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC) in 2016, and will now own the trademark bilaterally with the corresponding foundation. ECC and the Zcash Foundation have been in negotiations since August Upon an agreement signed on Nov. 6, the Zcash Foundation will be financially responsible for costs associated with assigning and protecting the trademark. Announcing the news, the Zcash Foundation mentioned the existing disagreement with ECC over the trademark’s future. The foundation noted that it returned to negotiations with ECC after failing to reach an …

For better or for worse, the cryptocurrency space is coming of age. Since Bitcoin’s rise to mainstream prominence in 2015, there has been increasing recognition of digital assets from government agencies around the world. In turn, new regulations are being imposed to control the way cryptocurrency companies operate and do business globally. Most recently, the Financial Action Task Force issued new guidelines on how digital assets should be regulated. In order to raise awareness around these requirements, the blockchain security company CipherTrace hosted a conference and hackathon this week in San Francisco dedicated entirely to discussions on the FATF guidelines, …

American blockchain security firm CipherTrace will provide Anti-Money Laundering (AML) controls for Binance Chain and its native asset Binance Coin (BNB). CipherTrace to increase AML checks on Binance Chain Binance Chain, a public blockchain of major crypto exchange Binance and the underlying blockchain for Binance DEX, is expected to improve its AML procedures through CipherTrace, Binance announced on Nov. 5. Specifically, CipherTrace will be providing Binance Chain with institutional-grade AML controls to increase adoption of the Binance Chain blockchain. Within the initiative, CipherTrace will enable global developers, investors and regulators to access the Binance Chain blockchain for discovering data such …

BitMEX, the biggest crypto exchange by trade volume to date, says that no other data except email addresses has been disclosed in a recent email leak. “At no point were any of our core systems at risk” After the first reports on the accident on Nov. 1, BitMEX released an official statement on the issue Nov. 4, emphasizing that no personal or account information has been disclosed beyond email addresses. Apologizing for the concern caused by the leak, the exchange added that none of BitMEX’s core systems were at risk at any point. BitMEX has not sent mass emails since …

Dubai-based multi-currency and spot/futures exchange, BTSE, unveiled its Monero (XMR) futures trading, Oct. 31. The move makes it one of the first and only exchanges offering futures contracts on the privacy-focussed cryptocurrency. Bucking the trend of exchanges delisting privacy-focused coins BTSE is a relatively unknown, low-volume exchange that is licensed by the Department of Economic Development, Government of Dubai and is under the regulations of the Central Bank of United Arab Emirates, according to its website. The decision to list Monero comes at a time when the popular privacy coin is being delisted from several other exchanges. Despite having proved …

Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has accidentally leaked user emails by forgetting to use blind copy (bcc) on a mass email. The incident was acknowledged by BitMEX in an official statement published today, Nov. 1. Cointelegraph’s editorial team in Japan have independently revealed that a staff member was the recipient of the BitMEx newsletter in question. “Outrageously incompetent” In a tweet posted on Nov. 1, crypto-focused lawyer Jake Chervinsky characterized BitMEX’s accidental public sharing of user email data as a simple error committed in the “outrageously incompetent way imaginable.” Concerned community members have pointed out that the leak makes BitMEX account …