Big four auditing firm Deloitte integrated the privacy developed by cryptography startup QEDIT into its qualification information blockchain platform Eduscrypt, a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 29 reveals. Per the release, the announcement was made at the ZKProof Community Event in Amsterdam today. Another application of ZK-Proofs The event was dedicated to Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZK-Proofs), an advanced kind of cryptography — which QEDIT’s solution uses — that allows to verify data without actually revealing it. The platform that has been updated to enhance its privacy is Deloitte’s Eduscrypt, and its purpose is to enable organizations to track, …

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 …

ING announced that researchers at the financial services firm have solved a security and privacy issue on blockchain software firm R3’s Corda blockchain. On Oct. 23, ING’s distributed ledger technology team presented its white paper, called “Solutions for the Corda security and privacy trade-off: having your cake and eating it,” where it reportedly found a solution to improve the security and privacy trade-off on Corda, an open-source blockchain platform. Zero-knowledge proofs allow for greater privacy and security The white paper states that currently, the content of each transaction on the Corda blockchain is revealed to a validating notary to be …

The Litecoin Foundation has published two new draft Litecoin Improvement Proposals that work toward establishing privacy features for the network. On Oct. 22, the Foundation shared links to details of the draft proposals on GitHub: LIP-0002 EB and LIP-0003 MW. Protecting Litecoin’s functional fungibility from government As the Foundation outlines, both proposals are targeted at mitigating the privacy risks associated with a transparent ledger, where transaction history can be publicly traced. The proposal’s authors — Andrew Yang, David Burkett and Charlie Lee — argue that this transparency hinders Litecoin’s “functional fungibility in a government-regulated merchant world,” observing that: “Personal identifiable …

The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) crypto regulations will trigger a shift of criminal activity from Bitcoin (BTC) to privacy coins, it has been claimed. Criminals mostly use BTC and ETH to date David Jevans, CEO of major crypto transaction tracking firm CipherTrace, shared his remarks about criminal use of cryptocurrencies at a panel held by blockchain advocacy group, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, on Oct. 21. During the panel, Jevans claimed that well-known cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) are currently the most popular among criminal actors to date due to their good brand name and the ease …

Members of the Zcash (ZEC) community have discovered a suspicious and potentially malicious counterfeit version of Zcash Foundation’s native ZecWallet. According to a Twitter post published on Oct. 20 and retweeted by Zcash developer Electric Coin Company, the fake ZecWallet likely contains malware. The tweet reads: “PSA to all Zcash users! There is a fake version of ZecWallet that likely contains malware (size and checksum is different) double check you are downloading from official @zecwallet repo on GitHub: https://github.com/ZcashFoundation/zecwallet” As Cointelegraph reported on Sept. 29, a bug was found in all Zcash implementations and most of its forks that could …

Major antivirus software supplier ESET has discovered a trojanized Tor Browser designed to steal Bitcoin (BTC) from buyers in the darknet. Fake browser distributed via 2 websites Targeting users in Russia, the fake Tor Browser was distributed via two websites and has been stealing crypto from darknet shoppers by swapping the original crypto addresses since 2017, ESET’s editorial division WeLiveSecurity reported Oct. 18. Created back in 2014, the two fake Tor Browser websites — tor-browser[.]org and torproect[.]org — are mimicking the real website of the anonymous browser, torproject.org. According to the Slovakian software security firm, these websites display a message …

Bitcoin (BTC) needs to become more resistant to governments as a priority, the CEO of one of its biggest mining pools has said. Pan: Privacy is Bitcoin’s “real problem” In an interview with cryptocurrency media outlet Bitcoin Magazine quoted by Forbes on Oct. 17, Poolin’s Kevin Pan suggested privacy should form an essential focus for Bitcoin development. “The real problem with Bitcoin may be privacy. There is no other big question if the privacy issue is solved,” he summarized. Pan was commenting as cryptocurrency-related transaction privacy returns to the spotlight as international regulators dissect Facebook’s Libra digital currency. As Cointelegraph …

BitShares Decentralized Exchange (DEX) gateway CryptoBridge announced on Oct. 1 that it has implemented mandatory user Know Your Client (KYC) verification. European regulation is responsible According to the announcement, the reason for the upcoming mandatory KYC is the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5). Interestingly, CryptoBridge also noted that the company wants to challenge international financial regulation, writing: “While we still strive to present new challenges for international financial regulation, we are facing the 5th EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) and will adjust our gateway services to pave the way for CryptoBridge moving forward.” Because of this policy change, all …

A bug in all Zcash (ZEC) implementations and most of its forks could leak metadata containing the full nodes’ with shielded addresses (zaddr) IPs. Komodo (KMD) developer Duke Leto disclosed the bug in a blog post published on his personal website. A Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) code has already been assigned to track the issue on Sept. 27. Leto explained: “A bug has existed for all shielded addresses since the inception of Zcash and Zcash Protocol. It is present in all Zcash source code forks. It is possible to find the IP address of full nodes who own a …

Advisory firm Valley Capital Partners has invested $3 million into encryption platform-as-a-service StrongSalt. Per a Sept. 26 press release, StrongSalt raised $3 million from Valley Capital Partners in a seed round to further develop its encryption platform designed for developers and enterprises. The startup aims to build an encrypted ecosystem, allowing individuals to keep personal data private and to defend against theft and fraud. StrongSalt claims to be the first firm that provides an application programming interface (API) platform for developers to make existing applications and workflows privacy-enabled. The company plans to release its encryption API platform in the fourth …

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is in Washington for meetings with policymakers to discuss internet regulatory matters such as privacy, competition and its handling of political content. As noted in Bloomberg’s Sept. 19 report, the meetings come after a summer of intense scrutiny of Facebook’s proposed Libra stablecoin project from United States lawmakers and regulators. A social media titan in center stage In a statement, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone indicated that Zuckerberg would be discussing “future internet regulation” with policymakers during his visit. Reportedly at Facebook’s request, Democrat senator and Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner has already helped to organize a …