Privacy-centric computing network and app ecosystem Blockstack has announced a partnership with Lambda School. Students enrolled in the program can reportedly now learn how to code Blockstack apps and earn monthly revenue through its App Mining Program. Gain the skills to pay the bills According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Aug. 12, Lambda is a skills-based online school with a curriculum designed around the requirements of employers. This reportedly ensures that graduates master all the skills required to succeed. In addition, it offers tuition at no cost until the student is hired, thus removing barriers to high-paying …

American technology behemoth IBM has filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a blockchain-enabled web browser patent. According to a patent application published on Aug. 6, IBM has filed a patent application for a system that stores web browser events on a blockchain. The browser described in the filing collects information during web browsing sessions and transfers it to peers in a peer-to-peer network for on-chain storage of the in-browser events. Examples of data that could be stored on chain include: visited websites, bookmarks, search terms, cookies, geolocation and a record of browser security patches, among others. …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance claims that a dusting attack occurred against fourth-biggest altcoin, Litecoin (LTC). A large scale attack against privacy The official Twitter exchange of cryptocurrency exchange Binance claimed that a major attack against users of altcoin Litecoin took place yesterday. The firm made this claim in a tweet on Aug. 9: “Approximately 5 hours ago there was a large-scale dusting attack on $LTC @Litecoin users.” The tweet also links to a transaction — which according to Binance is part of the attack — sending a fraction (0.00000546 LTC) of a coin to 50 addresses. Furthermore, the exchange also links …

On Aug. 7, Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange (by daily trade volume), fell victim to a hacking scandal that saw the miscreant allegedly gain possession of a huge chunk of the firm’s Know Your Customer (KYC) data (10,000+ personal photos). The hacker is reportedly demanding a total of 300 Bitcoins (worth around $3.5 million) from the exchange, or else he or she will release all of the data. Also, it bears mentioning that upon commencing his activities, the hacker set up a couple of dedicated Telegram groups (which have since been shut down) that allegedly featured a lot of …

A new “feature-rich ecosystem” has been created for privacy-conscious individuals who want to keep their communications confidential and their data secure. The team of networking technology enthusiasts behind Utopia say it wants to create an antidote to a world of total surveillance — delivering a platform that offers freedom, anonymity and no censorship. Utopia has been in development for six years, all with the motivation of building an environment in which “Big Brother” isn’t watching the public’s every move. The team says its decentralized peer-to-peer network enables users to communicate with whomever they want, whenever they want — all while …

Swiss privacy regulators have said that social media titan Facebook is lagging in its response to requests for more liaison. An unanswered letter As Cointelegraph reported, a Reuters report published on July 23 revealed that the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) sent a letter to the Libra Association on July 17 but has not as of yet received any response. The Libra Association is a newly-established, independent governance consortium for Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency, dubbed Libra. Notably, David Marcus, chief of Facebook’s Calibra wallet service, has previously indicated that the corporation expects the FDPIC will serve as data …

“[X-Number of] Industries Blockchain Will Disrupt” — How often do you come across articles with a headline like this? Every time, we discover new ways to implement the tech and, while being filled with inspiration, look around to see no practical change. Speaking about blockchain in use, we should therefore consider its potential rather than today’s use cases. It’s no wonder why blockchain seems to be “the one” for many industries in which data processing is involved (side note: everywhere). It especially happens to be the solution in industries in which security matters the most — e.g., banking, logistics, health …

The official Samourai Wallet Telegram account raised concerns over the alleged lack of privacy ensured by the CoinJoin implementation of competing wallet Wasabi on July 18. According to Samourai Wallet, Wasabi wallet CoinJoin transactions are often not as private as they are purported to be. The company pointed out: “With Wasabi if you are mixing 10 BTC, I can trivially track that 10 BTC as it is peeled down into smaller UTXOS (unspent funds). [...] Additionally Wasabi outputs are in the order in which they are registered, allowing you to make educated guesses that cluster outputs that you can later …

Energy network company E.ON has filed a patent application for a blockchain-based data collector with the European Patent Office. E.ON announced the patent filing on the company’s website on July 19. As per the announcement, the device in question makes use of sensors to collect user data, which the user can then choose to sell as data analytics. According to the announcement, users supply data from smart home applications. E.ON claims that the customer has sole control over who accesses any given portion of their data. This includes E.ON itself, which cannot access customer data without explicit consent. Regarding the …

Privacy-focused digital currency Zcash (ZEC) has forked into a new blockchain network dubbed Ycash, whose total supply amounts to 21 million coins. According to a tweet by the Ycash Foundation, the first block of Ycash was mined today, July 19, at 7:36:51 PM PDT. Ycash forked off Zcash blockchain at block height 570,000 and is independent from both the Electric Coin Company, the firm behind Zcash, and the Zcash Foundation. The Ycash project was initially announced in April, when the Ycash team member Howard Loo revealed in a forum post that they are launching the first friendly fork of the …

Waves CEO Alexander Ivanov has announced a new department for enterprise projects that will be fueled by Vostok (VST) tokens. According to a July 18 press release, Waves is opening a new company department called Waves Enterprise, which will employ a corporate blockchain solution of the same name. The Waves Enterprise solution is a management system for businesses that need to handle data sets containing private information. As per the report, VST tokens will be the utility token for Waves Enterprise, and will be exchanged for a variety of network-based services. As Ivanov states: "VST will lay the foundation of …

Today, lawmakers on the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee are meeting to discuss the possible effects of Facebook’s proposed Libra cryptocurrency project on the financial system. As a Cointelegraph respondent reports on July 17, committee chair Rep. Maxine Waters has opened the hearing with an indictment of Facebook’s past behavior. In her statement, Waters said that there was a “demonstrated pattern of failing to keep consumer data private on a scale similar to Equifax.” Waters also stated that Facebook, “allowed malicious Russian state actors to purchase and target ads,” which purportedly influenced the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. …