The Litecoin (LTC) Foundation has partnered with software development firm Beam to explore the implementation of a new protocol that would improve privacy and scalability. The news was reported in a Beam Medium blog post Feb. 7. The new protocol, dubbed “Mimblewimble” — a fictional tongue-tying curse from the popular Harry Potter novels — is reportedly being tested for use in conjunction with the scalability solution “Extension Blocks.” The Beam blog post states: “We have started exploration towards adding privacy and fungibility to Litecoin by allowing on-chain conversion of regular LTC into a Mimblewimble variant of LTC and vice versa. …

According to the latest estimates, we generate around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. That's 2.5 followed by 17 zeros — or rather 2.5 trillion million — a number that's impossible to visualize intuitively, but nonetheless has massive implications for our privacy online, our security and our ability to keep our digital identities within our own personal control. Indeed, recent surveys indicate that as many as 89 percent of consumers believe that corporations currently aren't doing enough to protect their data, while over half of all CEOs and C-suite executives admit that most consumers are right to doubt them …

The Italian postal service provider, Poste Italiane, has joined the Hyperledger blockchain community, Cointelegraph Italia reported on Jan. 29. Hyperledger is a collaborative project led by the Linux Foundation which aims to create open-source standards for blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It includes several industry leaders, including American Express, Cisco, Intel , JPMorgan, Deloitte and Huawei. Poste Italiane stated in a press release that joining Hyperledger is consistent with the service’s Deliver 2022 Business Plan. Part of the plan involves the acquisition and acceleration of new technology in the agency’s operations. The announcement draws particular attention to data protection, …

Charlie Lee, Litecoin’s (LTC) creator, declared that he will focus on making the major cryptocurrency more fungible in a tweet Jan. 28. Lee stated in the tweet that “fungibility is the only property of sound money that is missing from Bitcoin & Litecoin,” adding that “the next battleground will be on fungibility and privacy.” The tweet’s conclusion is that the developer wants to zero in on implementing private transactions in Litecoin, stating: “I am now focused on making Litecoin more fungible by adding Confidential Transactions.” In reply to another tweet in the same thread, Lee explained that confidential transactions could …

Hong Kong-based computer hardware manufacturer Sapphire has announced a new graphics card for mining the recently-launched GRIN Coin, according to an official press release published on Jan. 22. The SAPPHIRE RX 570 16GB HDMI Blockchain Graphics Card is one of the first of a “new family” that will support mining of the new GRIN Coin. GRIN, which was released earlier this month, is a privacy-oriented token that is touted as a fully decentralized and democratized digital asset. The token is based on mimblewimble technology, which in theory grants users in the network with solid anonymity, by encrypting the value of …

Following concerns that startup Haven Protocol was a “crypto exit scam,” an alleged member of its team reassured the community that the project was intact in a Twitter thread Jan. 21. Haven Protocol community members had raised the alarm over the intermittent silences and lack of code transparency from a core developer of anonymity-oriented altcoin Haven (XHV). According to one of the tweets in the thread from team member “Donjor” Jan. 21, the controversy was sparked by an intervention from a Haven marketing contributor in a thread on public chat channel Discord. The contributor, who goes by the moniker of …

Iceland’s blockchain-based identity verification platform Authenteq has raised $5 million in a funding round led by Draper Associates and Capital300, the American tech website VentureBeat reports on Jan. 14. Following the two-week funding round, the company revealed its intention to conduct the second closing of the Series A financing for additional investors in the coming weeks. The latest $5 million closing was held on Jan. 10, while the total amount raised constitutes $7 million over seven rounds since 2015, according to business data provider Crunchbase. Authenteq funding rounds and key investors. Source: Crunchbase Within the latest funding round, Authenteq has …

Bitcoin (BTC) wallet provider Samourai Wallet said it was disabling several security-related features in its products due to notices from Google to block the wallet, according to a Jan. 7. blog post. Samourai, which has aimed to provide a Bitcoin-centric experience through adding enhanced anonymity options and removing references to fiat currency, confirmed it was removing three functions from its wallet in time for its latest update released Tuesday. “Again, we are sorry for this inconvenience, but our hands have been tied by Google,” the blog post reads, adding: “We hope to bring these features back somehow in the future …

Cypherpunks co-founder Timothy C. May has reportedly died of natural causes, a Facebook eulogy posted by cypherpunk Lucky Green stated Dec. 15. In his social media post, Green informed: “Word has reached me that my dear friend, co-conspirator in many things and for many years, fellow Freedom Fighter Tim May passed away earlier this week at his home in Corralitos, California.” May is the author of “The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto,” published in 1992, in which he seemingly predicted some elements of currently existing decentralized cryptocurrencies: “The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this [cryptography-based] …

Private blockchains, such as interbanking platforms set to share information on customers, could be compatible with new E.U. privacy rules, according to research published Nov. 6. The study was conducted by Queen Mary University of London and the University of Cambridge, U.K. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) act, a recent legislation that regulates the storage of personal data for all individuals within the European Union, came into effect this May. According to the law, all data controllers have to respect citizens’ rights in terms of keeping and transferring their private information. In case a data controller fails to do …

“Big Four” auditor Ernst and Young has launched the prototype of a system that enables secure and private transactions to take place on the Ethereum (ETH) public network, according to a press release Oct. 30. The system, dubbed EY Ops Chain Public Edition (PE), uses zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology, an alternative algorithm for authenticating distributed ledger entries, in which transacting parties provide proof of validity, but all other information remains encrypted, including their identities. The prototype is aimed at enterprises that wish to keep their transaction records private without having to resort to a permissioned, private network. Paul Brody, EY’s …

Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation ING confirmed the release of its open source blockchain tool Zero-Knowledge Set Membership (ZKSM) in a press release Monday, Oct. 21. ZKSM, which functions as a privacy “improvement” to distributed ledger technology (DLT), such as blockchain, aims to provide validation of certain alphanumeric data without compromising that data’s overall security. According to ING, the tool allows a blockchain to confirm a piece of data belongs to a specified set, while not revealing its full characteristics. For example, as the press release elaborates, an E.U. citizen could prove he or she is from the …