A panel on national security and cyberspace appointed by President Barack Obama heard testimony on blockchain technology from a representative of IBM earlier today. Held in New York, the meeting brought together the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, formed in February by executive order and featuring among its membership retired General Keith Alexander, the first chief of the US Cyber Command. Other members include MasterCard president and CEO Ajay Banga, Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan; Georgia Institute of Technology; professor Annie I Antón; and Microsoft corporate vice president of research Mike Lee. In remarks, IBM blockchain chief Jerry Cuomo said that the technology has “tremendous potential to help transform business and…
Bitcoin startup Blockchain has released the first version of a payments channel prototype that finds it moving its research efforts into how transactions on the bitcoin network can be made faster and more effective into the public eye. The startup, which has raised $30m in one public round of funding, announced the alpha release of the ThunderNetwork today. Best described as a Blockchain-led effort into the implementation of payment channels, the technology seeks to allow bitcoin users a way to conduct off-blockchain transactions that settle against the bitcoin blockchain at a later date. Given the sometimes high cost of settling against bitcoin’s blockchain, which can fluctuate (sometimes greatly) with demand for block space, the ecosystem has long sought to…
News emerged last week of yet another security event in the digital currency exchange ecosystem, this time impacting a Hong Kong-based service involved in the sale of assets related to Ethereum-based decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). As reported on Friday, Gatecoin experienced a cyberattack on its hot wallets that resulted in the loss of funds. A new update from the exchange team indicated that as much as $2m was lost, confirming rumors that circulated soon after the hack became apparent. Gatecoin has claimed that it lost as much as 185,000 ethers and 250 bitcoins, an amount worth roughly $2.14m at press time. The exchange further said that it believes the hack first began on 9th May, and that it continued over the following three days. While details…
With websites operating under the constant threat of attacks, users have long been accustomed to looking for a little green lock in web browsers, signaling an SSL certificate, to ensure that the site is secure. Today, SSL is used for transmitting sensitive information over the Internet, and it has long been a significant driver of e-commerce. Involved in this process are protocols including the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), as well as certificate authorities (CAs), entities that issue digital certificates to organizations or individuals. Now, digital identity startup Netki has announced that it is releasing what it considers to be the first digital identity certificate akin to the SSL for the blockchain in a bid to replicate both…
The first quarter of 2016 saw a number of notable changes in the blockchain industry, the most obvious and contentious of which may have been the evolving language used to describe the industry itself. Once termed the “bitcoin industry”, such a definition no longer seems adequate in describing the breadth of innovation being pursued by industry innovators on technologies that increasingly diverge from the original implementation of blockchain technology, bitcoin. In addition to the entrepreneurs building on the bitcoin blockchain, the quarter provided ample validation for alternative blockchain-based projects, ranging from the expansion of permissioned distributed ledger efforts to the launch of Ethereum, an alternative public blockchain that enables…
Gatecoin, a Hong Kong-based digital currency startup that has cited segregated client accounts as a way to minimize exposure to risks, suffered a breach and lost 250 BTC and 185,000 ETH, 15% of its crypto asset deposits. A cybersecurity firm, Tehtri Security, conducted a forensic investigation and confirmed the breach, Gatecoin announced in a statement by CEO Aurélien Menant posted on its website. The breach took place between Monday, May 9, late night HKT, to Thursday evening HKT, 12 May 2016, the statement noted. The company noticed a disruption of service caused by a server reboot. The company said the breach is linked to this event. Gatecoin Suspends Services On Friday HKT, May 13, Gatecoin detected suspicious transactions and immediately suspended its…