USENIX Enigma 2019, Nicholas Weaver's 'Cryptocurrency: Burn It With Fire'
outstanding conference videos on their YouTube Channel
Holy Bits, Coderperson!
via Mike Orcutt, reporting for the MIT Technology Review brings today's Must Read post to our attention on this beautiful Monday morning. Apparently, the highly touted immutability and repudiation-resistant Blockchain, is not completely immune to cleverly mounted attack methodologies.
Witness, if you will, the Twilight Zone of Blockhain, in which, the highly-touted cryptological database construct known as the Blockchain falls prey to not only it's proponents own hubris, but to the reckoning of all things crypto.
For, as we now know, if a cryptosystem can be attacked, the attack will be successful due to cryptocurrency susceptibility to 51% attacks, and dreaded smart-contract bugs. Enjoy the new crypto-flavor of Now! Feels a bit like schadenfreude right-about-now... H/T
Did You Check The Post-It Under The Keyboard?
via Dan Goodin, Security Editor at Ars Technica, writing of the apparent lack of access governance surrounding a locked crypto-wallet (of course it's locked - Virginia, it's a cryptocurrency wallet...right?) has caused a 'digital exchange' to 'lose' $137 Million Simoleans. Oops.
The Forking
To be specific, the forking of the Ethereum blockchain has resulted in the theft of nearly $500,000 USD.
The Phenom →
Of so-called smart-contract honeypots... via Gerhard Wagner. H/T
"Hardly a week passes without large scale hacks in the crypto world. It’s not just centralised exchanges that are targets of attackers. Successful hacks such as the DAO, Parity1 and Parity2 have shown that vulnerabilities in smart contracts can lead to losing digital assets worth millions of dollars." - via Gerhard Wagner
Cryptocurrency Versus Rationale Thought →
Easily the most rationale piece on Cryptocurrency yet, in what may become the de riguer Ridiculous Mantra of Cryptocurrency, Paul Ford, holds forth on the reality of coinage, as it were. Today's Must Read.
"That all of this adds up to money is ridiculous, and we should probably mock it more than we do" via the inimitable Paul Ford, scrivening at the illustrious Bloomberg Businessweek
Cryptominer versus Cryptominer →
via Richard Chirgwin, writing at El Reg, comes the story of cryptominer warfare taking place in server racks around the world. Pay attention, as we believe this is bound to get quite interesting, indeed.
Stunning Stupidity To Start The Week: Selling Your DNA Via A Blockchain Controlled Marketplace →
Easily the most egregiously moronic idea I've heard this month (and it's only 5 days in(!) - stay tuned - pretty sure there will be others)... Would you sell your DNA data on the Blockchain? Enjoy!
'It is not easy putting a dollar value on the human genome, so only time will tell if these innovative, blockchain approaches to genetic data trading will pay off for individuals.' via James Levenson, writing at Bitcoinist
Sewage Plant Cranking Out... Crypto Coins →
via the inimitable Iain Thomson, writing at El Reg, comes a tale of Stench and Coin. Today's Cryptocurrency Must Read.
Coinhive Cryptojacker, The Prevaler →
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has noted (via the comapny's well traveled blog) a new milestone for malicious wares/scripts et cetera; this time Coinhive takes the blue ribbon award for the most pernicious installations on our beloved interwebs, according to the Check Point's research.
Negative Factorization of Cryptocurrency →
Well crafted reportage/speculative piece on the negatives of cryptocurrency via Matthew Leising and Rob Urban - writing at Bloomberg; in which the details of human psychology (as that psychology relates to both markets and cryptocurrency) are laid bare. Today's MustRead.
Drive-By-Cryptomine →
CryptoMiners, The Truth
With regularity, and without warning, the truth makes it's often-times painful appearance in two discrete parts (as is the case with today's Must Read {less the painful bits}): The Truth of Cryptomining (and Part 2), via Checkpoint. Enjoy.