The overwhelming majority of crypto transactions do not include privacy tokens, with most traders choosing to move funds transparently rather than privately.According to crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics’ Sept. 1 State of the Network report, the combined daily transactions of three privacy coins, Zcash (ZEC), Monero (XMR), and Grin (GRIN), equated to only 6% that of Bitcoin (BTC), despite the coins offering substantially more privacy. “User apathy towards privacy is probably the biggest...
Several days ago, technology pioneer and crypto advocate John McAfee departed his own privacy-focused asset, Ghost. He has since clarified, however, that he did not leave the endeavor entirely."I have not abandoned the Ghost privacy ecosystem, only the GHOST privacy coin," McAfee told Cointelegraph in an email following his exit. "The ecosystem is centered on our Ghost cell phone service," he explained, noting that the service will continue. McAfee seemingly left the endeavor in...
Jeju Island, a southern island in South Korea, is one of the most popular tourist destinations for Koreans and has about 15 million visitors annually.It now requires those visitors to use a decentralized identity (DID) blockchain technology based app that claims to offer private, secure COVID-19 contact tracing. An August 19 announcement said that Jeju Province had reached an agreement with South Korean blockchain company ICONLOOP to introduce the system.Starting this week, visitors...
Law enforcement authorities throughout Europe arrested over 800 individuals that allegedly were using an encrypted chat network to coordinate their illicit activities.60,000 membersEncroChat was using modified Android devices to provide its users “worry free secure communications”. BBC reports that EncoChat has about 60,000 users:“An estimated 60,000 people, among them up to 10,000 in Britain, subscribed to France-based EncroChat, which has now been taken down.”Authorities allege that the criminals were using the encrypted messaging...
Multi-platform blockchain explorer Blockchair has added a “privacy-o-meter” for every Bitcoin (BTC) transaction that identifies which part is the change.This is the key to tracing a chain of transactions on the blockchain. While the Bitcoin blockchain is theoretically transparent, in practice it can be hard to identify the true flow of funds. Unless the wallet is drained completely, every transaction includes at least two unspent transaction outputs (UTXO), where one of them is...
Giving the opening remarks during a U.S. House meeting on illegal digital activities, Representative and subcommittee chair Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) noted a major jump for online crime in 2020."We are seeing a 75% spike in daily cybercrimes, reported by the FBI since the start of the pandemic,” Cleavor said in his opening statements of the June 16 virtual hearing before the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy. Speaker dials into specific...
Bitstamp, one of the longest-running active cryptocurrency exchanges, is considering launching a batch of new crypto asset listings.Curiously, Bitstamp is contemplating support for Zcash (ZEC), despite an increasing number of exchanges seeking to distance themselves from privacy coins due to associated regulatory risks.Bitfinex considers first new listings in 3 yearsOn March 31, Bitstamp announced it is “actively exploring” support for seven crypto assets, including two stablecoins and one privacy coin.The prospective listings...
Chinese social media giant saw a massive data breach result in data of millions of users available for sale on the dark web. According to a March 19 report from Chinese blockchain news outlet Jinse, basic account information of 172 million users was available, priced at 0.177 BTC. The account information for sale included user ID, number of Weibo posts, number of fans and followers, gender and geographical location. Weibo confirmed the privacy issue...
At the end of January, a poll apparently confirmed community support for a new mining reward-distribution structure for the Zcash (ZEC) network, whereby more will flow into the developer fund. Still, the decision proved to be rather controversial.Electric Coin Company, the firm behind Zcash, announced in a Jan. 2 blog post that a community poll on the Zcash Improvement Proposal 1014 — referred to as ZIP 1014 — showed a consensus for...
The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) has announced a partnership with South Korean data intelligence startup, S2W Lab, to analyze dark web activity, including cryptocurrency transactions.The startup announced the partnership on March 20 — with S2W Labs signing a one year contract with Interpol.Interpol sets its sights on the dark webS2W Lab claims to have “captured a massive amount of Dark Web data” and “established a Dark Web database.” The S2W examines...
