Crypto News, August 23 2018: Green Day
Highlights: Bitcoin ETF denied, Bank of Thailand creating a crypto, and another Crypto Note wallet exploit.
Bitcoin ETF Denied
Source: CCN
As expected, the SEC has denied nine ETF applications on which decisions were due today. The decisions cite the same points made in the Winklevoss denial earlier this year - failure of proposals to develop sufficient protections against market fraud and manipulation, and a lack of evidence to prove the size of the futures market.
Upfiring Nears Release
Source: Medium
Upfiring, a torrent system that incentivizes seeding with crypto, is close to launch. the program will be available for Mac, Windows, and Linux platforms. Upfiring plans to announce an official release date soon via its social media channels.
LQDEX
Source: Medium
LQDEX, a decentralized exchange, has announced LQDEX Bridge, a new service enabling cross-chain asset trading on Ethereum exchanges. Users stake money to enable the service, which uses a collateralizing process to create a stablecoin on Ethereum, which then enables trading of BTC and LTC pairs on the DEX.
Partnership: Ark & Null Crypto Union
Source: Ark
Ark has announced a partnership with Null Crypto Union. Among the services Null brings to the table is Null Pay, a custom credit card where tokens are stakes as collateral and then users can spend a percentage of their funding. The credit is secured by the collateral; if a holder doesn’t pay their bill, the tokens are liquidated to pay the difference.
UK Considering Hyperledger for Evidence Storage
Source: Gov.uk
The UK is looking into using the IBM Hyperledger technology to store digital evidence. The service would allow real-time data to be generated regarding the creation, access, and modification of evidence and would preserve the chain of custody.
Bank of Thailand Creating a Cryptocurrency Pilot
source: Bank of Thailand
The Bank of Thailand is working on its own limited use-case digital currency. The BoT will leverage R3 technology and work with other financial institutions to create a proof-of-concept for “domestic wholesale fund transfers,” essentially large wire transfers, presumably for bank-to-bank asset movement.
World Bank Bond to be Settled This Month
Source: CoinDesk
The World Bank’s $73 million blockchain-based bond is to be settled by the end of the month. Executed by Australia’s CommonWealth Bank, the transaction is set to occur on August 28th and is expected to yield a 2.2% return.
Bittrex partner with Rialto for securities trading
Source: PR Newswire
The Bittrex exchange is partnering with Rialto trading to enable digital securities trading. Rialto is already licensed for “alternative trading” and wants to bring that service to a digital exchange to get licensed for crypto-based securities trading.
Nanex/XHV attack
The Nanex exchange, and specifically the Haven Protocol token, was the target of an attack yesterday. Alltold, around $177,000 was stolen from the exchange. The attack leveraged the same wallet vulnerability as was seen in the Monero theft on the Altex exchange that we reported on earlier this month. The vulnerability is in the wallet, not the blockchain itself, and essentially falsifies transaction information to make the wallet display a higher amount than what is actually contained. The exchange then uses the display information to determine the wallet’s balance; a user can then withdraw a higher amount than what they deposited. You can get a more detailed breakdown of the vulnerability and the attack in our video segment. Interestingly, it appears the hacker(s) did not use a VPN, meaning the exchange may already have information they need to find the responsible party.
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Written content adapted/edited by @thepinkfreudian.