Top 10 Things To Know About Blockchain This Week
Some thoughts crossing the mind of our own Simon Taylor; that if you’re interested in the subject of Blockchain you might want to consider:
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1) In case you missed it, Bitfinex a Bitcoin exchange was hacked to the tune of $72M USD
Representing nearly 1% of all Bitcoins in circulation and crashing the Bitcoin price by 20%. This after months of stability in Bitcoin price and many suggesting it had found its true value and shrugged off years of volatility. Bitfinex, unlike Mt Gox or many before it, used the much talked about “Multi Sig” security option (where an independent third party signs all of their transactions to make hacking them harder”. Despite this it appears…- Bitcoin hackers are becoming more sophisticated
- Exchanges and the Bitcoin community may move away from this “theft is a tax on stupidity” and start moving towards security
- This resembles the Target and Sony hacks much more than the Mt Gox hack in my view. Bitcoin exchanges are coming of age and now subject to the same threats as the rest of wider FS industry.
2) The Eth Fork / DAO fall out continues to create waves.
Whilst I’ve seen some statistics that the combined ETC / ETH market cap is now actually higher than ETH was pre-fork, this appears to be Bitcoin old money moving into ETC for ideological reasons. Coindesk did a really good summary of events HERE if you want a refresher Lessons:- The Eth community has chosen protecting against fraud over “code is law”, this is a sign of maturity in that community in my view, but many Bitcoin libertarians really don’t like it.
- “Two versions of truth” has meant that someone can watch what happens in ETH, then “replay” using the same keys that signed a transaction in ETC an entirely new transaction that moves money in a slightly different way. This “chain arbitrage” is a gaping hole. The permissionless blockchain space is still like the wild west.