Ethereum scaling solution Polygon has announced it will dedicate a maximum of 250 million MATIC tokens ($627.5 million) to a deal with zero-knowledge cryptography startup Mir. Zero-knowledge algorithms enable external validators to verify encrypted transactions or documents without revealing the sensitive information hidden underneath. It is useful for complex decentralized finance applications, such as decentralized ride-share apps or decentralized health insurance, where nodes need to verify the personal data of blockchain participants without risking privacy leaks. Mir specializes in developing two subcategories of zero-knowledge proofs: PLONK and Halo. Both represent advancements over previous SNARK and STARK cryptography techniques, allowing proofs …

On Monday, Coinbase, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency exchange globally by trading volume, announced the creation of a novel cryptographic library, Kryptology, as a compendium of tools for blockchain developers. These include secure, audited, and easy-to-use APIs, as well as a repository of common issues and lessons learned throughout the history of crypto. Without cryptography, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin would be digital lines of code that anyone can copy/paste. It would be easily replicable and falsifiable, leading to significant issues such as currency double-spending. Recent advancements include Boneh–Lynn–Shacham, or BLS, signatures that senders cannot deny the validity of their transactions while ensuring …

A blockchain ecosystem has launched a suite of tools designed to build a more private future for the internet — delivering unparalleled security to users and developers. Oxen’s products are free to download and use, and the project says no prior knowledge of blockchain technology is required to make the most of these apps. One of the platform’s flagship apps is Session, a private messaging platform that has already amassed more than 100,000 users across multiple operating systems. A cutting-edge protocol paves the way for fully anonymous account creation, with cryptography used to minimize metadata leakage. Users can engage in …

Satoshi Nakamoto announced the Bitcoin whitepaper on a cryptography mailing list on Halloween 2008. It could be the case that this was a meaningless coincidence, but when we take into account the meticulous planning behind Bitcoin’s launch party, the chosen date begins to take on more significance. Halloween is the carnival time, a ritual day when one can pretend to be someone or something else, whether a comic book superhero like Batman or Superman, or another eternally popular choice for Halloween, a Ghost — a spirit, much like Satoshi, that is neither dead nor alive. The carnival tradition goes back …

Mina aspires to be the world’s tiniest blockchain, with claims that its protocol maintains a constant size of around 22 kilobytes. This is ostensibly achieved by using recursive zk-SNARKs — the same technology that is used by the privacy-centric cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC). However, whereas the latter utilizes this technology to provide greater privacy to its users, the former employs it for scalability. A zk-SNARK, which stands for zero-knowledge succinct noninteractive argument of knowledge, allows a party to prove that they have possession of certain information without revealing what that information is. It is similar to how a smartphone can recognize …

Aztec, a privacy protocol developing on Ethereum (ETH), announced on Monday the launch of its second iteration, promising private transactions and smart contracts while being cheaper than standard transfers. The layer-two solution adopted by Aztec relies on zk-Rollups, similar to Loopring or ZkSync. All these protocols rely on zero-knowledge proofs to help Ethereum scale, but come with different benefits and focused use cases. Loopring focuses on the decentralized exchange experience, while ZkSync aims to be a generalized layer-two protocol that could boost Ethereum’s transactiona throughput. Aztec, in comparison, places a heavy focus on privacy while still allowing a certain degree …

Securities services provider BNP Paribas has just completed a Proof of Concept with cloud based crypto wallet provider Curv, to demonstrate a highly secure way to transfer security tokens. The security token was transferred using Curv’s advanced cryptography which utilizes a concept called multi-party computation (MPC). The institutional grade technology enables transactions to be securely signed in a mathematically-proven, distributed way. The move is a step towards an integrated custody solution that combines both traditional and regulated digital assets, according to Bruno Campenon, Global Head of Financial Intermediaries at BNP Paribas. The PoC was carried out to demonstrate that tokenized …

In a February 8, 2011 post on Bitcointalk, Finney said that reading a book titled “Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography” by Hankerson, Menezes, and Vanstone, gave him an idea of how to speed up signature verification by 25%. In the following post from the same day, Finney announced that he had already written “test code” and uploaded it to the Github repository. However, there was a problem with Finney’s proposal — his method had already been patented by someone else. “Method for Accelerating Cryptographic Operation on Elliptic Curves” (also known as GLV or Four-Dimensional Gallant–Lambert–Vanstone Scalar Multiplication) received a patent …

Chainlink (LINK) has acquired a privacy-preserving oracle protocol DECO from Cornell University and one of its creators, Ari Juels, will be joining Chainlink as chief scientist. Previously, Juels served as chief scientist at RSA and has been teaching at Cornell University since 2014, one of the premier blockchain hubs in the world. He is taking a sabbatical to focus on his work at Chainlink. Along with his research partner Markus Jakobsson, he coined the term "proof-of-work". DECO employs advanced cryptography and zero-knowledge proofs to provide enhanced privacy to its users. In a Cointelegraph interview, Chainlink's co-founder Sergey Nazarov said the …

It's been six years since Hal Finney passed away from the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. Finney is known as an early supporter of Bitcoin (BTC), and one of the first people to respond to Satoshi Nakamoto's initial post on the cypherpunk mailing list. In Bitcoin's earliest days, he was the only one who fully understood the possibilities of the technology, without being overtly skeptical about its prospects. Finney was one of the better-known cryptographers in the cypherpunk community even prior to his involvement with Bitcoin. Early in his career, he worked for PGP Corporation, which owned Pretty Good Privacy …

An ‘artwork’ doodled by famed That 70s Show star Ashton Kutcher has been digitized and will be auctioned on the new non-fungible token (NFT) and digital art marketplace Cryptograph. The auction will raise funds for ecological conservation non-profits Global Wildlife Conservation and Oxygen Seven, with bidding set to commence on August 25 from 10 am PT and remain open for three days. After digitizing the drawing, Kutcher set the original on fire, with Cryptograph describing the incineration of the hastily scribbled piece as “turning it from the temporary physical world into the immortal digital world.” Some might argue that immortalization …

Crypto and blockchain experts now have something new to save up for — a line of techie-style Rolls Royce cars, each complete with a cryptographic puzzle. As crypto prices pop off, participants may begin asking "When Rolls?" instead of the popular 2017 phrase, "When Lambo?" Leaving a fair bit of detail to the imagination, Rolls Royce's website now shows limited details of its new 50 car lineup. A shoutout to the Greeks The car line's label, Wraith Kryptos, comes from Greek origin relating to something hidden, while the cars themselves give a number of shoutouts to cryptology — a term …