Smart accounts, enabled by the launch of the new ERC-4337 standard, are now available on Ethereum and are expected to help mainstream adoption by finally making crypto user friendly. Ethereum Foundation security researcher Yoav Weiss made the surprise announcement at WalletCon in Denver that the core contracts for ERC-4337 — known by blockchain developers as “account abstraction” — have passed an audit by Open Zeppelin and will be made available on every Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible network including Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain, Avalanche and Gnosis Chain. New users will no longer need to learn about complicated seed …
Multi-party computation (MPC) is a type of cryptographic protocol that allows multiple parties to jointly compute a function over their inputs without revealing those inputs to each other. MPC can be useful when parties want to compute some function together but want to keep their inputs private from others. For example, a group of banks may want to determine the total amount of money in their joint account without revealing their account balances to each other. In MPC, each party has a secret input which they keep to themselves. The process is done by carefully encrypting the inputs and performing …
The Easy Company, a startup focusing on building a consumer layer for the decentralized web, has raised $14.2 million in a seed round for its “social” crypto wallet, which seeks to help onboard more mainstream audiences into the Web3 ecosystem. As reported by TechCrunch, the seed funding round was supported by a diverse group of investors, including venture capital firms Lobby Capital, Relay Ventures and 6th Man Ventures, as well as Tapestry, Upside and Scribble. Additionally, the round featured angel investors with backgrounds in traditional social media and Web3, including former executives from Instagram, Novi, Airbnb, Twitter, Uber, OpenTable and …
There is no excuse for not putting a few hours of research into how to properly custody your crypto, according to lead on-chain analyst James Check. Joining the latest debate around self-custody, the analyst pushed back against the notion that managing private keys is too complicated and risky for the average crypto user. “If you have gold in your vault, if you have cash in your wallet, it's the same concept: you need to exercise a level of responsibility,” said Check in our latest Cointelegraph interview. Check argued that, while third-party custody and semi-custodial solutions such as collaborative custody may …
Cryptocurrency exchanges are introducing various ways to buy Bitcoin (BTC) using the Apple Pay payment method. This comes as a good move for Bitcoin adoption since the Apple Pay digital wallet accounts for more than 507 million mobile wallet downloads and a dominating market share of 43.5% in the United States mobile payments market. This ability to now integrate and buy Bitcoin with Apple Pay paves new crypto opportunities for iPhone users. This article explains how to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies using Apple Pay. What is Apple Pay digital wallet? Apple Pay, introduced in 2014, is a mobile payment …
The Bitkeep exploit that occurred on Dec. 26 used phishing sites to fool users into downloading fake wallets, according to a report by blockchain analytics provider OKLink. The report stated that the attacker set up several fake Bitkeep websites which contained an APK file that looked like version 7.2.9 of the Bitkeep wallet. When users “updated” their wallets by downloading the malicious file, their private keys or seed words were stolen and sent to the attacker. 【12-26 #BitKeep Hack Event Summary】 1/n According to OKLink data, the bitkeep theft involved 4 chains BSC, ETH, TRX, Polygon, OKLink included 50 hacker …
The hardware wallet industry has emerged as one of the most resilient sectors to the ongoing cryptocurrency winter, with issues like the FTX crash bringing in even more cold wallet sales. The bear market of 2022 has once again reminded crypto investors of the importance of self-custody and independence from centralized exchanges (CEX). As a result, some major CEXs like Binance has increased their investment exposure to hard wallet firms, while CEO Changpeng Zhao even suggested that CEXs may no longer be necessary in the future. Should it be the case, the crypto industry of the future will be quite …
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are created using a distributed computing process called mining. Miners (the network participants) undertake mining to verify the legitimacy of transactions on the blockchain and ensure network security by preventing double-spending. In return for their efforts, miners are rewarded with a certain amount of BTC. There are various ways to mine cryptocurrencies, and this article will discuss how to get started with mobile crypto mining from the comfort of your home. What is crypto mining? Mining, a resource-intensive activity that often demands enormous computing power to solve a computational problem and add the next valid block …
A crypto wallet provider has unveiled fresh, new branding as part of its quest to deliver an even better user experience. Founded in 2018, SafePal is a Singapore-based company that provides secure and easy-to-use wallet solutions for the masses. It is the first wallet incubated and invested by Binance Labs, the venture arm of Binance. With a mission to make crypto secure and simple for everyone, SafePal has built comprehensive crypto asset management solutions — including hardware wallets, mobile wallets, extension wallets, cross-chain swaps, trading services and more. At present, the business supports 48 blockchains and 15 languages — serving …
As crypto ownership becomes more and more common, holders will need to think about how they protect and hold their assets. The safest option is storing cryptocurrency in a personal wallet. Crypto wallets are programs that allow users to store, send and receive cryptocurrency. Each wallet has a private key that allows the wallet to be spent. Private keys are cryptographic strings of code that allow owners to spend the funds inside a wallet, as well as prove ownership. Wallet information is also stored offline, reducing the risk of a hacking attempt. Everyday non-technical crypto users can benefit from the …
After Ethereum’s long-awaited Merge, it’s an ideal time to think about how we can also improve smart contracts. Essentially apps that run on blockchains, smart contracts are a vital component of our Web3 applications. But interacting with them remains quite dangerous, especially for non-developers. Many of the incidents where users lose their crypto assets are caused by buggy or malicious smart contracts. As a Web3 app developer, this is a challenge I think about often, especially as waves of new users keep onboarding into various blockchain applications. To fully trust a smart contract, a consumer needs to know exactly what …
How to keep your seed phrase safe A crypto seed phrase in the wrong hands can do damage, so it is advisable to always ensure it is safe. The following are some tips for ensuring your seed phrase is secure. Never share your seed with anyone else: It’s extremely important that you never reveal your recovery phrase to anyone. Why? Because if someone else finds out your recovery phrase, they will be able to access — and therefore control — your crypto funds. Make a note of it on paper and keep it in a secure location: This is the …