White hat hackers have detected over 40 bugs in blockchain and cryptocurrency platforms over the past 30 days, tech news outlet The Next Web (TNW) reported on March 14. According to an investigation conducted by TNW, 13 blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related companies were hit with a total of 43 vulnerability reports from Feb. 13–March 13. In the blockchain field, e-sports gambling platform Unikrn reportedly got the most vulnerability reports, amounting to 12 bugs. Unikrn is followed by OmiseGo developer, Omise, having received six bug reports. In third place is EOS, with five vulnerability reports. Consensus algorithm and peer-to-peer (P2P) networking protocol …

Cybercriminals are reportedly favoring unhurried approaches in attacks made for financial gains, with cryptojacking as a prime example of this shift. IT news website ComputerWorld reported on this development on March 14. Data released by cybersecurity company Darktrace reveals that cryptojacking attempts increased by 78 percent in 2018, and, according to ComputerWorld, the company also said that this trend continued in 2019. The ComputerWorld article cites Max Heinemeyer, director of threat hunting at Darktrace, commenting on the findings. He reportedly said that since many ransomware victims may be unable to pay a ransom in Bitcoin (BTC) due to technical ineptitude, …

On March 9, Monero (XMR) network was successfully upgraded via a hard fork. The new code curbed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-powered mining with a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm. Additionally, new dynamic block size algorithm and improved privacy — which is considered to be Monero’s key feature — were introduced. Once the ASIC miners were taken out of the equation, the network’s hash rate dropped over 80 percent — which, however, might be positive for the cryptocurrency in the long term. Anonymity above all: Monero’s main principle Monero is a privacy coin, meaning that it is anonymous and untraceable by design. …

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has already twice gone below $145 billion. However, it is positive that the market cap has not been making new lows recently. This shows demand at lower levels and is the first indication of a bottom formation. Each new bull market has its own leaders. Traders …

The head of the Finance Committee of France’s National Assembly, Eric Woerth, is suggesting a ban on anonymous cryptocurrencies, or so-called privacy coins. Woerth expressed his position in a recent report on crypto assets and blockchain technology. In a forward to the report, Woerth considers the introduction of a ban on digital currencies that provide greater anonymity to users, stating: “It would also have been appropriate to propose a ban on the dissemination and trade in [cryptocurrencies built] to ensure complete anonymity by preventing any identification procedure by design. [...] This is the case for a certain number of [cryptocurrencies] …

This week, at least two seperate bugs related to Monero (XMR) were reported by crypto community members. The first one allegedly lead to a Ledger hardware wallet user losing around 1,680 XMR (nearly $80,000, as of press time) of his funds after making a transaction. The other vulnerability allowed hackers to make fake XMR deposits to cryptocurrency exchanges. Anonymity above all: What is Monero and how it works Monero is a cryptocurrency with an additional focus on anonymity. It was launched in April 2014, when Bitcointalk.org user thankful_for_today forked the codebase of Bytecoin into the name BitMonero. To create the …

About 400 servers running virtualization software Docker were found to be vulnerable to outside exploitation. Most of them were seemingly running Monero (XMR) mining software, cybersecurity company Imperva reports on March 4. A misconfiguration of the vulnerable Docker hosts permits public access to the Docker API, which should only be locally accessible. This misconfiguration, combined with a newly discovered vulnerability, allows attackers to obtain administrator rights on the server and install software of their choice. Since a hacker could install any software this way, the vulnerability doesn't only permit cryptojacking, but also the installation of any other malware or use …

A bug in the Monero (XMR) wallet software that could enable fake deposits to exchanges has been recently brought to public attention through a Medium post, published by the official Ryo (RYO) account on March 3. According to the post, an email reportedly sent to the Monero-announce mailing list warns exchanges and service operators using the coin that the Monero Vulnerability Response team received a disclosure concerning a vulnerability. The vulnerability consists of the mishandling of outputs in coinbase transactions (the first transactions in a block, always made by miners). This mishandling could potentially allow an attacker to fake the …

The Ledger developers team posted a warning on Monero’s (XMR) subreddit on March 4 advising users not to use the Nano S Monero app. Apparently, a bug associated with the app had been discovered when, earlier today, user MoneroDontCheeseMe posted on Reddit a claim that he or she believes to “have just lost ~1680 Monero [around $80,000] due to a bug.” In the account, the user stated that after transferring about 0.000001 XMR from the Ledger to a view-only wallet, the user sent another 10, 200 and then 141.9 XMR. According to the report, before sending the last transaction, MoneroDontCheeseMe …

Top Stories This Week Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indexes Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange, began its live listing of two crypto price indexes from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC) this week. The listings, which had been announced earlier this month, are BNC’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX). According to the announcement, the indexes will show reference rates for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH, quoted in USD and refreshed every 30 seconds. Brave New Coin has also announced future plans …

Sunday, March 3 — the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting minor losses on the day to press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering just over the $3,850 mark again, according to Coin360 data. Market visualization from Coin360 At press time, Bitcoin is down a fraction of a percent on the day, trading at around $3,853, according to CoinMarketCap data. Looking at its weekly chart, the current price is nearly half of a percent lower than $3,870, the price at which Bitcoin started the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap The day before yesterday, blockchain development company Blockstream released a new …

Cryptocurrency mining service Coinhive is shutting down, as the project has reportedly become economically inviable. The team behind Coinhive announced the news in a blog post on Feb. 26. Per the announcement, the mining service will stop its operations on March 8, 2019, while users’ dashboards will be accessible until April 30, 2019. Among the reasons behind the closure, the developers note the over 50 percent drop in hash rate following the last Monero (XMR) hard fork. The service was reportedly also hit by the cryptocurrency market drop off , with the value of XMR slumped over 85 percent within …