Major hardware wallets manufacturer Ledger has unveiled vulnerabilities in its direct competitor Trezor’s devices, according to a report published on Monday, March. 11. As of press time, Trezor was not immediately available to comment on Ledger’s findings. The study states that the vulnerabilities were found by Attack Lab, the company’s department that hacks into both its own and competitors’ devices to improve security. Ledger claims that it has repeatedly addressed Trezor about weaknesses in their Trezor One and Trezor T wallets, and has decided to make them public after the responsible disclosure period ended. The first issue is related to …

Curv, a digital asset startup headquartered in the United States, has raised $6.5 million to launch a cloud-based digital asset wallet for financial institutions that does not use private keys, a company press release published on Feb. 26 reveals. According to the statement, the seed round was led by digital asset investment company Digital Currency Group and Israeli cybersecurity company Team8. The round also included participation from Monex Group, Flybridge Capital, Jump Capital and Liberty City Ventures. The funds will reportedly be used to create an institutional digital wallet that allows institutions and enterprises to securely use digital assets and …

The new Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S10, will include storage for private cryptocurrency keys, according to an official press release on Feb. 20. Samsung announced the launch of its new phone today in Seoul, San Francisco and London, which includes the Samsung Knox function. Per the press release: “Galaxy S10 is built with defense-grade Samsung Knox, as well as a secure storage backed by hardware, which houses your private keys for blockchain-enabled mobile services.” Ahead of the S10’s release, rumors abounded regarding the phone’s possible configuration and support for cryptocurrency wallets and DApps. Last month, images surfaced that allegedly portrayed …

A payments technology company has created a hardware wallet that addresses the “flawed approach” used for cold storage — and eliminates the physical storage of private keys. Instead of storing private keys on a device — a “potential security problem” — Bitfi says it has developed technology that does not store any data or private keys. Instead, the company’s hardware uses a deterministic algorithm to calculate the private key at the moment of a transaction. This means that the private key comes into existence for a fraction of a second and vanishes immediately afterward. This technology is meant to overcome …

Blockchain security firm and crypto wallet service BitGo has revealed plans to offer crypto insurance through Lloyd's of London, according to a press release on Feb. 19. BitGo Business Wallet clients will be able to acquire insurance for their digital assets held on BitGo’s Business Wallet service and Custodial offering. Assets held by either BitGo or BitGo Trust Company can insured for up to $100 million by global insurance and reinsurance market Lloyd’s, the release says. Lloyd’s had nearly $43.8 billion in gross written premiums in 2017, and has insured such eccentric items as Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard’s hands. …

Ripple, the firm behind the current third top crypto XRP, has introduced a major network upgrade of its XRP Ledger version 1.2.0, according to an official announcement on Feb. 13. The XRP ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger that stores XRP and is powered by a network of peer-to-peer (P2P) servers.With the release of the Ripple’s blockchain upgrade, servers will be able to automatically detect transaction censorship attempts and issue warnings of increasing severity for transactions, the announcement says. The XRP Ledger version 1.2.0 includes a number of network amendments, including MultisignReserve Amendment, fixTakerDryOfferRemoval and fix1578 Amendments. The MultisignReserve amendment …

Users of Coinbase Wallet can now back up their private keys on Google Drive or iCloud, according to an official announcement on Feb. 12. In the statement, Coinbase states that allowing users to upload their keys to a cloud provides a safeguard against lost keys, will will help them avoid losing funds should the keys be misplaced. The announcement notes: “The private keys generated and stored on your mobile device are the only way to access your funds on the blockchain. Owners of ‘user-controlled wallets’ like Coinbase Wallet sometimes lose their devices or fail to backup their 12 word recovery …

This article has been updated to include comments from MyEtherWallet concerning the clone phishing site. Altcoins Ethereum Nowa (ETN) and Ethereum Classic Vision (ETCV) are reportedly appropriating the private keys of users trying to redeem their allegedly forked coins. The suspected scam was covered in a report sent to Cointelegraph by the Guarda Wallet development team on Jan. 11. The official website of the Ethereum Nowa project — which doesn’t contain a white paper — describes the process that users are supposed to engage in to obtain ETN. According to the website, the user should first send ETH to an …

Cryptocurrency exchange HitBTC has rejected allegations by some of the industry’s best-known figures that it was deliberately freezing user accounts, the company told Cointelegraph in an email Jan. 3. Responding to a request for comment, Peter Swen, a representative from the exchange’s marketing team, denied any link between account freezes and Thursday’s ongoing Proof of Keys event. After user complaints on social media, Proof of Keys’ organizer Trace Mayer had publicly suggested that HitBTC may be deliberately disabling withdrawals in response to the event. He was subsequently joined by others in his suspicion, including John McAfee, wallet manufacturer Bitfi and …

Researchers have reportedly shown how they were able to hack the Trezor One, Ledger Nano S and Ledger Blue at the 35C3 Refreshing Memories conference. The demonstration of the hacks was published in a video on Dec. 27. The research team behind the dubbed “Wallet.fail” hacking project is made up of hardware designer and security researcher Dmitry Nedospasov, software developer Thomas Roth and security researcher and former submarine officer Josh Datko. During the conference, the researchers announced that they have been able to extract the private key out of a Trezor One hardware wallet after flashing — overwriting existing data …

Before the internet brought us dog videos and your grandmother’s Facebook updates, losing money was a traumatic experience. Dropping $20 meant you’d probably never see it again – all you’d have left is that unmistakable sensation of feeling stupid. At least in the fiat world, it’s become a little bit harder to lose money. Centralized institutions mean you can recover usernames and passwords in a jiffy – answering a few security questions or showing your ID to regain access. Help is even available if you burn thousands of dollars in a fire, thanks to a specialist department that pieces them …

The Bank of America (BoA) has won a patent for a system for enterprises to store customers’ crypto deposits, published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) yesterday, Nov. 13. The patent, first filed in mid-June 2014, outlines the background to the invention by stating that “as technology advances, financial transactions involving cryptocurrency have become more common,” and noting: “For some enterprises, it may be desirable to aggregate cryptocurrency deposited by customers in an enterprise account.” The patent filing outlines different interactions between customers’ crypto holdings and an enterprise account, with the latter functioning to securely store (or “aggregate”) …