Swiss blockchain startup, Nym Technologies, has invited the general public to take part in the next phase of its mixnet platform’s user testing on April 8. The privacy infrastructure promises advanced protection against mass-surveillance, and comes at a time when governments globally are expanding their powers in the name of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The good mixer Users are initially invited to run mix-nodes on the Nym testnet. A global network of mix-nodes will form the mixnet, which acts to irreversibly hide patterns and metadata in internet traffic by mixing data packets with those of other users. Nym claims that, …

With the halvings for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) failing to drive a surge in demand, it appears that their block halvings may turn out to be non-events. Despite their halvings, BCH and BSV exhibited normal volume, and strong correlation with the crypto markets at large. Bitcoin forks fail to attract demand heading into halvings While at least six cryptocurrencies prepare to reduce their miner rewards in 2020, the market only appears interested in the forthcoming BTC halving. Within 48 hours of this writing, Bitcoin SV (BSV) will become the latest crypto asset to halve its block reward. …

Bitstamp, one of the longest-running active cryptocurrency exchanges, is considering launching a batch of new crypto asset listings. Curiously, Bitstamp is contemplating support for Zcash (ZEC), despite an increasing number of exchanges seeking to distance themselves from privacy coins due to associated regulatory risks. Bitfinex considers first new listings in 3 years On March 31, Bitstamp announced it is “actively exploring” support for seven crypto assets, including two stablecoins and one privacy coin. The prospective listings comprise Basic Attention Token (BAT), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Paxos Standard (PAX), 0x (ZRX), USD Coin (USDC), and Zcash. Exchanges abandon privacy …

The cryptocurrency industry was initially headlined as anonymous digital cash. While experts were keen to point out that this was not exactly the case, Bitcoin (BTC) found initial popularity in darknet markets such as Silk Road, where merchants sold illegal goods ranging from light drugs to, allegedly, hitman services. Founded in 2011, Silk Road thrived for the next two years until the Federal Bureau of Investigation shut it down in 2013. Authorities later revealed that completely free blockchain explorers aided their investigative efforts. Bitcoin’s transaction ledger is completely open for the public to view. What the blockchain does lack is …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted a tweet on March 24 claiming that the continuing lack of easy movement between the Ethereum and Bitcoin networks was embarrassing. As a solution, he proposed putting resources into building a decentralized exchange (DEX), to act as a trustless bridge between the two. DEX should be trustless, serverless and Uniswap-like Buterin’s plan calls for the DEX to be trustless and serverless, with a user experience very similar to Uniswap. Uniswap is a decentralized exchange that runs without an order book, instead relying on asset pairs with Ether as a fixed base currency. As Cointelegraph reported, …

At the end of January, a poll apparently confirmed community support for a new mining reward-distribution structure for the Zcash (ZEC) network, whereby more will flow into the developer fund. Still, the decision proved to be rather controversial. Electric Coin Company, the firm behind Zcash, announced in a Jan. 2 blog post that a community poll on the Zcash Improvement Proposal 1014 — referred to as ZIP 1014 — showed a consensus for implementing a 20% fee on mining rewards. The results showed that 77 people, or 87.5% of all votes, were in favor of the implementation, while just 11 …

Privacy is a core characteristic of cryptocurrencies. Despite mainstream conception, however, it is not the primary goal of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH), and is more of an ancillary benefit of using cryptography. The situation is altogether different for cryptocurrencies that seek to maximize anonymity when transacting on the network. Networks like Monero (XMR) and ZCash (ZEC) have soared in popularity, making up part of the handful of leading cryptocurrencies by market cap based on strong guarantees of privacy. Both blockchains offer users virtually complete privacy assurances — Monero with the CryptoNote technology suite, and ZCash deploying the …

A new coin is hoping to provide stiff competition to rivals such as Monero and Zcash by delivering “the first fully private hybrid chain with staking.” DAPS, which stands for Decentralized Anonymous Payment System, says it has developed ground-breaking technology that properly addresses the issues seen in other privacy coins, resulting in a truly trustless setup. A trustless setup occurs when a user can create a wallet or node without any exchange of information with another user or node. Some privacy coins require you to “trust” the setup information given to you — and trust that the giver of that …

At a time when technology can be used as both a mechanism for privacy intrusions and a tool for protecting privacy, the prescient sentiment of cypherpunks in the 1990s of cryptography as the last defense against a digital surveillance dystopia rings truer than ever. And one of the most potent instruments for defending digital privacy has recently gained significant momentum thanks to the advent of cryptocurrencies. An iteration of zero-knowledge proofs, trustless zero-knowledge proof systems that are also referred to as zk-SNARKs are a powerful cryptographic primitive that can sever any tractable piece of data between two parties over a …

An Israeli startup Starkware believes it can solve two of the most pressing issues in crypto trading — the inherent vulnerability of centralized exchanges and the low transactional capacity of decentralized ones. The venture was co-founded by professor Eli Ben Sasson, who was a founding scientist for Zcash (ZEC). Besides raising almost $40 million from prominent investors that include Sequoia and Intel Capital, it also received a grant from the Ethereum Foundation. Starkware for exchanges Oren Katz, VP of engineering at Starkware, explained their approach in an exclusive interview to Cointelegraph: “We basically provide a scalability engine for exchanges (or …

Cryptocurrencies could not exist without cryptography. Advances in this field can have far-reaching impacts on blockchain technology and its potential. We will examine the opinions of industry experts on the latest cryptographic advances and their potential for cryptocurrencies. Zero knowledge proofs: more than just privacy Director of research at blockchain firm Blockstream and mathematician Andrew Poelstra told Cointelegraph that zero-knowledge proof (ZK-Proof) systems are “one of the most exciting areas of development” in the cryptography space. This kind of cryptography is known and appreciated for being the basis of privacy-preserving solutions. ZK-Proofs are the basis of the privacy-preserving technology included …

A major global company that helps fight illicit cryptocurrency-related activity does not think that privacy in crypto markets is necessarily bad. Despite representing one of the primary sources of crypto transaction data for federal agencies like the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI, Chainalysis does not exactly oppose the privacy and decentralization of crypto. “Complete transparency is not necessarily an ideal place” Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CSO at blockchain and crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, reiterated his stance to privacy in crypto, claiming that full transparency of cryptocurrency transactions might not turn out to be the best situation. Speaking in an …