The Tor Project, the nonprofit organization behind the anonymous network Tor, announced that it now accepts Bitcoin (BTC) donations via the Lightning Network. The organization announced on Nov. 19 that it will accept Lightning Network donations as part of Bitcoin Tuesday, a fundraising initiative led by the crypto-for-charity organization The Giving Block. Tor recommended the BottlePay wallet for donations, which allows users to search for The Tor Project inside it and send crypto without copying and pasting addresses. The Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment protocol for the Bitcoin network that aims to expedite payments and address the network’s scalability …

Anonymous hacker Phineas Fisher will pay up to $100,000 in crypto to hackers for leaking some damaging information about global high-profile firms. The bounty, called the “Hacktivist Bug Hunting Program” was published on Nov. 15 and targets big companies including Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group and American oil company Halliburton, as Vice reported on Nov. 17. The idea of the new bounty is to pay other hackers who carry out politically motivated hacks against firms, which would lead to the disclosure of documents in the public interest, according to Vice. Other targets reportedly include mining and livestock companies in South …

Samsung SDS, the IT arm of tech giant Samsung, has integrated QEDIT’s zero-knowledge proof solution (ZKP) to its Nexledger blockchain. By applying ZKP, Samsung SDS intends to provide a higher level of privacy for users of its enterprise blockchain platform Nexledger, QEDIT said in a press release on Nov. 14. To apply the technology, Samsung SDS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli privacy-enhancing technology provider QEDIT in Seoul. According to the announcement, the agreement was signed by Jeanie Hong, senior VP at Samsung SDS’ blockchain division, and Jonathan Rouach, CEO and co-founder of QEDIT. Based on ZCP cryptography, …

Big four auditing firm Deloitte integrated the privacy developed by cryptography startup QEDIT into its qualification information blockchain platform Eduscrypt, a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 29 reveals. Per the release, the announcement was made at the ZKProof Community Event in Amsterdam today. Another application of ZK-Proofs The event was dedicated to Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZK-Proofs), an advanced kind of cryptography — which QEDIT’s solution uses — that allows to verify data without actually revealing it. The platform that has been updated to enhance its privacy is Deloitte’s Eduscrypt, and its purpose is to enable organizations to track, …

American entrepreneur and staunch crypto advocate, John McAfee, has argued for the importance of stablecoins for decentralized exchange (DEX) adoption. McAfee made his argument in a tweet posted on Oct. 20. Stablecoins as an interim solution McAfee’s video begins by tackling the main obstacle to crypto-fiat currency conversions that use of a decentralized exchange poses for users: “What’s the main issue with decentralized exchanges? It’s how do you get your fiat currencies in and out? [...] very difficult, since no information is collected on a decentralized exchange, no name, no address, no social security number, no email, nothing.” Rather than …

A bug in all Zcash (ZEC) implementations and most of its forks could leak metadata containing the full nodes’ with shielded addresses (zaddr) IPs. Komodo (KMD) developer Duke Leto disclosed the bug in a blog post published on his personal website. A Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) code has already been assigned to track the issue on Sept. 27. Leto explained: “A bug has existed for all shielded addresses since the inception of Zcash and Zcash Protocol. It is present in all Zcash source code forks. It is possible to find the IP address of full nodes who own a …

Ethereum (ETH) privacy startup Aztec announced the launch of its zero-knowledge succinct non-Interactive argument of knowledge (SNARKs) generation via a cryptographic ceremony called Ignition. In a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Sept. 15 the startup also announced the closing of its latest round of investment with participation from A.Capital, Coinbase and Libertus Capital. A cryptographic ceremony Per the release, the multi-party computation ceremony is meant “to generate a set of encrypted points which will be used to derive all future Aztec notes.” The process will build an open source “reference string” that the company believes will be used by …

Enterprise blockchain startup Kaleido, a part of ConsenSys’s venture studio, became the first to implement crypto privacy firm QEDIT’s zero-knowledge proof solution. An optional feature QEDIT claims in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Sept. 15 that this partnership with Kaleido will enable its private asset transfer feature as an off-the-shelf option for businesses using the platform. CEO and co-founder of QEDIT Jonathan Rouach added: “Kaleido has played a leading role in accelerating the deployment of enterprise blockchain technology by removing the need for companies to invest significant resources in custom code development. A notable platform Rouach also named …

Finnish peer-to-peer crypto exchange LocalBitcoins has warned users about alleged security risks associated with anonymous browser Tor Browser. On Sept. 9, transactional compliance expert Richard Bensberg tweeted a screenshot of a LocalBitcoins banner warning Tor users about the risk of losing their Bitcoins (BTC), which stated: “Warning to all Tor users: A Tor browser exposes you to the risk of having your bitcoins stolen.” LocalBitcoins then responded to Bensberg, saying that while using Tor Browser is not against its terms of service, it does not recommend it for security reasons. LocalBitcoins did not specify why the browser makes users more …

Binance Research, the research arm of the major crypto platform Binance, has reported that no bank account will be necessary to use China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). Loose coupling and anonymity Binance Research shared its findings on Aug 28. According to the report, China’s CBDC will be transferable without a bank due to its loosely coupled design. As explained by the researchers, a loosely coupled design refers to a system of components that do not all depend on each other. The upshot is that users will reportedly be able to transfer the CBDC to one another without needing a …

A Los Angeles man has pleaded guilty to running a $25 million Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering scheme and selling methamphetamine. Possible life sentence News outlet U.S. News reported on Aug. 23 that Kunal Kalra has pleaded guilty to charges including money laundering and distributing methamphetamines. The 25-year-old is facing life in prison. The authorities say that, from 2015 to 2017, Kalra exchanged BTC and dollars, ran a Bitcoin ATM, and admitted to making deals with drug dealers and other criminals. Sold meth to an undercover agent Kalra also sold two pounds of meth to an undercover law enforcement agent. According …

United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believes Bitcoin (BTC) should be regulated the same way as other electronic financial transactions. Security risks of reduced governmental monitoring In an interview with Squawk Box on Aug. 20, Pompeo pointed out the risk of anonymous transactions associated with crypto, saying: “The risk with anonymous transactions is one that we all know well. We know this from 9/11 and terror activity that took place in the 15 years preceding that where we didn’t have good tracking, we didn’t have the capacity to understand money flows and who was moving money.” CNBC host Joe …