Swiss data privacy startup HOPR is launching its first public testnet shortly after securing $1 million in investment from investors like Binance. HOPR said that the startup is preparing to launch the testnet and community support program on July 16. The event will feature rewards in MakerDAO’s stablecoin Dai (DAI). Token sale date undisclosed The HOPR project was launched in response to increasing concerns over online data privacy. The Swiss company develops open-source tools for the Web 3 ecosystem and offers a new blockchain protocol for protecting user data. Founded earlier this year, HOPR came under the spotlight of the …

Binance will remove the ability to record audio from its Android app in the upcoming update scheduled for “mid-July”, cryptocurrency exchange CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, told Cointelegraph. Binance App will allegedly drop the microphone permission The company’s privacy-oriented move follows spyware concerns raised by crypto community members last week. Specifically, user @ShitcoinSherpa tweeted certificate issuer screenshots, showing that the permissions asked by Binance in its Android app include access to the camera and the ability to record audio. At the time, Binance’s chief security officer told Cointelegraph that “the camera is used during the KYC process,” stressing …

Personal data for over a million Russian nationals has reportedly been leaked. The data allegedly belongs to some of the citizens who participated in the recent blockchain-based e-vote on Constitutional amendments. The archive was reportedly available for everyone to download According to an investigation published by Russian language media outlet Meduza, an archive titled “degvoter.zip”, which contains said data, was publicly available for download for at least several hours on July 1 via a government website. The file has since been distributed through various Telegram groups and channels. The archive was password protected. According to the publication, however, it could …

Ocean Protocol, a decentralized data exchange protocol focussed on data collation, sharing, and monetization, has announced a pilot project partnering with Mercedes-Benz’ manufacturer Daimler AG. Daimler’s South East Asia subsidiary will use blockchain-based solutions to gather and monetize the firm’s data. The pilot will demonstrate Ocean Protocol’s recently launched "Compute-to-Data" protocol to protect the privacy of Daimler’s data while allowing the information to be analyzed and aggregated by third parties. Mercedes trials DLT data pilot with Ocean Protocol Ocean is hoping that the pilot will attract further partnerships with major global firms, describing the pilot as a scalable blueprint for …

Chinese authorities are trying to strengthen their epidemic preparedness and have identified blockchain as a key component of the response. The Chinese Circular of the National Health Commission released its plan on June 30 on how to ramp up its information technology support amid future pandemics. One component of the strategy is the use of blockchain technology for enhancing data sharing among medical institutions. Data sharing is key The Commission is urging local health departments to promote data sharing and collaboration between online hospitals and physical medical institutions. It says that Blockchain technology should be implemented to achieve the safe …

Once dominated by young and savvy retail investors, the cryptocurrency market has seen increasing interest lately from institutional investors and large fintech firms. For instance, Grayscale Investments most recently added 19,879 Bitcoin (BTC) to its Bitcoin Trust, bringing the firm’s total volume of the predominant cryptocurrency close to a whopping 400,000. The investment firm further noted in a tweet on June 25 that it is managing $4.1 billion dollars worth of digital assets. It’s also worth noting that leading payment provider PayPal may soon be incorporating cryptocurrency options. While some individuals in the crypto community may cringe at the thought, …

A mammoth global spying and data theft effort currently leaves web surfing citizens at risk, with several Bitcoin and crypto domains included in the mix, according to research from Awake Security. At the heart of the problem — a web domain registration company named CommuniGal Communication, or GalComm. "Of the 26,079 reachable domains registered through GalComm, 15,160 domains, or almost 60%, are malicious or suspicious," Awake wrote in a June 18 blog post. A list of sites at risk Although the nefarious movement uses several different methods, including malware, such activity has passed under the radar of popular security systems, …

Recent findings from analytics company Digital Assets Data show miners hanging on to their Bitcoin (BTC). "Rolling MRI (Miner's Rolling Inventory) has declined significantly since the halving, meaning that miners are holding onto more BTC than they are mining, despite the (presumed) increased costs of the added hash power to the network," Digital Assets Data CEO and co-founder Mike Alfred told Cointelegraph on June 18. Image courtesy of Digital Assets Data Bitcoin difficulty pushing network highs The network mining difficulty of crypto's largest asset recently surged to unusual heights. This essentially means Bitcoin miners are spending an increasing amount of …

Telegram, a major privacy-focused messaging app, has suffered a data leak that exposed some personal data of its users on the darknet. A database containing the personal data of millions of Telegram users has been posted on a darknet forum. The issue was first reported by Russian-language tech publication Kod.ru on Tuesday. According to the report, the database contains phone numbers and unique Telegram user IDs. It remains unclear exactly how many users' data was leaked while the database file is about 900 megabytes. About 40% of entries in the database should be relevant Telegram has reportedly acknowledged the existence …

Blockchain tracking platform VeChain announced on Twitter on June 20 that its blockchain-based medical data management platform co-developed with digital healthcare solution firm I-Dante has gone live and will store COVID-19 testing results. The platform, dubbed E-NewHealthLife, was deployed in the Mediterranean Hospital in the Republic of Cyprus. Cyprus citizens who go to the hospital’s COVID-19 laboratory to undergo real-time diagnostic and antibodies testing, will have their medical and test records on the blockchain. The records will be encrypted, hashed and uploaded onto the VeChainThor Blockchain. The results will also be available on the E-HCert application. Adoption of E-HCert, the …

A new protocol says it aims to become the core infrastructure of Next Generation Internet, or NGI, providing a distributed storage environment for large files and delivering end-to-end encryption so the network remains secure at all times. Distributed Storage Protocol Labs, or DSP Labs, says its arrival heralds the next phase of the internet, arguing that the HTTP-based protocol underpinning the web is beset by problems. Even though it would be fashionable to think that internet users have full control over their data, documents and digital identities, DSP Labs asserts that this isn’t the case. Instead, users are in the …

On June 17, the popular video conference app, Zoom, officially announced that end-to-end encryption, or E2EE, has finally arrived for their software. It will be provided to both free and paid users, so long as their account has passed the company’s verification process. According to the announcement, during the beta phase that will start from July, users should verify their phone numbers via a text message. The aim of this step is to prevent the mass creation of abusive accounts. Zoom commented: “We are confident that by implementing risk-based authentication, in combination with our current mix of tools - including …