Madelina Feliks

07
Feb
2021

Elon Musk’s Dogecoin Endorsement Sets Off Buying Frenzy for the D Coin

After Elon Musk said he would take a break from Twitter, he returned 2 days later with a tweet calling the Dogecoin cryptocurrency ” the people’s crypto.” As investors have been looking into other cryptocurrencies or altcoins that have the makings of the next important crypto money, Musk’s endorsement immediately had set off a buying frenzy for Doge coins.

Musk’s tweet had sent Dogecoin trades surging by more than 50%, boosting the price range of the virtual coin to between $0.054 to $0.064 from a previous $0.0012 After the buying spree occured, Musk tweeted an image of himself depicted as Lion King’s Rafiki, proudly holding the Doge dog mascot up high, whilst adding “ur welcome” as text.

Apparently, the Tesla Chief’s trade recommendations have been making an impact, his recent tweets of support for CD Projekt, Etsy and the controversial games retail giant GameStop created a positive effect. Musk’s support of GameStop had actually boosted a covert 2-year in the making plan hatched by a group of anonymous stock investors converging at Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets forum.

Background Info about Dogecoin

Dogecoin or DOGE is represented by the D symbol , and uses the image of the Shiba Inu dog that originated from the “Doge” meme. It was introduced in December 2013 by founders Billy Markus, an IBM software engineer and Jackson Palmer, an Adobe software engineer. Their goal was to create a digital payment system that will reach a demographic that is far more wide ranging than.bitcoin This explains Elon Musk’s branding of DOGE as the people’s crypto.

In July 2020, a TikTok video that aimed to hike the coin’s worth to $1.sparked an increase of Dogecoin’s price. Reddit users, likewise, gave attention to Dogecoin, as additional support to the Tesla giant’s D coin endorsement. As a result, Dogecoin soared further, bringing the increase in price at an estimated 800%.

Posted by Madelina Feliks in Cryptocurrency
13
Nov
2020

PayPal Moves Forward w/ Cryptocurrency Services Ahead of 2021 Schedule

PayPal announced last Nov. 12, that customers do not have to wait until 2021 for them to open a cryptocurrency account, as the service is now available to use. Qualified PayPal account holders will be able to buy, sell and hold specific cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), etherium (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). Moreover, the cryptocurrency purchasing limit has been raised to $20k weekly, from the previous $15K per week mentioned in the initial announcement.

PayPal revealed its plans of offering cryptocurrency services last October 21, 2020, whilst stating the the projected rollout will take place in the early part of 2021. Paypal’s cryptocurrency services currently include selling, buying and holding of any of the aforementioned cryptocurrencies.

PayPal’s Cryptocurrency Services is in Partnership with Venmo and Paxos

As it is, the terms and conditions of Paypal’s cryptocurrency services includes a prohibition against the direct transfer of crypto money to the cryptocurrency accounts of relatives and friends, or as direct payment for goods and services purchased from accredited merchants. Apparently, that particular aspect will require the use of Venmo’s social payment platform to which cryptocurrency service involving collaboration with the social payment processor will be available only in 2021 and to PayPal’s network of 26 million merchants,

In the meantime, the availability of PayPal’s cryptocurrency services is currently being carried out through a partnership with Paxos, a fintech firm tasked to handle cryptocurrency transactions in Paypa’s behalf. Paxos is a New York-based financial technology company that uses a private blockchain network in keeping custody of cryptocurrency accounts for delivery, payment and settlement of cryptocurrency transactions. That is why withdrawing crypto money from a PayPal account using an external crypto e-wallet is not allowed.

Basic Eligibility Requirements to Open a PayPal Cryptocurrency Account

First off, a person must be a U.S. resident aged at least 18 years or older; or of the age of majority recognized by the state in which an individual resides. However, the service is still not available to residents of Hawaii.

An existing personal PayPal cash account is necessary, as a means to access the Cryptocurrencies Hub since all related crypto services will be linked to the main PayPal account. A person’s login details to his personal Paypal account will be the same credentials to use when accessing the Cryptocurrencies Hub, as the latter will form part of that person’s Cash Account.

Paypal will also verify the previously verified information submitted when the personal Cash Account was opened, before a Paypal account holder is given access to the Cryptocurrencies Hub. The payments processor also reserves the right to verify from time to time, required information such as name, address, birthday and Taxpayer Identification Number by requesting a copy of a person’s government issued photo ID, or the most recent utility bill or any other proof of current residency.

Posted by Madelina Feliks in Cryptocurrency
10
Aug
2020

Security Researchers Explain Methodology of Crypto Exchange Hackers

Security researchers who convened at the Black Hat virtual conference, reported on how the notorious group CryptoCore was able to hack $200 million worth of crypto money. The heist, as reported by Cointelegraph last June 2020, saw several crypto exchanges operating across the globe, losing cryptocurrencies from cyber attacks perpetuated by way of a phishing campaign that lasted for two years.

The report revealed how crypto exchanges become vulnerable to hackers despite claims of having high privacy and tight security measure in place to protect their funds. Researchers enumerated three methodologies that allowed hackers to succeed in attacking five crypto exchanges in Japan, the Middle East and the U. S, .Omer Shlomovits, cofounder of KZen Networks and Aumasson, a cryptographer categorized the attacks as:

1) Insider attack or inside job,
2) Exploitation of a relationship between a crypto exchange and a customer
3) Partial extraction of secret keys.

According to the report, the approach was similar to breaking open a conventional bank vault by turning on six keys all at the same, which means the hackers had to dissect private keys into smaller pieces in preparation for their cyber heist.

Insider Attack or Inside Job

An insider, explores and exploits the vulnerability of the cryptocurrency exchange’s open-source library. Using the refresh mechanism, an inside attacker who is also a key holder initiates a refresh. Then he or she does some manipulation to alter some keys but at the same time retain some. The manipulation will cause a denial of service that permanently locks out the cryptocurrency exchange out of its own digital funds.

Another way that an inside attacker launches an incursion is to figure out private keys generated by exchange customers when initiating multiple key refreshes. This enables the inside attacker to carry out the stealing process by manipulating exchange processes using false validation statements.

Exploitation of Relationship between Crypto Exchange and Customer

Shlomovits and Aumasson said attacks could occur once the insider becomes a trusted party in a crypto exchange for which they receive their portions of the key. Any of the trusted parties with malicious intent can generate random numbers that is up for public verification. However, the researchers found out that in the case of Binance, the site skipped the checking of random values generated by trusted parties.

Extraction of Secret Keys

Malicious trusted parties use the unvalidated values in sending constructed messages to other users, who in turn, assign the unvalidated information. Exchange users using multiple key refreshers become the targets of the malicious trusted parties, for purposes of extracting private keys to use in launching the cyber hack.

Posted by Madelina Feliks in Cryptocurrency