On May 3, , arguably the most privacy-centric bitcoin wallet announced on its the release of several new updates which will bring a lot of new functionalities and diversified support.
The new update release will introduce full bech32 support, Boltzman and STONEWALL as well as enhanced Ricochet transactions. All these new implementations make the wallet fully compliant with BIP84 and capable of supporting Segwit addresses.
Full Bech32 Support
Full support provides the native way of encoding Segwit addresses. With this new implementation, Samourai Wallet is now fully compliant with BIP84, which means that users are now able to send externally to bech32 encoded addresses as well as receive to their own bech32 encoded addresses.
Bech32 addresses start with ‘bc1’ and are not backward compatible. However, Samourai wallet can also generate of Segwit addresses that start with a ‘3,’ which will be backward compatible with all bitcoin wallets by default.
Boltzmann and STONEWALL
Samourai Wallet also introduced Boltzmann in December 2017, when it acquired the OXT block exploration platform which is in itself an audit system. This process involves running transactions through a script called Boltzmann which returns the entropy of the transaction measuring that way the linkability of inputs to outputs of a given transaction by determining the number of individual mappings of the inputs to outputs used in the transaction.
The Samourai team found that transactions sent via BIP126 may lead to less entropy than expected, hence more susceptible to clustering analysis. BIP126 defines the best practices for building transactions that minimize the leaking of personally identifiable information. To replace BIP126, the wallet is introducing STONEWALL as a replacement.
STONEWALL is a new send type available at no extra charge to all Samourai users, enabled by default and can be disabled in the Transaction Settings. STONEWALL activates a lot more times than BIP126 which means more transactions will benefit from its protection and the entropy is higher according to testing done by the team. With STONEWALL, the Samourai wallet will create transactions that simulates a transaction.
Samourai have made it clear they will further their open source R&D committed to maximizing the privacy of bitcoin users, with their blog post stating:
“Samourai users will see further integration with Boltzmann in the near future, including the ability to measure the entropy of transactions before they are broadcast directly in the wallet.”
For now, you can review the entropy of bitcoin transactions using the .
Enhanced Ricochet Transactions
Ricochet is one of Samourai’s most popular features, providing protection from “blanket blacklists.” According to the post, “Blanket blacklists are a very primitive – and stupid – form of blockchain analysis relied upon by many exchanges that deal with fiat currency.” Blacklists look at four or five hops back of a coin’s history and are marked as high risk if an analytics company disagrees with something someone did with their bitcoin.
The Ricochet feature introduces additional ‘hops’ in between your transaction, distancing your sending address from the recipient’s address.
The company updated Ricochet to use native Segwit bech32 addresses for all the hop transactions resulting in lower total miner fees. Users will also have access to a lot more privacy with the introduction of a new algorithm that reduces the fingerprint of the Ricochet transaction on the , especially when combined with the .
Samourai wallet version 0.98.5 is available to update via .
The post appeared first on .
The sovereign city-state Singapore is going to be the first country to issue (BTC) banknotes or smart notes for hardware storage. Tangem, the company behind the notes, announced the launch on May 3 at the Megafash Suntec City store in the island nation.
Tangem’s banknotes are available in lower denominations of 0.01 and 0.05 BTC. At current , these would amount to $93 and $465 respectively.
Tangem is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has a presence in Hong Kong, Israel, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. The company stated that it would ship 10,000 production units to retailers across the globe for commercial pilots.
Physical Bitcoins
The banknote is not per say a paper/plastic equivalent of any fiat, instead of a smart note with an S3D350A chip manufactured by Samsung Semiconductor. The banknotes have one similarity with fiat currency notes which is that they represent a set of value and can be administered physically at an outlet. These notes are unique as they are self-contained wallets in themselves with a private key to be used.
notes can be handed over to the retailer along with its blockchain private key. They cannot be restricted by technology limitations and are anonymous. These wallet-notes use high-grade EAL6+ protection for all cryptocurrencies. The uniqueness of chip technology guards the wallet against attack vectors on hardware and software levels. The sophistication of chip technology over the years with debit and credit cards has given a highly secure product and made the “cost of hacking a single banknote uneconomical.”
With an NFC-capable mobile device, you can check the value of a Tangem bitcoin note to ensure it is valid. The open source code for Tangem’s Android and iOS apps are available on and Tangem on May 3 that Swiss security firm, Kudelski Group, has completed an extensive review of the code relating to the product itself.
Tangem believes that the smart notes are in demand as only five million people actively trade cryptocurrencies, i.e., people having over $100 in crypto and there are most probably 20 million wallets. bitcoin smart notes will even draw in institutional investors to the crypto space.
Will Tangem draw in the interest of traditional investors? Share your views in the comments section.
The post appeared first on .
Inside buildings whose exterior walls are adorned with the ubiquitous graffiti murals urban America, a new kind of culture is emerging in Brooklyn, New York. From repurposed warehouses to other abandoned industrial buildings, crypto and blockchain entrepreneurs are setting up shop to establish their startups. As is beginning to mature, it seems some of its staunchest proponents have found a in Brooklyn.
A New Economic Movement in New York
Blockchain technology has an anti-establishment air about it, at least, in the eyes of its original pioneers. One of the fundamental premises of the technology is to disrupt global process business across diverse sectors.
(Source: )
To this end, many blockchain purists prefer to develop their technologies far removed from the prying eyes of the big corporations who might seem anathema to hardcore blockchain enthusiasts. It is for this reason that Brooklyn, and not Manhattan, is turning into the crypto capital of New York.
(Source: )
As far as business in New York is concerned, Manhattan has always been the hub. Now, in neighborhoods like Bushwick and Williamsburg blockchain and crypto enterprises are taking root, developing intuitive solutions for a myriad of business segments. Startups like ConsenSys and Cryptonomic are hard at work creating blockchain-based applications for supply chain management (SCM), general logistics, payroll, payment processing, etc.
Crypto and Blockchain-fuelled Developments in Brooklyn
is a blockchain startup company co-founded by Joseph Lubin, who is also a co-founder of .
ConsenSys harnesses the Ethereum blockchain and smart contract protocol to develop intuitive . The company has been able to establish itself in Brooklyn and to catalyze the growth of the industry in the city. According to Cryptonomic cofounder, Tyler Clark:
“There’s an energy here that you don’t find in Manhattan or anywhere else in New York. ConsenSys is an inspiration to us.”
Clark, formerly of JPMorgan Chase & Co established Cryptonomic to develop useful app protocols around projects like . Clark’s co-founder, Vishakh, a former technology VP at JP Morgan has referred to Brooklyn as “Cryptolandia.”
According to Sam Tabar, a strategist at , another blockchain enterprise in Brooklyn, Manhattan is the home of “legacy finance while Brooklyn is the home of future finance.” He also went on to say that the city overall was creating an enormous blockchain legacy.
For the folks in Manhattan, the guys in Brooklyn are upstarts. , the R3 Managing Director, believes that the real “blockchain for business” is being done not in Brooklyn but across the East River in Manhattan.
The R3 consortium of blockchain developers is working with some of the biggest names in the corporate world like Microsoft and Intel. The R3 legacy blockchain, is scheduled for launch in 2018 and is expected to host many unique applications for different business segments.
Whether Brooklyn or Manhattan, one thing is for sure, Silicon Valley doesn’t have a monopoly over blockchain technological advancements. Meanwhile, back in Cryptolandia, the activities of these blockchain startups are beginning to affect property prices with condos becoming a familiar sight.
The post appeared first on .
