Blockchain 101: An introduction to bitcoin [BTC] with Mark Parzygnat

IOTA is a cryptocurrency that focuses on providing secure payments and data transactions among machines, particularly, in the realm of the Internet of Things. In the past few weeks, IOTA’s value has skyrocketed by 400 percent. Now, IOTA’s prospects look even brighter, as Robert Bosch Venture Capital announced that it is investing in IOTA.

Robert Bosch Ventura Capital to Industrialize IOTA Technology

The Stuttgart-based Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC), the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, is joining forces with the IOTA Foundation, which is the central body of the altcoin. In this regard, RBVC announced that it had purchased a significant number of IOTA tokens. Dr. Ingo Ramesohl, Managing Director at RBVC, said:

The investment in IOTA’s token, the first ever token investment of RBVC, will help us working closely with the IOTA Foundation to explore the industrialization of this exciting technology.

IOTA teams and the Bosch Group have been in contact since 2015, working on several projects. David Sønstebø, co-founder of IOTA, said:

The decision by RBVC to acquire a significant amount of IOTA tokens solidifies the idea of the Machine Economy and how significant leaders in this space share our vision.

The RBVC investment follows the release of the Data Marketplace last November. The Data Marketplace allows users to store, sell, and access data streams securely. According to the IOTA Foundation, over 30 companies are participating in the Data Marketplace project, such as Accenture, Bosch, Fujitsu, and Microsoft.

IOTA Introduces a Technology Paradigm Shift

IOTA’s revolutionary technology’s primary focus is on enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. IOTA promises unlimited scalability and feeless micro or even nano-transactions.

In the IOTA ecosystem, there is no blockchain. Instead, there is the tangle, which is a directed acyclic graph for storing transactions. Because there are no blocks and no miners, validation of transactions occurs as follows:

There are no miners. What this means is that each participant in the network that wants to make a transaction has to actively participate in the consensus of the network by approving two past transactions. This attestation on the validity of two past transactions ensures that the whole network achieves consensus on the current state of approved transactions, and it enables a variety of unique features that are only seen in IOTA.

For further technical information, you may wish to read the IOTA whitepaper here.

After just a few months, IOTA already boasts a market cap of over $14 billion USD. IOTA is introducing a paradigm shift in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and as reflected by the markets, it is attracting investors and enthusiasts on the idea of the Machine Economy. The RBVC investment will undoubtedly help to boost the development of this revolutionary technology.

What are your thoughts about having crypto transactions that are not validated by miners? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of IOTA

The post The Bosch Group Is Investing in IOTA appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

A deep web hacker operating under the pseudonym of ‘Phishkingz’ has recently claimed to have generated over $1 million from phishing Alphabay accounts during the last 14 months. In a recent interview with Deepdotweb, Phishkingz details the methods that he uses when stealing bitcoins.

Also Read: Law Enforcement Takes Down the Biggest Darknet Market on the Deep Web

Phishkingz Claims to Have Sold 500 Stolen Bitcoins in the Last 14 Months

Darknet phisher, Phishkingz, recently discussed methods that he claims allowed him to generate over $1 million in 12 months by stealing bitcoins. Phishkingz claims to have traded approximately 500 bitcoin on Localbitcoins in the last 14 months, the entirety of which was generated through phishing.

Phishkingz states that he is also a dark market vendor. His decision to start phishing to steal bitcoins was made following the discovery of an error on Alphabay’s forums “that allowed [Phishkingz] to see new members the second they joined.” The hacker would then directly contact new members, “send[ing[ them to my link with a verification process.” From them, Phishkingz is “able to obtain the login details syncing, and the mnemonic phrases, as well as any PGP private key and password and pin code.”

The hacker would then “save a bookmark using blockchain.info… [and] highlight 50 [addresses] at a time every 20 minutes checking for deposits”. The majority of the withdrawals would be processed manually, despite early experimentation with bots. Phishkingz claims that his operations expanded to a scale that required the assistance of employees, stating that at one point he “had 27 people working… running phishers” that were stealing bitcoins for him.

The Admins Didn’t Really Care About Their Customers

Phishkingz describes Alphabay’s moderators as providing little support to his victims. “The admins didn’t really care about their customers, and it only took opening a support ticket with a problem to learn this. BM (Big Muscles – an Alphabay moderator) especially is a stupid one. He would let me into accounts for 50% if I provided mnemonic phrase knowing I had phished the account in the first place.”

Following the recent removal of Alphabay, the bitcoin hacker claims to “have moved to Dream Market and already made 4 BTC since yesterday launching the new site.”

The number of phishers attempting to hack bitcoins outside of the deep web has also recently proliferated. The record breaking Tezos ICO has attracted the attention of phishers, seeing clone sites being hosted for the purposes of stealing bitcoins. Other creative hackers have recently started setting up websites for fake ICOs, infecting victims’ computers through downloading malicious software disguised as project whitepapers. With bitcoin and altcoins seeing unprecedented media exposure, a growing presence of bitcoin hackers and scammers operating in all corners of the internet appears to be an unfortunate and inevitable consequence of greater cryptocurrency adoption.

Have you ever fallen victim to a phishing scam? Share your story in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Wikipedia

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The post Alphabay Phisher Makes $1 Million in 14 Months Stealing Bitcoins appeared first on Bitcoin News.