March 29, 2019

Research Firm Says Stellar Under-Publicized a $2.2 Billion Bug In 2017

Stellar has come under fire for its treatment of an inflation bug that occurred almost two years ago. This week, Messari Research issued a report indicating that in 2017, Stellar “quietly patched” a major vulnerability that allowed an attacker to freely create millions of dollars worth of Stellar Lumens (XLM).

Messari’s report has attracted controversy: Stellar actually disclosed the bug in 2017, but this disclosure was buried deep in its release notes, and it gained virtually no attention at the time. The community is divided as to whether Stellar is to blame for downplaying the problem, or if Messari is being uncharitable by digging up old issues.

The Bug In Detail

The bug turned out to be costly: it allowed attackers to create 2.2 billion XLM tokens, worth $10 million at the time of the attack. This represented 25% of Stellar’s circulating supply. Although Stellar destroyed an equivalent amount of XLM to “true up” the supply, the attackers managed to get away with their illicitly created tokens.

Messari also claims that the addresses that were affected by the bug can no longer be seen on block explorers. This obviously raises questions about Stellar’s commitment to transparency. Messari says that it was only able to investigate the issue by looking through historical data in the Stellar Horizon client.

Stellar is not the only platform to experience a vulnerability of this type. Zcash and Bitcoin have also had bugs that could have allowed attackers to freely create tokens. However, those bugs were patched before anyone could exploit them, meaning that Stellar has the unfortunate distinction of falling victim to this type of bug.

Stellar Defends Itself

Stellar believes that the bug did not receive much attention because the project was small at the time; in fact, Stellar disclosed the bug twice. However, Stellar says that it will disclose bugs in a more visible way from now on, and it says that its disclosure standards will change to reflect Stellar’s status as “significant financial software.”

Stellar is indeed trying to become a serious competitor in the realm of blockchain-based banking. The project has recently undergone a major branding makeover and has hired a new leader with a new vision. Stellar is also powering World Wire, a new service from IBM that is targeted at major financial institutions.

Clearly, this is an inopportune time for Stellar’s old skeletons to be dragged into the light. However, it seems that Stellar will embrace the issue: it says that it will publish more details about the bug later this year as part of its accounting plan. Whether this will reassure Stellar’s users and potential clients remains to be seen.

Published at Fri, 29 Mar 2019 15:52:02 +0000

The Viberate Platform

Viberate is an exciting project that aims to change the live music industry, by using blockchain technology. The Viberate platform allows users to access a database which displays musicians, event dates, social media statistics, club locations and more. According to the CEO Viberate, the platform has received overwhelming support from the music and blockchain community:

We knew that we’ll stand out, because we already have a working service and a good concept. But we never dreamed of getting so much attention from the community. My phone number seems to be a valuable asset and the whole team keeps getting calls from funds and high net worth individuals we don’t even know. My partner even got a call from a Premier League football player. Crazy!”

Most interesting characteristics of the platform is the fact that musicians will be able to get paid with cryptocurrency for their performances. The platform will also allow event organizers to find an ideal musician for their upcoming events. Musicians will be ranked according to their social media popularity and music genre. The startup was founded by experienced music industry veterans and by famous Slovenian DJ UMEK. Currently, the platform is in the beta phase and soon it’s going to start an initial coin offering.

Viberate ICO

The startup is planning to have an initial coin offering on September 5, 2017. The ICO will be accomplished with a live performance of DJ UMEK, who also is a co-founder of the startup. The token sale is planned to end on Oktober 4, 2017. The Viberate team is expecting to raise the amount of $12 million through its ICO. The amount is planned to be used for the further development of the platform.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR9IidHWT0c]

The Viberate team believes that the hard cap of the ICO should be hit within minutes. DJ UMEK expressed following about his upcoming performance:

Of course, we’ll throw a party for when the crowdsale launches! What kind of a music service wouldn’t do that? I prepared a special 90-minute set and I’ll play it in our offices in Ljubljana. We want as many people as possible to celebrate this special event with us, so we’ll stream the set live on Facebook. I hope the neighbors will understand that we might cross a line with loud music for a while. They’re invited anyway

Bitcoin [BTC]’s trade projected to rise as Venezuela embraces pro-Bitcoin Interim President Juan Guaido

bitcoin [BTC]’s trade projected to rise as Venezuela embraces pro-bitcoin Interim President Juan Guaido In the face of a continuing economic crisis, many in Venezuela have, for some time, looked for alternative assets, far apart […]

February 16, 2018

Jackson Blockchain Bootcamp [Mar 5-28, 2018] | Blockchain Training | Bitcoin Training | IT | Training | Ethereum | Solidity | Hyperledger | Distributed Ledger | Smart Contracts | Cryptocurrency | ICO Offerings | Weekday Evenings