Blogs

Monero [XMR] Privacy Protection May Be Deficient

Published

6 years ago

March 29, 2018

Monero has been a perfect example of what privacy should be like in the cryptocurrency world, in fact, the coin seemed to be completely untraceable and that was one of the features their users appreciated the most.

At the moment, and in contrast to that, everything seems to be on risk with the notice that the protocol of being implanted in the blockchain, is actually labeled now as semi-vulnerable, a tag that has made a lot of the clients very upset (and rightly so).

Apparently, due to this a great amount of the past transactions might be tracked and inspected in the search for data and information related to the operations and its operators, as well as the organisms involved. A fact that of course, is making a lot of people to be worried.

Parallel to this, a group of investigators from some of the most renowned entities like, Princeton, Boston University, MIT, Carnegie Mellon and others, gathered together in order to develop ‘mixins’, a mixed coin in a form of a bait that is created with each transaction.

The magic of the trick is revealed

Let’s recall that for Monero the term ‘mixin’ works differently than for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Dash mixin services, but basically, what it means is that new operations are mixed with others that actually got occurred before in the blockchain, and this is realized in the form the protocol itself determines.

With a simple trick, it is indeed not so difficult for an observer to identify a bait mixin created to cover a real coin spent at that moment. In this matter, Monero had established for its users the possibility of disabling the privacy protections as it was very sure of its protocol, and this allowed them to transact without actually using any mixin.

Nonetheless, the problem with this is that an identified coin which was spent already is supplanted later with a mixin, and this, of course, makes easier to steal and pinpoint the coins that remain after that.

Similarly, another deficiency identified is related to the time of transactions, which consists of a lack of capability when identifying a real coin each time a transaction is made.

Every time an operation is made in the Blockchain there is a certain group of real coins and some other fake ones reunited, and it was not until Monero’s developers applied some changes in the platform, that they could identify a 90% of the real coins involved, a fact that completely abolish the privacy provisions of Monero.

Additionally, according to the group of researchers at least a 25 percent of the XMR transactions are used in an illegal form, however, the number still reflects a great amount of activity on the platform.

Although this defects might not represent a cause for the illicit transactions automatically, it still proves that security of Monero is not looking good after all.

Regarding these facts, the Core Developer of the company stated:

“Privacy isn’t a thing you achieve; it’s a constant cat-and-mouse battle.”

According to this statement we can safely say the company is still not ready for giving up, and we should expect some measurements to be taken, in fact, he also said:

“There are steps we can take to continue to improve the sampling, but the reality is that this isn’t a solvable problem by just pecking away at it.”

Summing up, Monero has a lot of work to do now if they want to keep up increasing prices exactly as they reached recently with a rise of 4.36%, positioning their price at $195.40. Nonetheless, it all seems to conclude they can get up fastly enough.

We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest on XMR, sign up below!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

Image courtesy of P T via Flickr

Altcoins

XNO Token of Xeno NFT Hub listed on Bithumb Korea Exchange

Published

3 years ago

January 25, 2021

chainwire

Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25th January, 2021, // ChainWire //

Xeno Holdings Limited (xno.live ), a blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong, has announced the listing of its ecosystem utility token XNO on the ‘Bithumb Korea’ cryptocurrency exchange on January 21st 2021.

Xeno NFT Hub (market.xno.live ), developed by Xeno Holdings, enables easy minting of digital items into NFTs while also providing a marketplace where anyone can securely trade NFTs.

The Xeno NFT Hub project team includes former members of the technology project Yosemite X based in San Francisco and professionals such as Gabby Dizon who is a games industry expert and NFT space influencer based in Southeast Asia.

NFT(Non-Fungible Token) technology has recently gained huge focus in the blockchain arena and beyond, making waves in the online gaming sector, the art world, and the digital copyrights industry in recent years. The strongest feature of NFTs is that “NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be replaced or forged”. Unlike fungible tokens such as Bitcoin or Ether, NFTs are not interchangeable for other tokens of the same type but instead each NFT has a unique value and specific information that cannot be replaced. This fact makes NFTs the perfect solution to record and prove ownership of digital and real-world items like works of art, game items, limited-edition collectibles, and more. One of the ways to have a successful…

Altcoins

Should Crypto Projects Devote Resources to Community Growth and Marketing?

Published

3 years ago

December 31, 2020

Paul Wilson

2020 has been an incredible year for crypto as investors have generated windfall profits and crypto projects have seen their businesses gain the spotlight they’ve been looking for. While Bitcoin has received most of the attention after major institutional investors announced they were accumulating the increasingly scarce asset, many altcoins have also seen their fair share of glory. When looking at all the big winners of the past year, the first project that probably comes to mind is Chainlink, having appreciated by more than 550% YTD and now valued at over $4.5 billion. But, the actual biggest winner of the year is HEX with a YTD return of over 5,000%.

I mention both of the above projects as they have each taken slightly different paths to achieve greatness. Chainlink has devoted resources toward building a fundamentally sound business with many strategic partnerships while HEX has spent vast sums of money on marketing and promotion. Both approaches are valid, but one thing is certain, it is absolutely imperative for crypto projects to let the crypto community know what makes them special. Of course, one of the reasons that makes crypto so valuable is the powerful blockchain technology that most projects are utilizing.

Cryptocurrency vs. Blockchain Technology

It’s important to make a distinction between blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. Although they are often used interchangeably, they are different. Blockchain technology and crypto were both created after the 2008 financial crisis, but cryptocurrency…

Altcoins

XENO starts VIP NFT trading service and collaborates with contemporary artist Hiro Yamagata

Published

3 years ago

December 24, 2020

chainwire

Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 24th December, 2020, // ChainWire //

The XENO NFT Hub (https://xno.live) will provide a crypto-powered digital items and collectables trading platform allowing users to create, buy, and sell NFTs. Additionally it will support auction based listings, governance and voting mechanisms, trade history tracking, user rating and other advanced features.

As a first step towards its fully comprehensive service, XENO NFT Hub launched a recent VIP service to select users and early adopters in December 2020 with plans for a full Public Beta to open in June 2021.

“NFTs are extremely flexible in their usage, from digital event tickets to artwork, and while NFTs have a very wide spectrum of uses and categories XENO will initially focus its partnership efforts and its own item curation on three primary areas: gaming, sports & entertainment, and collectibles.”, said XENO NFT Hub president Anthony Di Franco.

He also added “This does not mean we will prohibit other types of NFTs from our ecosystem However, it simply means that XENO’s efforts as a company will be targeted into these verticals initially as a cohesive business approach.”

Development and Procurement Lead, Gabby Dizon explained, “Despite our initial focus, we found ourselves with a unique opportunity to host some of the works of Mr. Hiro Yamagata. We are collaborating with Japanese artist Hiro Yamagata to enshrine some of his artwork into NFTs.”

Mr. Yamagata has…