Blockchain Report — 11/6/2018
Summary: Winklevoss Twins Claim That Charlie Shrem Stole 5,000 Bitcoins; MetaMask Reaches 1.3 Million Users; Research Firm Argues EOS Isn’t A Blockchain And Is Highly Centralized
Watch: Latest Episode of Blockchain Report on YouTube
Winklevoss Twins Claim That Charlie Shrem Stole 5,000 Bitcoins
According to Engadget, the Winklevoss twins (of Facebook and now cryptocurrrency fame) have decided to sue cryptocurrency investor and ex convict Charlie Shrem for stealing 5,000 bitcoins in 2012. Although it might’ve been a (relatively) small amount back then, it’s not now. Today, 5,000 bitcoins is worth approximately $32 million.
Back in 2012, the Winklevoss Capital Fund sent Shrem $250,000 to buy bitcoins, but Shrem allegedly only sent Winklevoss $189,000 worth based on the price at the time. Now, the twins are deciding to sue. Cameron Winklevoss said that the lawsuit was spurred as a result of learning of Shrem’s spending sprees.
In the past year, Shrem has gone on to buy a $2 million Florida house, two powerboats, and two Maseratis. This is all despite the fact that he said he went to prison almost broke. According to the lawsuit from the Winklevoss twins, Shrem has gotten all this money from the bitcoins he stole in 2012.
MetaMask Reaches 1.3 Million Users
According to NewsBTC, the Ethereum wallet MetaMask has just recently announced that it has reached a whopping 1.3 million downloads. MetaMask is a chrome extension that offers a variety of digital wallet features, including a secure identity vault. MetaMask also allows its users to run any decentralized application (dApp) directly in their browser, without the need of running a full Ethereum node.
In a way, this allows MetaMask to act as a bridge between the internet browser and the blockchain. In the announcement of how many users MetaMask has, they have also announced new features that MetaMask will have.
One new feature is compatibility with the digital asset hardware wallets Ledger and Trezor. The aim of having compatibility with these wallets is to increase security, because the keys remain on the hardware wallet. MetaMask also has a new feature called “privacy mode”, which allows users to prevent their Ethereum address from getting revealed to websites.
Lastly, the announcement revealed that MetaMask will soon be available to use on users’ mobile devices. The aim of this is to make storing and transacting with cryptocurrencies more efficient and convenient.
Research Firm Argues EOS Isn’t A Blockchain And Is Highly Centralized
According to Toshi Times, the blockchain testing firm Whiteblock has argued that the cryptocurrency EOS isn’t actually a blockchain but a cloud service for computation. EOS is a cryptocurrency that aims to provide millions of transactions per second, eliminate transaction fees, and allow for quick deployment of dApps. There’s only one problem. Some firms don’t think EOS is a blockchain.
Whiteblock has done two months of testing of EOS and concluded based on the results that EOS is neither a blockchain nor a decentralized technology. Whiteblock states:
“EOS block producers are highly centralised, and users can only access the network using block producers as intermediaries. Block producers are a single point of failure for the entire system.”
Furthermore, Whiteblock argues that EOS is highly susceptible to a Sybil attack. A Sybil attack is an attack in which identities are faked to subvert some system.
Lastly, the claims that EOS can process millions or even thousands of transactions per second were found to be not true. Whiteblock stated:
“During tests with real-world conditions of 50 [milliseconds] of round-trip latency and 0.01 percent packet loss, performance dropped below 50 TPS, putting the system near the performance that exists in Ethereum,” Whiteblock claims.
Do you want daily blockchain and cryptocurrency news delivered directly to your inbox or feed? Sign up today for the Blockchain Report athttp://blockchainreport.tv.
Watch us daily on social media:
- Instagram 📷: http://instagram.com/blockchainreport
- Facebook 🌐: http://facebook.com/theblockchainreport
- LinkedIn 🔗: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockchain-report/
- Twitter 🐦: http://twitter.com/blockchainposts
- Telegram 💬: https://t.me/blockchainreportnews
