Weekly news roundup: Monday February 25

Here’s a selection of interesting recent news from the crypto-space.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently said both the Australian Parliament and its major political parties were hacked by a “sophisticated state actor.” Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matthew Green comments with a tweet:

According to government sources, Germany has opened a consultation process on how to tap into the potential of blockchain technology ahead of presenting a strategy by the summer, Reuters reports:

“There is great interest from would-be participants and investors across a raft of industries including cars, pharmaceuticals, energy and public sector administration that hope to transform mass market processes via blockchain. According to the sources, companies and industry groups that could become stakeholders in a blockchain deployment process in Europe’s biggest economy were invited to supply recommendations from this week onwards.”

Develpment “cannot be left to the greed and fanaticism we see in the world of cryptocurrencies,” says the author of an opinion piece published in Financial Times. Anarchistic libertarianism “beats in the hearts of many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.”

“They are not altogether wrong: the state can be a dangerous monster. But it is also essential: it is humanity’s ultimate insurance mechanism.”

I think this makes more sense in reverse order: The state is essential, BUT it can be a dangerous monster. Therefore, it’s important that the citizens have means to keep the state in check, and cryptocurrencies are one of these means.

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform, enabled with EDCCs, where a software developer can build games, financial applications, gambling applications, utility and logistics software, social networks and more.

Ethereum core developer Afri Schoedon has been shamed and mobbed by zealots in the Ethereum community, ETHNews reports, for tweeting: “‘Polkadot delivers what Serenity ought to be.’ Change my mind.”

“[The] ssevere backlash prompted Schoedon to announce that he’s done with social media, and rumor has it that he’s ‘done with Ethereum.’”

MIT Technology Review has published a story titled “Once hailed as unhackable, blockchains are now getting hacked.” According to the story:

“More and more security holes are appearing in cryptocurrency and smart contract platforms, and some are fundamental to the way they were built.”

Baidu is working with China’s Hainan province to broaden the adoption of blockchain by offering XuperChain, Baidu’ sblockchain technology, to a wide range of industries.

XuperChain helps multiple parties execute transactions without the need for a trusted, central authority, addressing challenges commonly faced in information security, copyright verification, supply chain financing, online trading and other areas. XuperChain currently processes more than 55,000 transactions per second, far exceeding the industry average. Baidu is working with the Beijing Internet Court to develop an electronic-evidence platform using XuperChain. As of December 2018, over 93 million patents were stored and protected on XuperChain’s copyright protection system.”

The Bank of Japan has published a working paper titled “Digital Innovation, Data Revolution and Central Bank Digital Currency.”

According to a CoinLaw summary, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of central bank-issued digital currencies (CBDCs), including their potential benefits and associated risks.

Several cryptocurrency exchanges have moved closer to mainstream markets by buying listed companies, Reuters reports. These practices, also known as reverse mergers, allow companies to offer shares to the public without the rigors and regulatory scrutiny of a full initial public offering (IPO).

Recruit Holdings, which owns the world’s number one online job search engine with over 200 million unique visitors per month, had decided to back the Mimblewimble-based Beam cryptocurrency, Asia Crypto Today reports. The investment in Beam was made through Recruit’s $25 million fund called RSP Blockchain Tech Fund, Forbes reports.

Recruit’s original announcement justifies the investment as:

“While securing Auditability of transactions by allowing transaction data to be verified by a specified third party, Beam token provides a blockchain with a function that prevents the divulgation of transaction data to third parties and protects the user’s transaction information.”

Picture from Pixabay.