Wednesday, May 20, 2020

📌 Reddit's Cryptocurrency, Rare BTC Event, and the Hacker Who Saved the Internet

May 20, 2020 | Issue #118

MUST READS

The Confessions of Marcus Hutchins, the Hacker Who Saved the Internet

At 22, Marcus Hutchins stopped WannaCry, the worst cyberattack the world had ever seen. Three months later, the FBI arrested him. This is the untold story of how he went from an international hero to a convict looking at 10 years in prison.

Something Rare in Bitcoin Just Happened...

Earlier today, a Bitcoin UTXO more than 11 years old, was spent on-chain (you can see the transaction here). Those coins were first mined on February 9, 2009, only one month after Bitcoin was launched. This is the first time since 2017 that someone spent coins dating back to 2009.

As expected, some people are claiming that this is Satoshi moving his coins, in turn driving the price of Bitcoin down almost immediately.

You can ignore the FUD though, based on prior research from SatoshiBlocks, this block is NOT believed to be Satoshi.

Reddit Rolls Out 'Community Points' on Ethereum to Incentivize Positive Behavior

Reddit just made a statement by rolling out two coins on two subreddits.

While it's just a beta launch, Reddit is arguably the first major social media outlet to utilize public blockchains and cryptocurrencies to reward its existing users. The incentive is to let users reward each other for their contributions... and ultimately promote positive behavior.

Key takeaways:

The new Community Points system is using tokens issued on Ethereum
The tokens are $MOONS for the subreddit r/CryptoCurrency, and $BRICKS for the subreddit r/FortNiteBR
With 2.4M subscribers between the two subreddits, this is a big moment for both Ethereum and Reddit... If it proves to be successful, this new feature could make its way towards the rest of Reddit's 400M users.

In the broader scope, Reddit is essentially launching two "Loot Tokens." If you have no idea what those are, you may want to check this out.

It will help you get up to speed on the emerging asset class that Reddit is now apart of.

CryptoList: A Hand-Researched List of Over 8,000 Companies and People in Crypto

Whether you're launching your own crypto startup, looking to connect with industry leaders, or just investing in crypto, you'll be sure to get value out of CryptoList.

CryptoList compiles 8,600+ companies and people in crypto with 4,500+ verified email addresses to get you access to the businesses and individuals that matter most to your business.

We spent thousands of hours researching the crypto ecosystem so you don't have to.

SPONSOR

DEEP DIVE

Crypto Lender BlockFi Hacked

Crypto lender BlockFi, who's been on a tear of user signups and revenue, says it experienced a data breach last week due to a SIM card swap attack on an employee's phone number. The hacker attempted to withdraw client funds but was unsuccessful. Instead, they resorted to stealing account activity information, customer emails, and postal addresses of ~50% of retail clients.

To be clear, BlockFi is stating that funds, passwords, and non-public identification information are secure.

Bad News: Clients that were holding a large amount of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies will have to start watching their backs.

Good News (for BlockFi): News of the data breach was largely drowned out by BitMEX going offline.

Tuur Deemester: Why the Bottom is In

Tuur Deemester, one of our favorite OG crypto analysts, joined Messari last week to talk about the recent halving, the next phase of BTC adoption, whales, and to share some epic predictions. We highly suggest you watch it here.

His latest prediction? The bottom is in and the next bull market is here.

His reasoning? While retail isn't flooding back in just yet, he does believe that institutions, family offices and billionaires are. He believes this next cycle could take us to $50,000-$100,000 BTC.

We get crazy predictions all the time, but maybe Tuur's on to something. This narrative is perfectly captured in Messari's lastest post-halving report, covering the now-legitimized institutional investment market.

(Relatable news: Bakkt announced they have expanded their custody business to cover more than 70 clients.)

Steem Network to Seize 23.6 Million Steem from Users

A hardfork was scheduled today which has seized the accounts of several Steemit users, and drained $5 million worth of STEEM coins from their wallets.

Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin eloquently chimed in on this sticky situation.

REGULATORY FRONT

Another Exchange Delists Monero Amid Ongoing Sex Scandal

Just weeks after Huobi exchange delisted Monero (XMR), Bithumb has officially announced they will also be delisting Monero from their trading platform as of June 1.

Monero has been in the news recently due to reports of Telegram users using XMR to purchase illegal pornographic material — much of which involved minors.

In other news, the European supercomputers that you may have heard about recently that were programmed to search for a vaccine for COVID-19 were remotely hijacked to mine cryptocurrency. Guess which one...

Company That Sued FTX and Ripple Now Sets Its Sights on BitMEX

A new lawsuit from BMA LLC, the same group suing Ripple and FTX, is accusing crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX of illegal activities.

BMA alleges that BitMEX was designed to engage in illegal activities such as racketeering, money laundering and market manipulation, earning the defendants "billions of dollars in illicit profits."

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Ethereum Classic Client Upgrade Instructions

This document seeks to assist Ethereum Classic node operators to upgrade their software for the upcoming Phoenix hardfork as specified in ECIP-1088.

(Thanks to q3f. Originally published as https://hackmd.io/IPA7zPwpQDy-1U0reeppcQ).

Phoenix Resources in a Nutshell

Phoenix at glance:

Phoenix upgrade countdown: https://etcnodes.org/phoenix
Phoenix fork monitoring tool: https://phoenix.fault.dev
Phoenix upgrade specifiaction: https://ecips.ethereumclassic.org/ECIPs/ecip-1088

Client Upgrade Instructions

The Ethereum Classic website comes with similiar instructions:

https://ethereumclassic.org/development/clients

TL;DR

~~Geth Classic~~ --> Core-Geth v1.11.0 or later
Core-Geth --> Core-Geth v1.11.0 or later
Multi-Geth --> Multi-Geth v1.9.14 or Core-Geth v1.11.0 or later
~~Parity Ethereum~~ --> Open Ethereum v3.0.0 or Hyperledger Besu v1.4.1 or later
Open Ethereum --> Open Ethereum v3.0.0 or later
~~IOHK Mantis~~ --> Hyperledger Besu v1.4.1 or later
Hyperledger Besu --> Hyperledger Besu v1.4.1 or later

The sections below seek to be explaining the client's upgrade paths more in detail.

Geth Classic

"Geth Classic", or simply "Go Ethereum Classic" was the official Ethereum Classic client for many years. It is, however, discontinued.

If you still run a Geth Classic node, you are urged to upgrade to --> Core-Geth. Core-Geth is a fresh fork of the Foundation's Go Ethereum client with more features and better security considerations.

Upgrade Target: Core-Geth
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.11.0 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/etclabscore/core-geth/releases
Upgrade considerations: APIs between Geth Classic and Core-Geth significantly differ

Core-Geth

Core-Geth is a fresh fork of the Foundation's Go Ethereum client with more features and better security considerations. If you have been running Core-Geth in the past, simply make sure you are on the latest version of the client.

Upgrade Target: Core-Geth
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.11.0 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/etclabscore/core-geth/releases
Upgrade considerations: none

Multi-Geth

Multi-Geth is an experimental fork of the Foundation's Go Ethereum client maintained by the community. If you have been running Multi-Geth in the past, simply make sure you are on the latest version of the client.

Upgrade Target: Multi-Geth
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.9.14 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/multi-geth/multi-geth/releases
Upgrade considerations: none

Alternatively, you can switch to Core-Geth. Core-Geth is a fresh fork of the Foundation's Go Ethereum client with more features and better security considerations maintained by the ETC Core development team.

Upgrade Target: Core-Geth
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.11.0 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/etclabscore/core-geth/releases
Upgrade considerations: client configurations and APIs between Multi-Geth and Core-Geth might differ in details

Parity Ethereum

Parity Ethereum used to be Parity Technologies' flagship Ethereum client. It's no longer being maintained by Parity Technologies and was handed over to Gnosis.

If you still run a Parity Ethereum node, you should consider another client. The simplest task would be switching to Open Ethereum which is the extended life-support of the Parity Ethereum client and does not come with significant changes.

Upgrade Target: Open Ethereum
Upgrade Minimum Version: v3.0.0 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases
Upgrade considerations: client configurations and APIs between Parity Ethereum and Open Ethereum might differ in details

Alternatively, you can switch to Hyperledger Besu. Besu is a new enterprise-grade Ethereum Classic client developed by ConsenSys under the umbrella of the Hyperledger project.

Upgrade Target: Hyperledger Besu
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.4.1 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases
Upgrade considerations: APIs between Parity and Besu significantly differ; mining is not very well supported in Besu

Open Ethereum

Open Ethereum is the extended life-support of the Parity Ethereum client managed by Gnosis. If you have been running Open Ethereum in the past, simply make sure you are on the latest version of the client.

Upgrade Target: Open Ethereum
Upgrade Minimum Version: v3.0.0 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/openethereum/openethereum/releases
Upgrade considerations: none

IOHK Mantis

Mantis is discontinued and hasn't been supporting the Ethereum Classic mainnet for more than a year now.

If you still run a Mantis node, you are urged to upgrade to --> Hyperledger Besu. Besu is a fresh enterprise-grade Ethereum Classic client with more features and better security considerations.

Upgrade Target: Hyperledger Besu
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.4.1 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases
Upgrade considerations: APIs between Mantis and Besu significantly differ

Hyperledger Besu

Besu is a new enterprise-grade Ethereum Classic client developed by ConsenSys under the umbrella of the Hyperledger project. If you have been running Besu in the past, simply make sure you are on the latest version of the client.

Upgrade Target: Hyperledger Besu
Upgrade Minimum Version: v1.4.1 or later
Upgrade Release link: https://github.com/hyperledger/besu/releases
Upgrade considerations: none

FAQ

Potentially-frequently asked questions.

Why do you strike-through some clients?

To emphasize that some clients no longer support Ethereum Classic, we used the text formatting to emphasize this, in short:

~~Geth Classic~~ was discontinued due to security considerations.
~~IOHK Mantis~~ was discontinued due to lack of funding and community support.
~~Parity Ethereum~~ was discontinued due to the company losing interest in Ethereum.

What happened to the IOHK Mantis client?

Mantis never had a production-ready release and was eventually discontinued due to the lack of contributors, insufficient long-term funding, and the umbrella company shifting focus away from Ethereum Classic. Mantis users are encouraged to try out the Java-based Hyperledger Besu client.

What happened to the Geth Classic client?

The Geth Classic client was missing years of important security patches and was therefore deprecated at the end of 2019. Geth users are encouraged to try out the more modern Go-based Core-Geth client.

Should I use Core-Geth or Multi-Geth?

That's entirely up to the users to decide. Core-Geth is backed by the ETC Core development team whereas Multi-Geth is maintained by the community.

What happened to the Parity Ethereum client?

Parity Technologies announced end of 2019 to soft-land the Parity Ethereum client and hand it over to the community governed by a DAO. This, eventually, never happened. Now, Gnosis is running Open Ethereum project which is the extended life support for all Parity users. At the time of writing, it's not clear how long Gnosis will be able to sustain the development.

How long will Open Ethereum keep the Parity client alive?

Gnosis is running Open Ethereum project which is the extended life support for all Parity users. At the time of writing, it's not clear how long Gnosis will be able to sustain the development.

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