Thursday, May 9, 2019

#145: The hacks just keep coming

The world's flashiest cryptocurrency exchange has been hacked. Binance, a popular cryptocurrency exchange that has earned poster child status thanks to its hard-charging approach, has been hacked to the tune of around $40 million.

Binance discovered the "large scale security breach" on April 7 and is still reviewing it, CEO Changpeng Zhao wrote in a statement published Tuesday evening. The attackers used "a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses, and other attacks," to gain access to one of the exchange's internet-connected, or "hot," wallets and withdraw 7,000 bitcoins from it. "All of our other wallets are secure and unharmed," wrote Zhao. He added that deposits and withdrawals would be suspended for a week as his team conducts a security review.

Breaches of cryptocurrency exchanges hacks have become commonplace. Last year, thieves stole $950 million worth of cryptocurrency from exchanges, often by gaining access to hot wallets. So in many ways it's not surprising to hear about another hack. But this is Binance.

Not only is it the most popular exchange in the world by volume, it already has the attention of financial regulators around the world because of its continued embrace of ICO tokens and token sales to retail investors. This is likely to draw even more attention, not only to the exchange itself but to the larger problem of consumer protection in the cryptocurrency industry.

Count me as confused. I have to admit it: I'm still trying to make sense of the latest debate burning up crypto Twitter, which was triggered when Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (affectionately known as CZ in the crypto community) appeared to consider (and then quickly decide against) asking Bitcoin miners to "roll back" the network's transaction history to recover the funds from the hacker.

Pulling off something like this is possible thanks to the way Bitcoin, Ethereum, and similar blockchain networks work. Specifically, such a chain "reorganization" would take advantage of (or exploit, depending on how you look at it) the process called proof-of-work, which is the energy-intensive competition between miners for chances to add new transactions to the ledger. It is through proof-of-work that the networks reaches a consensus that the ledger is true. But if enough miners can be convinced to get behind an alternate version is the truth, they can work together to modify the ledger.

If this sounds familiar, it may be because you've heard of something similar called a 51% attack. It's also essentially what the Ethereum community did after the infamous DAO hack in 2016, except that time it was called a hard fork. Ethereum's developers have caught a huge amount of flack for the decision to revise the transaction record and recover stolen funds. Critics, including many Bitcoiners, have accused them of compromising the values of blockchain decentralization and "immutability."

That's why I find it so confusing that some Bitcoin fans have argued that a "reorg" might not be so bad in this case. What? What is the difference between this and Ethereum's rescue fork in 2016? The answer may be obvious to blockchain nerds, but to outsiders episodes like this will just make crypto seem even more confusing.

What's does the future of work look like? Get a glimpse at MIT Technology Review's future of work conference, called Emtech Next, on June 11 and 12 at the MIT Media Lab. Some quick agenda highlights:

MIT economics professor David Autor will talk about how big tech companies can hinder economic growth.

Shelley Peterson from Lockheed Martin will talk about how augmented reality is changing how spacecraft are built. (Check out our article about this.)

Mary Gray of Microsoft Research will discuss a book she co-authored about the future of employment, called Ghost Work.

Don't miss the show! Purchase your ticket today.

Loose Change

Fill your pockets with these newsy tidbits.

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has called on researchers to use AI and blockchains to give the US an edge in 5G. (TR)
Bitfinex has published an official white paper describing its planned $1 billion "initial exchange offering." (The Block)
London will be the base of operations for Facebook's WhatsApp payments project. (Financial Times)
Facebook will no longer require that ads related to "blockchain technology, industry news, education, or events related to cryptocurrency" to receive prior written approval from the company before running. (Facebook)

3 Easy Ways to Earn Bitcoin (Without Effort) 💸

May 9, 2019	View in browser

[UNBANKD EXCLUSIVE]

You Can Earn Bitcoin...Without Effort

Let's get this straight. Bitcoin is scarce. Yeah, yeah you've heard over and over again that only 21 million bitcoin will ever exist blah blah blah.

But think of it this way: If and when we reach hyperbitcoinization, there will be more than 7 billion people and only 21 million bitcoin to go around. Quick back-of-the-envelope math tells us that each person will only own 0.003 bitcoin to their name if it were split evenly.

That's 300,000 sats. Or roughly $15.71 at today's rates.

You can earn that in your sleep.

1. Shop with Lolli and Earn Bitcoin

Lolli is a free browser extension that gives you bitcoin back for every purchase. Think of it like Ebates, but for Bitcoin.

It works like this: for every purchase you make on one of their 500+ merchant partners, you earn a percentage of bitcoin back into your wallet.

The way we like to look at Lolli is that you can earn Bitcoin back when buying your essentials for living. Toilet paper - bitcoin back. Book a flight - bitcoin back. Want to buy steak-umm beef sheets at Jet? bitcoin back.

Another fun part is that you can pay for these essentials with your credit card. So you get your percents back from your credit card purchase and compound that with up to 30% bitcoin back using Lolli.

Users earn an average of 7%, and up to 30% back in free bitcoin when they shop at Lolli merchants. You can find out which merchants give what percent back at lolli.com/stores. Users are also earning via their referral links, which gives both parties $5 for the first $5 spent.

Lolli has an incredibly fun and engaging Twitter account. You can check them out here. Stack Sats with Lolli today 👇

SHOP WITH LOLLI

2. Earn Bitcoin with Honeyminer

Honeyminer is the simplest mining application in the game. The app uses your computer's CPUs and GPUs to mine cryptocurrencies and pays you in bitcoin. Installing Honeyminer is dead simple. One click and you will be earning bitcoin while you sleep.

You can get a *free* 1000 Satoshi bitcoin bonus just for signing up at Honeyminer.com.

Whether you have a spare laptop at home or a professional mining operation, Honeyminer is the easiest and most profitable crypto mining software available on the market.

Plus, Honeyminer just launched on Mac. So start #StackingSats now with Honeyminer.

MINE WITH HONEYMINER

3. Earn Bitcoin with Coinbase Earn

It might not be "without effort" but Coinbase Earn is one of the simplest ways to earn cryptocurrencies.

Simply open a tutorial, click through one of Coinbase Earn's tutorials, and earn cryptocurrency for paying attention.

Currently, Coinbase Earn is offering tutorials for:

Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Zcash (ZEC)
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
0x (ZRX)

Once you complete the tutorial, you'll automatically have cryptocurrency deposited into your account. And if you want Bitcoin, simply exchange your new altcoins right away and you've finished Stacking Sats.

TRY COINBASE EARN

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🔮“Magic: The Gathering” is the world’s most complex game

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"Magic: The Gathering" is officially the world's most complex game

A new proof with important implications for game theory shows that no algorithm can possibly determine the winner. Read more >

How AlphaZero has rewritten the rules of game play on its own

DeepMind wants to teach AI to play a card game that's harder than Go

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