Introduction

In this episode of Infosecs Cyber Work podcast series, host Chris Sienko speaks with Ted Shorter. Ted is co-founder and CTO of Keyfactor, a computer security firm. He has worked in security for over 20 years, with a focus on cryptography, application security, authentication and authorization services, and software vulnerability analysis. His past experience includes a masters degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University, active CISSP certification and 10 years at the National Security Agency (NSA).

As a computer scientist and team lead at NSA, Ted briefed high-level government officials, including presidential advisors and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ted also served as lead software developer on a contract with the Department of Defense to integrate biometric authentication with the DoD Common Access Card program. Ted lives in Akron, Ohio with his wife and two sons.

Ted and Chris talked about a recent Keyfactor report, the danger of so-called predictable randomness, the raw work of cryptography in keeping devices like these safe, the importance of building security into their devices during design and development and some career advice for those who might like a career in cryptography.

A big piece of Teds foundational experiences center around problem-solving, and it is one of those things you are sort of born with. In terms of his professional history, it really started to take off when he joined a consulting firm called Certified Security Solutions in 2003. It was a boutique consultancy that spent a lot of time talking to clients about security strategy.

During this time, Ted worked a lot with digital certificates and public infrastructure. Certified Security Solutions focused on identifying unmet needs of customers regarding products and implementation. To this end, they (Read more...)

Originally posted here:
Cyber Work podcast: Cryptography careers and IoT vulnerabilities with Ted Shorter - Security Boulevard

Even with all the looming uncertainty surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic, system security needs to remain at the forefront of companies planning.

Businesses around the world are shutting down under local, state or national decrees as COVID-19 fears bring caution regarding public gatherings. Unsurprisingly, hackers have used the unprecedented opportunity of chaos and panic to probe weaknesses in information technology systems. One of those systems happened to be the United States Department of Health and Human Services, making the act even more egregious, considering the circumstances.

But the problem extends beyond hackers and threats to companies and individuals. During times of crisis, civil liberties also come under threat, and cryptography often provides a shield against unwarranted encroaches by the government.

So, whether youre a business worried about paying server and security costs during this economic turmoil or an individual protecting your digital assets, cryptography can serve you well.

Its an unfortunate byproduct of crises, but hackers can wield social, economic and financial chaos for their gain.

For example, hackers launched a distributed denial of service attack against the Department of Health and Human Services last month in a bid to slow down the COVID-19 response. The current narrative makes the hack seem distinctly malicious in its effort to make the pandemic response slower, but there is likely more to the story.

The surging number of cases and by extension the hoarding of medical data under a consolidated government system presents an opportunity for hackers to abscond with sensitive information. Moreover, when emergency responses elicit rapid reactions, much of the systems security may be a patchwork of protocols not backend tested thoroughly.

For example, cases being uploaded from the field such as hospitals, makeshift testing centers, etc. to government servers that aggregate and display current COVID-19 metrics may contain serious security flaws due to the rapidity of their development. Applications developed by small teams to assist doctors in times of crisis may also not follow security standards, specifically the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act commonly referred to as HIPAA compliance laws, which are esoteric and outside the scope of most technology-focused engineers.

Hackers, looking for medical data that can be sold at a high value on black markets, likely view this as a gold mine. The hacking incident against the Health Department is probably not the first, nor will it be the last, of ongoing attempts to infiltrate prominent security systems.

Cryptography provides a useful layer of defense against such intrusions. Masking medical data identifiers and other sensitive information is possible with a variety of cryptographic standards available today. Many projects in the crypto sector explicitly focus on financial applications, but the cryptographic modules for protecting and verifying sensitive data translate to other industries, such as healthcare, very well.

Thats not to say that cryptography is a panacea to the ongoing fallout of COVID-19. In some cases, governments are covertly using the dilemma as a method to subvert encryption entirely, such as is occurring in the U.S.

Hidden behind all of the headlines about the Federal Reserve interest rate, the S&P 500 tanking and COVID-19 cases was a proposed legislation effort that has profound consequences on the field of cryptography.

Known as the EARN IT bill, U.S. Congresspeople have proposed a bill that would effectively grant the U.S. government the ability to access any digital message. The bill would create a consortium of law enforcement agencies headed by the Justice Department that would institute a standard verification mechanism for any digital message. If the message does not use the standard verification of the governments technology to authenticate the message, then the sending/receiving parties can be sued into oblivion.

Concerning cryptography, this is a disastrous bill. The proposed document cleverly avoids the explicit use of the word encryption, but its language indicates that cryptography would become illegal, as all messages cannot be private between two counterparties. The government gets a backdoor.

Encryption would become illegal by default because it preserves privacy and authentication of a message between two parties, preventing the ability of a third party to snoop on the messages contents.

The bill is still in its early stages, but it shows, once again, that governments do not approve of widespread encryption use among the public. Whether it be the Clipper chip scandal of the 1990s or the subversive move by Congress that is masked by a national crisis, the governments efforts are persistent.

Fortunately, cryptography which is empirically just math does not adhere to the caprices of hackers, governments or opportunities to subvert its influence. The grassroots encryption movement started by cypherpunks and bolstered by the crypto community has spread the technology to an extent that is unlikely to fade away at fiat decree.

For businesses enduring the turbulent COVID-19 situation, dont forget to account for your security during these vulnerable times. As individuals, remember that cryptography is your friend in protecting your civil liberties during a public health crisis.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Dr. Huang Lin is the co-founder and CTO of Suterusu, a project developing trustless privacy technology. He holds Ph.D. degrees in applied cryptography and privacy-preserving distributed systems from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Florida. He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne on applied cryptography for genomic privacy and blockchain-based data monetization.

Read the original:
Coronavirus Pandemic Reminds Us That Security Is Important During the Zoom Boom - Cointelegraph

Global Hardware Encryption Market: Snapshot

A variety of factors or specific business needs influences the choice of specific encryption solutions among various end-use industries. Hardware encryption is gaining popularity for protecting sensitive data on portable devices such as laptops and USB flash drives. Its ease of use, consistent performance, and robust protection against numerous common and less sophisticated attacks offsets its high cost compared to software-based encryption. For instance, any brute-force attacks by hackers to gain access to hardware encrypted chips can be easily thwarted with the help of this. The mechanism of hardware encryption works on the devices on-board security, which performs the needed encryption and decryption. Unlike software-based encryption, it doesnt require drivers and has minimal configuration requirements.

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However, since it is tied to a particular device, hardware encryption methods may not prove so helpful. Nevertheless, the soaring use of mobile devices by several governmental agencies and the storage of confidential financial and healthcare data in mobile devices have propelled the demand for hardware encryption methods. In case the devices are stolen, the data cannot be compromised.

In recent years, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a specification standard by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been gaining prominence for data security for hardware as well as software encryption method. The cryptographic module is fast gaining adoption among several military, government, healthcare institutions, and financial organizations world over, especially in developing and developed nations. AES has become one of the most popular algorithms adopted in symmetric key cryptography by various governmental agencies in the U.S. Boasting of marked improvements over its predecessors, AES employs longer cryptographic keys, offers easy implementation, and can be used in restricted environments such as in smart cards.

Global Hardware Encryption Market: Overview

The global market for hardware encryption is projected to witness healthy growth throughout the forecast period, thanks to the advent of portable storage devices in order to transfer files and information between computers. In addition, these devices help in improving the security concerns and confidentiality of data. These devices cannot be altered or removed by any malware or virus or be uninstalled by the user, owing to which the market is likely to witness high growth over the coming few years.

The research report on the global hardware encryption market offers a thorough overview, focusing on the key growth drivers and currents trends in the market. The research study throws light on the product segmentation, applications, technological advancements, and the regional segments of the global hardware encryption market. In addition, the limitations and challenges that are being faced by the prominent players in the overall market have been discussed in the research study.

Global Hardware Encryption Market: Drivers and Restraints

The rising concerns related to the privacy of data and data security and tremendous expansion of the digital content are anticipated to encourage the growth of the global hardware encryption market throughout the forecast period. In addition, several advantages offered by hardware encryption in comparison with software encryption technology and the rising need of regulatory framework are some of the other factors estimated to accelerate the growth of the overall market in the near future.

On the contrary, the need for high capital investment and the lack of awareness among consumers reading the benefits of hardware encryption technology are projected to restrict the growth of the global hardware encryption market in the next few years. Nevertheless, the emergence of economical and compact hardware encryption technique and the rising adoption of cloud computing are expected to offer promising opportunities for market players in the coming years.

Global Hardware Encryption Market: Region-wise Outlook

The global market for hardware encryption has been divided on the basis of geography into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. The research study has provided a detailed analysis of the leading regional segment, highlighting the market share and anticipated growth rate. In addition, the key factors that are encouraging the growth of these segments have been discussed in the scope of the research study.

According to the research study, Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness strong growth throughout the forecast period, owing to the robust development of the IT industry. In addition, a substantial contribution from China, India, Malaysia, and South Korea is expected to accelerate the growth of the hardware encryption market in Asia Pacific throughout the forecast period. Furthermore, with the presence of a large number of established hardware encryption manufacturing companies, North America is anticipated to witness healthy growth in the next few years.

Key Players Mentioned in the Research Report are:

The global hardware encryption market is projected to witness a high level of competition in the coming few years. The leading players in the market are focusing on offering new products to consumers in order to enhance their market penetration and maintain their dominant position throughout the forecast period. Some of the prominent players operating in the hardware encryption market across the market are Netapp, Maxim Integrated Products, Inc., Toshiba Corp., Gemalto NV., Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Kanguru Solutions, Thales (E-Security), Winmagic Inc., Kingston Technology Corp., Western Digital Corp., and Seagate Technology PLC.

Furthermore, the research study has provided a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape of the global hardware encryption market. An in-depth overview of company profiles and their financial overview have been discussed at length in the scope of the research study. Additionally, the business strategies, SWOT analysis, and the recent developments have been included to offer a clear understanding of the overall market.

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About TMR Research:

TMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.

Link:
Hardware Encryption Market Analysis On Trends and Need 2025 - Science In Me

Back in 2018, OnePlus teamed up with UNIT9, Sleep Deprivation Lab, and Google to launch a mobile game called Crackables. The game had players racing to solve cryptography puzzles over multiple rounds, with the ultimate gaming setup waiting at the end for the grand prize winner. Crackables is making a comeback this year, with OnePlus announcing Crackables 2.0 today.

It sounds like Crackables 2.0 will follow the same kind of structure the original Crackables did in 2018. That means itll be another race to solve these crypto-puzzles and go toe-to-toe with other players for a grand prize. While the grand prize was a gaming setup last time around, this time the prize players will be competing for is straight up cash specifically, the grand prize winner will get $10,000 for themselves and an additional $10,000 to donate to a charity supporting those affected by COVID-19.

Crackables 2.0 is based on Google technology (with the big G helping conceptualize the game as well) and is primarily made by UNIT9 and Sleep Deprivation Lab. OnePlus promises that puzzle difficulty will start low and ramp up from there, so if youre not sure if crypto-puzzles are for you, youll be able to get your feet wet with some easy puzzles to start. In its announcement today, OnePlus said that players will need to travel through gates to move between levels, and that some of those gates will involve community-oriented challenges that will have you working together with others.

The game will open up to everyone on April 14th, and the first 10 players to solve the final puzzle will have the chance to square off in a grand finale tournament for that $10,000 prize. Regular gameplay wraps up on April 30th a little more than two weeks after the game begins and the tournament will be live-streamed for everyone to watch beginning on May 7th.

If Crackables 2.0 is something that you want to participate in, you can register for the game beginning today over on the OnePlus website. Registration will run until April 14th, when the game will kick off for everyone.

Originally posted here:
Google and OnePlus Crackables 2.0 could be the perfect pandemic distraction - SlashGear

More Effective Cybersecurity: The Practical Application of The MITRE ATT&CK Framework

Date: Wednesday, April 29th at 11:00am PT / 2:00pm ET

In March, Chris White, CSO and Co-Head of MSS at BlueVoyant presented the MITRE ATT&CK framework and discussed its implications for Security TeamsConsisting of 11 tactics and 291 techniques, MITRE ATT&CK can easily overwhelm security teams. The most common question is almost always How and where do I start?

In this webinar, Chris will summarize and expand on the discussion from his previous discussion. This webcast will focus on:

Register now!

About the presenter:

Chris is BlueVoyant's Co-Head of Managed Security Services. He has a decade of experience consulting to Fortune 500 and US Intelligence Community organizations and was previously Booz Allen's Chief Engineer for Commercial Cyber Engineering Services and Data Protection Solutions. He is an experienced advisor in the realm of cryptography, data discovery, metadata analysis, risk metrics/analytics, data visualization, and reporting. Throughout his career, he has assessed, designed and built information security programs for a wide variety of large financial, pharmaceutical and technology organizations.

Date: 04/29/2020

Time: 11:00amPT

Sponsored By

Read the original:
More Effective Cybersecurity: The Practical Application of The MITRE ATT&CK Framework - Redmondmag.com

Most of us first became aware of blockchain the cloud-based distributed general ledger as a technology associated with bitcoin. Today blockchain is emerging with extraordinary implications for firm growth.

At the most recent AICPA Blockchain Symposium, I talked with three pioneers in the field. As a former auditor, I was especially interested in how blockchain is disrupting the traditional audit function. These explorers have embraced this brave new technology, even as guidelines are still being formulated. I was curious, like many of you, about what its like to audit the blockchain.

I interviewed Andr Sterley, digital asset group leader for Mazars USA in New York; Andries Verschelden, the partner who leads the blockchain practice at Armanino in San Francisco; and Jagruti Solanki, an assurance partner at Aprio in Atlanta specializing in technology and blockchain.

These pioneers have a couple things in common. They were all born outside the U.S. and all had a strong internal motivation to master blockchain technology. An Aha! moment for me was finding out that the blockchain is a subledger. I could get my head wrapped around auditing a subledger. Yet its very different in that it represents a single set of books, housed in the cloud, which serves as a historical repository for every cryptocurrency-based transaction.

A personal journey

South Africa native Andr Sterley, who had always wanted to live and work in the U.S., moved from Mazars South Africa to join Mazars USA in their New York City office in 2014. During the move, parts of his life were on both continents, and Andr found that conventional means of making cross-border payments were slow, costly and inefficient. He started studying bitcoin, thinking it might be an alternative to methods like MoneyGram and Western Union.

Andrs intellectual curiosity grew beyond his own needs. After an in-depth exploration he conducted experiments with a few transactions. It took seconds, versus the days in more traditional methods, plus it was quite inexpensive. Andr saw the potential immediately and concluded that crypto assets and blockchain technology presented an enormous potential business opportunity. Since then, he has become something of a LinkedIn blockchain personality, providing entertaining content and commentary.

By early 2018, he was able to offer services to his first Mazars USA client a business in need of an external financial statement audit. Andr described the need to develop cryptography skills: Auditors were never taught cryptography, the functional discipline combining computer science and locking things digitally. This includes techniques derived from algorithms to secure information in ways that are hard to decipher. But now I had to rely on cryptography and had to get educated, to know that what I was evaluating could be relied upon.

Also, since blockchain is a universal ledger, a transactions historical record can be visible to all parties who have permission to access the blockchain. Imagine grain bushels on a boat, coming in and out of various locations, with the entire record chained together. This becomes the central source of truth, eliminating the necessity for traditional confirmations and reconciliations.

Instead, typical questions to be answered are: Was this particular transaction authorized? Did it go to the right address? Were the parties to the transaction related?

Leveraging a passion

Andries Verscheldens career choice was not a surprise. His father Frans was managing partner of the Moore Stephens (now Moore) firm in Brussels, Belgium. In 2017 Andries merged the interim CFO business he was leading with Armanino, a leading Moore member based out of California. Andries was drawn to the firm for its relentless focus on innovation. He went on to lead the firms entire outsourcing business.

Increasingly fascinated by blockchain and the growing use of cryptocurrencies, Andries expressed his interest to managing partner Matt Armanino, who was impressed by his passion and enthusiasm. Having been involved in helping clients since 2014 with blockchain services, in 2019 Armanino upped its strategic investment in blockchain. The firm made the equally strategic decision to put Andries in charge of the practice. He entered the arrangement with the understanding that blockchain would not be just another industry offering, but one that could fundamentally change the profession, the business model and client expectations.

How revolutionary would that change be? Extremely! Andries described to me the intriguing fact that the majority of digital assets today have no underlying real world asset associated with them. They are series of ones and zeros that only live in this blockchain world, and have the ability to instantaneously transfer value around the world in a direct (peer-to-peer), secure way. He said, Basically, youre being asked to do audits on something that is purely digital in nature, but is known to have value. Ponder that for a moment!

Also of note is the fact that existing enterprise resource planning systems are not set up to integrate with blockchain transactions. In a client situation, this creates a mixed bag of digital assets (like bitcoin) and non-digital assets (like greenbacks) living in different systems. The challenge is reconciling the two with existing tools such as Excel. Luckily, a number of new software startups are closing this gap. Examples are Lukka, Ledgible, Softledger and Blox.

Early adopter

Born in India and raised in Oman, Jagruti Solanki (pictured) is an audit partner at Aprio in Atlanta. All things considered, shes an old hand at blockchain, having served her first client in 2013 when Bitcoin was selling for $200. She recalls with a smile her response (Youre crazy!) when her husband suggested investing. Then it hit $20,000 and I thought I was the crazy one, she added.

Always up for a challenge, this tech-minded auditor made clear her interest in getting involved. Like Andr and Andries, she jumped in with both hands and feet, learning as she went about the risks and the upside potential.

Traditionally, blockchains have been operated publicly. And while private blockchain applications are growing, including among large retailers like Walmart, Jagruti noted the reluctance, even fear, on the part of some accounting firms to get involved.

Thats because they see auditing companies using blockchain technology as carrying a high risk. One contributing factor is that there is currently an absence of definitive standards for auditing the blockchain.

As a result, said Jagruti, theres a considerable amount of judgment involved. Firms that wish to get involved in blockchain should have a culture that is welcoming to technology and has significant trust in its leaders. Whats more, she said, there is not yet a checklist for auditors in this space.

The path forward

Andries noted, I wish there were a clearer roadmap, but we arent there yet. As a result, those CPAs working with blockchain have a sharing community, learning from each other and making the journey together. The AICPA has been instrumental in facilitating this evolution.

I asked the three experts how they would proceed vis vis blockchain if they were managing partners at their respective firms. Aprios Solanki recommended moving boldly forward without fear, and bringing your clients along with you. She believes the spoils will go to the proactive, not to those who rest on the sidelines waiting and watching.

All three explorers concurred that training to get firm members comfortable with the technology is a high priority. Mazars Sterley suggested building blockchain into your strategic planning for the future. Start thinking about what you will offer and how you will get up to speed. Survey clients to gauge their level of understanding and interest.

Armaninos Verschelden weighed in, calling blockchain a trustless, utopian world that disrupts perceptions of traditional trust and value in the CPA domain, like the production of quarterly or annual financial statements.

Armanino recently released the worlds first real-time audit capability, Trustexplorer. It is a tool that utilizes blockchain technology to continuously collect audit evidence. It enables users to generate an audit report over balances that are never older than 30 seconds, on demand when the end user needs it. The technology reminds me of streaming on demand versus how we accessed audio/video in years past.

Our explorers agreed that its essential to ask the tough questions, i.e., will your culture support adoption of blockchain? How forward-looking is your firm? Are members locked into compliance mode, or are they ready to break out and innovate?

As you consider adopting blockchain as a strategic technology, note that its viewed as a plus by young accounting professionals and could even become a recruitment tool. Offering it may also win you points from tech-forward clients, and those whose trust in established financial institutions and structures has eroded over the years.

Said Verschelden, We are providing trust today. But our trust-providing function will change dramatically and the value that we are bringing cant be the way its always been through quarterly reports.

Much remains to be known about the role and impact of blockchain in the future. But there is no doubt that it will continue to migrate from the perimeter into the mainstream of our profession. And our pioneers will continue to chart the course in delivering on-the-ground, real-life experiences.

See original here:
Pathways to Growth: 'Chain' reaction - Accounting Today

TodayConsenSys Healthannounced the Stop COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon to start April 13 and run through to May 11. Sponsors of the initiative includeGitcoin,Hyperledger,ConsenSys,One Million DevelopersandOpenMinded. The first virtual panels by mentors will be available today.

The project brings together three open source communities from Ethereum, Hyperledger and OpenMinded.

Working together for the first time with a very specific toolset, this interdisciplinary group will rapidly create highly-relevant solutions with the potential to have both immediate- and long-term positive impact, said Heather Leigh Flannery, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys Health. The core of our effort is to leverage converging innovations like blockchain, tokenization, zero-knowledge cryptography, and federated machine learning to advance immediate and long-term public health goals while preserving individual privacy.

Healthcare and life sciences volunteers will mentor developers. The group aims to address many of the issues highlighted in the news. The areas include clinical trials for vaccines, galvanizing supply chains for ventilators, location tracking without compromising privacy and other topics.

The award for first place is $10,000, with second and third place receiving $7,000 and $3,000, respectively.

The panel of judges so far includes ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin, Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director of Hyperledger and four executives from ConsenSys Health. ConsenSys Health recently spun out of ConsenSys.

A week ago a few members of Hyperledger including HACERA, IBM and Oracle agreed to collaborate to collate Coronavirus data. And to the surprise of some, U.S. Homeland Security listed blockchain as a critical service in the context of COVID-19.

Read more:
ConsenSys Health launches Stop COVID-19 Ethereum Blockchain Hackathon - Ledger Insights

One of the reputed global banking giant, Citibank has geared-up with its investment in the Ethereum-based decentralized trade financing start-up Komgo.

The global head of commodity trade finance at Citigroup, Mr. Kris van Broekhoven, has divulged the news of raising their equity in Komgo with an objective of enabling the company to further developing in commodity trade finance.

Companies like IBM laid emphasis on cryptography/tokenization and have promoted the integration of Blockchain based system with the conventional businesses from trade finance banking to supply chain management system. Evidently, it has instigated the Blockchain-based trial to track the shipment of various commodities.

With that said, the renowned global banking giant, citibank has time and again appeared to have been in the news of its investment. Recently, they invested in Contour which is the blockchain-driven trade finance network, per theannouncement.

For now, Kris clarified in the recent past whilespeakingwith ConsenSys as to how some of the largest institutions across the globe are coming together to build an end-to-end solution for commodities trade financing with the deployment of blockchain technology.

Of late, trade finance business and blockchain seem to be making the best combination in the advance era of technology and finance.

Whilekomgo happens appears to be dedicated to establishing a decentralized digital platform for end-to-end solution of trade finance in the commodities space.

Citi is one of the founding investors of komgo when it was incepted in early 2018, and recently topped up their equity to allow the company to continue developing.For over a century, the banking industry has been highly relied on the exchange and manual processing of paper documentation. Now, blockchain technology serves as a catalyst to disrupt the industry towards the processing of electronic data. Banks and clients are eyeing on simplified,well-designedand swift user experience that is compatible with the digital tools.

Read more:
Blockchain Revolution Series: Citigroup Ventures With Ethereum-Based Komgo To Target Trade Finance Domain - EconoTimes

Vitalik Buterin hasnt let the coronavirus crisis and ensuing market mayhem hold up development on Ethereum 2.0the platforms mammoth scaling project. On Wednesday, the Ethereum cofounder tweeted his vision of what lies ahead in the next five to 10 years.

Ethereum is the second biggest blockchain platform after Bitcoin, by market cap. Its in the midst of huge changes which, over the next few years, should make it scalable, and capable of supporting many more users.

But it wont be easy.

Five to 10 years is a lifetime in the volatile and fast moving crypto space. Buterin maintains it will be worth itnot just for scalability, but for security too.

The biggest change is that Ethereum is moving from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS). This changes the way in which new Ethereum blocks are created and how the network is run. (For a comparison of the two consensus methods, see here.) Switching to PoS, Buterin maintains, will make attacking the network more costly.

The roadmap he presented shows a birds eye view on the Ethereum network as it will evolvein Buterins mind. Half of it looks at the current state of Ethereum and focuses on making sure it continues to improve. The other half deals with Ethereum 2.0.

Phase 0 gets the blockchain ready for the switchover to PoS. Phase 1 is when it actually makes the switch. At this point it enables an interesting technology, called rollups, that could help Ethereum support more transactions.

Eth2 is all about scale

Vitalik Buterin

At this point, Ethereum 1 and the new, PoS blockchain will merge together and become one blockchain (with all of the past transactions stored on it).

Then, we get to the main tenets of Ethereum 2.0. This is where advanced cryptography will come in, including potential quantum resistant cryptography. Other tools will be introduced to make the network offer more capabilities.

In Wednesdays tweet thread, Buterin was also careful to emphasize that the new roadmap was subject to change as new technology or information came to light. And he added that it reflected only his own views.

Buterin underlined an increasing focus on maintaining compatibility, to ensure a smooth transition to Eth2, together with a solid shift from blue sky researchtrying to understand what is possibleto concrete research and development.

Answering criticisms about Ethereums complexity hindering its ability to scale, Buterin insisted that many of the changes are actually in the direction of reducing complexity. Not that it comes across in the roadmap.

Challenged on how Eth2 could be better than Bitcoin, Buterin posted a six-point riposte.

Top of the list were sharding and Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). Sharding is a way of splitting the blockchain up, making it a lighter load for those keeping the network running. Zero knowledge proofs are experimental privacy technologies that make it easier to send anonymous crypto transactions.

Buterin said these two factors would make the network cheaper to use, especially compared to Bitcoin. And they would help it to accommodate more transactions. Eth2 is all about scale, he insisted.

He also argued again that PoS will be a superior consensus mechanismwhen its built. But with a five to 10 year roadmap, thats easier said than done.

Link:
Vitalik Buterins latest thoughts on Ethereum 2.0 - Decrypt

Ethereum 4 Hour Price Update

Updated March 23, 2020 05:35 AM GMT (01:35 AM EST)

Ethereums 5 four-hour candle negative has officially concluded, as the candle from the last 4 hour candle closed up 1.5% ($1.84). Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Ethereum ended up ranking 4th for the four-hour candle in terms of price change relative to the last 4 hour candle.

Ethereum is down 7.75% ($10.28) since the previous day, marking the 3rd day in a row a decline has happened. The change in price came along side change in volume that was down 1.39% from previous day, but up 1041346709.4% from the Sunday of last week. Out of the 5 instruments in the Top Cryptos asset class, Ethereum ended up ranking 4th for the day in terms of price change relative to the previous day. Here is a daily price chart of Ethereum.

The clearest trend exists on the 30 day timeframe, which shows price moving down over that time. For another vantage point, consider that Ethereums price has gone down 5 of the previous 10 trading days.

Behold! Here are the top tweets related to Ethereum:

Israeli government is seriously considering postponing/cancelling daylight savings, which is supposed to go into effect in 5 days, because they think it will encourage people to stay homeYou cant cancel daylight savings with a 5 days notice you plebs, this isnt Ethereum

$ETH is a store of value (digital gold), a medium of exchange (currency), the energy that powers the #ethereum network (gas), the equity that controls the network (PoS), and so much more. It is a multi-dimensional asset unlike any weve seen before.

This week a senior engineer at an Ethereum killer told me:Ethereum is just 20-something technologists, they dont have cryptography experience nor a database engineering pastYet this is precisely how innovation happens: young beginner minds thinking from first principles.

As for a news story related to Ethereum getting some buzz:

Full Stack Hello World Voting Ethereum Dapp Tutorial Part 1

In this post, lets build a simple Hello World! application which is a Voting application.The goal is not to just code an application but to learn the process of compiling, deploying and interacting with it.Unlike in the web world where every deploy of your code overwrites the old code, deployed code in the blockchain is immutable.Now lets compile the code and deploy it to ganache blockchain.You first create a contract object (deployedContract) which is used to deploy and initiate contracts in the blockchain.We use the web3 deploy function along with send to deploy the contract to the blockchain.

The rest is here:
Ethereum (ETH) Up $1.84 On 4 Hour Chart; Entered Today Down 7.75% - CFD Trading