INDEPENDENCE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Keyfactor, the machine and IoT identity platform for modern enterprises, has been recognized on the 2022 Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing private companies in America. The list represents a one-of-a-kind look at the most successful companies within the economys most dynamic segment independent businesses.

We are proud to be recognized by Inc. as a fast-growing company for the third consecutive year, said Jordan Rackie, Chief Executive Officer at Keyfactor. The global growth weve witnessed over the last year is a testament to our companys outstanding culture, technology innovation and ability to meet the growing needs in todays complex enterprise ecosystem. Id like to personally thank the entire Keyfactor team for another year of hard work, determination and market leadership.

Over the past 18 months, Keyfactor has witnessed exponential growth marked by significant milestones and corporate achievements:

Companies on the 2022 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2018 to 2021. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2018. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2021. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2018 is $100,000; the minimum for 2021 is $2 million.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, which will be available on August 23.

To learn more about Keyfactor, please visit: https://www.keyfactor.com/

About Inc.

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.

About Keyfactor

Keyfactor is the machine and IoT identity platform for modern enterprises. The company helps security teams manage cryptography as critical infrastructure by simplifying PKI, automating certificate lifecycle management, and enabling crypto-agility at scale. Companies trust Keyfactor to secure every digital key and certificate for multi-cloud enterprises, DevOps, and embedded IoT security.

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Keyfactor Named to the 2022 Inc. 5000 List for Third Consecutive Year and Recognized as the Fastest Growing PKI and Cryptography Leader in America -...

A centralized approach to a decentralized sector

2020 was the crypto summer that led to a spurt in the global number of jobs in the cryptocurrency, and NFTs arena. In India, Blockchain and crypto-related jobs grew by 804% between April 2020 to April 2022, according to a report by American consulting firm Gartner, despite a bearish market and stringent regulations by the Indian government.

As web 3.0 is pacing up, the services providing built-in bases for businesses to foray into the Blockchain, NFT, DeFi, and DAO space are becoming an inevitable enabler of modern-day tech and a vital source of employment for the generation. But here is the bottleneck to the blockchain business; it is still in its preliminary stages in India. Developing a web 3.0 platform required industry expertise and engineering maturity. The gap is being filled by Web 3.0 Infrastructure companies offering Whitelabel solutions to entrepreneurs who are keen to step into the space. They are helping other companies create top-tier platforms to grow their establishments and expand in the emerging NFT space and Metaverse. The deployment of BaaS can help the brand foray into the world of NFT & Metaverse by having an online presence thats not just diverse but also advanced. Companies can leverage create and leverage virtual assets made by using white-label solutions.

When the first wave of simple networked web culminated in the 80s and 90s, there was a barrage of rules and community-controlled internet protocols, limiting the Internets acceleration to a great extent. By the second internet evolution, restrictions eased, allowing user-driven creativity to flourish and industrial innovation to take over. Then Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple came in.

Now that we are in the midst of the third web transition, i.e., Web 3.0, take over, decentralization is taking center stage. The walls of imposed rules are breaking down, and users are looking for more open and sophisticated services. Multi-functional ledgers of white label solutions, quick turnaround timing, and lesser engineering requirements are taking over.

Leveraging decentralization as their core Blockchain-as-a-Service solutions, BaaS developers are stepping in to provide cost-effective, customized ready-to-be-branded Web 3.0 NFT Blockchain infrastructures for businesses. Several Indian players in this sector, like Seracle, have been leveling the playing field for big businesses, creators, and communities by assisting them in creating robust crypto networks and viable marketplaces tailored to the organizational need.

With community-governed ethos, advanced modern functionality, and white label solutions like Crypto Exchange, DeFi-DAO platforms, NFT Marketplace, and Metaverse, Blockchain is taking over enterprises, in turn, can focus on delivering innovative solutions to their customers. Instead of hiring newer resources to aggregate such services, costs accrued by businesses are being cut down by these platforms that offer culminated Web 3.0 solutions.

With the NFT and DeFi marketplace values soaring over 340 billion USD globally, the need for unanimous global regulations in the blockchain sector remains high. A platform functioning within regulatory compliance is essential to maintain algorithmic stability and reduce the chances of data mismanagement, a common shortcoming of any software-based product. Blockchain-based services are unique asset classes based on a unique technology that aims for resolutions to bring down such mismanagement.

Hailed as the next game-changer by critics, experts, and influencers alike blockchain has the potential to do what the internet did for finance, art, or any other enterprise of 21 st century. Blockchain technology can unequivocally upscale the finance system through DeFi, DAO, and Cryptocurrency.

Some might dismiss this as another tech fad, but at least for 2022, DeFi platforms have already racked up over 200 billion dollars of remunerations in value. In parallel, the global blockchain market is also growing to touch a 163.83 billion dollar valuation as a market by 2029.

The key differentiator between any DeFi, blockchain, and traditional service is the De in the name. Services can exist in a decentralized manner without the need for an intermediary. Tamper-proof, virtual, and global, BaaS can redefine how businesses carry transactions in Web3.0.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Cryptography 101: Giving a framework to the brimming blockchain businesses of India - Times of India

The crypto industry is often referred to as being in its infancy with the were still early meme popular within the community. However, digital cash is not a new concept, as anyone with knowledge of David Chaum will confirm. Chaum is known as the Godfather of Crypto, as he published a paper on digital cash almost 40 years ago.

In his 1983 paper, Blind Signatures for Untraceable Payments, Chaum suggested a new type of cryptography that would give digital currency the properties of privacy, proof of payment, and freezing of funds. He feared that electronic payment systems could have a substantial impact on personal privacy as well as on the nature and extent of criminal use of payments.

Chaums suggestion of Blind Signatures was later referenced by Vitalik Buterin in The Ethereum Whitepaper as Chaumian Blinding in 2014. CryptoSlate spoke exclusively to Chaum during our Twitter Space with XX Network, Chaums most recent project. The entire recording is available in the first reply to the below tweet.

Our first question to Chaum was to ask what his 1983 self would have thought had he been shown a crystal ball with a look into the state of crypto in 2022. His response stated that he would have realized that he had a lot more work to do and been slightly disappointed.

Chaum declared that what he originally proposed had privacy integrated, and he had hoped that the paper would have triggered an expectation for privacy as a standard. Further, he believes the failure to adhere to the privacy standards he set out almost 40 years ago led to issues well outside of crypto, such as the manipulation of elections and the shredding of social coherence.

The conversation would later develop into a discussion around the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its clear privacy violations. Chaum is passionate about privacy and sees the potential for blockchain-style cryptography to solve issues at a socio-economic level. Throughout the discussion, his frustration with the evolution of the internet and the lack of protection for users data is evident.

Chaum also stated that the idea of an autonomous computation that no one can tamper with was part of his early vision, which was referred to as a chain of blocks. In 1994 Chaum launched DigiCash, the worlds first digital currency utilizing cryptographic proofs. DigiCash was custodial in nature as a central bank held it, but Chaum asserted that the bank could not know who had which money.

While Chaum may have his reservations regarding the state of the blockchain industry in 2022, ultimately, he declared that

it is extraordinarily great that Bitcoin has raised the profile [of his vision] to the extent that it cannot be ignored by the powers that be and thats game changing.

He sees plenty of opportunity and room for growth concerning blockchain. However, the current state of privacy is his primary concern.

When asked about his views regarding the sanctioning of Tornado Cash and Circles move to blacklist related addresses from using USDC, he noted that it is quite disturbing. Chaum then claimed that it was a little outside of [his] scope, yet, in reality, he has a deep understanding of the underlying technology.

According to Chaums website, he is also the inventor of mixing, a cryptographic technique similar to those used in protocols such as Tornado Cash. The technology was initially designed to ensure the privacy of email and digital pseudonyms and was presented in his 1981 paper, Untraceable Electronic Mail, Return Addresses, and Digital Pseudonyms.

Since the late 70s, Chaum has been dedicated to using cryptography to give people their power over their own data. However, he admitted in the Space that it is pretty tricky to know how you can protect privacy and still let all the stuff that needs to get done, get done efficiently.

Chaum declared that he does not like to get involved in what he called the crypto wars regarding policy and politics. However, the general thread of his contribution to the conversation was one of frustration and that privacy is not a more significant part of our everyday lives. In contrast, some technology that improves privacy is being banned.

The Twitter Space moved on to the topic of the state of blockchain as it is today. Chaum was asked his thoughts on industry leaders within the Space, to which he replied,

Im a big fan of the of the community and all the energy around it. But if you really had X-ray vision and you could see through with the technology, I dont think the emperors wearing any clothes you know.

He continued to refer to some project leads as amateur cryptographers, admitting that he hasnt been impressed by much of what hes seen. The XX Network, co-founded by Chaum, was created to address what Chaum feels is lacking within the Space.

According to Chaum, the XX Network team has showcased 3,500 quantum-resistant transactions per second while also launching a P2P messenger called Elixxir built on top of the network. Elixxir utilizes dark nodes to route messages through a decentralized network allowing for the privacy of both messaging and network routing.

Chaum declared that XX Network is now ready for use by the general public, and Elixxir is the first point of contact for those wishing to test out Chaums version of blockchain.

To listen to the whole conversation covering Elixxir, quantum resistance, Apple, Google, and private community management, visit the tweet at the top of the article or click here. Follow CryptoSlate on Twitter to be notified when we go live with more Spaces in the future.

Become a member of CryptoSlate Edge and access our exclusive Discord community, more exclusive content and analysis.

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Godfather of Crypto expresses concerns over current state of blockchain privacy - CryptoSlate

Identity and access management (IAM) is undergoing a significant paradigm shift in response to constantly evolving threat actors and regulatory demands around user and data safety. The world is transitioning away from traditional IAM methodologies that rely on shared secrets and centralized passwords. Even the more recent upgrade, multi-factor authentication in the form of SMS and one-time passwords (OTPs), is being phased out.

In its place, authentication systems are being hardened with passwordless security built on biometrics, decentralized authentication and public key infrastructure (PKI). A true sea change, however, requires a foundation of free, open, rigorous standards. Open standards are easier to understand and audit, offer flexibility and interoperability, and avoid the lock-in of proprietary models.

Fast Identity Online (FIDO) authentication standards have been named the gold standard for secure passwordless authentication for good reason. Here we look at what FIDO authentication is and its benefits for your organization.

FIDO is a set of open authentication standards developed by the FIDO Alliance. The Alliance comprises leading technology firms such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and HYPR, financial organizations such as Bank of America, Mastercard and Visa, and regulatory bodies such as NIST. Its stated mission is to build authentication standards that help reduce the worlds reliance on passwords.

FIDO authentication protocols use public key cryptography to strengthen authentication and attestation. Public key cryptography is more secure than passwords, SMS or OTPs and makes authentication easier for customers and service providers. Heres how it works with FIDO:

By leveraging different authentication factors simultaneously, such as possession (device) and inherence (biometrics), one of the core benefits of FIDO authentications login process is that it satisfies multi-factor authentication requirements without using passwords and without inconveniencing the user.

There are numerous other benefits of FIDO authentications application in authentication processes, so lets look at the most important ones.

As a board-level member of the FIDO Alliance, HYPR is committed to improving authentication security across the world. Our Passwordless MFA solution delivers a seamless MFA login flow from desktop to cloud and integrates with all major SSO providers. It is also the only solution that is FIDO Certified on all components, and its multi-device flexibility eases the user experience by allowing secure login on their terms.

Download our passwordless evaluation guide to learn more about what to look for in a passwordless solution, or schedule a demo to see how HYPR works for yourself.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from HYPR Blog authored by HYPR Team. Read the original post at: https://blog.hypr.com/benefits-of-fido-authentication

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Nine Benefits of FIDO Authentication | HYPR - Security Boulevard

Despite being an automated, decentralized version of a typical cryptocurrency mixer, Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the U.S. government last week as the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Ethereum addresses associated with the tool to its specially designated nationals and blocked persons (SDN) list.

Much has been written about the legal aspects of the Treasury Departments move. Instead of embarking on arguably much needed advocacy to dispute the legal grounds of such a move, this article seeks to objectively explore the technical intricacies of Tornado Cash and its sanction, as well as evaluate potential risks that could bleed into Bitcoin in the future.

At its core, a mixer receives users cryptocurrency deposits, which it pools or tumbles together before enabling each user to withdraw the same amount of coins it deposited. By doing so, users receive fresh coins that arent related to the ones they deposited, which can offer them a great deal of forward-looking privacy.

Most mixers are centralized, run by an entity or business that collects fees for the aforementioned services.

Tornado Cash, on the other hand, is a cryptocurrency mixer deployed as a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Hence, it is more akin to a robot than an entity it can be thought of as an automated version of a typical cryptocurrency mixer. It still works like a regular mixer, though. Users deposit cryptocurrency into the Tornado Cash contract, which pools the funds and enables withdrawals unlinked to the deposits.

Tornado Cash ensures privacy and enables trustless user withdrawals by leveraging robust cryptography techniques, with proofs known as zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zk-SNARK) is at its core.

In essence, zk-SNARK and zero-knowledge proofs in general allow an entity to prove a statement about a secret without revealing the secret. In the context of Tornado Cash, it allows the user to prove they are entitled to withdraw a certain amount of coins from the smart contract without handing out information about their deposits.

SNARKs in the context of Tornado Cash allow depositors to move money into the pool and have an off-chain deposit note they can use to withdraw it to any other account, Michael Lewellen, security solutions architect at smart contract security firm OpenZeppelin, told Bitcoin Magazine. The fact that the deposit note has zero ties to the deposit account is where the SNARKs are used to ensure privacy.

Beyond the privacy benefits, the deposit note also allows a greater level of security and control for the user as it enables them to trustlessly withdraw their funds from the mixer at any time. This feature makes Tornado Cash akin to a non-custodial service, as these redeemable notes function as cryptographic keys that unlock the users funds.

I think its still fair to call it non-custodial, Lewellen said. Youre essentially given a new cryptographic key proof related to that specific deposit that can then be used by the withdrawing account to pull the money out.

Cryptocurrency mixers have for years been targeted by the U.S. government and its enforcement agencies. One would think that Tornado Cash, being a piece of code autonomously living on a blockchain instead of a centrally-run business, would be immune to such targeting. Still, OFAC came after it.

The idea that the U.S. Treasury Departments can sanction a smart contract cryptocurrency mixer like Tornado Cash seems far fetched and odd.However, it sits at the intersection of the departments previous sanctions of cryptocurrency mixers (in reasoning) and blockchain addresses (in approach).

The sanctioning of Tornado Cash represents OFACs second-ever sanction on a cryptocurrency mixer. The first, on Blender, happened in May 2022.

OFAC said in a statement that Tornado Cash has been used to launder more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019, highlighting the alleged funneling of over $455 million stolen by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)-sponsored Lazarus hacking group, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2019.

More specifically, the statement details:

Tornado is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, a cyber-enabled activity originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States that is reasonably likely to result in, or has materially contributed to, a significant threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economic health or financial stability of the United States and that has the purpose or effect of causing a significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for commercial or competitive advantage or private financial gain.

According to the U.S. Treasury Departments website, Executive Order (E.O.) 13694 focuses on harms caused by malicious cyber-enabled activities, which it judges as any act that is primarily accomplished through or facilitated by computers or other electronic devices. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to impose sanctions on the persons he or she determines to be responsible for, or complicit in, the activities leading to those harms.

Blenders sanction was also pursuant to E.O. 13694. Tornado Cashs situation, however, raised some eyebrows because of the many nuances involved in its sanction.

Tornado Cash is a mixer, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) considers mixers to be money transmitters hence being susceptible to regulations and enforcement. At the same time, however, Tornado Cash is open-source code, and the U.S. ruled in Bernstein v. Department of Justice in the 1990s that code is speech. Hence the paradox.

Putting the paradox and legal nuances aside, things which might take years to dispute, in practice OFAC might have simply looked at a cryptocurrency mixer being used to launder illegal funds and decided to crack down on it regardless of the distributed nature of the tool.

Even though OFACs SDN list is more often than not leveraged for persons or entities, the Treasury Department has, since 2018, spelled out that it can and will add cryptocurrency addresses to the list as it deems necessary to protect U.S. national security interests.

To strengthen our efforts to combat the illicit use of digital currency transactions under our existing authorities, OFAC may include as identifiers on the SDN List specific digital currency addresses associated with blocked persons, per the Treasury Department website. OFAC may add digital currency addresses to the SDN List to alert the public of specific digital currency identifiers associated with a blocked person.

Counterintuitively, and heres the hard truth, the transparent nature of blockchains more broadly along with specific characteristics of the Ethereum blockchain facilitated the Treasury Department to overextend its authority and mingle reasoning and approach to add Tornado Cash to the SDN list.

Ethereum leverages a model based on accounts. According to the Ethereum foundation, an account is an entity with an ether (ETH) balance that can send transactions on Ethereum and it can be either user-controlled or a smart contract. Accounts can receive, hold and send ETH and tokens on the Ethereum blockchain as well as interact with smart contracts.

As a default, deployed smart contracts on Ethereum have a fixed address which other accounts, owned by users or other contracts, can interact with. Therefore, since OFAC can sanction blockchain addresses through its SDN list, it was trivial for the enforcement body to sanction Tornado Cash.

So, is it then just a matter of time until OFAC or similar organizations begin coming after tools in Bitcoin land?

There is arguably little limit to what enforcement agencies such as OFAC can do to reach their objectives, as evidenced by the Tornado Cash case. But many decentralized tools were built in response to the states overarching control in the first place and are designed to prevent such actions.

Does that mean Bitcoin is immune to the threats that the Ethereum ecosystem is currently facing? Not necessarily.

As explained above, and judging by the Treasury Departments statements and guidelines, OFACs sanction on Tornado Cash appears to have been a coupling of two of the agencys practices: the goal of cracking down on virtual currency mixers facilitating money laundering and its ability to add blockchain addresses to its SDN list. Bitcoin is well positioned to mitigate against the former, and while the latter poses a real threat, this is where Nakamotos design proves more resilient. Heres why.

Bitcoin privacy tools, namely CoinJoins, are also leveraged by criminals to launder money which also puts them on the radar of regulators.

Earlier this year, the U.K.s National Crime Agency (NCA) called for the regulation of Bitcoin CoinJoins, erroneously calling them decentralized mixers and citing Samourai and Wasabi wallets as two well-known mixers, per a report by the Financial Times. The agency claimed that such tools allow users to disguise transactions that are otherwise traceable on blockchains.

The NCA said regulation would force mixers to comply with money laundering laws, with an obligation to carry out customer checks and audit trails of currencies passing through the platforms, per the report.

As highlighted on Samourai Wallets follow-up blog post, there should be a clear distinction between a mixer and a CoinJoin as they are different tools.

While a mixer functions in the typical depositpoolwithdraw format, a CoinJoin is nothing more than a Bitcoin transaction. It differs from typical Bitcoin transactions because CoinJoins are really large ones with a specific format, but software like Samourai and Wasabi enable only the coordination of users to form that same transaction. In other words, there is no deposit, pooling or withdrawal of funds.

In fact, the EUs most prominent law enforcement agency, Europol, makes a clear distinction between mixers and CoinJoins. In its latest two Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) reports, Europols flagship strategic product that provides a law enforcement-focused assessment of evolving threats and developments in the area of cybercrime, the agency did not bundle mixers and CoinJoins into the same basket.

Criminals are increasingly converting their illicit earnings made in Bitcoin using cryptocurrency obfuscation methods like swapping services, mixers and coinjoins, it said in its 2021 IOCTA report. ...In the last few years, many different obfuscation methods have gained popularity, such as mixers, CoinJoin, swapping, crypto debit cards, Bitcoin ATMs, local trade and more.

Furthermore, in a 2020 report on Wasabi, Europol stated that users who download the wallet store all bitcoins locally, which means that the AML legislation including Europes latest AMLD5 (the 5th anti-money laundering directive) does not apply to this service.

Therefore, at the present time, it seems rather unlikely that the Treasury Department or other enforcement agencies would crack down on Bitcoin CoinJoins as cryptocurrency mixers and add them to the OFAC SDN list. But lets entertain the possibility that said agencies choose to do so.

Assuming that enforcement agencies can extend their authority to fit their needs, CoinJoins can come under sanctioning threats. But how could that be done? While there are no clear answers to that question, some possible scenarios do emerge.

The first natural scenario is an enforcement agency banning CoinJoins altogether. However unlikely, and while it would actually mean banning multiple-party Bitcoin transactions, such an action can in theory still be done. This threat, however, is sentient and the same threat that existed and arguably still exists for Bitcoin at large.

Perhaps a more down-to-earth scenario would be the sanctioning of CoinJoins coordinators instead. While this isnt applicable to JoinMarket in a straightforward way, given its maker and taker structure, in the cases of Samourai and Wasabi there are central coordinators that facilitate the CoinJoin transaction that is performed between the transacting parties. (This type of sanction is still unlikely given the structure of CoinJoins and as evidenced by Europols statement saying that AML rules dont apply to these tools. But, again, lets suppose the contrary.)

The action of sanctioning coordinators could be similar to the sanctioning of Tornado Cash in theory, but its very different in practice.

While OFAC, for instance, could simply add a CoinJoins coordinator to its SDN list, there is no single blockchain address it could use to represent that coordinator. As a gift from Bitcoins unspent transaction output (UTXO) model, coordinators change their address each round. This means that with Bitcoin CoinJoins there is no single point of contact to the Bitcoin blockchain and therefore this poses a key difference to Tornado Cashs smart contract structure based on Ethereums account based system.

In practice, OFAC would need to continuously analyze the blockchain to spot Bitcoin CoinJoins and retroactively add addresses to the SDN list. (There is one aspect that washes OFACs hands in this case it makes it clear that the SDN list is not exhaustive, meaning that if an address thats not listed is found to belong to an entity that is on the list, the sanction would still apply.)

Beyond the retroactive enforcement of such rules, the enforcement body would also need to know the identities of the Bitcoin users leveraging the services. While it is true that Bitcoin transactions and addresses arent anonymous, Bitcoins UTXO model increases robustness and resilience against this as well and most of the chain analysis work relies on (sometimes educated) guesses. This would be truly effective only if the addresses going in are either publicly known (for example from known hacks or hackers) or KYCd (known to exchanges and therefore law enforcement).

However, the fact that there is no direct or reliable way to tell which coordinator was used in a given CoinJoin round poses further challenges. While it can often be plausible to assume that the default coordinator was used in a round, such a statement cannot be reliably used against users because nothing prevents users from creating and using different coordinators, with the only obstacle being liquidity which can be solved with time.

If legislation turns around and decides CoinJoins should fall under the same rules as mixers despite their striking differences, and the above actions by enforcement agencies turn out to be successful or at least effective enough there are still a couple of possible nonexclusive avenues that hold the potential to bring about an outcome different than what Tornado Cash is facing.

First, business entities running the coordinators could attempt to prevent illegal funds to be CoinJoined. Wasabi Wallet is seeking such a reality with its zkSNACKs coordinator, according to an announcement from earlier this year. It isnt clear whether Wasabi has implemented this feature yet. (This is a complicated and hardly positive path for the ecosystem as a whole, however, because it enables regulatory overreach on tools that are not money transmitters and which regulators and enforcement agencies themselves realize at present should not be subject to AML rules.)

A second and arguably better option would be leveraging even more decentralized CoinJoin tools such as JoinMarket. Even though it isnt a perfect implementation, as highlighted by Shinobi in this article, JoinMarket presents a great option for Bitcoin users to embark on CoinJoins in a catastrophic scenario such as the above. It is even more resilient than centrally-coordinated CoinJoins, meaning it would amplify all the enforcement challenges posed by the likes of Samourai and Wasabi, and spotting JoinMarket CoinJoin transactions on-chain is in and of itself already more challenging and can lead to false positives.

On a different note, OFACs sanction of Tornado Cash has also created additional problems in a cascading effect that are worth considering when it comes to potential sanctions on Bitcoin. One of the contributors to the Tornado Cash open-source code was arrested following the sanction; Tornado Cashs GitHub account and of some of its developers were shut down; and the website for Tornado Cash was taken down.

It isnt yet clear why the developer was arrested, but Bitcoin Magazine contacted GitHub to learn more about the accounts shutdown.

Trade laws require GitHub to restrict users and customers identified as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) or other denied or blocked parties, or that may be using GitHub on behalf of blocked parties, a GitHub spokesperson told Bitcoin Magazine. At the same time, GitHubs vision is to be the global platform for developer collaboration. We examine government sanctions thoroughly to be certain that users and customers are not impacted beyond what is required by law.

Bitcoin Magazine inquired further but received the same response as above.

Therefore it is clear that Bitcoin, and any open-source project for that matter, may suffer from the same GitHub accounts shutdown in the event of an OFAC sanction. However, as highlighted by the community in forums and Twitter, some options also exist to mitigate this threat such as self-hosted GitLab instances.

Still, another difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum also plays a role here. While in the ecosystem of the latter centralized tools play a bigger role in its decentralized offerings for example Infura, which powers most of the Ethereum apps, wallets and services and is susceptible to sanctions and censorship the former is better positioned to sustain similar threats.

In sum, Bitcoin is arguably the most well-prepared network to withstand nation-state attacks given the intricacies of its design, some of which were explored in-depth in this article. Moreover, challenges to the enforcement of possible sanctions on Bitcoin privacy tools make such an action not only unlikely but seemingly futile to be undertaken as its efficacy might simply not be amplified compared to what is done today regarding money laundering with Bitcoin and CoinJoins. Finally, the unlikelihood of such an event is further exacerbated by the unique characteristics of CoinJoins and the structural differences their implementation poses to mixing.

This article mainly focuses on the probable reasoning behind OFACs sanction on Tornado Cash to imagine how such a sanction could be ported onto Bitcoin and its tools. But it wouldnt be fair to leave out a commentary on what has likely been an overextension of regulatory oversight.

As highlighted by several industry players and businesses, the sanction of open-source code might be an infringement on the Constitutional First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, and, as mentioned previously, code has been established as speech under U.S. law. Moreover, any attack on open-source code is an attack on Bitcoin.

Additionally, the sanctioning of Tornado Cash altogether has negative implications to law-abiding citizens that leveraged the tool to protect their legitimate privacy interests, as explained by Seth Hertlein, global head of policy at hardware wallet maker Ledger.

All in all, as already mentioned, while regulators shouldnt overextend their statutory authority, litigation can take years. Furthermore, given that legislation is dependent on jurisdiction, what is legal or illegal is geographically subjective. Consequently, decentralized systems should be designed from the ground up to withstand capture or overreach with unstoppable, uncensorable networks.

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Now That Authorities Have Sanctioned Tornado Cash, Is Bitcoin Next? - Bitcoin Magazine

Published: Fri 19 Aug 2022, 11:28 AM

Last updated: Fri 19 Aug 2022, 11:30 AM

With the ability to transfer value peer to peer securely, transparently, and near-instantly without intermediaries, blockchain is arguably the most transformative technology of our time. Yet, with many popular chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum still relying on the energy-intensive proof of work (PoW) algorithm, the progress to economic freedom comes at a cost to our environment. Algorand, the world's first carbon-negative blockchain, presents a scalable and sustainable alternative that has already garnered a wide community and been adopted by leading organisations around the world including being selected as the official blockchain platform of FIFA.

What is Algorand?

Pledging to be the greenest and most efficient blockchain, Algorand provides institutional-grade infrastructure that's capable of hosting a wide array of decentralised applications (dApps) and digital assets. In an era of growing global concern over the climate crisis, Algorand provides solutions that are both powerful and environmentally sustainable.

With increased attention paid to the energy usage of PoW blockchains like Bitcoin, many chains have sought to lower their carbon footprints by adopting more environmentally-friendly proof of stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms. However, most of these solutions sacrifice decentralisation.

Because the wealthiest validators in PoS (those that provide the most 'stake' to the network) have disproportionate control, governance ends up in the hands of just a few network participants. Algorand, however, utilises a unique algorithm called 'Pure Proof of Stake' (PPoS) that ensures that none of the three key elements of the blockchain trilemma scalability, security, and decentralisation are compromised.

How Does Algorand Work?

Algorand's PPoS algorithm prioritises fairness and decentralisation. Just like other PoS chains, users can become block validators on Algorand by staking its native $ALGO token. However, unlike other PoS chains, PPoS selects block validators randomly and anonymously, giving equal opportunities to all network participants regardless of their stake and ensuring that no group of validators gains more control than the rest.

PPoS also promotes decentralisation as the identity of the next block validator is unknown to other network participants. In this way, Algorand's unique approach to security relies on the honesty of the majority of network participants rather than a limited subset of a few.

As an open-source blockchain, anyone can build on Algorand, safe in the knowledge that their contributions aren't harming the environment. Every transaction is completed in four seconds, making this carbon-negative blockchain fast and scalable. Algorand is already home to a growing number of dApps and is developer friendly by design. Rather than having to learn a new programming language like Solidity to start building smart contracts, developers can build assets by using a language they're familiar with such as Java, JavaScript, Go, Python, or Rust.

Who Is Behind Algorand?

The Algorand blockchain was founded in 2017 by Silvio Micali, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. With a background in cryptography and secure protocols, Micali is the co-inventor of pioneering technology such as Zero-Knowledge Proofs and Verifiable Random Functions, both widely used in cryptography today.

Besides founding Algorand, Micali has received multiple awards and recognition for his work including the Turing Award in computer science, the RSA prize in cryptography, and the Gdel Prize in theoretical computer science. He graduated from the University of Rome and holds a PhD in computer science from the University of California.

How Is Algorand Carbon Negative?

According to a recent estimate, PoS chains are ~2000x more energy-efficient than PoW chains, making their contribution to carbon emissions negligible. However, Algorand takes its commitment to be green even further as the world's first carbon-negative chain. In April 2022, Algorand announced that it would offset all its carbon emissions by implementing the first smart contract to automate the process. A percentage of all transaction fees on Algorand now goes toward carbon offsets.

Algorand has also partnered with ClimateTrade, a blockchain marketplace for CO2 carbon offsetting, to further help maintain a carbon-negative network.

The Algorand (ALGO) Token

ALGO is the native currency of the Algorand blockchain and is used to pay for transaction fees on the network as well as reward network stakers and validators. As the Algorand network runs on a variation of PoS, there is no energy-intensive mining. Any user can become a validator by staking their ALGO tokens. The ALGO token has a maximum supply of 10 billion.

What Other Problems Does Algorand Solve?

Beyond a deep commitment to sustainable technology, Algorand is fast. Transactions settle in under four seconds, regardless of on-chain volume, and cost just fractions of a penny. With the well-documented scalability issues of Layer-1 chains like Ethereum that cause lengthy wait times and sky-high transaction fees, this is music to the ears of both end-users and dApp developers who often find themselves priced out of Defi trades or NFT transactions.

Algorand's strength of vision, ease of use, and agility led to its selection by FIFA as the International Federation of Football Association's official blockchain platform. Algorand will be a FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Regional Supporter in North America and Europe, and a FIFA Womens World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 Official Sponsor, as well as helping the association develop its digital assets strategy.

Final Thoughts

With one of the most widely recognised contributors to modern cryptography as its founder and a highly accessible, scalable, and efficient network that's being adopted by some of the world's largest names, Algorand is rapidly gaining traction. For founders, builders, investors, and strategists passionate about bettering the world's financial future while ensuring the preservation of its climate Algorand makes a compelling choice.

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Meet the world's first carbon-negative blockchain - wknd.

Hows your green finance IQ? Are you up with crypto, down with green bonds? Whats the difference between sustainable finance, ESG investing and impact investing? And how is your Web3, blockchain and AI savvy?

Pass the above tests? Then what about DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, khaki bonds, double materiality, green shorting, impact insurance, stablecoins and smart contracts?

You can look up the definitions of these and other terms making up the lingo of green finance and you had better do so quickly, if you havent already. As I heard more than once at GreenBizs recent GreenFin 22 conference, this lexicon refers to practices, products and strategies that are in play today "FutureFi" is happening right now, not at some far-off date.

The main driver is cryptocurrency, digital currency that uses cryptography such as blockchain to manage transactions. "Crypto is money built for the internet," was the speakers mantra at "The Future of Finance" panel I attended. "Its the new baseline for the transformation of value," asserted moderator David Bennell, chief sustainability officer of Hyphen Global AG. This is the next generation of value to manage assets, whether stored or transferred: a digital token economy.

The premise is that digitalization makes investment more efficient more available to more people, with more transparency via blockchain accounting. Just as the rewiring of the internet, a transformation called Web3, is aimed at decentralizing monopoly controls by Big Tech, so it goes with digital finance. This results in decentralized finance, or DeFi, an umbrella term for financial products and practices developed for use with the blockchain, including many for green finance investing. They include items such as tokenized carbon credits, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and stablecoins.

DeFi also produces decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which guide allocations through smart contracts executed by artificial intelligence algorithms. One example given by Jamie Chapman, principal of ESG for Superlunar, was that of Big Green, a nonprofit that was originally a school garden project but, under COVID restrictions, converted into a DAO that democratizes their grant giving, thereby disrupting traditional philanthropy. Big Green claims to be the first nonprofit-led, philanthropic DAO.

The main argument underlying the logic of DeFi is for resiliency through a widely distributed system. Put another way, it takes advantage of the wisdom of crowds rather than guidance from a small, concentrated group of traditional financial professionals (such as those who brought us the global financial crisis in 2008-09). The qualities of enhanced transparency and data-driven digitalization should especially amp up the ability of green investors to manage risk and volatility while maximizing potential benefits.

This paradigm-shifting investment disruption is well under way.

Sounds great but there are issues that throw some shade on the bright picture of this futuristic finance landscape. For example, digitalization depends on data and to judge by the current concerns about the inconsistency, incompleteness and non-comparability of ESG data, this is a major challenge.

The biggest issue may be crypto itself. Created as a way to handle money outside of traditional banking systems, it has its own transparency and accuracy problems. Recent headlines about crypto are rife with bankruptcies, fines, hacks, fraud, insider trading and opaque practices within crypto world. The crypto crash has resulted in a drop of $2 trillion in valuation across the sector since January. Crypto companies have loaned to other crypto platforms, leveraging bullish buys with insufficient collateral. Some apparently paid early investors with incoming revenue from new inflows, a model resembling a classic Ponzi scheme. This is an industry ripe for regulation, and it appears that is imminent, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission levying criminal charges against fraudulent crypto practices.

DeFi decentralized finance gets a large portion of the blame for the current meltdown. Forced selling by retail depositors of crypto who invested for yield are the culprits, Martin Green, CEO of quant trading firm Cambrian Asset Management, told CNBC. "2020 onwards saw a huge build out of yield-based DeFi and crypto shadow banks.' There was a lot of unsecured or undercollateralized lending as credit risks and counterparty risks were not assessed with vigilance. When market prices declined in Q2 of this year, funds, lenders and others became forced sellers because of margins calls."

There are also external issues: Inflation, bearish market conditions and a looming possible recession are macro-economic dampers on innovative products and practices.

Then theres soaring energy prices, and the fact that crypto mining is an energy hog of huge proportions. The tens of thousands of specialized computing machines that create cryptocurrency and manage trades run 24/7. Bitcoin, the worlds largest, uses an estimated 150 terrawatts of electricity annually more than Argentina, a country of 45 million. And that energy production is also emissions-heavy, putting out 65 megatons of carbon dioxide, comparable to the emissions of Greece. In Texas alone, crypto miners may increase energy demand by mid-next year by 6 gigawatts, the equivalent of adding another Houston to the grid.

Its important to remember this brave new world is a work in progress, and it is early days. Many of the above issues transparency, volatility, data accuracy and regulation (or the lack thereof) also bedevil traditional finance as a matter of doing any investment business. And efforts are well underway for solutions to the above problems. For example, the ongoing consolidation and harmonization of ESG data by the Values Reporting Foundation aims to answer questions about the data that is needed for digitized investing to work properly.

DevvESG, a company represented on the panel, was defined as "a verifiable source of truth for ESG data and tokens" by Belem Tamayo, director of international partnerships for parent company, Devvio. Its approach, called the AIR methodology, offers ESG "better" in baseline analysis, guidance, tools and data through an open platform, according to the companys marketing materials.

Credible data, open platforms, democratization these are qualities that lend themselves particularly to green finance values across its various products and goals. If crypto is to serve as the foundational currency of FutureFi, then its issues must be addressed so that these aspects can effectively drive innovation, allowing the many varieties of green investment products and services based on crypto to flourish to their full potential.

Here's the thing: This paradigm-shifting investment disruption is well under way. The enthusiasm, smarts and drive to push it forward by a young generation of financial professionals that I saw at GreenFin 22 gave a big clue as to what will drive its eventual success. I dont doubt the speed bumps in its developmental phase will be flattened out. Prep yourself for a learning curve while catching up with FutureFi, now in progress.

[Interested in more coverage of GreenFin 22? Read morehere.]

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'FutureFi': Crypto is transforming the green finance universe | Greenbiz - GreenBiz

The central bank of the Philippines, the primary regulator of the countrys crypto sector, has warned investors about engaging with unregistered and foreign crypto service providers. They may present additional challenges on enforcing legal recourse and consumer protection and redress mechanisms for local customers, among others, the regulator said.

The central bank of the Philippines, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), issued a public warning Tuesday regarding unregistered and foreign crypto service providers. In the Philippines, the central bank is the primary regulator of the crypto sector.

The announcement states:

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Bangko Sentral) strongly urges the public not to deal with virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that are either unregistered or domiciled abroad.

The central banks website shows that 19 VASPs have been registered as of June.

Besides the risk from price volatility associated with virtual assets (VAs), the central bank explained that VASPs that are based abroad may present additional challenges on enforcing legal recourse and consumer protection and redress mechanisms for local customers, among others.

The Bangko Sentral emphasized:

VA dealings are generally considered as high-risk activities which may result in huge financial losses due to price swings.

Furthermore, the central bank warned that the government does not guarantee protection against financial losses stemming from crypto price fluctuations. The public should exercise caution, conduct their own due diligence, and always be mindful of the risks prior to engaging with VA-related activities, the regulator emphasized.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has urged the public to immediately report unlawful activities facilitated through cryptocurrencies and/or crypto service providers to the central bank.

Last week, the central bank announced that it will stop accepting new VASP license applications for three years, starting Sept. 1. The regulator explained that it aims to strike a balance between promoting innovation in the financial sector and ensuring that associated risks remain within manageable levels.

What do you think about the Philippine central banks warnings? Let us know in the comments section below.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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Philippine Regulator Warns the Public of Engaging With Foreign Crypto Service Providers Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News