Linux

Why financial infrastructure needs to be open-source — Hyperledger

April 19, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Ethereum researcher says staking reveals IP address sparking privacy concerns

April 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

airdrops

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation said he had “internally” discovered that staking Ether reveals a user's IP address information.

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) revealed that the IP addresses of Ether (ETH) stakers are monitored as part of a broader set of metadata, causing the cryptocurrency community to flag Ethereum for privacy concerns.

In an April 12 interview on the crypto podcast Bankless, EF researcher Justin Drake revealed that he learned this information “internally” — presumably at EF.

The metadata Drake referred to is used to track a wide range of things, he explained:

“There’s a lot of metadata, you can look at deposit addresses, you can look at withdrawal addresses, you can look at fee recipients, you can look at IP addresses.”

Drake’s comments appeared to have taken Bankless host Ryan Sean Adams by surprise.

Ethereum = 1984 chain

Justin Drake, who works as the "Researcher" at the Ethereum Foundation, said today that when you stake your ETH, you can be tracked via IP address.

He says he knows information "internally" that such databases exist. pic.twitter.com/2V6DvTobL3
— Pledditor (@Pledditor) April 13, 2023

“So it’s a fairly Sybil resistant dataset of your most involved Ethereum citizens?” Adams asked.

“Exactly,” Drake responded.

The conversation was initiated when Drake predicted that “special airdrops” may become available for solo stakers — but not the industry heavyweights:

“Then you can identify, okay, we know who Kraken is, we know who Coinbase is, and we can just not give them an airdrop if the purpose of the airdrop is to airdrop to specific individuals that are running solo validators.”

The conversation caused a stir on Crypto Twitter.

One Twitter user referred to Ether as the “real surveillance coin,” while another mocked Drake by sarcastically rehashing him: “We can stop censorship by censoring those we don’t like.”

Another described the situation as “central governance to a T.”

To resolve the privacy concerns, one Twitter user suggested Ethereum users take on-chain privacy responsibilities into their own hands by installing a Linux operating system, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and storing cryptoassets on a hardware wallet such as Ledger:

DeFi security setup:
- Linux system
- VPN 24/7
- Ledger (hardware wallet)

Protect yourselves from data mining and scams

Am I missing anything? https://t.co/X2YrGwpbdx
— DeFi Crypto Vaults (@DefiVaults) April 13, 2023

It isn’t the first privacy-related statement to have caused a stir in the crypto community either.

ConsenSys, the team behind Ethereum wallet Metamask began collecting IP addresses in November. The policy amendment was made to ensure that the firm could comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) where necessary.

Cointelegraph contacted Drake and the Ethereum Foundation for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

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File Transfer Giant Wetransfer Joins NFT Industry, Partners with Blockchain Platform Minima for March Launch of Minting Product

February 7, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Linux to launch Foundation to support digital wallet development

September 13, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The foundation apparently does not intend to create its own digital wallet, however. Its' goal is to make it easier for companies to create wallets for themselves.

The Linux Foundation, a global nonprofit organization that enables innovation within the blockchain ecosystem through access to open source technology, has announced plans to launch the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF).

The OWF is a collaborative effort between companies in the technology and public sector, as well as stakeholders within the blockchain ecosystem, to develop open-source software to support the interoperability of digital wallets; software designed to send, receive, store and monitor digital assets.

According to a press release issued on Sept. 13, the primary goal of the OWF is to build a multi-purpose open source engine that anyone with the technical understanding can use to build safe, secure, and privacy-protected interoperable wallets. The foundation also said it seeks to establish best practices for digital wallet technology.

Rather than creating a digital wallet itself, the foundation will focus on building an open-source software engine that other organizations, companies, and developers can use to create their own multi-use digital wallets. Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, shared:

“We are convinced that digital wallets will play a critical role for digital societies. Open software is the key to interoperability and security. We are delighted to host the OpenWallet Foundation and excited for its potential.”

Accenture’s David Treat, a member of the Foundation, stated:

“Universal digital wallet infrastructure will create the ability to carry tokenized identity, money, and objects from place to place in the digital world. Massive business model change is coming, and the winning digital business will be the one that earns trust to directly access the real data in our wallets to create much better digital experiences,”

Joining Linux Foundation in this endeavor are other renowned companies like CVS Health, The Open Identity Exchange, Okta, OpenID Foundation, Ping Identity, polypoly, Procivis AG, Transmute, and Trust Over IP Foundation.

Linux Launches Foundation to Bolster Open-Source, Multi-Purpose Crypto Wallets

September 13, 2022 Bitcoin.com

‘CBDCs are the natural evolution,’ says HyperLedger director Barbosa

June 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

In an interview filmed during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Daniela Barbosa gives the floor to enterprise blockchains and the future of currencies.

For Daniela Barbosa — general manager of blockchain, healthcare and identity at the Linux Foundation and executive director of Hyperledger — digital currencies and cryptocurrencies have made it among the big banks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

In an interview with Cointelegraph shot against the backdrop of the Swiss Alps, Barbosa explained that in the few years she has attended the WEF, the presence of cryptocurrency companies has steadily grown. What's more, we should not be afraid of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

“CBDCs are [a]natural evolution of digital dollars and digital currencies.”

While the WEF saw calls from some bankers for a CBDC rollout to slow down, Barbosa explained that a CBDC could be with us in this decade.

Hyperledger’s work overlaps that of CBDCs, particularly in light of a partnership with the Digital Dollar Project. The nonprofit organization seeks to further the research into a U.S. CBDC. The key to CBDC implementation, however, is in succeeding with “privacy-preserving methods.”

An advocate for digital identity, privacy and “having control of your data,” Barbosa also shared the story of how she got into Bitcoin while living in San Francisco and working for Dow Jones in the mid-2010s.

“I did go to a [Bitcoin] meetup once and I was older than everybody else and also female—and I thought, maybe this is not for me?”

Fortunately, Barbosa kept abreast of Bitcoin and the market when time allowed before joining HyperLedger, an enterprise blockchain solutions-based company, in 2016.

While blockchains can sometimes be touted as a catch-all solution, Barbosa explained that sometimes blockchains are not the ideal situation and “should not be used.” Many blockchain use cases in 2016 and 2017, for example, wanted the “media to pay attention.” In 2022, a blockchain works when:

“You want to use a distributed ledger when you have multi parties that are working together—you don’t want to have to create another middle layer than helps disintermediate all the assets going around.”

HyperLedger now covers everything from pharmaceuticals to finance while its blockchain solutions tackle climate change.

No, Linus Torvalds Is Not Satoshi Nakamoto

January 28, 2022 The Crypto Briefing

Linux Foundation launches blockchain-based platform for insurance

April 13, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The Linux Foundation and the American Association of Insurance Services are co-launching a blockchain-based platform to help the insurance industry.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit technology consortium that supports the Linux operating system, is backing a new blockchain-based project for the insurance industry.

On Monday, the foundation announced the launch of the Open Insurance Data Link platform, a project that aims to reduce the cost of insurance reporting and create a standardized insurance data repository using distributed ledger technology.

OpenIDL is a joint initiative of the Linux Foundation and the American Association of Insurance Services, a national insurance advisory organization in the United States. The open-source project brings together major global insurance firms like The Hanover and Selective Insurance Group, as well as technology and service providers like MOBI, Chainyard and KatRisk to participate in a common DLT platform to share data and business processes in the insurance industry.

Regulatory reporting in the property and casualty insurance industry is one of the key use cases for the OpenIDL network. Benefitting from blockchain’s basic features such as immutability and transparency, the platform aims to ensure trust, or guarantee to regulators and other insurance industry participants that reporting data is accurate and complete.

OpenIDL is operating as part of the Linux Foundation’s open governance network model, which means that its network is built on nodes run by many different organizations connected by a shared distributed ledger. The common ledger provides an industry utility platform for recording transactions and automating business processes.

“Blockchain is a team sport and with the OpenIDL platform, companies, regulators and vendors are forming an ecosystem to collaborate on common issues for the betterment of the insurance industry. The entire industry will benefit through more accurate data and better decision making,” Chainyard senior vice president of consulting services Isaac Kunkel said.

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