Privacy and Scaling: Schnorr Signatures Are Coming to Bitcoin Cash

On Tuesday, Jan. 29, Bitcoin Cash developer Mark Lundeberg revealed two planned features for the scheduled May 2019 BCH upgrade. In the gist published to Github, Lundeberg described a specific improvement that’s been discussed by cryptocurrency developers for years — implementing Schnorr signatures in place of ECDSA signatures. This could upgrade the BCH chain to … Read more

The Daily: Privacy Coin Strength Debated, Hardware Wallet Exploit Demonstrated

In Tuesday’s edition of The Daily, we detail the theoretical vulnerability found in the Coldcard crypto wallet, coming just one month after its manufacturer ridiculed the flaw found in other hardware wallets. Sticking with vulnerabilities, we also consider the risks of leaving your funds on an exchange in the wake of Liqui’s demise and examine … Read more

Civil Forfeiture Is State-Sanctioned Theft

Ever since 1929, the FBI has shared annual crime statistics via the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Each year, it breaks down criminal activity into such categories as homicide, weapons, human trafficking, and hate crime. One category that is noticeably absent from the report is civil asset forfeiture. In the eyes of the law, this is … Read more

Bitcoin Mixing Concept Payjoin Makes a ‘Huge Mess’ for Blockchain Surveillance

On Jan. 24, Adam Gibson, author of Waxwing’s Joinmarket blog, wrote about an interesting Coinjoin concept called Payjoin. The protocol further obfuscates the ownership of UTXO inputs during a Coinjoin transaction mixing cycle. According to Gibson, the Payjoin technique is “another nail in the coffin of blockchain analysis.” Also read: Mystery Bitcoin Miners Are Altering Mining … Read more

How to Buy Bitcoin Anonymously

Buying bitcoin is not a revolutionary act. Nor should it be. And yet the way statists, apparatchiks and politicians bang on, you’d think the mere act of acquiring digital currency was akin to receiving the keys to a pandora’s box in which lurks every illicit artifact known to man. One day, these dinosaurs will begrudgingly concede … Read more

Cashshuffle Developer Says Privacy Project Nears Completion

One of the Cashshuffle development team contributors, Josh Ellithorpe, revealed on Jan. 14 that the BCH-focused privacy shuffling protocol is near completion. The developers are planning to run a security audit on the code and have launched a fundraiser on the Bitbacker.io platform to help secure funding for the audit. Also read: Crypto Luminary Impersonation Scammers … Read more