Category: News

Categories
Crypto News

Reddit Bitcoiners Are Still On High Alert About One Month After The Platform Got Hacked

As officially revealed recently, in mid-June, the Reddit social network was hacked and the data of several users, as well as individual email addresses and passwords, were stolen. The hackers got hold of an old database containing the users’ credentials. The team continues to research how to improve site security. In the meantime, Reddit Bitcoiners are still on high alert.

That was announced through an entry containing the hacking details. The most affected ones were those users registered on the platform before 2007, whose credentials, hashed usernames and passwords, email addresses and all public content, and private messages, were stolen.

Reddit is a network actively used by the Bitcoin (BTC) community. It shares announcements of crypto-related platforms and opens discussions on scalability and other critical technology-related issues. In fact, the founder of Ethereum (ETH), Vitalik Buterin, is a user who has been participating in this network since 2011.

Reddit Bitcoiners still on high alert

By email, the Reddit team has been notifying users who were affected and whose credentials may still be valid. The credentials of those registered on the site after 2007 were not compromised. However, e-mail summaries sent by Reddit in June 2018 were also intercepted. Data that links a username to an associated email address and contains suggested publications of popular and subscribed subreddits also fell into the hands of the cybercriminals.

While the Reddit team acknowledges that it was a major attack, it notes that the information on the site was not altered and that measures have been taken to protect the security of the platform.

In addition to user data, Reddit’s source code, internal logs, configuration files and other workspace files were compromised. As a result of this security breach, the team concluded that the two-factor authentication system (2FA) based on tokens is much more secure than the previous authentication system.

Also, cybercriminals could generate campaigns to steal money by promoting scams through notable Reddit Bitcoiners whose credentials have been compromised. At the moment, it does not seem safe to accept any investment advice generated on the platform.

Categories
Crypto News

Monero (XMR) To Adopt Kovri Project For Boosting Privacy

An ambitious project called Kovri has been launched in its alpha version by the Monero (XMR) development team for boosting privacy.

Kovri is a project that places Monero network at a much higher level in terms of anonymity of the distributed platforms. This implementation allows that any interaction or transaction of any cryptocurrency cannot be related to any geographical location, by means of routing via I2P.

The Kovri project will become available in the Monero (XMR) network next year.

The risk of linking a geographic location to a cryptocurrency transaction is that if enough data is collected, such as IP address and time of day of the transaction, this information could be verified by authoritarian governments or third parties with malicious intent to determine the final identity of the user. That’s something entirely undesirable for many cryptocurrencies which respect their decentralized nature, including Monero (XMR).

Monero (XMR) adopts Kovri to increase the privacy of its users

The origins of Kovri go back to 2015, when the original author of the I2PD implementation, an alternative version to I2P, whose name is not specified, pretended to be the only contributor to this proposal in GitHub, which generated a deep discontent among other developers and the project lost momentum.

However, months later, a developer, known as Anonimal, rescued the project and started working on it, while recruiting more interested collaborators. Thus, meetings were held in which it was decided to bifurcate the I2PD implementation code base and turn it into what is now known as the Kovri project.

In an episode of OpenHours, the developer explains that this Kovri project will provide much more anonymity to Monero (XMR) transactions, even beyond what this platform is capable of doing since it works with another layer of Internet connection and not with implementations made directly in the Monero blockchain.

Categories
Crypto News

New Coinbase Add-on Facilitates Cryptocurrency Payments Via WooCommerce

Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange announced the launch of Coinbase Commerce, an add-on to the WordPress’ WooCommerce plugin, which would enable the addition of new features within the platform and make it easier for online retailers anywhere in the world to accept cryptocurrency payments.

Through information published in its corporate blog, the cryptocurrency exchange platform explains that Coinbase Commerce will incorporate other features, including the direct payment in Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC), with plans to also add Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), soon.

The notice states that with Coinbase Commerce payments will be equal to equal, which means that when customers mobilize funds from their digital wallet, they will be sent directly to the address controlled by the merchant being processed in the respective blockchain.

Therefore, they state that neither users nor merchants will have to pay commissions for the transactions they carry out, beyond that which is canceled directly to the network, while the participants will always maintain control of their money.

Coinbase commerce plugin targets to boost cryptocurrency adoption

All these innovations aim to promote the adoption of cryptocurrencies among online shops, to making the cryptocurrency payments system more widespread as part of e-commerce processes.

In this sense, Coinbase had taken several steps forward, since July 25th when it enabled service for the purchase of electronic gift cards with cryptos, which will be available to customers in some European countries. In this case, users will also not pay commissions for exchanging their digital assets for electronic gift cards.

The addition of cryptocurrency payments has also been the goal of other companies, such as the Coingate payment services portal, which launched a pilot program last month that will allow more than 100 online stores and sites to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments using the Lightning Network (LN) micro-payment network to speed up the process.

Categories
Games News

GTA 6 Thoughts – People’s Expectations vs. Reality

Nobody can deny that Grand Theft Auto is one of the most successful gaming franchises. It’s no wonder that every time a new part is being prepared, fans are anxious to get their hands on it and start playing. Unfortunately, we have to wait a long time until we can see Grand Theft Auto 6. Until it’s released, all we can do is speculate upon the potential features.

Online balancing is very helpful

GTA 5 is a game where advanced equipment and technology can help you succeed and pass levels easily, no matter if you are in single-player or online mode. The more advanced you are, the better becomes the equipment you can access. This is kind of unfair for new players, because they don’t have money in their wallets.

In this case, they have to go through a lot of missions until they get the necessary skills for getting better equipment. It would be great if the whole play-to-win process could be improved in Grand Theft Auto 6.

More varied missions could spice up the game a little bit

The name says a lot about the game. When it’s called Grand Theft Auto you can expect to see a lot of racing and missions connected to this area. None the less, more varied tasks and objectives could make the game even more interactive and fun.

If they want to introduce something like that, they could follow the example of Grand Theft Auto IV which had a multiplayer mode. Also, the Cops and Robbers mode from Grand Theft Auto V was very popular and should be kept for GTA 6. A possible improvement could be the possibility of earning more cash from these missions.

Another point from fans’ wish list is the single-player DLC. Many gamers think that this is a necessary addition, so let’s hope that developers read this article!

Other necessary improvements

Players would appreciate it if they could have a more diversified range of boats and bikes. These transport means are underused, so a few fancy additions would make them cooler and determine gamers to use them more.

Last, but not least, developers should be aware that Grand Theft Auto Online’s free-mode is not the most professional variant. It breaks a lot, so you can get just when you are about to advance. They really should do something to fix this in GTA 6.

Categories
News Tech

Forget About Flat Google Maps, Imagine a 3D Globe

Google Maps has been developing a lot lately in order to remain relevant in this ever-changing world. Besides adding your battery status visibility to the app or incorporating an algorithm that allows it to match you with whichever restaurants you might enjoy, Google ends this week by offering us another surprise.

As frustrated as flat-earthers might feel, Google Maps decided to change perspectives. More exactly, we won’t longer be looking at flat surfaces on our planet; instead the whole thing will change into a 3D globe (or, as Google calls it, 3D Globe Mode). As you probably know, flat maps aren’t exactly right according to scale. On such a map Greenland looks quite as big as Africa, which is ridiculous.

Now, when you zoom out fully, you will be able to see everything at the right scale, approximately. Sure, it may seem to many of you that, at least when compared to the other changes that occurred this week, it’s not that big of an update. How about we try, like Google did, to change our perspective a little bit?

The Earth is a 3D, huge object and for many years we had to use flat representations which may result in confusions similar to Greenland seeming to be just as big as Africa. With this update, Google doesn’t have to adjust a 3D object into a 2D perspective. Another thing that Google might (or not) tell us is that flat-earthers aren’t among them and that’s a bit reassuring.

At least at the moment, you won’t be able to see this 3D globe unless you are using a computer. We don’t know when exactly this change on Google Maps will affect the apps on your smart devices. However, you are curious, then head on to the Google Maps website and have fun with this 3D mode.

Exit mobile version