61
Topics /
Crypto & Blockchain
The most popular blog posts about crypto & blockchain on Hacker News. 127 posts.
62
How SHA-256 Works Step-by-Step
SHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2), of which SHA-256 is a part, is one of the most popular hash algorithms around. A cryptographic hash, also often referred to as a "digest", "fingerprint" or "signature", is an almost perfectly unique string of characters that is generated from a separate piece of input text. SHA-256…
63
Crypto: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
I dig into what's genuinely impressive about crypto (distributed trust, abuse prevention, true cloud computing) and what's deeply problematic: boundary interactions, governance concentration, transaction cost tradeoffs, and unclear incentives. My conclusion: crypto may only be useful for financial engineering, and…
64
The entire crypto ecosystem is a ponzi
Not really. As a counter example, gold is clear and very old ponzi. It's ok. And as a more general argument, crypto does have utility. For circumventing capital controls, buying drugs or laundering money. So there will be constant supply of new depositors who needs that and willing to pay. I would not bet on crypto…
65
“Crypto drainer” template facilitates theft
Crypto Drainers are phishing pages that lure victims into signing malicious transactions that allow the attacker to siphon their crypto and NFTs.
66
Facebook’s Libra is still dead – Diem to be sold off for spare parts
Maybe Libra was just very stupid. Because it was a blockchain project started by bitcoiners. Maybe it was always just dumb as hell.
67
On the dangers of cryptocurrencies and the uselessness of blockchain
Earlier this month, I and others wrote a letter to Congress, basically saying that cryptocurrencies are an complete and total disaster, and urging them to regulate the space. Nothing in that letter is out of the ordinary, and is in line with what I wrote about blockchain in 2019. In response, Matthew Green has…
68
Web 3.0 – The Great Con
I'll say it - web 3.0 is a meaningless buzzword, and blockchain and cryptocurrency is nothing more than a giant fraud.
69
70
Crypto, the Left and Technofeudalism
Rare is the person who could expertly comment – in a single interview! – on the rise of NFTs and their origins in the virtual worlds of gaming, the logic of the emerging regime of techno-feudalism, and the folly of El Salvador’s Bitcoin-heavy negotiating tactics with the IMF. Luckily, we have found this person in […]
71
The endless search for a crypto use case
Are we there yet?
72
Cryptocurrency off-ramps, and the shift towards centralization
The 'off-ramps' from crypto—that is, the firms who will exchange your cryptocurrencies back into traditional currencies—are increasingly taking the position that is so common in discussions about privacy: 'if you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?'
73
Do Kwon in more trouble
He Sent $80 Million a Month to Secret Wallets Before Terra Luna Crashed
74
Boston Fed releases report, source code of digital currency prototype study
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Digital Currency Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today released the findings of their initial technological research into a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The published research describes a theoretical high-performance and resilient…
75
Bitcoin drops below $20k, Ether cracks $1k – what this means
A huge Rube Goldberg machine slapstick custard pie clown car, where each custard pie triggers three more custard pies.
76
Web 3 is Flawed
My opinions on Web3 and why it is flawed
77
78
Terrible things I'd do with your money
In some of Daniel Kahnemann's books and any other business advice-type articles, you always seem to read the same argument: The thing important people all over the world would like to see is incr
79
Real Problems That Web3 Solves, Part 1
Social recovery wallets introduces new ways to authenticated with our own owned identities.
80
Blockchain-based systems are not what they say they are
If you go out seeking to learn why blockchains and the systems built atop them are apparently the future of our web, you’ll begin to see some common themes. These fall apart under further scrutiny.
81
Earn $200K by fuzzing for a weekend: Part 1
By applying well-known fuzzing techniques to a popular target, I found several bugs that in total yielded over $200K in bounties. In this article I will demonstrate how powerful fuzzing can be when applied to software which has not yet faced sufficient testing.
82
Crypto firm Bitpanda lays off around 20% of its people
We unfortunately needed to announce that we’re letting part of the team go during a call earlier today. We made this incredibly difficult decision to ensure that we stay true to Bitpanda’s mission and keep building the leading investment platform in Europe and beyond.
83
Are cryptocurrencies to blame for high GPU prices?
Lately I'm paying more attention to the crypto currency and "DeFi" spaces, again. One discussion that comes up regularly: are miners to blame for the high GPU prices? To add some facts to this discussion, I’ve done a small analysis of GPU and crypto currency prices to determine if they are related.
84
85
An embeddable and customizable fiat-to-crypto onramp
Let customers instantly buy crypto within your Web3 app.
86
87
88
Are blockchains decentralized?
A new Trail of Bits research report examines unintended centralities in distributed ledgers Blockchains can help push the boundaries of current technology in useful ways. However, to make good risk decisions involving exciting and innovative technologies, people need demonstrable facts that are arrived at through…
89
90
