On November 12, 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote his last message on Bitcoin Talk. As he told a developer, Nakamoto “had moved on to doing other things.”

Satoshi Nakamoto, pseudonym of the creator of Bitcoin, remains a mystery. Nakamoto sent his last message on the Bitcoin Talk forum In November 2010. The enigmatic developer reported a correction in Bitcoin Core and then made no further public appearances on the internet.

“There is more work to be done in DoS, but I am doing a rapid development of what I have so far in case it is necessary, before venturing to more complex ideas”, were the opening words of that message from Satoshi that would also be the last thing he ever said on the internet.

There, the father of Bitcoin explained a series of changes to the code to avoid DoS (denial of service) attacks. He also indicated that further work on the matter was still required.

The absence of the creator of Bitcoin did not go unnoticed

Satoshi’s absence in cyberspace after that message did not go unnoticed. “Bitcoin Talk” participants wondered if they would hear from him again. “I don’t know anything about Satoshi. Did anyone know him? I mean seeing it day by day. He could have won the lottery, died, or been in a coma,” no one exactly knows what to say about him because he remains unknown to everyone.

Some emails that Nakamoto sent to some of the developers of the Bitcoin code before and after his public disappearance came to light recently. Anyone can read these messages in the compilation The Book of Satoshi.

The last person to have a private exchange with him was Gavin Andresen. This developer decided that he would only publicly share the last email he received from Satoshi, dated April 26, 2011:

I wish you did not keep talking about me as a mysterious shadowy figure; the press just treats bitcoin as some kind of pirate coin. Instead, you could put more emphasis on the idea that it is an open-source project and give more emphasis to the contributions of your collaborators, which would help motivate them.

Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin

A lot of things have made Bitcoin evolve since then without the guidance of Satoshi Nakamoto: SegWit, Lightning Network, side chains, halvings, and proposals for improvement, agreements, disagreements, forks, and the emergence of other cryptocurrencies, massive creation of exchanges, institutional investments, and increase of the price.

Behind all this, the essence of Bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto established remains intact, he kept this “peer-to-peer system of electronic money” exactly as he imagined.

Satoshi stated in the Bitcoin whitepaper on November 1, 2008, that this cryptocurrency allows “online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without having to go through a financial institution.”

“You could start in a narrow niche like reward points, donation tokens, currencies for a game, or micro-payments for adult sites. It can be used initially in proof of work applications for services that could almost be free, but not entirely.” Said Satoshi Nakamoto on January 17, 2009.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The Chinese company Nervos launched a trust bridge, which design works as a simplifier of cross-chain transactions between its CKB network and Ethereum´s.

The Chinese blockchain project Nervos has announced the launch of a cross-chain bridge between the company and Ethereum. The Nervos Force Bridge launch was revealed on December 17; The bridge boasted native support for ERC-20 tokens and frictionless transfers between the Ethereum chain and Nervos’ CKB chain.

The team says that what inspired this project was the item” Force Staff”, a tool from a very popular MOBA game called Dota 2, that allows users to push and force a forward movement in objects or other Players through the scenario.

Nervos claims that its trustful architecture simplifies the steps to execute cross-chain transfers, describing other bridges as requiring the deployment of “a new asset on the target chain, registering the address in Ethereum, and specifying the relationship between the transfer of assets” to achieve cross-string functionality.

Instead, developers simplify every effort to a point of no needing any integration to grant access to Force Bridge, as the Nervos bridge only requires users to deploy the ERC-20 to initiate asset transfers, with native CKB support for ERC smart contracts. -20 that do not require further steps for the execution of the contract. Nervos co-founder Kevin Wang said:

“Interoperability is, and will always be a main focus of the Nervos team as we develop our infrastructure to support the next generation of DeFi applications.”

Ethereum users can access Force Bridge directly from their wallets. The team hopes Ethereum developers will look to the Nervos network as an expansive tool of their actions in the crypto-ecosystem and DApp user base.

Ethereum’s growing success amid the boom in the DeFi sector in Q3 and the December launch of Eth2’s beacon chain has inspired many prominent blockchain projects to unveil the bridges between their networks, and Ethereum.

The Nervos Network

The Nervos Network involves the entire ecosystem of Nervos and is a set of protocols, layer 2’s, and public blockchains supported by the Nervos CKB and CKByte token. A core design principle at Nervos is that layer 2 solutions such as side-chains, plasma chains, and state channels play the role of saviors when it comes to looking for the best way to scale a blockchain system.

Rather than compromise the decentralization and security of the base layer through largely untested and novel consensus mechanisms to reach higher performance and TPS, Nervos utilize layer 2 solutions that can bring nearly unlimited transaction skills and capabilities as well as a minimal transaction cost to a layer 1 blockchain that’s designed to be safe and decentralized.

The Only Way to Solve the Scalability Trilemma.

Parallel to several deployments currently being worked on by the Nervos team – enterprises, developers, and most users are welcome and cheered to utilize the CKB so they can deploy layer 2 solutions, apps, protocols, and even blockchains.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The deadline for that prediction is “late 2021.” According to the executive, Bitcoin will succeed first as a store of value, and then as a means of payment.

Pierre Rochard directs the area of Bitcoin strategy at the Kraken exchange. The executive stated that “more than 50% of the S&P 500 companies will have Bitcoin on their balance sheets.” His prediction was specific since he said that this will occur “by the end of 2021.” He noted that he considers Bitcoin “a more fearsome asset than gold itself.”

This finance graduate explained that “many people reexamined the system, questioned the fundamentals, and reconsidered what is happening, as a monetary response to the COVID-19 crisis.” In this scenario, he considers that Bitcoin has an advantage over other assets.

“Big investors and [institutional] investment allocators are really open-minded people and want to understand Bitcoin before making a decision,” said Rochard. “I am sure that if they understand Bitcoin better, their decision will be a yes,” he added.

The analysis of recent events served as the foundation for Rochard’s expectation about institutional adoption. “We have market data that show this,” he explained.

According to Kraken’s director of Bitcoin strategy, there will be “a lot of corporate adoption of Bitcoin and even cases like what [MicroStrategy CEO] Michael Saylor is doing.” He also says that “there will be corporations that will issue large amounts of bonds, fixed income instruments, convertibles, among others, to buy Bitcoin in bulk.”

In 2020, the MicroStrategy Company formally adopted Bitcoin (BTC) as its main reserve asset. They have 70,470 BTC, which is equivalent to almost USD 2 billion.

The CEO of that company, Michael Saylor, also owns at least 17,732 BTC as a personal reserve asset. According to the executive, he made the purchases before the organization that he directs did.

Bitcoin’s Price Volatility

Kraken’s director of strategy expressed his point of view on one of the characteristics of Bitcoin that lead many to stop adopting it: its price volatility.

“I think volatility will continue, which is predictable as Bitcoin is a fixed-supply asset,” said Rochard. However, he assumes that volatility will decrease as more large, long-term investors enter the ecosystem.

“As these big players enter, they could help to stabilize the price. However, it will stabilize upwards since they are interested in holding (saving) rather than in selling. Some of them are not interested in going in and out daily, but they want to keep their investment for 50 years,” said Rochard.

Bitcoin as a Reserve of Value Rather Than a Means of Payment

The also founder of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute and host of the Noded Bitcoind podcast, said that an increasing number of companies will join the Bitcoin standard and start using the cryptocurrency as a treasury reserve asset. He explained that they will then “want to receive payments in Bitcoin to avoid the transaction costs of having to convert US dollars into Bitcoin.”

For this reason, this disseminator of topics related to Bitcoin believes that people will adopt this cryptocurrency as a store of value rather than use it as a means of exchange in common use.

Rochard is convinced that “Bitcoin will be the next world reserve currency”, which is why he recently published the Bitcoin Hodl Act. This bill contains two forms for its application (as an amendment to an existing law or as a new Section) and would allow US federal agencies to keep savings in Bitcoin.

The finance specialist stated that “some governments are going to be constructive concerning cryptocurrencies, given that they have more to gain than to lose.” He added that “big institutional players hoard hundreds of millions of US dollars worth of Bitcoin, which is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Rochard predicted that “what we will see are sovereign wealth funds that hoard Bitcoin and energy countries that will enter mining.” He stressed that “only Venezuela is doing mining at the state level, but we will eventually see the entry of countries like Saudi Arabia or Russia.”

By Willmen Blanco

The predictions about blockchain technology for 2021 might bullish. However, many factors will have to fit together for everything to work well.

One of the objectives of blockchain technology is to guarantee the security of the cryptocurrency transaction system. However, multiple industries currently use that concept.

As this technology promises increased security and productivity, organizations are increasingly interested in implementing it. Therefore, they see it as a strategic priority for 2021.

Blockchain technology provides trust in all kinds of digital environments. It allows partnerships, companies, and customers to create and exchange value without the need for a trusted central authority.

For that reason, in some supply chain industries, the application of blockchain technology has the potential to make a difference.

In its 2020 Global Blockchain Survey, Deloitte states that “50% of the companies surveyed consider blockchain technology to be one of the top strategic priorities.”

In an increasingly digital commercial environment, blockchain technology facilitates the direct purchase and sale of any product, service, or idea without the need for intermediaries.

Likewise, it helps verify the authenticity of a process or develop transparent and reliable digital voting processes.

For example, the oil and gas industry will take advantage of the potentiality of this blockchain technology to secure complex process operations.

Other sectors, such as education, also use blockchain technology. This will allow academic institutions to deliver certificates through links that they will send to students.

Similarly, there is the case of Peloton, the fitness company that has swept during the lockdown as an alternative to the closing of gyms. Platoon, which is based in New York, offers for sale products such as exercise bikes, treadmills, and an app.

Other Technologies Join

There is a wide range of opportunities to investigate crime and counter potential attacks by cybercriminals through the use of blockchain technology.

Analysts predict that the damage that cybercrime causes in 2021 will be USD 6 trillion, that is, double that in 2015.

Likewise, a renowned New York law firm and the Blockchain platform lead the creation of litigation financing with blockchain technology, better known as Initial Litigation Offering (ILO). The community expects its premiere to occur during the first quarter of 2021

Thailand’s tax collection agency will also use blockchain technology to streamline tax payments in 2021.

Blockchain Technology in 2021

Analysts estimate that blockchain technology may have applications in other sectors such as intellectual property, food security, and asset management.

There are also suggestions that Blockchain technology could profoundly impact the art, music, and creativity space by examining artworks to identify forgeries.

Market Research Company Forrester published its predictions about blockchain technology for 2021. The report predicts that 30% of global projects will go into production next year. They predict this, in part, due to the impact that the coronavirus has had.

In this regard, Martha Bennett, main analyst at Forrester, noted that “this takes time, resources and effort.”

Allistair Rennie, CEO of the IBM blockchain, spoke about the prediction that 30% of corporate-level blockchain projects will go into production by 2021. He considers that this is consistent with what IBM has seen with its customers so far.

“Customers are realizing that there is a need to accelerate their digital transformation to emerge stronger than before,” said the executive.

By Willmen Blanco

The council of the European Union is asking technology companies for technical solutions for the authorities to gain access to the data. The cryptocurrency ecosystem is waiting for regulatory proposals.

A resolution calling for new rules to regulate end-to-end encryption (E2E) in Europe saw the light of day on December 14 by the Council of the European Union; a body made up of ministers from the 27 eurozone countries.

The document is seeking to create pressure on the European Commission to propose legislation against data encryption. In this sense, it justifies the need for new rules by stating that “law enforcement increasingly depends on access to electronic evidence to effectively fight terrorism, organized crime and child sexual abuse online.”

Therefore, the Council asks technology companies to find ways to limit data encryption so that police and security agencies can quickly access a suspect’s messages or devices.

In its resolution, the Council of the European Union indicates that, although it agrees to take advantage of the advantages that the encryption system offers, it considers it preferable to develop technical solutions that could allow the authorities to use their researching powers.

Therefore, it considers that using encryption should be subject to proportionality, needs, and judicial control of the authorities, following the current legislation in Europe.

“Electronic evidence can be essential, not only for successful investigations but also for protecting victims and helping to ensure safety. There are cases in which encryption allows access and analysis of the content of communications in the context of access to extremely challenging or practically impossible electronic evidence even though access to such data would be lawful.”Council of the European Union.

The Idea of ​​The Organism is that Messaging Applications, Such as Whatsapp or Telegram, Allow the Authorities Access to Back Doors.

These companies use an encryption system that scrambles each message. End-to-end encrypted messages do not remain on the servers, so they are not accessible to anyone, not even the police. This is exactly what worries the European Union, and that is why it wants to have access to all this encrypted data.

The main argument is that E2E encryption poses “serious public safety risks.” Consequently, they see as something negative that this type of encryption “prevents legal access to the content of communications in any circumstances.”

The request set its argument on the conclusions of the European Council in October this year. The funds from the Recovery and Resilience Service will be useful to promote goals such as improving the EU’s ability to protect itself against cyber threats.

Encryption occupies the authority of various governments around the world.

It is not the first time that European Union countries dared to consider the creation of legislation against encryption. There were attempts in 2015, with the European Agenda on Security; and several regulatory petitions in 2016. Nothing materialized due to protests from tech companies, academics, and ordinary people.

This is why it is believed that the EU Council now takes a more subtle approach and does not present clear proposals in its resolution, limiting itself only to asking for a new legal framework and technical solutions. It is an interest in regulating the E2E encryption that not only occupies the authorities of the European Union but of various parts of the world.

Two months ago the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, India, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, issued a joint statement. They expressed concern about using this technology, even though they consider that it “plays a crucial role in the protection of personal data, privacy, intellectual property, trade secrets, and cyber security.”

The controversy is also present in the United States with the draft of the so-called “EARN IT law.”The proposal, approved in October by the Senate, calls for digital messages to go through government-approved scanning software first to grant easier access to malicious criminal activity.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

Access barriers to Orion, computer systems monitoring software, were breached. Suspicions are against the Russian government and Russian hacker groups.

Security agencies and investigations of the United States officially confirmed cyberattacks against the Government of that country.

The cybersecurity of the Treasury and that of the Department of the States, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Health, and National Security respectively were attacked. The attack lasted from March to mid-December; during that time, relevant information on the registration of movements in these organizations suffered.

The attack also injured the companies FireEye, Think Tank, and SolarWinds. The latter, a provider of computer services, was the entry point for the attackers.

On December 16, SolarWinds announced that its systems “suffered a highly sophisticated manual attack on the supply chain of its Orion software.” As a consequence, government entities saw their security compromised. The investigation of the facts is ongoing.

SolarWinds Company offers network monitoring and other technical services to companies and organizations around the world. Its clients include government agencies from the United States and also from countries in Europe and Asia.

Russian Might be the Authors

“The FBI is investigating and gathering elements to attribute prosecute and interrupt the work of the responsible actors,” said the investigative agency in a statement. “The FBI is engaging with known and suspected victims, and the information obtained through these efforts is up to provide hints that will push network advocates and our government partners to take actions against this threat,” the department added.

On the other hand, CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) took immediate action and issued an emergency order instructing all federal agencies to disconnect or shut down all potentially affected SolarWinds Orion products.

“CISA remains in regular contact with the Government, the private sector and international partners, providing technical assistance upon request and making available the information and resources necessary to help that affected recover quickly from this incident,” the FBI reported.

SolarWinds argues that the attack had features that suggest that it was devised by state agencies of a foreign nation. The information SolarWinds released so far shows that the suspicions fall mainly on groups of Russian origin.

According to the Washington Post, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation and the group of hackers Cozy Bear, also known as APT29, would be behind this attack. For Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, who takes this hypothesis of a Russian attack for granted, the event is a “virtual declaration of war.”

Cyberattacks are becoming a common practice

Espionage and cyber-attacks between nations and against international organizations are common practice. The United States does not refrain from conducting them; the Donald Trump administration authorized the CIA to carry out computer attacks against specific targets. Since 2018, the Agency has conducted at least disruptive operations, hacks, and cyber-attacks against Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea.

Attempts to attack the United States are not uncommon either, although these are usually neutralized. For example, as jointly reported by the FBI and CISA last week, attacks aimed at “targeting US organizations conducting COVID-19-related investigations” were detected. Those responsible, according to this statement, would have a relationship with the Government of China.

These actors have been observed, and their actions show that they attempt to identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property and public health data related to vaccines, treatments, network testing, and personnel involved in COVID-19-related research. The possible theft of this information jeopardizes the delivery of safe, effective, and efficient treatment options”. This was a statement from the FBI and CISA.

By: Jenson Nuñez.