Control Of "Steem" Altcoin Network Successfully Sold Despite Challenger

Yu Chen Sun (WoT:nonperson), former Ripple “Chief Representative” in China and student of “failure education” based Hupan University, faced an attempted rape of his recently purchased Steem pre-mine on Sunday (archived, archived, archived, archived).

He executed in cooperation with the Poloniex, Binance, and Huobi exchanges Monday a counter-rape using the Steem staked on those exchanges and regained control of his altcoin's network (archived).

Steem, created by Daniel Larimer (WoT:nonperson) in 2016, was last raped that same year. Although Sun can now change the “decentralized” altcoin seemingly at will, he has announced no plans that would prevent future rapes.

Some CIA Passwords Unveiled At Trial: 123ABCdef and mysweetsummer

As the show trial of Joshua Schulte for allegedly leaking the USG.CIA's "Vault 7" hacking tools approaches its end, it has come out that the software was secured behind shared passwords including 123ABCdef, mysweetsummer, and others (archived). The security situation described at trial is such that anyone in the development group could have been the leaker making USG's case on the prosecution consist of "Schulte is the one we know was disgruntled, and he, like everyone else on the team, had the means to leak" and nothing more.

Bitstamp Plays With Novelty Segwit Only Bech32 Addresses

Bitstamp has annouced the addition of novelty segwit only Bech32 addresses to their platform (archived). Segwit involves cleaving the ever important transaction signatures from inclusion in Bitcoin blocks through a set of rules precariously enforced at the convenience of miners. With the signatures cleaved, transactions opting for the lower segwit security standard feature a space saving "spend by anyone" script when added to the Bitcoin blockchain. Continue reading

US Stock Indexes Take Worst Weekly Losses Since 2008

Losses have continued on US stock markets this week in their worst performance since October 2008. The Dow Jones ended down 12.4% in a week that included Thursday's all time high single day point drop of 1191. The S&P 500 ended the week down 11.5% losing 3.2 trillion USD in market cap. The Nasdaq became 10.5% smaller this week.