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Hacker Steals $950,000 from Crypto Vanity Address as Exploits Continue

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 27, 2022

According to PeckShield, a blockchain security firm, a hacker has stolen $950,000 in Ether (ETH) from an Ethereum “vanity address” generated with a tool known as Profanity. The matter was reported on Monday.

The hacker stole 732 Ethereum on September 25 and sent it to the authorized digital currency blending administration Cyclone Money, as indicated by on-chain data from PeckShield. Here the funds were blended in with other cryptocurrencies and removed to the programmer’s own wallet.

The hack was done through weaknesses associated with the popular Profanity vanity address generator. While vanity addresses are made through an instrument called Obscenity, this strategy for generating such addresses makes them simpler to penetrate through a beast force assault. The penetration requires a ton of processing power and may be counterbalanced by how much cryptographic money is in the wallet.

In the aftermath of the attacks, the developers’ team behind Profanity took steps to ensure that no one continued using the tool.

The exploit was done in a similar way Wintermute was exploited last week. On Tuesday, September 20, the U.K.-based algorithmic crypto market maker Wintermute was hacked and lost $162.2 million in DeFi operations. A vulnerable private key generated by the Profanity app was attacked in the Wintermute hack.

The Profanity vulnerability has been known since January. Still, the decentralized exchange 1inch Network disclosed the apparent risk on September 13 and warned Twitter crypto community members about the risks facing the Profanity wallets.

Last week on September 18, attackers executed a similar hack that saw $3.3 million worth of cryptocurrencies stolen from users of a vanity Ethereum wallet. The hacker managed to steal the tokens from a number of Ethereum addresses that were generated with the Profanity tool.

According to Certik blockchain cybersecurity company, about $273.9 million has been lost this year because of compromised private keys, making the method one of the largest attack vectors.

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Active Addresses of Ethereum Hit Monthly High with $22B Being Staked before the Merge

by Blockchain NewsSeptember 16, 2022

Ethereum (ETH) continues to be at the centre stage after undergoing its biggest software upgrade called the Merge, which saw a transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Active ETH addresses have skyrocketed after hitting a monthly high. Market insight provider Glassnode explained:

“The number of active ETH addresses (7d MA) just reached a 1-month high of 31,498.220. Previous 1-month high of 31,459.899 was observed on 17 August 2022.”

Source: Glassnode

With weekly social engagement levels surging by 53%, active addresses were deemed to increase based on the speculation triggered by the much-anticipated Merge.

Nevertheless, Santinent acknowledged that there was heavy dominance of two addresses. The crypto analytic firm stated:

“According to our Ethereum Post Merge Inflation dashboard, 46.15% of the proof-of-stake nodes for storing data, processing transactions, and adding new #blockchain blocks can be attributed to just two addresses. This heavy dominance by these addresses is something to watch.”

On the other hand, hodlers had heavily staked in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract prior to this event. Crypto analyst Ali Martinez pointed out:

“ETH hodlers have staked more than 13.7 million ETH in the Eth2 Contract ahead of the Ethereum Merge, that’s more than $22 billion.”

Source: Glassnode

After the Merge went live, it did not trigger a bullish momentum in the Ethereum network as anticipated. The second-largest cryptocurrency was down by 9.69% in the last 24 hours to hit $1,458 during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

Therefore, Ethereum needs to hold the current level to avoid a slip to $1,000. Market analyst Matthew Hyland stated:

“Ethereum is currently sitting on the neckline of the Head and Shoulders pattern Breakdown Target: $1000.”

Source: TradingView/MatthewHyland

Therefore, time will tell how Ethereum plays out in the post-Merge era.

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Tagged : #ETH / Address / Cryptocurrencies / ETHER / Ethereum / Market Analysis / Merge / PRICE ACTION

Ethereum Address Activity Continues Scaling the Heights

by Blockchain NewsAugust 1, 2022

Ethereum (ETH) has been experiencing an uptick in address activity, which has been instrumental in propelling notable momentum.

“The number of ETH addresses holding 32+ coins just reached a 17-month high of 117,257. A previous 17-month high of 117,244 was observed on July 27 2022,” Crypto analytic firm Glassnode explained.

Source: Glassnode

Glassnode also pointed out:

“The number of Ethereum addresses holding 1+ coins just reached an ATH of 1,566,309 Previous ATH of 1,566,270 was observed on 27 July 2022.”

Source: Glassnode

ETH addresses holding more than ten coins also hit historic highs. This uptrend in address activity has played an instrumental role in instigating the bullish momentum witnessed in the Ethereum network.

For instance, the second-largest cryptocurrency was up by 11.09% in the last seven days to hit $1,691 during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

The recent revelation that the most probable date for the merge would be September 19 has also been pivotal in giving Ethereum an uptick.

The merge is expected to transform the Ethereum network into a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from the current proof-of-work (PoW) framework, which has been elusive for a few years.

The PoS algorithm will enable the confirmation of blocks in a more cost-efficient and environmentally friendly way because validators will stake Ether instead of solving a cryptographic puzzle.

Therefore, the merge is anticipated to be the largest software upgrade on the Ethereum network.

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Tagged : #ETH / Address / Analysis / ETHER / Ethereum / Market

Ethereum Hits 6-Week High amid Addresses in Profitability Surging

by Blockchain NewsJuly 29, 2022

Ethereum (ETH) reached highs of $1,770, a scenario has last seen on June 10 as more momentum continues trickling into the network.

Market insight provider Santiment pointed out:

“Ethereum had a big Thursday, soaring above $1,770 for the first time since June 10th. This spike was just two days after ETH hinted at a big move following its AllTimeHigh in address activity, breaking over 1 million for the first time in history.”

Source: Santiment

Even though Ethereum had retraced to $1,715 during intraday trading, the second-largest cryptocurrency continues to enjoy an uptick in address activities.

For instance, the number of non-zero addresses has been scaling heights. Crypto analytic firm Glassnode explained:

“The number of non-zero ETH addresses just reached an ATH of 84,626,207.”

Source: Glassnode

This suggests that more participants are joining the Ethereum network, given that daily active addresses recently reached historic highs, Blockchain.News reported.

On the other hand, the bullish momentum ETH undergoing has triggered increases in profits to reach a monthly high. Glassnode noted:

“The number of Ethereum addresses in profit (7d MA) just reached a 1-month high of 47,590,069.435. Previous 1-month high of 47,585,913.821 was observed on 25 July 2022.”

Source: Glassnode

An uptick in address activity coupled with the recent merge news seems to have triggered the current upward trend in the Ethereum ecosystem.

During a recent developers’ call, the most probable date for the merge was announced as September 19.

The merge is expected to transform the Ethereum network into a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism from the current proof-of-work (PoW) framework, which has been elusive for a few years.

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Tagged : #ETH / Address / Analysis / Cryptocurrencies / ETHER / Ethereum / Market / Merge / PRICE ACTION / Profitability

Social Dominance on Bitcoin Takes the Lead, BTC Addresses Created Hitting 1 Billion

by Blockchain NewsJuly 14, 2022

Bitcoin continues to be a trending topic among investors due to high social dominance levels, according to Santiment.

The market insight provider explained:

“The ratio of discussions related to Bitcoin vs. all crypto topics has risen swiftly on social media. BTC’s social dominance is now at its highest point since June 2021. Historically, focus coming back to BTC is a good sign for crypto bulls.”

Source: Santiment

Santiment believes these escalated levels of social dominance are bullish as Bitcoin continues hovering around the psychological price of $20K.

The leading cryptocurrency was down over 1% in the last 24 hours to hit $19,783 during intraday trading, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin addresses surge to the 1 billion mark

According to on-chain insight provider Glassnode:

“The total number of Bitcoin addresses ever created just went above 1,000,000,000. Current value: 1,000,002,559.”

Source: Glassnode

The number of BTC addresses created does not necessarily mean the number of owners because a person can have more than one address.

Santiment echoed similar views that the number of Bitcoin addresses is continuously scaling heights, showing more market participation. Santiment pointed out:

“The number of Bitcoin addresses holding 10+ BTC has ramped up, particularly since the mid-June drop. In the past 30 days, these addresses have increased by 1.12%. There are 149.2k addresses holding 10 or more BTC, the most held since February 2021.”

Source: Santiment

More participants joining the market is a bullish sign because this might create more demand, given that Bitcoin has not yet created a resilient bottom based on its back and forth around the $20K region.

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Tagged : Address / Bitcoin / Crypto / Cryptocurrencies / SOCIAL DOMINANCE

Know Your Bitcoin Address: Differences between Legacy, Nested SegWit and Native SegWit formats

by Blockchain NewsJanuary 13, 2021

When transferring Bitcoins, we all need to communicate with the receiver’s Bitcoin address. Bitcoin addresses are anonymous and do not contain information about the owner. Almost everyone who has been in contact with Bitcoin for a period of time has dealt with different types of Bitcoin addresses.

Anyone can generate Bitcoin addresses for free. You can also use an account in an exchange or online wallet service to obtain a Bitcoin address. You can also choose to generate it offline and store it on paper or in a hardware wallet, but do you know that there are three types of Bitcoin addresses? they are, respectively:

Legacy (P2PKH) format

The address starts with “1”, which is the address format used by Bitcoin since its original source, and it is also the most common address format . As for P2PKH, it is an abbreviation of “Pay To PubKey Hash”.

Nested SegWit (P2SH) format

Addresses start with “3”. From this format, we can’t distinguish whether they are MultiSig addresses or Segregated Witness compatible addresses. P2SH is the abbreviation of “Pay To Script Hash” and  it supports more than Legacy Functions with more complex formats , such as specifying multiple digital signatures to authorize transactions.

Native SegWit (Bech32) format

The address starts with “bc1” and belongs to the local SegWit address format, an address format developed specifically for SegWit. Some exchanges may not yet have an address that supports this format. At present, there are three types of Bitcoin addresses in this format. The Bech32 format is the least common of the three.

Since more transaction data can be stored in a single block, and the Bech32 format address itself is compatible with SegWit, no extra space is needed to put the SegWit address into the P2SH address, so the average cost of sending Bitcoin from this address may be lower .

Bech32 was defined in BIP173 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, used by Bitcoin code developers) at the end of 2017. One of the main features of this format is that it is case-insensitive (the address only contains 0-9, a-z), so when you enter the address it can effectively avoid confusion and make it easier to read. Since the address requires fewer characters, the address uses Base32 encoding instead of the traditional Base58, which makes the calculation more convenient and efficient. Data can be stored more closely in the QR code.

Bech32 provides higher security, better optimizes the checksum error detection code, and can minimize the chance of invalid addresses.

What is SegWit?

SegWit is a soft fork that occurs on the Bitcoin blockchain. SegWit (Segregated Witness) is an upgrade protocol developed by the Bitcoin community in 2015 to solve the scalability problem faced by the blockchain network. It was officially implemented in August 2017. Its central idea is to reorganize block data so that signatures are no longer stored with transaction data, so that more transactions can be stored in a single block to increase the transaction throughput of the network.

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Tagged : Address / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Legacy / NATIVE SEGWIT / NESTED SEGWIT / Wiki