White Hat Hacking, UBI-based DeFi project, and more!

March 6, 2022 min read
White Hat Hacking, UBI-based DeFi project, and more!

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Thank you for being a part of the Cypherock family. It’s been an unpredictable ride getting to this point. We’re excited for you to see the end result!

We often cover all the major hacks carried out across the world to keep you guys informed and secure. In this edition, we want to talk about the good side of hacking.

Team Cypherock

Security Digest

White Hat Hackers’ contribution to safer blockchains

White Hat Hackers’ contribution to safer blockchains

What are White Hat Hackers?

White hat hackers seek to discover vulnerabilities in their project’s underlying code through research of open-source software, self-owned systems, and software, or by receiving permission from developer-run ‘bug bounty programs. 🛠️

While most people may be persuaded to believe that hackers are the bad guys of the Internet, there is some good news to be had. According to Security magazine, there is a hacker attack every 39 seconds, with hundreds of thousands of innocent users falling victim to cybercrimes every year.

Recently, hacking veteran Jay Freeman was in the spotlight when he discovered one billion dollar vulnerability affecting three of Ethereum’s layer-2 networks. The issue was uncovered on Ethereum’s Optimism, Boba, and Metis development networks, which he then christened the “Unbridled Optimism.” As Coindesk reports, Optimism, Boba, and Metis had $750 million locked up in Defi at the time of this discovery, with almost all of it being reported at risk during the event. Given how severe the situation was, it’s not surprising that investors were understandably panicked.

Another such instance was when cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase came inches away from a total disaster. Luckily, white-hat hacker ‘Tree of Alpha’ managed to connect with CEO Brian Armstrong before it was too late. This kind of bug could have allowed criminals to make millions off their backs, and after just two hours of being briefed on the threat, Coinbase was back in business–an example of how white-hat hackers can really help when it comes down to safeguarding our funds!

White hat hackers go out of their way to not only seek out and expose the weaknesses, flaws, and loopholes in a project’s chosen coding language but also inform the development team of their discovery so that they can be resolved. A white hacker may arrive at this conclusion through research done on open-source software (free for all), self-owned systems and software, or through investigative rights granted to them by developer-run ‘bug bounty programs. These programs hand out rewards to hackers who can get through and point out security flaws that need fixing. Last year the US government offered $10 million worth of crypto assets. 🔥 🔥

Dapp News

GoodDollar - UBI-based DeFi Project makes it to the top!

GoodDollar - UBI-based DeFi Project makes it to the top!

There’s a new kid in the DeFi neighborhood. GoodDollar, which offers a Universal Basic Income platform for different crypto assets is shaping up to be one of the better performers at this stage. GoodDollar was able to increase its own user base significantly and move up the ranks. Now it is inching closer and closer to making 3rd place with its new innovative idea, which may be the key to their future success! The decentralized lending platform is not only the fourth largest in terms of wallet connections but has also seen quite an impressive 78% increase in newly registered wallets in the last week alone! If that wasn’t enough, they are steadily rising up on third place holder Trader Joe.

While the competition focuses a lot on transferring tokens and generating liquidity, GoodDollar offers something entirely different. These self-professed People Powered Digital Currency coin aims to provide a baseline standard of living alongside creating more wealth equality by way of releasing UBI – Universal Basic Income via G$ – The GoodDollar Token Coin. Through their people-powered framework, they are able to release benefits automatically and transparently in the form of G$. So what’s better than free money? People-powered Free Money. 💸 💸

Founded by Yoni Assia, the co-founder, and CEO of eToro, GoodDollar is a pervasively global basic income DAPP based on the Ethereum blockchain whose core purpose is to provide a baseline standard of living and reduce wealth inequality through full financial inclusion as it distributes its G$ tokens continuously as deemed necessary according to immutable scans of its users’ social media profiles using advanced machine learning algorithms. To that end, GoodDollar’s goal is to provide a universal basic income (UBI) via the GoodDollar G$ coin.

In the last 30 days, GoodDollar welcomed nearly 100k new wallets to its growing Defi ecosystem. These wallets conducted 1.38 million transactions and generated $2.8 million in volume during that time span, showing a more than 100% growth rate across both of these metrics when compared to the same time period last month – indicating our rising user base is connecting with the Defi platform and generating solid volumes right out of the gate! ⚡️ ⚡️

Creating wealth is one part of the equation, distributing the same is another. The GoodDollar project is working on a solution that is excessively important and needed right now. Let’s see how this project takes off going forward!

Twitter Tales

How to avoid getting hacked by signature attacks

Check out the tweet here.

One of the largest signature phishing attacks just happened. 1)Here’s a 🧵 on how to avoid getting hacked by signature attacks 👇 — Treasure Seeker (@treasuresETH

Reddit Reads

How to avoid cognitive biases as a crypto investor 🚩 🚩

Some cognitive biases to be aware of as a (crypto) investor from r/CryptoCurrency

Is Your Crypto Safe?

Is your crypto safe

Will your crypto get hacked? Are you going to lose your crypto? Cypherock has come up with a detailed quiz that will help you understand the pros and cons of your security model. Upon completion, you will get a detailed analysis mailed to you. Take the quiz now!

If you still wish to learn more about how you can secure your crypto better, you book a free consultation call here.

We will meet again next week. Till then, stay safe!