http://bitcoinbarbie.com/official-statement-from-the-cryptonote-team-regarding-exploit-and-monero-attack/

Official Statement from the CryptoNote Team Regarding Exploit and Monero Attack

It was brought to my attention thanks to our own Kendrick Bitz that last week a community member going by the name of “Bitcoin EXpress” was threatening to exploit CryptoNote and attack Monero.
BitcoinEXpress, a hero member of the BitcoinTalk Forum, carried on in a thread about how he is going to exploit CryptoNote and Monero, claiming that a user’s private key gets exposed when passing through a ring signature. If this were to be the case, this could have a chilling effect on all CryptoNote coins – not just Monero.

This incident has created a lot of concern within the community, seeming to be a topic of discussion for many and quite possibly influenced a price decline with Monero and other CryptoNote coins over the past week.

So, we spoke with Catherine Erwin, CryptoNote’s Communications Manager, about the potential exploit to bring clarity to the community. This is what she had to share exclusively with BitcoinBarbie.com:

“We would like to refute the statement on the potential private key vulnerability. The security of CryptoNote’s technology is based on the infallibility of mathematical functions such as discrete logarithm problem or the Diffie-Hellman problem. The CryptoNote whitepaper and protocol is based on the well-known cryptographic primitives. There are no new cryptographic assumptions which could result in the private keys being exposed to a 3rd party. Moreover, there is nothing new in the one-time ring signatures concept. It corresponds to a well-known scheme called traceable ring sig which is referred to in the list of references of the whitepaper.

“CryptoNote is always watching out for incidents such as the one you have brought to our attention. The CryptoNote technology allows the creation of cryptocurrencies and for the last few years we’ve been working to make CN the most reliable and secure platform.
“However, on this particular occasion we haven’t found any indication of an exploit. We cannot exclude the possibility that certain individuals have been deliberately spreading rumors in order to mislead users that are not well versed in CryptoNote’s technology.”
This is not the only time BitcoinEXpress has threatened the community. Just over a week ago, EXpress said that he would take Poloniex, a popular crypto-currency exchange, down with a ddos attack – and he successfully did shortly after making the claim. As a result, everyone participating in the discussion and aware of this problem became increasingly worried when he went on to further threaten to perform a 51% attack on Monero last Saturday.

Fortunately for all CryptoNote users, this time it looks like BitcoinEXpress was bluffing. Monero was not attacked and all CryptoNote coins safely live on to prosper for those that would like to use them, without exposing any ring signatures.
“CryptoNote is complex and certain individuals may try to capitalize on the fact that not everyone is well informed about its mechanics,” Catherine further explained. “Should there be any questions about CryptoNote, please, feel free to contact us through email or CN forum http://forum.cryptonote.org.”

Remember: Don’t listen to the hype!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The only way to defeat the BCX attack, is by pure hash power. I have analyzed this whole situation over the past days and only come to one conclusion. To win this war, in practical we need to put up as much hashing power possible. There is no programming error that can cause any double spend, as long as the hashing power is distributed we will all be safe. Consensus always wins.

To secure Monero and earn XMR from mining:
1. Put all your mining rigs on XMR.
2. If you do not have a mining rig, start cloud mining. We need as many people as possible to turn hash rate to Monero.  

Here is a guide for cloud mining Monero written by jwinterm. It assumes you have setup an account at https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/ and linked your credit card.

1) Click on EC2, and then click on Spot Requests under Instances on left sidebar.

2) Click Request Spot Instances blue button near top, and then click Community AMIs and search for XMRminer. Select XMRminer2.

3) For Instance Type, select GPU instances g2.2xlarge, click next and set your maximum price (kind of expensive now, need to do like
$0.09 per hour, used to be more like $0.06).

4) Click Review and Launch and then click Launch. At this point you need to setup your ssh keys. I did this a while ago, so I don't remember exact details, but it should be pretty straightforward. Here is a link to Amazon's official tutorial on key pair creation:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-key-pairs.html
Let me know if you have issues.

5) Make yourself a cup of tea and wait 30-120 seconds while your instance is prepared.

6) You'll need to ssh into your instance. On Linux you just put your ssh keys in ~/.ssh and set permissions for 400 (I think), and if you ssh from that folder, that's all you need to do. I think on Windows, using Putty, you need to maybe convert the key to putty's format using an extra putty tool. Let me know if you need additional help with this. Here are Amazon's official links on how to connect if you're having trouble:
ssh/Linux - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstancesLinux.html
Putty/Windows - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/putty.html
More Putty - http://docs.aws.amazon.com/gettingstarted/latest/wah-linux/getting-started-deploy-app-connect.html

7) Click on Instances in the left sidebar, and you should see a g2.2xlarge instance with green circle that says running. Click that and then click Connect at the top, and it should give you your IP address to connect to with some instructions.

8 ) On Linux your ssh command should look like:

Code:

ssh -i aws1.pem ubuntu@54.191.192.111

Use ubuntu as user not root.

9) Maybe it's more like 180-300 seconds. Drink some tea while waiting.

10) When it prompts you to permanently add key, click "yes".

11) Now, you need to edit cpustart.sh and gpustart.sh in your home directory using either vi or nano, unless you want to mine to my XMR address It looks like if you want to mine directly to exchange, just replace my XMR address in both files with YourExchangeXMRAddress.YourExchangePaymentID.

12) You need to run two commands, one to make gpuminer work, and other to make cpuminer much faster:

Code:

sudo ldconfig /usr/local/cuda-5.5/lib64
sudo sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=24

13) I just made another script called start.sh to launch both miners at once, and it seems to work. So do:

Code:

touch start.sh

then vi or nano start.sh and add:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
screen /home/ubuntu/cpustart.sh
screen /home/ubuntu/gpustart.sh

then:

Code:

chmod 755 start.sh

and then launch with:

Code:

sudo screen ./start.sh

You need the screen so that when you disconnect your ssh session, the miners keep mining.

That's it. You can disconnect and both miners should be hashing away. You can ssh back in and run

Code:

ps -A

and you should see minerd and ccminer listed in the processes somewhere near the bottom.

If you want to launch a shitload of instances, then obviously you want to automate this process and not do it manually every time. In this case, you need to make sure you edit the files so that they have your XMR address and not mine, and create the start.sh script in home directory, then edit the rc.local file by doing:

Code:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

and add the following lines:

Code:

ldconfig /usr/local/cuda-5.5/lib64
sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=24
screen /home/ubuntu/start.sh

This way, as soon as the instance boots up, it should autolaunch the miners. I haven't tried this final automation part (as I don't normally launch a shitload of instances), but I think this should work, and I'm gonna verify it now.

Now, go back to your EC2 console, right-click on the g2.2xlarge instance in your Instances window, and select Create Image. This will sever your connection and cause a reboot, but you will now have your own image/AMI that you can launch 10s or 100s or 1000s of, just by entering however many instances you want when filling out your spot request form.

I just tried the rc.local thing, and it seems to auto-launch ccminer and minerd

Current hash rate: 16,655,833 H / s


UPDATE: Please consider SOLO mining, if you have to use pool make sure to use backups. BCX will try to DDOS pools in order to gain more control of the network in order to successfully execute the attack. BCX took down poloniex just minutes ago. Instructions for solo mining with private pool here

Episode about CryptoNote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qEi5fQcVak - 20 minute in.

rethink-your-strategy was one of the first to talk about Moneros legitimacy.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=740112.0

cr_zoidberg one of the developers of Boolberry, made a lot of commits:
https://github.com/cryptozoidberg/boolberry/commits

I am looking forward to a technical episode of LetsTalkBitcoin talking about the CryptoNote tech in general and it's legitimacy recognized by mathematicians and developers around the world along with comparison of CryptoNote v.s other anon technologies.

More suggestions to honor developers of the CryptoNote protocol is welcome.
Poll run for 7 days, so until next Monday.
You can change your vote at any time.

Andreas Autonopolus mentions it in this podcast around 20 minutes in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qEi5fQcVak

smoothie wrote this in the Monero Speculation thread.

Okay sorry for the continued off-topic smooth...

Yes there are regulatory issues for funded coins (funded by me) and these coins would need to be buyer-funded as I currently do with all of my coins now where I never hold customer coins.

For all future questions and to be respectful to smooth, If you folks have questions please PM me or create a thread to discuss it. Currently I am still considering the idea but nothing is concrete as I like to make sure I have everything in order and tested before I start any sort of production of this type of product.

Mahalo

Here we discuss how to make it happen. Will it be the same thing as loading a physical LTC? Will it be in any other material other than silver/gold? What fits for XMR?

There is really a need for a blockchain.info but for Litecoin, I would like to invest/fund a replicate of this service for Litecoin. Not only a blockchain explorer, but a wallet exactly like Blockchain.info where you can import private keys online. People in the Litecoin community have not done this because there is a challenge making it work with Litecoind, but right now with Electrum released for Litecoin I believe this would be possible.

Is anyone up for this challenge? Please pm with price. Don't be afraid to ask for much compensation for the work, I know there is a lot of work that can be involved.

Since git (and, by extension, github) can be confusing to developers that are working on Monero code (or on any git repositories, really), one of the Monero key contributors, tewinget, will be hosting a Git Crash Course next week Wednesday, July 30th. He will be joined by fluffypony, and all interested are invited to attend. It will be broadcast through Twitch, and questions and discussions will happen in #monero-dev on Freenode during the course. It's going to be relaxed and informal, so if you want to know how to use git properly it's well worth tuning in. It will start at 2pm EST (6pm UCT). Feel free to invite anyone that you think will benefit from it!

Poloniex Welcomes New Monero (XMR) Markets

Monero is the First Altcoin to get its Own Market Pairings since Litecoin on Poloniex.com
WHITEFISH, MT, July 23, 2014 — Poloniex.com announced today that the company will offer new market pairings with Monero (XMR) to Poloniex customers, beginning on Wednesday, July 23rd 2014.

Monero, a private, secure, and untraceable cryptocurrency based on the CryptoNote protocol, has been the most actively traded cryptocurrency on Poloniex nearly every day since the addition of the XMR/BTC market. “Since its debut, Monero has been trading in huge volume and has demonstrated impressive resilience during market fluctuations,” Poloniex owner, Tristan D’Agosta stated. “Couple that with an active and strategic development team, and expanding our XMR pairings simply made good sense for our customers.”

“We could not have dreamed of a better exchange to host the first XMR market,” stated an exuberant David Latapie, a core team member of Monero. “With the recent onslaught of fraudulent cryptocurrencies, we knew Poloniex had toughened their acceptance criteria for inclusion in their market listings. So for an exchange with such rigorous standards to open multiple XMR market pairings, it’s a vote of confidence for the Monero development team. We are excited for what’s ahead.”

Monero continues to be actively mined today. Currently traded at .00503000 BTC per coin, Monero’s nethash is at approximately 15.950 MH/sec with difficulty at 940 million, according to Monerochain.info. “Miners appreciate that our proof-of-work algorithm decreases the performance gap between CPU and GPU mining, allowing CPU miners to still mine relatively efficiently,” stated Latapie. “They believe Monero’s value will rise as its usefulness and utility increases, and the Monero team is firmly committed to delivering world-class solutions for Monero investors. We’re in it for the long-haul.”

Starting on July 23rd, Poloniex will open the following eight Monero market pairs: BCN/XMR, DIEM/XMR, DRK/XMR, IFC/XMR, LTC/XMR, MAID/XMR, NXT/XMR, and QORA/XMR.

https://www.poloniex.com/press-releases/2014.07.23-Poloniex-Welcomes-New-Monero-XMR-Market

Coinmarketcap.com was a really good site before when you could choose if you wanted to show Ripple, the motivation was "So many people wanted to have Ripple in this poll". Of course all people that want to change that will care to vote on it, because poll have been linked at the Ripple forums to pump up the price. But for what reason other than greed? Ripple is centralization of internet currencies by being premined to 99%

And was it a majority that voted in this poll other than Ripple holders?

Bitcoin is going to continue with it's bear market. I predict LTC/BTC moving up fast the comings weeks. I base this on LTC getting added to two major bitcoin exchanges, first BTCChina already added and then we have Huobi.com officially declared that they would add Litecoin see www.huobi.com

The Bitcoin and Litecoin trading speculation is very important for both bitcoin and litecoin to fully serve its function as a store of value. Never have we had two commodities on internet before, and I really think the existence of Litecoin is important and that role of silver will play an important role to Bitcoin. So people really continue to see both Bitcoin and Litecoin as a store of value, even when a new better version of Bitcoin is created.


I expect to see LTC going to atleast 0.038 LTC/BTC before May.

www.cryptoave.com

[Take a look at our introductory video here : http://youtu.be/K5rCE4br5c4]

http://digitalcoin.co/forums/index.php/topic,625.0.html

We have decided to sell of 10% of our shares in Coinmart before launch, much in the same way as CryptoAve.  Shares give you the right to claim declared dividends. All net income will either go to retained earnings for building reserves, or be declared as dividends and distributed proportionally. But first what is Coinmart? Take a look at our introductory video here : http://youtu.be/K5rCE4br5c4 or view the images below.

Press :

Cryptosource.org : http://cryptosource.org/coinmart-co-a-cryptocurrency-marketplace-for-btc-ltc-dgc-in-development/
Cryptocoinsnews.com: http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/2013/12/23/bye-bye-bitmit-hello-coinmart/

SPECS

Shares available = 10,000 (10% of the planned shares)
Minimum bid per share = 3 DGC
Minimum increment = 1 DGC
Shares per auction round = 1,000 shares

FORMAT

To make it clear that you are bidding, start your post with BID. There will be 10 rounds of bidding. Each round has 1,000 shares. A round ends when there are no higher bids for 12 hours. The winner of each round receives 1,000 shares.

If you want to bid 10 DGC per share, you would do so by multiplying the 1,000 shares available per round by the DGC per share you are bidding.

Example
BID: 1,000 shares @ 10 DGC per share = 10,000 DGC

WINNERS

The top bidder will be declared the winner.

Link: http://digitalcoin.co/forums/index.php/topic,625.0.html

Bitcoin is dead 2011, anyone?    

Try www.Litecoinlocal.org

New site like Localbitcoins but for Litecoin.
www.Litecoinlocal.org

Update 2014-02-21: Site is now live. www.cryptoave.com



This exchange have a very fair valuation in my opinion. Shares have been auctioned at the digitalcoin forums and is launching in november. The latest auction ended with a share price of 30 BTC for 1% of the whole exchange making the exchange valued 3000 BTC. Compare this to mcxnow, the IPO is 2000BTC lower than mcxnow IPO price.

Here is the latest auction:
http://digitalcoin.co/forums/index.php/topic,175.0.html

Some screenshots of the exchange and its features:

Hello,

We are ready to unveil the first prototype of CryptoAve.Com. The exchange is still under heavy construction and the website will remain restricted except to developers.

Features:
-Trade DGC/ARG/SRC/LTC for BTC and USD
-Merchants can accept any currency through the built in payment processor
-Advanced instantaneous trading
-Fast deposits and withdrawals of fiat
-Shares of the exchange will be sold for DGC on the exchange itself

Home page:


Trade page:


User Settings:


Registration:


Support:


Deposit:


Deposit Example:


USD Deposit:


Login:



I would appreciate feature requests, comments, and anything else you have to say.

Thank you and I hope we can change the crypto landscape together.

CROSS POSTED: http://digitalcoin.co/forums/index.php/topic,89.0.html

https://cryptostocks.com/securities/57

Ticker   CRYPTSY
Name   Cryptsy.com Exchange Fee Shares
Listed on   October 23, 2013 04:05
Owner   paul@cryptsy.com
Fee surcharge [%]   0.0%
Shares issued   100,000
Shares held publicly   1,160
Total dividends paid   0.0 BTC
Web page   https://www.cryptsy.com
Security type    Shares
Rating   White
Description:   
Cryptsy offers shares of the Cryptsy exchange trading fees.

Cryptsy will offer 100,000 non-dilutable fee shares for a price of 0.05 BTC per share at IPO.

Each share represents 0.0002% of the trade fees collected.  For example, if Cryptsy collects 100 BTC in trade revenue, each share would receive 0.0002 BTC.

Dividends will automatically appear in shareholders’ CryptoStocks accounts every Friday around 17:00 EST. 

Why is Cryptsy Raising These Funds?

We are seeking capital to help us fulfill regulatory compliance and file licenses in all the US States which require us to be registered as an MSB.   It is estimated that this process will require around $1M in capital.   Fulfilling these requirements will allow us to offer Fiat Currency on our exchange.   We currently only trade in Crypto-Currency to Crypto-Currency pairs.

What does the future hold for Cryptsy?

Offering Fiat in our exchange will rapidly increase our trading fee income, which would also be passed along to the shareholders.   

We currently are collecting in fees over 100 BTC per month.    We estimate that by bringing Fiat currency to the exchange we will increase our revenue by 10-20 fold almost instantly (within 90 days to allow for licensing).   This equates to fee income of 1000 to 2000 BTC per month within 90 days and increasing as more users migrate from other services.   At 2000 BTC monthly income, each share would receive 0.004 BTC per month - which would give a full return on investment within 1 year.

We currency have over 13,000 users, and over 3,500 users in the United States.  A very large portion of our user base has expressed that we would be their exclusive exchange once we begin offering Fiat currency exchange.

Is this offering required by Cryptsy to get Fiat Currency listed?

No.  This will just speed up the process.   We are already in the process of our first state application (Florida).  We expect to be licensed in Florida within 30-90 days.  There is an enormous amount of paperwork involved in the process.   Here are some of the things we are doing now:

- Register with FinCEN (Done)
- Create a company AML program (Done - currently being reviewed by legal)
- Open an MSB bank account.  These are special bank accounts required for companies engaging in MSB activity.  (In Process - Expected to be done within 30 days)
- Have our financials audited by a 3rd party CPA (In process)
- Meet minimum net worth requirements for state licensing (We currently meet this minimum for most states.  There are a small number of states, such as California, that require a $500k minimum net worth - which we have not yet met)
- File application in first state (Florida) - We are currently waiting on audited financials and final draft of the AML program before filing.
- Once we have been approved in Florida, it will then be easier for us to follow with filing in the other states that require it.   I believe in all there are 43 states that require licensing.  If we raise enough capital, then we will be able to file all states concurrently.

Is Cryptsy seeking other methods of funding?

Yes.  We are also looking at more traditional methods of funding from private individuals and firms.   We are not, however, looking at making any "shark tank" type of deals.

Will Cryptsy ever perform any kind of buy-back program?

It is very likely that 6 months to 1 year down the road we will buy back some shares in order to increase our retained earnings.  This will only apply to those shareholders who actually wish to sell.

Where is Cryptsy located?

We are located in Delray Beach, Florida, USA.   See our "About Us" page on our website for our physical address.

How do I know if Cryptsy is paying out the correct dividends?

Our API can provide you with trade activity.  You can use this information to calculate for yourself what the collected trade fees where if you are in doubt.

Why didn't you list "Fee Shares" on your own exchange as some other sites have?

Because we are located in the US, we must comply with US laws.   Offering a securities exchange on our website would place us under SEC rules, and that is just not something we want to deal with right now.

Is there a time limit on the IPO shares?

I will likely retract any unsold shares after 30 days.  So get them now instead of waiting.

When is the first payout?

The first dividend payout will be October 25th.

Do we get more of the dividend if not all the shares are purchased?

No.   However I will likely give bonus dividends to early buyers in appreciation.

I just want to announce I am creating a new platform for litecoin to be traded locally. This is very important for litecoin, as a site to trade litecoin for cash will always be needed and it's good to have alternatives to localbitcoin.com.

Does anyone wanna help? In particular with design. Hit me up with suggestions for logo and site layout and I will award the best with 25 LTC.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a cool name?

Please post all design contributions here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoin/comments/1omvja/creating_a_new_localbitcoin_platform_but_for/

http://cryptolife.net/an-in-depth-look-at-feathercoin-the-coin-that-started-it-all/

[EDIT: This post was done by a hacker that took control over my account. I had not changed my password on bitcointalk and I had an easy one. I have no regained control over the account. Ignore this post.]

I am looking for empoyees for a new bitcoin blacklist. this would be a blacklist of addresses that clients would reject transactions from. if an address is proven to be the FBI, a scammer, or bitcoin is stolen it will be added to this address. employees will be paid with 0.01 BTC per address submitted.

EDIT: This post was done by a hacker that took control over my account. I had not changed my password on bitcointalk and I had an easy one. I have no regained control over the account. Ignore this post.

[EDIT: This post was done by a hacker that took control over my account. I had not changed my password on bitcointalk and I had an easy one. I have no regained control over the account. Ignore this post.]

Bitcoin will not succeed to the masses if the first thing someone hears is gambling or drugs. The Silk Road seizure was the best thing that ever happened to Bitcoin - it hurt the image temporarily, but in the long term Bitcoin without illegal narcotics is good for the success of Bitcoin. However, there are many gambling sites that are still in existence. For Bitcoin to succeed, we must get rid of these sites.

I recommend bitcoin users stop playing unregulated internet gambling and report these sites to your authorities. Anything illegal is not good for bitcoin


EDIT: This post was done by a hacker that took control over my account. I had not changed my password on bitcointalk and I had an easy one. I have no regained control over the account. Ignore this post.