Crypto News, August 10 2018: Red Day

Highlights: Lightning Network channel experience upgrades, BCH & responsible disclosure policies, and EOS hard forks are coming.

Lighting Network Channel UX Improvements

Source: Medium

Bitrefill, an online “refill” service for things like gift cards and prepaid accounts, has proposed a solution to user experience hassles with the Lightning Network. Specifically, initiating a payment to a merchant requires the opening and closing of a channel, a time-consuming process, and the only alternative is to use standard Bitcoin payments, which require an additional transaction. The Bitrefill solution leverages two features of the Lightning Network: one, the ability to embed a “fallback” BTC address when an off-chain settlement is not possible; second, the nature of UTXO transactions. In short, a user with no payment channels can fulfill an invoice by sending payment in BTC to the fallback address, and the “change” from the transaction is used to open a new channel. This is all done in a single transaction.

The solution is described as “experimental” at the current time, and will be an opt-in feature.

BCH Chain-Splitting Bug Disclosure

Source: Medium

In a Medium post published yesterday, a Bitcoin Core developer details his discovery of and subsequent attempts to anonymously disclose a critical vulnerability in the Bitcoin-ABC software (implemented by Bitcoin Cash). In the post, he states that anonymity was preferable to the point of being required, as the use of his name would associate him with knowledge of the vulnerability should someone else discover and exploit it. He details his attempts to disclose to the BCH developer team, including looking for private channels or public encryption keys by which to send them a message, and found the resources disappointingly lacking. While he is finally able to disclose, the solution is a hacky workaround involving the creation of mutiple Github accounts. The post serves as a sort of call-to-action for cryptocurrency developers to practice more diligence in the policies and procedures in place to improve and protect their code and users.

World Bank, CBA to Issue Blockchain Bond Instrument

Source: Business Insider

The World Bank has chosen the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to be the lead arranger on a new blockchain bond instrument, called Kangaroo. They will issue the instrument on a private Ethereum blockchain; however, CBA says it is open to other chains as protocols develop. The AAA-rated bond aims to raise between $50-100 million for the World Bank’s Reconstruction & Development operations.

sparkswap: A Lighting Network Exchange

Source: Medium

A new project called sparkswap, a decentralized exchange for the Lightning Network, was announced via Medium today. According to the announcement, sparkswap offers “near instant settlement” and supports cross-chain atomic swaps - currently just Bitcoin and Litecoin, but looking to add more in the future. The project is currently in pre-alpha, with no official timeline disclosed. Docs are available at the source linked above.

EOS Forks In The Works

Source: CoinDesk

EOS forks have arrived, and frankly, the only thing we’re surprised by is how long it took. Citing the well-known issues users are experiencing with EOS, like the lack of a way to change the constitution and controversies arising from the actions of the block producers, frustrated developers are taking matters into their own hands. A project called Telos appears to be the front-runner amongst a few rival chains that have started development.

Like what you're reading? Stop by Twitch to contribute to the daily news curation. Or, check us out on Twitter and YouTube to keep up-to-date.

Written content adapted/edited by @thepinkfreudian.