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Infrastructure

$100,000 in Cash or LINK Tokens will be Provided for Responsible Disclosure of Critical Vulnerabilities in Chainlink Codebase

Decentralized Oracle network developer Chainlink (LINK) has expanded its software bug bounty program.

Chainlink notes that in order to ensure their decentralized Oracle Network continues to offer smart contracts access to a secure and reliable external data source, they are pleased to confirm that the Chainlink Bug Bounty Program has been extended to now offer $100,000 in cash or LINK tokens for the “responsible disclosure” of critical vulnerabilities in the Chainlink codebase.

Chainlink bug bounties will reportedly be available via Gitcoin and HackerOne and will aim to support individual app developers and security engineering teams who intend to contribute to the “resilience” and “robustness” of the Chainlink Network.

By working cooperatively with the online security community, Chainlink users are offered “additional assurance” that the Oracle infrastructure their smart contracts depend upon has “not only been audited by multiple professional firms but has also been reviewed by numerous independent developers who have a large incentive to explore every line of code.” This “expansion of financial support for the Chainlink Bug Bounty Program applies to all existing bounties across multiple marketplaces,” the announcement revealed.

The Chainlink Gitcoin Bounty Program is accessible here: https://gitcoin.co/issue/smartcontractkit/chainlink/3239/100023497

The Chainlink HackerOne Bounty Program can be found here: https://hackerone.com/chainlink

The main goal or purpose of extending this Bug Bounty Program is to increase the support of the “whitehat” developer and security community for their “continuous hard work, as well as ensure Chainlink’s core infrastructure can become even more robust and resilient against potential vulnerabilities.”

As mentioned in the update by Chainlink:

“As the most widely used decentralized oracle solution in the smart contract space, we take security measures extremely seriously, and are always looking to increase the number of eyes that are reviewing the Chainlink codebase as a means of further protecting user funds and the DeFi ecosystem as a whole.”

Through this particular program and initiative, Chainlink says it’s “most interested” in addressing possible vulnerabilities related to the Solidity-powered smart contracts and Golang/TypeScript-based Chainlink “core node” software modules.

Chainlink added that any issues or problems that could result in the integrity of a Chainlink node or network being “compromised” should be addressed. Other serious, high-priority issues may include misreporting data, experiencing downtime, or the “direct loss of funds.”

For reports directly impacting a Chainlink node via a publicly accessible surface (like over the p2p network or using an on-chain request), the program will offer an “additional bonus.”

Chainlink added:

“By leveraging the powerful ability of the open-source community to come together and collectively review a common codebase, the Chainlink Network continues to improve in tamper-resistance, ensuring it can continue to scale up in total value secured and protect the DeFi ecosystem today and well into the future.”

Chainlink recently revealed that after more than a year of development and many different security audits, their Off-Chain Reporting (OCR) has now launched on mainnet. This marks a key milestone in the “scalability” of Chainlink’s “decentralized” Oracle networks. OCR considerably enhances the overall efficiency of how data is “computed” across different Chainlink Oracles, lowering operating costs as much as 90% and “enabling the Chainlink Network to accelerate the development of universally connected smart contracts both in DeFi markets and across various other industries.”

(Note: for more details on this announcement, check here.)

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MC Payment Ltd becomes First Digital Payments Company to be Listed on Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Catalist

MC Payment Limited has revealed that it’s now listed on the Singapore Exchange’s (SGX) Catalist. The company claims that it’s the first digital payments platform to be listed on Catalist.

With a market cap of around S$139 million (appr. $105.4 million), the listing of MC Payment Limited brings the total number of firms listed on Catalist to 218, with a total market cap of about S$11 billion ($8.34 billion).

Based in Singapore, MC Payment Ltd is a Fintech firm that offers merchant payment services and e-commerce enabling solutions, with a special focus on servicing clients who are merchants in the retail, transportation and food and beverage sectors.

MC Payment Ltd maintains a business presence in several different Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Anthony Koh, CEO at MC Payment Limited, stated:

“As the first digital payments company to be listed on SGX, today marks an exciting start to MC Payment’s new growth chapter. Our listing comes at an opportune time, with digital payments in the region surging amidst the rise in online transactions, following safe-distancing measures imposed by the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Mohamed Nasser Ismail, Global Head of Equity Capital Markets, SGX, noted that they are pleased to welcome the listing of MC Payment Limited on SGX Catalist and will be supporting the “growth ambitions” of Singapore’s homegrown tech firm.

Ismail added that as a payment processing platform with properly developed infrastructure and the appropriate licenses across Southeast Asia, MC Payment is “well-positioned to tap on SGX’s fundraising platforms and Singapore’s technology hub status as a launchpad into the region.”

Founded in 2005, MC Payment Pte Ltd is an e-payment solution provider with headquarters in Singapore.

The company mainly works with acquiring banks and solution providers to provide merchants a “secure” and “compliant” processing platform.

MC Payment says it aims to solve all our payment problems. The company processes payments locally and globally with its wide range of payment methods, cross-border processing services and international payment network.

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Cross-Border Payments Fintech Tranglo Continues to Expand Operations Globally to Support Local Businesses

Malaysia-based Tranglo, a cross-border payment firm, has established four new payment channels that are connected to financial networks in Brazil, Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. The payment corridors mark the Fintech firm’s first entry into Sub Saharan Africa and Latin American (LatAm) regions.

Tranglo’s management stated that they plan to do their part in reducing the overall cost of remittance payments in these areas.

World Bank data shows that Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most expensive regions to send money to, averaging around 8.5% per transaction to send $200 during Q3 2020. Meanwhile, it costs around 5.8% of the transaction to send the same amount to Latin American regions.  The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals has recommended lowering the cost of transactions to 3% by 2030.

Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda reportedly ranked 1st, 2nd, and 7th respectively in the world’s list of top 10 largest remittance recipients in the region last year, according to World Bank data. Remittance inflows for these countries was valued at $25 billion (or 43% of the total value of such payments in the region).

Tranglo’s network in these areas is supported by major online wallets, instant banking services, and cash pickups as well.

Meanwhile, remittance inflows to Brazil were valued at $3 billion last year. Despite projections of the global decline in remittance payments due to the COVID outbreak, Latin America has been fairly resilient, especially Brazil, which reported no contractions in growth during 2020.

With around three-fourths of remittance payments in Latin America originating from the United States, Tranglo had initially expanded operations to the North American markets via strategic partnerships with established players, which included integrating their international transactions infrastructure with Tranglo’s API.

Tranglo’s Brazil-based network includes direct bank transfers and cash pickups.

Tranglo’s single interface platform is supported by domestic and international partnerships, and it is currently accessible in more than 23 countries.

Jacky Lee, CEO at Tranglo, stated:

“It is just the first of many to come. We are already planning to expand into countries like Mexico and Argentina next, bringing our cross-border payment solutions to even more businesses in the region and beyond. We are also focusing on enhancing e-wallet support to stay ahead in the digital economy, so stay tuned for more exciting development this year.”

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Can banks be their own bank? Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon plan custody services

As multiple banks prepare crypto custody services, holders now have to flip an old Bitcoin saying on its head: are the banks prepared to be their own (and others’) bank? 

Last week BNY Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, announced they would be providing custody solutions, ceding to pressure from institutional investors. Likewise, documents from December indicate that Deutsche Bank is also planning a custody solution, along with trading and token issuance services.

However, while both banks are well-established and have experience handling a wide range of assets, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re prepared for crypto custody.

“Digital assets are totally different than traditional assets like bonds, stocks, and treasury bills. Digital assets are decentralized by design and their ownership is therefore relying on a totally different model that cannot reuse the existing centralized infrastructure of the traditional banking world. To custody crypto assets you need a brand new infrastructure in place,” said Jean-Michel Pailhon, the vice president of business solutions at Ledger in an interview with Cointelegraph.

Even for institutions that are crypto-native, custody is extremely complex. Just last year the crypto exchange KuCoin suffered from a hack that netted the attacker over $200 million. Having custody over large sums creates an attractive honeypot for would-be attackers, and according to experts not even many major crypto exchanges approach custody security properly.

“Only a few crypto exchanges like Kraken, Gemini and Binance are investing a lot of money to prove proper internal controls over their personal private keys management protocols,” Dyma Budorin, co-founder and CEO of Hacken told Cointelegraph last year.

If the big banks want to approach security right, they effectively have three options, said Pailhon.

“They can contract with an existing regulated custodian, they can build their own custody infrastructure and get it regulated, or they can buy a custody technology from a vendor and use it and get it regulated.”

Particularly if the banks opt to build their own solutions, the expenses and time can pile up quickly. The banks will have to hire dedicated developers, “allocating large investments for infrastructure” including data centers and servers, and run the regulatory gamut — a process that alone can take “6-12 months.”

“The level of efforts and investments required to provide an institution with an enterprise-ready self custody solution is substantially higher than for an individual. It requires slightly different technologies and governance processes to secure billions of dollars in digital assets,” he added. 

Regardless of the route the banks take, Pailhon says that it’s a sign of crypto’s growing legitimacy that banks like BNY Mellon want to provide custody solutions. Additionally, as crypto’s total marketcap grows and the value of assets for institutions and even some individuals soars, secure custody solutions will become increasingly important.

“You can’t protect 5, 10, or 50 billion dollars in bitcoin with a garage-based server or an air-gapped computer located in a bunker in the Appalachian mountains. You have to put in place a fully redundant, resilient, secure, certifiable, and auditable custody infrastructure that can scale and empower millions of users and support hundreds of thousands of digital asset transactions in a month. The future success and adoption of digital assets and of the digital asset management industry will depend on this.”

Can banks be their own bank? Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon plan custody services

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DeFi growth and potential Grayscale YFI security push Yearn.finance to $45.9K

In the early hours of Feb. 11 Yearn.finance (YFI) experienced a high volume spike which pushed the price to a new all-time high at $45,900. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that YFI hit a swing low at $33,638 on Feb.10 before experiencing a 26% breakout of 26%.

The move appeared to be motivated by a corporate registration filing with the State of Delaware which showed Grayscale Investments registering the LLC for a Yearn finance trust similar to its Bitcoin and Ethereum products.

A range of new partnership announcements and further expansion of its vast DeFi ecosystem are also factors that may have catalyzed YFI’s surge to a new high.

YFI/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

VORTECS™ data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro began to detect a bullish outlook for YFI on Feb.7, prior to the recent price rise.

The VORTECS™ score, exclusive to Cointelegraph, is an algorithmic comparison of historic and current market conditions derived from a combination of data points including market sentiment, trading volume, recent price movements and Twitter activity.

Cointelegraph Markets Pro – VORTECS™ Score (green) vs. YFI price

As can be seen on the VORTECS™ chart above, after seeing its price decline in the early hours on Feb.10 the YFI community had a significant announcement, and prior to this announcement the VORTECS ™ score registered 48, then rose to 66 as YFI price broke out from $35,000 to $42,500 in the hours that followed.

In an effort to help the YFI protocol become the most expansive decentralized finance ecosystem, Yearn also announced a partnership with Badger DAO, whose purpose is to build the necessary products and infrastructure that will help accelerate Bitcoin as collateral across other blockchains.

Together, Yearn.finance and BadgerDAO hope to build the “best-in-class Bitcoin vaults” for the DeFi space that will allow BTC holders to fully integrate and participate in the growing DeFi movement.

The partnership will also help ensure sustainable yields for Badger vaults while allowing Yearn users to earn a healthier compensation, amounting to a win-win for both communities and the DeFi ecosystem as a whole.

Grayscale Investments filing gives YFI an added boost

Yearn price received further attention on Feb.11 when it was revealed that Grayscale Investments registered an LLC for a prospective Yearn Finance (YFI) Trust, indicating that mainstream financial investors may soon have access to the governance token.

Institutional investors are thought to be the primary force propelling the current crypto bull market and announcements that signal their investment into particular assets like YFI tend to generate a temporary pump in price and sentiment.

What is yet to be determined is whether today’s YFI rally was a buy the rumor, sell the news event.

DeFi growth and potential Grayscale YFI security push Yearn.finance to $45.9K

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