crypto twitter

Ethereum researcher says staking reveals IP address, sparking privacy concerns

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation says he had “internally” discovered that staking Ether reveals a user’s IP address information.

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation has revealed that the IP addresses of Ether (ETH) stakers are monitored as part of a broader set of metadata, causing the cryptocurrency community to flag Ethereum for privacy concerns.

In an April 12 interview on the crypto podcast Bankless, EF researcher Justin Drake revealed that he learned this information “internally” — presumably, at the foundation.

The metadata Drake referred to is used to track a wide range of things, he explained:

“There’s a lot of metadata, you can look at deposit addresses, you can look at withdrawal addresses, you can look at fee recipients, you can look at IP addresses.”

Drake’s comments appeared to have taken Bankless host Ryan Sean Adams by surprise.

“So it’s a fairly Sybil resistant dataset of your most involved Ethereum citizens?” Adams asked.

“Exactly,” Drake responded.

The conversation was initiated when Drake predicted that “special airdrops” may become available for solo stakers — but not the industry heavyweights:

“Then you can identify, okay, we know who Kraken is, we know who Coinbase is, and we can just not give them an airdrop if the purpose of the airdrop is to airdrop to specific individuals that are running solo validators.”

The conversation caused a stir on Crypto Twitter.

Related: Crypto privacy is in greater jeopardy than ever before — here’s why

One Twitter user referred to Ether as the “real surveillance coin,” while another mocked Drake by sarcastically rehashing him: “We can stop censorship by censoring those we don’t like.”

Another described the situation as “central governance to a T.”

To resolve the privacy concerns, one Twitter user suggested that Ethereum users take on-chain privacy responsibilities into their own hands by installing a Linux operating system, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and storing crypto assets on a hardware wallet such as Ledger:

It isn’t the first privacy-related statement to have caused a stir in the crypto community either.

ConsenSys, the team behind Ethereum wallet MetaMask, began collecting IP addresses in November. The policy amendment was made to ensure that the firm could comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies where necessary.

Cointelegraph contacted Drake and the Ethereum Foundation for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

Ethereum researcher says staking reveals IP address sparking privacy concerns

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation said he had “internally” discovered that staking Ether reveals a user’s IP address information.

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) revealed that the IP addresses of Ether (ETH) stakers are monitored as part of a broader set of metadata, causing the cryptocurrency community to flag Ethereum for privacy concerns.

In an April 12 interview on the crypto podcast Bankless, EF researcher Justin Drake revealed that he learned this information “internally” — presumably at EF.

The metadata Drake referred to is used to track a wide range of things, he explained:

“There’s a lot of metadata, you can look at deposit addresses, you can look at withdrawal addresses, you can look at fee recipients, you can look at IP addresses.”

Drake’s comments appeared to have taken Bankless host Ryan Sean Adams by surprise.

“So it’s a fairly Sybil resistant dataset of your most involved Ethereum citizens?” Adams asked.

“Exactly,” Drake responded.

The conversation was initiated when Drake predicted that “special airdrops” may become available for solo stakers — but not the industry heavyweights:

“Then you can identify, okay, we know who Kraken is, we know who Coinbase is, and we can just not give them an airdrop if the purpose of the airdrop is to airdrop to specific individuals that are running solo validators.”

The conversation caused a stir on Crypto Twitter.

Related: Crypto privacy is in greater jeopardy than ever before — here’s why

One Twitter user referred to Ether as the “real surveillance coin,” while another mocked Drake by sarcastically rehashing him: “We can stop censorship by censoring those we don’t like.”

Another described the situation as “central governance to a T.”

To resolve the privacy concerns, one Twitter user suggested Ethereum users take on-chain privacy responsibilities into their own hands by installing a Linux operating system, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and storing cryptoassets on a hardware wallet such as Ledger:

It isn’t the first privacy-related statement to have caused a stir in the crypto community either.

ConsenSys, the team behind Ethereum wallet Metamask began collecting IP addresses in November. The policy amendment was made to ensure that the firm could comply with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) where necessary.

Cointelegraph contacted Drake and the Ethereum Foundation for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

Crypto spam bots go silent while Musk promises to prosecute scammers

Some users in the crypto Twitter space are already reporting a reduction in the number of scam bots after Elon Musk’s latest changes to the social media platform.

Elon Musk’s latest salvo in his war against crypto spam bots on Twitter appears to have made a real impact, with the crypto community reporting a vast reduction in the number of bots responding to their posts. 

In a Dec. 11 post, the Twitter CEO hinted that “bots are in for a surprise tomorrow” and later explained that they’ve found a small number of people behind a large number of bot/troll accounts and the platform will be shutting down IP addresses of “known bad actors.”

He then followed up by explaining that while scammers might try other methods to circumvent the IP address block, Twitter will be “shutting them down as soon as they show up.”

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of Billy Markus, co-creator of meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE), told Musk in a Dec. 11 post, “I made a test post and instead of seeing 50 bot replies I only saw one much progress, very hype.”

Other users also went to test Musk’s latest changes. PlanB, a Bitcoin (BTC) analyst and investor, posted a chart to see how many bots would reply. At the time of writing, no responses from bots had shown up in the comments. 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also noted that while “Twitter *seems* to be marginally better to use lately,” he couldn’t tell if there had been a reduction in bots due to Musk.

“No idea how to separate apart stuff Elon did vs crypto-winter vs my brain imagining changes that aren’t actually there,” he said.

Some have reported that the bot responses still show up on posts, but are very quickly removed by the platform. 

Related: ‘Twitter will do lots of dumb things’ in the coming months: Elon Musk

Twitter spam and scam bots have been a plague on the platform and were seen by Musk as one of his top priorities for Twitter after taking the helm in October.

In his latest post, Musk also hinted that the platform will be aiming to take legal action against scammers on Twitter in the future, though didn’t offer any additional details.

“Twitter will also be moving to prosecute scammers anywhere on Earth,” he said.

Crypto spam bots go silent as Musk promises to prosecute scammers

Some users in the crypto Twitter space are already reporting a reduction in the number of scam bots after Elon Musk’s latest changes to the social media platform.

Elon Musk’s latest salvo in his war against crypto spam bots on Twitter appears to have made a real impact, with the crypto community reporting a vast reduction in the number of bots responding to their posts. 

In a Dec. 11 post, the Twitter CEO hinted that “bots are in for a surprise tomorrow” and later explained that they’ve found a small number of people behind a large number of bot/troll accounts and the platform will be shutting down IP addresses of “known bad actors.”

He then followed up by explaining that while scammers might try other methods to circumvent the IP address block, Twitter will be “shutting them down as soon as they show up.”

Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym of Billy Markus, co-creator of meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE), told Musk in a Dec. 11 post, “I made a test post and instead of seeing 50 bot replies I only saw one much progress, very hype.”

Other users also went to test Musk’s latest changes. PlanB, a Bitcoin (BTC) analyst and investor, posted a chart to see how many bots would reply. At the time of writing, no responses from bots had shown up in the comments. 

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also noted that while “Twitter *seems* to be marginally better to use lately,” he couldn’t tell if there had been a reduction in bots due to Musk.

“No idea how to separate apart stuff Elon did vs crypto-winter vs my brain imagining changes that aren’t actually there,” he said.

Some have reported that the bot responses still show up on posts, but are very quickly removed by the platform. 

Related: ‘Twitter will do lots of dumb things’ in the coming months: Elon Musk

Twitter spam and scam bots have been a plague on the platform and were seen by Musk as one of his top priorities for Twitter after taking the helm in October.

In his latest post, Musk also hinted that the platform will be aiming to take legal action against scammers on Twitter in the future, though didn’t offer any additional details.

“Twitter will also be moving to prosecute scammers anywhere on Earth,” he said.

Crypto Twitter uses new AI chatbot to make trading bots, blogs and even songs

A few simple prompts to a recently released AI chatbot is all Crypto Twitter needs to create trading bots, an investment thesis and a crypto-themed song.

The crypto community appears to be having a ball with ChatGPT, a recently launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot created by research company OpenAI — using it for a multitude of applications including a trading bot, a crypto blog and even an original song.

The bot is a language interface tool that OpenAI says can interact “in a conversational way” and can be used to answer questions or assist in making almost anything it’s prompted to create, with some limitations.

A user on Twitter posted their interaction with ChatGPT showing that from a simple prompt the tool created a basic trading bot using Pine Script, a programming language used for the financial software TradingView.

Another user gave the bot instructions to create a trading terminal, with ChatGPT writing code that could display the current orders for the Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) trading pair on Binance utilizing the crypto exchange’s application programming interface (API).

Cointelegraph previously tested ChatGPT and found the tool could create an example smart contract. Meanwhile, other users discovered the AI could detect and either assist in patching or exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts. However, it was noted the code generated by the bot wasn’t always correct.

Crypto Twitter has not only utilized the AI tool for technical purposes but also for more creative and even business endeavors.

ChatGPT responded with a five-part answer when asked by one user what the blockchain industry needs to do “in order to positively affect society,” Twitter user “Goose Wayne” opined the bot “can write your crypto investment thesis now.”

The co-founder of investment firm Multicoin Capital, Kyle Samani, tweeted his results on asking ChatGPT to write a blog post on how crypto payments will grow in the future, the tool responded with a multi-paragraph article.

Another lengthy opinion article was written by the AI on how Monero (XMR) “improves on Bitcoin’s technology,” with the user who posted the result opining “ChatGPT is going to put a lot of crypto bloggers out of business lol.”

Related: Al tech aims to make metaverse design accessible for creators

Meanwhile, some Twitter users have used the tool to create music, Web3 entrepreneur Jay Azhang posted a “song about losing money in crypto” written by the bot:

Multiple other examples of ChatGPT’s use have been posted to Twitter, from its answers on how to choose a good crypto project, grow a Twitter audience within the nonfungible token (NFT) community and even an email where it acts as a crypto hedge fund warning users it’s illiquid because of the collapse of FTX:

The tool is free for now as its “a research release,” according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but that may not last for long, as he said in a Dec. 5 tweet that the costs to run the tool are “eye-watering” and will have to be monetized “somehow at some point.”

‘Everything is fine’ — Gala Games calls for calm after fears of multi-billion dollar hack

Gala Games said the unusual activity of its pGALA token was actually part of efforts to safeguard it from potential attack.

Blockchain gaming company Gala Games urged its community for calm after misplaced fears of a  multi-billion dollar rug pull or hack caused the GALA token to temporarily crash 25.6%.

The initial panic, which Gala Games later implied was unfounded, came after a single wallet address appeared to mint over $2 billion GALA tokens out of thin air — which was flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield on Nov. 3.

Fears that the unusual activity was a sign of an exploit or rug pull caused the GALA token price to drop a dramatic 25.6% from $0.0394 to $0.0293 over a 130-minute stretch late on Nov. 3, according to data from CoinGecko.

However, Gala Games took to Twitter on Nov. 4 to dispel the “FUD” surrounding its native token, explaining that “lots of people are tossing around words like ‘hack’ and ‘rug’. Neither of these is the case.”

Gala Games president for blockchain Jason Brink explained that the unusual activity detected on decentralized exchange (DEX) PancakeSwap was performed by pNetwork, who was working to drain the liquidity pool as a means to safeguard it from a potential vulnerability.

In a separate tweet, pNetwork, the cross-chain interoperability bridge used by Gala Games on the BNB Smart Chain, confirmed that a “misconfiguration” event took place. It also responded to a tweet from Peckshield to note that it “coordinated the white hat attack” to prevent pGALA from being exploited:

The explanations appear to have quelled some panic, with the GALA token price since partially recovered from its 24-hour low of $0.0293 to now sit at $0.352.

Related: Major hack on play-to-earn crypto games a ‘matter of time:’ Report

Gala Games confirmed that all GALA tokens on Ethereum and GALA-related assets on the GALA bridge were safe. The team, along with pNetwork, informed the community of its decision to “temporarily suspend” transaction activity on the bridge.

Brink also advised not to buy pGALA on PancakeSwap “for now.”

“A new pGALA token will be created to replace the old compromised one,” which will be sent to those who owned pGALA before the pool was drained, pNetwork said.

June gloom takes on a new meaning in another 2022 down month

The addresses mainly run by active human traders have notched more than 147,000 addresses for the first time since November.

The market cap of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped another 33% in June, which is now beginning to numb the Twitter community. On the upside, many crypto traders who wanted out did so fairly aggressively from March to May. But, the less optimistic news is that the stagnancy in address activity may need to change for prices to get a running start on recovery.

Unlike April and May, the altcoin pack didn’t struggle tremendously more than Bitcoin. BTC’s 33% drop was pretty middle of the road in terms of corrections. In a vacuum, crypto bulls would prefer seeing altcoins continuing to lag, pushing more traders back toward Bitcoin as a relative “safe haven.”

Nevertheless, June was a tale of two halves. June 1-15 saw a massive 25% further downswing for Bitcoin. Comparatively, June 16-30 was looking up until the very end of the month, which now exhibits an additional 8% slide.

The $20,000 price level has shown to be both psychological support and resistance area. Therefore, a drop below (which could very well occur by the time this article is published) may quickly change traders’ outlook. Panic selling and overly eager buying should occur as soon as the $19,500 to $19,900 range is hit.

Social dominance has returned to Bitcoin and away from altcoins

So far, 2022 has served as a reality check for altcoins whose market caps have ballooned to astronomic levels in the past two years. As mentioned, Bitcoin was nothing special compared to alts in June, but it has held up better than most projects and even a few stablecoins. As a result, the spotlight shines bright on Bitcoin, as evidenced by a healthy community focus.

This phenomenon was reflected in the whole last week of June. Bitcoin was mentioned on Santiment’s social platforms at its highest rate in about four months, while the discussion around other popular assets like Ether (ETH) and Cardano (ADA) continues to diminish.

Trading returns still point to a major undervaluation of Bitcoin and most altcoins

The average 30-day trading returns on the BTC network are still very negative. And, as long they are in the yellow-green or green territory in the below chart, there is less risk in entering a Bitcoin position (or adding on to) than historical results.

Price freefalls tend to reverse if they go into the extreme low (green) territory, and that would be the ideal setup to watch for on Sanbase.

The number of whale addresses is growing rapidly

Another positive note for patient crypto hodlers, regardless of the asset, is that more and more Bitcoin shark and whale addresses are returning to the network. The addresses, mainly run by active human traders, sized 10 to 10,000 BTC, have over 147,000 addresses for the first time since November. Meanwhile, the very top-tier addresses owned primarily by exchanges (10,000 or more) showed over 100 addresses for the first time since December 2020.

And, speaking of supply moving on and off-exchange addresses, the overall trend shows BTC continuing to move away from exchanges after a brief worrisome rise in May. Now, well below 10% of coins sitting on exchanges, there is far less selloff risk (based on historical trends). And, to add to this, the amount of Tether (USDT) moving to exchanges has skyrocketed, implying more buying power at these suppressed prices.

Ethereum seeing far more negativity than any other large-cap asset

Not to be ignored, Ethereum has had a well-documented 76% retracement since its all-time high in November. When looking at the ratio of positive vs. negative commentary being scraped by our social data algorithm, there appears to be a stunning dropoff in positive comments in early June. The 37% price drop between June 9 and 13 was the culprit and the last straw for many traders. As counterintuitive as it may seem, these “last straws” is what the community at Santiment expects to see for the market to stage a comeback.

Cardano is also seeing the equivalent of slowly rolling tumbleweeds around its network. The number of unique addresses interacting on the Cardano network is down to its lowest in about a year. The sentiment is gradually sinking for Cardano as well, which is likely due to a simple absence of discussion more than anything.

Traders heading into the second half with extreme skepticism

It is hard for the trading community to find any excitement in the abysmal price performances that continue to persist month after month in 2022. Yet, price surges happen when the mainstream casts the most doubts. Still, nothing is for certain in a sentiment-driven and often self-perpetuating sector like cryptocurrency. But, the more the crypto community is leaning bearish and proclaiming its crypto winter time, the higher the chance of a recovery underway.

Cointelegraph’s Market Insights Newsletter shares our knowledge on the fundamentals that move the digital asset market. This analysis was prepared by leading analytics provider Santiment, a market intelligence platform that provides on-chain, social media and development information on 2,000+ cryptocurrencies.

Santiment develops hundreds of tools, strategies and indicators to help users better understand cryptocurrency market behavior and identify data-driven investment opportunities.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the post are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product.