Stolen Bitcoin? An Anti-Theft Feature is Getting a Second Life on Sidechains
At its core, bitcoin is about giving users better control of their money. Often called "programmable money", bitcoin has scripts that limit how future bitcoin transactions can be spent (and that control variables like who can spend them). One such script ensures the correct person is spending the bitcoin by checking if the correct signature was used before unlocking and sending the funds. This week, Blockstream core tech developer Russell O'Connor revealed he's been testing a couple of new scripts on an Elements Alpha sidechain (which is pegged to the bitcoin testnet) that could....
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SideChains. No, SideChains is not the brother of prominent rapper 2Chainz (although it could be in the future, you never know). SideChains were first announced by Adam Back and Austin Hill on Let’s Talk Bitcoin. SideChains are basically new “blockchains” pegged to bitcoin similar to how the dollar used to be pegged to gold before Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in 1973. In theory, each SideChain would service a different purpose however they would all benefit from the adoption and benefits of bitcoin. Proponents of sidechains hail it as the end of altcoins while alternative....
A long-proposed bitcoin feature called 'sidechains' may soon take a big step forward thanks to a pair of proposals. The idea behind sidechains, most associated with the startup Blockstream (whose team boasts its originators), is to make it easier to add new features to bitcoin, something that's proven difficult in the past due to bitcoin's design. In short, sidechains are supposed to make it possible for users to move bitcoins between different bitcoin-based blockchains with different rule sets. For example, in this way, new techniques for preserving the privacy of transactions or a smart....
One of the biggest franchises in the videogame industry, Grand Theft Auto, will feature in-game payments of “bitcoin” or another fictional cryptocurrency. Contractors will pay the player with this currency when they need to make anonymous, untraceable payments. This would constitute another push for Bitcoin awareness into mainstream media culture. Grand Theft Auto 6 to Feature in-Game Fictional Cryptocurrency Grand Theft Auto 6, one of the biggest gaming franchises, will feature an in-game cryptocurrency for payments according to insiders. The game will allow the player to....
The authors of the much-discussed Bitcoin Sidechains paper "Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains," released in October, formed the company Blockstream to implement sidechains and accelerate innovation in digital currencies. In November, Blockstream closed a $21 million seed funding round with nearly 40 high-profile investors. The Bitcoin Sidechains paper envisages an ecosystem of "sidechains" separate from the main Bitcoin blockchain but interoperable with it by means of two-way pegs, allowing for the transfer of assets between sidechains and the main blockchain. A....
A Twitter user claimed that they purchased a stolen NFT and OpenSea support advised them to sell it on another marketplace. As asset theft remains one of the biggest headaches in the nonfungible token (NFT) space, NFT marketplace OpenSea is making an effort to tailor its policy to incorporate additional measures against stolen items. In an announcement, the firm highlighted that its policies were made considering United States laws, where knowingly allowing the sale of stolen items is prohibited. However, the marketplace admitted that in some cases, buyers who unknowingly bought stolen....