Symbiont Hires Cryptographer Who Broke SHA-1

Smart contracts startup Symbiont has hired a cryptographer best known for her work in detailing how to break the SHA-1 hashing algorithm as its new chief security officer. Dr. Lisa Yin, who will also serve as chief cryptographer, was one of three academics to publish a 2005 paper outlining an attack on SHA-1. In the eleven years since, further research has been published highlighting attacks on the hashing algorithm, and in recent years tech firms have called for its retirement. Yin also served as chief editor of the IEEE P1363 project, which develops and publishes standards for public-key....

Counterparty founders have joined with MathMoney f(x) and its founder Mark Smith as co-founders of the new fintech company Symbiont. Symbiont will focus on fostering the symbiotic relationship between traditional financial markets and cryptographic blockchain technology. "Since we founded Counterparty over a year ago, our focus has consistently been on the creation and positioning of this technology as a solution for structural issues in the larger financial markets," said Robby Dermody, co-founder of Counterparty and now President of Symbiont. "Symbiont is the next step in achieving that....

As financial institutions look to move beyond proofs-of-concept, the speed at which available blockchain solutions can process transactions is expected to play a deciding factor in adoption. In preparation for that shift, New York startup Symbiont today publicly launched its Assembly blockchain. Previously only hinted at in a demos, the blockchain solution is already being implemented by Symbiont partners including the state of Delaware and Credit Suisse. Coming in at 87,000 transactions per second during a live test on four nodes, the Assembly blockchain (or dedicated distributed ledger,....

Smart contracts platform Symbiont has closed a $1.25m seed funding round. The company - which plans to issue smart securities on bitcoin's blockchain later this year - received funds from investors including Duncan Niederauer, former CEO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Matt Andresen, former co-CEO of Citadel Derivatives Group. The startup grew out of the Counterparty project, which in turn provided support for Overstock's Medici project during its early stages. Several developers went on to leave Medici and later established Symbiont. Mark Smith, CEO of Symbiont, said in a....

Smart contracts platform Symbiont has issued its first "smart security". The announcement was formally unveiled at an event in New York today, during which the security was issued on the bitcoin blockchain. Symbiont aims to provide services in the nascent cryptofinance sector, and traces its roots to both Overstock's Medici project as well as the Counterparty project. Several developers, originally working on Medici, left that initiative earlier this year and later established Symbiont. Mark Smith, CEO and co-founder of Symbiont, said in a statement: "We are proud to be on the leading edge....