Tag: blockchain

Censorship of Harmful Data in Blockchains

Hartwig MayerNo Comments

Reading Time: 17 minutes

Public blockchains allow insertion of arbitrary data. Even specific-purpose blockchains like Bitcoin already contain a lot of non-financial data. Although this data insertion can be beneficial in some use cases (e.g. proof of existence), it can also cause damage. If a blockchain contained videos with instructions on how to torture someone, there would immediately be broad consensus that this data must be deleted. But since blockchains are supposed to be immutable databases, the question is: what can be done if this happens?

A Short Guide Through the Universe of Blockchain Based Micropayment Systems

Hartwig MayerNo Comments

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Micropayment take place in pay-as-you-go software service models, micro donations, and the Internet of Things (IoT). In these contexts payments for values which are usually under the smallest unit of fiat money (e.g. $0.001) are needed. Prepaid cards can solve this problem. Another approach uses cryptocurrencies in the blockchain, having the advantage of allowing exact […]

Using the CardContact SmartCard USB HSM in an Ethereum PoA Chain

Martin GuttmanNo Comments

Reading Time: 4 minutes

After testing the performance of Ethereum using PoA, we tested the usability of the CardContact SmartCard-HSM USB token on an ethereum Proof of Authority network. The HSM allows to store and use multiple encryption keys, both RSA and Elliptic Curves (including secp256k1), for applications like issuing certificates as a CA, and with any application that […]

Some Insights into Cardano ´s Blockchain

Hartwig MayerNo Comments

Reading Time: 5 minutes

In this blog post, we present a high-level overview of the paper describing the Ouroboros Proof of Stake protocol implemented in Cardano´s blockchain. After the overview follow some comments about theoretical aspects of the protocol.
In general, Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus protocols elect the network nodes responsible to send the next block to the blockchain on the basis of the nodes’ amount of stake.

A Summary of Satis Group’s Latest Cryptoasset Valuation Report

Federico CacciaNo Comments

Reading Time: 3 minutes

In this article we review the main ideas presented in the last cryptoassets valuation Satis Group’s article published by Bloomberg. Satis Group is an ICO advisory firm which has helped model one of the first bitcoin valuation in 2014. According to their report, the cryptoassets ecosystem forecast is promising. Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrencies are both expected […]