In the past 3 months, the price of Bitcoin has almost doubled from around $10,500 in October to $24,000 in the middle of December. This was a volatile journey with daily price swings reaching 17.6%. Some of the biggest price changes coincided with troubling news around custodians, ranging from withdrawal suspensions to exploited security vulnerabilities. Interestingly, the market had plenty of warning signs well before the volatility spikes, but very few acted upon them. Let’s have a look at how…

Predictable trading patterns on Kraken

Uncontrolled use of deanonymizing technologies, such as blockchain forensics and darknet monitoring tools can threaten long-term security and safety of digital ecosystems.

Blockchain oracles, or off-chain data providers, are key players in the blockchain ecosystem - wielding as much if not more power than miners and protocols developers. Often misunderstood and overlooked, they suffer from constant misuse and security vulnerabilities. Licensing and endorsing professional oracles is key to improving the overall health of the blockchain ecosystem.

Anomalous trades on FTX

A year into my stint at the Bank of France, I was still struggling to understand why they employ cryptographers. One day, I saw them huddled around a white board for a few hours and struck up a conversation. They walked me through their highly sophisticated key management solution that included everything from certificate signing mechanisms to deep traffic inspection contraptions. Baffled by the complexity of it all, I resorted to my go-to cryptographer question - “So, where are the…