HS23

The admin part gives an overview over this lecture and presents the challenge task for this course (Slides: HS23-BlCh-01-admin.pdf). In recent cryptocurrency news highlighted by Thomas Bocek, CEOs of Thodex and OneCoin face substantial prison sentences following massive fraud schemes. CoinEx's hot wallet system vulnerability led to a $53 million heist, emphasizing ongoing security issues in the cryptocurrency sphere. Meanwhile, the use of Fly.io's LiteFS as a replacement for API layers in service integrations offers both benefits and drawbacks. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-01-news.pdf). The third video starts with the repetition of Distributed Systems (DSy) (Slides: HS23-BlCh-01-repetition1.pdf). [98min]

The admin part gives an update over this lecture and challenge task. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-02-admin.pdf). In recent news presented by Thomas Bocek, NFT trade value plummeted to $80 million weekly in July 2023, with 95% of collections now valued at 0 ETH. AWS's $4.5 billion in IPv4 addresses will soon incur charges, possibly boosting IPv6 adoption. Nic Carter suggests the NSA might have created Bitcoin. The Truffle Suite is wrapping up, recommending developers switch to Hardhat for smart contract testing. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-02-news.pdf). The third video jumps to the Bitcoin/Ethereum repetition (part 3) of Distributed Systems (DSy). (Slides: HS23-BlCh-02-repetition3.pdf). The fourth video gives a crash course into NFTs (Slides: HS23-BlCh-02-nft.pdf). [101min]

The admin part gives an update over this lecture and challenge task. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-03-admin.pdf). In recent news presented by Thomas Bocek, Group CEO of nChain resigns. Mixin Network suffered a $200 million hack, while Huobi Global's exchange lost $7.9 million. Vitaliks X/Twitter account was hacked with SIM swap. The last article is about Quadlets as potential docker-compose alternatives for container management, using systemd. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-03-news.pdf). The third video presents the rest of the repetition of Distributed Systems (DSy). (Slides: HS23-BlCh-03-repetition2.pdf). The fourth video shows the Ethereum components (architecture view) that can be used for the challenge task. It shows both, the easy and the more interesting ways to interact with the Ethereum blockchain. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-03-arch.pdf). [72min]

Thomas Bocek discussed recent developments in the blockchain and distributed systems sphere. THORSwap went into "maintenance mode" after a hacker's money laundering attempts, Gitcoin lost $500,000 in tokens due to a transfer mistake, and Marco Kuoni detailed the potential of integrating Docker and WebAssembly using a Rust program. Additionally, Cloudflare introduced the Encrypted Client Hello for enhanced internet privacy, but also experienced a DNS service disruption due to a software oversight with the ZONEMD record. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-04-news.pdf). The second video introduces the blockchain language Solidity as used in Ethereum. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-04-solidity.pdf). [97min]

Thomas Bocek discussed recent developments in the blockchain and distributed systems: Sam Bankman-Fried, ex-CEO of FTX, is under trial after FTX's collapse which lost $8 billion in assets. There are opinions that the NFT market, despite low trading volumes, is not dead yet. Meanwhile, THORSwap addressed potential hacker activities with updated terms, Ferrari began accepting crypto payments, and ACPR coined "disintermediated" as a more apt term for certain financial services. Lastly, a "Rapid Reset" vulnerability in the HTTP/2 protocol led to massive DDoS attacks. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-05-news.pdf). The second video introduces decentralized finance (DeFi). (Slides: HS23-BlCh-05-defi.pdf). [100min]

The admin part updates on latest discussions with students. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-06-admin.pdf). In the new part, Thomas Bocek delivers updates on blockchain and cybersecurity, highlighting the Sam Bankman-Fried trial and Binance's recent challenges, including its terminated European Visa services and U.S. dollar transaction issues. Concurrently, new cyber threats emerge: ClearFake, which tricks users with fake browser alerts, has malware hosted on the Binance Smart Chain, and a technique called RowPress poses risks to DDR memory protections. Furthermore, the concept of Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs), essential data structures that facilitate seamless updates in collaborative applications are presented. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-06-news.pdf). The third video introduces POAPs - Proof of Attendance Protocol (Slides: HS23-BlCh-06-poap.pdf), the forth video introduces DAOs - decentralized autonomous organization (Slides: HS23-BlCh-06-dao.pdf), and the fifth video gives a brief overview over stablecoins (Slides: HS23-BlCh-06-stablecoins.pdf). [114min]

The admin part updates on the challenge task. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-07-admin.pdf). In the new part, Thomas Bocek covers a range of tech and blockchain and distributed systems topics, starting with the high cost of cloud bandwidth. He then discusses the evolution of SQLite, particularly with new tools like LiteFS and Turso. Bocek briefly touches on the rise of Bitcoin due to ETF rumors, uses of NFTs in postal services, and concludes with a mention of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial, noting his lack of crypto knowledge before founding FTX. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-07-news.pdf). The third video dives into wallets and seed phrases. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-07-wallets.pdf). [68min]

The admin part updates on the lecture content. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-08-admin.pdf). In the new part, Thomas Bocek covers a range of tech and blockchain and distributed systems topics: Sam Bankman-Fried has been convicted on multiple charges related to financial fraud at FTX, facing a lengthy prison sentence. Netflix engineered a solution to document and understand pod terminations during kernel panics, enhancing their Kubernetes stability. Cloudflare suffered a significant outage due to a power failure, exposing weaknesses in their disaster recovery strategy. Meanwhile, OpenSea downsized its staff by half amid a slump in the NFT market, simultaneously gearing up for the launch of OpenSea 2.0. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-08-news.pdf). The third video dives into P2P and DHTs. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-08-p2p.pdf). [94min]

In the new part, Thomas Bocek discussed events including a major Optus network outage in Australia affecting 10 million people, highlighting vulnerabilities in national telecom infrastructure. The Poloniex crypto exchange, owned by Justin Sun, experienced a hack with over $126 million stolen, leading Sun to offer a bounty for the return of the funds. An MEV bot was exploited for nearly $2 million, underscoring the risks in the MEV ecosystem. The Monero community wallet was hacked, losing around $460,000, raising security concerns in privacy-focused blockchains. Finally, BlackRock's filing for an Ether ETF significantly boosted ETH prices, reflecting growing institutional interest in cryptocurrency investments. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-09-news.pdf). The second video discusses algorithms suitable for DHT systems, followed by algorithms suitable for P2P systems (Slides: HS23-BlCh-09-algo.pdf). [82min]

This week in blockchain and distributed systems news, Thomas Bocek discussed the firing of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He also addressed North Korea's cybercrimes, particularly in cryptocurrency thefts. He then mentions the persistent issue of developers exposing sensitive credentials in public code repositories, citing security risks. Finally, he touched on the financial challenges of Signal, a privacy-focused messaging app, emphasizing its commitment to privacy despite substantial operational costs and contrasting it with profit-driven tech models. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-10-news.pdf). The second video inroduces the privacy oriented blockchain Monero (Slides: HS23-BlCh-10-monero.pdf). The third video is about hashed time-lock contracts (HTLCs), cross-chain atomic swaps, and payment channels (Slides: HS23-BlCh-10-htlc.pdf). [91min]

The admin part reminds of the CT hand-in deadline and discusses the exam from HS22 (Slides: HS23-BlCh-11-admin.pdf). This week in blockchain and distributed systems news, Thomas Bocek discussed several key developments. A company significantly cuts costs by moving from AWS to a bare-metal solution, highlighting the economic benefits of private servers over cloud services. Tether, in a significant move, freezes 225 million USDT tokens linked to a criminal syndicate, showing the influence of regulatory bodies on decentralized digital assets. The SEC charges Kraken for operating without proper registration, and Binance's CEO Changpeng Zhao pleads guilty to anti-money laundering violations, leading to hefty fines. These stories collectively underscore the evolving landscape of blockchain, regulation, and financial efficiency in the tech world. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-11-news.pdf). The third video is an interview with Dr. Christian Killer, he is head of research at Acurast and dicusses the new approach for an efficient blockchain with Acurast. [96min]

The admin part reminds of the CT hand-in deadline (Slides: HS23-BlCh-12-admin.pdf). Thomas Bocek reports on blockchain news. The first story involves Do Kwon, co-founder of Terraform Labs, facing potential extradition from Montenegro to South Korea or the USA due to charges linked to TerraUSD and LUNA's collapse. The second article discusses Bitcoin's price increase, influenced by factors like a potential Bitcoin ETF and Binance's legal settlement. The final story covers a $46 million exploit of KyberSwap, a decentralized exchange, using flash loans and a code precision error, leading to significant asset losses. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-12-news.pdf). [12min]

The admin part updates on the CT and remindes of the upcoming QFeedback (Slides: HS23-BlCh-13-admin.pdf). Thomas Bocek reports on blockchain news. Lugano, Switzerland, now accepts Bitcoin and Tether for taxes and services, joining Zug in integrating cryptocurrencies into public finance. Tether has implemented a new policy to freeze wallets linked to blacklisted activities, focusing on US regulations. A LinkedIn post offers a comprehensive overview of blockchain developments. Finally, the NFT market is rebounding, with trading volumes approaching $1 billion, and platforms like THORChain are witnessing significant growth in Total Value Locked. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-13-news.pdf). [11min]

The admin part concludes this lecture and discusses QFeedback (Slides: HS23-BlCh-14-admin.pdf). In "Distributed Systems and Blockchain in the News", Thomas Bocek covers two main stories. The first is a supply chain attack on Ledger, a crypto wallet provider, leading to a theft of over $600,000 in crypto. The attack, caused by a phishing incident, lasted about five hours and was quickly contained by Ledger. The second story celebrates the winners of the blockchain challenge at OST 2023: Manuel, Reto, and Sascha. They created a blockchain-based dual deposit system using ICP to discourage fraudulent transactions, showcasing innovation and securing their win for the second consecutive time. (Slides: HS23-BlCh-14-news.pdf). [11min]