The blockchain and cryptocurrency market is one that has been wrought with stories of hacks and security breaches for as long as the industry itself has been in existence.
While various digital assets have continued to clamour for increased adoption and recognition from the traditional financial and technology industries, the major roadblock has been in two-folds:
- Cryptocurrencies have been seen as tied to various criminal activities on the Dark Web, and
- Cryptocurrency exchanges and the digital assets themselves just don’t seem to be too secure.
While the first problem is one that just can’t be easily surmounted, the problem of the latter is much more significant. There has to be a way to secure the funds and holding of people who actually do make cryptocurrency investments, and so far, this just hasn’t been done.
According to a report by cryptocurrency intelligence firm CipherTrace, there had been total of $927 million lost due to cryptocurrency scams within the first nine months of 2018. In a separate report, the same company revealed that the total losses to cryptocurrency hacks and scams for this year should easily exceed the $1.2 billion mark.
By any standards whatsoever, this isn’t a good report.
Of course, this isn’t to say that companies haven’t been working to ensure customer security as well. In their defense, a lot of progress has already be made in combating security. However, things just don’t seem to be enough. Security is an important feature that cryptocurrencies need to achieve, and a failure to do that could prove to be devastating to the hopes of industry-wide acceptance.
However, things seem to be looking up.
Earlier this month, ILCoin secured the first ever Palo Alto Networks Partner certificate for their C2P consensus. Since the company was established, its workers have been dedicated to bringing a halt to the possibility of quantum 51 percent attacks in the industry.
Now, following the success that its innovative C2P (Command Chain protocol) has recorded in the cyber security audit, the company is moving forward and is on the fast track to becoming the standard for security in a dynamic technological landscape.
After tests were run, it’s technology was found to have eliminated the issues of 51% quantum computing attacks. This is the first technology to achieve this sort of capability, and the cutting-edge blockchain technology is already receiving massive reviews and anticipation from prospective clients.
Speaking on the achievement, Norbert Goffa, ILCoin’s Executive Manager, said:“It is very hard to overcome the possibility of a 51% attack in PoW algorithm. So, we have to renovate everything from scratch. We knew that the blockchain itself needed to be significantly improved so we could reach our goal. We wanted to create a unique technology that had never been made before, but at the same time, not over-complicated yet very functional. The solution is simple, elegant, and secure.”
The road to certification definitely wasn’t easy. In order to secure the required certification, the C2P technology had to be tested for vulnerabilities over 4-week period. Tests run covered aspects such as 51% attack, Fork Attack with a Rollback Attack, Design Flaw Type Attacks, and much more, all of which can have marked effects on the efficiency and functionality of a smart contract.
Speaking on the test, Peter Boros, General Manager at EURODIGITAL (an official partner to Palo Alto Networks), said:
“Their idea was totally brand new. At the first round it was a kind of ‘design review.’ We had to understand all the key concepts from the scratch within short time to be able to find and probe the most creative ideas/attacks we would do. Attackers will have more than enough time to think about their new idea. Our task was to cover every possibilities which could yield C2P to be hacked.”
However, it was all worth it at the end, as the tests revealed that the protocol as able to eliminate all risks associated with 51% attacks on quantum computing levels.
The C2P has a possibility to bring a complete disruption to the entire blockchain ecosystem.
As it stands, a lot of blockchains make use of Proof-of-Work (PoW), Proof-of-Stake (PoS), or Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) in their security infrastructure.
PoW
PoW is the protocol that validates transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, and it forms the algorithm that miners use to solve cryptographic mathematical problems and validate their transactions. When a validation- and its subsequent verification- is made on a single transaction, the cryptocurrencies are transferred to the miners.
However, PoW is resource-intensive, and it requires a lot of electricity and compute power. In addition, these blockchains are also susceptible to the 51 percent attack, which grants control of a blockchain to anyone who holds a significant portion of the network’s compute power.
PoS
The PoS was initially designed to help reduce the resource costs associated with cryptocurrency mining. Here, transactions are validated with the “staking” method, where participants stake crypto assets on the legitimacy of a transaction. Essentially, you have the opportunity to get more in return as you stake more.
DPoS
The DPoS is a more modern consensus algorithm which is secure, decentralized, and can also process more transactions inn a second. It uses “witnesses” to validate transactions. These witnesses are appointed based on votes, and a witness can be added or removed during the voting stage as well.
The voting power given to a witness is determined by how many tokens this witness holds. So, a witness with ore tokens gets more voting power than one with lesser tokens. While witnesses get financial benefits from their vote on a transaction, a lot of people do want to become witnesses, and not everyone is able to make it past the voting process.
C2P
The unique consensus mechanism was developed by the project team at ILCoin. The algorithm works through three separate types of code:
There’s the normal code, which helps to generate wallets and synchronize with the entire network
There’s the validator code, which works to provide transaction validation
There’s the master code, which tracks a transactions validation and provides a digital signature for each.
All of the signatures generated by the master code are connected, and they will remain dynamic over time for security reasons. Also, keep in mind that it is required for the master code to sign a block before a transaction can be validated.
Thanks to the deployment of C2P technology, all of its coins are completely immune to theft. Malicious attacks are prevented thanks to the implementation of a blocking mechanism.
Boros also spoke on the innovation of C2P and how it can benefit from the blockchain industry, adding:
“I think the blockchain industry is still evolving, and it’s like the internet was in the 90’s. It needs a lot of new developments and achievements. C2P has solved a major problem regarding quantum resistance. I think we should encourage everybody to make tests of their chains and products with a 3rd party. It’s of utmost importance to know your strengths and weaknesses.”
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