Benjamin Powers

Powers is a tech reporter at Grid. Previously, he was privacy reporter at CoinDesk where he focused on data and financial privacy, information security, and digital identity. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, and the New Republic, among others. He owns bitcoin.

Benjamin Powers

Dernières de Benjamin Powers


Technologies

Decentralized VPN Sees Increased Use in Nigeria Amid #EndSars Protests

Nigerians are protesting police corruption and concerns about a possible internet shutdown have driven some to adopt decentralized VPNs like Mysterium.

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Technologies

'Convincing' Phishing Attack Targets Ledger Hardware Wallet Users

Ledger confirmed that for the last week some customers have been the target of a phishing attack.

Ledger Nano X

Marchés

US Bail Funds Are Seeing an Uptick in Cryptocurrency Donations

The Bail Project, Chicago Community Bond Fund and Nashville Community Bail Fund take cryptocurrency donations not just in BTC, but also ETH and even BAT.

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Technologies

Zcoin Employs Burn-and-Redeem Privacy Model, Offering Alternative to Coinjoins

The Lelantus protocol, launched on privacy coin Zcoin’s testnet, lets users redeem partial amounts of a total coin burn rather than all of it at once.

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Technologies

Downvoted: Security Researchers Slam Voatz Over Stance on White-Hat Hackers

A broad ruling on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could “chill” security research by white-hat hackers, making tech less secure.

Voatz white-hat security research

Technologies

The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be

Because privacy means different things to different people, a privacy-focused internet is unlikely to please everyone. But it should offer greater personal control.

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Finance

Permission.io Has Quietly Raised $50M to Make Advertising Personal and Data Private

Permission.io has raised over $50 million to reward users for engaging with ads. Will advertisers buy in?

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Technologies

Startup Aleo Wants to Help You Use the Internet Without Sacrificing Data Privacy

Aleo co-founder Howard Wu says a better data privacy model for both companies and consumers can be built using zero-knowledge proofs.

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Technologies

HOPR Launches Token Incentive Program for Running Its Mixnet Testnet

HOPR sells its own hardware node version (at $440) but HOPR nodes can also be run on devices that run Windows, macOS and Linux.

HOPR's founding team: Robert Kiel, Sebastian Bürgel and Rik Krieger.

Technologies

How a Hacker Launched a Decentralized Network to Track Internet Censorship

Using free and open-source software, the Open Observatory of Network Interference has built a “decentralized, citizen-led, internet censorship observatory.”

(Markus Spiske/Unsplash)