🥱 Ethereum's Proof-of-Work fork suffers a replay attack

🥱 Ethereum's Proof-of-Work fork suffers a replay attack 🗿 The SEC's case against ripple is in jeopardy 🎭 White House's crypto framework

GM, vEmpions! Heraclitus once said: "The only thing that is constant is change." How true that is! It seems like every day, there's something new to learn or some new way of doing things. That's why it's important to always be learning and growing, so that you can stay ahead of the curve. Change is the only constant in life, so it's important to be prepared for it. And while you dwell on that, check out what we have for you today:

🥱 Ethereum's Proof-of-Work fork suffers a replay attack 🗿 The SEC's case against ripple is in jeopardy 🎭 White House's crypto framework

Ethereum's Proof-of-Work fork suffers a replay attack

On September 18, Ethereum's Proof-of-Work (PoW) network suffered a replay attack. Exploiters replayed a message from the Ethereum POS chain, causing the network to malfunction.

BlockSec, which first discovered the attack, says that the bridge did not correctly verify the actual chainID of the cross-chain message. This allowed the exploiters to successfully replay the message and cause the network to malfunction.

“The exploiter (0x82fae) first transferred 200 WETH through the omni bridge of the Gnosis chain, and then replayed the same message on the PoW chain and got extra 200 ETHW", BlockSec reported.

A replay attack is a type of network attack in which a valid data transmission is maliciously or fraudulently repeated or delayed. This results in the recipient accepting a duplicate or outdated transaction, potentially causing them financial harm.

The Ethereum POW chain is a fork of the Ethereum mainnet created by miners and uses an old consensus algorithm. The replay attack on the Ethereum POW network caused the price of ether to tank 18%. This is because investors are worried that if the network can't protect itself from replay attacks, it may be vulnerable to other types of attacks in the future. The project's official Twitter page has acknowledged the attack, saying that it is not a transaction replay on the chain level. Instead, it is due to the call data replay caused by a flaw in the contract.

Chain-level replay attacks are impossible on the ETHPOW chain as the network enforced EIP-155 before the hard fork. This means that transactions on the ETH proof-of-stake chain cannot be re-enacted on the POW chain or vice versa. The ETHPoW blockchain developer team stated that the assault targeted the bridge's contract vulnerability rather than their network itself.

In general, ETH POW had a hard time this week. On September 18, Grayscale Investments, the world's largest digital currency asset manager, announced that it would be selling its tokens. This news sent shockwaves through the community, as Grayscale is one of the biggest supporters of ETHPOW.

Then, Poloniex announced that it was listing EthereumFair (ETF), a fork of the Ethereum mainnet, as its core Ethereum PoW token. This news further hurt the adoption of ETHPOW, as it shows that even exchanges are beginning to lose faith in the project.

It is clear that ETH PoW is in a tough spot right now. It is facing competition from other Ethereum forks. Additionally, it is also being hurt by the negative sentiment surrounding the project. Only time will tell if ETH PoW can turn things around.

The SEC's case against ripple is in jeopardy

The SEC has been going after Ripple for a while now, and it looks like they might finally get their comeuppance. In a recent filing, Ripple asked the court to issue a summary judgment in their favour, claiming that the SEC has failed to provide any evidence that XRP is an investment contract.

The defendants argue that the SEC failed to present key evidence backing assertions that all “XRP was an investment contract with Ripple and therefore a security under the federal securities laws.”

The court case will have a major influence on XRP's price. Some members of the cryptocurrency community are certain that the court will rule in their favor and lift the cloud of uncertainty that has hovered over XRP since April 2017. XRP is now trading at $0.38, up 19% in the last three days, according to CoinMarketCap.

This could be a huge win for Ripple, and could mean the end of the SEC's case against them. The SEC has been struggling to prove its case against Ripple, and this could be the nail in the coffin for their case. It's important to note that this is just a filing, and the court has not made a decision yet. The SEC still has a chance to argue their case, and we will have to wait and see what the court decides.

White House's crypto framework

White House put out a framework on regulating crypto. The framework outlines the ways in which the financial services industry should evolve to make borderless transactions easier, as well as how to crack down on fraud in the digital asset space.

One section of the White House’s framework on crypto regulation focuses on eliminating illegal activity in the industry - and the proposed measures appear to be quite radical.

The US President wants to increase penalties for unlicensed money transmitting and is considering changing certain federal statutes to allow the Department of Justice to prosecute digital asset crimes in any jurisdiction where a victim of those crimes is found. This comes as no surprise, given the recent crackdown on cryptocurrency by the US government.

According to the White House, the initiative is a response to an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in March, under which he urged government agencies to assess cryptocurrency risks and benefits and publish formal reports on their findings.

In regards to whether or not the United States will issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the submitted reports say that “federal officials continue its ongoing CBDC research, experimentation and evaluation.” They went on to say that unless it is determined to be in the national interest, no digital dollar should be created.

For six months, US government agencies have been working to develop their own frameworks and policy recommendations to address half a dozen priorities listed in the executive order. These recommendations comprise the first, "whole-of-government approach" to regulating the industry.

The new directives utilize the power of existing regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but they're not mandating any new regulations as of yet, however, the possibility always looms.

So now the criminal element must be just quaking in their boots at the thought of the White House cracking down on crypto fraud, right? After all, these are the same people who have been able to successfully evade law enforcement for years, if not decades.

But I digress. The fact that the White House is even addressing crypto regulation shows that the digital asset space is here to stay. And that's a good thing. After all, who doesn't love more bureaucracy?