Cryptocurrency markets have been dropping over the past few days, but fundamentals seem to be improving. Square Crypto has decided to fund a pseudonymous developer who’s been working part-time on Bitcoin scaling solutions, while a new report found most BTC mining runs on renewable energy.

Adding to data, security vulnerabilities keep on being found and disclosed responsibly before coming out to the public.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Square Crypto Funds Pseudonymous Bitcoin Lightning Network Developer
• 73% of Bitcoin’s Hashrate Runs on Renewable Energy, Report Claims
• Crypto Hardware Wallet KeepKey Can Be Compromised in 15 Minutes, Warns Kraken

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $7,140.54 (-1.53%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.30 billion. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $141.87 (-2.90%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $261.92 mn. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 2,387.14 (-0.94 %).

Square Crypto Funds Pseudonymous Bitcoin Lightning Network Developer

Square Crypto, the cryptocurrency development group of Square, has funded a pseudonymous Bitcoin developer known as ‘ZmnSCPxj’. ZmnSCPxj is notably known for working on the cryptocurrency’s layer-two scaling solution, the Lightning Network.

The amount of the grant wasn’t disclosed but according to Square Crypto it’ll allow ZmnSCPxj to “leave behind his day job of 14 years” so he can work full time on both Bitcoin and the Lightning Network.

Lightning Labs infrastructure lead Alex Bosworth was quoted as saying that the funding looked like a one-time grant, and not a part of a wider strategy.

“I think the focus is broadly on bitcoin and they are still figuring out a good intersection of helping bitcoin and pursuing their development interests. They have a great team and a lot of freedom to pursue different directions.”

ZmnSCPxj has been accepting donations on his website by listing his bitcoin address since at least 2018.

73% of Bitcoin’s Hashrate Runs on Renewable Energy, Report Claims

A Reuters report has drawn attention to data showing that in June of this year China controlled 66% of the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate, and that the figure climbed up to 66% this month. The report cited data from CoinShares, and noted one single province controls 54% of the hashrate.

Sharing the data with Hard Fork, CoinShares said:

“Out of the remaining 35 percent of [global] miners, we estimate that 31 percent of global [hash rate] production is evenly split between Washington, New York, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Siberian Federal District of Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Iran.”

The firm estimates that 73% of the electricity used mine BTC is renewable. The Bitcoin network’s hashrate has grown over 150% so far this year, likely because of the upcoming halving next year, which will cut down block rewards from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC per block.

Crypto Hardware Wallet KeepKey Can Be Compromised in 15 Minutes, Warns Kraken

Kraken Security Labs has warned that the KeepKey cryptocurrency hardware wallet can allegedly be compromised in only 15 minutes, if hackers have physical access to the devices. This, as it’s vulnerable to a “voltage glitching” attack that extracts the encrypted seed used to access crypto stored on a KeepKey device.

The attack leaves users’ 1-9 digit PINs vulnerable to a brute force attack, potentially letting the hackers get to the crypto on the device. Kraken estimates a consumer-friendly device that can be used for “voltage glitching” can be created with only $75.

The attack reportedly controls the power supply of the micro-controller used in the KeepKey device itself, which means no firmware update will solve the issue. Kraken has claimed it warned KeepKey of the vulnerability back in September, but is now bringing it to the public so the community can stay safe.

Kraken’s cybersecurity researchers noted that users should avoid allowing anyone to access their KeepKey devices physically, and should enable BIP39 passphrases with the KeepKey client.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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