I, Degen - E12: Ethereum Fights to Remain Censorship Resistant - 8/24/2022

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Intro

Welcome to I, Degen - Each week, we track down and explore the most exciting crypto stories. Hacks, mysteries, exploits, and anything that feeds our crypto curiosity. We dig in, cutting through the misinformation and hype in search of a signal in the noise.

Episode Summary

This week we have a bunch of weekly news updates. Then we take a deep dive into the upcoming Ethereum merge and rippling effects on Ethereum protocol level censorship from the OFAC Tornado Cash sanctions.

I,Degen - Weekly Stories

1.The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group will launch Ethereum option contracts on its platform on September 12. The company announced that it’s waiting for regulatory review, and if approved, these new investment products will join its ETH futures and mini futures contracts.

2.Alleged Russian Money Launderer Extradited from the Netherlands to U.S.

According to court documents, Dubnikov and his co-conspirators laundered the proceeds of ransomware attacks on individuals and organizations throughout the United States and abroad. Specifically, Dubnikov and his accomplices laundered ransom payments extracted from victims of Ryuk ransomware attacks.

3.Reaper Farm Yield Aggregator Owned

4.TikTok monitoring all keyboard inputs and taps

When you open any link on the TikTok iOS app, it’s opened inside their in-app browser. While interacting with the website, TikTok subscribes to all keyboard inputs (including passwords, credit card information, etc.) and every tap on the screen, like which buttons and links you click.

5.Wrench Attack - 3 men targeted an Indian realtor they knew held bitcoin and abducted him while posing as sellers of a plot of land. They tortured him for 3 hours until he gave them 8 BTC. - [r/CryptoCurrency post]

• Victim was not hurt, according to his wife
• The suspect was caught using a trap to lure them back to the kidnapping spot Note: These attacks are rare but often receive much media attention. Nonetheless, it’s essential to be aware. Often, you see comments like, “yeah, this is why you keep your crypto a secret!”, which happened on the Reddit post. However, is that advice practical for 'mainstream adoption?

6.Hackers steal crypto from Bitcoin ATMs by exploiting zero-day bug - via Bleepingcomputer, August 20, 2022

Hackers have exploited a zero-day vulnerability in General Bytes Bitcoin ATM servers to steal cryptocurrency from customers.When customers would deposit or purchase cryptocurrency via the ATM, the funds would instead be siphoned off by the hackers.The attacker was able to create an admin user remotely via CAS administrative interface via a URL call on the page that is used for the default installation on the server and creating the first administration user. This