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Ethereum: ConsenSys’s New Privacy Policy Causes Huge Uproar

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ConsenSys, an Ethereum-based blockchain firm and owner of the popular wallet MetaMask, has recently updated its privacy policy and Crypto Twitter is furious.

Under the new guidelines, MetaMask’s RPC [Remote Procedure Call] node Infura would collect the user’s IP address as well as wallet address while sending a transaction. MetaMask [by default] uses Infura to get information on and off of blockchains.

Consensys further said. “However, if you’re using your own Ethereum node or a third-party RPC provider with MetaMask, then neither Infura nor MetaMask will collect your IP address or Ethereum wallet address.”

Many in the community have urged users to uninstall MetaMask and migrate to a new wallet.

Just recently, popular decentralized exchange [DEX] Uniswap updated its privacy policy, attracting ire from the decentralized buffs. The concerns were similarly related to collecting and storing user data and how it goes against crypto’s core ethos of user privacy and anonymity. 

ConsenSys’s latest privacy policy comes in light of the FTX crisis, an event that brought attention to the need for transparency.

Transparency has now become the buzzword in the industry ever since the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX earlier this month. The once dominant platform was accused of misusing customer assets in risky trading.

Soon after the incident, the crypto entities rushed to win back clients’ faith by promising to be “transparent,” notably by introducing Proof of Reserves in the case of centralized exchanges.

Ethereum Software Firm’s Latest Privacy Policy Has Shined the Spotlight On Transparency

The world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance led the way and accordingly Kraken, Bitmex, Coinfloor, Gate.io HBTC, OKX, KuCoin and a host of other exchanges followed suit.

Ironically, Binance which championed Proof Of Reserves [PoR] in the wake of FTX’s bankruptcy was slammed for an undisclosed $2.7 billion USDT transfer that was initiated less than 24 hours after the audit publication, TronWeekly reported the other day.

A Reddit post by a user called OneThatNoseOne accused the trading platform of not revealing the wallet in their proof-of-reserves article.

The anonymous user urged Binance to take action in offering transparency at a time when users’ confidence in cryptocurrencies is at an all-time low so that people like him don’t have to dig through mountains of data for something they could have easily provided.

Microsoft joins $450M funding of crypto start-up ConsenSys

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Tech giant Microsoft Corp co-led a $450 million funding of New York-based start-up ConsenSys. The financial round was backed by ParaFi Capital, Temasek Holdings, and SoftBank Group Corp which doubled ConsenSys’s valuation to $7 billion.

ConsenSys was founded in 2014 by Joseph Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum, the world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency. The firm’s most popular products include the MetaMask digital asset wallet and Infura, a suite of tools that helps developers build Ethereum apps.

The recent capital injections highlight the firm’s positive outlook by investors who see the former as one of the companies that will power Web3. It has also managed to secure funds into areas such as decentralized finance, or DeFi, and nonfungible tokens, NFTs.

Besides that, ConsenSys said all the proceeds from its latest round would be converted into the ether. The funds will be utilized for recruiting additional 600 employees, an updated version of MetaMask that would be launched later this year, and expanding its NFT business.

That said, Microsoft’s involvement underscores the growing interest from the world’s largest tech firms in Web3. Last year, its venture fund M12 led a $27 million early-stage funding round in Palm NFT Studio, a start-up also co-founded by Lubin.

Microsoft ‘s Rendezvous With Crypto And Metaverse

The software firm began its first step by working towards integrating blockchain and cryptocurrencies in its business structure. The company last month announced a new job opening for a “Director of Business Development – Cryptocurrencies” on its career website. The role is integrated into its AI and Emerging Technologies business development team, which is the company’s spearhead division for emerging new technologies. 

Next, Microsoft’s acquisition of $68.7 billion gaming giant Activision Blizzard made it clear that the tech firm’s ambition was not limited to video game domination. In fact, gaming is the crucial vehicle to help power Microsoft’s metaverse plans.

In a press release published in January, the firm wrote that buying the “Call of Duty” and “Warcraft” maker “will provide building blocks for the metaverse.” Later Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella reportedly said that gaming “will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”

ConsenSys acquires MyCrypto: Plans to team up with MetaMask

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ConsenSys, a renowned Ethereum software corporation, just announced its acquisition of MyCrypto. MyCrypto is an open-source platform that allows you to manage your Ethereum accounts in a safe and accessible setting. They also intend to integrate with MetaMask ultimately. They made the announcement through their official blog post.

ConsenSys Acquires MyCrypto to Team Up With MetaMask

MetaMask and MyCrypto will be tying their efforts under a unified brand to strengthen the security of all the products and offer a consistent user experience across desktop, mobile, extension, and browser wallets.

MetaMask has focused on general-purpose dapp interactions and has developed to become the world’s biggest non-custodial crypto wallet for mobile and browser extensions with over 21 million monthly active users. MetaMask and MyCrypto visions to give users a heightened experience that is even more extensive and safe through this collaboration.

ConsenSys and Metamask: What can users expect?

“User safety and product security are the key facets of both MetaMask and MyCrypto,” said Taylor Monahan, founder, and CEO of MyCrypto. Security, she added, is of growing relevance as the ecosystem evolves and a wider broad variety of individuals enter the crypto realm.

“We want to make sure that everyone has a nice experience with cryptocurrencies. Namely, not losing all of their crypto.”

The collaboration with MyCrypto will not only introduce MetaMask to further platforms and stimulate further integrations with the wallet, but it will also give users a better and more secure experience.

ConsenSys did not reveal the terms of the acquisition. They highlighted that both wallets would continue to function individually shortly with the final purpose of incorporating features and branding.

Crypto wallets and their safety concerns

Crypto wallets, including Metamask, have been victimized for easy to breach security systems. A cryptographer and security analyst Alexandru Lupascu pointed out a vulnerability of Metamask that can jeopardize the funds of 21 million users. Cold wallets, including Trezor, were hacked by an engineer, who went out and explained in a video of the process.

The recent spree of hacks has put users in a tight spot whether their funds are safe. Collaborations like this with an intention to provide a more secure platform for users will soon grow to fame.

Ethereum’s Josep Lubin Dives into Compliance; Consensys Develop Product for DeFi

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Consensys, an organization providing solutions to Ethereum(ETH) based blockchain applications is ready to launch a compliance service that will assist various exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects to analyze and keep track of trading activities on Ethereum.

According to Bloomberg, Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum(ETH) and head of Consensys, indicated that the company is looking forward to developing a product that would focus on the regulatory requirements of the know-your-customer, which has been a significant hurdle for various digital asset firms.

Compliance services have been a major issue in the past as the lack of standardized rules has led to various illegal activities in the industry. In order to avoid various money laundering transactions, various cryptocurrency firms have to rely on analytical firms such as Chainalysis and CipherTrace to identify users and tokens that are linked to criminal activity.

Lex Sokolin, ConsenSys’s global fintech co-head said,

“There are more and more people building decentralized apps that need this as a Lego piece. What we are trying to do is make activity on the decentralized financial infrastructure much more safe, transparent, much easier to trace.”

Since Consensys is focused on Ethereum, the new services launched by the organization would track up to 280,000 different tokens, those which are built on the ERC-20 or ERC-721 standard. According to their press release, the objective remains to implement a more stable and regularised compliance in crypto, usually tagged with the traditional payments sector.

Ethereum(ETH) continues to be the development Hub

It is hard not to pin-point that the entire system continues to under Ethereum. Sokolin has mentioned last year that the improvement of the DeFi space in terms of functionality and now, compliance is highly important for the ever-improving space of Ethereum. When the number of unique numbers rose nearly up to 530 percent in 2019, according to DappRader report, Sokolin had stated,

“Providing robust AML/CFT compliance for Ethereum-based digital assets is a keystone step in bringing the institutional financial industry to decentralized finance. Code Compliance is the next module in our product suite to eliminate complexity and risk in using DeFi, and help any business benefit from using digital assets.”

JP Morgan’s Quorum to Merge With Ethereum Based ConsenSys; Has Mainstream Finance Finally Decided to Trust Crypto?

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Mainstream companies have understood that integrating blockchain technology into their peripherals would result in added advantages in business. This was also a mantra followed by one of the world’s biggest banks, JP Morgan.

Recently, JP Morgan revealed that they were considering merging their popular Quorum blockchain unit with the ConsenSys Joseph Lubin. The news is coming in the wake of a report that indicated some troubled times for ConsenSys

Sources close to the bank stated that they were in initial talks to merge Quorum because of its functionalities and abilities to utilize blockchain. There have been no formal announcements as of yet but a concrete plan is expected to be revealed in 4-6 months.

ConsenSys is expected to be a good fit for Quorum because the latter too is based on Ethereum. Quorum is used by JP Morgan to run the Interbank Information Network which acts as a payments network for over 300 banks. There were also earlier comments that mentioned Quorum would be used to create the bank’s native crypto called JP Morgan Coin.

Ethereum’s commonality was one of the main reasons why the companies decided to merge. The bank revealed that they were planning to spin-off Quorum for another two years. Along with this, JP Morgan also has plans to set up an open-source foundation as well as creating a new startup. The spin-off idea was first suggested back in May 2019 but it was anything but concrete.

Quorum blockchain has also gone through some upgrades over the months, forcing many people to sit up and take notice. Quorum now has added privacy features from Ethereum as well as an upgrade within the Java programming language.

The news was also met with some trepidation as there was growing concern that a change in integration would affect existing projects on Quorum. People close to the initiative stated that the merger with ConsenSys would not change a thing to exiting compounds.

ConsenSys was also in the news recently when a project based on it launched its own ‘Proof-of-Use’ Network to discourage speculation. The project is titled, Activate and is part of the ConsenSys Codefi. It is an Ethereum-based operating system for decentralized finance products.

The updates from ConsenSys is expected to generate more interest from JP Morgan for the Quorum integration. Many proponents of the space see it as an opportunity to bring in more developments into the digital asset industry by involving mainstream finance.