A massive chunk of our day to day lives passes through gadgets such as laptops, smartphones etc. These devices ultimately end up containing valuable digital information about us. It is therefore not surprising how our online accounts have become attractive to criminals. Presently, cyber attacks against the government, companies, and even individuals are rampant because these criminals need access to private/personal information for their nefarious activities. From the look of things, these criminals will not relent any time soon.
However, it is very easy for individuals and organisations to improve the security of their private information using multi-factor authentication, commonly called MFA.
MFA is a security system that needs several authentication methods from independent categories of credentials to verify a user's identity for a login or any form of transaction. The technique combines at least two of these types of credentials: the user's knowledge (password), the user's possession (security token), and who the user is (biometric verification).
MFA aims at creating multiple layers of defence against any form of attack. It means that multi-factor authentication will make it hard for any unauthorised person to access a valid user's data like location, device, network, or database. With the MFA, when the attacker bypasses one layer, he/she still has other layers of defence to breach before obtaining full access to the user's asset. One popular form of MFA is "two-factor authentication", also known as 2FA. Let us now describe it in detail.
Two-factor authentication, also called 2FA, adds an extra layer of security to verify whether a person who tries to access an online account is the rightful owner. The aim is to complicate access for a cyber-criminal. Any person who wants to gain access must provide another piece of information: the second factor. The information can be any of the following,
2FA is a form of insurance for a user in the sense that if the user's phone is faulty, gets stolen, or the user's password is compromised, another party's chances of knowing the second-factor information are slim.
Any website that doesn't offer 2FA has the tendency to be hacked easily. In other words, there is no insurance for your account once someone else knows your password. Some websites, however, offer different kinds of 2FA; some may be complex, others easy to understand by the user. The bottom line is, they offer protection other than just passwords. The following are common types of 2FA,
This is the oldest form of 2FA. They are small hardware devices that generate a temporary numeric code every 30 seconds. When users want to access their accounts, they glimpse their device and enter the numeric code into the website or application.
One major disadvantage of this is the cost. Businesses, for example, find it costly to provide a large number of employees with hardware tokens. The small size of the device makes it prone to easy misplacement. It is also worthy to note that hardware tokens are not entirely safe from getting hacked.
This type works directly with a user's mobile device. Upon the successful input of the username and password, a user gets a one-time password (OTP) in the form of a text message. When the user receives the OTP, s/he inputs it into the website or application.
Voice verification works similarly: the user's number is automatically dialled, and the password disclosed verbally. Voice verification is uncommon. It is mainly used in countries with poor cell service or where smartphones are expensive.
It is unwise to use this security form on a website that stores your personal information because it is the lowest security form. Private information like bank account details, email accounts, etc., need a more secure form of authentication. Therefore, this type of 2FA is predominantly for low-risk online activities.
This is the most widely used type of 2FA. For many, it is a better alternative to text message and voice verification. It makes use of a software-generated, time-based one-time password, commonly referred to as TOTP, or soft token.
To use this method, users have to download and install a free 2FA application on their mobile or PC. The application can be used on any website that supports this authentication type. When users log onto the website with their respective username and password, they receive a code on the application and subsequently input it. Similar to the hardware tokens, software tokens are temporary and last for less than a minute.
What makes software tokens less susceptible to attacks is because the code is generated on the same device, unlike the text message and voice verification — There is every tendency that a user's registered number may be on another device. Most importantly, the 2FA applications are available for mobile, wearables, or PCs and can work offline. Therefore, it is possible to use them anywhere.
This type of authentication doesn't need a 2FA token. All the user needs to do is to verify that a login attempt is about to take place. Whenever an attempt is made to log into an account, the website will send a notification to the account owner's smartphone, and with just a single touch, the account owner can approve or deny access.
This method eradicates any form of attack from a third party. The direct relationship between the user and the website ensures that the user receives a notification upon any login attempt. However, it can only work on an internet-connected device. Hence, it may be difficult to use in an area with a poor network.
Presently, the United States has adopted the use of MFA. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has issued a directive that the MFA should be used for internet banking operations. With the world's largest economic and financial superpower declaring its interest in multifactor authentication, there is no doubt it will be used worldwide shortly.
Reports indicate that stolen, misplaced, and weak passwords are the primary cause of security infringements. Before now, passwords were the only way to keep one's account safe from cybercrime. Thankfully, MFA came on board when the rate of cybercrime was growing fast. With MFA, many companies and individuals can now increase their security level. MFA is vital to keep one's account safe and necessary for everyone in this digital age.
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The bull market has been trending for nearly one year, starting late last year. Uniswap and PancakeSwap continue at their record-breaking pace as the total market continues reaching a new height with innovations and new ideas. Let’s dive into why these exchanges have seen so much success recently, starting with their host chains.
Typical of the bull market, the market has witnessed a new all-time high across major cryptocurrencies. The total market cap will cross a whopping $2 Trillion in just this year. Alongside the growth of the market is a key factor responsible - the introduction of many new users bringing fresh capital.
Check out the following important metrics on BSC and Ethereum. These leading chains have played a pivotal role in crypto ecosystems blooming during this market run.
Reaching a peak of 152 Million distinct addresses yesterday on May 12 and a record 228,094 daily increase, Ethereum has seen tremendous success recently. The uptrend slope graph signifies a growing number of new wallet address popping up on the Ethereum chain.
The BSC also reached a new height of around 72 Million unique addresses with more than 500,000 in daily increase - double that of the Ethereum chain.
The expansion of the unique addresses explains the daily transaction chart of both chains looking very similar - and ready to reach new heights. Two exchanges will be responsible for a significant part of these growths; Uniswap and PancakeSwap.
These two exchanges, born out of different chains, define the way we swap, provide liquidity and interact with the decentralized nature of blockchains. Both of the DEX and AMM services will see continued growth as they jockey for position with the host of exchanges crawling out of the woodwork across both chains.
Obtaining the following statistics from the Dex Ranking platform Debank gives a closer look at both DEXes.
The total transaction of 2.47 million carried out on both DEX services in the last 24hrs places PancakeSwap ahead of Uniswap (V1, V2, and V3) with a whopping $2.5 billion in Volume, with 2,135,910 total transactions carried out.
Uniswap on the other hand saw $2.4 billion in volume, only a slight difference with PancakeSwap volume, but had a significantly lower number of 24hr users and total transactions.
The reason for this is not overly complex; PancakeSwap leverages on the far cheaper and lower fees of the BSC network, which have continued to attract more users and usage. In fact, at the height of the congestion in recent times, the total number of transactions still hasn’t reduced, even despite the now-high fees and failed transactions.
What has been intriguing, without a doubt, is the fact that Uniswap remains the king of DeFi despite its low turnout in the daily chart. Uniswap takes the lead of all other DEXes with a $21 billion market capitalization and $1.6 billion overall 24hr volume.
Compared to PancakeSwap, which has $5 Billion in Market Cap and $744 million overall daily volume less, Uniswap remains supreme. PancakeSwap has struggled to climb up the ladder in the DeFi zone, currently sitting at just the 5th position.
Uniswap is the world-leading DEX and AMM service on the Ethereum chain. Its significance rose to new heights as it played a major role in the DeFi bull run, wherein most DeFi tokens seek their first listings.
Despite the recent market sell-off, its native token UNI has continued to do well, currently sitting at the $37 mark and a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $8 Billion. The platform is presently in its LP migration phase to its newly launched V3.
Following closely on the heels of Uniswap is the number one Dex on the BSC chain. PancakeSwap, the darling of the BSC network, has continued to soar, leveraging on the cheap fees and fast transactions.
Like its counterpart on the Ethereum chain, its native token CAKE has continued to do well, currently sitting on the $30 mark while its TVL is above $9 Billion, a value significantly higher than that of Uniswap with over $1 Billion. The platform, which is also in its V2 phase and LP migration, aims to do more and make more records.
There is no doubt that the Ethereum chain is the current royalty of DeFi and the infrastructure ecosystem. Many popular chains are an extension of the Ethereum chain, using the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), or have been forked from the chain. These chains include Solana Fantom and even the BSC, which has seen more success than many other chains. Yet despite Ethereum’s (and by extension Uniswap’s) lead in total volume, the BSC is seeing a surge of growth fueled by PancakeSwap. It will be very interesting to see how these trends play out once the bull run of the market has come to a close.
Venus Protocol has announced that it is now fully upgraded to Chainlink. Venus had earlier dropped the VIP-23 proposal to allow for an upgrade on ChainLink as its oracle solution will provide a robust infrastructure to secure critical lending/borrowing functions and push prices to higher levels. The upgrade will allow Venus to leverage on Chainlink to create a more secure, trusted, and liquid market on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Venus is a synthetic money market and stablecoin protocol built on the BSC. With its upgrade to Chainlink as an oracle solution, Venus has now leveraged Chainlink to its markets to its price collateral during both loan issuance and liquidation processes. The VIP 213 proposal deployed for the upgrade in Chainlink will provide security and reliability to the Venus Protocol allowing for the timely update of prices and automation of the Venus Market.
Built by crypto wallet and debit card company Swipe, Venus Protocol is the first collateral loan platform on BSC. With Venus, lenders can provide liquidity on various assets and earn interest in LP, there is also an option to take loans in other currencies or mint VAI— the first decentralized stablecoin built on BSC, Venus's stablecoin. One of the benefits of running on BSC is that users will be able to get fast, low-cost transactions while being able to access a deep network of wrapped tokens and liquidity. The way the Venus market works requires price data to determine a fully algorithmic money market such as in loan issuance and loan liquidations. Every time a user requests a loan, a fully algorithmic market is needed to determine the loan size and underlying collateral. Venus also needs to have its prices aggregated and price adjusted to suit market realities, which the BSC does not allow, hence the need for Chainlink.
According to Joelito Lizarondo, founder of Venus Protocol and the CEO of Swipe Wallet:
“As the market leader in providing credit to the BSC ecosystem, it was critical that we scale up our security by upgrading to Chainlink as a means of thoroughly protecting our users’ funds and guaranteeing they alway get fair market prices. Not only are we able to leverage Chainlink’s time-tested security, but it’s native operation on BSC allows us to get consistently fresh data for a much lower price.”
The need to utilize Chainlink’s oracle solution is founded in a desire to provide a more robust and proven infrastructure suitable for Venus’ lending/borrowing functions. The integration with Chainlink is also essential as Venus has the most Total Value Locked (TVL) on BSC, so a superior oracle was needed to increase efficiency. With the upgrade to Venus, users can now expect high-speed data from several premium off-chain data aggregators like BraveNewCoin, plus a high level of security and decentralization.
Chainlink is an oracle protocol on the BSC, providing tamper-proof data and transactions. Chainlink enables developers to connect to any blockchain in a secure way and to power universally connected smart contracts. Chainlink is utilized by organizations to get reliable, secured and trusted data feeds.
Venus is a synthetic money market and stablecoin protocol built on the BSC. With its upgrade to Chainlink as an oracle solution, Venus has now leveraged Chainlink to its markets to its price collateral during both loan issuance and liquidation processes.
Their algorithmic-based money market system is built on the BSC to ensure a completely decentralised lending and credit system in DeFi. With Venus, users can use the collateral supplied to the market to borrow other assets and to mint synthetic stablecoins with over-collateralized positions that protect the protocol.
Upgrading their oracles to the highly-regarded Chainlink product will no doubt provide a boost to Venus. This partnership will both increase security as well as transaction efficiency, granting Venus access to a highly-organized and efficient collection of multi-chain data practically instantaneously. Users of Venus should see increased value from using the project, and can rest assured that their transactions are being handled safely.
In today's online world, Cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated and daring. There is a need for more secure authentication systems to safeguard users' online accounts. The Multi-factor authentication (MFA) system provides a high level of data security and is vital for all to adopt.
A massive chunk of our day to day lives passes through gadgets such as laptops, smartphones etc. These devices ultimately end up containing valuable digital information about us. It is therefore not surprising how our online accounts have become attractive to criminals. Presently, cyber attacks against the government, companies, and even individuals are rampant because these criminals need access to private/personal information for their nefarious activities. From the look of things, these criminals will not relent any time soon.
However, it is very easy for individuals and organisations to improve the security of their private information using multi-factor authentication, commonly called MFA.
MFA is a security system that needs several authentication methods from independent categories of credentials to verify a user's identity for a login or any form of transaction. The technique combines at least two of these types of credentials: the user's knowledge (password), the user's possession (security token), and who the user is (biometric verification).
MFA aims at creating multiple layers of defence against any form of attack. It means that multi-factor authentication will make it hard for any unauthorised person to access a valid user's data like location, device, network, or database. With the MFA, when the attacker bypasses one layer, he/she still has other layers of defence to breach before obtaining full access to the user's asset. One popular form of MFA is "two-factor authentication", also known as 2FA. Let us now describe it in detail.
Two-factor authentication, also called 2FA, adds an extra layer of security to verify whether a person who tries to access an online account is the rightful owner. The aim is to complicate access for a cyber-criminal. Any person who wants to gain access must provide another piece of information: the second factor. The information can be any of the following,
2FA is a form of insurance for a user in the sense that if the user's phone is faulty, gets stolen, or the user's password is compromised, another party's chances of knowing the second-factor information are slim.
Any website that doesn't offer 2FA has the tendency to be hacked easily. In other words, there is no insurance for your account once someone else knows your password. Some websites, however, offer different kinds of 2FA; some may be complex, others easy to understand by the user. The bottom line is, they offer protection other than just passwords. The following are common types of 2FA,
This is the oldest form of 2FA. They are small hardware devices that generate a temporary numeric code every 30 seconds. When users want to access their accounts, they glimpse their device and enter the numeric code into the website or application.
One major disadvantage of this is the cost. Businesses, for example, find it costly to provide a large number of employees with hardware tokens. The small size of the device makes it prone to easy misplacement. It is also worthy to note that hardware tokens are not entirely safe from getting hacked.
This type works directly with a user's mobile device. Upon the successful input of the username and password, a user gets a one-time password (OTP) in the form of a text message. When the user receives the OTP, s/he inputs it into the website or application.
Voice verification works similarly: the user's number is automatically dialled, and the password disclosed verbally. Voice verification is uncommon. It is mainly used in countries with poor cell service or where smartphones are expensive.
It is unwise to use this security form on a website that stores your personal information because it is the lowest security form. Private information like bank account details, email accounts, etc., need a more secure form of authentication. Therefore, this type of 2FA is predominantly for low-risk online activities.
This is the most widely used type of 2FA. For many, it is a better alternative to text message and voice verification. It makes use of a software-generated, time-based one-time password, commonly referred to as TOTP, or soft token.
To use this method, users have to download and install a free 2FA application on their mobile or PC. The application can be used on any website that supports this authentication type. When users log onto the website with their respective username and password, they receive a code on the application and subsequently input it. Similar to the hardware tokens, software tokens are temporary and last for less than a minute.
What makes software tokens less susceptible to attacks is because the code is generated on the same device, unlike the text message and voice verification — There is every tendency that a user's registered number may be on another device. Most importantly, the 2FA applications are available for mobile, wearables, or PCs and can work offline. Therefore, it is possible to use them anywhere.
This type of authentication doesn't need a 2FA token. All the user needs to do is to verify that a login attempt is about to take place. Whenever an attempt is made to log into an account, the website will send a notification to the account owner's smartphone, and with just a single touch, the account owner can approve or deny access.
This method eradicates any form of attack from a third party. The direct relationship between the user and the website ensures that the user receives a notification upon any login attempt. However, it can only work on an internet-connected device. Hence, it may be difficult to use in an area with a poor network.
Presently, the United States has adopted the use of MFA. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) has issued a directive that the MFA should be used for internet banking operations. With the world's largest economic and financial superpower declaring its interest in multifactor authentication, there is no doubt it will be used worldwide shortly.
Reports indicate that stolen, misplaced, and weak passwords are the primary cause of security infringements. Before now, passwords were the only way to keep one's account safe from cybercrime. Thankfully, MFA came on board when the rate of cybercrime was growing fast. With MFA, many companies and individuals can now increase their security level. MFA is vital to keep one's account safe and necessary for everyone in this digital age.
