MARKET MOVING NEWS! (22/10/23)

1️⃣Bitcoin Core Developer Steps Back from
Lightning Network Over "Hard Dilemma"

Security researcher and developer Antoine Riard is reportedly stepping down from the Lightning Network's development team in order to focus more on Bitcoin core development after he discovered that a new class of replacement cycling attacks was placing Lightning ecosystem in a "perilous position." These replacement cycling attacks are a new type of attack which targets payment channels on Lightning and allows the attacker to steal funds from a channel participant by exploiting inconsistencies between individual mempools.

Riard stated,

"I think this new class of replacement cycling attacks puts lightning in a very perilous position, where only a sustainable fix can happen at the base-layer, e.g adding a memory-intensive history of all-seen transactions or some consensus upgrade. Deployed mitigations are worth something in face of simple attacks, though I don't think they're stopping advanced attackers as said in the first full disclosure mail."

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2️⃣Bitcoin Dominance Hits Highest Point in Over
Two Years

According to a report by The Block, Bitcoin's dominance in the crypto market has increased to over 49%. Notably, this is the highest point for BTC dominance in more than two years. The report states that Bitcoin's dominance has increased at a steady pace, moving from approximately 38% at the start of this year to 48.85% on October 21. This surge in dominance can reportedly be attributed to a year-long rally, with BTC's price surging by 81% since the beginning of the year.

Rebecca Stevens from The Block Research stated,
"Inflation woes, geopolitical risk, and an increasingly partisan U.S. government have been weighing on investors who are looking to minimise risk. Meanwhile, bitcoin seems closer than ever to getting a spot ETF approval and in a certain sense serves as an ideological hedge to the uncertainty on the world stage, helping it reclaim more dominance in the crypto space."

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3️⃣Crypto Advocates File Amicus Brief to Address Users' Fourth Amendment Privacy
Rights

Crypto advocacy group the DeFi Education Fund (DEF) has reportedly filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, supporting James Harper's appeal against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as part of a fight to prevent the U.S. government from having unfettered access to a user's transaction history on cryptocurrency platforms.

For context, Harper was one of the 14,355 Coinbase users whose data was handed over by the crypto exchange to the IRS following a court order in 2017. The DEF urged the court to consider the unique aspects of blockchain technology when evaluating the privacy rights of cryptocurrency users under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It argued that the Fourth Amendment needs to be revised in order to rebalance law enforcement's investigative powers and an individual's right to financial privacy in the digital age.

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4️⃣Lightning Network Faces Criticism from Pro-
XRP Lawyer John Deaton

Pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton has reportedly criticised the Bitcoin layer-2 scaling protocol Lightning Network, calling it less effective than the "Spend The Bits" protocol on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Notably, Deaton's remarks come shortly after concerns about alleged backdoors in the Bitcoin Lightning Network's code were brought to light.

In a following X post, Deaton revealed that he is an angel investor in Spend the Bits, as well as its chief legal officer. However, the XRP attorney stated that his comments come due to his
"sincere and honest belief" that Spend the Bits is "a superior alternative to the lightning network."

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