The Daily: Critical Bug Found in Beam Wallet, Wirex Adds Another Cryptocurrency

In Friday’s edition of The Daily, we cover the news about a vulnerability found in the Beam Wallet days after the launch of the Mimblewimble-based coin. Also, crypto card provider Wirex has added waves to its list of supported cryptocurrencies, and digital asset exchange Exmo has registered an increase in the number of Belarusian users following Binance’s move to restrict their access to its platform.

Also read: Trust Wallet Adds BCH, 35,000 Merchants Get Access to Crypto Payments

Critical Vulnerability in the Beam Wallet

The developers of Beam, a new privacy-centric coin based on the Mimblewimble protocol, have found a critical vulnerability in their Beam Wallet. The bug affects all previously released wallets in both the desktop and the CLI version, the company behind the project announced on Twitter. The problem has been fixed and Beam said in a post on Medium it’s currently working with providers to upgrade their systems.

In another tweet, the Beam dev team asked all users to stop currently running Beam Wallets immediately. However, according to the message, they should not delete the wallet’s database, as the bug does not affect wallet data, secret keys or passwords. Instead, they need to uninstall the wallet, download it again from the website beam.mw/downloads and install the new application.

Beam was launched on Jan. 3, becoming the first coin based on Mimblewimble, a protocol originally developed in 2016 to improve the scalability of the Bitcoin network and enhance the privacy of its users. The cryptocurrency is already available for trading on the decentralized platform Bisq which promised to also add Grin, another Mimblewimble coin expected to launch on mainnet by the end of this month.

CRITICAL VULNERABILITY IN BEAM WALLET 9.1.2019 20:20 GMT Critical Vulnerability was found in Beam Wallet today. Vulnerability was discovered by Beam Dev Team and not reported anywhere else. Vulnerability affects all previously released Beam Wallets both Dekstop and CLI. — @Beamprivacy (@beamprivacy) January 9, 2019

Wirex Adds Support for Waves

The popular online bank and crypto debit card issuer Wirex has added another coin to its list of supported cryptocurrencies. Users of the Wirex platform in the European Economic Area (EEA) can now buy, store, convert and spend waves with their Wirex Visa cards, the U.K.-based company announced in a blog post. The service also supports bitcoin core (BTC), litecoin (LTC), ripple (XRP) and ether (ETH).

“The introduction of the waves wallet to Wirex is an exciting development for both crypto-investors and our globetrotting Wirex Visa card users,” co-founder Pavel Matveev commented. “For travel, welcoming waves to your portfolio means that you can enjoy a wider choice of currencies to exchange from and store,” his partner Dmitry Lazarichev added.

Last month Wirex completed the introduction of Iban support for all EUR accounts. EEA users can now fund their account by bank transfer and receive euro payments. The fintech startup also raised the funding limits for account holders in the EEA to £15,000, €16,000 and $20,000. The company is now planning an expansion into North American markets.

Belarusian Traders Migrate From Binance to Exmo

The analytics department of Exmo, the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Eastern Europe, has detected a six-fold increase in the number of registered users from Belarus in December, crypto news outlet Let Know reports. Exmo’s team attributed the influx of new traders to Binance’s decision to restrict access to its platform for the residents of a number of countries under sanctions, including Belarus.

In late November, Binance, which is currently the largest digital asset exchange by daily trading volume, informed its Belarussian users that its services will no longer be available in their country. In correspondence to customers from Belarus, the exchange urged them to read the latest version of its Terms of Use. Under the new ToU agreement, traders acknowledge and declare they are not on any trade or economic sanctions lists, such as those prepared by the U.N. Security Council and the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC).

Since its launch five years ago, Exmo has registered 1.5 million users. According to the report, its daily trading volume reaches $40 million. The exchange, which supports trading pairs with fiat currencies such as the Russian ruble and the Ukrainian hryvnia, is currently 56th in Coinmarketcap’s volume rankings, with a daily volume touching $20 million.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Beam, Wirex.

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