BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
Written By Ayuba Elisha, Contributing Tech. Editor Kuyuk Times
July 2022.
We cannot discuss blockchain technology without mentioning Bitcoin or Ethereum it is the hype surrounding these blockchains cryptocurrencies and others like them that have made blockchain technology more popular. As of May 2019, it was estimated that there are over 800 blockchains in existence and the number is increasing rapidly {1}. Aside from Bitcoin and Ethereum that we mentioned earlier, here are some other notable blockchains: Liquid Network (federated sidechain), Stellar, NEO, EOS, Dash, Tron, Binance, blockchain.com, and Polkadot. A blockchain technology is a system that keeps records of transactions or data in what are called ‘blocks’, which are securely linked to each other by a cryptographic hash; each block has the previous block’s cryptographic hash function (A cryptographic hash function is a mathematical function commonly used to verify the integrity of data, by transforming identical data to a unique, representative, fixed-size digest.) within it and the addition of more blocks on the system forms a chain of blocks or a blockchain. A typical blockchain has some native common elements within it as shown in Fig. 1 such as the following: the protocol rules that dictate the properties and attributes of data or cryptocurrencies; the consensus mechanisms for achieving distributed consensus without the need for centralized control; and the cryptography that enables it to achieve security without the need of physical or legal force. Some technologies are also responsible for some of the functionality found in blockchains; they are smart contracts, decentralized applications, and second layer solutions. Etc.
The consensus mechanisms makes sure rules are enforced i.e. the prevention of double-spend transactions, without the need of a trusted third party. Cryptography is about securing communication, and constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties from reading messages. The protocols are the set of rules that controls how data are sent i.e., network protocol.
Types of Blockchain Technology
Figure 1: Some Elements of Blockchain Technology
Segmented by the permission model, they are two main types of blockchains technology- the open and the closed blockchain technology. The open blockchain technology is subdivided into public permissionless and public permissioned. The closed blockchain technology is also subdivided into the consortium and private permission. Bitcoin and Ethereum are both open and public permissionless types of blockchain and as such if anyone downloads their software they can join or leave their networks without the need for authorization, identification, or credentials, anyone can validate transactions, mine new coins, maintain a copy of the entire blockchain, and operate as a full node. A node is a computer that is connected to a blockchains technology network. When it comes to transactions in Bitcoin, they are recorded on the network which is publicly verifiable and available to all the operators, so operators in the network are not required to know or trust each other personally.
We will discuss the history of Bitcoin and Ethereum here separately and briefly. The concept of Blockchain technology was not introduced with Bitcoin in 2008. In the 80s David Chaum proposed a similar scheme later Stuart Haber and Scott Stornetta also did the same. As a matter of fact, out of the eight works cited in the Bitcoin whitepaper three belong to Haber and Stornetta. Bitcoin and Ethereum are both decentralized, their networks are both made up of untrusted participants that are incentivized to reach consensus. Satoshi Nakamoto is a pseudonymous that created Bitcoin in 2008 while Vitalik Buterin proposed the creation of Ethereum in 2013.
Overview of Bitcoin {3}
Bitcoin Blockchain technology is an ownership database that needs no central issuer, controller, verification, or storage. Bitcoin is capped at 21 million blocks and its block time is 10 seconds. Bitcoin, as pointed out earlier, is made up of an array of concepts and technologies, such as a decentralized ledger, a decentralized peer-to-peer network, etc. as bitcoin evolve the were major events that happen in its development below are some of these events from its genesis:
On 18 August 2008, the domain name Bitcoin.org was registered; it was owned by Satoshi Nakamoto and Martti Malmi. Later on, Satoshi gave ownership of the domain to more people, that were not Bitcoin developers to make sure he remove the developers one step away from its control, on 31 October 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the Bitcoin whitepaper, which introduced the foundation of Bitcoin and blockchains while on 9 November 2008; the Bitcoin Project registered at sourceforge.net. The first block of the Bitcoin network, the genesis block was mined on January 3, 2009, its reward was 50 BTC and on January 12th of the same year Bitcoin's first transaction occurs: Nakamoto sends10BTC (40BTC in change) to Hal Finney. The transaction was included in block 170. The Bitcoin client (Bitcoin dv0.1) was released on January 9th, 2009 while and on March 17th, 2010 trading opens on Bitcoin Market, the first Bitcoin exchange site. In February 2011 Bitcoin reaches parity with the U.S. dollar, 1 USD = 1 BTC.
On November 28th, 2012 first Halving Day was observed, the reward was reduced from 50 to 25 BTC and on August the 8 of 2015 the “Bit License" came into effect, in New York State, it was initially proposed in July 2014. The license defines and regulates 'virtual currency business activity and on 22 October 2015 the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its first-ever ruling on bitcoin, stating that it was indeed a currency and a means of payment, not a commodity or an asset(as some argued) and it was also exempt from VAT in the same year. On 14 January 2016 the Lightning Network whitepaper was published by Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja and on 4 April the same year Open Bazaar, the first decentralized marketplace was released with Bitcoin as a payment method. Another Bitcoin Halving Day occurred on 9th July 2016 reducing the reward to 12.5 from 25 BTC per block. The year 2017 marks a great year for Bitcoin on 1 January its price broke over USD 1,000 for the first time since 2014, while on 7 December it reached a new all-time high of $19,783USD. On 1 April Japan categorized Bitcoin as a legal currency, after disputes between regulators and exchanges, and on 29 September that year, Japan officially recognized 11 companies as Bitcoin exchangers while on 31 October CME Group announced the launch of Bitcoin futures. The segregated Witness (SegWit) soft fork was activated on 1 August 2017.
In 2018 on the 26 of November Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to accept tax payments converted from bitcoin via Bit Pay after many other states including Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois previously scrapped such plans. On March 15, 2018 Lightning Labs releases the first Lightning mainnet beta client while on 31 October 2018, the Bitcoin whitepaper turns 10 years. Finally, on 27 September 2018 Block stream's ‘Liquid sidechain’ for Bitcoin goes live.
“On 31 October 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto publishes the Bitcoin whitepaper, which introduced the foundation of Bitcoin”
From 2019 to 2020 the following events took place: On 8 May Hackers stole $41 million worth of bitcoin from the Binance exchange, third largest blockchain technology. On 19 February 2019 Block.com was established by the University of Nicosia to issue blockchain verifiable certificates and on 28 August 2019, Satoshi Labs implements Shamir Secret Sharing in their Trezor hardware wallet (SLIP-0039). On 4 March 2020 a draft Lightning Watch tower protocol specification was published. The third Bitcoin Halving Day occurred on 11 May 2020 reducing the block reward from12.5 to 6.25 BTC. On 25 May 2020 in 2024 another having will occur, a design proposal for Coin Swap was published by Join Market developer Chris Belcher. On19 January 2020 Drafts of the Taproot /Schnorr proposals (#340,#341, and #342 ) were published. Pieter Wuille had written to the mailing list about adding Schnorr signatures back in July 2018. In October 2020, the code was merged into Bitcoin Core. On 15 April 2021, Bitcoin's price reached a new all-time-high above $63,000 while on 16 May 2021 Bitcoin hash dropped considerably due to a crackdown. And finally, on 7 Sept 2021, the nation of El-Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender alongside USD. On 14 January 2021 Bitcoin Core v0.21 with the Schnorr/Taproot code is released.
Overview of Ethereum History {3}
Vitalik Buterin proposed the development of Ethereum in the fourth quarter of 2013. On July 30th, 2015 the network went live after a pre-sell to fund it in 2014. Ethereum picks off where Bitcoin left (Bitcoin is limited when it comes to programmability). Ethereum is the first blockchain technology to introduce programmability which permits complex processes to be encoded and executed in a blockchain via a smart contract. It is thought that Ethereum is a revolutionary new platform for decentralized applications, which can support anything from the art collection, financial transactions, voting, etc. A smart contract is not smart neither is it a contract, it is a code that executes on a blockchain Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT.) The fact that the code executes on a DLT, though, implies that: (i) the code cannot be changed (if the DLT is immutable); (ii) the code is available for anyone who has access to the DLT to see, and (iii) data cannot be manipulated in any manner that the smart contract does not allow. Ethereum is based on the concept of self-executing smart contracts. A smart contract, in the context of Ethereum, consists of "immutable computer programs that run deterministically as part of the Ethereum network protocol. {2}
Ether is Ethereum’s native currency/asset it can be tracked on the blockchain and is used more as a computational fuel than a scarce currency. In Ethereum, an object-oriented programming language called “Solidity” enables anyone to create a decentralized application or smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum's market capitalization exceeded $200 billion in February 2021 and is approaching $500 billion in October 2021 its block time is presently roughly 13 seconds but can vary. Ethereum blocks are uncapped, unlike Bitcoin’s which is capped at 20 million also Ethereum's block size averaged less than 30 kilobytes. It currently exceeds 70 kilobytes. Below are some Ethereum major events and their release date:
The Ethereum genesis block was created in 2015 as of July 2018 Ethereum supply has surpassed 100 million units. Unlike bitcoin, which has a capped supply the ether supply remains uncapped. On 30 July 2015: Frontier. The first series of releases, following the mining of Ethereum’s genesis block, were accessible but only through a command line on while on 15 March 2016: Homestead Introduced new codes in Solidity, which permit users to build more on the platform, and introduced MIST: a full node wallet used to hold and transact ETH (Ether) and deploy smart contracts and write it. On 20 July 2016: An unplanned release occurred following the DAO attack. The Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO- was a decentralized investment fund that was hacked and $50 million worth of ETH was stolen by an unknown hacker. Following a disagreement about whether to roll back the chain to return the stolen funds, a hard fork occurred, resulting in two networks: the original chain without the rollback, known as Ethereum Classic (ETC), and the chain with the rollback know as Ethereum (ETH), which was supported by the majority of the community and core developers.
On 16 Oct 2017: "Metropolis" was the third release, divided into two steps: Byzantium and Constantinople, implemented on 28 Feb 2017. This stage aimed to reduce the complexity of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and provide flexibility for smart contract developers; zk-SNARKs and ring signatures are added while on 8 Dec 2019 ‘Istanbul’ upgraded Ethereum’s data storage process, mining protocol, and code execution. Serenity will be introduced in 5 phases- Phase 0: Beacon Chain (officially released on Dec.1st of 2020). Phase 1: Sharding, Phase 1.5: Merging Ethereum PoW Blockchain with New PoS Blockchain. Phase 2: Implementation of the new operating model, and Stage zero: the launch.
Since Satoshi released Bitcoin v0.1 in January 2009, under the MIT free software license, hundreds of developers from around the world have contributed to the daemon and reference client, not to mention alternative clients.
“Ethereum is the first blockchain to introduce programmability which permits complex processes to be encoded and executed in a blockchain via a smart contract”
Contributors who participate in/manage core software development are referred to collectively as "Bitcoin Core.” Discussions and releases are often published through the open 'bitcoin-dev' mailing list. Most of them do so as volunteers; some are sponsored by their employers or through grants from businesses in the industry. Recently, funding has become more distributed through initiatives like Git Hub Sponsors, Human Rights Foundation (HRF) Bitcoin Development Fund, the Bitcoin Donation Portal, and OpenSats.
While Ethereum does not have a reference implementation, there is still a "core" team:
"Ethereum core developers hold a meeting known as the All Core DevOps meeting, regularly, typically every two weeks. Any Ethereum core researcher or developer, i.e. someone working on the core Ethereum protocol or an Ethereum client, is invited to join these calls and as of publication they typically attract 20 -30 attendees.
The agenda for the call is published ahead of time and anyone may propose an addition or a change to the meeting agenda in the Git hub repository. Some things are just destine for great things like the Internet- it was nothing more than an overgrown academic experiment, with no security, no official backing, and skepticism from the business
A Peek at Some of the Privacy Changes made to Android Versions 10, 11, and 12
Written by Ayuba Elisha Contributing Editor
Kuyuk Times
It feels like Android OS finally grew up when it stopped the childish use of food themes or food names as codenames (holy dolly! I can’t believe I just stated that; it is true thus.) Before cupcake, android version 1.5, android platforms used only numbers in their nomenclature. From its first release in 2008, android has evolved from just a basic platform with Google Suit housing apps like Gmail, YouTube, Calendar, Calculator, and Maps which were all integrated into the platform to a sophisticated platform with AI capabilities.
The issue of privacy on the internet has not gone on without notice. EU gave a directive that individual could refuse the use of cookies that reduce their privacy, and by May 2011 all European countries adopted this directive. Each country then updated its law to act in accordance. While Android OS has continues to innovate and improve its privacy and security in accordance with the best industry practices we have not seen a paradigm shift in it until the release of Android version 10, android version 11, and android version 13. We will be peeking into some of the new changes dealing with privacy and coping with it version by version. Note: Developers’ Technical lexicon will be used in some places for clarification.
Android version 10 was released in September 2019; below are some of the changes made concerning privacy on the platform:
App using android version 10 must have a camera permission in order to access potentially device-specific metadata that is included in getCameraCharacteristics () return value.
Apps using android version 10 cannot enable or disable Wi-Fi. The WifiManager.setWifiEnabled () method always returns false.
To protect user privacy, manual configuration of the list of Wi-Fi networks is restricted to system apps and device policy controllers (DPCs). A given DPC can be either the device owner or the profile owner.
Apps using android version 10 cannot read USB serial number until the user has granted the app permission to access the USB device or accessory.
Android version10 offer better protection for users' screen contents.
Android version10 introduces the permission for apps that need to detect the user's step count or classify the user's physical activity, such as walking, biking, or moving in a vehicle. This is designed to give users visibility of how device sensor data is used in Settings.
Apps using android version 10 cannot look up how permission are grouped in the UI. They are removed from UI.
Introduced in Android version 10, apps must have privileged permission in order to access the device's non-resettable identifiers, which include both IMEI and serial number.
On devices that run Android version 10, the system transmits randomized MAC addresses by default.
Introduced in Android version 10, the OS doesn't keep track of contacts affinity information. As a result, when app conducts a search on the user's contacts, the results aren't ordered by frequency of interaction.
On devices that run Android version 10, apps cannot access /proc/net, which includes information about a device's network state.
Introduced in Android version 10, the system places restrictions on starting activities from the background. This behavior change helps minimize interruptions for the user and keeps the user more in control of what's shown on their screen.
To support the additional control that users have over an app's access to location information, Android 10 introduces the ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION permission. This permission only affects an app's access to location when it runs in the background.
By default apps using android version 10 are given scoped access into external storage, or scoped storage. this apps can see the following types of files within an external storage device without needing to request any storage-related user permissions: Files in the app-specific directory, accessed using getExternalFilesDir() and Photos, videos, and audio clips that the app created from the media store.
Android Version 11 was released September, 2020
Introduced in Android 11, apps that use the scoped storage model can access only their own app-specific cache files.
Introduced in Android 11, apps cannot create their own app-specific directory on external storage. To access the directory that the system provides for the app, it has to use call getExternalFilesDirs().
For consistency across devices and added user convenience, Android 11 adds several methods that make it easier to manage groups of media files.
To protect user privacy, on devices that run Android 11 or higher, the system further restricts app's access to other apps' private directories.
Users can now see which apps have the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission in system settings. On the Settings > Privacy > Permission manager > Files and media page, each app that has the permission is listed under Allowed for all files.
Introduced in Android version 11, whenever apps requests for permission related to location, microphone, or camera, the user-facing permissions dialog box contains an option called ‘Only this time’. If the user selects this option in the dialog box, the app is granted a temporary one-time permission.
Auto-reset permissions for unused apps: apps not used for a few months will have their permission revoke, the system protects user data by automatically resetting the sensitive runtime permissions that the user had granted your app.
Permission dialog visibility: introduced in Android version 11, if the user taps Deny for a specific permission more than once during the app's lifetime of installation on a device, the user doesn't see the system permissions dialog of the app requesting that permission again. This discourages repeated requests for permissions that users have chosen to deny.
One-time access: apps using Android Version 11, whenever y they requests access to foreground location, the system permissions dialog box includes an option called ‘Only this time’. This option give users more control over when an app can access location information.
To provide more transparency into how apps and its dependencies access private data from users, Android Version 11 introduces data access auditing.
Android Version 11 changes when foreground services can access the device's location, camera, and microphone. This helps protect sensitive user data.
“To protect user privacy, on devices that run Android 11 or higher, the system further restricts app's access to other apps' private directories.”
Android Version 12, released October 12, 2021, privacy changes, App using Bluetooth features on Android version 12 must declare several permissions including specifying whether the app requires support for Bluetooth classic or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The BLUETOOTH_ADVERTISE, BLUETOOTH_CONNECT, and BLUETOOTH_SCAN permissions are runtime permissions. So apps must explicitly request user approval before it can look for Bluetooth devices, make a device discoverable to other devices, or communicate with already-paired Bluetooth devices. When an app requests at least one of these permissions, the system prompts the user to allow the app to access nearby devices.
On supported devices that run Android Version 12, a Privacy Dashboard screen appears in system settings. On this screen, users can access separate screens that show when apps access location, camera, and microphone information. Each screen shows a timeline of when different apps have accessed a particular type of data.
On supported device using Android 12 allow users to enable and disable camera and microphone access for all apps on the device, by pressing a single toggle option. Users can access the toggle able options from Quick Settings, or from the Privacy screen in system settings.
On devices that run Android 12, when an app accesses the microphone or camera, an icon appears in the status bar.
On device thar run Android 12 when an app calls getPrimaryClip() to access clip data from a different app for the first time, a toast message notifies the user of this clipboard access.
Exact alarm permission: To encourage apps to conserve system resources, apps using Android 12, set exact alarms must have access to the "Alarms & reminders" capability that appears within the Special app access screen in system settings.
“•On devices that run Android 12, when an app accesses the microphone or camera, an icon appears in the status bar.”
To help protect private app data, Android 12 changes the default behavior of the adb backup command.
Apps can't close system dialogs, to improve user control when interacting with apps and the system, the ACTION_CLOSE_SYSTEM_DIALOGS intent action is deprecated as of Android 12. Except in few special cases.
Restrictions to access while in use If your app starts a foreground service while running in the background, the foreground service cannot access the microphone or camera. Additionally, the service cannot access location unless your app has background location access.
Conclusion
It’s only logical to conclude that there is a significant improvement in privacy on android Os, it has been enhancing far better than in previous older platforms that is starting from Android Version 10 to version 12.
One noticeable trend in the changes and new features added to the platforms is the shift toward enabling the user to have more control over their privacy by setting their preference. This helps protect sensitive user data. All the recent changes and features added keep users secure and increase transparency and control.