Bitcoin Daily: TD Ameritrade Backs ErisX; Crypto Hackers Mint 235M Fake Pigeoncoins

Hackers have minted 235 million fake tokens of the digital Pigeoncoin currency by taking advantage of a bitcoin bug, The Next Web reported. As a result, the hackers were able to circumvent the cryptocurrency’s set supply of 21 billion coins. The hackers have not sold or moved their Pigeoncoins, but the reported noted the attack is a wake-up call to developers with currencies like Pigeoncoin that use Bitcoin Core code to make patches to their systems.

In other news, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. is backing digital currency exchange ErisX, Reuters reported. While customers of TD Ameritrade can trade bitcoin futures through CBOE, ErisX would potentially enable them to trade futures of additional tokens like Litecoin. TD Ameritrade’s Managing Director of Futures and Foreign Exchange J.B. Mackenzie told Reuters, “it could open up additional cryptocurrency products on the future and spot side that our clients could potentially trade.”

And the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) rolled out a messaging system using blockchain technology, CoinDesk reported. The system has been launched through a platform the agency uses called Yael. According to other reports, Israeli cybersecurity firm Taldor developed the blockchain integration. The idea is to provide a way to check a message’s authenticity and provenance. A director of the agency’s information systems department, Natan Hershkovitz, said per CoinDesk, “implementing blockchain technology in the ISA’s information systems makes it one of the global leading authorities in securing the information provided to the public.”

On another note, IBM won a patent for blockchain technology that could help keep tabs on computer networks for security breaches, CoinDesk reported. The idea is that a series of monitors on a platform that uses the blockchain can log network events, such as possible intrusions. And the patent notes that “since one monitor alone cannot alter the event log in the past or cannot fake the event log in the future, if one monitor is hacked, then there may be no consensus among the synchronized monitors and the event may not get written into the log.” That situation, in turn, could highlight a potentially compromised monitor.