Sep 14Decentralized Loans: Is Under-collateralization Possible?When I first learned Solidity, after grasping the basics and writing a few simple smart contracts, my first significant learning experience involved trawling through the constellation of code libraries that make up Aave, the decentralized crypto-lending platform. Side note: I do not recommend this approach to beginners unless you are…Security5 min readSecurity5 min read
Aug 24Interesting addresses on the Bitcoin blockchainTen years ago I occasionally wrote posts for a blog, now defunct, about Bitcoin. This is the most popular article on it, which has been read about two thousand times, so I thought it might be interesting here on Medium. It was originally from March 2014. The technical bit A quick recap: Your…Bitcoin4 min readBitcoin4 min read
Aug 11Computer Security: More Carrots, Less SticksThe following article was written in collaboration with Luis Lubeck, who is a Senior Project Manager and Educator at Resonance Security. This is not just a theoretical article: at the end we provide ten different approaches that can be used to improve online user account security! (Audio version available here…Security7 min readSecurity7 min read
Jul 17It ain’t what you think it’s the language that you think inA few weeks ago I was talking to Michal, who is a Lead Security Engineer over at Resonance Security. We were planning to discuss cross-chain issues, but as is always the case, the conversation meandered off into different fields, mostly concerning how the programming language you use shapes your view…Programming6 min readProgramming6 min read
Jul 8The Sequel To the Largest Airdrop Of All TimeA year and a half ago I came up with an Ethereum smart contract that airdropped 100 ERC20 tokens into every single Ethereum address that there is or could ever be. A few non-technical web3 project managers out there got rather excited about this, due to the misguided idea that…Ethereum5 min readEthereum5 min read
Jul 3On token contracts and balancesIf this quote from the German mathematician Leopold Kronecker doesn’t put you off reading this article, then I don’t know what will. Consider yourself warned. “Natural numbers were created by God, everything else is the work of human beings.” A few days ago I posted on LinkedIn about an ERC20…Blockchain9 min readBlockchain9 min read
Jun 22Smart Contracts Aren’t Immutable!TL;DR: Smart contracts on Ethereum are not immutable. In this, the first collaborative article with Resonance Security, offensive security expert[1] João Simões and I look at Ethereum smart contracts, and in particular the myth that they are immutable. To get started, there are quite a few blockchain concepts that you…Security8 min readSecurity8 min read
Jun 5An approach to security that resonatesAbout two years ago, while wandering around the corner of the metaverse that is Decentraland, I met Charles Dray. Or rather, his avatar. At the time, he was experimenting with building an NFT art gallery, after becoming somewhat disillusioned with banking and diving into blockchain and crypto instead. We got…Security2 min readSecurity2 min read
Mar 19How To Save 300,000 Dollars by Gaming the USPTO through ContinuationsThis article is for the patent nerds out there, and involves a thought experiment for significantly reducing your patent application and prosecution fees when you have hundreds of ideas and you don’t know which ones you should attempt to get a patent for. …Patents9 min readPatents9 min read
Feb 22Geocentric Celestial Mechanics“The moon’s an arrant thief, And her pale fire she snatches from the sun.” ― William Shakespeare When I was young, my father had a telescope. Not a little thing with lenses, but a huge reflector telescope — a tube nearly two meters long and half a meter in diameter…Metaverse11 min readMetaverse11 min read
