Also, Golden Equator Wealth launches NextGen program, and Google to let users opt out from being online-targeted

Binance hacked, reported losses reaches US$41M [e27]

On its official site, the global crypto exchange Binance has confirmed that there’s been a security breach compromising Binance’s crypto trading. The hackers, the company said, stole 7000 bitcoin in this transaction, translates for US$41 million worth of bitcoins.

The company said that the hackers were able to obtain a large number of user API keys, 2FA codes, and potentially other info. The hackers are said to use a variety of techniques, including phishing, viruses, and other attacks.

Binance said that the above withdrawal is the only affected transaction and impacted a hot wallet (which contained about 2 per cent of Binance’s total BTC holdings), while all of its other wallets are secure and unharmed. Hot wallet is a term that refers to a digital wallet that is connected to the internet.

Binance will use the #SAFU fund, an emergency insurance program, to cover this incident in full, and ensures that no user funds will be affected. Binance estimated that the investigation will take about one week.

Singapore’s multi-family office Golden Equator Wealth launches NextGen Programme [Press Release]

Singapore-based multi-family office, Golden Equator Wealth launched its NextGen Programme as well as its Family Office publication. The program aims to open ways for next-generation members of business families into future leaders through a customised curriculum across finance, wealth management, entrepreneurship, and leadership development.

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The program was launched on Monday, May 6, 2019, is said to provide each candidate with learning roadmap is crafted to overcome the unique personal and business challenges as they assume their roles as custodians of the family wealth and family enterprises.

“In the next decade, there will be an enormous amount of wealth and businesses changing hands to the next generation. The business and wealth management landscape has been and continues to be impacted by technology. So, the next generation of enterprise leaders would require new and additional skill sets, network, and traits to manage both business and wealth. We hope to revolutionise wealth preservation to help families build a sustainable legacy that lasts for many generations,” said Shirley Crystal Chua, Founder and Group CEO of Golden Equator Group.

The first participant of the program is a NextGen member of a family office managed by Golden Equator Wealth, whose family business lies in the property development sector. The Family Office publication was a project led by this NextGen member.

Alibaba’s Ant Financial invests US$10M in a blockchain privacy startup [The Coindesk]

QEDIT, a Tel Aviv-based blockchain privacy technology developer, announced that it has secured a US$10 million Series A round from investors including Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba.

With the investment, Ant Financial will be incorporating QEDIT’s zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) tech into its blockchain projects. Other high-profile partnerships that have been applying QEDIT’s ZKPs include VMWare and RGAX, a subsidiary of Reinsurance Group of America.

QEDIT’s investment round was led by MizMaa Ventures, with participation from Ant Financial and RGAX as well as Meron Capital, Collider Ventures, Jovono and Target Global, which makes up a total of US$14 million in funding comprising the A round.

“The ZKP schemes our company builds are compatible with most varieties of enterprise blockchain, and this has led to the company gaining traction in Asia. We have been getting our product out to large providers in Asia and one of them is Ant Financial,” said Jonathan Rouach, CEO and co-founder of QEDIT.

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Zero knowledge schemes provide a way of proving possession of a secret without revealing the secret itself. QEDIT claims that it has demonstrated on the public ethereum blockchain how to prove an individual falls within a certain tax bracket without access to the fundamental data.

Google to let users opt out from being online-targeted [Bloomberg]

In its Google’s I/O Developer Conference, Google’s Alphabet Inc unit announced that it is tightening the rules for how websites track people who use its Chrome web browser. This would be the company’s effort to let users be in control over who watches their moves online.

Browsing platform Google Chrome is being tweaked so that developers will have to specify how far their online tracking software, or known as cookies, can reach. As a result, people can choose exactly which kinds of cookies can follow them and which ones can’t.

The change comes as regulators and consumers around the world are demanding more transparency on how their personal data are being used, and more privacy to shield themselves from online surveillance.

However, the shift could also send shockwaves through the advertising industry considering how Google has been relying on tracking what its users have been doing online to send them targeted ads.

Now, Google’s vision is that “websites should be able to identify, remember and track users, as long as those people know about it and can opt out if they want”.
Google also announced a tool being released soon that will help people learn why they were presented with a specific Google-run ad, and which advertising-tech companies provided information to aid the targeting.
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