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Ethereum CLWP Success: Protecting over $120 Million USD in Validator Assets

June 17, 2024June 17, 2024 Benjamin Chodroff

In 2013, I ventured into the world of blockchain, and one phrase has always stuck with me: “Not your keys, not your coins.” But what if a mistake happens and your private key is compromised? This situation is more common than many admit. While it often results in the loss of assets, it can be at best an expensive life lesson and teachable moment. However, with a bit of luck and a lot of help, it is still possible to rescue over $120 million USD like I did by during the Ethereum Shapella hardfork on April 12, 2023 by creating EIP-4736 “CLWP” Consensus Layer Withdrawal Protection.

Foreign Permanent Resident Identification in Mainland China

July 2, 2022June 17, 2024 Benjamin Chodroff

Applying for a mainland China green card, officially called a Foreign Permanent Resident Identification Card, is a very complicated process partly because very few foreigners have ever attempted to document their experience. Each province has its own specific rules and handling, but overall the process is set by the central government for processing once approved by the locality and province. As of the 2020 census results, there were a reported 1.4 million people in the Chinese mainland from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, or Foreigners – representing about 0.1% of the total 1.4B population. By my own estimates, more than half of these individuals left from 2020-2021 due to COVID-19, and another half of the remaining in 2022 due to the lockdown events in Shanghai. Perhaps less than half of the remaining individuals are eligible for PR, and even less than half that have submitted an application. I would estimate that less than 0.005% of the total mainland China population have ever received a green card. Here are some details that may help others trying to understand what this card is, why you may want to apply, how to apply, and expectations on the challenges involved.

NFT Stickers using NFC and POAP

June 30, 2022June 30, 2022 Benjamin Chodroff

Non-fungible tokens have taken the web3 world by storm with rags to riches stories. However, did you know NFTs don’t have to be used for speculative trading of digital artwork? Anything can be tokenized, and POAP “Proof of Attendance Protocol” allows tracking attendees at any event use the power of blockchain to provide an immutable record of who showed up by issuing each a free NFT. POAP is completely free to create events, and free to issue NFTs. I wanted to take the POAP NFT and give it a digital twin in the real world – something physical you could give out as a prize for attending that corresponded exactly with the digital NFT: a NFC sticker.

OpenCanary honeypot on Synology NAS

March 2, 2022March 24, 2022 Benjamin Chodroff

Coal miners used to carry a canary in a cage when digging as the bird would sing, unless dangerous gasses collected in the mine which would weaken the bird and alert the miners of the imminent danger. The same concept has existed in computer security for a long time as honeypots naturally attract hackers and allow a network security engineer to use them to alert of the issue. A Synology NAS full of identification or financial documents is a target for hackers that should be fully secured on your intranet and always isolated from the public internet. However, what if your internal network is unknowingly compromised (malware, IoT device, etc.) and hackers start to try to launch attacks against your secure NAS? Reviewing the log files for all possible service attacks may be quite challenging and, by the time you notice the issue, may be too late to take action. A canary honeypot can help immediately alert you that a serious problem may exist within your security perimeter.

Helium blockchain in China using a Panther X1 and Wireguard VPN

January 15, 2022January 18, 2022 Benjamin Chodroff

Helium is a blockchain which creates a decentralized LoRaWAN global wireless network for IoT devices that rewards users based on Proof of Coverage. I came across the idea years before, but was concerned that they only allowed a single device to provide the LoRaWAN coverage! Helium has now opened up to support many approved device manufactures. I decided to purchase a Panther X1 unit to try it out. While using a blockchain in China for personal purposes (not as a company) is not illegal, China has heavily censored many blockchain related services.

Validating Ethereum2 with Lighthouse in Docker

August 23, 2021August 23, 2021 Benjamin Chodroff

Ethereum is shifting from Proof of Work “mining” to a Proof of Stake “staking” blockchain. This stake requires 32 ETH per validator to validate directly, but there are many custodial pooling services that allows those who have less to still participate with little investment or effort. However, I enjoy participating directly. I learned quite a lot in the process running my Ethereum GPU mining rig since 2017, and wished to do the same with staking. These are my quick notes how how I set up docker containers on Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS for Geth, Lighthouse beacon node, and a Lighthouse validator client. Using this setup, I am yielding about 6.5% APY this year on my ETH. As long as your computer is online more than 50% of the time, you will increase your Ethereum while helping participate in the decentralization that secures the network.

iPhone Apps for Foreigners Living in China

June 27, 2020March 25, 2021 Benjamin Chodroff

Living in China as a foreigner is a rewarding but challenging life. If you are not fluent in speaking and reading Chinese, it can be a real struggle. Thankfully, technology has made it easier. Here are some applications I use daily with my iPhone with a US App Store.

Selecting a VPN for China

June 26, 2020March 25, 2021 Benjamin Chodroff

Selecting a VPN for China is not as simple as it used to be. Basic VPN solutions from the west won’t cut it and most don’t even work. Running your own VPN node such as Shadowsocks (SSR) or V2ray often can’t achieve 100Mbps+. Since late 2018, ensuring a self-hosted node stays reliable can be a full time job of outrunning detection by the Great Firewall (GFW) which employs an army of censors and increasing artificial intelligence recognition.

Building a six GPU Ethereum Mining Rig

January 31, 2018 Benjamin Chodroff

I have been working with blockchains since 2013 but always wanted to know more about how the mining process worked. Last year, I fell in love with Ethereum and was excited to learn the project uses a GPU friendly algorithm. I convinced my wife to allow me to spend some money to build a GPU mining rig. At the time I built the rig, I calculated it would take over a year to break even in mining Ethereum. Luckily, the Ethereum project has taken off in a big way. The rig paid for itself in a few months, and continues to deliver. I had a lot of fun building the rig and learned a lot about how Ethereum works in the process. My rig does about 160 million hashes a second and dual mines Ethereum and Decred. Here are some details on the setup.
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Shadowsocks in Docker for bypassing China’s Great Firewall

January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 Benjamin Chodroff

If you have travelled in China, you likely know that many websites such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked on most internet connections. Typically I have purchased a VPN service to access blocked sites. Unfortunately, many VPN services are being detected and blocked by China’s “Great Firewall.” The best solution I have found is either to purchase a premium VPN solution, such as ExpressVPN which is specifically designed to work in China, or to use an open source solution called Shadowsocks hosted on a remote server. This tutorial provides a detailed setup of how to run Shadowsocks in a docker container deployed on a Synology NAS.