Security vulnerabilities have been discovered in “various” Bitcoin Lightning Network projects that have potential to cause users to lose their cryptocurrency.

Those running Lightning Network nodes have been advised to upgrade their clients as soon as possible, including those related to popular wallet solution Eclair.

At present, exact information is scarce, but the original post shared via a Lightning Network mailing list promises release of “full details” in four weeks.

This method of disclosure is not without precedent . Privacy-focused altcoin Monero has repeatedly released details of dangerous security vulnerabilities in a similarly staggered fashion.

The general idea is give the network enough time to patch security flaws while simultaneously keeping bad actors in the dark, which (hopefully) stops the exploitation of bugs.

Hard Fork has reached out to Rusty Russell, who originally shared the warning, and will update this piece with more information should we hear back.

Asia’s biggest Gram whale is selling Telegram tokens, but beware

The tokens from messaging app Telegram’s initial coin offering (ICO) are being offered for public sale. But tread carefully, it’s not as simple as it sounds. In fact, it’s not even Telegram offering the sale.

Asia’s biggest holder of Telegram‘s Gram tokens, Gram Asia, will be running the sale through online cryptocurrency trading platform Liquidom, an announcement reads . The sale is scheduled to take place on July 10, 2019.

Before you start getting excited about finally getting the opportunity to own some Gram, there are a couple of caveats.

Firstly, it should be noted that it’s Gram Asia selling its own reserves of Gram tokens; it has not reached a deal with Telegram. This sale seemingly holds no relationship with the token‘s original issuer.

How much each token will cost, or how many Grams will be released to the public has also not been announced. Investors will be able to buy Gram tokens with USD or Coinbase’s stablecoin USDC.

Here’s the second caveat. Those that buy the tokens won’t actually get their coins until October 31, 2019, when the TON (Telegram Open Network) blockchain is expected to launch.

Here’s the real kicker though, Gram tokens won’t even be tradeable, according to TechCrunch . What’s more, Gram Asia isn’t offering the sale in Japan, the US, and a whole host of other countries.

For those that do buy Gram tokens, Gram Asia will transfer them to TON-compatible wallets integrated on Liquid when the TON blockchain officially launches.

Until then, Liquid will hold all the proceeds from the Gram Token sale. It promises to refund investors if TON doesn’t end up launching, but it seems confident that it will.

The announcement from Gram Asia cites two articles that suggest TON is already working, however, there has been no official comment from Telegram, TechCrunch reports . So, how reliable these reports are, remains to be seen.

In 2018, Telegram raised over $1.7 billion , in one of the largest ICOs, where it sold Gram tokens to private accredited investors. One stipulation to participate in Telegram‘s ICO was to invest a minimum of $1 million, so it wasn’t your typical token sale.

Indeed, this offering certainly offers Gram tokens to more potential buyers. But keep it in mind, it’s a third-party company selling tokens that don’t exist yet, for a blockchain that is yet to launch.

Amazon says AT&T, Accenture, and Nestle are all using its blockchain tools

Amazon is ramping up its blockchain services – and it’s already convinced giants like AT&T, Accenture and Nestle to use them.

The company’s cloud solutions subsidiary, Amazon Web Services (AWS), announced its Amazon Managed Blockchain suite is now “generally available” (whatever that means). On first glimpse, it seems that AWS is simply opening up the service to anyone interested in building “decentralized” solutions – and willing to pay for it.

(We’ve reached out to Amazon to ask what the company means by “general availability,” and we’ll update this post accordingly if we hear back.)

It appears AWS is targeting businesses dealing with finance, logistics, retail, and energy management for the service, highlighting they can rely on it to keep an immutable record of their transactions without the need of a trusted authority.

It’s worth noting that despite these claims, Amazon still acts like a central authority of sorts in this case; the only difference is that the records will now be stored across multiple AWS servers.

The service currently comes with support for open source platforms like Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum, with the exception that AWS’ Managed Blockchain can handle “ thousands of applications and millions of transactions,” according to the company.

“ Customers who want to allow multiple parties to execute transactions and maintain a cryptographically verifiable record of them without the need for a trusted, central authority can quickly setup a blockchain network spanning multiple AWS accounts with a few clicks,” Amazon said in a press release.

Amazon first announced its Managed Blockchain service back in November last year. Indeed, the launch came weeks after IBM opened up its own blockchain-as-a-service tools to AWS devs.

Did you know? Hard Fork has its own stage at TNW2019 , our tech conference in Amsterdam. Check it out .