Few new technologies have raised as much discussion as blockchain. One reason is the controversy, concern, and perceived opportunity around blockchain-based cryptocurrencies (such as bitcoin and ether) and crowdfunding via initial coin offerings (ICOs). But what is blockchain’s role in the enterprise?
This article gives some ideas to think about. Take those trends with grain of salt. There will be a crash ans bubble burst on blockchains in few years.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
How a Ugandan prince and a crypto startup are planning an African revolution
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/01/how-a-ugandan-prince-and-an-crypto-startup-are-planning-an-african-revolution/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
What if blockchain turned out to be just what emerging economies were after?
Cpto and blockchain enthusiasts have been railing for years against the centralized world of banks, but many have been doing so from the privileged vantage point of developed countries. But what if blockchain technology turned out to be most revolutionary in emerging economies?
Take Africa for instance. Consumers in those countries became so frustrated with the banking fees imposed on their transactions every time they wanted to merely top up their mobile airtime, that airtime minutes alone actually became a form of money. Banking in the way it’s been developed for the developed world simply does not work when a transaction to top up a phone can cost more than the airtime itself.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smart Contract (in)Security – Broken Access Control
https://www.nccgroup.trust/us/about-us/newsroom-and-events/blog/2018/september/smart-contract-insecurity-broken-access-control/
This blog post is the first of a series that will describe some simple real-world smart contract security bugs, how they were exploited, the resulting impacts and the corresponding code fixes. The series will cover more than $250M USD in losses directly attributable to smart contract security bugs.
What are smart contracts? Imagine relatively short, publicly-accessible programs capable of owning large amounts of money and that execute complex transaction logic in an unchangeable and unstoppable fashion on a platform that is rapidly evolving alongside with its tools. Think blockchain 2.0 where transactions invoke code execution. These autonomous programs issue and manage private currencies, implement novel funding systems, tokenize capital assets, enable new business models and even breed digital cats called CryptoKitties! There is no imagination required – the fascinating and flourishing world of smart contracts is already here with well over $1B USD of Ethereum changing hands daily.
Bugs are bad! One of the primary challenges limiting the progress of smart contract adoption is security. It is well known that “every program always has one more bug”, and some bugs can be catastrophic. In the case of smart contracts, security bugs may exist wherever code behavior diverges from developer intent. This applies to both local low-level behavior through to the global system or social context (like front-running). Further, sometimes intent is stated and sometimes intent is unstated. Clearly, ‘security’ is a big, broad umbrella term in this application space.
Solidity is a new language created specifically for Ethereum-based smart contracts and has many similarities to JavaScript, Java and C. Contracts are compiled to bytecode, embedded on the blockchain via a special transaction, and ultimately executed in the Ethereum Virtual Machine when stimulated by other transactions. As most security bugs are shockingly simple in retrospect, this blog series will not require deep expertise.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin’s Double Spending Flaw Was Hush-Hush During Rollout
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/02/bitcoins-double-spending-flaw-was-hush-hush-during-rollout/
For a little while it was possible to spend Bitcoin twice. Think of it like a coin on a string, you put it into the vending machine to get a delicious snack, but if you pull the string quickly enough you could spend it again on some soda too. Except this coin is worth something like eighty-grand.
On September 20, the full details of the latest fix for the Bitcoin Core were published. This information came two days after the fix was actually released. Two vulnerabilities were involved; a Denial of Service vulnerability and a critical inflation vulnerability, both covered in CVE-2018-17144. These were originally reported to several developers working on Bitcoin Core, as well as projects supporting other cryptocurrencies, including ABC and Unlimited.
Let’s take a look at how this worked, and how the network was patched (while being kept quiet) to close up this vulnerability.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BuzzFeed News:
How a Quebec IT engineer got swept up in the crypto craze and started a multimillion ponzi scheme, defrauding dozens of people after his mining strategy failed
How A Hapless Bitcoin Entrepreneur Got Swept Up In The Crypto Craze And Started A Multimillion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/bitcoin-mining-plan-cryptocurrency-lending-scheme
A Quebec IT worker was certain he’d developed a foolproof way to mine bitcoin. Instead, it led him and his investors to ruin.
In early 2016, a Canadian software engineer named Dominic Pelletier uploaded a video to YouTube announcing a new bitcoin venture.
off his cryptocurrency mining equipment, which he had set up in his kitchen next to a sink full of dirty dishes.
He liked to make big promises, even if he couldn’t always deliver. Back in 2016, he was an enthusiastic cryptocurrency convert and had big plans about how to make money. Over the following year, as interest in cryptocurrencies continued to grow, Pelletier pitched himself as an expert who could take people’s bitcoin and grow its value through a complicated mining process. Pelletier was convinced he’d developed a mining method that gave him an edge over everyone else, leading to 30% to 50% more in rewards.
Pelletier found investors on websites that allowed people to give and receive loans in bitcoin. On one site, he offered a fantastical interest rate of up to 19% a month. He said he would use the loans to buy new equipment, which would in turn enable him to be even more successful at mining bitcoin.
Pelletier convinced dozens of people to lend him millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin, sometimes with nothing more than a gentleman’s agreement that he would pay it back.
In a Facebook Messenger conversation with BuzzFeed News, Pelletier, 38, said he always intended to pay back the loans, and painted himself as an accidental Ponzi schemer.
“When you have lost you have to paid back and often with the capital of another loan,” he said, explaining that when he lost money, he used new loans to pay people back.
Today, Pelletier says he regrets ever having touched bitcoin. He doesn’t know exactly how much money he owes dozens of people, but it’s about 200 bitcoins by his own calculations, worth more than $1 million at today’s price. He is deep in debt
The experience of Pelletier and his lenders is a case study in the irrational exuberance that caused people around the world to place their financial futures at the mercy of a new and volatile internet technology rife with scams and lacking regulatory oversight. From early 2015 to late 2017, the value of bitcoin increased more than 7,500%, fueling a frenzy. It peaked in December 2017 at an all-time high of almost $20,000 before the bubble burst and prices crashed. The price of bitcoin is currently sitting around $6,600.
This frenzy enabled the emergence of a crypto loans industry that allowed people like Pelletier to create online profiles to entice others to hand over their bitcoin — with no actual legal agreement in place to pay it back. Suddenly, an entire industry was created
BitConnect was one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms in the world. It offered users the chance to loan the company bitcoin in return for an impossibly high rate of 1% daily compound interest, paid out in its own BitConnect Coin currency. Such an interest rate would turn a $1,000 investment into more than $50 million in just three years — a definite sign it was a Ponzi scheme. That became clear when the site closed in January and the price of BitConnect Coin took a nosedive, wiping out about $2.5 billion in value almost overnight.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’m very sorry, but you’re going to have to learn to love the blockchain
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/07/im-very-sorry-but-youre-going-to-have-to-learn-to-love-the-blockchain/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
AdChoices
I’m very sorry, but you’re going to have to learn to love the blockchain
Jon Evans
@rezendi / 4 hours ago
dr-strangelove-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-bomb
I apologize. I get it. You hear “blockchain” and you immediately think “shady get-rich-quick schemes” or “bubble of magical fake Internet money” or “libertarian enfants terribles,” and when a true believer tries to explain to you why you should care, why it will change the world beyond just minting a new set of paper oligarchs, you think “wait, why not just use a database?” I hear you.
And you’re not wrong. In the developed world, at least, there isn’t a lot that Bitcoin can do which isn’t already handled better, and more safely, by banks and credit cards. The vast majority of other cryptocurrencies are basically penny stocks in an unregulated global stock market
the ones which are Bitcoin
Ethereum is more interesting, you might grudgingly concede, with its whole “world computer” concept, running code and storing data on what is essentially a decentralized permissionless virtual machine scattered across thousands of nodes worldwide — but nobody actually uses it except to host the aforementioned stock market / casino, plus maybe the occasional memetic CryptoFad, and even if people did want to use it, they couldn’t, because it doesn’t scale.
All (currently) true.
But I think the existence of that alternative will be very important
The first is advertising-driven media. This is creepy enough in and of itself: it leads directly to user tracking, browser fingerprinting, ad retargeting, clickbait farms
The second is the simple fact that, unless you design against this from the very beginning, technology tends to centralize power, courtesy of Metcalfe’s Law and other winner-takes-most effects.
That’s why the mere existence of a permissionless decentralized alternative, one not financed by ads, one not ruled by any central titanic company, is important.
Some of the most interesting decentralization initiatives, notably Blockstack, use blockchains so subtly that you’ll hardly notice it. But they’re vital to them nonetheless.
I do believe there’s a genuine technically, politically, financially, and socially interesting alternative movement being born
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Forbes partners with journalism blockchain network Civil to become the first major media company to experiment with publishing stories to the blockchain
Scoop: Forbes is trying out the blockchain
https://www.axios.com/forbes-major-media-company-publish-blockchain-b101f809-7c43-4f68-9b2a-cdb1e81de753.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
EU securities watchdog ESMA says it is now examining how ICOs fit into existing regulation case by case, after budgeting €1.1M to monitor crypto assets in 2019
European Securities Regulator to Report on ICO Rules by 2019
https://www.coindesk.com/european-securities-regulator-to-report-on-ico-rules-by-2019/
European regulators are determining whether to regulate initial coin offerings (ICOs) as securities sales on a case-by-case basis, Reuters reported Monday.
The news comes less than a week after ESMA revealed it was budgeting more than €1 million to monitor cryptocurrencies and other fintech activities next year.
As previously reported, the agency’s 2019 Annual Work Programme set aside €1.1 million for activities revolving around financial innovation, including crypto assets.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alyssa Hertig / CoinDesk:
Blockstream debuts Liquid, a “federated sidechain” for bitcoin that lets partners, which include two dozen exchanges, quickly transact bitcoin — Three years in the making, bitcoin’s first sidechain “Liquid” is now live. — Launched by San Francisco startup Blockstream …
Liquid Goes Live: Blockstream’s First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived
https://www.coindesk.com/liquid-goes-live-blockstreams-first-bitcoin-sidechain-has-finally-arrived/
Three years in the making, bitcoin’s first sidechain “Liquid” is now live.
Launched by San Francisco startup Blockstream, Liquid is arguably the most advanced implementation of a technology called sidechains that’s long been a holy grail for bitcoin coders (though what’s being launched today may be a watered-down version of the original “trustless” vision). Still, that doesn’t dilute the capabilities of what the company, founded by bitcoin’s top open-source coders in 2014, has created.
Built off of the live blockchain, Liquid will now be used to carry large volumes of transactions at a higher speed for several of bitcoin’s largest companies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ana Berman / Cointelegraph:
Diar report: as Bitcoin mining revenues reach ~$5B in 2018, rising costs like electricity are making mining unprofitable for all but the biggest of players — Bitcoin (BTC) miner revenues for the first six months of 2018 have already surpassed results in 2017, but the miners themselves see little profit …
Crypto Mining Becomes Less Profitable, Shifts Towards ‘Bigger Players,’ Report Shows
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-mining-becomes-less-profitable-shifts-towards-bigger-players-report-shows
Bitcoin (BTC) miner revenues for the first six months of 2018 have already surpassed results in 2017, but the miners themselves see little profit, weekly crypto outlet Diar reports Monday, October 8.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research: China has the power to destroy Bitcoin
… and it’s already manipulating the network
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/08/china-means-intent-destroy-bitcoin/
A damning new study has suggested China holds threatening influence over Bitcoin BTC – and perhaps even the ability to attack and ultimately destroy the entire Bitcoin network.
Academics from Princeton and Florida International Universities have explored how China “threatens the security, stability, and viability of Bitcoin” with its “political and economic control over domestic [cryptocurrency] activity […] [and] internet infrastructure.”
According to the paper, China has both “mature capabilities” and “strong motives” to perform a variety of attacks against Bitcoin. Even worse, it is already exerting its power over Bitcoin in a myriad of ways.
“As the value and economic utility of Bitcoin have grown, so has the incentive to attack it,” the researchers explain.
Chinese mining pools control Bitcoin
The paper establishes its thesis by proving the Bitcoin mining ecosystem has become “heavily centralized.” Cryptocurrency miners have banded to such an extent that “over 80 percent of Bitcoin mining is performed by six mining pools,” with five of those managed directly by individuals or companies based in China.
The primary threat to Bitcoin’s infrastructure is the “51-percent attack,” which consists of mining pools teaming up to control a majority of the hash rate (Bitcoin’s overall processing power), allowing them to directly influence much of what happens on the Bitcoin network.
When you consider the combined effort of Chinese mining pools accounts for 74 percent of Bitcoin’s hash power, the situation becomes incredibly unsettling.
The Looming Threat of China:
An Analysis of Chinese Influence on Bitcoin
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1810.02466.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Porn-oriented cryptocurrency SpankChain skips security audit, gets hacked
SpankChain says a proper security audit would’ve cost too much
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/09/spankchain-cryptocurrency-hack-ethereum/
Another day, another cryptocurrency hack. Notorious blockchain startup SpankChain has temporarily taken down its adult streaming platform after attackers exploited its smart contracts to steal $38,000 worth of Ethereum.
The company, which aims to provide a cryptocurrency payment protocol for the adult industry, confirmed the hack on its official blog. SpankChain further said it expects its streaming platform will remain offline for the next couple of days (and possibly more), until all security flaws have been sorted.
The worst part is that it appears a chunk of the stolen funds belonged to SpankChain users. The company has since vowed it will conduct an airdrop to reimburse affected users.
As a result of the hack, $4,000 worth of SpankChain’s native token (BOOTY) has been frozen for the time being.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Data centers used for bitcoin mining
https://www.csemag.com/single-article/data-centers-used-for-bitcoin-mining/d610d7308374bde1b8b2c6fff8564134.html?OCVALIDATE=
Data centers used for bitcoin mining have significant differences from their commercial data center counterparts.
Defining bitcoin mining and mining data centers
At a high level, the secure hash algorithm (SHA) is a function that is used to validate bitcoin transactions and ensure the security for the bitcoin network’s public ledger, also known as the blockchain. The speed at which bitcoins are mined is measured in hashes per second. The servers used in mining (referred to as “miners” or “mining servers”) bundle recent bitcoin transactions into “blocks,” then work to solve cryptographic problems to help validate each block, making sure the ledger entries are accurate. These cryptographic problems are where the mining servers and data centers come into play. Solving these problems requires heavy-duty computational power operating for long periods of time.
The bitcoin network pays bitcoin miners for their time, effort, and financial investment by releasing bitcoins to those who contribute the needed computational power to validate the transactions. The greater computational power a miner has, the greater the portion of compensation—this is the overarching driver for why individuals and corporations are building megawatt bitcoin mining data centers, either to be used by themselves or for paying customers who then have access to mining servers without having to make major capital investments in information technology (IT) and facilities. In either scenario, minimizing first costs and ongoing energy costs is critical to maximizing return on investment (ROI).
Fundamentally, a mining data center shares the same basic design and operational principles as other types of data centers: Power is brought to the building and distributed to the equipment, air-distribution systems maintain the required environmental conditions, and the building provides protection from outside conditions and security from external threats. Although on a deeper level, there are significant differences to data centers that are used for mining than their commercial data center counterparts. This divergence is readily seen in the examination of the following categories:
Impacts of mining server design
Data center structure and envelope
Cooling and air distribution
Energy use and efficiency.
Analyzing the data on the growth of bitcoin from 2014 to 2018 indicates a tremendous growth in mining activities.
Mining server design
Two major considerations when investing in mining servers is the first-cost per hash and the electrical efficiency stated in watts per hash. Higher-performing computers have higher hash rates, providing greater computational power to the mining operation. In contrast to enterprise servers, miners are designed to accomplish only one task-mining. Currently, a common type of architecture used for mining servers is based on the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, often referred to as system on a chip (SoC).
When developing a cooling system strategy, an important consideration is that miners can operate with inlet conditions of 80 to 90°F and10% to 80% non-condensing relative humidity. A powerful mining server can have an electrical demand of 1,400 W or more, dissipating the equivalent quantity of heat to the data center.
Typically, mining data centers use buildings that are constructed of lightweight materials-including the exterior walls, roof, and windows—such as a storage facility or warehouse. This construction is akin to a Level 1 basic facility as defined in the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) 942 Standard. A Level 1 basic facility has the least resiliency of the four levels in terms of systems reliability, handling extreme weather events, security, and many other criteria.
A Level 1 basic facility data center will have little or no redundancy in the cooling systems. Lower reliability systems do not use redundant equipment
In a mining data center, the servers are mounted on industrial shelving units, allowing for quick replacement in case of server failure. This shelving arrangement offers cost advantages for procuring the products and labor to install the shelving.
One of the advantages of using the industrial-type shelving to hold the computers is the openness of the installation.
As previously mentioned, the mining servers can operate with air temperatures ranging from 80 to 90°F and beyond. If the outdoor air is approximately equal to the maximum allowable server temperature, no mechanical cooling is required. Therefore, the data center’s geographic location and the server’s maximum operating temperature must be taken into consideration in tandem; cooler locations and hotter server operating temperatures will have the lowest energy use, while the hottest locations and lowest server temperatures will use the most energy
Energy use is a primary concern for mining operations. If operating costs are higher than what is needed for a favorable financial return on the mining operation, the business model will be a non-starter.
To illustrate this point, in 2009 when bitcoin launched, each block created was worth 50 bitcoins. By design, this figure is scheduled to fall by half every 4 years: 25 bitcoins in 2012, 12.5 bitcoins in 2016, and 6.25 bitcoins in 2020. When the mining industry’s revenue falls by half, its energy consumption must fall proportionately. If it doesn’t fall, mining would become an unprofitable activity. It is necessary to control energy consumption and cost by upfront analysis on location, system type, server performance, etc.
Assumptions:
The mining server has an electrical demand of 1,620 W.
The server has a hash rate of 18 T-H/s.
The server’s first cost is $4,800.
The electricity rate is $0.10/kWh.
The server will mine the equivalent of $3,200/year in bitcoins.
The data center’s cooling system power (watts per watt of server power) is 0.392.
Data center construction costs (dollars per watt of server power) equal $3 per watt.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Everyone Missed the Most Mind-Blowing Feature of Cryptocurrency
https://hackernoon.com/why-everyone-missed-the-most-mind-blowing-feature-of-cryptocurrency-860c3f25f1fb
There’s one incredible feature of cryptocurrencies that almost everyone seems to have missed, including Satoshi himself.
But it’s there, hidden away, steadily gathering power like a hurricane far out to sea that’s sweeping towards the shore.
It’s a stealth feature, one that hasn’t activated yet.
That’s almost the entire history of money in one paragraph. Coercion and control of the supply with violence, aka the “violence hack.” The one hack to rule them all.
When power passed from monarchs to nation-states, distributing power from one strongman to a small group of strongmen, the power to print money passed to the state. Anyone who tried to create their own money got crushed.
Centralized enemies are easy to destroy with a “decapitation attack.” Cut off the head of the snake
That’s what happened to e-gold in 2008, one of the first attempts to create an alternative currency
The power to grant a license is monopoly power.
E-gold was free to apply for interstate money transmitting licenses.
It’s just they were never going to get them.
Kings and nation states know the real golden rule:
Control the money and you control the world.
In decentralized systems, there is no head of the snake. Decentralized systems are a hydra. Cut off one head and two more pop-in to take its place.
And the first decentralized system of money was born:
Bitcoin.
It was explicitly designed to resist coercion and control by centralized powers.
Satoshi wisely remained anonymous for that very reason.
As Bitcoin rises in value, the hunt for Satoshi will only intensify. He controls at least a million coins that have never moved from his original wallets. If VC Chris Dixon is right and Bitcoin rocket to $100,000 a coin, those million coins will shoot up to $100 billion.
Wherever he is, my advice to Satoshi is this:
Stay anonymous until your death bed.
But resistance to censorship and violence are only one of a number of incredible features of Bitcoin. Many of those key components are already at work in a number of other cryptocurrencies and decentralized app projects, most notably blockchains.
Blockchains are distributed ledgers, the third entry in the world’s first triple-entry accounting system. And breakthroughs in accounting have always presaged a massive uptick in human complexity and economic growth
The true power of cryptocurrencies is the power to print and distribute money without a central power.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blockchain in 2019: 4 trends to watch
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/10/blockchain-2019-4-trends-watch?sc_cid=7016000000127eyAAA
Let’s do a reality check: What blockchain trends should you be watching in the months ahead?
1. Growing push to identify best business use cases
2. The nascent blockchain industry will work on its image
3. Blockchain tests broaden and involve more business functions
4. Critical evaluation of scalability and performance
A public blockchain might process only 15-20 transactions per second, for example.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A War-Torn Country in Syria Will Use Crypto to Power an Anarchist State
https://www.coindesk.com/a-war-torn-country-in-syria-will-use-crypto-to-power-an-anarchist-state/
A region home to 4 million people in Northern Syria is looking to cryptocurrency as a way to overcome economic sanctions.
Rojava, also known as the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, has spent the last six years at war for its territory. Now under a fragile peace, the region is under economic sanctions from all sides – Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq. In the midst of this uncertainty, however, those backing the state are putting a new emphasis on monetary independence.
Because its primary currency is the Syrian lira, the main currency of the Syrian state (which Rojava has just spent years fighting), there’s a growing belief in some quarters that cryptocurrency could provide a better alternative
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coinbase is shutting down its fund aimed at big investors as it pivots to a new retail product
https://theblockcrypto.com/2018/10/11/coinbase-is-shutting-down-its-fund-aimed-at-big-investors-as-it-pivots-to-a-new-retail-product/
Quick Take
Coinbase is shutting down its index fund aimed at wealthy investors as it shifts its focus to a new retail product
A person familiar with the situation said the fund failed to attract enough interest
The firm is pivoting its focus to “Coinbase Bundle,” a recently announced product
Tomi Engdahl says:
Chainalysis:
Study analyzing 32 biggest bitcoin holders, known as “whales”, suggests they may be stabilizing the market rather than destabilizing it and driving volatility
The Not-So-Killer Whales of Bitcoin
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/bitcoin-whales-oct
New data shows that bitcoin’s largest holders are a diverse group that may be stabilizing, rather than destabilizing, the market.
In August 2018, rumors flared about a $2 billion whale, or outsized bitcoin holder, who was suspected of single-handedly setting off a 15% plunge in bitcoin’s value by selling off more than 50,000 coins in a month, according to Bloomberg. The abrupt drop in value—and whispers of its shadowy origins—made bitcoin investors of all sizes wary of a market that might be dominated by a few giant players, who could undermine pricing at any moment.
Intensive analysis of bitcoin’s 32 largest wallets, however, shows these fears to be overblown. Our data demonstrates that Bitcoin whales are a diverse group, and only about a third of them are active traders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8565-ruuhkista-halutaan-eroon-lohkoketjuilla
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://mobihacks.devpost.com/
Mobi Grand Challenge
The MOBI Grand Challenge hosted by MOBI, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, and TIoTA, the Trusted IoT Alliance, is loosely modelled on the DARPA grand challenge for autonomous driving which captured the public imagination and launched the autonomous driving revolution. However, unlike the DARPA challenge, vehicles won’t be required to navigate a course without a human driver. Instead, the MOBI Grand Challenge will focus on fulfilling MOBI’s purpose, which is to increase access and efficiency, reduce pollution and congestion, and to avoid accidents and save lives. This is the first challenge of a three-year project.
The ultimate goal is the creation of a viable, decentralized, ad-hoc network of
blockchain/dlt connected vehicles and infrastructure that can reliably share data,
coordinate behaviour, and thereby improve urban mobility.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple’s Steve Wozniak Co-Founds Blockchain-Focused Venture Capital Fund
https://cointelegraph.com/news/apples-steve-wozniak-co-founds-blockchain-focused-venture-capital-fund
Tomi Engdahl says:
Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Edge Dropping TLS 1.0, 1.1
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/major-browsers-deprecate-tls-1.0-1.1,37932.html
Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla all announced today that they will disable TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1 in their respective browsers by default by the first half of 2020. The TLS protocol is what browsers, instant messengers and even email servers primarily use to secure communications.
TLS 1.0, 1.1 Deprecated
Over the past few years, we’ve seen new attacks that exploit weaknesses in the design of the TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols and algorithms that were used alongside them. These attacks include BEAST, which allows malicious actors to steal the TLS authentication tokens, Logjam and FREAK, which allow attackers to downgrade the security of a connection to a server, as well as insecure hash functions, such as MD5 and SHA-1.
In addition to all of this, the TLS 1.2 protocol is more than a decade old, so both browsers and web developers have little excuse not to use it by now. Earlier this year, the IETF also finalized the TLS 1.3 specification
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/mies-yritti-vahan-erilaista-junaryostoa-bitcoinien-hankkiminen-johti-kolmen-vuoden-vankeustuomioon-6744979
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrencies
Crypto Industry on ‘Brink of an Implosion,’ Researcher Says
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-09/bitcoin-on-the-brink-of-an-implosion-researcher-juniper-says
By Olga Kharif
9. lokakuuta 2018 klo 17.25 UTC+3
Declining daily transaction volume, values seen as negative
Quarter-over-quarter transactions are seen plummeting again
Tomi Engdahl says:
The blockchain media startup’s ICO failed
Blockchain media startup Civil is issuing full refunds to all buyers of its cryptocurrency
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/16/blockchain-media-startup-civil-is-issuing-full-refunds-to-all-buyers-of-its-cryptocurrency/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Many doubted The Civil Media Company‘s ambitious plan to sell $8 million worth of its cryptocurrency, called CVL.
The skeptics, as it turns out, were right. Civil’s initial coin offering, meant to fund the company’s effort to create a new economy for journalism using the blockchain, failed to attract sufficient interest.
Civil isn’t giving up. The company says “a new, much simpler token sale is in the works,”
Separate from its token sale, Civil has inked strategic partnerships with media companies like the Associated Press and Forbes
Forbes became the first major media brand to test Civil’s technology when it announced earlier this month that it would experiment with publishing content to the Civil platform. As for the AP, it granted the newsrooms in Civil’s network licenses to its content.
Civil, of course, isn’t the only blockchain startup targeting journalism. Nwzer, Userfeeds, Factmata and Po.et,
Tomi Engdahl says:
PAX stablecoin has backdoor for freezing and seizing cryptocurrency
Devs built them for ‘LawEnforcement’
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/09/20/stablecoin-backdoor-law-enforcement/
The Ethereum community has found some rather unnerving facts about a new stablecoin known as PAX. It turns out the cryptocurrency – backed by the US dollar – contains backdoors that give law enforcement (or anyone else, for that matter) a concerning amount of control over your funds.
PAX has a function – called “setLawEnforcementRole” – which creates a new Ethereum address with administrative permissions over the circulating PAX supply. This practically means anyone with these permissions can tamper with any wallet they please.
The stablecoin allows the new addresses powerful functions – particularly “freeze” and “wipeFrozenAddress” – that lets “authorities” freeze wallets (and addresses) at will, and even destroy any assets they possess.
The vulnerability in question was first spotted by blockchain developer John Backus. Hard Fork has reviewed the code to corroborate his findings. Note, the rather obvious language, specifically: “setLawEnforcementRole.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
PitchBook/JMP Securities report: crypto M&A deals have surged over 200% this year with 115 deals having been announced, on pace to hit 145 by year’s end
Crypto M&A is on a tear as deal-makers see opportunity in bitcoin’s price slump
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/18/crypto-deal-makers-see-opportunity-in-bitcoins-price-slump.html
Merger and acquisition activity for cryptocurrency companies has more than doubled in the past year amid a 54 percent slump in bitcoin prices, according to JMP Securities and data from PitchBook.
The value of tokens associated with start-ups remains correlated to bitcoin instead of the value of the actual company, which creates an “ideal opportunity for strategic acquirers,” JMP Securities’ Satya Bajpai says.
The industry is in a “land grab” for innovative technology, access to new markets, intellectual property, and talented employees through M&A.
“As soon as a company becomes interesting, they get bought — the deal size may still remain small, but the number of deals will increase because that’s the most viable and fastest way to grow in this environment,” Bajpai says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inti Landauro / Reuters:
FATF, a global watchdog for money laundering, will set first rules on oversight of cryptocurrencies by June; non-complying countries will be added to blacklist — * FATF to set standards on regulation of crypto firms — * Exchanges, wallet providers, ICO-related firms in focus
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies/money-laundering-watchdog-to-set-first-cryptocurrency-rules-by-june-idUSKCN1MT1P2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Researcher Livestreams 51% Attack on Altcoin Blockchain
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/researcher-livestreams-51-percent-attack-on-altcoin-blockchain/
A little over a week ago, researcher promised to run a 51% attack on the blockchain of a small cryptocurrency called Einsteinium (EMC2), to show the world how easy the entire process was.
He kept his promise he made in a message on Reddit and over the weekend he managed to get control of about 70% of the network of a different cryptocurrency, Bitcoin Private (BTC). And he live-streamed it.
In the cryptocurrency world, the more control an entity has over the network’s mining power (hashrate), the better their chances to influence transactions, like reversing the process of completing them (double spending) or preventing confirmations.
Nevertheless, GeoCold managed to prove his point: that cryptocurrencies with a small market cap are easy to attack.
The cost for a 51% attack on small cryptocurrencies is far from being restrictive.
“I thought the world should know how easy they are to pull off because any time you talk about a 51% attack people will say it’s not possible for XYZ reason and I wanted to show that they are and that devs should fix their coin,” GeoCold told us.
The truth is that 51% attacks are quite common, especially when cloud mining services like NiceHash are used. In fact, NiceHash is the resource hackers use to pull 51% attacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
HTC starts taking preorders for its blockchain phone Exodus 1 for 0.15 BTC or 4.78 ETH, or ~$960, only takes payments in cryptocurrency, expects to ship in Dec — You have to buy it in bitcoin or Ether — HTC just announced actual specs for its much-hyped blockchain phone, the Exodus 1, and is letting people sign up for preorders.
HTC’s blockchain phone is ready for preorder
You have to buy it in bitcoin or Ether
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/10/23/18011280/htc-blockchain-phone-preorder-exodus-1-specs-price
HTC just announced actual specs for its much-hyped blockchain phone, the Exodus 1, and is letting people sign up for preorders. The phone contains a wallet that’s kept in a secure area “protected from the Android OS,” according to a press release, which can be used to hold the keys to your cryptocurrency and tokens like CryptoKitties.
The phone was first announced back in May as one of the company’s more intriguing projects. Back then, HTC’s chief decentralized officer Phil Chen said each Exodus phone would act as a node to facilitate bitcoin trading among users. He also stated that the phone would allow you to “own your own identity.” But none of that is happening now.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oracle delves deeper into blockchain with four new applications
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/23/oracle-delves-deeper-into-blockchain-with-four-new-applications/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Oracle delves deeper into blockchain with four new applications
Ron Miller
@ron_miller / 3 hours ago
Oracle Hosts Its Annual Open World Conference
Oracle is a traditional tech company that has been struggling to gain traction in the cloud, but it could see blockchain as a way to differentiate itself. At Oracle OpenWorld today it announced the Oracle Blockchain Applications Cloud, a series of four applications designed for transactions-based processing scenarios using Internet of Things as a data source.
“Customers struggle with how exactly to go from concepts like smart contracts, distributed ledger and cryptography to solving specific business problems,”
The company actually introduced a more generalized blockchain as a service offering at OpenWorld last year, but this year they have decided to focus more on specific use cases, announcing four new applications.
In cases where there is a dispute over the accuracy of a particular piece of data, the blockchain can provide incontrovertible proof. As for the Internet of Things
The four applications involve supply chain-transaction data including a track and trace capability to follow a product through its delivery from inception to market, proof of provenance for valuables like drugs, intelligent temperature tracking (what they are calling Intelligent Cold Chain) and warranty and usage tracking.
Each of these plays to the some of Oracle’s strengths as a company that builds databases and ERP software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
North Korean hacker crew steals $571M in cryptocurrency across 5 attacks
… and they are inspiring more attempts
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/19/cryptocurrency-attack-report/
North Korean hacking outfit “Lazarus” is the most profitable cryptocurrency-hacker syndicate in the world.
Since 2017, internet baddies have in total stolen $882 million worth of cryptocurrency from online exchanges, but none have done it quite as well as the infamous North Koreans.
World-renowned cybersecurity unit Group-IB is prepping to release its annual report on trends in hi-tech cybercrime.
A summary obtained by Hard Fork details 14 different attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges since January last year and calculates the state-sponsored Lazarus group is responsible for $571 million of the ill-gotten gains.
Phishers responsible for 56% of stolen ICO funds
The report also reveals 10 percent of the total funds raised by ICO platforms over the past year and a half have been stolen. A majority of the funds were lost to phishing.
Group-IB attribute much of the losses to baddies taking advantage of “crypto-fever,” where investors are so overcome with a fear of missing out they rush to contribute to new cryptocurrency projects as fast as possible, without checking for fake domain names.
Tomi Engdahl says:
It only took Oz govt transformation bods 6 months and $700k to report that blockchain ain’t worth the effort
Snarking at vendors: Priceless
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/24/oz_spent_700k_to_decide_that_blockchain_isnt_worth_the_hype/
An Australian government agency given AU$700,000 (just shy of US$500,000 or £380,000) to research applications of the blockchain has delivered its answer: don’t bother. Anything you want to do with blockchain, you can already do better with existing technology.
“For every use of blockchain that you would consider today, there is a better technology…”
After toiling in the mine for six months trying to extract ore from endless “blockchain can do this” claims, Alexander yesterday morning reported back to the senate committee: it’s not worth the effort.
“Our position today, and this is an early write-up, is that blockchain is an interesting technology that would be well worth being observed, but without standardisation and a lot more work, for every use of blockchain that you would consider today, there is a better technology,” he said.
He added that “without standardisation, there is the challenge of blockchain becoming a little fragmented”, and genuine opportunities to use the technology will have to wait until useful standards are in place.
Alexander pointed out that one of blockchain’s big selling points, anonymity, isn’t particularly useful in government-to-citizen dealings, which are more likely to need a trust relationship between known parties.
He also reiterated the relentless nature of the vendor push. “A lot of the big vendors are pushing blockchain very hard, and internationally most of the hype around blockchain is coming from vendors and companies, not from governments and users and deliverers of services.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
What Can The Blockchain Do For You?
https://hackaday.com/2018/10/25/what-can-the-blockchain-do-for-you/
Bitcoin was launched at the beginning of 2009. Things got more annoying from there.
Now, blockchain is at the top of the hype cycle. Every industry is looking at blockchain tech to figure out how it will work for them. Kodak launched their own blockchain, there are proposals to use the blockchain in drones and 3D printers. Medical records could be stored on the blockchain, HIPAA be damned, and there’s a blockchain phone, for reasons. This doesn’t even cover the massive amount of speculation in Bitcoin itself; thousands of other cryptocurrencies have also sprung up, and people are losing money.
The blockchain is a confusing thing, with hashes and Merkle trees and timestamps. Everyone is left asking themselves, what does the blockchain actually do? Is there an independent body out there that will tell me what the blockchain is good for, and when I should use it? You’re in luck: NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released their report on blockchain technology (PDF). Is blockchain magic? No, no it is not, and it probably shouldn’t be used for anything other than a currency.
However, the NIST report on blockchain tech is overbearingly accurate. There is little reason to use blockchain as a solution. It is, in fact, a solution looking for a problem. But to understand why the blockchain is a silver bullet in search of a werewolf, you first have to understand what a blockchain actually is.
The NIST report describes blockchains as such:
Blockchains are a distributed ledger comprised of blocks. Each block is comprised of a block
header containing metadata about the block, and block data containing a set of transactions and
other related data. Every block header (except for the very first block of the blockchain) contains
a cryptographic link to the previous block’s header. Each transaction involves one or more
blockchain network users and a recording of what happened, and it is digitally signed by the user
who submitted the transaction.
That’s a lot of verbiage. Here’s a definition that I think is better:
A blockchain is a linked list where each item in the list contains data and a hash of the previous item in the list. Appending to the list requires agreement by the majority of users.
It defines the blockchain using existing computer science paradigms. Its brevity belies its accuracy; it’s very hard to actually fault this simple definition for being inaccurate.
Besides defining what a blockchain actually is, what are the applications for a blockchain, and what does NIST think about them?
Instead of telling you why you don’t need a blockchain, the NIST white paper has a helpful guide on what makes a good use-case for a blockchain. If you have many, distributed users, a blockchain might be a good idea. If there a desire for a lack of a trusted third party, blockchains could work. If there is a need for a decentralized naming server, or a need for a cryptographically secure system of ownership, a blockchain might work. But there are caveats.
But do you need a blockchain? Probably not. Databases exist, and there’s really no reason for anyone else to have access to that data.
But the future of the blockchain isn’t entirely bleak. There’s one use case where it excels — proving ownership of digital goods, like cryptocurrency, or Bitcoin, or Dogecoin. This can even be extended to proving ownership of digital lands or items; think of it as an unhackable City Hall in Second Life. This was the original intention behind the blockchain, but the hype has grown to unreasonable proportions. It can’t be applied to everything, and doing so is a waste of resources. For all those asking, ‘what can a blockchain do for me’, the answer is just cryptocurrency, with few exceptions. For everything else, just set up a database.
Blockchain Technology Overview
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2018/NIST.IR.8202.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/toyota-loysi-lohkoketjuille-kayttoa-6745317
https://adage.com/article/digital/toyota-turns-blockchain-optimize-digital-ad-buys/315279/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1540330620&utm_visit=1182083
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tether Just Burned 500 Million USDT Stablecoin Tokens
https://www.coindesk.com/tether-just-burned-500-million-usdt-stablecoin-tokens/
Shortly before 1:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, Tether, the company behind the dollar-linked stablecoin of the same name, announced via Twitter that it had destroyed 500 million tether (USDT) tokens.
Previously, those tokens were held in an account known as the “Tether treasury.” The past few weeks have seen massive influxes of USDT to the Treasury, particularly after the cryptocurrency lost parity with the U.S. dollar last week amid questions about Tether’s access to banking services.
From Oct. 14, when USDT started to slip below $1.00, to Oct. 23, 680 million USDT were transferred to the company-controlled Treasury wallet.
As a result of these transfers, the supply of tethers in circulation has dropped by around a quarter in a week and a half, to approximately $2 billion. Now many of these tokens, in addition to having been taken out of circulation, have been “burned” or destroyed by the company.
Tether tokens are redeemed “when the amount circulating exceeds the amount required for e.g. Bitfinex or Tether to operate,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
It’s a Good Time to Be a Blockchain Developer
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/its-a-good-time-to-be-a-blockchain-developer
It’s a good time to be working in blockchains or Bitcoin, with salaries climbing and a host of job openings chasing fewer interested developers.
Online recruitment firm Glassdoor this month reported a 300 percent increase on its site in job openings seeking people with blockchain skills. The company compared blockchain job openings in August 2018 with openings in August 2017, counting 1,175 open jobs in the United States in 2018 and just 446 in 2017.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As Tether flails, cryptocurrency exchanges launch rival stablecoins
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/25/as-tether-flails-cryptocurrency-exchanges-launch-rival-stablecoins/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
The promise of Tether, the digital currency pegged 1:1 to the US dollar, was that it could provide the benefits of a cryptocurrency while providing a fiat -backed peg against price fluctuations.
But the currency has fallen below the $1 in recent weeks, right as a range of competing currencies are becoming available to meet the growing interest in the so-called “stablecoin” sector. It’s certainly not a coincidence.
The goal of every stablecoin project is to achieve the scale and adoption of modern monetary systems, as a store of value and also as a medium of exchange.
As we see Tether decline in adoption, opportunities arise for a number of new exchange stablecoins to become the go-to-coin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I’m very sorry, but you’re going to have to learn to love the blockchain
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/07/im-very-sorry-but-youre-going-to-have-to-learn-to-love-the-blockchain/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters:
South Korea-based NXC, which owns local cryptocurrency exchange Korbit, has acquired Bitstamp, EU’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume
European investment firm buys digital exchange Bitstamp in all cash deal
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp/european-investment-firm-buys-digital-exchange-bitstamp-in-all-cash-deal-idUSKCN1N314I
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin Mining Alone Could Raise Global Temperatures Above Critical Limit By 2033
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/neganb/bitcoin-mining-could-raise-global-temperatures-by-2-c
A recent UN climate report said that if global temperatures rose above 1.5 C it could lead to catastrophic climate change. Bitcoin alone could raise global temperatures by 2 C within two decades.
If Bitcoin is adopted at rates similar to other technologies, like credit cards, it could increase global temperatures by two degrees Celsius by 2033 according to a study published on Monday in Nature Climate Change.
To put this in perspective, a recent climate change report from the United Nations found that a temperature increase of over 1.5 degrees Celsius would lead to irreversible, catastrophic climate effects.
Bitcoin requires massive amounts of energy to run the computers that secure the record of transactions that have occurred on the network, which are stored in a digital ledger called a blockchain. Each computer is simultaneously searching for the solution to a complex math problem—a process known as mining since the first computer to solve the problem is rewarded with newly-minted Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s environmental footprint has been a serious point of criticism for years, mostly thanks to the work of the Dutch economist Alex de Vries.
“This is another pretty shocking find relating to Bitcoin’s energy consumption,” de Vries told me in an email. “We already knew the electricity demand was extreme, but we didn’t yet have a clear picture of the environmental impact of this.”
the researchers determined that Bitcoin generated 69 million metric tons of CO2 last year. To put this in perspective, that is a little over one percent of all CO2 emissions from energy production globally. This is a huge energy budget considering that Bitcoin accounted for just 0.03 percent of all cashless transactions globally in the same time frame, according to the study.
To predict Bitcoin’s environmental footprint in the future, the University of Hawaii researchers looked at the adoption rates of other new technologies, such as credit cards and dishwashers, in the United States. These technologies were selected based on their incredibly rapid adoption, as was the case for credit cards, or their slow uptake, i.e. dishwashers. If Bitcoin is adopted at the average rate of these technologies, according to the study, it could produce enough emissions to warm the planet by two degrees Celcius in just 16 years. Even if it follows the slowest adoption rate, it will reach this same threshold within 22 years, the researchers concluded.
“We cannot predict the future of Bitcoin, but if implemented at a rate even close to the slowest pace at which other technologies have been incorporated, it will spell very bad news for climate change and the people and species impacted by it,”
Since Bitcoin was first unleashed on the world a decade ago, massive Bitcoin mines— basically warehouses filled with specialized computers—have started cropping up in places where energy is cheap, usually near hydroelectric power stations. Most Bitcoin mines are located in China, but a few have cropped up in the United States and Canada as well. In some cases, these mines are so large that they use the same amount of electricity as the town they are located in, much to the ire of local residents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The state of blockchain: 11 stats
https://enterprisersproject.com/article/2018/10/state-blockchain-11-stats?sc_cid=7016000000127eyAAA
How many CIOs are actively adopting or experimenting with blockchain? Dig into telling data from multiple sources
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coinbase is now worth more than all but three cryptocurrencies
https://tcrn.ch/2DctbvM
With its shiny new $8 billion valuation, Coinbase is now worth more than all but the top three cryptocurrencies that trade on the platform.
That’s right, the only cryptocurrency assets that are worth more than the platform that trades them are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Bitcoin Cash, the currency forked from Bitcoin, is a distant fourth in valuation at $7.3 billion.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM struggles to sign up shipping carriers to blockchain supply chain platform – reports
Speculation that running joint venture with shipping giant Maersk might be off-putting to rivals
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/10/30/ibm_struggles_to_sign_up_shipping_carriers_to_blockchain_supply_chain_platform_reports/
Tomi Engdahl says:
North Korean Hacking Syndicate ‘Lazarus’ Responsible for $571 Million in Stolen Cryptocurrency
https://www.livebitcoinnews.com/north-korean-hacking-syndicate-lazarus-responsible-for-571-million-in-stolen-cryptocurrency/
Lazarus is reportedly behind most of the cryptocurrency exchange hacks since January 2017. The notorious North Korean hacking syndicated has stolen $571 million in 14 different cyber attacks against exchanges during the period.
Spear Phishing: A Firm Favorite of Cryptocurrency Hackers
Lazarus Leading North Korea’s Global Cyber Warfare
Part of the Plan to Evade Sanctions
Tomi Engdahl says:
North Korea continues to hack computers to mine cryptocurrency
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/10/31/North-Korea-continues-to-hack-computers-to-mine-cryptocurrency/7231540971126/
North Korea is hacking computers to mine cryptocurrency to bring extra cash into the country, according to South Korea’s intelligence service.
North Korean hackers also continue to hack computers in South Korea and abroad to steal confidential information, the state intelligence agency said in a parliamentary audit on Wednesday, Yonhap News reported.
A U.S. cybersecurity firm revealed in January that it found computers installed with malware, suspected to have been implanted by North Korean hackers, to mine for cryptocurrency Monero and send it to Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, according to Chosun Ilbo.
South Korea: North Korea is still hacking our computers to mine cryptocurrency
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/10/31/north-korea-hacking-mine-cryptocurrency/
According to South Korea’s intelligence service, North Korea is purportedly still hacking computers to mine cryptocurrency as a revenue stream for the country’s government, United Press International (UPI) reports.
The malware appears to be hi-jakcing host computers to mine – you guessed it – Monero. As ever, XMR remains the choice for crypto-jacking bandits around the globe.
Not only that, the Monero is then sent back to Kim II Sung University in Pyongyang, according to another local news outlet, Chosun Ilbo.
North Korea seems to be turning to cryptocurrency as a way to bypass ever increasing international sanctions placed on the country.
Recently it was reported that a supposedly state-sponsored North Korean hacking outfit stole over $570 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Blockchain – Not As Secure As You Think
https://semiengineering.com/the-blockchain-not-as-secure-as-you-think/
Private key vulnerabilities and how they create risk for the entire cryptocurrency market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optimize machine metrics with a machine-as-a-service model, blockchain
https://www.controleng.com/single-article/optimize-machine-metrics-with-a-machine-as-a-service-model-blockchain/286fe3b479c2c3547bf80e4248d14439.html?OCVALIDATE=
Machine as a service (MaaS) and blockchain manage and secure machine data and transactions. Blockchain, while known for its use in the financial world, is being used by Steamchain, a start-up company, to provide secure financial and machine information design to help end users and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Machine-as-a-service platform
Steamchain’s IoT MaaS transaction platform (Figure 2) supports standard Steamchain modules by providing a:
1. Machine client that’s based on a programmable logic controller (PLC) or an open-architecture controller with an open application interface that easily supports industrial protocols.
2. Cloud-based management utility, built on Microsoft Azure for security, flexibility, and visualization of performance and financial metrics.
3. Secure transaction engine, a ledger of performance and financial data, where access is not controlled by one party, avoiding data ownership, access, or credibility issues.
There’s flexibility in how it’s applied: the Steamchain client doesn’t have to be installed at the machine level. The client could be on gateway, machine, or on an IoT platform. Steamchain’s initial goal is to pursue the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), which stands to benefit the most from this at the outset, since there’s no open platform that helps turn MaaS data into money, Cromheecke said. The initial signs have been encouraging.
Machine output, value creation
“The feedback from the OEM community has been positive,” said Christopher Zei, an advisor for Steamchain. “OEMs are using the deployment to help on the service side and to eliminate a lot of the burdens that are associated with the factory acceptance test (FAT) process because we only have to do it once.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Is Initiative Q The New Bitcoin?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lelalondon/2018/11/01/is-initiative-q-the-new-bitcoin/amp/
Initiative Q is not, in any way, a cryptocurrency. But it might just be the new Bitcoin.
In just four months, the ‘payment system of the future’ has built a network of nearly three million adopters by offering ever-decreasing sums of their future currency in exchange for an e-mail address.
Despite attracting over 100,000 new users each day, the invite-only registration process triggered instant retaliation from skeptics who dubbed the ambitious global currency a pyramid scheme.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Cryptocurrency Millionaire Wants to Build a Utopia in Nevada
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/technology/nevada-bitcoin-blockchain-society.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur
A man spent millions on an enormous plot of land near Reno. Now he wants to build a community based on the blockchain technology introduced by Bitcoin.
An enormous plot of land in the Nevada desert — bigger than nearby Reno — has been the subject of local intrigue since a company with no history, Blockchains L.L.C., bought it for $170 million in cash this year.
The man who owns the company, a lawyer and cryptocurrency millionaire named Jeffrey Berns
He imagines a sort of experimental community spread over about a hundred square miles, where houses, schools, commercial districts and production studios will be built. The centerpiece of this giant project will be the blockchain, a new kind of database that was introduced by Bitcoin.
As strange — even fantastical — as all this might sound, Mr. Berns’s ambitions fit right into the idiosyncratic world of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.
The blockchain began as a digital ledger on which all Bitcoin transactions are recorded. Some aficionados have grander plans. They think it could be a new way of taking power back from the institutions they believe are calling all the shots.
Just as Bitcoin made it possible to transfer money without using a bank, blockchain believers like Mr. Berns think the technology will make it possible for ordinary people to control their own data — the lifeblood of the digital economy — without relying on big companies or governments.
There is a fuzzy line between these utopian visions and get-rich-quick schemes. Several cryptocurrency projects have been shut down by regulators; apparent hucksters have been arrested; and a plan to transform Puerto Rico with cryptocurrencies has been criticized as nothing more than a bid to take advantage of the island’s status as a tax haven.
That structure, which he calls a “distributed collaborative entity,” is supposed to operate on a blockchain where everyone’s ownership rights and voting powers will be recorded in a digital wallet.
Mr. Berns acknowledged that all this is way beyond what blockchains have actually accomplished. But that hasn’t discouraged him.
“I don’t know why,” he said over the roar of the Polaris engine. “I just — something inside me tells me this is the answer, that if we can get enough people to trust the blockchain, we can begin to change all the systems we operate by.”
This week, he announced a memorandum of understanding with one of the state’s main power companies, NV Energy, to team up on projects that will run energy transactions through a blockchain.
But for now, Blockchains is empty land and a repurposed office building.
“He has these crazy ideas — but I know that every time he sets his mind to something he will get there,” said Ms. Rodriguez, 29, who has worked with Mr. Berns for eight years and is now the manager of the Blockchains office in Nevada. “That’s why I decided to move.”
He learned about Bitcoin in 2012 but was won over by another cryptocurrency, Ethereum, which makes it possible to store more than just transaction data on a blockchain.
Mr. Berns bought Ether, the digital token associated with Ethereum, in a big sale in 2015. Thanks to an astronomical increase in the price of Ether and some well-timed selling last year before it crashed, he became wealthy enough to fund his dream project.
Ethereum is what he believes makes his community more than just a giant real estate project. To understand why requires more than a bit of imagination. And faith. Every resident and employee will have what amounts to an Ethereum address, which they will use to vote on local measures and store their personal data.
Mr. Berns believes Ethereum will give people a way to control their identity and online data without any governments or companies involved.
That is a widely shared view in the blockchain community, but there are significant questions about whether any of it can work in the real world. Most blockchain companies have failed to gain any traction, and Ethereum and Bitcoin networks have struggled to handle even moderate amounts of traffic.
Mr. Berns believes that one of the big problems has been security. People have been terrible at holding the private keys that are necessary to get access to a Bitcoin or Ethereum wallet.
“This will either be the biggest thing ever, or the most spectacular crash and burn in the history of mankind,” Mr. Berns said. “I don’t know which one. I believe it’s the former, but either way it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bloomberg:
A look at a Bancor-funded pilot program in Kenya that aims to transition paper vouchers used as credit in local commerce to blockchain-based digital tokens
Closing the Cash Gap With Cryptocurrency
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-31/closing-the-cash-gap-with-cryptocurrency
In emerging markets, the shallow reach of traditional money systems means there’s less resistance to new financial technology.
Four years ago, Wanjala joined a local experiment in economic development, agreeing to accept and use a so-called community currency, paper vouchers that complement the official Kenyan shilling as a means of exchange within Gatina.
The school uses Gatina-pesa to buy vegetables, sugar, and other ingredients for lunches.
At the same time, about 20 percent of parents now pay the fees for their children’s education in community currency.
“We as a school noticed that there were a lot of challenges when it comes to paying school fees, because most of the parents run small businesses,” he says. “Whenever we have a parents’ meeting, we tell them about the community currency.”
Now, Gatina-pesa is going crypto, shifting from multicolored paper notes to a digital token based on blockchain, the recordkeeping technology that makes Bitcoin possible. The pilot program is funded by Bancor, a project based in Switzerland that operates a decentralized cryptocurrency trading platform. Bancor raised $153 million last year selling its own digital token
the network has processed more than $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency trades so far. Bancor’s name is a clue to its grander economic ambitions—it’s a reference to a currency conceptualized by John Maynard Keynes in the 1940s to remake the system of international trade.
Despite the dominance of national currencies controlled by central banks, most of us also use alternative currencies without even realizing it. Think frequent-flier miles.
Gatina, Bangladesh, and four other communities now have their own pesa, or sarafu (the words for money and currency, respectively, in Swahili), and more than 1,200 businesses and schools use them.
The basic idea is that in communities where cash incomes are low and often sporadic, the vouchers can be used as credits to keep the local commerce in basic goods and services flowing. “We are not trying to create a new currency,” says Ruddick. “We are just filling a gap.” Crucially, the system is supported by agreement within the local community, rather than facilitated by charging interest, as in formal banking.
Until now, these benefits have been limited by geography. Olum couldn’t buy vegetables with her Gatina-pesa in markets in the Lindi and Kangemi neighborhoods, which have their own vouchers.
Kenya has proven fertile ground for successful new-money technology, leapfrogging more developed economies with the mobile money system M-Pesa. Anyone with a phone can use M-Pesa to pay for most anything in Kenya,
The new digital version of Kenyan community currencies brings an M-Pesa-like convenience to the complexities of blockchain. Bancor developed the wallet app to be simple, so it takes only one or two clicks to do most things.
From a technical perspective, the most important hurdle is making a blockchain system that’s workable for small, daily transactions, such as the sale of tomatoes in a market in Gatina. That would be challenging with the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which depends on a decentralized global network of computers engaged in a race to win their owners more Bitcoin. Vast electricity-sucking server farms in China and Canada have been harnessed for that task.
The new digital community currencies work on a different open-source system that Bancor helped to develop called the POA Network. Transactions on it are verified by a group of licensed notary publics in the U.S. who earn a small, fixed commission for managing the network.
The community-currency trades are recorded on their own subnetwork, then bundled together and submitted to the main POA Network to reduce transaction fees
Immediately available Ethereum scalability solution
https://poa.network/