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.
782 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seema Mody / CNBC:
Genesis Global Trading launching digital currency lender Genesis Capital to allow investors to borrow bitcoin, ether, other cryptocurrencies for a fixed time
Hedge funds gain another avenue to bet against bitcoin
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/28/hedge-funds-gain-another-avenue-to-bet-against-bitcoin.html
Genesis Global Trading is launching a digital currency lending business.
“This will be the first time that institutional investors will get the opportunity to really borrow and hedge or short the digital currency spot market in size,” Genesis Capital CEO Michael Moro tells CNBC.
As institutional demand grows for cryptocurrencies, Genesis Global Trading is launching a digital currency lending business called Genesis Capital to enable investors to borrow bitcoin, ether and others for a fixed amount of time.
One of the uses will be for investors who want to bet against bitcoin without taking on a lot of risk.
“This will be the first time that institutional investors will get the opportunity to really borrow and hedge or short the digital currency spot market in size,” Genesis Capital CEO Michael Moro told CNBC.
In a press release, the company said, “Firms trading bitcoin futures or options find it advantageous to have bitcoin on borrow because they can short-sell those borrowed bitcoin to delta-hedge their long derivative positions.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: SEC increases scrutiny of ICOs, issuing “scores” of subpoenas and information requests to companies and advisers about structure of sales and pre-sales — Regulator issues subpoenas to parties engaged in booming market for initial coin offerings
Cryptocurrency Firms Targeted in SEC Probe
Regulator issues subpoenas to parties engaged in booming market for initial coin offerings
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-launches-cryptocurrency-probe-1519856266?tesla=y&mod=e2tw
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seema Mody / CNBC:
Genesis Global Trading launching digital currency lender Genesis Capital to allow investors to borrow bitcoin, ether, other cryptocurrencies for a fixed time
Hedge funds gain another avenue to bet against bitcoin
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/28/hedge-funds-gain-another-avenue-to-bet-against-bitcoin.html
Genesis Global Trading is launching a digital currency lending business.
“This will be the first time that institutional investors will get the opportunity to really borrow and hedge or short the digital currency spot market in size,” Genesis Capital CEO Michael Moro tells CNBC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blockchain: Not just for cryptocurrency
There’s a lot more to blockchain than Bitcoin
https://opensource.com/article/18/3/blockchain-not-just-cryptocurrency?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY
Blockchain basics
A blockchain is a distributed set of data that uses cryptography to verify and secure that information. Each piece of data in a blockchain is called a block, and the blockchain is the entire set of that data.
A blockchain is a distributed set of data that uses cryptography to verify and secure that information.]Rather than having a central database server to store the data, everyone involved in the blockchain has a copy of the information. This enables each involved party to verify that an individual block is accurate using hashing and cryptography. Each block is created from a hash of some information. Anyone who has that same information can create the same hash to verify the block; however, they cannot go backward from the hash to re-create the data the block is about. Each person updating the blockchain uses a key that verifies that they are who they say they are.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Experts Disdain Blockchain in Spain
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1333005
“Trust” and “security” were the two words most oft uttered during a discussion here Monday at the Mobile World Congress entitled “IoT and the Security Blockchain,” but they were spoken — for the most part — either wishfully or in tones of outright sarcasm.
The explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, said moderator Ian Hughes, an IoT analyst for 451 Research, “has created a massive ballooning of risk” to the security of systems dependent on Internet communications.
“The proliferation of IoT devices,” said Rashni Misra, Microsoft’s general manager for IoT and AI solutions, “has basically opened a new surface for attack, to an extraordinary degree.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is creating a new cryptocurrency
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/01/uber-co-founder-garrett-camp-is-creating-a-new-cryptocurrency/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
The currency is called Eco, and Camp wants it to be a digital global currency that can be used as a payment tool around the world for daily-use transactions.
There will be one trillion tokens issued initially, of which 50% will be given away to the first one billion verified humans that sign up. 20% will go to the universities running trusted nodes, 10% will go to advisors, 10% will go to strategic partners, and 10% will go to a newly formed Eco Foundation which will be responsible for creating and maintaining the network. Camp as well as a small number of partners affiliated with Expa will also donate $10M to seed the foundation with an operating budget.
Notably there will be no ICO – which means no money will be raised for the project
First, it wants to use only verified nodes for network support and transaction confirmations
Second, Eco will have a large token supply (one trillion, at least initially) and simple web and mobile apps.
The last improvement is that Eco wants to be energy efficient when it comes to transaction verification and token generation, meaning there won’t be a network of electricity-intensive miners supporting the network like some other cryptocurrencies have.
Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is creating a new cryptocurrency
Posted 18 hours ago by Fitz Tepper (@fitztepper)
Garrett Camp, best known for being a co-founder of Uber and founder of the accelerator/venture fund Expa, is launching his own cryptocurrency.
The currency is called Eco, and Camp wants it to be a digital global currency that can be used as a payment tool around the world for daily-use transactions.
There will be one trillion tokens issued initially, of which 50% will be given away to the first one billion verified humans that sign up. 20% will go to the universities running trusted nodes, 10% will go to advisors, 10% will go to strategic partners, and 10% will go to a newly formed Eco Foundation which will be responsible for creating and maintaining the network. Camp as well as a small number of partners affiliated with Expa will also donate $10M to seed the foundation with an operating budget.
Notably there will be no ICO – which means no money will be raised for the project, and also lets the project avoid any potential legal issues which have now become prevalent with most major ICOs.
Eco’s initial whitepaper explains that it wants to improve on a few main issues common with digital currencies.
First, it wants to use only verified nodes for network support and transaction confirmations, meaning someone anonymous couldn’t run a node and confirm transactions like they could do on bitcoin’s network. While this essentially removes issues of 51% attacks or other acts of fraud, it also means it won’t be truly decentralized.
Second, Eco will have a large token supply (one trillion, at least initially) and simple web and mobile apps. This is likely the project’s attempt to be more user friendly, meaning a smaller dollar to Eco token conversation rate so regular users aren’t scared away by high token prices, which often happens with bitcoin. Similarly, the web and mobile app directive likely means they want to make wallets easily accessible to anyone regardless of technical ability.
The last improvement is that Eco wants to be energy efficient when it comes to transaction verification and token generation, meaning there won’t be a network of electricity-intensive miners supporting the network like some other cryptocurrencies have.
Eco is an admirable concept, but not a novel one. Since the early days of crypto, groups have been “copy and pasting” Bitcoin to create their own digital blockchains, all with slight differences that they think will change the world.
For example, Litecoin and Ethereum both have faster blockchain which have increased transaction times. Both Telegram’s upcoming token and Kik’s Kin token are trying to be mobile-first, daily-use tokens with a high supply and low token price. Ripple already eschews anonymous nodes and instead uses trusted validator nodes run by legitimate groups chosen by them. Ethereum is working on proof of stake to become more energy efficient, and NEO already has a working one in place.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paying for Genetic Data with Cryptocurrency
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/diagnostics/paying-for-genetic-data-with-cryptocurrency
As the cost of DNA sequencing continues to drop, academics and biotech companies have been waiting for more individuals to sequence and share their full genomes. But so far, that isn’t happening.
Consumers have been loath to pay upwards of US $1,000 for full genome sequencing and even more wary of sharing that detailed, private data.
Nebula Genomics, a new startup co-founded by Harvard biologist and sequencing pioneer George Church, says it can solve those problems using blockchain, the decentralized technology that enables cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. In a 28-page white paper published quietly in February, the company’s founders describe their aims: To use blockchain to reduce the costs of personal genome sequencing, cut out the middlemen to make it easy for individuals to share full genome sequences with companies and academics, and to allay privacy concerns.
Users who opt to have their genome sequenced and stored with Nebula (the actual DNA sequencing would be done by another of Church’s companies, Veritas Genetics) would continue to own and control access to their personal DNA sequence. Sounds logical, but that has not been the norm in the consumer genomics field: Many leading genotyping companies require a user to relinquish ownership of the genetic data, then sell it to others. Nebula will do none of that, says Obbad: Consumers will choose where to store their data and who gets access to it.
The Nebula network, built on the Blockstack platform and an Ethereum-derived blockchain, will allow consumers to remain anonymous while data purchasers, such as pharmaceutical companies, will be required to be fully transparent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Make a Cryptocurrency Using Litecoin v0.15 Source
https://www.hackster.io/pjdecarlo/how-to-make-a-cryptocurrency-using-litecoin-v0-15-source-fb5e82
Ever wanted to create your own crytpocurrency? This article will show you how to create one based on the latest Litecoin v0.15 source code.
This article will cover everything needed to create your own cryptocurrency based on the current Litecoin v.015 codebase. The overall process isn’t too difficult once you know where all the moving pieces are and how they fit into the operation of a blockchain based cryptocurrency. Please be aware that this content will require some working knowledge of C++, Server Ops, Docker, and usage of general purpose programming tools.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptographers Urge People to Abandon IOTA After Leaked Emails
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/cryptographers-urge-users-and-researchers-to-abandon-iota-after-leaked-emails
This past weekend, multiple prominent security researchers and academic cryptographers took to Twitter to paint a big black mark on the cryptocurrency project, IOTA. The posts implore investors not to hold the currency and researchers not to collaborate on enhancing the security of the system.
An outcry was triggered shortly after a chain of private emails sent among the IOTA team and a group of external security researchers was made public, exposing the developers’ response to the disclosure of a critical flaw in one of their cryptographic building blocks. The correspondence, which ended with vague threats of legal action by IOTA founder, Sergey Ivancheglo, against a member of the Boston University security group, has prompted many academic researchers to denounce the entire project.
At stake is one of the most successful cryptocurrencies in the blockchain space. IOTA has a market capitalization in excess of 5 billion US dollars, as measured by the website coinmarketcap.com, making it the tenth-largest cryptocurrency in existence, in terms of user investment.
The coin has been around since 2015. It has been marketed by its inventors as an improvement on blockchain architecture (in which there are, in fact, no blocks) that allows for free transactions at a larger scale than Bitcoin.
Advocates for the technology have positioned it as a technological enhancement for the Internet of Things.
However, there are many in the community who argue that the system, which today relies on the activities of a central operator called a “coordinator,” is not as decentralized as advertised.
“Basically, what they have done is written some source and papers that only describe part of the system. The rest of the system is secret. Which is completely antithetical to blockchains,” says Dudley.
Since the emails were released, a debate has raged over social media about which side looks worse.
Regardless of which side wins in the court of public opinion, it is becoming clear that the IOTA team, by displaying antagonism to the process of responsible vulnerability disclosure, has lost the support of professional cryptographers and security analysts.
“I think the emails were extremely embarrassing for the IOTA project. They should convince anyone that IOTA lacks the technical leadership or, simply, the maturity to build their product,” says Dan Guido, the CEO of Trail of Bits, a security consulting firm with expertise in blockchain technology.
“DCI made some rookie mistakes too, and this is generally why, in other industries, security researchers will hand off bugs to a vulnerability coordinator, like a CERT, to report on their behalf,” says Guido.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Blockchain will work in trucking — but only if these three things happen
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/02/blockchain-will-work-in-trucking-but-only-if-these-three-things-happen/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Sometimes a buzzword gets so overhyped that it deserves some light-hearted mockery. That seems to be the case with “blockchain.” While it’s true that not every industry can benefit from a distributed-ledger technology, the trucking industry most certainly can. In fact, a new consortium called the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) is working to apply blockchain to solve some of the most intransigent problems in trucking.
gross freight revenues from trucking were $726.4 billion, representing 81.5 percent of the nation’s freight bill.
Companies hailing from each piece of the trucking supply chain have joined BiTA, including: UPS, Salesforce, McCleod Software, DAT, Don Hummer Trucking and about 1,000 more applicants.
A private blockchain for trucking
Blockchain is a shared, distributed ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. An asset can be tangible like a truck, or intangible like an insurance requirement. The blockchain that supports cryptocurrencies like bitcoin is a public network open to any investor with millions of users around the world. The blockchain we in the U.S. trucking industry foresee is a private one for shippers, carriers and brokers in the BiTA consortium.
Why do we need blockchain? Because trucking is an inefficient industry. Manufacturers have a hard time finding trucks to transport their goods.
In fact, truckers drive more than 29 billion miles with partial or empty truckloads.
enormously fragmented industry struggles to match shippers (the demand) with carriers (the supply)
Blockchain as the Holy Grail
Matching shippers with carriers is just one of the problems blockchain could solve.
trucking brokerage company with the express aim of matching shippers with carriers. It was brutally inefficient, taking up to three hours of calling and faxing orders to line up a single delivery
If implemented well, blockchain could be the Holy Grail that makes the entire trucking supply chain more efficient. Imagine a cadre of shippers, carriers and brokers collaborating on a secure, frictionless network.
What three things need to happen?
In my humble opinion as a technologist, I believe three things must happen to make blockchain viable in trucking.
Everyone must trust the blockchain as the single source of truth
Small carriers and shippers must participate en masse
The entire industry must embrace data standardization
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is Stellar? A handy guide to XLM: the nonprofit crypto
https://www.etoro.com/blog/from-the-markets/what-is-stellar-a-handy-guide-to-xlm-the-nonprofit-crypto/?utm_medium=SEM&utm_source=52916&utm_content=0&utm_serial=Outbrain_EN_AFFID_52916_Stellar_15.2.18&utm_campaign=Outbrain_EN_AFFID_52916_Stellar_15.2.18&utm_term=http://paid.outbrain.com/network/redir
Search for:
Search for Instrument / Data
eToro
BY ETORO
FEB 14, 201889757 VIEWS
What is Stellar? A handy guide to XLM: the nonprofit crypto
There’s no denying 2017 was the year for cryptocurrencies. So many of these innovative assets, which were previously completely unknown, have now been written about and debated everywhere. While much of the attention directed at cryptocurrencies was due to their meteoric rise over the past year, it was also due to the fact that they present something new from a financial and technological standpoint.
One fine example is Stellar. While its cryptocurrency, called Lumens (or XLM) was part of the cryptocurrency boom, rising thousands of percents and becoming a top 10 currency
Tomi Engdahl says:
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
Garrett Camp proposes Eco, a cryptocurrency that would run on verified nodes at universities and research institutes and have collective mining incentives
Uber Creator Invents New Cryptocurrency—And Wants Your Help Making It Reality
http://fortune.com/2018/03/01/bitcoin-uber-cryptocurrency-eco-garrett-camp/
In November, Garrett Camp had just returned from his first trip to Africa—an “eye-opening” experience, he said—when he informed the world that he would donate half his riches to charity.
What Uber’s cofounder and chairman didn’t mention was that he intended to do more than just give away money. Indeed, he had resolved to invent his own.
Over the past five months, Camp has been sketching out plans for a brand new cryptocurrency that aims to fix technical and other challenges plaguing existing projects, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. His hope, he told Fortune, is to resuscitate virtual currency’s original promise: an instant, affordable, and borderless means of payment for the masses.
Camp has christened his rival project “Eco,” a name he settled on because it is short, easy to pronounce in many languages, and evokes concepts like “ecosystem,” “economics,” and “ecommerce.”
“Eco seeks to create the most usable digital currency platform to date, offering users an alternative to bitcoin, gold and fiat currency at Eco.com,” says Eco’s white paper, a draft of which Fortune reviewed. “New payment systems are needed which are not controlled by a central institution, and provide better user experiences using mobile devices.”
A few differentiators set the Eco protocol apart from the tech underlying other cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin. First off, Eco’s blockchain, or shared ledger system, is designed to run on “verified nodes,” rather than on the machines of an anonymous network of volunteers.
What the system loses in resilience and security, it gains in efficiency and coordinated governance. The trade-off strikes “more of a middle ground,”
Camp says he’s initially seeking to partner with the top 5% universities and research institutes around the world, which number in the couple thousands, to run these early nodes.
Another difference from Bitcoin is Eco’s incentive structure. Instead of having cryptocurrency “miners” compete against one another for the entire crypto-lottery prize, in his proposed system, every time an Eco node confirms a block of financial transactions, the cryptocurrency reward gets dispensed across the network to all nodes and users.
In this scenario, the people running nodes—also known as token generators—are incentivized to do just the bare minimum to confirm the next block, so that everyone makes money.
Another factor is distribution. Camp doesn’t want a small group of speculators to hoard Eco tokens.
In fact, Camp is giving away free money to prime the pump. Out of a total of 1 trillion tokens to be generated over several years, the project plans to disseminate half the supply to the first 1 billion users.
The project is still in the early stages. “This is the design phase,” Camp says. “We intentionally have not written a lot of code yet.
Digital currency for everyone
Eco is a new type of money you can use anywhere in the world.
https://eco.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rakuten will roll its $9B loyalty program into a new blockchain-based cryptocurrency, Rakuten Coin
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/27/rakuten-will-roll-its-9b-loyalty-program-into-a-new-blockchain-based-cryptocurrency-rakuten-coin/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Back in 2016, Amazon’s Japanese rival Rakuten acquired Bitnet, a bitcoin wallet startup that it had previously invested in, to help it work on blockchain technology and applications. Today, one of the first fruits of that deal has come to light. The company is planning a new cryptocurrency called Rakuten Coin — built on blockchain technology and the company’s existing loyalty program, Rakuten Super Points
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Developers fix vulnerability in geth, an app to run Ethereum nodes, that let “any kid with a machine and a script” steal funds, according to researchers
Ethereum fixes serious “eclipse” flaw that could be exploited by any kid
Hole made it possible to trick users into double spending and hack smart contracts.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/03/ethereum-fixes-serious-eclipse-flaw-that-could-be-exploited-by-any-kid/
Developers of Ethereum, the world’s No. 2 digital currency by market capitalization, have closed a serious security hole that allowed virtually anyone with an Internet connection to manipulate individual users’ access to the publicly accessible ledger.
So-called eclipse attacks work by preventing a cryptocurrency user from connecting to honest peers. Attacker-controlled peers then feed the target a manipulated version of the blockchain the entire currency community relies on to reconcile transactions and enforce contractual obligations. Eclipse attacks can be used to trick targets into paying for a good or service more than once and to co-opt the target’s computing power to manipulate algorithms that establish crucial user consensus. Because Ethereum supports “smart contracts” that automatically execute transactions when certain conditions in the blockchain are present, Ethereum eclipse attacks can also be used to interfere with those self-enforcing agreements.
Like most cryptocurrencies, Ethereum uses a peer-to-peer mechanism that compiles input from individual users into an authoritative blockchain. In 2015 and again in 2016, separate research teams devised eclipse attacks against Bitcoin that exploited P2P weaknesses. Both were relatively hard to pull off.
Many researchers believed that the resources necessary for a successful eclipse attack against Ethereum would considerably higher than the Bitcoin attacks. After all, Ethereum’s P2P network includes a robust mechanism for cryptographically authenticating messages and by default peers establish 13 outgoing connections, compared with eight for Bitcoin.
In January, the researchers reported their findings to Ethereum developers. They responded by making changes to geth, the most popular application supporting the Ethereum protocol. Ethereum users who rely on geth should ensure they’ve installed version 1.8 or higher. The researchers didn’t attempt the same attacks against other Ethereum clients.
“We have done our best to mitigate the attacks within the limits of the protocol. The paper is concerned with ‘low-resource’ eclipse attacks. As far as we know, the bar has been raised high enough that eclipse attacks are not feasible without more substantial resources, with the patches that have been implemented in geth v1.8.0.” Lange went on to say he didn’t believe another popular Ethereum app called Parity is vulnerable to the same attacks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Evelyn Cheng / CNBC:
Michael Arrington says he received SEC subpoena related to ICO investment, as did every crypto fund he talked to; source: SEC subpoenaed ~80 firms in ICOs probe — – “We received a subpoena. Every [crypto]fund I’ve talked to has received one,” said Michael Arrington …
SEC subpoenas TechCrunch founder’s cryptofund amid broader investigation into digital coins
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/02/sec-subpoenas-techcrunch-founders-cryptofund-amid-broader-investigation-into-digital-coins.html
“We received a subpoena. Every [crypto]fund I’ve talked to has received one,” said Michael Arrington, TechCrunch founder who launched his own $100 million cryptocurrency investment fund in the fall.
Subpoenas across the cryptocurrency industry come from Securities and Exchange Commission offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco, said Jason Gottlieb, partner at Morrison Cohen.
The SEC has stepped up its efforts in the last several months to gather information on the cryptocurrency world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ICOs delivered at least 3.5x more capital to blockchain startups than VC since 2017
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/04/icos-delivered-at-least-3-5x-more-capital-to-blockchain-startups-than-vc-since-2017/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Recently, we found that, for 2018, the amount of money being raised by blockchain and blockchain-adjacent companies via traditional VC rounds is on pace to surpass 2017’s highs.
But despite more than $900 million in recorded venture funding in 2017, and more than $375 million in known venture funding for the first two months of 2018 so far, traditional VC rounds
ICOs: Fewer deals, but bigger deals than VC
For all of 2017 and the first two months of 2018 at the time of writing, Crunchbase data has captured a total of 527 venture capital rounds and ICOs raised by companies in its bitcoin, ethereum, blockchain, cryptocurrency and virtual currency categories.
Over the past 14 months, blockchain and related startups have raised nearly $1.3 billion in traditional venture capital rounds worldwide. But for the ICOs Crunchbase has captured, nearly $4.5 billion was raised via ICOs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
2018 VC investment into crypto startups set to surpass 2017 tally
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/03/2018-vc-investment-into-crypto-startups-set-to-surpass-2017-tally/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
For months now, much of the media attention on the crypto space has been directed at ebbs and flows in the price of bitcoin on one side, and whiz-bang ICOs on the other.
The price of the most valuable cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (specifically the BTC chain), has backpedaled significantly from highs set in December 2017.
The hype around ICOs is understandable, as well, given that market’s velocity, eye-popping market capitalizations and titillating if unfortunate stories of theft and subterfuge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Motherboard:
Researchers say IOTA, a cryptocurrency project with $5B+ market cap, has major security flaws; IOTA developers try to deflect claim with questionable responses
A $5 Billion Cryptocurrency Has Enraged Cryptographers
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ywq44k/a-5-billion-cryptocurrency-iota-has-enraged-cryptographers-leaked-emails
Leaked emails between IOTA developers and researchers have landed the cryptocurrency in hot water.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reimagine and disrupt your industry with blockchain
https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/se-sv/industries/?cm_mmc=PSocial_Facebook-_-Blockchain_Blockchain-_-EP_INO-_-24046678_Paid%20Social%20Facebook%20Canvas%20for%20IBM%20Blockchain%20LOB&cm_mmca1=000024BV&cm_mmca2=10005803&cm_mmca4=24046678&cm_mmca5=50971478&cm_mmca6=d1a8089c-bb1d-46e9-a4bb-74372ea1aaab&cvosrc=social%20network%20paid.facebook.Canvas1%20IBM%20Blockchain%20Phase1_Other_DesktopMobileTablet_1x1&cvo_campaign=000024BV&cvo_pid=24046678
Accelerate innovation and transform your business networks with blockchain consulting experts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/pjdecarlo/how-to-make-a-cryptocurrency-using-litecoin-v0-15-source-fb5e82
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coinbase is launching its own cryptocurrency index fund
https://beta.techcrunch.com/2018/03/06/coinbase-is-launching-its-own-cryptocurrency-index-fund/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
When you’re the runaway leader in a growing industry, you typically have two opinions: A) Stay in your lane and let other companies pop up to solve the industry’s problems, or B) Try to offer as many products as possible and own the entire customer experience from A-Z (no Amazon pun intended).
If there’s any doubt which option Coinbase is gunning for, that’s now gone. The digital currency giant just announced they’re expanding in yet another direction by launching a passively managed cryptocurrency index fund.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Banking Trojans Targeting Crypto-Currencies
https://www.securityweek.com/mobile-banking-trojans-targeting-crypto-currencies
Mobile malware is now targeting crypto-currencies with the intent of stealing victims’ funds, IBM says.
The immediate result of the massive increase in value that crypto-currencies have registered over the past year was the growth of malicious attacks attempting to steal coins from unsuspecting users. While most of these assaults involved PC malware so far, recent incidents have shown that mobile threats are picking up the pace as well.
Several weeks ago, IBM observed that the TrickBot Trojan was using webinjections to steal virtual coins from its victims by replacing legitimate addresses with those of the attacker. Working in a similar manner, mobile malware is now using screen overlays to trick victims into sending funds to the attacker instead, IBM’s security researchers discovered.
According to IBM, mobile malware targeting crypto-coins usually leverages malicious miners to collect coins, but the practice isn’t that profitable, given the limited processing power a mobile device has. Furthermore, users are more likely to discover a mining operation on a mobile device when observing overheating, low performance and faster battery drain.
“Crooks operating mobile banking Trojans don’t install miners on the device. Rather, they typically steal existing coins from unsuspecting owners using mobile malware that creates the same effect as webinjections: cybercriminals trick users with fake on-screen information, steal their access credentials and take over accounts to empty coins into their own wallets,” IBM notes.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bitcoin price drops 10% as hackers exploit Binance’s API keys
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/07/bitcoin-price-drops-10-as-hackers-exploit-binances-api-keys/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
As always, it’s a bit hard to know for sure what’s happening. But one company in particular is having a bad day. Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has spotted some unusual activities and halted withdrawals.
Binance is one of the biggest exchanges out there.
There was a huge increase in buy orders for Viacoins on Binance. In just a few minutes, Viacoin’s market capitalization jumped from $64 million to $159 million
Binance looked into it and noticed unauthorized sell orders.
. “As of this moment, the only confirmed victims have registered API keys (to use with trading bots or otherwise). There is no evidence of the Binance platform being compromised.”
So it seems like a third-party service or app
got compromised. Users of that third-party app were relying on API keys to control Binance accounts.
The hacker could have sold a big pile of Viacoins shortly after manipulating the price on Binance.
In all cases, it proves once again that security is a big issue when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Don’t store your coins on an exchange. Use a hardware wallet or a wallet that lets you control the private keys.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
SEC issues strongly worded warning on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges, saying “many” appear SEC-approved when they aren’t; Bitcoin is down 8%+ — Bitcoin falls 10 percent after regulators signal crackdown on exchanges. — The Securities and Exchange Commission issued …
Bitcoin falls 10 percent after SEC warns about unregulated exchanges
Bitcoin falls 10 percent after regulators signal crackdown on exchanges.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/bitcoin-falls-10-percent-after-sec-warns-about-unregulated-exchanges/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Graham Rapier / Business Insider:
Binance cryptocurrency exchange says it’s investigating “unauthorized market sells”, halts withdrawals, and denies rumors it was hacked
Bitcoin is plummeting after one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges suspended withdrawals
http://markets.businessinsider.com/currencies/news/bitcoin-price-is-plummeting-as-rumors-of-a-binance-hack-swirl-2018-3-1018289038
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it had halted withdrawals Wednesday morning as it investigates “unauthorized market sells. ”
Bitcoin was plunging on the rumours of a possible hack on the popular exchange, and the digital currency was down as much as 10%.
Bitcoin plunged more than 10% Wednesday morning, as low as $9,600, after rumors began to swirl on Twitter and Reddit that major cryptocurrency exchange Binance had been hacked.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SEC says cryptocurrency exchanges are an unregulated mess
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/07/sec-says-cryptocurrency-exchanges-are-an-unregulated-mess/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrencies and the Revolution in Cybercrime Economics
https://www.securityweek.com/cryptocurrencies-and-revolution-cybercrime-economics
Cryptocurrencies Have Revolutionized the Economics of Cybercrime
Over the past year, Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies have increasingly gained publicity and media attention. The focus of the reporting has been primarily on cryptocurrencies as a financially speculative medium, with the value of Bitcoin rising over 2000% in 2017 alone. Although there has been some reporting on the importance of cryptocurrencies as the payment medium of choice on the Darknet, less attention has been given to the fact that they have revolutionized the economics of cybercrime, with a noticeable impact on threat actors’ Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP’s).
We are already seeing this have effect on the threat landscape and threat actor’s TTP’s:
1. Cryptojacking, where system resources are hijacked to mine cryptocurrencies, is up by 725% over the past 4 months
2. Ransomware, that now generally demands payment in BitCoin, has increased by 90% in 2017
3. Bitcoin exchanges have been targeted in a number of high profile breaches
4. Bitcoin users have been specifically targeted to steal their wallets
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dutch Homes Get Free Heating If They Agree To Host A Computer Server
Startups in France and Germany are also pursuing the smart idea, which saves money for all involved.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3044755/dutch-homes-get-free-heating-if-they-agree-to-host-a-computer-server?partner=rss
QC•1
The first crypto heater
https://www.qarnot.com/crypto-heater_qc1/
Make heating a source of revenue,
not an expense!
Tomi Engdahl says:
InfoSum’s first product touts decentralized big data insights
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/09/infosums-first-product-touts-decentralized-big-data-insights/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
InfoSum bills its approach to collaboration around personal data as fully GDPR compliant — because it says it doesn’t rely on sharing the actual raw data with any third parties.
Halstead says that the problem with the traditional data pooling route — so copying and sharing raw data with all sorts of partners (or even internally, thereby expanding the risk vector surface area) — is that it’s risky.
Not blockchain for privacy
Decentralization, as a technology approach, is also of course having a major moment right now — thanks to blockchain hype. But InfoSum is definitely not blockchain. Which is a good thing. No sensible person should be trying to put personal data on a blockchain.
“The reality is that all the companies that say they’re doing blockchain for privacy aren’t using blockchain for the privacy part, they’re just using it for a trust model, or recording the transactions that occur,” says Halstead, discussing why blockchain is terrible for privacy.
“Because you can’t use the blockchain and say it’s GDPR compliant or privacy safe. Because the whole transparency part of it and the fact that it’s immutable. You can’t have an immutable database where you can’t then delete users from it. It just doesn’t work.”
Decentralized bunkers of data
One important clarification: InfoSum customers’ data does get moved — but it’s moved into a “private isolated bunker” of their choosing, rather than being uploaded to a third party.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:
The term blockchain needs a universal definition as its general usage has become diluted and has led to many misconceptions about its capabilities
‘Blockchain’ is meaningless
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/7/17091766/blockchain-bitcoin-ethereum-cryptocurrency-meaning
‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means’
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies have entered the mainstream discourse, but they’ve also been joined by a concept that is widely circulated, but poorly understood: “the blockchain” or just “blockchain.” The idea of a blockchain, the cryptographically enhanced digital ledger that underpins Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies, is now being used to describe everything from a system for inter-bank transactions to a new supply chain database for Walmart. The term has become so widespread that it’s quickly losing meaning.
“What is a ‘blockchain’? The word is a buzzword that is increasingly ill-defined,” David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts, said in an email.
There are countless blockchain explainers in text, audio, and video around the web. Almost all of them are wrong because they start from a false premise. There is no universal definition of a blockchain, and there is widespread disagreement over which qualities are essential in order to call something a blockchain.
The Bitcoin system is considered the first blockchain — the epiphany that launched the blockchain industry that proponents say will revolutionize money, government, and beyond.
Bitcoin, which debuted in the wild in 2009, “is the first implementation of blockchain technology,” according to IBM. And yet, many of the technology designs that are labeled “blockchain” today bear little to no resemblance to Bitcoin’s blockchain.
Differing definitions
Google’s definition of “blockchain” is “a digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly.” While most people would agree that a blockchain is a digital ledger, many blockchains do not have an associated cryptocurrency and are not recorded publicly. Some would even argue that a blockchain needn’t be digital.
Investopedia says, “A blockchain is a digitized, decentralized, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions.” Again, many blockchains are not public, and many others are not decentralized.
IBM’s definition says, “Blockchain technology is used in a peer-to-peer network of parties, who all participate in a given transaction.” Except that at least for one well-publicized blockchain, the one built by World Food Programme, there is only one participating party: itself. IBM goes on: “Because the ledger is distributed, everyone involved can see the ‘world state’ at any point in time and can monitor the progress of the transaction.” Mastercard’s blockchain, however, is not viewable by anybody (and seems to have no function outside of marketing since Mastercard admits that payments are still running through its existing system).
Highly marketed efforts in Estonia provide a good example of how the term “blockchain” has been stretched and diluted.
Estonia’s system actually predates the Bitcoin blockchain, and there is some disagreement over whether it should be called a blockchain technology.
Estonia’s technology vendor, Guardtime, rebranded its offering from “hash-linked time-stamping” to a “blockchain technology.”
A significant chunk of new blockchain proposals, like those proposed for the financial industry, are so-called “private” blockchains. Critics say these projects are old technology masquerading as something new.
“‘Private blockchain’ is just a confusing name for a shared database.”
There are many highly publicized instances of blockchains being altered: Bitcoin was forked multiple times
Ethereum was forked after a massive hack in 2016.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into effect in May and says users must have control over their data, developers are now exploring ways to delete data from blockchains.
because the data is in a blockchain doesn’t mean the data is accurate. Inaccurate data, such as a mistake on a medical record, can still be validated in a blockchain.
Toward a standard
Victoria Lemieux, an associate professor of archival science and head of the blockchain research cluster at the University of British Columbia, is leading the effort to develop a blockchain terminology standard for the International Standards Organization.
“In general, if the transactions are gathered together in blocks, and it is blocks that are secured on the chain using cryptography, and it is designed to be tamper-resistant and produce immutable records, the system qualifies as a blockchain,”
different epistemic communities have formed their own ideas about what blockchain is, some with very strong political and social views around open source, sharing, and autonomy.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Paul Roberts / Politico:
A look at the Mid-Columbia Basin, WA, where 15-30% of all bitcoins may be mined in 2018 due cheap power there, as utilities deal with a crazy power demand spike — Eastern Washington had cheap power and tons of space. Then the suitcases of cash started arriving.
This Is What Happens When Bitcoin Miners Take Over Your Town
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/09/bitcoin-mining-energy-prices-smalltown-feature-217230
Eastern Washington had cheap power and tons of space. Then the suitcases of cash started arriving.
Bitcoin mining—the complex process in which computers solve a complicated math puzzle to win a stack of virtual currency—uses an inordinate amount of electricity, and thanks to five hydroelectric dams that straddle this stretch of the river, about three hours east of Seattle, miners could buy that power more cheaply here than anywhere else in the nation. Long before locals had even heard the words “cryptocurrency” or “blockchain,” Miehe and his peers realized that this semi-arid agricultural region known as the Mid-Columbia Basin was the best place to mine bitcoin in America—and maybe the world.
The best mining sites were the old fruit warehouses—the basin is as famous for its apples as for its megawatts—but those got snapped up early.
As bitcoin’s soaring price has drawn in thousands of new players worldwide, the strange math at the heart of this cryptocurrency has grown steadily more complicated. Generating a single bitcoin takes a lot more servers than it used to—and a lot more power. Today, a half-megawatt mine, Miehe says, “is nothing.”
The Mid-Columbia Basin isn’t the only location where the virtual realm of cryptocurrency is colliding with the real world of megawatts and real estate. In places like China, Venezuela and Iceland, cheap land and even cheaper electricity have resulted in bustling mining hubs. But the basin, by dint of its early start, has emerged as one of the biggest boomtowns. By the end of 2018, according to some estimates, miners here could account for anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of all bitcoin mining in the world, and impressive shares of other cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Litecoin. And as with any boomtown, that success has created tensions.
When you pay someone in bitcoin, you set in motion a process of escalating, energy-intensive complexity. Your payment is basically an electronic message, which contains the complete lineage of your bitcoin, along with data about who you’re sending it to (and, if you choose, a small processing fee). That message gets converted by encryption software into a long string of letters and numbers, which is then broadcast to every miner on the bitcoin network (there are tens of thousands of them, all over the world). Each miner then gathers your encrypted payment message, along with any other payment messages on the network at the time (usually in batches of around 2,000), into what’s called a block. The miner then uses special software to authenticate each payment in the block—verifying, for example, that you owned the bitcoin you’re sending, and that you haven’t already sent that same bitcoin to someone else.
At this point, the actual mining begins. In essence, each miner now tries to demonstrate to the rest of the network that his or her block of verified payments is the one true block, which will serve as the permanent record of those 2,000 or so transactions. Miners do this by, essentially, trying to be the first to guess their block’s numerical password. It’s analogous to trying to randomly guess someone’s computer password, except on a vastly larger scale.
As soon as a miner finds a solution and a majority of other miners confirm it, this winning block is accepted by the network as the “official” block for those particular transactions. The official block is then added to previous blocks, creating an ever-lengthening chain of blocks, called the “blockchain,” that serves as a master ledger for all bitcoin transactions.
This bizarre process might not seem like it would need that much electricity—and in the early years, it didn’t.
Nakamoto built the system to make the blocks themselves more difficult to mine as more computer power flows into the network. That is, as more miners join, or as existing miners buy more servers, or as the servers themselves get faster, the bitcoin network automatically adjusts the solution criteria so that finding those passwords requires proportionately more random guesses, and thus more computing power. These adjustments occur every 10 to 14 days, and are programmed to ensure that bitcoin blocks are mined no faster than one roughly every 10 minutes. The presumed rationale is that by forcing miners to commit more computing power, Nakamoto was making miners more invested in the long-term survival of the network.
But, as always, the miners’ biggest challenge came from bitcoin itself. The mere presence of so much new mining in the Mid-Columbia Basin substantially expanded the network’s total mining power; for a time, Carlson’s mine alone accounted for a quarter of the global bitcoin mining capacity. But this rising calculating power also caused mining difficulty to skyrocket
Bitcoin miners were now caught in the same vicious cycle that real miners confront—except on a much more accelerated timeframe. To maintain their output, miners had to buy more servers, or upgrade to the more powerful servers, but the new calculating power simply boosted the solution difficulty even more quickly. In effect, your mine was becoming outdated as soon as you launched it, and the only hope of moving forward profitably was to adopt a kind of perpetual scale-up: Your existing mine had to be large enough to pay for your next, larger mine.
As mining costs were rising, bitcoin prices began to dive. The cryptocurrency was getting hammered by a string of scams, thefts and regulatory bans, along with a lot of infighting among the mining community over things like optimal block size.
In the spring of 2016, everything turned around. Bitcoin regained traction.
In January 2017, the price crossed $1,000.
Then $7,200 in November. A week before Christmas, bitcoin went over $19,000.
the per-bitcoin cost for basin miners was around $2,000, producing profit margins similar to those of the early years, only on a vastly larger scale
In the zero-sum game that cryptocurrency has become, one man’s free money is another man’s headache.
In one instance last year, the utility says, a miner overloaded a transformer and caused a brush fire.
In parts of the basin, utility crews now actively hunt unpermitted miners, in a manner not unlike the way police look for indoor cannabis farms.
The combined output of the basin’s five dams averages around 3,000 megawatts
By the end of 2018, Carlson reckons the basin will have a total of 300 megawatts of mining capacity.
Just because miners want power doesn’t mean they get it. Some inquiries are withdrawn.
There are concerns about the huge costs of new substations, transmission wires and other infrastructure necessary to accommodate these massive loads.
miners’ appetite for power is growing so rapidly that the three counties have instituted surcharges for extra infrastructure
Many residents he hears from aren’t keen to see so much public power sold to an industry whose chief product is, in their minds, of value only to speculators and criminals.
critics say, it has become merely another highly speculative bet—much like mortgage-backed derivatives were in the prelude to the financial crisis—and like them, it is just as assured of an implosion.
The “monetized code” that underlies the blockchain concept can be written to carry any sort of information securely, and to administer virtually any kind of transaction, contractual arrangement or other data-driven relationship between humans and their proliferating machines. In the future, supporters say, banks and other large institutions and even governments will run internal blockchains
Still, even supporters acknowledge that that glorious future is going to use a lot of electricity. It’s true that many of the more alarming claims—for example, that by 2020, bitcoin mining will consume “as much electricity as the entire world does today,” as the environmental website Grist recently suggested—are ridiculous: Even if the current bitcoin load grew a hundredfold, it would still represent less than 2 percent of total global power consumption.
ever-cheaper power rates in other states, like California, could undercut the basin’s appeal to blockchain miners
miners argue that the current boom is simply the first rough step to a much larger technological shift
“What you can actually do with the technology, we’re only beginning to discover,”
Carlson is, he told me, “100 percent confident” the price will surpass the $20,000 level we saw before Christmas. “The question, as always, is how long will it take.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Oscar Williams-Grut / Business Insider:
Mt.Gox trustee sold $400M worth of Bitcoin since Sept.; half of bitcoins sold were transferred from bankrupt exchange on Feb.5, a day before BTC dropped to $6K
‘This is horse s—’: Bitcoin traders are angry that Mt Gox’s crypto stash is being ‘dumped’ on the market
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-traders-angry-over-mt-gox-trustees-bitcoin-sales-2018-3?op=1&r=US&IR=T
Mt Gox, once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world, filed for bankruptcy in 2014.
Bankruptcy trustees have been selling the company’s bitcoin since September to raise funds to pay creditors.
$400 million-worth of bitcoin has been sold so far and investors are concerned that the large trades could be affecting bitcoin’s price.
Bitcoin investor Alistair Milne subsequently pointed out on Twitter that over half of the bitcoin Kobayashi sold was transferred to an exchange on February 5, the day before bitcoin hit a three-month low of close to $6,000.
Matt Odell, another bitcoin investor on Twitter, wrote:”They panicked and sold the bottom. Market absorbed it well.”
large amount of bitcoin was sold into the market at a time when prices were already under pressure. After hitting a high above $20,000 in December, bitcoin crashed below $10,000 in mid-January.
an article accusing Mt Gox’s trustees of trying “to crash bitcoin” and the highest rated comment says: “Just give the people their money in BTC and let them decide what to do with it. This is horse—t.”
“It’s definitely having the effect of causing the price to drop with each sell period.”
Any proceeds left after Mt Gox’s creditors are paid will go to Mark Karpeles, the founder of Mt Gox. This quirk of Japanese bankruptcy law
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC sales receive strong boost from Bitmain orders
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180308PD207.html
In addition to orders for 7nm chips, robust orders for cryptocurrency mining ASICs from China-based Bitmain Technologies are expected to drive Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) revenue growth in 2018, according to industry observers.
TSMC chairman Morris Chang previously said that the company is expected to see 10-15% on-year growth in 2018 revenues driven by three major applications: high-performance computing (HPC), car-use electronics and Internet of Things (IoT). Bitmain’s orders are expected to become a new revenue booster for the foundry in 2018.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacked Japan Crypto Exchange Refunds Customers
https://www.securityweek.com/hacked-japan-crypto-exchange-refunds-customers
Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck said Tuesday it had refunded more than $440 million to customers following the hack of its systems, which was one of the largest thefts of its kind.
The company said it used its own funds to reimburse about 46.6 billion yen ($440 million) to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, a leading cryptocurrency.
“Procedures have been completed with the accounts of all 260,000 customers,” company spokesman Yosuke Imai told AFP.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Binance announces it’s developing a new blockchain called Binance Chain, which it hopes will facilitate the creation of a new decentralized exchange — Binance announced Tuesday that it is launching a public blockchain to facilitate the creation of a new decentralized exchange.
Binance Unveils Blockchain for New Crypto Exchange
https://www.coindesk.com/binance-unveils-new-blockchain-support-decentralized-crypto-exchange/
Binance announced Tuesday that it is launching a public blockchain to facilitate the creation of a new decentralized exchange.
The cryptocurrency exchange said the move forms part of a plan to transition from “a company to a community” by developing its new Binance Chain, which will be used to transfer or trade different blockchain assets. In addition, the company announced it would essentially shift its Binance Coin (BNB) to its own native blockchain
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Binance announces it’s developing a new blockchain called Binance Chain, which it hopes will facilitate the creation of a new decentralized exchange — Binance announced Tuesday that it is launching a public blockchain to facilitate the creation of a new decentralized exchange.
https://www.coindesk.com/binance-unveils-new-blockchain-support-decentralized-crypto-exchange/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Crypto crackdown: Google bans ads for unregulated currencies
Bitcoin prices plummet
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/14/google_cracks_down_on_crypto_with_ad_ban_from_june/
Google has joined the Bitcoin-hating bandwagon with a ban on ads for cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings from June.
The move was announced today as part of an update to its financial services policy to crack down on unregulated products.
This will mean companies can no longer serve ads for “cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice).”
Google is lagging behind Facebook – the Zuckerborg announced it was canning crypto ads on its platform back in January.
Both firms have been pushed to act by the sudden increase in interest for cryptocurrencies and ICOs amid fears that a lack of regulation and anonymity makes them open to money laundering and other criminal activities.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hashgraph wants to give you the benefits of blockchain without the limitations
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/13/hashgraph-wants-to-give-you-the-benefits-of-blockchain-without-the-limitations/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
The spotlight on the distributed ledger space to-date is primarily focused on blockchain . Yet, blockchains come with limitations by design. Consensus mechanisms using proof of work (POW) are by their nature slow, so the community can come to agreement and throw away the blocks they don’t agree on. This design also includes inherent inefficiencies such as electricity consumption discarded on stale blocks.
Distributed ledger technologies envision a new, better peer-to-peer compute model that could help us harness compute power like never before.
As we move away from the client-server compute model, we move closer to realizing a new trust layer for the internet. This transition is still limited by challenging problems yet to be solved around efficiency, scalability, and interoperability.
The hashgraph algorithm, invented by Leemon Baird, the co-founder and CTO of Swirlds, is a consensus mechanism based on a virtual voting algorithm combined with the gossip protocol to achieve consensus quickly, fairly, efficiently, and securely.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Winklevoss-led Gemini announces a self-regulatory group for crypto
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/13/winklevoss-led-gemini-announces-a-self-regulatory-group-for-crypto/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Gemini, run by the Winklevoss twins, is one of the most Wall Street-oriented exchanges on the crypto markets. Originally envisioned as “bitcoin in a suit,” it is now leading the way in self-regulation with a new Virtual Commodity Association, a self-regulating group that aims to take the guesswork out of crypto in the future.
“We believe a thoughtful SRO framework that provides a virtual commodity regulatory program for the virtual commodity industry is the next logical step in the maturation of this market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circle launches a Coinbase competitor in the U.S.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/circle-launches-a-coinbase-competitor-in-the-u-s/?utm_source=tcfbpage&sr_share=facebook
Circle is launching Circle Invest in the U.S. except in NY, MN, HI and WY. The app is now available in the App Store and Play Store and lets you instantly trade the most popular cryptocurrencies without any fee.
Circle Invest isn’t exactly an exchange as the app hides most of the complexities that you can find on full-fledged exchanges. You can’t submit limit orders or look at the order book. You can only deposit and withdraw money, buy and sell cryptocurrencies at market prices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coinbase gets e-money license in the UK, will add Faster Payments to speed up fiat deposits and withdrawals
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/13/coinbase-emoney/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
This will be welcome news for cryptocurrency fans in the U.K. and Europe. Coinbase, one of more popular and accessible cryptocurrency exchanges, has been granted an e-money license by the U.K. regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
From a regulatory standpoint, this means that Coinbase is now able to issue e-money and provide payment services in the U.K. and will have passed additional checks in terms of things like the segregation of client funds, which means that customer fiat balances (ie when you deposit funds, such as Sterling) are separated from Coinbase’s own operational funds and kept in separate bank accounts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cryptocurrency ad bans are a step in the right direction
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/cryptocurrency-ad-bans-are-a-step-in-the-right-direction/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
AdChoices
Cryptocurrency ad bans are a step in the right direction
John Biggs
@johnbiggs / 2 hours ago
altucher-bitcoin-glitch
Google just banned cryptocurrency and ICO ads, a move that follows Facebook’s decision to do the same. The language is stark: You are no longer allowed to advertise “Cryptocurrencies and related content (including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice).”
This is good news.
In the Wild West of crypto things can head in one of two ways. First, the industry can ignore rationality and decorum and pump and dump ICOs all day long until the SEC, the FBI and European authorities shut down every single one. Or, if the industry takes the slow and steady route, builds self-regulatory bodies and avoids scammy pump-and-dump tactics, then perhaps the industry can grow into maturity.
Currently the methods for token sale marketing are ridiculous
Tomi Engdahl says:
PlayTable uses blockchain to connect video games and physical objects
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/blokparty-playtable-launch/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
I’ll be honest: When I first got the pitch for “the first blockchain-based video game console,” I assumed it must be some kind of gimmick.
AdChoices
PlayTable uses blockchain to connect video games and physical objects
Anthony Ha
@anthonyha / 3 hours ago
PlayTable
I’ll be honest: When I first got the pitch for “the first blockchain-based video game console,” I assumed it must be some kind of gimmick.
But Jimmy Chen, co-founder and CEO of Blok.Party, said the Ethereum blockchain is “a critical part of this experience,” allowing his team to create “this seamless bridge between the digital and physical worlds.”
Today, Blok.Party is unveiling its PlayTable console, which combines elements of tabletop and console gaming.
This isn’t the first time someone’s tried to incorporate real-world objects into video games — for example, there was Disney Infinity, which shut down a couple of years ago. But by using blockchain technology, Chen said he can avoid many of the pitfalls that tripped up previous efforts.
For one thing, instead of manufacturing new toys and pieces for every game, PlayTable uses RFID tags, which can be attached to existing objects. So players can use the tags to incorporate their own toys and cards into the games.
“The core of it, the physical manifestation of it that exists only in one space, has proven to be fairly difficult [in the past],” Chen added. “By creating that backend infrastructure, we can make the system a lot more successful. The element that blockchain really enables is this idea of having to a truly unique, open dataset that people can contribute on and can build on top of.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
A gentle critique of the new Coinbase index fund
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/13/a-gentle-critique-of-the-new-coinbase-index-fund/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook&sr_share=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Crypto author Paul Vigna talks about the future of token sales
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/12/crypto-author-paul-vigna-talks-about-the-future-of-token-sales/?ncid=rss&utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sierra Leone just ran the first blockchain-based election
https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/14/sierra-leone-just-ran-the-first-blockchain-based-election/?utm_source=tcfbpage&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&sr_share=facebook
The citizens of Sierra Leone went to the polls on March 7 but this time something was different: the country recorded votes at 70% of the polling to the blockchain using a technology that is the first of its kind in actual practice.
The tech, created by Leonardo Gammar of Agora, anonymously stored votes in an immutable ledger, thereby offering instant access to the election results.
“Anonymized votes/ballots are being recorded on Agora’s blockchain, which will be publicly available for any interested party to review, count and validate,” said Gammar. “This is the first time a government election is using blockchain technology.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Calendar 2 made $2K in 3 days mining cryptocurrency, but Apple says it violated Mac App Store guidelines
https://9to5mac.com/2018/03/13/crypto-mining-calendar-app-ios/
Yesterday, we reported on a macOS app called Calendar 2 that seemingly added cryptocurrency mining as an alternative to paying for premium features. At the time, the app’s developers, Qbix, had made the decision to remove the feature from the app.
The company now tells us, however, that Apple ended up pulling the app from the Mac App Store for violating its guidelines…
Furthermore, Magarshak says that Qbix was able to earn about $2,000 worth of the cryptocurrency Monero during the three-day period that mining was live in the application. For comparison’s sake, Qbix has made around $700,000 from its apps over the last 7 years:
“However we did generate about $2K (current prices) from the mining that occurred in the 3 day period it was live and we plan to use those proceeds towards improving features for our users going forward,” Magarshak said to 9to5Mac.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TSMC seeing tight capacity for cryptocurrency mining chips
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180315PD209.html
TSMC’s 16nm and 12nm process production capacity has been tight in the first quarter of 2018 driven by strong demand for GPUs and ASICs for cryptocurrency mining, according to industry sources. A surge in cryptocurrency mining chip orders is set to boost the pure-play foundry’s sales performance in the first half of 2018.
TSMC has obtained the majority of orders for custom ASICs for cryptocurrency mining, but tight supply at the foundry has prompted several ASIC developers, such as Baikal Miner, to shift their orders to Samsung Electronics, the sources indicated.
Samsung has seen orders for cryptocurrency mining chips ramp up, said the sources, adding that Baikal and some China-based designers have contracted the Korea-based vendor to manufacture their mining ASICs using 14nm and 10nm process technologies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Counting On Cryptocurrency
Why blockchain technologies are driving so much foundry business.
https://semiengineering.com/counting-on-cryptocurrency/
While cryptocurrencies may still be in the infancy of market development and adoption, the semiconductor industry has certainly felt the potential of blockchain technologies. In its fourth quarter 2017 earnings conference, TSMC commented on the strong demand from cryptocurrency-related businesses since the second half of 2017. These “mining” markets are driving leading-edge business at TSMC together with application processors, communications, and high-performance computing.
The surge of cryptocurrency prices in 2017 created unprecedented demand for crypto mining machines, which nowadays are typically powered by high-end GPU and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). This sudden rise triggered a shortage of the GPU chips/graphic cards typically used for gaming, video processing, machine learning, and other applications.
ASIC mining hardware has taken the mining market by storm in recent years. Quite a few startups, primarily from China and some from Russia, Europe and Japan, have entered the market with an ASIC solution for specific cryptocurrency mining. Current mainstream ASIC bitcoin miners are based on 14nm/16nm processes, and roadmaps from various companies show that upcoming ASICs will continue to shrink, using 12nm, 10nm and 7nm processes from available foundry players.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Leigh Cuen / CoinDesk:
Lightning Labs raises $2.5M from Jack Dorsey, Charlie Lee, David Sacks, and more, launches beta of software that allows Bitcoin Lightning Network payments — A version of bitcoin’s much-anticipated Lightning Network is finally ready for real users. — Announced today, California startup Lightning Labs …
Lightning Labs Launches Beta With Twitter CEO Backing
https://www.coindesk.com/a-version-of-bitcoins-lightning-network-is-ready-for-real-money/
A version of bitcoin’s much-anticipated Lightning Network is finally ready for real users.
Announced today, California startup Lightning Labs has officially launched a beta version of its software (LND), making available what investors and project leads say is the first thoroughly tested version of the tech to date. This means that users can now leverage LND to send bitcoin and litecoin to other users, all without settling those transactions on the blockchain.
While this software is one of several seeking to form a combined network that aims to make cryptocurrency transactions faster and cheaper, today’s development effectively takes bitcoin a step closer to new kinds of applications, such as Internet of Things payments and recurring billing.
That’s because, similar to bitcoin, the Lightning protocol isn’t managed by any one person or company. It’s a series of compatible technologies. Bitcoin-centric startup Blockstream released a candidate version 1.0 of the Lightning protocol specification in January, and ACINQ, another like-minded startup, already offers a live alpha software that works with bitcoin.
Still, the Lightning Labs software is believed to be the most mature software to date – and investors are using the launch to signal their interest.