Day: July 23, 2017

Not too long ago, we touched upon the concept of using robots as a way to complete surveillance at disaster-stricken areas. Fukushima is one of those places where robots could make a big impact. This week, an underwater robot entered one of the damaged Fukushima reactors and captured some stunning images.

Robots are Critical for Examining Disaster Areas

Scientists are using swimming robots to capture underwater images of Fukushima. The region became the center of attention a while ago due to a reactor meltdown. Even today, radiation levels at the site prove to be harmful to humans. Prolonged exposure to this level of radiation can cause illnesses and even death. This also makes it more difficult for scientists to examine the reactors.

One way to solve this issue is by using swimming robots. One robot entered one of the damaged Fukushima reactors to capture footage of how the facility looks on the inside. A lot of damage has been caused by the meltdown. The following tsunami caused even more damage. The Unit 3 reactor containment vessel, for example, was completely destroyed.

This underwater robot -which has been nicknamed the Little Sunfish– captured views of underwater damage previously unknown to scientists. There was also a wave of disappointment, since the image did not show any of the melted nuclear fuel which is still unaccounted for. Despite this lack of evidence,  the robot will continue its thorough investigation over the coming days and weeks. 

This swimming robot is very small. It would fit well within the size of a loaf of bread, making it a very compact and versatile exploration companion. The machine is equipped with five different propellers to maneuver and different lights to take well-illuminated high-quality photos of the Fukushima reactor structure. Pictures are gathered thanks to its dual-camera setup. Controlling the robot still requires four operators, but it is a much safer solution than sending humans inside the reactor.

The Toshi corporation is partially responsible for developing this swimming robot. It is good to see the electronics giant play an active role in such a critical mission. Cleaning up the Fukushima disaster will take many more years. However, the robot has collected some valuable information, including how a grated platform below the reactor core is missing. Otherwise, scientists and researchers would have never known this vital piece of information.

Assuming the melted nuclear fuel can indeed be located, the current plan is to come up with ways to dispose of it by 2021. To do so, they need to know the exact location of the fuel and get a better overview of the structural damage in all three reactors. This is where robots such as the Little Sunfish will come into the picture, and they are invaluable assets to speeding up the decommissioning process. It is also the first time a robot successfully withstands 200 sieverts of radiation without any problems.

Cryptocurrency users who watched Mr. Robot may remember a currency known as E Coin. At that time, it was expected this currency would never exist. Interestingly enough, that is not the case, as E Coin is very real. It can be obtained in the form of an E Corp card issued by the company’s bank. … Continue reading E Corp Brings Mr Robot’s E Coin Currency to San Diego Comic-Con

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There is breaking news from the NEVERDIE ICO. The project has recently partnered with Ultima’s and Lord British’s founder, Richard Garriott, to bring together even more gamers via the Ethereum blockchain and their NDC and TPT tokens.

Two Big Names in Gaming Team Up

Richard Garriott, the creator of the popular MMORPG Lord British and Ultima, will advise the NEVERDIE project on its cross-platform gaming ambitions. This is huge for the NEVERDIE team. Garriott brings a wealth of experience with him to help give NEVERDIE life with his strategic insight and creative prowess. That experience is also extremely diverse. He is a video game pioneer, a figure in the commercial spaceflight world, and an explorer.

It is Garriott’s experience with gamification and game pioneering that will be helpful for the project. The project’s vision is clever and ambitious. They want to harness the power of gamers in virtual worlds to make an in-game economy that works similarly to physical world economies. NEVERDIE believes that their virtual world can help offset physical world job loss -from automation and AI- by providing gamified work that actually generates revenue.

The Teleport (TPT) tokens enable gamers in the world to move to other worlds while the NEVERDIE (NDC) coins will let gamers buy more lives, purchase virtual goods, set up virtual stores to earn money, and contribute to the virtual world’s economy. Virtual goods and virtual jobs will become increasingly valuable, and the NEVERDIE project -with Garriott’s newly added insight- will tap into that market before others do.

The area that Garriott will be advising on the most is the government structure of the virtual world(s). The VR government will be endowed with a specific amount of the game’s tokens and will be the issuing authority on teleporters to different worlds. They’ll be built by players, under the supervision of the virtual world’s government. So this is a large task for Garriott, because of how much of the rest of the MMORPG’s economy relies upon it. He is fits the bill though, because of his experience building virtual worlds, governments, and economies in his other games.

NEVERDIE is not just a game with microtransactions, it is a full fledged virtual world where players will be able to have jobs and live lives. This is an example of how virtual worlds are not any less real than physical worlds, but they just occupy different spaces.

NEVERDIE on Exchanges

Some of the ICO participants have been wondering when they will see these tokens traded on larger exchanges. The NEVERDIE project is happy to announce that they be traded on C-Cex immediately following the ICO. This is just the first of many to come, since the team plans on having both NEVERDIE coins and Teleport tokens traded on many exchanges in the future.

NEVERDIE Project: https://neverdie.com/

This is a sponsored post and is not trading or investing advice. Always do your own independent research.

As travelers to Cuba can attest, an unfortunate reality of cryptocurrency services today is the poor customer support.

Source

The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association has issued an announcement regarding Bitcoin Cash (BCC), which it expects to result from a planned hard fork on August 1. Some of its 13 bitcoin exchange members have already issued preliminary notices detailing how they will deal with the upcoming cryptocurrency.

Also read: Viabtc Launching Bitcoin Cash Token and Mining Pool for Bitcoin ABC

JCBA’s Plans for Bitcoin Cash

The Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association (JCBA) released its plan on Friday regarding how it will deal with the planned hard fork on August 1. The association currently has 13 members that are bitcoin exchanges. All of them have already agreed to suspend bitcoin deposits and withdrawals on that date. The JCBA wrote:

With this hard fork, it is planned that existing blockchains will continue to handle bitcoins, while newly formed blockchains will handle a new virtual currency scheduled to be named ‘Bitcoin Cash’ (BCC).

A bitcoin exchange member of the association, Bit Trade, described that “The BCC hard fork is scheduled for August 1 (Tue) 21: 20 (JST).”

The JCBA explained that, with the newly formed blockchain, an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash to each customer’s existing bitcoin holdings will be generated. The association added that each bitcoin exchange in the group will decide for themselves how to deal with Bitcoin Cash belonging to their customers.

Some exchanges will not be trading BCC and customers of those exchanges will have to transfer them to another exchange that does, the association advised, adding that (loosely translated):

It may be difficult to receive and pay using Bitcoin Cash in derivative transactions…In this case, we may liquidate it by sending and receiving money for the equivalent amount. For specific handling information, please confirm with the exchange member that deals with you.

Exchanges’ Preliminary Notices on Bitcoin Cash

Some bitcoin exchange members of the association have independently made their own announcements concerning how they plan to deal with Bitcoin Cash. However, so far, little information has been offered by each exchange.

Bitpoint wrote that they intend to “deal with the newly generated Bitcoin Cash including trading transactions.”

Bit Trade has stated its policies in more detail. “When the Bitcoin Cash fork splits bitcoin into two coins, we will give the full number of coins same as BTC held by customer at the time of suspension, after August 2.” After that date, customers can withdraw money as well as trade the BCC/JPY or BCC/BTC trading pairs on the exchange.

Coincheck wrote only that “we will consider how we cope with Bitcoin Cash hard fork after confirming the situation in detail.”

GMO-Z Coin similarly announced, “regarding the handling policy for ‘Bitcoin Cash’, we will inform you on our site and via email by August 1.”

Tokyo Bitcoin Exchange wrote that “as for the plan to handle Bitcoin Cash transactions, we will not decide at the present time.” However, the exchange will aid individual customers with the withdrawals of the new coins.

What do you think will happen on August 1? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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The post How Japanese Exchanges Prepare to Deal With Forked `Bitcoin Cash´ appeared first on Bitcoin News.

A few Reddit users weigh in whether it makes better sense for Chinese to sell their property and invest in Bitcoin instead.

This past week has been a mix of good and bad news for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency enthusiasts. More specifically, the Bitcoin price has gone up again, which surprised quite a few people. On the other hand, multiple top darknet marketplaces have been shut down. Many people associate Bitcoin primarily with the darknet, but it seems the closure of these markets has not impacted the Bitcoin price in a negative manner.

Bitcoin is so Much More Than a Darknet Currency

Most Bitcoin users will be well aware of how the world’s leading cryptocurrency has a bad reputation in the eyes of the general public. More specifically, Bitcoin is often associated with money laundering, drug usage, and the darknet. While it is true virtually every darknet marketplace accepts Bitcoin payments, the cryptocurrency is used for many different and more legitimate purposes as well.

In fact, one could argue Bitcoin has gotten a bit of competition as preferred currency on the darknet. Because Bitcoin doesn’t provide any privacy or anonymity, darknet marketplace operators have been exploring alternative solutions. Both Monero and ZCash seem to be far more suited for this type of transactions, even though their adoption among darknet users remains to be determined. There was even a rumor of AlphaBay eventually integrating Ethereum payments due to their progress on zk-snarks, but the marketplace was shut down before that could even become a factor.

In the end, seeing the top darknet marketplaces shut down by law enforcement does not come as a surprise. While it is true AlphaBay and Hansa both generated a lot of transaction volume every single day, it did not influence the overall Bitcoin price all that much. It seems most darknet users still have to buy Bitcoin legally and then send it through one or multiple mixers to receive semi-anonymous currency. Then again, reports related to AlphaBay and Hansa indicate a lot of users and operators were identified thanks to their Bitcoin transactions.

All of this goes to show Bitcoin just isn’t suited for criminal activity. Unfortunately, the world’s leading cryptocurrency often makes headlines due to its passive involvement in criminal activity, such as ransomware attacks and exchange hacks. Then again, those stories seemingly only represent a fraction of what is going on with Bitcoin. More importantly, it seems none of this news has long-lasting negative effects on the Bitcoin price.

With the disappearance of AlphaBay, Hansa, and potentially Dream as well, one would expect the demand for Bitcoin to slow down. That is, assuming one believes darknet users represent the majority of Bitcoin holders. Looking at the current Bitcoin price chart, it is obvious the opposite is true. The Bitcoin price started rallying as soon as the AlphaBay market disappeared, indicating a growing demand for cryptocurrency unrelated to darknet usage. It is certainly possible some darknet users had to stock up on Bitcoin again after losing money to AlphaBay, but that momentum would not warrant the current Bitcoin price trend.

One Bitcoin was worth around US$1,860 on July 16th, whereas it is worth US$2.666 at the time of writing. If the darknet was the main reason to use Bitcoin, these prices would have tanked immediately after the AlphaBay and Hansa news became public. Instead, the graphics show an upward trend. It is safe to say darknet news will not impact the Bitcoin price negatively, even if that means the top 3 marketplaces are either gone or under investigation by law enforcement.

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