Day: August 23, 2017

24 Aug 2017, London, UK, – DOVU, the global marketplace for transport data, announces its token sale, scheduled for 3 Oct, 2017. The project aims to create a distributed marketplace for the give and take of transport-related APIs, fuelled by the DOV token. DOVU is pioneering a digital economy for the mobility sector. At the … Continue reading DOVU, Blockchain Powered Mobility, Backed by InMotion Ventures, Powered by Jaguar Land Rover

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Since Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin use the same proof-of-work to safeguard their transaction histories, both platforms are now effectively competing for hash power.

Congressional Blockchain Caucus has partnered with several institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to study how to establish security standards for the use of Blockchain technology in the U.S.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr., just promoted another ICO.

CoinDesk

MGT Capital Raises $2.4 Million to Expand Bitcoin Mining Operation CoinDesk Bitcoin mining is an energy intensive process by which new transactions are added to the blockchain, with new coins being created as a reward for the miner that creates the next transaction block. Profits are earned when the proceeds of mining exceed ... and more »

Cybersecurity entrepreneur John McAfee’s company just raised $2.4 million to help build a new bitcoin mine.

The post The Long Road to SegWit: How Bitcoin’s Biggest Protocol Upgrade Became Reality appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

CoinTelegraph

Bitcoin IRA Reviews - How To Put Bitcoins In Your Retirement Account HuffPost Bitcoin has the potential to be a unit of account. Individuals and organizations can use it to measure and track the worth of assets, price, expenditure and income. At the moment, the majority of users find it convenient to denominate items in fiat ... 25-Year-Old Bitcoin Millionaire Travels the World, Becomes Bitcoin BoosterCoinTelegraph Is It Too Late To Invest In Bitcoin At $4000+ Record Price?ValueWalk all 16 news articles »

We have seen some impressive developments in robotics these past few years. In particular, mechanized exoskeletons are slowly becoming more common. Some companies now pool together resources to manufacture this technology, which helps shape the future of the construction industry. It is an ambitious project and exoskeletons are still in the early stages of development. At the same time, humans will be aided by bricklaying robots to make their jobs a bit easier.

The Construction Industry and Robotics

The construction industry has been showing a keen interest in exoskeletons and bricklaying robots. Although human labor has become rather inexpensive in some parts of the world, employees can only work so many hours in a day until they need rest. There is always the risk of injury to deal with as well. At the same time, it seems there is a labor shortage in some parts of the world, which is not making things easier by any means.

Even though the construction industry is not known for embracing new technologies, it looks like there is no alternative available right now. It seems both robotics and exoskeletons will make a big impact in this sector over the coming years. While it is true automated solutions are worth exploring as well, the industry is not looking to put people out of a job all of a sudden either. Most companies value their human workforces, despite continual demand for increased efficiency.

Research by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows how every additional future robotic deployed in construction could effectively put around 5.6 workers out of a job. Introducing 1 robot per 1,000 employees reduces overall wages by up to 0.5%. This may not seem all that big of a deal to some people, but it certainly explains why the construction industry is delaying the introduction of robotics for the time being. That said, companies have taken a liking to merging human labor with technological improvements.

Making humans and robots work side-by-side appears to be the right way forward for the time being. Exoskeleton vests would allow human workers to complete more work in the same period of time. Lifting heavier objects, for example, would become a real possibility. At the same time, they would certainly help reduce the risk of injury for these workers as well. There are clearly many benefits to exploring these advanced options.

Consider the Hadrian X bricklaying robot, capable of laying up to 1,000 bricks per hour. A human worker at full strength and health could do the same number of bricks, but spread out over an eight-hour shift. The improved efficiency introduced by this robot should not be overlooked by anyone. Other robots may yield even better results, laying thousands of bricks per day without too many issues. Clearly, these robots could cost a lot of jobs when deployed.

In the end, one has to keep in mind that none of these robots will replace the need for human workers by any means. They certainly shake things up in the way one thinks about construction as a whole. Technological advances will be coming to the industry in one form or another. It certainly appears exoskeletons will be of the utmost importance as well. Making human workers more efficient will create new jobs over time as well. It will be interesting to see how things play out for companies active in the space moving forward.

SegWit will finally activate on bitcoin today after years of debate. But, what exactly is the code change and what does it enable?

Many people assume Bitcoin transactions are anonymous. That is not the case by any means, even though it is possible for users to remain pseudonymous at all times. That being said, initiatives are underway to successfully unmask parties to Bitcoin transactions when needed. It appears a technique is currently deployed on e-commerce websites in the form of ad trackers. Cookies and other data collected by these trackers can reveal the identities of Bitcoin users.

Unmasking Bitcoin Users Through Ad Trackers

It sounds quite strange to think of ad trackers as a way to unmask Bitcoin users. After all, Bitcoin is a fairly transparent currency already, even though it also has a lot of connections to illegal activity as well. Cyber criminals have taken a particular liking to Bitcoin lately, despite its lack of anonymity. While there are other cryptocurrencies better suited for nefarious purposes, they have not gained much ground in the illegal activity sector for the time being. That situation may come to change in the future, though.

It now appears there is a new way to successfully unmask the people behind a particular Bitcoin transaction. This does not bode well for individuals using the world’s most popular cryptocurrency for criminal activity. It turns out ad trackers on e-commerce websites can successfully reveal information on the identities of Bitcoin users. They do not need any special information to do so, as the ad trackers collect cookies and other information already. Up until now, no one has bothered to utilize this approach in order to deanonymize Bitcoin users, but it remains a possibility.

Research on the matter was published last week, explaining how users attempting to hide their identities behind Bitcoin addresses could still be exposed. Virtually every website we use today for online shopping can track user activity, browser information, cookies, and IP addresses. The e-commerce companies store cookies on users’ computers or willingly share data on buyers with advertising companies. According to the new research, a thorough analysis of the information shared with third parties allows profilers to create Bitcoin user profiles.

Many people underestimate just how much information e-commerce platforms collect. This does not just apply to platforms where users are required to register, as first-time visitors are subject to these same tracking methods. Even the most simple browser cookie contains information on the device used, products purchased, items browsed, abandoned carts, email information, and even shipping addresses. There is plenty of information available to link that activity to Bitcoin transactions, even though the user itself remains pseudonymous at all times.

The information collected by ad trackers does not only fall into the hands of e-commerce operators or advertising companies. Skilled hackers and even law enforcement agencies can aggregate data from multiple trackers or advertising agencies. This type of behavior opens the proverbial floodgates to deanonymizing Bitcoin users all over the world. One upside, however, is how they could link suspicious Bitcoin activity to real-world identities and online usernames. This could effectively help reduce Bitcoin-related crimes, although the method might very well be used for other purposes as well.

No one will be surprised to learn that collecting this information from Bitcoin-friendly e-commerce platforms yields the best results. Any website accepting Bitcoin payments can even link specific Bitcoin addresses to existing customers, for example. Of the 130 sites investigated, nearly half had leaked payment information. Virtually all sites grant third-parties script access to some form of payment information. Those sites will most likely become primary targets for institutions specializing in blockchain analysis.

Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group has invested in Shanghai blockchain startup Onchain.

Why digital currencies are good for your portfolio.

Achieving anonymity with cryptocurrency is not straightforward at all. It often requires either the involvement of third-party service providers or some advanced technology and cryptography. In the case of Monero, anonymity is mainly provided thanks to the use of Ring Confidential Transactions, or RingCT. It appears the developers are looking for ways to further improve upon this technology. A new proposal by Tim Ruffing dubbed “RuffCT” aims to achieve this goal. Now is a good time to look into what all of these changes could mean for Monero.

Taking RingCT to the Next Level

In a research paper written by Tim Ruffing, Viktoria Ronge, Dominique Schroder, and Sri Aravinda Krishnan, the concept of improved Ring Confidential Transactions was proposed. As most Monero users are well aware, RingCT effectively allows users to hide their XMR transaction amounts. This technology has been implemented for quite some time now and powers nearly 95% of all Monero transactions today. This goes to show the technology is greatly appreciated by Monero supporters who want additional anonymity when using cryptocurrency.

There are other benefits to RingCT-based transactions as well. This technology allows users to hide not just the transaction amount, but also the origin and destination of any transfer. All of that is achieved with “reasonable efficiency” and is done in a trustless manner. There is no need to rely on a third-party service provider to remove taint from coins and successfully obfuscate the origin and destination address. This has been hailed as one of the major advancements introduced by Monero‘s developers. However, there is always room for future improvement, which is exactly what this white paper aims to achieve.

The new technology is currently dubbed “RuffCT” by the Monero developers, even though Tim Ruffing is only one of the four authors of the white paper. The proposal involves using Confidential Transactions combined with sublinear ring signatures.  Implementing this technology would expand ring signature sizes to over 100,000, although it remains to be seen if such a high number is actually feasible. For now, it seems the current ring size in Monero will be greatly expanded although not necessarily to such a scale as originally assumed.

Although this technology sounds quite exciting, Ruffing advises Monero users to remain level-headed for the time being. For now, signatures are more compact for larger ring sizes. However, the computation time required to verify these “RuffCT” signatures are similar to how larger RingCT verification occurs right now. There is no notable speed advantage to using one over the other, which does not make RuffCT stand out from the current implementation. This is something the team is still working on and it may take a while to figure out how to optimize everything. Reasonable ring sizes right now are somewhere below 1,000 at best.

While still in the early stages of implementation, RuffCT offers significant improvement in transaction size. As most cryptocurrency users are well aware, there is a limited amount of blockchain space for any cryptocurrency. Without a block size increase, there is only so much “space” to contend for. RuffCT will provide a way for Monero to scale to larger rings without requiring larger network blocks or anything of that sort. A lot of work still needs to be done in this regard and peer review by developers is expected to take place as well.

It appears the main limiting factor for the current implementation of RuffCT is CPU power. That is not necessarily a big issue on paper, but it may introduce some other changes to the Monero fee structure if it cannot be resolved. It will be interesting to see if this proposal is implemented a few months from now. For the time being, the community patiently awaits the release of the white paper, expected “soon.”

Chasing Profit? Bitcoin Miners Swap Networks As Difficulty Swings CoinDesk Both bitcoin and bitcoin cash adjust difficulty downward every 2,016 blocks, though in the case of bitcoin cash, the length of time this takes varies depending on how long it takes blocks to be discovered. If the previous 2,016 blocks took less than ...