Day: August 25, 2017

Monero, the world’s second largest anonymous cryptocurrency, is up 22 percent again today, on August 26. For many years, Monero has been regarded as one of the few cryptocurrencies that is highly legitimate, backed by an experienced and talented development team. It had no pre-sales or controversial mining deals for its miners. The Monero development … Continue reading Monero Price Up 15% as World’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchange Prepares Integration

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The global healthcare market is predicted to reach $8.7 trillion by 2020, with individual health data under increasing demand from research institutions. Bowhead Health could power personalized health as soon as 2018 by providing real-time diagnostics in a smart dispenser. The Bowhead platform runs on their patent pending Anonymized Health Token, which gives individuals the option to share anonymized health data while retaining full control of their information via smart contracts. Compensation paid by research institutions would be split among users and AHT holders on a 70/30 basis. With health data now amongst the most valuable information resource on the planet, Bowhead Health is well positioned to become leaders in this lucrative and fast growing sector.

Multi trillion dollar markets tend to attract large organisations vying to control and centralize data for their own benefit and profit. Other cryptocurrencies aim to unshackle the individual from these practices yet even in a field as important to quality of life as healthcare the problem of top-down data control persists. Healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and technology firms all profit hugely from patient data. Now, a team of medical doctors, scientists and robotics engineers based in Canada have launched a new ICO proposing to not only give the individual control of their medical data, but also to compensate them for any data they choose to share with research institutions.

The Bowhead dispenser is the size of a Nespresso machine, and comes with an expected price tag of $199-$299. The Bowhead device is able to measure a user’s biometric data through a small blood or saliva sample. Licensed doctors make recommendations from these readings allowing the hardware unit to dispense a personalized selection and dosage of supplements and medicines. Signals are transmitted securely through Blockchain (the project uses a Waves-Ethereum hybrid token) with a user friendly accompanying mobile app due later this year. Bowhead Health envisions “Google Drive style” permission settings for different categories of users’ personal health data. While the platform is still in development, Bowhead has multiple patents pending, a partnership with an FDA approved manufacturing facility and a wealth of experience in bringing accredited products to market.

Token Economics

Bowhead’s AHT token allows 70% of research fees to be distributed to users with the other 30% going to token holders. Initially, research fees will be paid quarterly but with further development smart contracts will enable instant compensation. Research fees will be collected in the user’s Bowhead wallet with plans to accept BTC, ETH and AHT. Holders of over 50,000 AHT will be able to run a HIPPA compliant node which is supported by Medstack and will be offered rewards and incentives for helping to uphold the Bowhead ecosystem.

Long Term Ambitions

The company has aspirations to adapt their technology into kiosks with solar panels and anti-vandalism systems. With further development, Bowhead believes that a Bowhead kiosk could service small villages and communities in developing and third world countries. The Bowhead mobile app is due to launch in fall 2017 with the first Bowhead hardware trial devices shipping in the second quarter of 2018. Bowhead’s ICO is live until August 31st, with lot 1 of their crowdsale already complete.

To find out more about Bowhead Health please visit https://www.bowheadhealth.com

Further information and community sites

Telegram: https://t.me/bowheadtokensale
Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2047429.0
Slack: https://bowhead-slack.herokuapp.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bowheadhealth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bowheadhealth/

Disclosure: This is a sponsored story.

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On August 25 the largest global bitcoin payment processor, Bitpay, addressed the company’s controversial blog post on Segwit2x last week. The firm received a lot of backlash for advising Bitcore nodes to utilize the BTC1 (Segwit2x) software over the Core client. Now the company reveals why it gave instructions to use the BTC1 version of Bitcoin.

Also Read: SEC Declares DAO Tokens Securities and ICOs Subject to Federal Securities Laws

The Segwit2x Instructions Naturally Upset Some People Who Support Bitcoin Core Software

Last week Bitpay’s blog post stirred up a lot of controversy and many arguments between Segwit2x supporters and Core development supporters. Many bitcoin proponents and luminaries, asked people to boycott the startup, and even called the blog post “illegal” and “fraudulent.” The company was also removed from the Bitcoin.org portal by the website’s administrator Theymos. Now the company is addressing the situation in a follow-up blog post called “Bitpay’s Perspective on Segwit2x.”

“Last week Bitpay published an advisory regarding a double spend risk for developers using non-Segwit compatible nodes of our Bitcoin development platform Bitcore,” explains Bitpay. “We recommended that these developers mitigate double-spend risk by installing a Segwit-compatible boundary node. As our boundary node instructions used the BTC1 version of Bitcoin, this naturally upset some people that support a rival implementation of Bitcoin called Bitcoin Core.”

‘We Must Remain In Sync With the Hashrate Majority Chain’

Bitpay explains that bitcoin miners have adopted Segwit2x software, and they intend to “increase the base block size limit to 2mb in November.” The company assumes that miners will continue to do as they intended, and this means Bitpay must be prepared and stay on the hashrate majority chain. The firm says that the company needs a reliable blockchain to support their infrastructure, and the “backbone network must also be highly available.”

This high-availability requirement means that we must remain in sync with the hashrate majority chain. Block production on a minority fork of Bitcoin would be inconsistent, and it may cease to operate without emergency measures. Such a service interruption is unacceptable for us and for our users.

‘Avoiding Service Interruptions’

The Atlanta-based company understands that bitcoin Core developers have decided not to adopt the Segwit2x protocol. However, Bitpay says if they continued to run Core software and miners continued to adopt the 2MB fork, then they would find themselves on a minority chain. In essence, the company wants to avoid service interruptions, and doing so means following the majority hashrate.  

“To avoid an interruption in service, Bitpay must be prepared for an increase in the block size limit in November,” Bitpay adds. “The BTC1 version of the Bitcoin software implements the Segwit2x rules that miners have adopted. Since staying on the hashrate majority chain is a priority for us, we are preparing to deploy that software.”

What do you think about Bitpay’s statements concerning Segwit2x and Core software? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bitpay, and Bitcoin.com.

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The price of bitcoin surged today, but it ultimately fell away from all-time highs first set earlier this month.

Gold holds a special place in the global financial system. The precious yellow metal has for centuries remained the backbone of the economy by being an efficient store of value. However, being a physical asset, there are difficulties associated with carrying, storing and even liquidating the asset for cash equal to its actual worth. GoldMint, … Continue reading GoldMint Custody Bot Creates an Interface Between Physical and Tokenized GOLD for the First Time in History

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The concept of drone deliveries is still in the early stages in most locations around the world. That situation is slowly changing in Iceland, as a local company will continually use drones for small deliveries moving forward. Aha has been experimenting with this technology for quite some time and is now the first business to announce it will rely on drone delivery for the foreseeable future.

Iceland Embraces Permanent Drone Delivery Solutions

It is not entirely surprising to see Iceland embrace drone delivery services right now. Quite a few companies around the world are experimenting with a similar concept, but no one had officially committed to this technology just yet until now.

That is not entirely surprising given the lack of clear regulation related to drone delivery services. The situation in Iceland is not clear-cut by any means either, but it does not appear there is any official opposition to companies willing to embrace this technology in the early stages. Now that Aha is making drones a permanent part of its delivery service, it is only a matter of time until we see more companies embrace drone technology. This may lead to more regulatory measures in the future, which is not necessarily beneficial.

It is also worth mentioning that Aha uses drones developed by local company Flytrex to deliver freshly cooked meals to customers. For the time being, the drone delivery service is only available in the Reykjavik region, although it is certainly possible an expansion to other parts of Iceland would be on the agenda as well. Using a traditional delivery service would take at least twenty minutes per shipment, depending on traffic. A drone delivery, on the other hand, cuts down the delivery time to just four minutes tops.

Although the company has no plans to introduce at-home deliveries anytime soon, it will send its drones to central pickup points. At that location, a delivery driver will pick up meals and distribute them accordingly, benefiting from the faster transport time provided by the drones themselves. Not only will this result in speedier deliveries of meals, it could also help reduce overall costs, which is beneficial to both the company and its clients alike. Customers will not pay an additional fee for drone delivery.

Neither Aha nor Flytrex have issued any statement regarding the “limitations” of drone delivery services. Iceland is not necessarily the best place for this technology due to climate change and horrible weather affecting the region more often than not. Then again, there are a fair few drones which can withstand strong winds and even light rain whenever needed. It is unclear how such factors will affect this delivery service in the future, but Aha seemingly does not expect any major problems.

It will be interesting to see if Iceland sets a precedent for the rest of the world when it comes to drone delivery. After all, companies all over the world are experimenting with this technology as we speak, but no one has made any major progress just yet. Most companies focusing on this technology are based in the U.S., where the regulatory climate does not favor drone deliveries unless companies pay for expensive licenses and hope the concept does not get banned altogether. Iceland may be the place to be when it comes to drone delivery moving forward.

The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network is almost a month old and seemingly growing stronger as the days continue. As of August 22, the BCH chain is longer than BTC’s blockchain by 959 blocks, while also capturing the most hashrate that day for a short period of time.

Also read: SEC Suspends Trading of Bitcoin Firm’s Shares After 7000% Price Jump

Miners Continue to Bounce Back and Forth Between Chains Chasing Profitability

The BCH chain continues its voyage as it’s processed 4385 blocks mined since the hard fork on August 1. Currently, there are six known mining pools processing BCH blocks including BTC.top, Viabtc, Pool.Bitcoin.com, F2Pool, Antpool, and BTC.com. There are also three “unknown” miners who capture roughly 19 percent of the BCH network hashrate.

Earlier this week, it became more profitable to mine BTC as the BCH mining difficulty adjusted higher. However, on August 24, the BCH blockchain experienced multiple drops in difficulty and now operates at 10% of the legacy chain’s difficulty.

Hashrate between both chains has had an interesting relationship as BTC and BCH miners have been bouncing back and forth between difficulty adjustments. On August 22, the BCH protocol surpassed the entire BTC hashrate for a short period, and now the legacy chain’s hashpower is only one exahash higher.

Downward Difficulty Drops and New Infrastructure Announcements

At the time of writing, BTC has a hashrate capturing roughly 4.3 exahash per second, while the BCH hashrate is 3.2 exahash. The reason miners have been jumping around chasing profitability, is because of BCH’s median time difficulty drops significantly compared to bitcoin’s difficulty recalculating every 2016 blocks. However, bitcoin’s price has spiked quite a bit, and mining on the BCH chain is only 5 percent more profitable to mine.

BCH supporters have also seen some more infrastructure support for the network, as last week the Blockchain startup announced wallets would have an extraction tool shortly. Further, the social media startup the Yours network revealed they were switching from litecoin to BCH. Additionally, other projects are in the works like a bitcoin cash-based paper wallet generator, and the new Exodus wallet (Eden) announced it would support BCH.

Nchain and Craig Wright Deny Being Involved With Bitcoin Cash

In addition to the BCH chain’s achievements over the past few weeks Nchain’s chief scientist, Craig Wright, recently applauded the efforts set forth by bitcoin cash developers. Moreover Wright and his company Nchain announced they were not behind the BCH project as many assumed the firm might’ve been the “unknown” mining hashrate.

“The incorrect comments include anything suggesting that I am behind the bitcoin cash initiative; I am not,” explains Wright.

However, I applaud the efforts of whoever is behind bitcoin cash to achieve a truly decentralized, peer-to-peer electronic cash with higher, more efficient transaction capacity.

Nchain’s CEO Stefan Matthews also confirmed Wright’s statements by telling the media the company has not backed the bitcoin cash project.

“We agree with its principles to bring sound money to the world with low fees and reliable confirmations, and its desire to spur unrestricted growth, global adoption, and decentralized development. We wish success to bitcoin cash and whoever is responsible for the initiative,” Matthews adds.

What do you think about the bitcoin cash progress so far? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Images via Shutterstock, Fork.lol, and Coin Dance charts. 

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