Day: August 29, 2017

Cointelegraph’s latest events series, BlockShow MeetUps, launches Sept. 8 in Singapore to bring Blockchain networking to Asia.

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Barcelona and Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez has caught the ICO bug as he follows Floyd Mayweather’s with prediction market Stox.

About an hour ago, it appeared as if we would not see any major Bitcoin price action later today. Right now, the price is surging upward toward the $4,500 target once again. Another currency making a lot of waves right now is Ripple, or to be more specific, their native XRP currency. With a 13.58% gain over the past 24 hours, things are looking quite good for this digital asset. It is still not a cryptocurrency by any means, though.

XRP Price Shows Some Positive Momentum

The year 2017 has been pretty impressive as far as XRP is concerned, even though the current value may not reflect the momentum entirely. More specifically, at its peak one XRP was worth nearly $0.40, with the price currently hovering around the $0.22 mark. Considering how one XRP was worth far less than that a few months ago, no one can deny the digital asset has seen its fair share of momentum over the past eight months.

That being said, the current XRP price reflects a 13.58% gain over the past 24 hours. Most day traders are having a lot of fun as far as XRP is concerned these days. More specifically, the value of Ripple’s native asset fluctuates so much, can repeated buy low, sell high, and repeat. Although the gains are not necessarily all that lucrative, a lot of smaller profits still add up to major gains over time. Flipping XRP across exchanges can easily result in 10-50% portfolio growth every single day, assuming it is done right.

That doesn’t mean the market is dominated by speculators entirely, but it certainly appears to be. Someone is actively pushing up the XRP price on a regular basis and bringing it back down accordingly. This pump-and-dump mechanism also ensures the XRP price in US Dollars remains virtually the same, but fluctuates heavily against the Bitcoin value. With the Bitcoin price going up right now, XRP may very well drop to 3,500 Satoshi in the next few hours.

Considering how Korean exchanges are effectively dominating the trading volume – together with Poloniex’s XRP/BTC market – it is not hard to see why the prices go up and down so much. Just this past week, XRP has been valued of $0.19, $0.28, $0.212 and now $0.224 respectively. This wild gains and losses are not by accident, mind you, as it is clear someone would like nothing more than to shake out weaker investors and take their money accordingly.  Buying 4BTC worth of XMR at $0.19 and selling them at $0.28 results in a nice gain, especially when considering that price difference was established within 24 hours.

All of this doesn’t mean Ripple hasn’t gotten positive momentum on the technological front, though. There have been various developments throughout 2017 which indicate XRP is only just getting started, even though no one knows for sure what the future may hold in this regard. Right now, it seems an XRP price of $0.25 is well within reach, but it could equally drop to $0.17 for all we know.

In the end, XRP is not a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin or Ethereum. However, it is victim to the same market trends as cryptocurrencies and the manipulation that goes along with it. There is good money to be made with XRP regardless of how you may feel about the asset and its project. Speculating on prices is always a risky endeavor, though, and Ripple is often one of the most volatile assets the world has seen. Especially now with his Bitcoin price going up, things are more dangerous than ever before.

The price of bitcoin is now trading at its highest level ever, according to data from the Bitcoin Price Index.

Health is the most fundamental factor in a happy and fulfilling life yet the future of people’s healthcare is being challenged by inaccessibility and increasing costs. Expected to grow to $18 trillion, innovation in health technology is continuously accelerating, compounding the issue of accessibility for those who are unable to afford it.

Data-driven health monitoring and personalized solutions provide a roadmap for the future of the healthcare industry. Significant innovation is taking place in the improved management of health data, diagnostics and dispensing of health supplements and medication, allowing people to benefit from control and ownership of their own personal medical information.

New companies are creating systems to directly benefit people with this ownership of their personal medical information, at the same time ensuring access to healthcare is provided in a more democratic manner. One of these new companies is Bowhead Health, which is developing a medical device supported by cryptography that allows people to monitor and respond to their health data from the comfort of their own home. Named after the world’s longest living mammal, the company aims to positively impact human longevity.

Health data is arguably the most valuable information resource stored on the planet. It is sought after by research institutions and vital in the development of medical technology, yet in general, patients are not compensated for their own contributions to it nor are they guaranteed security from this highly personal information being shared with third parties. Bowhead Health is addressing these shortcomings by developing a health platform that compensates individuals who provide anonymized health data to the Bowhead blockchain. Individuals receive 70% of the funds paid by research institutions in exchange for health data, with Bowhead token holders receiving the remaining 30% of the funds.

“Not only is the application of this platform valuable for the developed world in people’s homes and offices but we also see it being used in a kiosk format for an entire rural community in the developing world where medical care is not readily available,” added Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma.

Based in Canada, Bowhead Health has an ambitious plan that aims to:

• Create a patient multi-sig wallet where individuals are in full control of their health data from what is being shared to with whom the sharing occurs
• Develop a connected hardware device for the home or office that can:

    o Test for levels of vitamins and hormones and diagnose malaria and tuberculosis
    o Dispense in real-time personalized selections and dosages of nutritional supplements and medicine

“We are thrilled to be operating at the intersection of cryptography, biochemistry, hardware and software to bring our Bowhead vision to life,” says Dr. Mehta.

The startup intends to launch in two phases, with home test kits being shipped to a lab by fall 2017 and realtime diagnostic and dispenser devices by winter 2018.

Bowhead Health is the first of its kind in using a medical device paired to a blockchain but it is not the only company finding cryptography technology useful for the health industry. Other startups such as pokitdok and patientory are also exploring the use of blockchain to facilitate the sharing and security of health records. Patientory raised $9M in an ICO last month and Pokitdok has raised over $30M since its founding 2 years ago.

The company was co-founded 18 months ago by Dr. Rhea Mehta, Dr. Francisco Diaz-Mitoma, and his son, Francisco Diaz-Mitoma Jr. Combining forces with robotics engineer Saúl Ibaven Bueno, the team is led by frontrunners in their respective industries, with the credentials and experience to bring Bowhead Health from concept through to a revolutionary medical device.
Besides its impressive leadership team, the company has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Grupo Arcoiris, a design and manufacturing firm with over 600 employees, that counts Bayer, Sanofi Pasteur, Merck, Pfizer among its clients.

“Bowhead Health is at the bleeding edge of science and we are proud to join forces to accomplish a technical feat,” says David Bueno, Chief Operating Officer at Grupo Arcoiris.

Funds from the Bowhead token sale will be used to fund research, development, and manufacturing of the medical device and Bowhead platform. As the Bowhead community grows, the influx of customer data will greatly improve the user recommendation algorithm, benefiting customers with more targeted nutritional supplements and medicine.

Graph explaining data distribution and machine learning. Graph by Bowhead Health

Learn more about Bowhead Health www.bowheadhealth.com
Become a token holder [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of any Merkle employees. This is not investment or trading advice; always do your own independent research.

A new tool showcases how the future of cryptocurrency trading might look with the introduction of cross-blockchain atomic swaps.

Universa, a blockchain cryptoprotocol of the new generation, which is much faster and cheaper compared to Ethereum and Bitcoin, will open its pre-ICO on August 28, 2017. The inspiration behind the project is Alexander Borodich, a technology investor, the founder and managing partner of VentureClub, the former head of marketing at Mail.ru group, Russia’s largest … Continue reading Five Advantages of Universa Blockchain over Bitcoin and Ethereum

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Market cap and trading records have come to cryptocurrency this week amid a surge in investments versus traditional assets.

Drone technology can be used in many different ways. In fact, a lot of scientific research teams are working with this technology to conduct various environmental experiments. One of those experiments utilizes drones to monitor and detect shark activity across Australia’s shores. It has the potential to save lives in the long run. Australia’s coasts are notorious for their shark activity, and drones can make a big difference.

Shark-detecting Drones

Drones can serve many different purposes. Although mainstream companies mainly explore this concept for competitive racing and delivery services, scientists are taking an entirely different approach. In Australia, a team of scientists is looking to incorporate drones as a way to monitor shark activity near the nation’s coastlines. They want to enhance beach safety as a whole, which has become somewhat threatened over the past few years.

The Australian government has noted how there has been an increase in shark attacks over the past few years. Addressing this problem is not all that easy, as there is no proper detection system yet in place. That is where drones come in, since they can effectively patrol the shores for sharks. The current plan is to begin a trial as early as next month, although it remains to be seen how long the experiment will run.

These dedicated drones – known as Little Rippers – have been successfully trialed since 2016. The government has had big plans for such a project for some time now, yet officials first wanted to ensure the technology was capable of meeting their demands. After all, monitoring for shark activity is not something drones are equipped for by default. Aerial shark detection will certainly have its benefits in the years to come, yet it did require the team to improve their overall accuracy first.

The human eye is only 20% to 30% accurate when it comes to identifying sharks from the air. However, drone technology introduces some improvements. It took this team of scientists some time, but their drones can now successfully identify sharks with 90 percent accuracy, which is rather impressive. The system is trained in such a way that it can identify sharks using publicly available aerial photos and video footage.

Once a shark is detected, drones will alert swimmers using a built-in megaphone. They can even deploy a life raft and an emergency beacon if needed. This goes to show the Little Rippers are more than capable of handling themselves in this regard, although only a real-life deployment will tell if this technology is both viable and successful. It also appears the drone manufacturer is working on a shark repellent solution for use in the future, although specifics are hard to come by as of right now.

Australia has to find a technological solution to this shark problem; that much is certain. Earlier this year, the government introduced protective nets to protect swimmers from sharks after multiple attacks took place. However, the usefulness of underwater nets has yet to be determined, and they may end up harming aquatic life in the end.  Shark seeking drones are an interesting concept, as well as one definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Cryptocurrency users have seen their fair share of phishing scams over the years. In most cases, those scams involve fake exchange or wallet websites. Users are often contacted through an email campaign, which is often somewhat successful. This is a big problem that needs to be addressed. Things only get worse when the top Google … Continue reading New Bittrex Phishing Scam Website Tops the Google Search Results

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While the Indian government continues to advance initiatives to study the regulatory environment for Blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the awareness and use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency continues to grow within the Asian country.