Day: August 31, 2017

Professional Services Firm EY has launched its “Tesseract” project for autonomous vehicle fleet management.

Viberate is launching its ICO on September 5th with a live event where DJ UMEK will perform. This post’s sponsor, Viberate, felt that it was only appropriate to launch their token, which they hope will revolutionize the live performance industry, with a live performance of their own. The event will be streamed on their Facebook page. This project has gotten a lot of attention, and its team is even surprised by intense level of the general public’s interest.

Something Worth Celebrating

The Viberate team has been working tirelessly to meet certain development and marketing deadlines before the launch of their ICO on the 5th of September. Passion, a working product, and a great work ethic has paid off for the team and community feedback suggests that their ICO will do very well.

The team intends to raise $12 Million in Vibe tokens during their ICO and have chosen this as a cap to keep their roadmap driven. Viberate’s CEO, Matej Gregorčič, expects that they may reach this goal in minutes even after their ICO launches. Recently he said:

“We knew that we’ll stand out, because we already have a working service and a good concept. But we never dreamed of getting so much attention from the community. My phone number seems to be a valuable asset and the whole team keeps getting calls from funds and high net worth individuals we don’t even know. My partner even got a call from a Premier League football player. Crazy!”

While this kind of optimism is expected from CEOs of any company, Gregorčič may not be too far off with his prediction. The platform has many things working in its favor already which may add to the success of the ICO. Firstly, they have a cap on the amount being raised. This protects Vibe tokens from hyperinflation since there will be fewer tokens. More importantly, Viberate is already a working platform. Users can look up musician profile in their mammoth catalog and peruse a recently added but truly daunting list of venues as well.

Launching to Techno

Viberate’s team is no stranger to performance. It is their bread and butter. To celebrate the launch of their ICO, co-founder and world renown DJ UMEK will be performing at a launch party. This performance will be streamed over their Facebook page for everyone to see.

This is what DJ UMEK had to say about the launch:

“Of course we’ll throw a party for when the crowdsale launches! What kind of a music service wouldn’t do that? I prepared a special 90-minute set and I’ll play it in our offices in Ljubljana. We want as many people as possible to celebrate this special event with us, so we’ll stream the set live on Facebook. I hope the neighbors will understand that we might cross a line with loud music for a while. They’re invited anyway.”

They also recently launched this really interesting teaser trailer for their upcoming ICO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR9IidHWT0c

If you are interested in the project, be sure to check out their website: https://www.viberate.com

Information on their ICO can be found here: https://www.viberate.io

Remember to always conduct your own independent research. This is not investment or trading advice.

Several major banks have joined a project that is intended to facilitate the issuance by central banks of currencies using Blockchain

Dubai no longer views Blockchain as simply a fad and will likely be the world’s first in deploying fully functional governmental Blockchain services.

A website for funding initial coin offerings (ICOs) in China has suspended its services amid reports that regulators may impose new curbs.

Cryptocurrency ICOs have hit some growing pains lately, with so many new investors coming on the scene. Investors need safe and secure solutions for storing their ICO tokens for long periods of time. Moving funds to an exchange is never a smart idea, as it does not allow users to fully control their funds. While there are some software solutions available as well, one should never overlook the TREZOR hardware wallet. An update pushed out in May makes it one of the best ways to store ERC20 tokens.

TREZOR Does not get Much Recognition for ERC20 Support

Although TREZOR is not the only hardware wallet solution in the world to support ERC20 tokens, most users tend to forget they have this functionality ready to be used. It is well documented how the Ledger line of hardware wallets is compatible with ERC20 tokens, as long as the user generates an ETH address through the wallet and connects that to an external service such as MyEtherWallet.

However, the TREZOR team introduced a slightly different feature back in May of this year. Full support for all past, current, and future ERC20 tokens was added at that time. Once you generate an Ethereum wallet address with the TREZOR hardware wallet, you can use it to store ERC20 tokens. You can then use the TREZOR to sign transactions related to ERC20 tokens, just like you can with the Ledger. All of this functionality is introduced through downloading software updates, rather than making hardware modifications.

SatoshiLabs – creators of the TREZOR wallet – has upped its game significantly in this department. The firmware released in May fully supports ERC20 tokens and allows users to display their token balances on the wallet’s built-in display. Right now, the Ledger does not offer this type of functionality, even though it does not appear users are actively looking to see that change. Considering how most people using a TREZOR were not even aware of the change, we may see such requests by Ledger users in the near future.

The TREZOR wallet is capable of displaying transaction details, including token type, value, and transaction fee. The system is still hooked into MyEtherWallet just like the Ledger wallet, but it is slightly more visually advanced as far as the hardware wallet’s own display is concerned. It is a pretty nifty feature that so many people seemingly have not heard about, even though it has been available for over three months now.

Even if a particular ERC20 token were not officially supported by TREZOR’s firmware, it can still be stored within the wallet. The same is true in the case of the Ledger wallet, as it supports any token compatible with Ethereum addresses. Users who try to move an ERC20 token through their TREZOR wallet will simply need to sign a message first before seeing any transaction details. Given the vast amount of tokens created and in circulation right now, there is a lot of support to build in.

It is good to see competing hardware wallets using almost identical features to reach the same goal. TREZOR focuses more on displaying relevant information, whereas Ledger is not too bothered with such technical details. Both wallets can be used quite easily with MyEtherWallet. It is good to know there is a slight difference between the two, even though not every ERC20 token holder wants to see their portfolio value on the hardware wallet screen per se. Just know the option is there to use, for those who like this additional information.

Cryptocurrency conferences have always been of keen interest to a lot of people. Not only are they a great place to meet like-minded people, but a conference is also a  valuable source of knowledge. The Dash team acknowledges there is a growing demand for more conferences, especially in regions where cryptocurrency can make large differences. Venezuela is certainly one of those regions, which is why the team will bring a few different free conference in the country in September of 2017.

Venezuela is a key Area for Cryptocurrency

Given the worsening financial situation in Venezuela, it is not entirely surprising to see cryptocurrency getting more popular there. Although it appears there is a growing interest in cryptocurrency across Venezuela, there is still a big gap when it comes to information and conferences. A lot of people would not mind attending a cryptocurrency conference in the country if the attendance fee was not so expensive. Most conferences have day passes worth hundreds of US Dollars, which is a spectacularly high amount for residents in the country.

Finding a solution for this problem is not easy. In fact, a lot of people in the Western world have no interest in cryptocurrency conferences these days because of the high admission prices. Luckily, it seems the Dash team has come up with a solution that will improve this situation in Venezuela moving forward. They plan to host various free conferences in the country throughout September of 2017. The plan is to host a total of 12 conferences throughout the year, all of which will be free of charge to attend. 

All of these conferences are designed to introduce more people to the concept of Dash and cryptocurrency in general. Venezuela knows all too well about Bitcoin and even Ethereum but most other cryptocurrencies remain a  big mystery to the local population. Changing this situation will not be easy, but organizing a few free events will certainly attract a lot of attention. So far, it seems the local community as has taken a liking to this idea. It will be interesting to see how many people will effectively attend these events, though.

Early reports indicate around 200 people have registered to attend the September 19th conference in Caracas. Although a free conference will always attract a lot of attention in Venezuela, the fact very few people know about Dash makes it more difficult to convince them about the merit of this project. It seems other cities throughout the country are more than willing to host their own Dash conferences in the coming months.

While educational efforts like these deserve to be applauded, it remains to be seen how the rest of the cryptocurrency community responds to this development. After all, many people know conferences organized by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the OneCoin Ponzi scheme. Dash is one of the first major altcoins to go and do its own thing. It is a big gamble, especially when considering there is no attendance fee whatsoever. Then again, local representatives are more than happy to organize these things without getting paid for it. If the events can make the Dash value appreciate, they will reap the benefits from it as well.

There is the regulatory uncertainty in Venezuela to take into account. Without any clear regulation in place, cryptocurrency certainly is not prohibited by any means. However, there has been a lot of pushback regarding the mining of cryptocurrencies, which could have some negative repercussions for Dash as well.  Only time will tell how things will play out in Venezuela and potentially other countries in the region. Dash can certainly make an impact. Whether or not it will, remains to be determined.

Despite reports, Moscow Exchange isn’t launching bitcoin trading any time soon, according to a representative.

Russian bank Vnesheconombank is shedding light on its work with ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin, and pledging to retract past statements.

ZeroTraffic is a mobile traffic application to reduce recurrent traffic congestion by using gamification enforced by smart phones to get commuters to travel off peak. Investigations have shown that if you can reduce traffic volume by just 5-10% this dramatically reduces congestion and allows travel speed to approach the speed limit or free flow rate.

ZeroTraffic achieves this by employing gamification techniques that provide incentives for users to use alternative routing schedules.This saves users both time and money and provides a societal good by contributing to the reduction of traffic congestion for the rest.

The main components of ZeroTraffic are the virtual transponder application installed on a smartphone and the gamification website. Together they provide both the means to collect metrics on user compliance by avoiding congestion zones, and the incentive scheme to engage and modify driver traffic patterns.  ZeroTraffic’s incentive system reduces focus on monetary awards by using well established techniques from the gaming industry to influence driver behavior. The net result is an effective tool for driver behaviour modification with very low operational costs.

Road Congestion, a classic tragedy of commons problem, is uniquely solved using an Ether smart contract governance model and a gamification and smartphone framework. As an investor in the ICO, one buys a district where you can advise on the contested regions. You specify the center of a circle of any size greater than 1/2 km radius. The smallest circle costs 1250 ZTT. ZTT is the cryptocoin which is purchased in the ICO.  ZTT are tradeable, and every year you get a district dividend and after 5 years we may offer you a buyback at the market price.  The pre-ICO starts September 5th which grants a 5% bonus of token purchased, with the ICO starting 10 days later on September 15th and will run for one month.

According to Stuart Berkowitz, CEO of ZeroTraffic, and it’s parent company Array System Computing Inc., “The solution to addressing the problem of gridlock and congestion on our highways is not building more tolls or more lanes.  ZeroTraffic’s incentive based solution has been shown to benefit numerous jurisdiction such as Bangalore, Netherlands, Stanford, and Singapore. It’s a proven solution.  Combining this with our experiences in building the COMPASS system, the largest intelligent highway system in Canada, we’re bringing to market a unique product.”

More about ZeroTraffic

Array Systems Computing Inc. (www.array.ca), parent company of ZeroTraffic, has been involved in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) with the founding of the company in 1981. Array is the builder of the COMPASS Software (http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/trip/compass.shtml) , the traffic incident management system used by MTO to manage incidents on all highways in Ontario, Canada – including the Toronto corridor which alone has a volume of over 500,000 vehicles a day!  Array leverages this ITS experience in developing ZeroTraffic.

More information

For more information about ZeroTraffic, including bios on the management visit https://www.zerotraffic.io/.  To learn more about how to participate in the upcoming ICO visit https://www.zerotraffic.io/crowdsale

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.

Ever since the launch of Bitcoin Cash, its future development roadmap has remained unclear. Just increasing the block size to 8MB in itself is not the most innovative feature we have seen in the altcoin world to date. A recent email by developer Amaury Sechet hints at some of the potential upcoming changes. One of those proposals pursues even more transaction capacity through regular hard forks. This is a very interesting stance, considering BCH does not lack transaction throughput.

BCH Roadmap Looks Interesting but Strange

Now that the Bitcoin Cash network has finally started to stabilize, the time has come to look to the future. That also means coming up with a development roadmap for the foreseeable future. Up to this point, there was no real plan of action, as the stability of the network has always been the main priority. Now that we have a basic idea of what the future will hold, things look very different for Bitcoin Cash. That being said, the proposed concepts will raise a lot of questions from the overall community.

Bitcoin ABC main developer Amaury Sechet proposed a rather interesting change. He argues that the BCH network must continue increasing its transaction capacity. The BCH block size limit already sits at 8MB. That means the network can, in theory, process a lot more transactions compared to Bitcoin itself. So far, very few of these network blocks have been over 1MB in size, mainly because there is no demand for more transaction throughput right now.

Sechet proposes that this transaction throughput be pursued aggressively by introducing new hard forks on a regular basis. A hard fork can always lead to a network split if some part of the community does not agree with the proposed Bitcoin Cash changes. Having developers enforce hard fork changes without consensus sets a very dangerous precedent. A split of Bitcoin Cash will probably destroy the altcoin once and for all, which is not something the developers should be looking forward to at this stage.

The biggest problem faced by this network is the mining difficulty adjustment and how it seemingly can be gamed by any mining entity on demand. That in itself is not a problem one can fix all that easily by any means. Another side effect of the Emergency Difficulty Adjustment (EDA) is how it can sometimes take hours until a new network block is discovered. Solving that particular problem first and foremost will help with transaction throughput. There is no reason to mine a hundred blocks in three hours if there are less than 50 transactions per block, to give an arbitrary example.

Bitcoin Cash developers are going over some of the alternative solutions at their disposal for their mining problem. It remains to be seen if any major changes will happen in the near future. The current EDA has faced a lot of scrutiny and continues to create difficulty changes which hardly make sense. With the short-term mining profitability situation well behind us, the time has come to look at things from a long-term perspective. It is not all about maintaining the longest blockchain – as that is the one-trick pony Bitcoin Cash is right now – in the eyes of some experts.

All things considered, it is good to see developers contemplating future developments. Using hard forks to centralize control over the development of Bitcoin Cash will not play out all that well. There will be a lot of discussions taking place regarding these proposals. Hard forks have their place when it comes to software development, but they are never a go-to solution. This is especially true without consensus from the network users.