Day: September 3, 2017

Buying stock is fairly simple. You need to open a brokerage account, and the rest is as easy as clicking a few buttons. In fact, stock investments have become increasingly mainstream, as banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America have opened their own simplified brokerage services for customers. The online brokerage system has also … Continue reading ATLANT Is Making Property Ownership as Easy as Buying Stock

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StuffGoGo: The only peer-to-peer mobile marketplace with decentralized risk scoring. The start of the second stage of the token sale will take place on September 2nd, 6AM UTC. The crowdsale of the innovative technological Ethereum based token will last 7 days and will offer following bonuses to participants: – Up to 50% extra volume bonus. 1-5 … Continue reading Final Stage of StuffGoGo Token Sale Starts

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With the coming work revolution wherein many low skill and repetitive jobs will be replaced by machines or software, we need to start thinking about how to address the coming crisis. Massive unemployment would spell disaster for the United States and other economies worldwide. One potential solution is known as Universal Basic Income. The concept recently became even more attractive after a new study shined a favorable light upon it.

The United States Economy Could Grow By Providing Universal Income

The idea of universal basic income is pretty simple. Every adult in the United States would be provided with a stipend regardless of employment status or socioeconomic status. In theory, it could help combat poverty and offset job losses due to technology.

However, universal basic income may also add to the economy as well. A study released by the Roosevelt Institute suggests that providing each adult in the United States with a monthly stipend of US$1000 would actually grow the economy by a whopping $2.5 trillion by the year 2025. What is even wilder is that the study suggests that the larger the basic income per individual, the larger positive impact it would have on the nation’s overall economy.

While this may sound a bit counter-intuitive at first, it makes some sense after thinking about it. If more people are further from poverty, the more goods and services they can buy. This means that tax revenue from things like sales and property tax will increase. Thus, the government receives more tax revenue, and individuals are able to increase their quality of life.

Universal basic income would likely be paid for by some sort of business or robot tax as more jobs fall victim to automation. Essentially, businesses would need to pay a premium for using automated work, but still see that premium cost less than hiring workers. That tax would help fund the basic income plan.

Always Do Your Research to Inform Your Opinions

While the Roosevelt Institute piece felt like a great big win for advocates of universal basic income, it is important to keep in mind that the Institute is left-leaning, and its findings could be subject to bias. Indeed, any studies like these should be taken with a healthy degree of skepticism. However, the research and analysis strikes me as very well done and highly empirical. It is definitely worth reading, regardless of where you stand on the universal income debate.

To me, it seems obvious that we will need to do something to address the coming technology-induced employment crisis. Indeed, we are already seeing it starting. Massive spouts of unemployment are bad news for any country, but having a proper contingency plan may mitigate their effects. I think that universal income akin to what this new study analyzed may be an eloquent answer to a very real, impending problem.

Social media is abuzz with talk of a new project called WaltonChain. Until 24 hours ago, it appeared very few people even knew this project existed. It appears WaltonChain aims to capitalize on the Value Internet of Things business model. This also means there needs to be a way to bring blockchain technology to IoT. WaltonChain is the obvious result, and its development roadmap between now and 2020 is impressive.

An Overview of the WaltonChain Initiative

For a project that has been around since November of 2016, WaltonChain has not made any big fuss by the look of things. That is surprising, considering its business model could be quite successful if executed properly. Bridging the gap between blockchain technology and the Internet of Things can effectively create a new business ecosystem. It also shows how distributed ledger technology can be used for other purposes than financial products, record keeping, and providing proof of authenticity.

WaltonChain aims to create a “genuine, believable, traceable business model with totally shared data and transparent information.” That is an ambitious goal, but one that is not unattainable. Whether or not we need a separate blockchain for this specific purpose will always be subject to substantial debate. Rather than building something new from scratch, one could utilize existing solutions to serve that purpose. 

On the WaltonChain roadmap, we see some pretty interesting developments. The genesis block of this chain will be created in October of this year, at which time ownership of Walton coins will be determined. The project held its ICO back in July, which could explain why there is so much interest in the project suddenly. Most of the big developments will be taking place over the coming 24-30 months, though. A lot of promise exists, but delivering on expectations is something else entirely.

Other reasons for this sudden excitement regarding WaltonChain range from a project member attending a BRICS meeting to the whitepaper having been released in English. There was also a recent Forbes article which highlighted some of the key points of this and similar projects. Though monetizing the Internet of Things will not be an easy task, the WaltonChain team feels they can do so without major issues. Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding this project and how it will be tackled, but we will find out more over the coming months.

The team behind WaltonChain appears to be solid, but that is never a guarantee for a successful project. Its chief scientist allegedly holds 30 patents related to chip and semiconductor technology. He also wrote around 160 recognized papers on these subjects, which is quite an achievement. Then again, the best ideas can be derailed by poor execution, and thus we will have to wait and see how WaltonChain performs. It does appear the local government is in support of the concept as well.

WaltonChain is an interesting project, but it is still too early to tell whether or not its goal can be achieved. The Value Internet of Things is a vast initiative, which will take years – if not decades – to fully unlock in the future. There will be a fair bit of competition as well. WaltonChain is not the only player in this regard, and the initial hype may have something to do with the ICO and upcoming token distribution more than anything else. No one may be talking about this project a year from now, for all we know.

A lot of people are willing to explore the concept of larger Bitcoin blocks. Now that Bitcoin Cash has somewhat proven this to be a viable strategy, there is no reason not to take things to a new level. The BUIP 065, also known as Gigablock Testnet Initiative, is quite remarkable. The goal is to create a global test network for bottleneck analysis under high levels of stress. Even with 8MB blocks in place, it is certainly possible there could be some technical issues in the future.

The Gigablock Testnet Initiative Is Pretty Intriguing

With a name such as this one, it is evident the people running this initiative should not be underestimated. The Bitcoin network is still somewhat plagued by record-high fees and unreliable confirmation times. Even with Segregated Witness activating on the Bitcoin network, it remains to be seen how well congestion can be handled in the coming months and years. The same applies to Bitcoin Cash, though, as a few recent difficulty adjustments caused blocks to be delayed by hours.

An increase in the network block size limit has shown network fees can effectively be reduced. Bitcoin Cash has showed that lower fees are perfectly acceptable, though reliable confirmation times are not necessarily always there. As it turns out, odd block times can skew up the confirmation time. In most cases, they range anywhere from 10 minutes to 4 hours, depending on the current network situation.

Establishing a global test network to stress test properly is direly needed. This is why the Gigablock Testnet Initiative is of such importance to all Bitcoin users. It will allow bottlenecks to be identified and figures out fixes to alleviate these concerns moving forward. None of the current Bitcoin or BCH testnets are capable of being stress tested in such a way due to built-in restrictions and a lack of dedicated hardware.

This particular project has a few main objectives. The first is setting up the global test network, which should be able to support blocks up to 1 GB in size. It is hardly a given that the Bitcoin network would ever require 1 GB blocks to accommodate transactions, but if it is to rival credit cards it may need to. The Gigablock Testnet Initiative aims to mimic sustained Visa-level throughput of up to 3,000 transactions per second.

Depending on how these experiments pan out, the team can then identify potential bottlenecks and hopefully come up with proper solutions to fix them. On-chain scaling experiments will occur on a regular basis by the looks of things. All of the findings will be presented to the rest of the Bitcoin community accordingly. For now, the plan is to run this initiative for at least five years, although the project could be powered down at any moment if needed. If that were to occur, the project would actually run for another three months thanks to available funding.

The Gigablock Testnet Initiative is a collaboration between Bitcoin developers, nChain, and researchers at the University of British Columbia. Although it was originally designed to be a Bitcoin Unlimited team, it seems evident the team will partner with Bitcoin Cash supporters moving forward. Many people assume Bitcoin Unlimited has been “absorbed” by Bitcoin Cash, although it is certainly possible the former project is still ongoing.

It is always good to see more retailers accepting Bitcoin payments. Unfortunately, the process has traditionally been quite difficult, as many businesses still think of Bitcoin as being too volatile. Given the recent Bitcoin price swings, their hesitation is certainly understandable. One Lamborghini retailer near Newport Beach, California is now accepting Bitcoin payments through BitPay. Although this is not an indication of the entire company supporting cryptocurrency, it is still an intriguing development.

Bitcoin Brings the Lambos to the Yard

When people make bank, they often joke that they will buy a Lamborghini with their profits (at least that is the running joke among many Bitcoin investors). When altcoins or bitcoin spike in price, they will net Lambos as a result. Even though it is a bit of an inside joke in the world of cryptocurrency, one car dealer is making it a reality.

We're proud to accept #Bitcoin (via Bitpay) for vehicle purchases. For more information: 888-564-5020 / [email protected]. #CryptoCurrency #BitPay #LamboNB #LamborghiniNewportBeach

A post shared by Lamborghini Newport Beach (@lambonewportbeach) on Aug 31, 2017 at 5:18pm PDT

According to this image, Lamborghini Newport Beach is now accepting Bitcoin payments for all car sales. That is a significant development, but it could certainly be misinterpreted by the Bitcoin community. Just because one car dealer accepts Bitcoin does not mean the Lamborghini corporation itself is interested in cryptocurrencies. In fact, it is more realistic to think they are still pretty risk-averse when it comes to disruptive payment methods such as Bitcoin.

We also know this Newport Beach-based dealer accepts Bitcoin payments through BitPay. Considering how there is some backlash from the community against BitPay right now, this news is quite positive for the latter company as a whole. It also shows this Lamborghini representative has no intention of keeping money in Bitcoin unless absolutely necessary. Adding a payment method like this one is nice, but the money will still be converted to U.S. dollars.

On Reddit, there are some very bold claims circulating right now. Some people see this as “Lamborghini accepting Bitcoin,” which is anything but the case. Indeed, excitement often clouds people’s judgment. This is just one car dealership embracing Bitcoin payments which are immediately converted to U.S. dollars to protect against volatility. It is a Lamborghini dealership, sure, but neither the manufacturer nor any other outlets are dealing with Bitcoin just yet.

All things considered, this shows that car dealerships are not necessarily afraid to embrace Bitcoin. Independent sellers will have an easier time making that decision, for obvious reasons. A Lamborghini is not the only car one can buy with Bitcoin either, as the same principle applies to the Tesla models. 

Convincing more merchants to accept Bitcoin payments is still a struggle. Even though the early adopters of this cryptocurrency are getting richer by the month – assuming they have not sold – most retailers still will not touch cryptocurrency with a ten-foot pole. We can only hope this situation improves sooner or later, as there is no reason not to accept Bitcoin payments – even if that means using Bitpay or similar services to convert to one’s local currency right away.

Cybercriminals have not given up on the idea of distributing Locky ransomware. Although most of the distribution methods in place today are being used by virtually everyone, there is a new solution being utilized by a few criminals. They now distribute the Locky ransomware payload through a modified Microsoft Word file, which will only be triggered once the document is closed. This is a new spin on the traditional “Word macro” distribution method we have seen used so often in recent years.

A New Way to Distribute Locky Ransomware

The Microsoft Word software suite allows criminals to execute many things that should not be theoretically possible. Installing malware by forcing users to enable specific macros to view content in a document and distributing the malicious payload that way seems to work just fine. However, since almost every ransomware distributor is using this method, the average consumer is slowly becoming aware of this problem and the threat it poses.

The latest Locky ransomware distribution campaign still relies on Microsoft Word documents. That in itself will not change anytime soon, as criminals have come up with a new way to successfully exploit a few other options at their disposal. The newest method uses Word documents laden with Locky malware which will only trigger the payload download and execution once the documents are closed. This is a pretty unique way to deliver a payload since it is not something that has been explored up to this point.

Similar to the previous distribution method, this Microsoft Word campaign still relies on macros. It seems these macros are of particular concern to Microsoft, as the criminals have found a way to make them useful to execute code when a document closes. It still relies on executing a macro within Word itself, and the user still needs to enable macros in order for it to succeed. However, it has nothing to do with displaying content per se, as the document itself displays information.

This also makes a major difference for any security software that may be installed on the victim’s computer. Since most software now blocks malicious macros in Word documents when it comes to displaying content, an on-close Macro is the new go-to solution. A lot of sandboxed environments allow Word macros by default. Now that these new types of documents appear to be completely harmless, they can still infect computers by flying under the radar.

This new Microsoft Word campaign is not the only Locky distribution method to keep an eye on. Another researcher has discovered that there is a fake Dropbox email phishing method being employed right now. Once a user clicks on the link in an email, he or she is redirected to a spoofed website which will install the Locky payload on the target computer. Criminals will continue distributing Locky for quite some time to come; that much is obvious.

With so many “affiliates” distributing one of the more destructive types of malware, the future is looking pretty bleak. It seems as if the war against ransomware is not evolving in favor of the potential victims. Criminals remain at least two steps ahead of security researchers in this ongoing cat-and-mouse game. Locky has been one of the top ransomware types for quite some time and it will not necessarily go away overnight. With this new Microsoft Word macro trick, things will only get more confusing and dangerous for computer users.

One bullish bitcoin investor believes this weekend’s cryptocurrency market decline means conditions are ripe for buyers.