Day: October 20, 2017

Credit card giant Mastercard has opened access to its blockchain APIs, indicating it wants to focus on business-to-business and cross-border payments.

There is another major development in the world of driverless cars on the horizon. A recent announcement by Intel will not go over well with the general public, though; that much is a foregone conclusion. The company claims to have developed a system which ensures that self-driving vehicles can’t cause accidents. That’s a very bold claim that will need some solid evidence to be backed up. Making autonomous vehicles blameless is not necessarily the right option to pursue right now.

Driverless Cars Can’t be Blameless

Everyone who has ever worked with a computer program or piece of electronics will know there is no such thing as “blameless” in the world of technology. These things are created by humans, and despite some failsafes, it is impossible to guarantee everything will work flawlessly all the time. Especially with the growing focus on autonomous vehicles of all kinds now, a “blameless” solution seems further away than ever before.

If it is left up to Intel, however, that will no longer be the case. According to the company, its engineers have developed a system which prevents autonomous vehicles from causing accidents in which they are at fault. This only further confirms that driverless vehicles are more than capable of causing accidents in the first place, which has always been a major concern for most consumers and regulators. It is difficult to solve this problem right away, for obvious reasons.

Under the hood, Intel’s new solution combines a set of standards based upon mathematical formulas. These standards are designed to govern the behavior of driverless cars in the future. It seems this technology will also be usable with trucks, which sounds pretty promising. However, there are always two sides to any medallion. In Intel’s case, its new system would effectively shift the blame from the self-driving car to anyone else involved in the accident.

There is no question that we will see accidents involving autonomous vehicles sooner or later. The only question is when it will happen and how many people will be injured or killed as a result. Any issue caused by machines designed for mass production will be scrutinized by the general public. There is a dire need for solutions to prevent such accidents from happening in the first place, although that is much easier said than done.

While it is true that several companies are working on similar solutions, Intel is the first to claim to have a solid solution. It is evident autonomous vehicles will never become the new normal without a set of new standards capable of preventing the majority of accidents from happening. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever see car accidents in the driverless future, though, as all formulas are based on human knowledge. Sadly, our creations are never 100% safe, secure, or flawless.

Moreover, there is the question of whether or not the car industry will embrace Intel’s standards. Even then, all suppliers and manufacturers would need to integrate them into their creations. With the race to bring driverless cars to market heating up, it is unlikely the first generation of vehicles will benefit from this new development. Computers and software are brilliant creations, but they are still prone to error and mishaps.

It’s obvious that cryptocurrency investing is often intimidating and complex for newcomers to the space. This complexity has been one of the largest factors limiting the speed of mass adoption. Without user-friendly tools, even if new investors and traders are sure of what they want to purchase, they may often be unsure of how best to manage and analyze their assets. This is what makes the projects being led by Rublix some of the most promising currently underway, and has the potential to change how users interact with their investments.

At present, most small traders and investors have just a handful of desktop and mobile tools at their disposal. Rublix is developing not just a series of tools, but an integrated, cross-platform suite, making it easier for non-technical investors to use sophisticated data analytics.

By creating an integrated suite of tools that can work in tandem, Rublix will enable these smaller investors to “trade the way the pros do,” leveling the playing field. The current road map is quite extensive and outlines the development of three main products, as well as a proprietary blockchain which will be used to manage the entire enterprise. This new blockchain doesn’t currently exist, so their upcoming ICO will be conducted on the ethereum blockchain. The team then plans to transition to their own proprietary blockchain, potentially via a token swap. Clearly, the team is looking to the future and as laid out a realistic road map with potentially broad-ranging effects on the industry.

The first tool in the Rublix toolkit will be the Hedge Platform, which is the primary heads-up-display portfolio management tool that users will be able to access. It will allow traders to get a quick overview of their investments, as well as integrate social aspects and analytics. One of the most interesting features of this tool is the “trading blueprints” function which will lets investors copy successful traders. This tool has a built in feature to pass along rewards for successful traders with a high-quality track record who share useful trading blueprints. According to Rublix, these rewards will be distributed automatically via smart contract, which is one of the reasons for their development of a proprietary blockchain. The Hedge Platform is currently in the initial development stage, with the alpha release slated for the first quarter of 2018 and a general release of version 1 the following year.

Having covered the bases on a portfolio management tool, Rublix then plans to move on to developing an integrated trading platform; TradersEdge. The api-based exchange platform will offer in-depth analysis tools including interactive charting mechanisms, enhanced indicators and a variety of other features. The development team have focused on efficiency, and judging from the available screenshots, they’ve done a good job of creating an attractive user interface.

The final piece of Rublix’s integrated product line up detailed in the roadmap is Centurion, a proprietary wallet. Although still only in its alpha phase, the wallet contains features which make it a departure from the average cryptocurrency wallet offering. The entire user experience has already been redesigned for cross-platform functionality for both miners and coin holders. Some of the integrated features include real-time conversion of RBLX tokens to any currency, creating liquidity and ease-of-use for participants in the platform.  This can get new users into mining, who might not have otherwise considered dedicating their resources.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

AI visionary Ben Goertzel shares with CT his vision of the future of AI, and offers some insights on how to guide an “artificial general intelligence” toward good, rather than evil.

We have seen the arrests of multiple cryptocurrency exchange operators over the past few years. In particular, people who run such businesses without the proper licenses find themselves in a world of trouble sooner or later. In Japan, the police have arrested one individual who allegedly ran a Ripple-related exchange business. He scammed at least one investor out of a deposit, which made him a person of interest to the police.

Former XPR Exchange Operator Gets Arrested

This entire story is worth taking note of, especially when considering that the same individual defrauded at least a dozen investors across different schemes. Yuki Takenaka operated a company which seemingly specialized in the exchange of XRP, which is Ripple’s native digital asset. Most readers know that Japan has taken a particular liking to XRP and Ripple, mainly due to the parent company’s relationship with Japanese banks.

The 31-year-old Takenaka is suspected of having stolen at least one deposit in the amount of US$12,500. This may not seem like much, but Japan doesn’t take kindly to nefarious exchange operations of any kind. With cryptocurrency having attained legal status earlier this year, there has been increased scrutiny of such operations in the country. That is a good thing, mind you, as it helps deter any association between cryptocurrency and illegal activity.

Interestingly enough, this “scam” dates back to March of 2015. According to the Japan Times, Takenaka collected the money during a time at which his company was failing and couldn’t issue any refunds whatsoever. So far, he has admitted to most of these charges, which further hints the police did the right thing in arresting him. Takenaka confirmed his XRP exchange was set up back in May of 2014, although things quickly went from bad to worse for his company.

Indeed, it did not take long before most users could not withdraw cash or other currency from the platform. To top it all off, the unnamed exchange platform issued IOUs which allowed Takenaka to collect even more money from users and investors. Users should have been able to exchange these IOU notes for either cash or XRP, but that did not happen either. In the end, it is believed Takenaka conned over a dozen users out of nearly US$88,000. This may not be the biggest scam in the history of cryptocurrency, but it’s not one that should be overlooked either.

The IOUs issued by this exchange only tell one part of the story, though. The police are investigating another IOU issued by Takenaka worth about twelve times as much, although few details are known about that business venture for the time being. It is evident there have been a few different attempts at defrauding investors by this specific individual, although the full amount of the damages remains unknown at the present time.

For the time being, it remains unclear how much jail time Takenaka will face due to his illegal conduct. It is evident there is still a lot of investigative work to be done in this regard, and more information should come to light in the next few weeks and months. No one can deny that cryptocurrency attracts a lot of scammers and con artists. Slowly but surely, these individuals need to be weeded out, although that is much easier said than done.

Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is developing sharia-compliant products based on blockchain technology.

There are so many blockchain projects out there, one is almost at a loss when trying to keep tabs on everything. That in itself is no real surprise, as information about most of these initiatives is incredibly difficult to come by. Bank of Canada, one of the more transparent entities in this regard, has announced it will commence the third phase of Project Jasper very soon.

Project Jasper Matters to Bank of Canada and TMX

It has to be said, Project Jasper is one of the more intriguing finance-oriented blockchain ventures in the world right now. It is a collaborative effort between the Bank of Canada, the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange, and Payments Canada. All three entities want to start settling securities on the blockchain sooner rather than later. A project of such magnitude requires scores of research and testing, to say the very least.

Two test stages have already been completed, according to a recent Reuters report on the matter. This shows a lot of work has been done behind the scenes to not only build a blockchain-based solution, but also develop protocols and software needed to settle securities. One of the big downsides to distributed ledger technology is how it doesn’t work all that well with existing legacy systems. This fact often forces developers and engineers to write completely new code from scratch.

In the case of Project Jasper, things are progressing smoothly by the looks of things. All three organizations are working on an experimental integrated securities and payment settlement platform. With the third phase of this project almost upon us, it is nearly time to see if multiple assets can be settled on a single ledger. In theory, this shouldn’t be much of a problem, yet the reality is that it has been very difficult in most cases. Even in the cryptocurrency world, it is impossible to settle different currencies on the same ledger without the use of some experimental technology.

There are many advantages to a blockchain-based settlement system. First of all, it reduces the cost of securities transactions in general, which is a major selling point. Secondly, it improves financial resiliency, especially during stressful periods. Faster settlement times and a reduction of risk to a bare minimum are two big reasons to at least explore the use of blockchain technology for this specific purpose.

That being said, everyone can see Project Jasper will still need a lot of work moving forward. After all, the foundation has been laid, but most of the difficulties will arise when this solution is put through its paces. For now, it is unclear when the third phase of Project Jasper will occur exactly, or how long it will last. It is of the utmost importance that this venture succeeds; that much no one can deny.

Whether or not Project Jasper will turn out to be a major success remains to be determined. It is evident things are going quite well, but the most difficult test has yet to occur. If the project can’t settle multiple assets on the same ledger, it remains doubtful these three entities would continue with the research. Then again, they have come very far already, and there is no point in letting it all go to waste either. We should know more about Project Jasper’s third phase in the coming weeks and months.

For many years Forex market has been evolving uncontrollably. It came to be obscure and lacking common standards, the traders in the most of countries being devoid of any protection. Serenity Financial is revolutionizing Forex by creating a new technological medium in which broker-trader relations are built on the principles of openness and security.

What Serenity Financial is about

Serenity Financial is a secure and transparent marketplace for traders and brokers to meet. Some are providing a service, others are buying it. The platform itself acts as an intermediary which uses blockchain technology to regulate those dealings and provide a convenient, secure venue for purchases and sales.

Why is the project relevant?

Trading volumes of today’s Forex market reach billions of dollars. Thousands of brokers serve as intermediaries for millions of traders around the globe, but nine out of ten brokers are unregulated. The market is practically on its own — no standards, no transparency or guarantees. Even choosing a broker is a huge gamble for a trader.

How Serenity Financial Works

1. Trader registers with Serenity.
2. Trader connects to any certified broker from the pool.
3. Trader purchases tokens and transfers them to the broker that then provides the trader with an equivalent amount in the account currency.
4. Trader starts placing trades while their funds remain on Serenity accounts and all trades and transactions are recorded in blockchain.
5. When the trader closes a trade, they can submit a claim to our arbitration committee if they suspect any interference from the broker.
6. The arbitration committee will review the trading terminal data and thus have a complete picture of what happened as all the trades are recorded in blockchain.
7. If the broker is in the wrong, Serenity obliges them to reimburse the client. If the broker is in the right, proof of that is presented to the trader.

Everything is fair and 100% transparent.

We will begin by integrating Serenity platform with MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, the largest trading platforms, and then with other trading platforms.

We’re backed by the best

The project has already gained backing from major brokers and fintech companies which are ready to act both as partners and marketplace participants. Nine companies already have applied for participation. Six industry experts, Alexey Kutsenko (CEO T4Brokers), Dmitry Rannev (founder of AMTS Solutions), Nikolai Ermakov (managing partner of the cryptocurrency fund Nakamoto Capital, co-founder of the project Coin Place), Dmitry Orlov (founder and developer of PAMM\RAMM technologies), Julia Mikhalchuk (Cryptocurrency attorney, CorpLaw.Pro), Andrey Moskvitch (Patent attorney & consultant for IP due diligence, tech transfer, Internet law, ICO, blockchain and legal structuring) have supported the idea of the project and acted as its advisers.

Who works on the project

The team behind Serenity Financial has already launched successful projects: Grand Capital Forex broker with monthly turnover of $4,7M and a brokerage software provider UpTrader whose clients include brokerages from Indonesia and China to Australia and Cyprus.

Why Serenity will reinvent the Forex industry?

We are creating an environment where all participants feel completely protected. Security for traders will be based on blockchain technology. Brokers will get liquidity easily and on favorable terms, as well as guarantee transparency for traders and thus attract additional funds.

Change the world of Forex with us. Join the project!

Pre-ICO starts on November 15th and will last only 5 days. Don’t miss your chance to enter the world of honest Forex on favorable terms.

Project site: https://serenity-financial.io

Telegram channel: https://t.me/SerenityFinancial

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/SerenityFinancial

Mail: [email protected]

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

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