Day: November 17, 2017

More than twenty banks have agreed to partner together with the new Blockchain based digital funds and documents system between Hong Kong and Singapore, according to officials.

Wearable electronics have been hailed as the future of personal technology. Many have tried, but often these devices end up being bulky, heavy, or potentially dangerous. However, there may be a breakthrough yet. Researchers at the University of Cambridge may have pushed the industry in the right direction with their latest creation.

Printing Fully Integrated circuits onto fabric

Being able to wear circuits will change the way we live, the way we interact with one another, and the way we see the world. It could dramatically change the nature of what we expect from our clothing. No longer will they just be style statements, garments to cover our bodies, or tools to help us stay warm; no, now we’ll expect them to help us find Wi-Fi, to listen to our music… who knows, maybe even to help us transact with one another in Bitcoin.

The University of Cambridge, in concert with its partners in Italy and China, has created a fabric with graphene circuits which can be washed, worn, and stretched. Wearers experience these so-called smart clothes as regular, breathable clothing. The researchers utilized typical inkjet technology to print these circuits onto cloth. Graphene is a two-dimensional carbon structure that is durable and can conduct. The fact that they are using standard printing technology is amazing to me. This means that we could potentially start turning all of our currently-dumb clothes smart. I love backwards compatible technology!

We are still in the very early stages of this technology. While washable, these circuits can typically only survive about twenty washes. This is less than ideal, obviously. Clearly, there is still a lot of work left to do.

What does this mean for regular consumers?

While the technology is still very much in its infancy, there is good reason to get excited. In the same way that carrying a phone on our person at almost all times changed the way we think about life, smart clothes potentially offer something even more.

Think about it this way: If you forget your phone on your way to work, it’s a bad day. If you forget your clothes, it’s a disaster – potentially legally. I bring this up to show that we may be on the brink of extending ourselves through our clothing without the need for a separate device, nor for internal augmentation.

This is good news for people who want the convenience of their phone without fail, but who are also squeamish around needles or inserting things in their bodies.

I, for one, am delighted by the idea that my shirt might be able to connect to the internet. There is something incredible about having the “dumb” aspects of our lives be better able to extend ourselves and connect us to one another.

The first ever off-chain atomic swap between Bitcoin and Litecoin was successful on the testnet, according to spokesmen from both camps. The system would allow completely private transactions between chains.

A South African author has published an open letter imploring Atul and Ajay Gupta to use bitcoin as a means to circumvent the banking embargo targeting the family. The Gupta family came to South Africa from India during the 1990s, and soon built a business empire – spanning the media, mining, and computer hardware industries. Recently, the Guptas have been the target of accusations of corruption owing to ties to South African president Jacob Zuma. 

Also Read: “Ludicrous” – Analysts Debate How Much Power Is Consumed per Bitcoin Transaction

“The Very Banks Who Closed Your Bank Accounts and Made You Bleed Are the Ones Who Would Feel the Pain in All of This”

As a consequence of accusations of money laundering and suspicious transactions, numerous South African and international banking institutions have recently shut down Gupta-owned accounts.

South African author, Philip Haslam, has published an open letter to Atul and Ajay of the Gupta family, imploring them to adopt bitcoin as a means to circumvent the banking embargo that currently targets the family. Philip Haslam is the author of ”When Money Destroys Nations” alongside Russell Lamberti, which focuses on the social toll of hyperinflation – drawing heavily from Haslam’s work on Zimbabwe.

Haslam’s letter opens by stating “I have been following the recent media attention around your banking problems with some interest. What a dilemma you find yourself in! Banks won’t bank with you even when you own shares in them and own certain politicians who regulate those banks.”

The Gupta family have been accused wielding as “shadow state” in South Africa. The family has long held ties to Jacob Zuma – who has held office as president in South Africa since 2009. A recent academic report has described the actions of the Zuma and Gupta families as having “started off… as collu[ding] in relatively low-level corruption” before their activities “evolved into state capture and the repurposing of state institutions” following Zuma’s ascension to the presidency.

Haslam argues that there will be no way out of the banking embargo for the Gupta’s, who are currently barred from accessing services with two international and four South African financial institutions. Haslam argues that a bank that continually processes suspicious transactions risks being “cut out of global clearing activities [and] since local clearing houses… rely on being connected globally,… worldwide financial authorities… have the power to stop a bank from making local South African payments from one bank to another.” Haslam tells the Gupta’s that “global banking authorities have more power than you realize and it means you will likely face increasing problems with banks even back in India as they blacklist your transactions… Unfortunately for you, you cannot capture the IMF or Federal Reserve.”

“For as Long as You Play Using the Systems They Control, They Will Make Banking Life Difficult for You”

Haslam asserts that the “only viable option” for the Guptas is to turn to cryptocurrency. Halam argues that the Guptas “could arrange for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies… to be made legal tender in South Africa… You could establish an independent currency system, with people paying bitcoin at the tills and even paying tax in bitcoin. You would have no need of the banks.”

Haslam concedes that he has “ulterior motives” in recommending that the Guptas adopt cryptocurrency, stating that “with a fixed money system, [their] corruption will be severely reined in.” Haslam accuses the Guptas of seeking to gain “control of the South African Reserve Bank… to print money for [them]selves.” If the nation were to adopt bitcoin, Haslam argues, the cycle of the “government… print[ing] money to repay lenders” would be broken through bitcoin’s attribute of possessing “a fixed supply of money.”

Haslam concludes by offering the Guptas a final “special benefit” of adopting bitcoin – “revenge”. Haslam tells the Gupta’s that “the very banks who closed your bank accounts and made you bleed are the ones who would feel the pain in all of this. Bitcoin as a money and banking model would inherently compete with the business of the banks.”

What do think of of Haslam’s arguments in favor the the Gupta family adopting bitcoin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

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The post South African Author Implores Gupta Family to Use Bitcoin to Circumvent Banking Embargo appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Not every development in the world of artificial intelligence needs to be feared. In most cases, these new technological tools will improve many aspects of our daily lives. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have partnered with Adobe to create a new fashion-oriented AI. Not only will it learn about your personal fashion style, but it can also make suggestions based on your preferences. It’s an interesting development, to say the very least.

AI Continues to Evolve in Different Directions

There are many potential use cases for artificial intelligence; that much is evident. While there is plenty of focus on AI disrupting automation and even finance, Adobe has a very different plan. More specifically, it wants to help people upgrade their fashion sense by offering visual improvements to their clothing style. This will be done by teaching the AI about the end user and making suggestions based on his or her preferences. It’s an interesting option well worth exploring.

For retailers, this particular AI will have many benefits. Creating personalized pieces of clothing for different types of consumers could make a lot of retailers more appealing to the masses. Moreover, such technology could help predict broader fashion trends in the coming years.

According to researchers at UC San Diego, there are two different algorithms at work powering this AI solution. A convolutional neural network learns and classifies user preferences for specific items. That is done by scraping Amazon for one’s purchasing data in six different categories, including footwear and pants. This is not entirely new in the world of online retail, as models like this one have existed for quite some time now.

On top of this algorithm is a generative adversarial network, which is a type of AI that generates realistic images. It’s a vital technology when it comes to, say, suggesting new types of clothing to consumers. This is an interesting dual-pronged approach to making people more fashion-aware while allowing them to do their own thing. The latter technology is not new, as GANs were invented a few years ago.

This new approach to deciding what to wear could have a major impact in the fashion world. Online retailers should be able to figure out what customers want beyond items that already exist. There is no reason to force consumers into buying items they may like in design, but would love to see in a different color. People have shied away from creating their own clothing in a lot of cases, but this AI may make that a piece of cake. It is all about expressing oneself in every way possible, and individualism should be rewarded rather than punished.

And if you were concerned, it does not appear this new AI-based solution will displace stylists anytime soon. It may seem as if this technology was designed to replace stylists and fashion experts, but that was not the objective whatsoever. Fashion is certainly ripe for disruption by artificial intelligence, although the potential repercussions may not be visible just yet. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves in the coming months and years.

An experimental consensus algorithm that’s long been proposed as a pillar of the ethereum protocol could soon see its first testing.

Recently, THEKEY project team has made an official announcement about establishing an Identity Verification (IDV) ecosystem based NEO blockchain. The results generated from the IDV system are undeniable and unalterable. The team embraces more than 20 years’ experience on processing and developing individual Big Data. Currently, THEKEY has connected personal identity data of 210 million people in 66 cities authenticated by the relevant government authorities, on a real-time basis. The team has already obtained 23 relevant copyrights, and 15 patents have been accepted by SIPO (State Intellectual Property office of the P.R.C) and start attestation process. The combination of blockchain technology and IDV will pave the way to migrate people from the real world to the online world.

The history of IDV

The earliest documented identity proof in China is the “Fish Tally” from Sui and Tang dynasty, which was used to prove the hierarchy of the nobles. Then it evolved to “Turtle Tally”, “Tooth Plate” and “Waist Tag”, etc. The ID card with personal information only emerged in the period of Republic of China. Due to the low productive force and simple social activities, the scenario required IDV was very limited, so the proof issued by the authorities would be enough. In order to prevent forgery, authorities were constantly changing the materials and packages of the identity proof as well as severe laws to solve this problem, but driven by interest, people were risking their life to fake the identity.

With the development of productivity and science, as well as the diversification of human activity, more and more information has been embodied to ID card, the printed content is also stored electronically. ID card can not only store the fingerprint, but also the DNA sequence.  

The Urgent Need for IDV

The singular ID information cannot satisfy the demand of daily social activities. For example, you need to provide your ID card together with your medical records in order to purchase the health insurance; if you apply for a bank card, certificate of revenue is also required in addition to the ID card; when you apply for the residents permit, the leasing or procurement contract is also necessary.

These inconveniences can be attributed to the following 5 reasons:

1. Personal information is stored in different public authorities, which is hard to be interconnected;
2. No one truly has his own integrated personal information since it’s recorded in a centralized way;
3. Personal information is constantly changing and updating;
4. High risk of security for the use of personal information;
5. Only a small part of the personal information has been properly stored and utilized.

In conclusion, the centralized identity verification method cannot meet the emerging demands.

The Concept of DMI

DMI stands for Dynamic Multi-dimension Identification. It’s an IDV solution which integrates the multiple sources data collection, data modeling, access control, data encapsulation as well as the application interface. DMI is currently widely applied in social insurance, commercial insurance, healthcare industry and credit investigation.

The Emergence of BDMI

Blockchain can serve as an open, distributed ledger which is unalterable and reliable. By leveraging DMI and blockchain technology, Blockchain Based Dynamic Multi-dimension Identification (BDMI) constitutes a value transmission network of identity information. According to different application scenarios and development platform, developers write block-chain data acquisition script, deploy it in the node where identity information is generated and stored. Then the script invokes DMI data exchange interface, process the identity information and form a decentralized P2P network with other nodes. The generated data package will be permanently recorded in an electronic version, which is “block”. The block will chronologically record all value exchange activities, and all blocks together constitute a record collection, that is BDMI. As an updated DMI solution, the BDMI is built on blockchain, and we believe it will trigger a revolution in the IDV industry.  

The Prospect of BDMI

As more and more personal identity information (PII) is recorded on the blockchain, the PII under control of an individual is more intact and diversified. With BDMI, people will live a more convenient life. For example, open the door without a key, but with facial recognition and digital fingerprints, start a vehicle by comparing your behavior with the latest behaviors maintained on blockchain, and effective clearance by the customs. With THEKEY, human can eventually “migrate” to the Internet.

For more information, please visit THEKEY official website: www.thekey.vip or join the telegram for discussion: https://t.me/joinchat/FkZtERGQ1qUEU7iAzC6xVQ

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.

People from all over the world have been investing in Bitcoin as of late. A recent survey by LendEdu polled 564 Americans on the subject. While it may be a no-brainer to most cryptocurrency users to invest in Bitcoin, the average person on the street needs a lot more convincing. The results of this survey are pretty interesting, to say the least.

Americans and Bitcoin Investments

It is always interesting to learn what makes people invest in Bitcoin or how much money they are willing to spend on such a venture. A new study by LendEDU shows Americans have multiple opinions on Bitcoin, even though their overall sentiment appears to be on the bullish end of the spectrum. While the rest of the world may not necessarily be on board, there is positive sentiment in the Bitcoin world right now.

The 564 American investors participating in this survey have all contributed a solid amount of money when it comes to Bitcoin. With an average portfolio worth of US$2,930.85, it is evident there are plenty of people who are willing to spend serious money on what may very well be the currency of the future. That’s mainly driven by speculation, but not everyone is looking for short-term gains. In fact, only 16% of respondents planned to hold their investment for less than a year prior to cashing out.

It is somewhat surprising to note that around 39% of respondents planned to hold their Bitcoin investment for up to three years. That time frame is a lot longer than what one would expect, but it could still be considered a short-term plan. Over 21% of respondents said they’ll hold Bitcoin for over seven years, though. One should only invest money he or she can afford to lose, especially when it comes to long-term investment. In the case of Bitcoin, the price may look very different seven years from now.

What is perhaps the study’s most surprising statistic is that 67% of these investors have not sold any of their positions since investing. That is a very solid strategy, even though there’s something to be said for day trading and the profits that can generate. Opinions are somewhat divided on this front, especially given the risk that day trading entails. The average price at which respondents said they’d be willing to cash out was US$196,195 per Bitcoin. If and when that price will ever materialize remains a big question for the time being.

Taxation of Bitcoin is also a very real concern for US-based investors. According to the survey, just 64% of holders plan to report their Bitcoin transactions to the IRS. Given the popularity of Chainalysis among IRS officials, it is evident they will find a way to monitor Bitcoin users’ activity regardless. This is a pretty interesting situation well worth keeping an eye on over the coming years.

Last but not least, nearly half of investors are worried about the security of their investments. It is evident there is a growing need for more secure Bitcoin wallet options. Keeping funds in an exchange is as insecure as it gets, since users do not control their money whatsoever. A hardware wallet is always your best bet in this regard, even though they can be pretty difficult to obtain at times. 

The Segwit2x bitcoin fork may have been formally called off, but as many as 150 nodes still running its code have stopped accepting transaction blocks

Hut34​ ​enables​ ​A.I.,​ ​Bots,​ ​IoT,​ ​and​ ​other​ ​digital​ ​services​ ​and​ ​data​ ​sets​ ​to connect,​ ​interact​ ​and​ ​monetize​ ​data​ ​information​ ​and​ ​knowledge.

While data volumes, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are growing rapidly, data remains tightly controlled and monetized by large corporate,  domain specific A.I. often has deep but narrow wells of knowledge, and general search tools like Google, Alexa or Siri spread a very wide net, but lack the deep focus or context we often need.

What if you could have the best of all worlds? Benefit from open access to the resources of a wide and deep global knowledge base and the growing data volumes that drive it.

Introducing the Hut34 Project – building a world first open, platform agnostic network allowing ‘Chatbots’, IoT devices, and other digital services to communicate, share and monetise​ ​their​ ​data​ ​transactions.

Participation and growth on the Hut34 Network will be fueled by a blockchain-based cryptocoin called Entropy and the Hut34 Protocol, which will allow network participants to connect, route queries, resolve answers and monetise their data transactions.

One of the fastest growing trends in AI is automated chatbots, mechanised assistants and content platforms that work like a conversation to fulfill the queries of customers, users and peers. By 2020, Gartner Research thinks chatbots will power 85 percent of all customer interactions.

Problematically, monetization of this space remains tightly controlled by large corporate, and elusive for many smaller producers, who struggle to profit from their data, information or expertise.

Facebook Messenger was home to 100,000 chatbots in April 2017. The service has 1.9bn monthly active users. That’s a lot of people accessing content generated by chatbots and other digital services. Imagine if all those chatbot and services could seamlessly trade information, improving user experience whilst profiting for their owners? Hut34 is building the network to achieve this.

Tim​ ​McNamara​ ​System​ ​Architect​ ​of​ ​Hut34, puts this into perspective, “Imagine weather buff Alice builds her own chatbot that responds to its users queries about tomorrow’s forecast. She has lots of users but can’t figure out how to monetize her content. She meets Bob, who runs a chatbot that shares jokes. Bob’s already part of the Hut34 network where he earns Entropy tokens from his content. He sets the price his content gets when another Hut34 content provider uses it.

“Charlie is a customer of Bob’s joke chatbot and uses it every day. One day he realises he’d like to know what the weather’s going to be like, so he asks Bob’s joke chatbot. Bob’s service doesn’t have weather data, so it sends a query across the Hut34 Network to find out. Alice’s weather chatbot, now part of the Network and the highest ranking content provider in her domain, answers Charlie’s question.

“Bob’s chatbot pays Alice’s chatbot for the information. Bob’s happy because he’s still got Charlie’s attention. Charlie’s happy because he hasn’t had to leave the customer experience he enjoys in Bob’s joke chatbot. And Alice is happy because she earns tokens seamlessly from her content.

“But it’s about much more than just weather, jokes or even chatbots. Users accessing data through devices connected to the Hut34 Network are potential buyers with all that accompanying potential. You might deploy a bot for your users that doesn’t have access to any particular domain of data but instead searches the Hut34 Network for the best result, serving it to your users along with advertising. Maybe your bot routes its users to commercial operators to answer their questions and they pay you a referral fee. The list goes on…”

Key features of the Hut 34 Network

Connect

Connection provides instant access to the user bases of all connected platforms and services e.g. Facebook, Skype, and Slack. Connection is simple and straightforward and  can be done through operating your own network node (which we call “Huts”) or connecting to the Hut34 Platform.

Route

Route your queries into the Hut34 Network according to your needs.

Resolve

Use your Hut, our managed service or another 3rd party service to rank answers returned from the network to resolve your queries.  Successful resolution adds utility and value to your service and end customer.

Monetize

Earn Entropy tokens by providing others access to your data, information or knowledge.  Access a global network to deploy your expertise or marketing.

Add utility to your existing service, making it more useful and again more valuable.

Build on our layer – sell services that improve network features in exchange for Entropy Tokens.

The time for an open. intelligent distributed and monetised data network like Hut34 is very much here. Accenture says the chatbot market will be worth US$1.86bn in 2020. McKinsey says the IoT market will be worth US$6.1tn by 2025, and PWC says AI will add US$15.7tn to the global economy by 2030.

Tim said, “Hut34’s proof of concept is operational today, and we’re launching the Entropy Token Sale on the 2nd November, to establish the token ecosystem and fund further development.”

Links:

Hut34 Website – https://hut34.io/

Hut34, the problem, solution and token sale (Hut in 1) – https://docsend.com/view/kbtndrw

Hut34 Entropy sale – https://hut34.io/entropySale

Hut34 Whitepaper – https://docsend.com/view/b4h7ygu

Hut34 Medium – https://medium.com/@hut34project

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.

The Parity multisignature issue involving the freezing of Ethereum funds has taken yet another major plot twist. More specifically, the Parity team has acknowledged that they could have easily prevented the freeze but failed to do so. With over 500,000 Ether still locked up in smart contracts, it is evident the company’s negligence was a big factor. How all of this will play out remains to be determined.

Parity is Partially at Fault for Frozen Funds

It is not entirely surprising to learn that the Parity team knew their multisignature implementation was vulnerable to attack. Many people had suspected as much, even though there was never any real evidence to back up such claims. In a recent report, the team acknowledged they were aware of the issue that froze over 500,00 Ether in smart contracts. No one will be entirely surprised by this plot twist, as it was somewhat expected.

For some reason, the Parity team completely misjudged the urgency of implementing a fix to the problem affecting their smart contracts. It is a bit of a surprising disclosure from a company with so much expertise in the field. There is never a good reason not to fix a major problem right away. A lot of innocent people are paying the price for Parity’s lackluster approach to this issue. That’s not an ideal situation by any means.

The multisignature bug itself came in the form of the EDCC, which is the library contract used in some Parity wallets. A hacker successfully killed the EDCC and froze over 513,000 Ether in the process. Had the company taken a suggestion on GitHub more seriously, this issue probably never would have arose in the first place. It is always easy to declare such things after the fact, but the developers messed up royally in failing to take responsibility.

As it turns out, a GitHub user advised Parity to call the initWallet function to prevent non-company actors from obtaining ownership of smart contracts. This implementation was eventually put on the back-burner and labeled a “convenience enhancement” rather than a “security fix”. Of course, they couldn’t have been more wrong in this regard. Ultimately, the team decided to bundle this “enhancement” with their next regular update, and we all know what happened next.

There was no real reason to postpone this implementation, though. The initWallet function could have been called at any time to remove this vulnerability as soon as it was provided by the GitHub community. Alas, the team failed to do exactly that and instead focus on what they assumed was more important. It is difficult to address all issues in the world of software, and there certainly may have been other issues that needed to be addressed as well. Still, the team could and should have handled things very differently; that much is evident.

For the time being, all of the money frozen remains locked and totally inaccessible. The Parity team says it’s still working on a solution, but there is no indication as to when these funds will be unfrozen. Rest assured this is not the last we’ll hear of this issue. It is good to see the team acknowledge they were wrong, but it’s only a Band-Aid on a broken arm right now.