Day: March 5, 2018

Banks ban won’t stop us! There are still plenty of options. #ANALYSIS

It’s incredible to witness how rapidly humans have evolved in the last couple of decades. This period in particular has held spectacular advancements in technology, especially when compared to our early history as a species. It took Homo Sapiens tens of thousands of years to come up with the concept of the wheel and another few thousand years to invent the first car in the 19th century.

Now, within the last hundred years, humans have landed on the Moon, we have invented computers, and the Internet. We can take our smartphones, order goods online and have it delivered to our doorstep within a few hours, and we can have video calls with our friends across the planet and connect with millions of people without much effort. All thanks to the Internet.

All of these inventions have caused exponential growth in data, all which is generated by humanity. Around 90% of the world’s data has been produced within the past few years. According to the International Data Corporation, in 2016, humans created around 16.3 ZB (16.3 trillion GB) of data, and by 2025, this number will grow tenfold, to 163 ZB.

To store all of this information, we need massive data storage facilities and powerful computers to analyze and process all of it. Already there are some data centers as large as the Pentagon, and computer transistors the size of a few atoms, reaching the limits of traditional computers. This means that at some point, going further with our current methods will no longer be feasible.

According to International Data Corporation, by the year of 2025, less than one-fifth of the world’s data will be analyzed, and while over 90% of the information requires some level of security, only half of it will be secured.

“All data is created equal until it is sifted and categorized by insight engines. Data is inherently inanimate, and only becomes valuable within the context of an application,” explains Professor Andrew Hacker, the Founder, and CEO of Thought Network, a Harrisburg University backed blockchain and AI start-up, which tackles the problem with ever-growing amounts of data from an entirely new angle.

“Things like the web, different social media platforms, and IoT devices continue to drive exponential data growth, while businesses are creating more and more applications that can use this information. This adds up to a landscape littered with applications, too much data, and insufficient intelligence to handle it.”

“Even with the progress AI and Data Analytics industries have made, they still have to face significant challenges and inefficiencies. Already in 2018, even the most innovative deep learning techniques, which mimic the human brain, struggle to sift through the world’s information.”

Thought Network and Smart Data

Thought Network has gone beyond our current solutions by removing the application layer and embedding smart logic directly into pieces of data. Data will no longer be inanimate; it becomes agile, able to act on its own, directly at the source of creation, distribution, or action.

Otherwise ‘dumb’ data, which needs applications that can process and categorize it to become useful, becomes smart. Smart Data understands its origin and its purpose; it can communicate with other pieces of information and accomplish its goal.

While all of the other companies in the AI and data industries focus on expanding their capability to store, analyze and process larger and larger amounts of data, Thought focuses on handling data more efficiently. By making data able to act on its own, it eliminates the problem with uncategorized data which just sits around – data becomes able to categorize itself and fulfill its purpose straight after its creation.

“Smart Data reduces process latency and can eliminate a gigantic layer of cost and complexity from an organization of any type and any industry. No longer is it necessary to collect data, examine it, and run it through an application. Data can take action immediately and continuously,” says Professor Hacker, who was granted a US patent for his concept of Smart Data.

For example, if a machine in a factory would be about to break down, this information doesn’t have to be sent to the central command system that decides whether to shut the machine down or not. Instead the information gathered from the sensors can decide on its own. This saves precious seconds and spares costly equipment – not to mention people – from unnecessary damage or harm.

If the average power grid would run on Thought, it would be possible to create a self-healing and fully autonomous power grid. Even if an outside party were able to bring down a part of the grid, the network would self-heal and come back online on its own.

“Thought incorporates multiple levels of dynamic encryption on the data layer itself. Being able to secure the smallest units in computing – individual pieces of data – is the Holy Grail of cybersecurity.” explains Andrew Hacker, who’s also a Cybersecurity Expert in Residence at Harrisburg University.

Conclusion

Thought Network’s Smart Data holds great potential in dealing with the exponential growth in data creation and the problems it hides.

“Going forward, the current paradigm will no longer be scalable, extensible, adaptable or smart enough to cope with the massive influx of information generated by our society.” Says Professor Hacker. “Thought solves these challenges by moving artificial intelligence from the application layer to the data layer, making data processing more efficient, intelligent and above all more secure.”

Thought’s Pre-ICO is now live until March 13, 2018, and you can click https://thought.live now and earn a 15% discount on the purchase of THT tokens. The main ICO starts on March 14, giving participants a 10% discount.

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.

A proposed law in the City of Plattsburgh would place a moratorium on new commercial cryptocurrency mining operations for 18 months.

US Marshals to sell off seized Bitcoin woth $25 mln to highest bidder in another government auction. #NEWS

Last month Quantor visited Perm Winter School as a place of forward-looking and talented students. This time the conference was about digital financial markets, financial technologies and risk management.

Many world class experts had participated in this event with topics ranging from scaling of blockhain to future of cryptocurrency.

Quantor’s co-founder, Vlad Buchnev, had the opportunity to present the topic of “Integration of Algorithmic Trading with Blockchain in Decentralized Economy” to the forum.

We were excited at the fact that so many students were interested in applying latest technologies for trading and investing on digital financial markets. There is no doubt that young and smart people are the next generation and driving force in developing digital crypto world. This fact reinforced our belief that the concept to focus on intellectual sources of users from our community is the one and only way to successfully build Quantor ecosystem.

Furthermore, many strategic connections were made- a number of Russian universities and King’s College London had expressed their interest in building Quantor’s community in order to develop quantitative trading strategies with their students. We believe more universities will be willing to join Quantor’s ecosystem and we think it is essential to involve university students in our community for building new generation of independent algorithmic traders.

Quantor is a marketplace of investment algorithms and educational solutions for cryptocurrency and traditional financial markets. Quantor ecosystem implements an accelerator for algorithmic traders supporting them in developing investment algorithms for a decentralized economy.

The mission of the company is to provide sustainable performance of trading algorithms by creating a reliable system of trust among the ecosystem participants, including developers of trading algorithms, experts, mentors, and investors.

The maximum number of Quant (QNT) tokens to be issued is limited. On the Pre-sale, incentive measures and discounts from the base price of the token will be provided for the participants.

All information is available on the project website:

https://tokens.quantor.co/

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.

Shares in Square Inc. are rising once again. This time, however, there seems to be little news from the company themselves to justify such investor exuberance. The only “recent” development comes from a little known cryptocurrency website who reported earlier today that the global payments processing company were planning to integrate Bitcoin functionality.

Deja Vu..?

Those who stay up-to-date with news surrounding cryptocurrency will probably instantly recognise the claims by Cryptonia as old news. We at NewsBTC have reported on Square’s plans to include cryptocurrency options in their application several times since last November.

Whilst additional positive news did come from the company late last month, it hardly explains today’s surge in the price of their shares. The most recent Square development that could account for a move in the price of their stock was their CEO expressing further plans for cryptocurrency inclusion in the future. Finance Magnates report that the company were toying with the idea of rolling out consumer-to-merchant payments via Bitcoin in the near future. Jack Dorsey said on February 28, 2018 to analysts:

“Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling… We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry and we want to learn as quickly as possible.”

Such a desire to be positioned at the forefront of a potential financial revolution would likely excite investors and would thus explain a move in the price of the stock last week. However, it hardly explains the 8.7% rise reported by Bloomberg earlier today – the price reached an all-time high of $50 in New York. This made it the number two ranked performer on the Russell 1,000 Financial Services Index for the day. Curiously, the price was relatively unaffected by the late February announcement by Dorsey but rose sharply this morning between the opening of trading and around 11am. This coincides with the publication of the Cryptona article and little else of note.

Whilst it is impossible to say what exactly caused today’s increase in price for Square, it would come as little surprise to learn that the move was caused by several month old news doing the rounds online once again. The cryptocurrency space reacts to the slightest news and there is certainly a sense of mania surrounding the markets.

A look at the fortunes of the likes of Long Blockchain (formerly Long Island Ice Tea) and Kodak following their own attempts to redirect themselves towards the exciting new industry highlight the lack of investor rationality surrounding the space. The former surged from $2.44 to $6.91 following their own re-brand last December. Meanwhile, when the camera manufacturer Kodak claimed to be focusing more on blockchain, their own shares rose from $3.10 to $10.70 in early January. Evidently, investors are hungry for a piece of anything that involves either of the two trending “B” words.

The post Shares in Square Inc. Receive Boost From Old Crypto News appeared first on NewsBTC.

The CartelCoin project envisions a world where manufacturers can know their customer and deliver to them directly. As they’ve stated, “Our objective is not to optimize the supply chain but to remove it.”  

This is a world that leverages the blockchain to enable group-buying power so everyone, from individuals to small businesses, can purchase regular and premium goods without bias, unnecessary delays and excess costs. By utilizing existing smart contracts, it aims to accomplish this initiative on a trustless chain, without a mediator connecting the two parties. It might not sound as flashy as some cryptocurrency projects, but this simple concept is set to have a remarkable global impact.

The current supply chain dates back as far as the 19th Century and is completely outmoded irrespective of small improvements. CartelCoin has identified the weakest points of this model and proposes simple yet effective ways to disrupt it and unleash the future of the supply chain.

A Simple yet Foolproof Project

CartelCoin operates on the simplest premise, connecting businesses and consumers to the manufacturers directly, eliminating the need for third-party intermediaries. It is a straightforward concept that addresses a real market need, offering a foolproof yet amazingly simple solution.

The project makes use of smart contracts and the transparent and immutable public ledger features of the blockchain to address the major loopholes in today’s supply chain model. In doing so, it offers a practical application that presents numerous benefits for everyone involved.

To highlight its unique capabilities, they are creating an e-commerce platform that will enable the direct sales of goods from manufacturers to individual consumers. The forthcoming business-to-business platform holds much promise as well for suppliers and particularly, smaller outfits. Given that many small businesses must wait for months to place orders sizable enough to gain scale pricing, bulk buying will be considerably more attainable. The platform will operate on a global sphere, making it easy to satisfy manufacturers’ demands using group purchases.

There are numerous cryptocurrency projects aimed at optimizing the current supply chain model due to its glaring shortfalls. What makes CartelCoin outstanding is that instead of attempting to optimize a broken system, it does away with it altogether.

To date, the internet has only provided part of the solution, accelerating and streamlining the purchase process. But being centralized, it still carries major flaws of the old system and requires a disruption. This is where CartelCoin comes in with a multi-layered approach that offers the ideal platform, technology and payment system to completely revolutionize the supply chain.

A Realistic Vision

CartelCoin has a vision of providing a seamless e-commerce experience that will streamline the distribution of commercial goods and reduce wastage of natural and other resources. This is a realistic and attainable vision considering that the breakdown in the traditional retail model stems from factors that can be controlled.

Wholesalers and manufacturers at the moment have to rely on middlemen in order to reach their consumers and make a profit from their business. The only way for them to run a viable business is by selling in bulk but to date it has not been possible to do this directly to the consumer.

Retailers wield more than their fair share of power as they control prices and also compromise the consumer choice. Manufacturers have to play by their rules to fit in the retail supply chain or face denial of entry into the market. They spend almost 20% of any product’s value on marketing to woo retailers so as to get a piece of the pie.

The CartelCoin model seeks to address this challenge by consolidating global orders for goods from individual customers that justify selling at wholesale prices. This approach will cut down their marketing and logistics expenses and assure them of unfettered access to their target consumers.

The immutability of the blockchain makes it the perfect technology to support the vision as it is a self-operating, trustless model. Its decentralized structure minimizes transaction costs and uses smart contracts to guarantee fulfillment of obligations. This system offers a natural solution to the issues faced by the current e-commerce framework.

Additionally, the existing financial system that supports internet commerce is in dire straits. This is evident from the endless fiascos between consumers and digital payment service providers. Simple processes like transaction reversals or cancellations are outrageously complex for no good reason.

The CartelCoin model proposes the use of smart contracts to remedy this situation. When consumers make payments for goods, these are held in escrow until the manufacturer completes their end of the deal. Only then will funds be released. This transaction is feeless for consumers and the nature of the contract guarantees a simple return of funds in case transaction conditions are not met.

MVP within 3-6 Months

Unlike many blockchain proposals that sound great on paper but take a lifetime to execute, the CartelCoin model is already set to walk the talk. The platform is already under development and the project should have a minimum viable product (MVP) within 3-6 months from now.

In order to achieve this, the developers are already ahead of schedule on the development of a user interface for the platform. At the moment, it is undergoing rigorous testing and is holding up impressively.

A Vibrant Sales Team to Actuate the Vision

The viability of any business proposal revolves around gaining traction with the target audience. Cartel aims to have a global community of users, both buyers and sellers encouraged to maintain a presence and open communication.

The team behind this project is aware of the need for due diligence so as to make the proposal a reality. To this end, they are already recruiting sales teams ready to pitch the concept to the relevant parties and ensure that it gains rapid widespread adoption.

An Honest Hard Cap

CartelCoin plans to generate and issue a total of 100 million CartelCoin(CC) tokens, releasing the total supply into the market right at the onset. According to the team, this is meant to shield the token against value distortion and dilution that usually arises when coins are released gradually into the market.

The 7.9 million hard cap for the ICO is an honest choice based on actual requirements to get the project off the ground. The platform will carry out an ICO in order to collect contributions for the 100 million CRTL coins and cap, compared to most, is notably low. The proceeds from this contribution will go towards developing and maintaining the innovative blockchain protocol, its deployment on the network and commercialization through marketing campaigns.

New Updates

CartelCoin already has an impressive website but the developer team is releasing a new and improved version for the ICO.

The team is also updating the project’s whitepaper and executive summary. The new versions are more comprehensive than their predecessors with greater visual representation tools to offer higher appeal and help users understand the concepts with greater ease. The updated documents also incorporate more detailed roadmaps and clearly define the tokenization model.

Keep an eye out for reviews on the project’s ICO as YouTube influencers are working on them and will be submitting their footage soon. This and the other above mentioned updates should be complete and ready for consumption by March 1, 2018.

At the moment, the CartelCoin Telegram page is already live. You can hang out there, meet some of the team members behind the project and even ask burning questions.

The whole team will be introduced to the public soon as the project works towards launching its full ICO marketing campaign. The first round already seems promising as it appears to have achieved “low cap gem” status in some popular groups.

Embrace the Future with CartelCoin

The current supply chain model has notable flaws and inefficiencies that negatively impact key players who should instead benefit from it.

The CartelCoin project will revolutionize this system by improving the value delivery given to both consumers and manufacturers. It will also cut down costs, reduce the environmental toll and create a more efficient system of operation.

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.

Ripple CEO speaks with CT about long-term value in crypto, and why Ripple embraces regulation. #INTERVIEW

The U.S. Marshals have put forth plans to auction off 2,170 Bitcoin it and other U.S. law enforcement agencies have confiscated in criminal cases. As of today, February 5th, the Bitcoins have a value of over $25 million. According to the Marshals Service, the online sale is set to take place on March 19th. The auction will consist of 14 separate blocks: two blocks of 500 BTC, 11 blocks of 100 BTC, and one block for 70 BTC.

To participate, would-be bidders are required to submit a $200,000 deposit by March 14th, as well as fill out documents including a bidder registration form. The documents require the bidders to disclose a lot of personal information about themselves, their business, and their bank accounts.

Where Did the Bitcoin Come From?

The Bitcoin was confiscated in “connection with various federal criminal, civil and administrative cases.” The majority of the seizures were executed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, but other U.S. law enforcement agencies were involved too. A few of these cases, in particular, are of note:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are holders of some of the Bitcoin at auction. The agency acquired them from a man called Jason Moreira, who engaged with a federal undercover agent in a series of online purchases on the dark web where he eventually acquired weapons and a silencer.

Moreira had instructed the agent to ship the package to a post office box in Hyannis, Massachusetts.  Federal agents monitoring the post office box immediately arrested Moreira after he retrieved the package, subsequently seizing his Bitcoin (which he used to make the purchase).

Another is related to the United States v. Shaun Bridges. Bridges, is an ex-Secret Service agent who was sentenced to 71 months prison after being accused of stealing funds during the agency’s investigation into the Silk Road, an online marketplace that operated on the dark web and used cryptocurrencies in attempts to skirt law enforcement. 

Past Government Auctions

This upcoming auction is to be the third time the U.S. government has off-loaded Bitcoin it acquired through criminal asset seizures. On January 22nd, the U.S. Marshals auctioned off more than 3,600 Bitcoin to five winning bidders, an amount worth more than $30 million at the time.

Also, in mid-2016, the agency sold 2,700 BTC. Worth noting here is that the coins on the docket that year were worth just $1.6 million at the time — today the coins would be worth a substantially larger $30 million. 

The post U.S. Marshals to Hold Online Auction for 2,170 Bitcoin Seized by the Agency appeared first on NewsBTC.

Asch is a decentralized blockchain platform that provides a public chain and an app Software Development Kit. This is the first system designed to give developers the ability to deploy completely independent blockchain applications.  

1. Asch’s goal is to solve the problem of blockchain fragmentation. Asch Tokens can be used across different blockchain ecosystems and exchanges.  
2. Asch combines DPOS and PBFT. DPOS is a consensus mechanism that is more decentralized and less resources intensive. PBFT solves the security risks of DPOS and effectively reduces the chances of bifurcation and makes the system more secure.
3. Asch uses a side-chain extension mechanism that eliminates the need to carry application code in the transaction. This reduces the transaction data load and making the contract easier to execute.
4. Asch uses a sandbox to run it’s application code. This protects the main chain from being destroyed by other hazards codes.

Within the the blockchain ecosystem, Asch is a consensus mechanism. Asch uses DPOS + PBFT to facilitate these processes. When compared to the POW mechanism of bitcoin and Ethereum, one can see energy saving advantages.

POW mining wastes a great deal of energy in order to protect the network security. The DPOS trustee mechanism is another advantage that Asch has over other blockchain platforms.

Ethereum runs all the applications on one chain. This increase security risks. If there is a link error the result can be damage to the entire system. Asch uses cross-chain slicing technology, greatly reducing the system security risks.

Studies show that Asch’s sidechain mechanism is easy to link with other blockchains, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum etc. In fact, Asch can easily implement various functions of ROOTSTOCK and QTUM chain.

The team is also preparing  for Asch to become a side chain of BTC. At the same time, Asch is actively developing version 2.0 and will implement the following functions in this new version. These include digital assets, authentication, simple contracts, decentralized storage, anonymous functions and master contracts, which can surly surpass other blockchain projects or teams. Please visit the official website http://asch.io/ for more details.

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.

Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler rewards environmentally friendly driving with its new native cryptocurrency. #NEWS

A provincial finance regulator in Canada has warned about a so-called “cryptocurrency bank” and its associated token.

In guidelines published in February, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) set out how it intends to apply financial market legislation in handling enquiries from ICO organisers. The guidelines also define the information FINMA requires to deal with such enquiries and the principles upon which it will base its responses, creating clarity for market participants. 

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.