Day: April 8, 2018

Producing and distributing video is anything but cheap. As blockchain technology is hailed as the go-to solution for a host of today’s technological problems, decentralization mania couldn’t have come at a better time for video. Why? Because the enormous amount of energy required to store, compute, encode, network and stream video is massive. Halsey Minor, the CEO of the VideoCoin Network, has harnessed this market by finding a way to reduce these distribution costs, all the while boosting innovation. That will benefit content producers, investors, and ultimately consumers. Minor, who is the founder of CNET and the driving force behind Salesforce.com, brings his knowledge of technology and publishing into the realm of cloud computing and blockchain innovation.

Welcome To The Revival of Zombie Servers

Since the advent of high definition, 4K, and virtual reality, media and broadcasting companies have been plagued by the exorbitant costs associated with producing, encoding, and distributing digital content. “By creating a ‘sharing economy’ around the commodity of global computing, we can harvest the many data centers and machines that go unused,” explained Minor.

As consumers, we don’t see what happens on the back end of video applications, whether it’s NBC, YouTube, or Facebook. We have the applications on our devices to watch our content, but we don’t see what costs and resources go into pushing that content out to us. If you’ve ever taken a 30-second video on your phone and then tried to send it to a friend, you’ve encountered this problem. “It’s massive amounts of energy,” emphasized Minor.

Utilizing ‘Zombie’ Energy

Unlike Bitcoin’s model for cryptomining, the VideoCoin Network recognizes there is already a costly and time-consuming process for achieving “efficiency”. “Bitcoin mining has been connecting computers to the Internet, which allows these devices to run software, providing miners with the ability to get paid in cryptocurrency,” said Minor. That payment allows them to then buy more hardware, with the end goal of expanding and growing mining operations.

There is a huge market for energy and power disruption, as we’ve already seen in places like New York state, where the city of Plattsburgh has temporarily banned all crypto-mining until a more effective mining operation presents itself, one which doesn’t aim to disrupt community utilities and energy consumption. Another example comes from Iceland, where HS Orka estimated that data centers mining cryptocurrencies will use more electricity than the country’s entire population consumes in a year to power their homes.

“While disruptive to communities, the general nature of computing requires low-cost power to make money, shifting into an area of hyper-efficiency. That is VideoCoin’s end-game,” Minor stated.

Overcoming Technical Hurdles

The biggest challenge the industry faces is a technical one. While companies are still hesitant to migrate their data from physical servers over to cloud-based platforms, the more alarming factor is that there are hundreds of promises being made that aren’t being delivered or executed.

“The only way to ensure people know what they are getting into, and [understand] the potential risks, is by selling to those who can handle that work and deliver,” said Minor. He indicated that his company is only availing itself to sophisticated institutions, and not undergoing any public sale.

“The market is there. The demand is there. The need is there. But, there’s a big technical hurdle that needs to be overcome.”

United Arab Emirates-based OneGram is issuing a gold-backed cryptocurrency in attempts to convince Muslims that investing in cryptocurrencies complies with their faith.

Islam and Cryptocurrency

The growing global interest in cryptocurrencies naturally extends into the Gulf and southeast Asia, the main centers of Islamic finance. But because cryptocurrencies and associated technologies are products of financial engineering and objects of speculation, the coins don’t fit particularly well with the religion. This is because Sharia principles, in addition to not permitting interest payments, emphasize real economic activity based on physical assets, not speculation.

 In attempts to sway the debate, cryptocurrency startups are looking to launch instruments backed by physical assets and thereby certified as valid by Islamic advisors. Case in point: in order to attempt to limit speculation, each OneGram cryptocurrency unit is backed by at least a gram of physical gold stored in a vault.

“Gold was among the first forms of money in Islamic societies so this is appropriate,” said Ibrahim Mohammed, who founded the firm with other investors last year. “We are trying to prove rules and regulations from Sharia are fully compatible with digital blockchain technology.”

OneGram

So far, tens of millions of dollars worth of the coins have been issued (about 60% of the total planned amount). OneGram hopes to issue all of them before an exchange listing that’s planned for the end of May. The company obtained a ruling that its cryptocurrency conforms with Islamic principles from Dubai-based Al Maali Consulting, which is one of dozens of advisory firms around the world that offer opinions on whether financial instruments meet Sharia standards.

OneGram isn’t the first startup to take this approach. In Malaysia, HelloGold launched an initial offer of its gold-backed cryptocurrency in October, after receiving approval from Islamic scholars at Kuala Lumpur-based Amanie Advisors.

Manuel Ho, HelloGold’s chief marketing officer, said its coin conforms with Islamic principles because transactions occur within a defined period, making them less volatile and addressing the issue of ambiguity of pricing. There are others, too: United Arab Emirates-based Halal Chain conducted an ICO in December. Halal Chain’s price is linked not to gold, but to data on Islamically permissible goods.

Sharia Law Globally

National Sharia authorities have not ruled on whether cryptocurrencies are permissible, and while several global bodies recommend standards for Islamic finance, none has the authority to actually impose them. Many governments seem ambivalent: worried about the potential for instability, but unwilling to lose the chance of benefiting from new technology.

The Saudi Arabian and UAE central banks warned their citizens about the risks of trading Bitcoin, but have not imposed outright bans. Islamic jurists in South Africa have ruled in favor of cryptocurrencies, arguing they have become socially acceptable and commonly used.

In October, however, the Durban-based Darul Ihsan Centre refrained from endorsing them, citing concern over potential pyramid schemes. Further, some scholars in Turkey, India, and Britain have labeled cryptocurrencies impermissible. In January, Egypt’s Grand Mufti declared they should not be traded.

What makes the debate particularly complex is that there are thousands of digital coins each with unique features related to distribution, mining, and trading, said Farrukh Habib, research officer at Malaysia-based International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance. Because of this fact, Habib believes that a “blanket” Sharia ruling on cryptocurrencies is not appropriate: 

“They are also very different in terms of their underlying commodities, projects or businesses, so it’s not appropriate to have a blanket Sharia ruling for all,” said Habib. “Most of the existing Sharia rulings either deal with only Bitcoin, or include all types of cryptocurrencies, disregarding their peculiarities.”

The post United Arab Emirates: OneGram, Gold-Backed Cryptocurrency That Complies With Sharia Law appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin seems to be on an ascending path. After incurring a $300 jump yesterday and trading at roughly $6,900, the currency has hit the $7,000 point – a welcome move for many hungry enthusiasts.

One of the reasons may be the recent influx of major financial players – some of which had originally turned their backs on cryptocurrency or rejected its notions of legitimacy – who are suddenly becoming more involved. One of these figures is legendary hedge fund manager George Soros. The head of his company Soros Fund Management recently announced that the enterprise had received permission to begin trading cryptocurrencies within the next few months.

This marks a massive change of heart, as Soros has repeatedly referred to bitcoin as mere “speculation,” and dismissed it as a financial trend that was likely to disappear within the next few years. Naturally, his words were hard to take considering his power and status in the financial community.

Now, the legendary Rockefeller family is looking to get in on the crypto action. Venrock, the venture capital firm of the Rockefeller Foundation, has partnered with Brooklyn-based cryptocurrency firm Coinfund. The partnership will ultimately bring Coinfund closer to large companies and assist in its general product growth.

With so many swings happening, one can’t help but wonder if individuals like Warren Buffett – one of bitcoin’s largest opponents – will follow in Soros’ path and seek to make their mark in the crypto arena.

Naturally, this raises questions about where bitcoin will go in the coming weeks. Thus far, it appears that recovery may be on the horizon, but it’s hard to tell for sure if these past two jumps are short-term, or indications of something much larger.

Chief Strategy Officer for NYNJA Marshall Taplits remains bullish regarding the currency’s price:

“Speculation on price is always difficult, but the trend for Bitcoin is clear – up, going to about $20,000 USD from zero in 10 years. Each time Bitcoin corrects, the media wrenches. However, anyone who has been watching cryptocurrency since the beginning knows to bet on $30,000.”

Taplits is not alone in his sentiment. Daniel Worsley – COO of LocalCoinSwap – acknowledges that the battle for bitcoin and the blockchain is ongoing, and that there will always be enemies working to stand against their respective growth. However, he feels out that for the most part, both entities have managed to sway all attacks, and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the currency reaches a price exceeding $20,000 by the end of the year.

“Given the amount of negative press which is now priced in and investor expectation of another bull run, it will only take a couple of positive developments to set off the train,” he states with confidence.

On the other hand, some figures, like digital partnerships manager at OTE & COSMOTE Dimitris Ioannides, lean more towards the bearish end of the spectrum. He says that bitcoin is about to face its “biggest battle of all,” as regulators, banks and financial authorities will continue to seek out new laws and limits for cryptocurrency users. He’s also confident bitcoin’s volatility is here to stay – even after its technology has settled and the coin has gone deeper into mainstream status.

Drake, a financial pioneer, has done what many have been unable to do — harmonize investment with cryptocurrency. Having represented the U.S. Department of Commerce at the EU’s Transatlantic Forum and the UK Parliament, Drake’s intricate understanding of the cryptocurrency markets will help to drive the industry in a positive direction.

Drake has been the advisor to at least fifteen ICOs which raised significant amounts of funds within a six-month period.

Andrew Rossow: From your background and experience, what do you feel is the biggest challenge facing the cryptocurrency space right now?

David Drake: Not knowing the right questions to ask, and even where to get started. Knowing who to trust and who to listen to becomes extremely intimidating and problematic. What we are facing is a brand new area—blockchain. We are attempting to streamline it in comparison to an already solidified and streamlined industry, e.g., [the] stock market. It becomes time-consuming in learning this space, because individuals are having to work with new lending facilities to use blockchain and cryptocurrency.

In other words, venture capitalists and other executives are advertising this market to the world, without realizing blockchain has a dozen moving pieces.

Rossow: What can you tell us about cryptomining?

Drake: Cryptomining is a mass market where investors understand the assets, whereas cryptocurrency doesn’t have an asset. Instead, it only has the promise of being valuable. With mining, there is a quickness to it, which makes it easier to understand that cost and what you can value it at and sell it for. In a sense, the mining equipment becomes the “treasury department” of your coin’s money.

Rossow: How do you feel about millennials getting involved with this space?

Drake: It resonates—they understand it much better than the majority of us. Why? They can seamlessly access content from their smartphones, smart devices, and computers. The ability for them to access information globally, without other people telling them what went up or down in the stock market or crypto market, is fascinating. They are able to own the space, and a complicated one [for] that matter.

Rossow: What advice do you have to venture capitalists, business executives, and investors?

Drake: Get advisors that can understand this area. Specifically, those who have access to the right questions and knowledge surrounding it. There are thousands of promises out there, but nobody owns the space right now.

A business needs an individual who can guide it and not push it into what they have. You’re looking for an [individual] that doesn’t push the business or investor in just one direction. Watch out for that ulterior motive.

Nano developers sued for “negligent misrepresentation” and unlicensed selling of securities, plaintiff demands a hard fork to return lost Nano #NEWS

Royal couple Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle have parted with the norm of royal wedding gifts, accepting their very own Ethereum-based cryptocurrency.

The Royal Coin will be listed as ROYL, with 5o million tokens available and a target set to raise 100,000 ETH, approximately USD 40 million. Part of the money raised through the token sale will go to charitable causes.

Half is set to be spent on Crown & Country Magazine specializing in the royal family, with an en edition dedicated to the royal wedding. The other half will be donated to three charities reportedly chosen by Prince Harry himself.

The ROYL whitepaper lists Sentebale, the Invictus Games and the Royal Foundation as the charities of choice. The whitepaper states ”we intend to split the donations equally between these charities and feel that the participation of people globally in this mass gesture of goodwill would send a powerful message of humanity and unity in celebration of the Royal Wedding.”.

A decentralized wedding gift

The project is being promoted by Shahar Namer, CEO of ICO Rocket. Namer recently spoke to Digital Trends about the token, where he described it as the ”2018 way to celebrate great British pageantry”. He endorsed ROYL for being an innovative, modern way to celebrate the royal family while supporting a charitable cause.

ROYL is not trying to be the next Bitcoin, but it is trying to modernize the image of the royal couple while keeping with the tradition of pageantry. How successful the project will be, however, is difficult to say.

Prince Harry and Meghan frequently make the front page of British tabloids and newspapers, with the public generally having a good perspective of them.The question is raised though, of how large the community is that is willing, or will know how to take part in an initial coin offering (ICO) for the royal couple. It remains to be seen if an ICO for the royal couple is something that will appeal to younger generations that are more involved with cryptocurrency trading.

Nonetheless, as one of the most famous couples alive, Prince Harry and Meghan can presumably attract a large enough number of participants to raise the goal of USD 40 million, even with the many that will prefer to exercise more traditional forms of pageantry.

The post Royal Couple Receive Their Own Crypto as Wedding Gift appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

The benefits of blockchain technology in supply chain management are immense, as discussed in part two of this series. This is why the number of companies exploring blockchain solutions has risen steadily for the last couple of years. With this rise, a need for startups that develop customized blockchain supply chain solutions has also arose, and the challenge has been accepted by developers worldwide. With some startups focusing solely on specific aspects of the supply chain such as data availability and automation of processes, others have offered an all-encompassing suite of products that cater to the industry in general.

Skuchain

This Mountain View, California-based startup is one of the most renowned players in the blockchain supply chain solutions industry. Founded by Srinivasan Sriram, who serves as its CEO, Skuchain delivers a platform for collaborative commerce to its clients. Identifying divergent standards, opaque mechanics in international commerce, and unavailability of data to all supply chain participants as being some of the biggest challenges in the market today, Skuchain has partnered with other tech companies such as Japan’s NTT Data to develop customized solutions to solve these challenges. Among them are blockchain-based inventory financing and a track-and-trace system that uses RFID technology.

Sofocle Technologies

Sofocle Technologies is an Indian startup that provides a wide range of blockchain solutions catering to the financial services, insurance and supply chain sectors. SofoChain, its supply chain solutions product, helps businesses securely and transparently track goods as they move from one node to the other in the supply chain. SofoChain creates digital passports of physical assets as they move from any participant in the supply chain to the next, such as from a manufacturer to the supplier. These goods are also assigned physical attributes such as colors and qualities. This makes it easy to monitor the condition of goods and ensure that any harm done is traced to a particular participant, and that goods whose quality has been compromised can be traced and recalled. Barcodes, RFIDs and serial numbers are the properties of goods used to assign digital identities to these goods.

Provenance

Based in London, Provenance is a startup whose mission is to enable businesses to generate trust in their products and help the final consumer make an informed decision on the products they purchase. Unlike Sofocle and Skuchain, whose core focus is enterprise use, Provenance seeks to avail data collected in the supply chain process to final consumers so they can be more empowered when deciding on the products they wish to purchase. True to its name, Provenance seeks to help the final consumer track the origin of a product as well as its progress through the supply chain. This will create trust in brands that deliver quality, and those whose quality is compromised will just as easily be identified and avoided. Provenance’s data solutions can be integrated into any physical product through smart tags, labeling and embedding onto a website or mobile app. Their pilot project was tested for tracing tuna fish in Indonesia from the shore to the final consumer with great results.

EximChain

Eximchain, whose name was derived from Export-Import on Blockchain, was founded in 2015 at MIT and has since developed cutting-edge blockchain solutions for the supply chain industry. Their suite of products ensures efficiency, security and transparency in the supply chain. Among their products is supply chain financing in which a startup uses smart contracts to allow financial institutions to verify the validity of orders placed and provide the necessary financing. Eximchain also facilitates seamless inventory management by enabling clients to share demand and inventory information across a common ledger.

*

These are just a few of the startups that are pioneering the use of blockchain technology in supply chain management. Tech giants like IBM, SAP and Oracle are also doing research and development of supply chain solutions which are being tested by companies like Walmart and Maersk. As development progresses, the supply chain will experience a revolution that will improve efficiency and transparency, at the center of which will be blockchain technology.

A petition in protest of the Indian central bank’s crypto ban writes that crypto and Blockchain “can’t be stopped”. #NEWS

Creating content and educational materials for your followers online can be extremely rewarding. It’s common to hear stories of people who make a great living by publishing content to social media or sharing videos.

YouTubers like Pewdiepie are almost household names and make millions of dollars a year from their passion. To those on the outside, it can seem like a dream lifestyle. But being a content creator can be tough, especially when your income depends on it. For every mega-successful YouTuber or Instagram celebrity, there are many, many others who are struggling to make ends meet.

There are lots of reasons for this. Being a content creator comes with many risks and challenges, from finding somewhere to publish your work to fighting off plagiarism. One of the biggest problems is sustainability — it can be hard to generate a reliable income every month.

There could be a way to make things easier though, and it involves blockchain technology and a new company.

First, though, let’s take a deeper look at the challenges facing content creators today.

The problems with being a content creator

Content creation, and educating others online, is evolving fast. Lots of content creators rely on existing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to publish their content. Since these sites already have enormous user bases, it’s a ready-made audience.

That means huge potential, and the chance to make life-changing amounts of money doing something that you’re passionate about. Unfortunately, there are downsides too. These platforms tend to take a big cut of your profits — Facebook’s Watch feature takes 45% of all revenue, for example.

There’s clearly a huge market for educational and entertaining content, but unfortunately reaching that market is difficult without relying on big, expensive platforms. Those platforms are well aware of this fact, and they make sure to profit from it.

There’s also the issue of plagiarism. Designers, writers, and other content creators can work for hours on something, only to have it stolen by an opportunistic thief. Often it’s very hard to get justice and reclaim the work, especially if the thief is a big organization.

So what’s the solution?

Blockchain’s solution

The key to a fairer and more rewarding ecosystem for content creators could lie with blockchain technology. Because of its decentralized nature, blockchain is the ideal antidote to centralized monopolies like YouTube and Facebook that control the content-sharing market.

If done properly, blockchain could be used to give content creators and educators much more control over what they publish, and share it in a better way. It’d make it easier to monetize content and have more freedom over it.

A new promising project called AC3 hopes to make life easier for content creators and educators. It’ll allow them to share their work with their audience directly, and use a more secure and transparent system to avoid plagiarism.

Unlike many other blockchain companies, AC3 didn’t go down the ICO route when funding their project and chose to focus instead on building the technology. The platform is straightforward: fans and followers pay with AC3 tokens to access content, and creators can also sell their content for these same tokens. They can be used as currency to buy things like design and programming courses within the platform.

AC3 also focuses on fighting plagiarism.

The platform uses its own wallet software, so each user gets their own secure wallet. The content they send and receive on AC3 is protected, using blockchain technology and cryptographic hashes to make sure nobody can use it without their permission.

It’s certainly a noble goal and is filling a need that’s becoming harder to ignore. As more and more people turn to the internet to share content and make a living, platforms like AC3 can help this become a viable lifestyle and remove many of the drawbacks.

By fighting plagiarism and offering an alternative to giant content platforms, blockchain technology could give content creators a level of freedom they haven’t experienced before, along with the peace of mind of a regular income.

The post Content Creators Can Have a Tough Time — But Blockchain Can Help appeared first on NewsBTC.

As a strategic security partner, Hacken will conduct an audit of the Paytomat ecosystem and provide cyber protection for its token sale. Hacken Co-Founder Dmytro Budorin will also join the Paytomat Advisory Board

April 8 2018, Tallinn, Estonia and Kyiv, Ukraine – Paytomat, the decentralized system for cryptocurrency payments, and Hacken, an ecosystem of white-hat hackers and a bug bounty marketplace with a focus on blockchain security, announce cooperation. Hacken will conduct penetration testing and vulnerabilities assessment of Paytomat IT architecture, and help defeat any cybersecurity attacks it may face during its token sale.

Yurii Olentir, Paytomat CEO, says: “Paytomat is a payment solution which requires the highest level of cybersecurity protection. Hacken was the best choice to ensure efficiency of cyber threat protection and vulnerabilities assessment. They have unique experience in blockchain security and have already helped dozens of businesses to defeat cybersecurity attacks. Being ‘HackenProofed’ makes us confident our token sale will be secure.”

Dmytro Budorin, Hacken Lead Manager and CFO, said: “Almost any ICO today faces cyber attacks, hacking into smart contracts, phishing and scamming attempts. Paytomat is taking care of its cybershield in advance, and we’re happy to help counter those threats. As a member of Paytomat Advisory Board, I will contribute to the development of Paytomat Ecosystem by helping to foster new partnerships and providing advisory support.”

Paytomat will start its public pre-sale on April 2nd, and will run through April 18th. The main coin offering is scheduled for May 8-25. Join the Paytomat official Telegram for 24/7 support: https://t.me/paytomat. Follow Paytomat Twitter for the latest news: https://twitter.com/paytomat

About Paytomat

Paytomat is a blockchain-based payment processing system created to help merchants, consumers and crypto core teams to find each other and create real life traction for cryptocurrencies as emerging method of everyday payments. Built as a decentralized autonomous organization and decentralized franchise, Paytomat features a unique loyalty program based on PTM coin, incentivizing merchants to accept payments in crypto, and PTX tokens, thereby incentivizing customers to pay with crypto. For more information visit https://tokensale.paytomat.com. Media contacts: [email protected] 

About Hacken

The Hacken Ecosystem is a community-based business organization consisting of the HackenProof bug bounty, marketplace, smart contract, anti-phishing, and penetration testing services. The Hacken Ecosystem utilizes its own cryptocurrency HKN — a dedicated cryptocurrency for white hat hackers, to incentivize users to interact with its ecosystem. Hacken’s vision is to launch a movement that in several years will become one of the leading driving forces deterring and countering international cybercrime. Hacken official Telegram group: https://t.me/hacken_en

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.