Day: April 11, 2018

Blockchain technology has been touted as the long-needed antidote to the poison that is counterfeit drugs, and the Indian government is exploring its potential through its national policy think tank, NITI Aayog. Fake drugs are a huge problem in India, a problem which is growing every day. Blockchain technology could bring an end to this scourge that has led to many serious health complications and, in some instances, death. 

Proof Of Concept

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) is looking to have a proof of concept solution completed by the end of the year and roll it out beginning next year. According to one of its officials, NITI has already identified a company that will develop the technology. The next step will be to identify a partner to do the proof of concept on the blockchain.

Although this proof of concept solution has yet to be officially rolled out, officials have stated that it will involve the generation of a unique identification number during the manufacturing stage. This number will allow any interested party to track particular drugs from manufacture to consumption. This will even extend to consumers who, upon receiving any drug, can scan its code using a mobile app and be able to determine whether the drug is genuine or counterfeit. Every time a drug is sold, its unique number is irrevocably altered on the ledger to indicate that it has been sold.

Blockchains will also be used in other health processes to increase transparency and ensure quality. They include pharmaceutical serialization, health records management, infectious disease reporting, clinical trial results, and vaccination history management.

NITI is also researching the use of Internet of Things devices to monitor the shipment of clinical supplies to ensure that they maintain their quality, and those whose quality is compromised can be easily recognized and prevented from being used. An example is a device that will monitor the temperature in a shipment and, if the conditions necessary for optimal quality are lacking, automatically convey the message to the blockchain. The relevant parties are then alerted so that the supplies are not used on patients.

The Challenges

This process is not without its challenges, the first of which is the costs involved. In India, barcode scanning is not popular, and this would require the industry as a whole to invest resources in procuring devices which would bring with them additional costs.

Through its secretary general, D.G. Shah, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance has appealed to the government to keep the costs in mind when implementing its blockchain-based solution. The government should recognize those extra costs and compensate the industry, Shah suggested to a local news website.

The counterfeit drugs issue is huge in India, with 20% of the drugs on the market believed to be either copycats of real brands or just plain fake drugs which have no medicinal value. The World Health Organization estimates that globally, over 10% of consumed drugs are counterfeits, with the percentage being even higher in low-income countries. These fake drugs lead to the deaths of more than 1 million people every year.

Skycoin Fiber looks to bring in the new era of distributed ledgers, or Blockchain 3.0. The Fiber network was designed from the ground up to be robust, customizable, and infinitely scalable.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Problems Of Blockchain 1.0 & 2.0

While Blockchain technology has made leap and bounds since its original inception back in 2009, there are still many problems that need to be solved before its able to be a viable product for the mainstream masses.

Even with the debut of Ethereum and what many dub as “Blockchain 2.0”, which improves on the first version through a slightly better mining algorithm and making smart contracts a reality, Ethereum still struggles when it comes to handling network congestion during periods of increased transaction volume.

This slows the Ethereum network which not only affects Ethereum, but the many platforms, ICOs, and other applications that rely on the Ethereum blockchain for their own operations and transactions. For those that need their transaction verified, they must pay more gas, with those willing to pay the most having their transactions included in the next block, referred to as the “Gas Wars.”

New Obelisk Protocol

The Fiber Network looks to finally solve this problem which has plagued both Blockchain 1.0 and 2.0 through a new protocol the Skycoin team is calling Obelisk. The protocol is based on a “web of trust” that relies on certificate authority, reducing the cost for consensus.

The programming language used to create Fiber is none other than CX, a derivative of the popular “golang”, which is feature rich and seeks to meet developers’ needs.

The new protocol boasts nearly instantaneous transactions, with each ICO/dAPP receiving their own blockchain under Obelisk, solving any problems associated with the parent-chain/child-chain relationship.

Problems Obelisk Solves

Skycoin calls the child-chain paradigm not only parasitic, but fundamentally inefficient, so they replaced it with fully symbiotic peer chains.

Fiber is not an exclusive network either, built for complete cross-chain interoperability, through atomic swaps and other methods, without a negative impact on overall network performance.

Skycoins Protocol even improves upon the work the ERC20 tokens of Ethereum has started, with each token, or fiber, on the platform being its own validated fork of Skycoin, allowing it to be customized for that specific project’s needs. Instant support for your token also arises from this; each fiber is also a member of the Fiber exchange protocol, so there is no need to fight for exchange listings either.

Besides the Obelisk Protocol, the Skycoin team is working on a whole umbrella of services, from custom hardware to be the backbone of the network, a custom messenger for secure communication, to their own VPN they dub “SDN” for end to end encryption over the network to ensure privacy when connected online.

To learn more visit the Website : https://www.skycoin.net/

Telegram Bounty Channel: https://t.me/skycoinbounty

Read the White Paper – https://www.skycoin.net/whitepapers/

Chat with us on Telegram: https://t.me/Skycoin

Connect on Twitter – https://twitter.com/skycoinproject

With the proliferation of exchanges and the different currencies they list, it’s becoming ever more complicated to access the best crypto opportunities. Now, HOLDVEST has the perfect solution to the user difficulties and fragmented order books that plague altcoin trading.

What Is HOLDVEST and How Will It Operate?

HOLDVEST is a new kind of blockchain investment platform that combines the best features of exchanges, brokerages, and instant trading apps. In short, the project is a one-stop gateway to every exchange and crypto service you’ll need – with super-low fees.

The platform is built around a powerful liquidity aggregator that is connected to all major crypto exchanges (a little like ShapeShift), as well as its own internal decentralised exchange, enabling users to gain the best price for supported coins. At the same time its clean, straightforward user interface is suitable for novice investors and experienced traders alike. HOLDVEST therefore combines the simplicity of a brokerage with the low fees and high liquidity enabled by accessing multiple exchanges, all within a single portal. And, unlike many other crowdfunded blockchain projects, HOLDVEST already has working software and a functional website.

Key Benefits of the Platform

Two of the most obvious benefits of this approach are ease of use and low cost. Users do not need separate accounts on several different cryptocurrency exchanges, or be familiar with the quirks and nuances of each one. HOLDVEST automatically splits orders across exchanges in the most efficient way and enables anyone to buy and sell popular cryptocurrencies for the very best price.

When the platform is fully up and running, HOLDVEST token (HDL) holders will enjoy numerous privileges. These include voting to list new cryptocurrencies and to support new ICOs; rating ICOs in terms of business model and trustworthiness of teams as a form of collective due diligence; and implementing new functionalities of various types on the platform. It will also be possible to create and trade crypto index funds, allowing users to diversify their portfolios automatically – and even profit from designing successful index funds!

The detailed white paper states that HOLDVEST tokens (HDL) will be hosted on the Waves blockchain and will be used to pay for trading fees and services such as Premium features (e.g. margin trading) and advertising. Customers will be able to use HDL to secure discounts on these. Where other currencies are paid, these will immediately be converted to HDL using the platform’s internal aggregator engine. 50% of all HDL received in this way, whether directly or indirectly, will be burned to ensure constant demand.

HOLDVEST ICO Details

HOLDVEST’s ICO will start on May 8 and will end on June 7, 2018. The price of one HDL will be set at 0.0001 BTC (early-bird discounts are available) and the platform will accept the following cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, DASH, and WAVES. The startup has set a hard cap of $5 million, with a minimum target of $500,000. If this is not reached, all funds will be returned to investors. Any unsold tokens will be burnt after the end of the crowdsale.

For more information or to participate in the ICO, visit http://www.holdvest.com/  

The post HOLDVEST: Access Every Exchange from a Single Portal appeared first on NewsBTC.

The EU Commission and the EU Intellectual Property Office will host a hackathon to explore blockchain use cases for intellectual property protection.

The sports market has been popular for hundreds of years, yet its market size continues to increase. For instance, the estimated size of the global sports industry in 2016 was USD 1.3 trillion. Additionally, the usage of mobile health apps is also actively increasing, with an estimate of 3.2 billion app store downloads of such apps in 2016.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

With time, health-related data became crucial for individuals and companies involved in the sports, health, wellness and data-collection markets. Despite this, it is still hardly possible for users to efficiently monetize the data which they have generated and it in return also makes it difficult for companies to come up with solutions tailored to current needs of the market.

Lympo represents an exciting project that seeks to solve this issue. The platform, which is powered by user-controlled and generated data, will allow health/sports data exchange and its monetization via the LYM utility token. With this in mind, Lympo aims to create a data-sharing ecosystem, used by all members of the sports industry, which effectively rewards everyone for their contribution.

Some of the features that Lympo will offer include but are not limited to: a personal fitness wallet that is connected to health apps and wearables, token rewards for reaching certain health goals, fitness and health data storage for individuals, a fitness trainer search engine, a marketplace to buy goods and services with LYM tokens, personal fitness advice based on user data and interests, community reviews and ratings for health/sports startups, token investments, crowdfunding services, data on nearby gyms and health insurance services.

Recently, Lympo has decided to distribute 20% of its company shares to LYM token holders. The distribution will be based on the number and the duration of the tokens held, expressed in a number of points to be constantly updated in a public database. Lympo wishes to grant its tokens real value and utility, while also growing to become a powerful company on the market.

Utility will be granted by allowing users to: spend LYM in the Lympo ecosystem to purchase a wide variety of products and services, invest in various sports/health-related crowdfunding campaigns, but also through exchange-based trading for a profit. However, further value will be granted by giving shareholder rights to LYM holders. These aspects make LYM both a multi-purpose, but also a real use-case token.

For more information about Lympo, feel free to check out their website, white paper and Medium announcement.

Blockchains are everywhere right now, and everyone is trying to figure out their place in this new digital landscape. Countless ideas, some good and some bad, are popping up promising to change any number of industries and traditional business models. Many of them have promising concepts, but quite frankly, it’s always a gamble as to whether anything will come out of these ideas due to the newness of everything, and of course the lack of understanding.

Why? Ideas versus execution. The concept is there, but oftentimes there is no working prototype or true method of delivering the breakthroughs promised by blockchain startups. Blockchain technology being such a budding industry, everyone is scrambling to find their place in it, while often also building the networks from scratch. Inevitably, this leads to many processes fizzling out before even getting off the ground.

Enter WordPress

But is that last part really necessary? Do companies still need to build everything from the ground up? Web design is a perfect example of something that has had to adapt to provide creators an easier-than-ever way of connecting with customers and clients. At one point, web design meant individual coders and teams building websites from scratch with time-intensive, often complicated code that did not allow for change easily. This method worked, but eventually it just wasn’t as efficient or in-depth as it needed to be, given the growing demands of web design and businesses needing dynamic, engaging platforms. Content management systems like WordPress changed that. They made web design accessible to a much larger audience, while streamlining much of the tedious work on the back end, away from the eyes of the web designers.

Blockchain technology is currently in that same transitional period. It can be built from scratch, but at what point should that not be necessary? If Proxeus has anything to say about it, that time is now. Think of Proxeus as the WordPress of blockchain. It takes a lot of the ground and grunt work out of building blockchain applications by using DApps, highly scalable and customizable decentralized applications that are seamlessly integrated into the blockchain.

Let’s take a market of about 500 successful ICOs from 2016 to 2018, and see how many of them could utilize their beta services to accomplish their announced objectives. The results demonstrated that 68% of those ICOs could be partially or fully recreated directly on platforms like Proxeus.

Companies like Proxeus could be the next step in the world of blockchain startups and businesses, helping to transform ideas and concepts into realities for many smaller teams that may lack the funding or expertise necessary to build a fully self-reliant blockchain application. It’s just a matter of working through the use of digitized workflows and smart contracts, which help to verify transactions instantly, creating many of the intricacies surrounding business formation internationally.

Bitfinex was recently accused of fraud and money laundering, but was there anything to it? #FOLLOW_UP

A team that conducted two token sales involving thousands of investors has gone dark.

Six-story Upper East Side town listed for either $45 mln in crypto: BTC, ETH, or XRP, or $30 mln in fiat #NEWS

Blockchain startup ARK has attended Princeton University for it prestigious 2018 spring hackathon.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

This thirty-six-hour long competition plays host to hundreds of students, programmers, entrepreneurs and developers from college and universities from across the United States.

The Princeton 2018 Hackathon event ran from March 30th, 2018 to April 1st, 2018.

Four student teams were tasked with creating software and hardware projects that address certain problems and solve them. The organizers stated that the event was designed to accommodate newcomers to coding/design/hardware or a seasoned hackers. All participants were welcomed to the event, especially those with a passion for learning, a willingness to collaborate with people of different backgrounds, and a desire to benefit the world with technology.

ARK leveraged the opportunity to scout talents and presents its pioneering blockchain platform to the public. ARK especially wanted to throw its door wide open to absolutely anyone who wanted to participate and explore ARK technology, learn its ins and outs, and launch their very own blockchain that will run on ARK technology within minutes. The company has also created a lightweight deployment script, ARK Deployer, for competitors to enable them to create ARK based blockchains.

ARK team was in attendance alongside an eclectic mix of developers and community supporters, including:

Mike Doty – ARK Co-founder

Khanh Vuong  – ARK Co-founder

Simon Downey – ARK IoT dev

Karel L. Kubat  –  ARK community dev

Ruud Seegers  – ARK community dev

Robert Hissink Muller — ARK community dev

Deploying With ARK Deployer

With ARK Deployer, users will be able to test the limitations of the ARK blockchain and a chance to see virtual web application blockchains like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin connecting through SmartBridge technology.

ARK possess truly one-of-a-kind feature that enables it to freely utilize features like smart contract technology freely and openly on different chains. ARK Deployer developers can create decentralized applications with the use of simple REST APIs in over twelve different programming languages.

Bridging Blockchains and Networks Together

ARK’s blockchain network brings together the traditional staple features found on other blockchain systems and unites them on an interlinked ecosystem that brings the best of both worlds together.

ARK has also introduced a novel feature for connecting systems together through its BridgeChain. BridgeChain enables users to integrate Azure PublicIP and Firewall configurations as a pre-built element, run Ubuntu VM in Azure, implement their own BridgeChain node and ARK Explorer. This integrated solutions can be up and run in 20 minutes or less with the pleasure of enjoying continuous benefits afforded by customizable and re-usable deployment script.

BridgeChain can be utilized as a springboard for creating one’s own BridgeChain as illustrated here. The process will require an active Microsoft Azure account with a basic knowledge of how to connect via SSH.

ARK Official Website: https://ark.io/

Block trading

Most exchanges maintain a central limit order book that keeps all transactions under a certain size, restricting trades to reflect the demand for the particular currency at the time. These limitations are there to prevent retail traders reacting to false signals of market movements that larger trades would create.

Block trading is utilized to overcome these restrictions, with larger trades that exceed the limitations being settled privately between the involved parties. A post on the Gemini blog lays out the conditions necessary for block trades to take place on the platform: “Any customer can place a block order that specifies: (i) buy or sell, (ii) quantity, (iii) minimum required fill quantity, and (iv) a price limit (the “Indication of Interest”)”.

The block trading orders will take place outside of Gemini’s continuous order books, with the pending transaction only successful if “a market maker agrees to “make a market” that satisfies the Indication of Interest”. There is a minimum investment of 10 BTC or 100 ETH to participate in block trades.

The post Winklevoss’s Gemini Integrates Block Trading for Crypto Whales appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.

Bitcoin has had rallies in the second quarters of 2016 and 2017. With the beginning of the same period of 2018, will the pattern repeat? #PRICE_ANALYSIS

Golem just revealed it’s now running Brass Golem Beta on the Ethereum mainnet. While it’s still in the beta testing stage, this switch from a testnet makes it possible to trade real GNT for computer processing power for the first time.

When Golem launched in November 2016, the team promised it would be “Airbnb for computers”, a supercomputer where users could buy and sell processing power in exchange for its token, GNT. Golem’s token sold out within 20 minutes, raising $8.6 million in Ethereum, now worth $340 million.

A series of unofficial rumors leading up to the launch were enough for Golem’s team to post this response on Twitter.

Golem’s No Stranger to Criticism

Golem has come under a lot of scrutiny for its slow releases, but the larger truth is that a huge amount of ICO projects make big promises and don’t release anything. Golem is focused on the specific use case of rendering CGI graphics at a faster and more affordable rate by becoming the world’s first live decentralized computing market.

Testing First

While delays are hard for investors looking for fast returns – and frustrating for blockchain enthusiasts looking for real implementations – Golem is hardly the first to delay its promises. Golem wants to make sure it delivers on its product, and that has meant a series of more than a dozen iterations of the beta version alone since 2017, in addition to multiple versions of the alpha before it. On the other hand, it has been two years since funding and there’s still no launch, though it seems closer than ever with this move to the mainnet and the trading of real GNT.

Over this time, developers, graphic designers, and computing power providers worldwide have been testing Brass Golem Beta on Mac, Ubuntu, and Windows. Golem’s developers have been working on security and interface fixes, and they’ve released new software to improve those areas. Golem’s team explained that their reason for sticking to a testnet for so long was to troubleshoot before the actual launch so that Golem can deliver functional software when it’s truly ready.

Until now, Brass Golem Beta had only exchanged a test coin, tGNT, making transactions free as part of the testing. Now that Brass Golem is running on the Ethereum mainnet, graphics artists and computing power providers will exchange real money in the form of GNT.

The last stages of beta development have focused on keeping gas costs low by experimenting with batching transactions, credentialing users, and ensuring the system isn’t vulnerable to Sybil attacks and other security vulnerabilities. Golem recently hired third-party company Trail of Bits to perform an audit report on its smart contracts.

Implications for Ethereum

The launch of Brass Golem has more implications than just cheaper CGI. It will both place more demand on the Ethereum mainnet and potentially raise the price of Ethereum in the process. While Ethereum can reach consensus on simple transactions like exchanging tokens, making sure Brass Golem’s transactions are also confirmed is part of this testing stage.

Ethereum’s price could rise if Brass Golem creates enough interest, since most GNT buyers will have to buy ETH first. Since GNT isn’t offered on mainstream exchanges like Coinbase, obtaining it is often a two-step process. As a result, GNT’s value seems to be linked to Bitcoin and Ethereum, as they are the two cryptocurrencies most people buy first to exchange for GNT elsewhere. Adding GNT to an exchange like Coinbase, for example, would help pair it to the US dollar instead of BTC and ETH. In the meantime, this stronger GNT-ETH pairing could help the price of ETH rise.

As more members of the community test out the mainnet version of Brass Golem, we can expect to see further development to its software, perhaps leading to an official launch in the months to come.