Day: June 17, 2018

Most of us have heard of Web 3.0, whether we’ve come across a decent explanation of it or not. The first wave of the internet (Web 1.0) was basically a one-way flow of information. We could log on, read stuff, maybe send an email. But there was no real interaction, unlike Web 2.0, which is characterized by social media and online marketplaces.

And as we stand on the brink of Web 3.0, we could think of it as the web of everything and everywhere. IoT technology is finally taking off, and everything we know and use is connected to the web. But what about blockchain?

We’re now talking about blockchain technology in the same way. And if you consider how long blockchain tech has been around in relation to the internet, its development has been significantly faster.

Blockchain 1.0

Think Bitcoin here. Blockchain 1.0, Satoshi’s brainchild, was never actually called blockchain until a couple of years back when marketers put their spin on it. Somehow, “blockchain” sounded better than the “chain of blocks” that Nakamoto referred to. But, without a doubt, Bitcoin, the first incredible use case, is indisputably Blockchain 1.0.

Blockchain 2.0

Enter Ethereum. With its self-governing apps and smart contracts, its developer community, and the way it allows businesses to automate efficiently, most people agree that Ethereum is Blockchain 2.0.

So, what is Blockchain 3.0? An official winner has yet to be crowned; however, many people believe that Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) might just be it.

Blockchain 3.0 – What Is DAG?

From a technical point of view, DAG is a directed graph data structure with a topological ordering. Just like smart contracts and Bitcoin transactions, the sequence can only go in one direction – earlier to later – and one of its main uses is data compression and processing, making it fundamental for scalability.

Due to inefficiencies with Bitcoin (the Proof-of-Work system doesn’t allow blocks to be created simultaneously), developers are constantly working on improvements. Since its linked storage structure only allows for one chain on the network, all transactions that happen around the same time are recorded in the same block. Each block is created every 10 minutes, or thereabouts.

The idea behind DAG is to allow for flexibility and scalability. It’s all about extending storage time by having more blocks on the network at the same time, through side-chains. With side-chains, there are different transactions running on different chains at the same time.

Speeding up Transactions

Ask anyone what the main challenges Bitcoin or Ethereum face, and most people will tell you it’s scaling. As more adopters use these chains, a sort of bottleneck occurs. 10 minutes is a long time to wait for a transaction to be confirmed. 15-20 seconds is also not fast enough.

IoT Chain (ITC), IOTA, and Byteball are some of the main emerging players to employ a DAG system in which transactions can be confirmed almost instantaneously. The concept of blocks can be removed from the equation, since they are combined with transactions.

Once a transaction is recorded, there’s no need for mining, making DAG blockless and efficient. Transactions can be validated much more quickly than with PoW or PoS.

Why Is DAG so Important?

As DAG advances and more chains and applications are built, its scalability will allow more people to come on board to conduct real-time transactions with minimal fees. Micropayments can then be sent without the crippling processing fees of Bitcoin or Ethereum.

IoT Chain (ITC) uses DAG and can handle more than 10,000 transactions per second. IOTA is able to handle between 500 to 800. To put that into context, VISA can manage 1,700 transactions per second, while Bitcoin can only handle around seven.

Which application will win the race to produce the fastest and most robust DAG-based blockchain remains to be seen. But it will surely be used for applications that require scalability or need to process thousands of transactions per second (think e-commerce, finance, or data processing). While Ethereum is working on its sharding solution, it’s still a long ways off.

Use in Data

Cybervein is a decentralized database network based on DAG, with its own programming language. Its plan is to interconnect data for institutions and individuals – and we’re talking about massive amounts of data that all humans create every day through wearables, smartphones, laptops, and more.

Traditional blockchains are not designed to store vast amounts of structured data, especially when it’s being processed simultaneously by various parties. DAG allows companies like Cybervein to build a scalable solution with theoretically unlimited storage. It’s basically a tighter, faster, more efficient network that doesn’t rely on PoS or PoW.

There is a catch, though. DAG is more prone to attack than traditional blockchains. This means that solutions to make it more secure are being worked on in tandem with other applications, like IOTA’s Tangle.

The Takeaway

Blockchain 3.0 will be characterized by real-time transactions, scalability, and unlimited decentralized storage. However, since DAG is more prone to attack, perhaps the ultimate solution will arrive in Blockchain 4.0: scalable, fast, unlimited, and completely secure as well.

The EOS blockchain is live again, after “pausing” operations June 16

A new version of Bitcoin Core, 0.16.1, has been officially released by a group of 19 Bitcoin Core developers on 15 June 2018. This is the first update to Bitcoin Core since 0.16.0 in February 2018 which implemented full support for Segregated Witness (SegWit) to fit more transactions into blocks and reduce transaction fees.

In this update, the “blockmaxsize” option has been removed, and now miners should use “blockmaxweight” if they want to limit block size. Several other bugs are fixed in addition to some policy and documentation changes which can be found in the PGP signed 0.16.1 release notes. Basically, there aren’t any major changes to Bitcoin Core with this release, but it is important to be running the latest software, so Bitcoin Core users should update to 0.16.1.

Bitcoin Core is the technology that actually runs the Bitcoin network, each computer that runs Bitcoin Core is considered a node, and the more computers that run Bitcoin Core the more decentralized Bitcoin becomes. Currently, 10,000 computers are running Bitcoin nodes in the entire world, a surprisingly low number.

Bitcoin Core is perhaps the best wallet software to use since it downloads the entire blockchain making it fully self-sufficient, so if a user has an internet connection with a fully downloaded Bitcoin Core, they will be able to transact bitcoins and don’t have to worry about 3rd party servers malfunctioning or going offline. It gives full control of the private key to users without storing the private key anywhere else, which is essential for keeping Bitcoin safe.

46% of nodes are running version 0.16.0, 22% are running 0.15.1, and 2.5% are running the newly released 0.16.1. Wallets running Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 and 0.16.1 are not backward compatible with earlier versions, so wallets created with this software will not work in older versions of Bitcoin Core. However, wallets created by older versions are not affected.

The Bitcoin Core developers that contributed to 0.16.1 include 251, Ben Woosley, Chun Kuan Lee, David A. Harding, e0, fanquake, Henrik Jonsson, Jeremy Rand, Jessy Cohen, John Newbery, Johnson Lau, Karl-Johan Alm, Luke Dashjr, Marco Falke, Matt Corallo, Pieter Wuille, Suhas Daftaur, Tamas Blummer, and Wladimir J. van der Laan.

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As the public engage more with technology and it becomes a more integral part of their lives, the major tech platforms are branching out to make a more complete experience for their users. This is also true for newer technologies like cryptocurrencies. Individual solutions for payments, trading, purchasing, and business apps in crypto are barely functional on their own at the moment, however this is set to change now with the coming of the One Million Shop, a part of the MillionCoin ecosystem.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

One Million Shop is a Revolutionary Idea

This goal is the target of a new platform that hopes to crack the target of mass adoption by providing a superior and friendlier user experience. provides a range of interconnected tools to invest, manage, and spend cryptocurrencies in a more efficient and rewarding way. Describing the One Million Shop and the ecosystem surrounding it, a Millioncoin representative says “the goal is to create an ecosystem in which all elements interact with each other. People selling goods on OneMillion Shop, trading in cryptocurrencies on a AT.Systems bot [an automated trading bot], exchange currencies in a currency exchange office, and all these activities are not burdened with additional costs.” Describing the benefits that One Million Shop harnesses from the platform, “Each platform application will be compatible with the rest of the elements. The exchange service will allow users to exchange currencies and use them for other activities on the platform. Bot AT.Systems Enables users to “save” cryptocurrencies to purchase goods in OneMillionShop. For example, the user wants to buy goods for 1ETH but he has 0.9ETH on his account. At this point, he will receive predictions of the time the bot will multiply these funds to the expected amount.”  This allows users to purchase goods at a lower cost than on the ‘mainstream market.’

Tested and Tried, Ready for Real Life

The great advantage of the bot is that even novice users who do not have enough knowledge can automatically multiply their cryptocurrencies using plans managed by professional traders. The AT.Systems prototype is officially in operation, and the OneMillion Shop is officially scheduled to debut on July 18. The store has been a work in progress for two years and is now near release. What is more partnerships are  already live in countries like Poland, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Norway. There are plans to take the shop to Canada as well in 2018. The store is a versatile model where even property can be purchased using cryptocurrencies. The store will allow users to purchase plots of land, flats or even an automobile. Also, sellers are supported with full advice on legal matters from the platform team itself. In addition services related to tax matters and settlement will also be available for the sellers.

A win-win proposition for both buyers and sellers

One Million Shop opens a plethora of opportunities for all stakeholders in the e-commerce landscape. There is also the capability for those who engage in online commerce to link this with the rest of their crypto finances: “If you are a seller, you can settle your goods or services in cryptocurrencies or in a traditional way. If you are a buyer, you can pay for them without the necessity of exchanging cryptocurrencies into traditional legal tenders. Thanks to the MillionCoin token your shopping will become easier, faster and cheaper.” The shop creates an opportunities for both buyers and sellers to maximise benefits through dabbling in cryptocurrencies. It seems as if MillionCoin have added all the right components for a platform that will attract a wide range of users. It will be interesting to see how this resonates with investors and users alike.

The MillionCoin token pre-sale is currently ongoing.

In a rather surprising turn of events, it seems the cryptocurrency makers are not necessarily intention losing value today. That in itself is rather rare on a Sunday, but the day is only halfway through. So far, it seems Binance Coin continues to note the strongest gains of them all.

Binance Coin Price Trucks Along Nicely

Although Binance remains the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume to date, it doesn’t necessarily mean the native currency will remain appealing. So far, the Binance Coin price has impressed a lot of people and may continue to do so for quite some time to come.

Over the past 24 hours, there has been another strong 5.39% gain for BNB. This effectively catapults the Binance Coin price to $16.45, which is almost the highest point since February of 2018. It is still a bit away from the all-time high Binance Coin price, which still sits at just over $24.

As one would expect from these gains, there are also improvements in the BNB/BTC and BNB/ETH ratios. With a 5.03% increase over Bitcoin and a 4.89% gain over Ethereum, things are looking very promising for Binance Coin right now. If this trend keeps up, it can effectively push the Binance Coin price to $17 in the coming hours.

Even though all cryptocurrencies still suffer from a declining volume, it appears there is enough liquidity in the BNB market. With $94.754 in 24-hour trades, the demand to buy and sell Binance Coin is clearly visible for everyone to see. It is also the only currency in the top 20 to note any decent gains in that time span.

While it is evident Binance is the only place to trade BNB, its list of currency markets by volume is always interesting. Outside of the USDT, BTC, and ETH pairs, no other market generates over $1m in 24-hour volume. Even so, both EOS and ONT are in the top five, bearing currencies such as NEO and Cardano in the process. An interesting situation to keep an eye on.

Whether or not the Binance Coin price will continue to rise, is always difficult to predict. So far, the momentum clearly seems to favor this currency, but there is a new wave of bearish pressure forming on the Bitcoin and Ethereum fronts. Whether or not that will have a negative impact on the Binance Coin price later today, remains to be seen.

Microsoft has partnered with Adents, a serialization and traceability solutions provider, to launch a blockchain-based track and trace solution targeting the supply chain industry. Known as Adents NovaTrack, the new platform will offer unit-level tracking, giving users the ability to track a single product throughout the entire supply chain. In a June 14 press release, Adents described the platform as a “marriage of technologies” that will bring together blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and serialization, introducing end-to-end visibility in an industry that has been riddled with an increasing number of counterfeit items.

Combining the Best of Both Worlds

While blockchain technology has proven that it has the potential to solve the age-old challenges that have plagued the supply chain industry for decades, its application has encountered a number of challenges. One of them is the inability to define data governance, as most stakeholders are reluctant to share some crucial information with other users; the lack of an in-depth understanding of serialization protocols; the lack of an infrastructure to handle the huge volume of data generated worldwide on a daily basis; and the lack of synchronized business processes. However, by bringing together Adents’ cutting-edge serialization solutions and the powerful and efficient cloud technology solutions associated with Microsoft’s Azure platform, the two companies believe they can finally solve these challenges.

Adents NovaTrack promises to introduce efficiency, scalability, and easy governance into the supply chain. Offered through the blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) model, it will allow users to run nodes either on the premises or on the Microsoft Azure cloud. BaaS allows its users to subscribe to the blockchain only as they deem necessary without having to use funds to set up the infrastructure on their premises.

The solution will also offer enhanced security features which will include identity management and authentication as well as encryption. It will draw on Microsoft’s considerable experience in machine learning to offer its users artificial intelligence capabilities to collect and analyze big data. Adents also promises that the service will be compliant with set industry standards.

Microsoft expressed its delight at the partnership which it says will complement its own blockchain initiatives to address traceability challenges in the supply chain. Microsoft France General Manager Laurent Currny said that, powered by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform, Adents NovaTrack would accelerate the fight against industrial counterfeiting.

Adents founder and CEO Christophe Devins also praised the platform:

Our alliance with Microsoft to co-develop Adents NovaTrack will offer game-changing Blockchain-based unit identification for various industries around the world. Our deep roots and successes in serialization and traceability, enhanced by Microsoft Azure Cloud technology, will provide our clients total transparency all along their supply chains and secure product authenticity for end users

Microsoft has continued to invest in blockchain technology despite its founder’s antagonistic stand on cryptos. In May, the company announced the launch of the Azure Blockchain Workbench, a blockchain app creation service. The service is aimed at reducing the time it takes for developers to create blockchain applications by automating the development process and providing ready-to-use templates. The service is integrated with Azure services, giving the developers the necessary tools to create a fully functioning application.

Technology is growing and achieving new capabilities each and every day. Despite this, cybersecurity lags behind, and this growing disconnect between the two is cementing a divide between state-of-the-art devices and the security that protects them. Because of this, cybersecurity losses number in the trillions of USD. That’s why Rivetz, a technology and cybersecurity firm, is abandoning dated approaches that inhibit the industry in favor of revolutionary new ways to secure devices worldwide.

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Millions of devices worldwide already have the pieces in place for true security, via the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). With years of development put into it, the TEE allows an unparalleled method of hardware security built into devices, providing security far beyond the firewalls and passwords that have failed time and time again. Rivetz’s groundbreaking technology that makes use of the TEE has gained them significant recognition, including selection for Telecom Council’s Innovation Showcase Class of 2018.

Rivetz Acquires DISC Holdings

DISC Holdings is responsible for the development of the blockchain-powered DISC platform. DISC provides users with a framework for managing and transacting digital assets in a manner that is quicker, more secure and more cost-effective than traditional alternatives. DISC has also shown a proactive stance towards user security as support was built in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) standard. Through this acquisition, Rivetz can enable the platform to provide the tools for users to manage and operate their personal digital assets including identity, budgets, fiat payments and cryptocurrency assets. In regards to the acquisition, Steven Sprague, CEO of Rivetz, made the following comments:

“DISC is providing a proven blockchain-based payment solution for the U.K., and we’re enthusiastic to expand the DISC footprint and feature set by leveraging Rivetz technology. By combining the strengths of Rivetz and DISC, we plan to set a new bar on the consumer mobile payments experience and simplify consumer access to our ecosystem by growing the services of identity, messaging and blockchain.”

A New Paradigm of Mobile Security

As DISC functionalities are integrated onto the millions of devices that contain the TEE used by Rivetz, these devices can connect and communicate with one another while maintaining the utmost level of security, something not otherwise seen throughout the cybersecurity industry. Connected devices will be able to manage and communicate digital assets like never before. This suggests an environment that fosters activities such as e-commerce in a completely secure and efficient manner.

Broader Implications

The ongoing blockchain revolution will imminently shift worldwide markets toward new economic models. From medical records to games, blockchain is fostering an evolution in the way consumers and businesses interact. For mass adoption to take place, consumers must be provided with tools that are simple and straightforward yet unwaveringly secure and empowering. Rivetz, with the help of the DISC platform, has the potential to provide such an environment on mobile consumer devices worldwide for messaging, banking and participation in commerce without fear of theft or error.

That’s why Rivetz, a disruptive, forward thinking leader in the cybersecurity industry is the optimal candidate to create such a framework. Their progressive approach to cybersecurity coupled with their proactive stance towards paradigm-shifting technology is absolutely necessary to serve as an anchor between the architecture of tomorrow and the general population of today.

Find out more at www.rivetz.com and follow Rivetz on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Telegram!

BitGrail has announced that bitcoins stored in the firm’s wallets have been seized from its Italian exchange by authorities, reports CoinTelegraph.

The Tribunal of Florence court order to seize the funds is part of an ongoing saga in the Italian courts which began when a US class action was filed against the company in order to compensate victims for the loss of 17 million XRB (Nano) tokens, thought to have been stolen in January of this year. They were worth about USD 187 million at the time the theft was reported.

The original hacking prompted BitGrail to freeze trading in February, followed by the Nano community starting a legal fund through creditor Espen Enger who represented nearly 600 victims at the time. Reportedly, BonelliErede is now filing the bankruptcy petition on behalf of Enger who has made contact with over 3,000 claimants and made a statement indicating that a speedy and “equitable” resolution was needed:

In the latest in this complex case, the recent new court action revealed:

“On June 5, 2018, pursuant to the Tribunal of Florence orders, the bitcoins contained in the company’s wallets were seized and brought under control of the judicial authorities pending further Court decisions in the pre-bankruptcy proceeding.”

The hack caused a series of arguments between BitGrail and the Nano Foundation over which of the two companies were the vulnerable parties. For its part, the Nano foundation suggested it will provide the victims of the hack through the establishment of a legal fund and access to legal support to pursue their claims against the now insolvent BitGrail.

The seizure of BTC was authorized after a petition to the court filed by victims of the BitGrail hack, asserting that the exchange is bankrupt under article 6 of Italian bankruptcy law.

In other news from Italy, the Bank of Italy’s deputy governor has just announced that the country’s central banks have no current plans to issue government-backed cryptocurrencies, according to Cryptona.

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The “request has been rejected,” came response from the CIA, “with the agency stating that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested documents.” A tech writer petitioned ‘the agency’ to see what it had on the subject of Satoshi Nakamoto, the name credited with founding Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency. There have been legendarily famous attempts to unmask the real person, only to find more paradox, more confusion, more wild theories. At least two online journalists believe a definitive answer just might be had through US intelligence agencies. The evidence borders on compelling and infuriating.

Also read: Star Trek Icon Joins Bitcoin Mining Revolution

Satoshi Nakamoto’s Real Identity is Probably Known by US Intelligence Agencies

It’s not often a journalist in the financial technology genre has cause to contact the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but this week proved reason enough. Keeping normal business hours, the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20505 (really Vienna, VA) was evidently swamped. Three calls placed to (703) 482-0623, along with one voicemail message on the final attempt, were not returned as of publication.

Inspiration to do so came from Daniel Oberhaus, staff writer at Motherboard. In an effort to follow up on work done by bloggers and investigative journalists on the tantalizing issue of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity, Mr. Oberhaus explained, “While recently filing some unrelated [Freedom of Information Act] FOIA requests of my own, I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask some other three-letter agencies what they know about Nakamoto.”

It’s a delicate game, FOIA requests. Agencies are keen to dismiss a request out of hand, citing vagueness, ill-prepared request documents, standing, and the perennial go to: national security. The fragility is in having spy agencies at all, for citizens’ own good is the claim, and the modern movement to make coercive government doings more transparent.

Mr. Oberhaus continued, “I decided to start broad and request all internal emails containing Satoshi Nakamoto’s name from the FBI and CIA. Agencies generally ask for these sorts of requests to be narrowed down with information you’re unlikely to have in advance, but sometimes they’ll just dump a trove of emails on your plate and say good luck.” Instead, the CIA emailed him a response, short and to the point, complete with obnoxious bureaucrat grammar of referring to itself in the third person. The “request has been rejected, with the agency stating that it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of the requested documents,” the CIA stated flatly.

Glomar

The CIA’s non denial-denial to Mr. Oberhaus is a classic tactic designed to be a true statement without giving away root facts. It’s known as the Glomar Response, ‘Glomar’ being the abbreviation for Global Marine, a company used by the agency to build a ship capable of salvaging downed Soviet-era subs back in the mid 1970s. The now famously canned statement was employed after a journalist filed a FOIA concerning the CIA ship for Soviet subs project.

And that paranoia extends to the present day. Blogger Alexander Muse, a contributor to Medium, wrote a series of posts (3) last year related to his attempt at uncovering Satoshi’s true identity. Mr. Muse writes about a whole host of subjects, from gourmet cooking to tech startups. His professional experience does involve tech, and he has what seems to be at least a passing interest in bitcoin. He was sucked down the rabbit hole when he learned a contact he had at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed to have inside information.

“According to my source,” Mr. Muse explained, “the NSA was able to the use the ‘writer invariant’ method of stylometry to compare Satoshi’s ‘known’ writings with trillions of writing samples from people across the globe. By taking Satoshi’s texts and finding the 50 most common words, the NSA was able to break down his text into 5,000 word chunks and analyse each to find the frequency of those 50 words.This would result in a unique 50-number identifier for each chunk. The NSA then placed each of these numbers into a 50-dimensional space and flatten them into a plane using principal components analysis. The result is a ‘fingerprint’ for anything written by Satoshi that could easily be compared to any other writing.”

His true identity is of utmost importance to the US government precisely because, especially as the price began to rise, so many people were relying on it. The problem, before even the tech could be evaluated on its own merit, was the principal DHS worry: a foreign creator. If bitcoin can do all it claims for itself, disrupting financial markets, a country hostile to the US could quickly start that ball rolling and worse. “Why go to so much trouble to identify Satoshi?” he asked rhetorically. “My source tells me that the Obama administration was concerned that Satoshi was an agent of Russia or China — that Bitcoin might be weaponized against us in the future. Knowing the source would help the administration understand their motives. As far as I can tell Satoshi hasn’t violated any laws and I have no idea if the NSA determined he was an agent of Russia or China or just a Japanese crypto hacker.”

Mr. Muse was ultimately unable to get just who Satoshi is. Instead he was left with the conclusion DHS does know, and that bitcoin’s first billionaire was probably a collection of folks. For his effort he was personally contacted by DHS and asked to submit to an interview. He did, noting that he was unable to publish just what he discussed with DHS, but he could say their contacting him was due to his Satoshi’s Medium posts. “I’ve had to stop taking phone calls or accepting voicemail messages,” Mr. Muse concludes. “My email is almost unusable with more than 10,000 unread messages at last count. The only way to contact me now is via text — and it is likely I’m going to have to change my number fairly soon. I still don’t know who Satoshi Nakamoto really is — but I believe the NSA does.”

Is Satoshi’s identity known by US intelligence agencies? Let us know in the comments. 

Images via the Pixabay.

Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com.

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When Wells Fargo thinks your video game company is a money services business, it’s time to start educating people in other fields about blockchain.

A senior NEO executive has questioned how Facebook handles data, offering blockchain as a solution to the problem of data consent. Speaking on his first time in London, he also said NEO are planning to create a European office to access the western market.

Blockchain: More Transparent and Private

Chen ‘Johnson’ Zhao, General Manager of NEO Global Development, said that it is difficult to tell who controls user data on Facebook and that there is little emphasis on users providing consent over who has their data. Speaking at the ‘Zeroing in on Europe’ conference on June 16 as part of London Tech Week, he also looked at the issues of compliance for cryptocurrencies.

Zhao said: “Take Facebook, the data is transferred in terms of, I don’t know where my data is transferred on Facebook. To a third party? To someone else? It’s not really focused on consent of the data owner. Blockchain has an opportunity here, in general.”

“For example, my jogging data, this can also be an asset. These will be heavily traded, I believe, in the future. We will be able to exchange value, or data, with our consent. It’s going to be more transparent and privacy will be protected.”

Zhao also spoke on his previous experience of working in the financial sector and said that there was a lot of cost for reporting and complying with regulations. Regarding blockchain, he said that the regulatory side of it is ‘difficult but exciting.’

He said: “We need to build in both identity and data rules. Compliance reduces Ponzi schemes, manipulations and hacks. China banned ICOs mainly because of the Ponzi schemes. Preventing these are very important. It will help the blockchain space go mainstream.”

Zhao mentioned that NEO has a digital identity layer which allows for users to attach digital signature to assets. He said that it is important for providing the details on where a token has come from, where it’s going, for what reason and at what time. He called it a ‘micro-level of compliance trail.’

He also said complying with regulations when using blockchain technology could open up new industries that would otherwise be hard to move from paper to digital.

He said: “It’s difficult to disrupt the supply chain industry because so much of the data is on paper. It’s not easy to bring the data from paper to a database. It costs a lot to bring them to digital records. We believe, in the future, the economy will be running in the digital form. Not just assets but our activities. ‘Things’ [IoT] will also have identities, hopefully.”

NEO is the twelth highest cryptocurrency ranked by market cap. Recently, NEO Global Capital contributed to the £12 million in donations for Crowdequity platform Republic. NEO Global Capital opened in March and have since invested $1 million in smart economy workforce platform Moonlight.

The post Exclusive: NEO GM Says Blockchain Could be Used to Replace Facebook appeared first on NewsBTC.

Digital identity is scattered and insecure. ConsenSys’ uPort project wants to rework the internet to make “self-sovereign identity” a reality.