Day: August 6, 2018

Blockchain technology is in a bubble. Investors continue to throw money at projects exploring this technology regardless of whether or not those businesses can succeed. Despite the growing interest, there are a lot of things people still do not know about blockchain, even in 2018.

5. Accountability Is Its Main Selling Point

The term blockchain is used very loosely these days. Companies claim to be exploring this technology without actually knowing what it can mean for their businesses and day-to-day operations. Accountability is the main selling point of the blockchain, as it removes the potential for machine error or transactions taking place without parties signing off on them.

4. Hard Forks Affect Blockchains

Although hard forks are quite common in the cryptocurrency world, few people realize that they are effectively changes introduced to the underlying blockchains. Hard forks have also gotten a bit of a bad reputation, even though they primarily facilitate software updates and upgrades. A blockchain can undergo a hard fork as a way to make its infrastructure a lot more robust.

3. Creating and Cutting Jobs

Once the blockchain starts to affect people’s daily lives, there is a good chance that some jobs will be made obsolete. This is the natural order of business where any form of technology is concerned, as technology advances so much that it becomes capable of doing basic human tasks. This change will be facilitated by blockchain, though it is not the only driving force in this regard.

At the same time, blockchain will help create a lot of jobs. This has become apparent from all of the companies exploring this technology. Hundreds of job openings can be found on job recruitment portals, although finding employees with the right expertise is still a very big problem for a lot of companies.

2. Limitless Use Cases

Despite the limited adoption of blockchain technology at this stage, there are unlimited use cases waiting to be explored. They range from financial services to managing power usage and offering transparent content creation solutions. Whether or not any of those concepts will be commercialized is a different matter altogether.

1. Blockchain Isn’t a Database

It is very important for companies and projects to carefully determine whether they need a blockchain or a database. They are not simply the same concepts in different formats. While a blockchain can be used to record information, it is not centralized like a database. It also requires some effort to keep specific details private from prying eyes. Most companies are better off with a database rather than a blockchain, unless they have a long-term plan and infrastructure in place already.

It seems a popular pastime for crypto enthusiasts to speculate on the identity of the Bitcoin’s founder who goes under the pseudonym of Satoshi Nakamoto, but another approach has emerged for such individuals to while away their research time on.

The most recent revelation came in the guise of a biography, neither proven or otherwise to be the founder of the flagship digital technology, but there have been many. Without Sherlock Holmes or Columbo on the case, the most popular method of tracking and identifying just who might be the actual big name in crypto is stylometry. Wikipedia perhaps puts it best when it refers to the method as:

“…the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language, but it has successfully been applied to music and to fine-art paintings as well. Stylometry is often used to attribute authorship to anonymous or disputed documents.”

So how does one apply the application of written linguistic style to Satoshi Nakamoto and what are the results of those who have made the effort? In fact, why is it actually important, apart from simply wanting to know who owns Satoshi’s alleged stash of BTC 1 million?

The list of people associated with the name is growing, including Dorian Nakamoto, Ian Grigg, Nick Szabo, and Craig Wright and, as Bitcoin.com puts it, “a man from Hawaii”, not to forget that writer of the first chapter of he-who-shall-been-known-as-Satoshi’s memoirs.

In terms of having a hard copy on hand to study his/her linguistic style for unique phrasing, or a tendency to use a certain lexical selection, not to mention handwriting, there doesn’t seem to be a lot available. The aforementioned “autobiographical” piece was given the expert stylometrist critical eye and reportedly was short of tell-tale double spacings and misspellings and thus thought to be a likely contrived piece of text.

Some of the writing quirks and phrases identified from Satoshi’s white papers and emails are apparently hard to duplicate, reportedly found in only 0.8% of studied written texts. Some have apparently come close to a similar writing style, the five closest being Nick Szabo, Ian Grigg, Hal Finney, Wei Dai, and Timothy May. Szabo rated high on the comparison front due to algorithmic similarities in his early papers when studied side by side with the Bitcoin white paper. Data scientist Michael Chon tries to shed some further light on this:

“According to the classification algorithms, [stylometric analysis], all predicted that Nick Szabo is linguistically similar to Satoshi who had written the Bitcoin paper and Ian Grigg is linguistically similar to Satoshi who had exchanged the emails. The word ‘would’ is used by Hal Finney 28 times and the word ‘one’ is used by Nick Szabo 199 times. There is one unigram, the word ‘contract’, commonly used by Ian Grigg and Nick Szabo.”

Helpful? There is more…

“Wei Dai has the highest similarity score to the Bitcoin paper and Hal Finney has the highest similarity score to Satoshi’s email exchanges. From gensim, Timothy C May has the highest similarity score to the Bitcoin paper and Ian Grigg has the highest similarity score to Satoshi’s email exchanges. An unusual result is that Ian Grigg has a similarity score of .99996 to Satoshi’s email exchanges.”

Finally, as one thing that is transparently clear is that this is an open-ended case of missing identity that may go on for many years to come, a non-profit company in the UK has said that the search is over. They have the real Satoshi, and his name is Bitcoin Cash developer Gavin Andresen. Apparently, that went down like a damp squib and was quickly forgotten and all respect for stylometry seemed to go out the window.

Watch this space… seems the only appropriate way of finishing this particular piece of writing, until the next suspect comes along.

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This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

With RTA Supernodes alpha testnet release, GRAFT makes a first step into the era of cryptocurrency being a viable option at the point of sale, providing a level of service comparable to that of the credit/debit card networks. With the Supernode release, GRAFT is off to build an ecosystem of Supernodes and Service brokers – some are used to perform quick (credit-card speed) transaction authorizations, some to provide external system connectivity, others to act as service brokers performing currency exchanges and hosting various applications for merchants.

Supernodes for quicker transactions

Supernodes (aka Masternodes) are gaining traction in the blockchain space as a mean of expediting transactions.  They work by constructing a second-layer network around the nodes that maintain the blockchain itself and are able to provide additional functionality on top of the blockchain such as “off-chain” transaction processing or governance. Supernodes/Masternodes usually run on a Proof-of-Stake model requiring staking for collateralization and provide passive income to their owners, which helps explain their popularity.

The GRAFT supernode is the backbone of its blockchain’s second layer. It enables many different functionalities including real-time authorizations of cryptocurrency payments, the hosting of service brokers and GRAFT’s decentralized exchange, smart contract merchant token and v-chain capabilities, various cryptocurrency transaction types, merchant offline transaction approvals, distributed identity provider services, network participant reputation scores, and much more.

Decentralized payment network: GRAFT’s answer to crypto payment woes

Enabling cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services has been a hot topic recently, with integrated payment providers like BitPay and Coinbase enabling e-commerce payments via a gateway solution of their own.  These services act as fully integrated service providers performing settlement and payout functions. Multiple (predominantly online) merchants have rolled out alternative payment options based on these integrated services, a notable example being Expedia. Merchants, however, have been rolling them back, citing high unpredictable fees, high risks and lack of universal coverage. Stripe’s short-lived experiment to offer cryptocurrency payments is another example of the centralized approach failure.

GRAFT is working to give the space a decentralized equivalent of a payment network (such as the ones provided by Visa, Discover, and Mastercard) by offering a network fabric that connects gateways and services together, crossing locales and making sure the network works with existing point-of-sale solutions and payment terminals. In fact, GRAFT utilizes the recently-added ability of leading payment terminals to run 3rd party applications on their platforms.  Most notable is GRAFT’s integration with Verifone’s Engage line of terminals.

“GRAFT’s solution makes a lot of sense both technically and economically, staying true to decentralized model of cryptocurrency, and enabling regular people to service various parts of the network. We look at it as people ARE the network,” said Dan I, GRAFT blockchain co-creator. “At the end of the day, the network functions – hosting blockchain nodes, doing authorizations/validations, providing exchange services, ensuring compliance, taking care of distribution and support, and even offering credit is best done by lots of individuals or small businesses and that’s the promise of ultimate decentralization.”

GRAFT (which stands for Global Real-time Authorizations and Funds Transfers) was originally conceived by Slava Gomzin, author of ‘Hacking Point of Sale’ and ‘Bitcoin for Nonmathematicians’ – some of the seminal work in the point of sale and cryptocurrency spaces. The network is designed to address all issues that cryptocurrency faced at the point of sale – speed, fee, and privacy, while taking advantage of the “smart” nature of digital money backed by the smart contract capabilities, and doing it all in a decentralized manner. The project is an open platform / open source and the network is free to use with the low 0.5% network fee paying Supernodes for their service.

GRAFT is the first cryptocurrency that combines the benefits of CryptoNote protocol, which provides absolute privacy to all participants, and second-layer network of supernodes, enabling fast authorizations and instant exchanges. Such a combination of absolute privacy, instant authorizations and exchanges, and network of service brokers is a unique feature that differentiates GRAFT form all other solutions and enables wide cryptocurrency acceptance in retail environments.

More information about GRAFT blockchain can be found on WWW.GRAFT.NETWORK

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Bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitmain is officially setting up shop in Rockdale, Texas, and expects to launch mining operations early next year.

Even though Bitcoin is quite popular as an investment vehicle, there is a lot more to this technology than meets the eye. Even in 2018, misinformation and false rumors continue to tarnish the world’s leading cryptocurrency’s reputation. Educating the masses on Bitcoin will remain an ongoing challenge in the cryptocurrency industry.

6. Fixed Coin Supply Is a Problem

Unlike other forms of money, Bitcoin – as well as most cryptocurrencies – have a fixed supply. Only a specific amount of coins will ever be brought into circulation, and financial experts often see this as a big problem. There is nothing wrong with having a fixed supply, as it creates natural scarcity. Moreover, Bitcoin is divisible by eight figures after the decimal, compared to two figures for fiat currencies.

5. Bitcoin Isn’t a Solution to Existing Problems

One could argue Bitcoin is trying to solve problems which can also be addressed by other forms of money. Gold is designed to be a store of value and investment vehicle, whereas fiat money is mainstream currency. Bitcoin doesn’t seem to fit in either category, despite being easy to transfer, not debt-based, and cheap to transfer. As such, it is capable of solving real-world problems in the financial sector, assuming it is ever adopted.

4. Lack of Chargebacks Is a Problem

Unlike normal payments, a Bitcoin transaction cannot be charged back or refunded through built-in mechanisms. That is perceived as a big problem, even though it is a blessing in disguise. Solutions such as multisignature escrow exist to address this issue. This technology is primarily implemented by exchanges and trading platforms, although other companies offer similar functionality as well.

3. Bitcoin Mining Is a Waste

This particular sentiment has become somewhat of a hot topic as of late. Bitcoin’s mining ecosystem is far more complex than “experts” give it credit for. Moreover, most of the research conducted is based on biased, factually incorrect reporting. Not everyone sees the merit of mining Bitcoin, yet it is also an industry that offers more benefits than drawbacks when everything is said and done.

2. There’s No Intrinsic Value

Bitcoin’s value is very different from how traditional currencies work. A bank guarantees – as best it can – that its paper money is worth the same amount as is printed on the bill itself. With Bitcoin, its value fluctuates wildly, but that is only natural when its value is designed to be determined by the people. Bank money is backed by promises, rather than actual assets. As such, claiming Bitcoin is worthless because it isn’t backed by actual assets is rather pointless and counterproductive.

1. It’s Only For Criminals

Every time regulators try to address Bitcoin, someone will claim that Bitcoin is a tool only used by criminals and drug traffickers. Those claims are not entirely based on fiction, as Bitcoin is a popular tool among dark web users, mainly for buying and selling drugs. Even so, this use case represents a fractional amount of Bitcoin’s actual use in this day and age, as the lack of privacy and anonymity make it far less suitable for criminal activity compared to traditional money.

What does Brexit mean for crypto in the U.K.?

Unusual market behavior is nothing new in the cryptocurrency world. Such developments usually affect currencies with a relatively low market cap, rather than the established projects such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. In the case of the Holo price, the uptrend is quite steep, even though few people even know this currency exists in this day and age.

Holo Price is on the Rise

Cryptocurrency investors and speculators always need to be on the lookout for new markets to invest in. Although that usually requires using a very different strategy and taking unnecessary gambles along the way. Buying into the Holo price trend may not be the best course of action, despite the current momentum.

More specifically, this altcoin has seen tremendous price growth over the past 24 hours. With the Holo price rising by a shocking 35.26%, it is evident there is a lot of hype and excitement surrounding this altcoin.  Whether or not that is a good thing, will always be subject to interpretation first and foremost. Such large gains will not go by unpunished, which is only to be expected.

This sudden turn of events is facilitated by ongoing increases against both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Holo has gained 36.39% on Bitcoin and 35.63% on Ethereum. All of these changes allow the Holo price to go up at a rather alarming pace, although it remains to be seen how long this Holo price trend will last when everything is said and done.

For an altcoin few people have heard of, Holo notes some pretty decent trading volume over the past 24 hours. With $13.3m in 24-hour volume, the altcoin is doing what one would expect during such a major Holo price trend. Even so, it remains to be seen what the future holds in terms of volume, as people will still take profits sooner rather than later.

Interestingly enough, Holo is effectively listed on Binance, which is still considered to be the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange first and foremost. Its BTC and ETH pairs are firmly in the lead, followed by FatBTC’s ETH pair and Hotbit’s BTC pair. LAToken offers a LA pair to close out the top five.No fiat currency support is in sight for Holo but that doesn’t have to be a big problem.

As is always the case, smaller-cap altcoins will benefit from any small pump, regardless of how the Bitcoin price is evolving. As of right now, the Holo price appears to be in a very good place, but the situation can still change at any given time. Its current momentum paints an interesting future, but rest assured there will be a correction sooner rather than later.

While Telegram has become the de facto standard for crypto communities wanting to chat, StatX looks to challenge the status quo with an app dedicated for the crypto and blockchain market.

Disclosure: This is a Sponsored Article

Telegram Focuses On Talking, StatX On Info

A major difference StatX claims to have over Telegram is that the popular messaging app is “conversation-centric” while the California based startup will be “information-centric”, with users of the app able to “expect a well presented, simple and elegant dashboard offering company financial and status information.”

Prasad Raje, StatX co-founder, and CEO offered these words on StatX and it’s growing network;

“Our secret sauce is the unique way StatX combines information and conversation to drive a higher quality and higher value user experience. It’s gratifying to see that our approach has been validated in the marketplace by a growing number of crypto industry innovators such as Boosto, Decred, Foleum, MediBloc, ZCoin and many others.”

Useful Dashboard Offers Information At A Glance

This dashboard can highlight market cap, price, token distribution, social reach, and product roadmap milestones. It is able to also show situational information such as an update for airdrops or bounty programs. Users can also set alerts that will notify them if any changes to price, market cap, etc. are detected.

Some of the leading altcoins have already expressed support for the new app, including Decred and ZCoin among others.

Noah Pierau, Community Builder at Decred, (a top 30 cryptocurrency with a focus on governance) had this to say about StatX;

“While there are many pure chat applications, StatX has the unique ability to combine technical indicators such as exchange rate and PoS info conveniently with chat functionality, all in one beautiful mobile app. StatX improves the signal to noise ratio in the blockchain community.”

While Reuben Zap, COO of Zcoin, had this to say about the company’s partnership with StatX;

“Zcoin is happy to partner with StatX to deliver Zcoin price and blockchain metrics to our community via StatX. We want this to be a high-quality information and conversation channel with all parties interested in Zcoin.”

Another key factor that separates StatX from Telegram is several measures implemented to mitigate against unwanted spam and scammers. For example, API’s are only available to group admins, to ensure only wanted third-party services take advantage.

Companies like Boosto, also a supporter of the app, are using this feature to their advantage.

Boosto CPO Rock Zhang stated;

“By presenting the metrics and company data that we want to share and driving the conversation around that, StatX provides an excellent tool for proactively building and controlling our brand online,”

StatX is also for more than just users looking to join crypto communities, with use cases for Crypto Fund Managers, Developers, and even blockchain creators able to take advantage of the tools this app offers.

To learn more about StatX, visit their website. For the mobile app, make sure to check out the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android devices. For social media updates, check their Twitter. Blog updates are made on StatX’s blog, and videos are uploaded to their YouTube Channel.

A biotech giant based in South Korea is turning to blockchain to allow it to share genetic data without risking patients’ privacy.

It has been a very interesting year for cryptocurrency. Wild price fluctuations and regulatory developments have put a brand-new perspective on things. One would almost forget Bitfinex was hacked just over a year ago, forcing the company to issue IOU tokens and reduce user balances.

The Bitfinex Hack: One Year Later

Early August of 2017 wasn’t a fun time for users of the Bitfinex exchange. July had just ended when the exchange became the subject of a major controversy. After issuing a security breach warning to its clients, Bitfinex confirmed that its platform had fallen victim to an intrusion.

Cryptocurrency exchange hacks have always been problematic for this industry. These incidents usually result from insufficient security countermeasures. Although it is still unclear what happened to Bitfinex exactly, the company was honest about the hack and the reason why all trading was halted at the time.

The fallout of the hack, however, raised a lot of questions. Money was stolen from the exchange, and the team decided to make all other exchange users pay the price. All of Bitfinex’s clients’ portfolio balances were reduced by a steep margin, and customers received IOU tokens in return. Those tokens were bought at market price once the company had sufficient liquidity to commence the buyback program.

Contrary to what people expected, the buyback did not take all that long to complete. Within months, Bitfinex made good on its promises and ensured that all customers received the money they were owed. The speed at which these tokens were bought back still raises some questions, as tens of millions of dollars were spent in the process.

While such a major hack could have easily crippled the Bitcoin industry, it is an incident some people have already forgotten about. A lot happens in the Bitcoin world every single month, and the Bitfinex hack was another blip on the radar in hindsight. Unfortunately for the company, it still faces a lot of scrutiny over its alleged relationship with Tether, but that has nothing to do with the 2017 hacking incident.

One could say the Bitfinex hack made Bitcoin and altcoins stronger. Shortly after the hack, the price of Bitcoin began moving up, culminating in an all-time high of nearly $19,500 in early 2018. Exchange hacks are not much of a concern these days, although they still happen too frequently. It is the price users pay for trusting third-party companies with their money in this mostly unregulated industry.

There are frequent articles referring to blockchain and a how it can be utilized in different sectors, more recently, its implications for healthcare. With the US reportedly spending near to 20% of its GDP on healthcare, blockchain technology might be called upon sooner than later to streamline and improve services in the industry.

Forbes writer Randy Bean recently spoke to industry professionals about this trend. John Halamka, chief information officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a Harvard University teaching hospital, was one. He has the necessary connections to discuss blockchain, having already worked on several production blockchain applications last year. He commented:

“Blockchain is not meant for storage of large data sets. Blockchain is not an analytics platform. Blockchain has very slow transactional performance. However, as a tamperproof public ledger, blockchain is ideal for proof of work. Blockchain is highly resilient.”

Halamak is also editor-in-chief of Blockchain of Healthcare Today, and he points out that it’s his job to publish “high-quality opinion pieces and research papers” about cases that really need blockchain. He said, “Just using blockchain in healthcare because it’s cool does not make sense.”

The main areas, as he sees it, where blockchain can impact healthcare. fall into three distinct areas; medical records, consent management and micropayments.

In terms of keeping medical records, what blockchain really lends to this is a sense of integrity due to the irrefutable nature of the information once generated on the blockchain. This includes clinical trials where the results will remain tamper-free and stand up under legal examination.

Consent management principally includes the sharing of data between a number of participants and those not listed on a blockchain on a particular case can be easily identified just as those permitted to view a medical file would have authorized access.

In terms of patient incentives, the blockchain can also attach awards related to a patient committing to and completing a certain medical process or term of treatment, or even rewarded for medical trials.

Another industry professional, Greg Matthews, creator of MDigitalLife, a platform for tracking digital trends in healthcare, suggests that blockchain could be really significant in terms of that way it can give medical professionals a clear view of the bigger picture of a patients health. He points out:

“Blockchain could make the biggest impact in healthcare in enabling health outcomes that take a 360° view of the patient’s genetic profile, their demographic and socioeconomic status, the behaviours that impact their health, and their response to different treatments or combinations of treatments.”

He argues that today this is not so easy using tradition data storage methods:

“This data exists today in one form or another, but can be tremendously difficult to stitch together at an individual level. Blockchain can enable “profile stitching”, and do so in such a way that the patient’s identity is protected.”

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