Day: September 6, 2018

A YouGov survey of roughly 1,200 Americans found that 48 percent of millennials are interested in using cryptocurrencies as a primary form of payment.

In a Congressional committee hearing, Twitter’s CEO said the company is exploring blockchain applications to address its ‘problems’

Cryptocurrency scams have been around for as long as people can remember. It appears criminals will never stop coming up with newer ways to separate hodlers from their coins. This time they decided to impersonate a big influencer in the crypto community, none other than John McAfee. It would be rather unlikely for the real McAfee to give away a Tesla Model 3 to cryptocurrency users, but scammers are prepared to convince you otherwise.

Crypto Giveaway Scams Remain Popular

Over the past year, social media has become a preferred platform among criminals looking to steal users’ cryptocurrencies. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other network, there will be so-called cryptocurrency giveaways which aim to defraud novice users who are unfamiliar with this scam tactic. This industry needs to get rid of such schemes altogether, albeit that has proven to be easier said than done.

One of the latest ventures focuses on John McAfee specifically. He is a well-known proponent of Bitcoin and select altcoins, with a strong desire to see more decentralization across the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Even so, it is his attention on cryptocurrencies which tends to attract the attention of criminals.

In a recent turn of events, a new scam involving a fake John McAfee has begun showing up on people’s Twitter feeds. As part of the scam, the fake McAfee claims to be giving away Ethereum, Bitcoin, and a Tesla Model 3 car, depending on how much money is sent to the addresses provided. This particular model of scams is not new by any means, although the link to a Tesla Model 3 is rather intriguing.

Furthermore, this blatant scam is portrayed as a giveaway devised by Bitfi HQ. Bitfi is a company developing cryptocurrency hardware solutions, and claims to be unhackable. Some recent complaints have surfaced in this regard, even though the real John McAfee has issued an open challenge to hack his personal Bitfi wallet. So far, any attempts to do so have been unsuccessful.

Any cryptocurrency “giveaway” asking users to send either Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other assets to a specific address can usually be considered to be a scam. Especially when the scammer claims to return a larger amount of said cryptocurrency back to the user, as it is very unlikely that will happen anytime soon. Those Ponzi Scheme models usually do not last long, assuming someone will even get their money back in the first place.

As is usually the case when schemes like these arise, it will not be around for very long. Once more people become aware of the fake John McAfee and his scammy giveaway, the project will cease to exist and a new one will appear relatively soon. Impersonating influential cryptocurrency developers and enthusiasts has been a favorite pastime for criminals as of late, and it seems these activities will not cease anytime soon, unfortunately.

IBM has announced that it is now planning to use a blockchain-enabled health surveillance system in order to collect data on antibiotics and opioids prescriptions by doctors.

Opioid prescription abuse is becoming a problem worldwide with figures showing that their illicit use has now overtaken heroin. Globally, prescription opioid pain relievers are now among the most commonly misused and abused medicines.

IBM’s blockchain system is now making it easy for public health agencies to track both medical practitioners and their patients in order to try and stem this new epidemic of drug misuse. The healthcare industry is seeing several attempts at developing secure digital platforms for the exchange of patient data, believing that blockchain-based solutions may have the potential to vastly improve current data sharing systems in national hospitals.

Healthcare and clinical research is an expanding area as doctors and hospitals increasingly need secure access to a patient’s entire health history. This new, rapidly evolving field provides fertile ground for experimentation, investment, and proof-of-concept testing.

The implications for the industry are endless. New platforms are emerging almost daily such as a diagnostic blockchain infrastructure aimed to host, train and use artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, and a blockchain-powered platform designed to track and protect pharmaceutical data.

Prominent healthcare professionals are also growing increasingly confident that DLT has what is required to vastly improve the security of current centralized forms of data storage, which have been vulnerable to hackers attempting to steal patient data for sale on the black market.

IBM has, for some time now, been looking at applying blockchain solutions to the healthcare industry through its work with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the end of last year, its chief science officer Shahram Ebadollahi acknowledged how relevant blockchain and AI was becoming in the industry.

“Blockchain is very useful when there are so many actors in the system… It enables the ecosystem of data in healthcare to have more fluidity, and AI allows us to extract insights from the data. Everybody talks about big data in healthcare but I think the more important thing is long data.”

Since then, CDC has run several pilots and is urging the healthcare community to take up the mantle. Another computer giant, Intel, has done exactly that, working with McKesson and Johnson and Johnson to use DLT to trace the pill supply chain. Intel’s Director of healthcare privacy and security commented that the tech could “vastly reduce the opioid epidemic” adding, “I would not say this will eliminate the opioid problem, but this will help.”

Another player in the healthcare space, the leader in blockchain healthcare solutions, Hashed Heath, maintains that blockchain’s most significant asset apart from the obvious tracking advantages, is that a “decentralized database of test results with free access to this data” prevents global duplication and enhances research by others moving forward.

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This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

Stock brokerage EF Hutton is launching subscription-based cryptocurrency research reports aimed to educate “confused” investors.

Wallets play an integral role in any financial ecosystem. The cryptocurrency industry is no different in this regard, albeit every currency has its own solution. In the case of EOS, finding a convenient and user-friendly wallet proves to be a bit difficult these days. The following three wallets are all suited for storing EOS, some being easier to use than others. The current solutions are ranked based on the easiness of installation, #3 being the hardest to set up while #1 being the most intuitive.

#3 Greymass

Although Greymass has a lot of potential when it comes to storing one’s EOS balances, it is anything but a convenient solution for most users. The code itself to set up the wallet is relatively self-explanatory, primarily because it comes as executable files for the operating system one is working on. Native support for Windows and MacOS is built in, which makes it a decent solution at first sight.

Getting the software to run, however, is a very different matter altogether. Users need to enter their private keys once, which are then encrypted by the Greymass software. For anyone who is unsure if their computer is infected with malware or other nefarious software, avoiding this solution may be a better option. There is also an option to use the command line-based interface, although that is not something most novice users want to do.

#2 SimplEOS

This particular wallet offers a lot of functionality and is slightly more convenient to use compared to Greymass. It is designed with security and transparency in mind, while still giving users access to all of the features found within the overall EOS ecosystem. This wallet is also designed to be accessible to all types of users, which also explains the pre-compiled builds for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.

As is the case with nearly all cryptocurrency wallets, simplEOS stores private keys locally and can be encrypted with a password determined by the user. Off-chain information is processed through a built-in proxy server, which ensures the obtained information is legitimate. More features will be introduced in the future, including testnet functionality, delegate permissions, and much more.

#1 Scatter

Perhaps the most straightforward solution of them all is the Scatter wallet. Although it is very similar to simplEOS in terms of accessibility and being user-friendly, the wallet seems to be a bit more popular among EOS users. That is, those users who acknowledge keeping tokens on an exchange is not necessarily the best and safest option available today.

Scatter only supports EOS and Ethereum at this time, although given both projects’ popularity, that seems more than sufficient. The wallet also offers access to most of the native EOS functionality at this time. From a pure coin storage point of view, Scatter seems to have a leg up over the competition as of right now.

What is your favorite EOS wallet? Let us know in the comment section!

Crypto startup Circle has hired a former Department of Homeland Security general counsel as its new chief legal officer.

Most major cryptocurrencies lack the necessary traits to offer either privacy or anonymity traits. There are dedicated cryptocurrencies which focus on this specific approach, and they are all gaining traction as of late. Below are some privacy coins people have missed out on, ranked by their current market cap.

#4 Aeon

Despite being a relatively new cryptocurrency, Aeon is already making a an impression on the industry. It is a cryptocurrency primarily designed to become part of everyday life, although it will face stiff competition from the likes of Monero, Dash, and ZCash. All transactions are secured in such a way that funds can be transferred without identifying information of individuals becoming visible.

The functionality of AEON is relatively similar to Monero as both projects rely on ring signatures to make transactions untraceable. At the same time, there are key differences between both projects, as AEON also offers traceable transfers for those users not seeking complete anonymity at all times. It is an option worth exploring, although AEON still has a way to go prior to becoming a top privacy coin contender.

#3 Enigma

Another project primarily focused on making decentralization work goes by the name of Enigma. The team is also working on providing a platform for scalable end-to-end decentralized applications. Similar to MaidsafeCoin below, it addresses data privacy concerns on the blockchain through its native “secret contracts.” All input data is hidden from nodes who execute the code accordingly.

#2 MaidSafeCoin

A lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts tend to forget MaidSafeCoin also puts a relatively strong focus on privacy. Their decentralized data network offers a lot of potential. Under the hood, MaidSafe users an autonomous system for data security. In fact, its technology is considered to make it one of the more private networks in cryptocurrency, primarily due to end-to-end encryption for all communication and data.

#1 Komodo

There are many different aspects of Komodo which tend to garner attention in the cryptocurrency world. The Komodo platform is designed to facilitate cross-chain atomic swaps, which will be of great value to the cryptocurrency industry in the long run. Additionally, Komodo is also a currency focused on privacy, thanks to its zero-knowledge proofs.

This latter feature was recently added as part of Komodo through one of the project’s bigger updates. Privacy matters to the team, even though the use of zero-knowledge proofs is not forced upon users either. It is an option users can make use of as they see fit, whereas it can be virtually ignored for those transactions which do not necessarily require any additional privacy.

What is your favorite privacy coin? Tell us why in the comment section below.

The Linux foundation has opened enrollment for a new advanced training course for Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology

Great Keppel Island on the Great Barrier Reef may once again begin to attract Australian tourists and others from all over the world, through cryptocurrency.

After ten years of sitting dormant, the island’s resort off Queensland’s central coast was recently demolished. It was last bought by Sydney-based company Tower Holdings in 2006 and was shut down by the developer two years later after becoming derelict.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the seven wonders of the natural world, larger than the Great Wall of China and the only living thing on earth visible from space. The reef itself is found between 15 km and 150 km offshore and around 65 km wide in some parts. It is a gathering of brilliant, vivid coral providing divers with spectacular underwater experiences.

It boasts more than 400 different kinds of coral, also coral sponges, mollusks, rays, dolphins, over 1,500 species of tropical fish, more than 200 types of birds, around 20 types of reptiles including sea turtles and giant clams over 120 years old. It is a major boon to Australia’s tourism industry, bringing in tourists from all over the world as one of the world’s must-see experiences.

New life is now being brought back to the resort, once famous for its “Get Wrecked on Keppel” tag claimed in the 1990s when it was a magnet for party-goers. A new project between the current owners Tower holdings and a Sydney cryptocurrency consortium now plans to offer Great Keppel Island tokens to private investors in a round of public share offerings for a AUD 300 million rebuild.

Cryptocurrency expert Dr Philippa Ryan, who is also a Standards Australia Blockchain Technical Committee member, thinks the new idea is “brilliant” with further endorsements and backing from Australian regulators such as ASIC and the ACCC. She commented:

“Security Token Offering is a clever new name for this particular type of fundraising model because it clearly indicates the type of crypto token to be issued; it is a security token… This is much easier for ASIC to regulate than initial coin offerings, which do not issue coins at all.”

Once the white paper is released this next week, Dr Ryan expects that the company will begin to target investors with a minimum buy-in of AUD 100,000. The company began its marketing campaign already advertising the project on social media sites.

“I think it’s the more sophisticated investors who probably have done their research into crypto and are ready to put it into something of bricks and mortar, but I would say the more likely will be the managed investment schemes,” she said.

1,000 luxury villas and apartments, a 250-berth marina, a golf course, and an airstrip will be the new look if the project is successful. The owners had expected Chinese investment prior to the current plan. This may well revitalize that idea given China’s current mainland cryptocurrency clampdown and Chinese investors interest in Australian tourism.

Tower Holdings chief executive Anthony Aiossa commented on the new Great Barrier Reef development:

“The crypto solution that was put to us essentially involves the raising of private equity to fund the project, using the technology of blockchain to raise finance from around the world. People from around the world will be able to go online, view the offering, and if they wish to participate, will be able to buy tokens and essentially own part of the project.”

GKI Tokens will be tradeable on cryptocurrency exchanges, with each GKI initially being worth AUD 1 (USD 0.72).

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